Well the Christmas lunacy is over ~ all bar the Shopping silliness that is…
Personally I had a great Christmas. Going away for a few days is HIGHLY recommended!

Nice to see the Snow back again. I had only two Christmas events to attend ~ one pre Christmas, the other post Christmas ~ BOTH of these happened to be on the evenings of the two days the snow started.
Both were cancelled
I HATE SNOW!!!!
Very pretty but causes too much hassle.

Maybe I should move to a warmer place…

Over the Christmas  break I took the plunge into the world of Windows 7: the post Vista operating system from the good old boys at Micro$oft.
It was an emotional story of blood, sweat and tears, with some kind of happyish ending…

On the ‘+’ side, my PC now positively zooms! Internet Explorer 8 64 bit actually works quicker than Google Chrome on this little beastie ~ something that seriously shocked me
It’s not just a little faster either. My page loads are now almost instantaneous!
STUNNING!
The bench marks are all up too – fabulous!!

There are however several ‘-’ points. Mainly that several of the programs I use on a daily basis are not ‘Incompatible’ with this version of Windows.
This is a major P.I.T.A. (If I said the first ‘P’ was for pain, you should be able to work out the rest ).
It’s such an irritation I have to run a Windows XP machine just to use some of these programs.

It’s ALMOST a step forward…

Having said all that, the general feeling is of a working system ~ the best way I would describe it [Windows 7] is as Vista as it should have been. It looks and behaves similarly to it’s predecessor, just in a working form!

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Back fresh from our Bulgarian odyssey, here’s a quick shake down of what and where we went…

Country: Bulgaria
Location: Sunny Beach on the Black Sea coast
Accommodation: Helena Sands (5*)
Duration: 7 Days
Weather: Sunny and hot all week ~ We didn’t see any bad weather at all
Overall Experience: A bit disappointing really
In general, the Hotel was the main let down for the holiday, along with the organised trips.

It’s a little hard to write this as I feel that I’m being a little unfair, but indulge me for a bit and I’ll try to explain.

Upon arrival (the flights here are at a stupid time – we arrived at the hotel at 05:20 local time), we were greeted with a friendly smile and little else, not much by the way of explanation of what was expected apart from the welcome meeting arranged for 15:30 the same day ~ bedtime then…

The meeting went ahead and we learned little of the protocols and rules of the hotel ~ the whole things wasn’t worth the bother beyond the booking of the organised trips. This may have been down to the rep, but it would have been good to know what to expect at meal times and what/where things were.
After this we were set free to holiday, this is where the second problem ensued. because of the timings, we struggled to find some reasonable food at the hotel! (bear in mind this was a 5* place!).

There were NO facilities for tea/coffee in our rooms (we were told this was a Bulgarian law and due to ‘safety’ ~ I think I can handle a kettle…).
No Iron/pressing facilities beyond the ridiculously priced laundry service.
The mini-bar prices would not have looked out of place in London.
The, on site, ‘wellness centre’ offered treatments which were more expensive than the same over here! (one girl we got on with arranged a hair trim for 15 BGN (lev), about £7.50 ish, and was charged 25 Lev once it was done ~ conned )

The room safe cost us 40 lev for the week ~ a little steep for something that was already there I felt…

It has to be said, that the food at this place was AWFUL ~ As there were lots of guests from Germany, we could only surmise that the food was tailored to their tastes, but I find it hard to believe that the Germanic people enjoy over/under cooked meats and extremely greasy vegetables.
I’m not a fussy eater, not at all, but I struggled every day to find something even vaguely edible ~ I have actually lost weight on this trip and am not alone in that…
The food was so bad, it became a comedy situation with all the English guests we talked to ~ sad really…
The attitude of the waiting staff gets a special mention – nearly having an argument on the second day with the wine waiter, and watching bored staff member playing with the food, deserve highlighting. Everyone in the restaurant needs to go on a customer service course, at least to learn how to smile!

The organised trips, something we usually enjoy as we like to see a country when we visit, left another bad taste in the mouth. They were all over long and expensive for what you got. We were left in several locations with hours to explore, when you could walk the entire place in 30 minutes…
Most of us felt bored and let down as a result…
Again the included lunch on the trips was positively disgusting – We had local, very bland soups followed by a main course, one of which I fed several local cats with, as the chicken meat in the dish was almost raw, and cheap ice-cream for dessert every time.

On the day of  leaving the hotel we were kicked out of our room at 12:00, a big pain as our airport transfer was due at 01:30 and our flight wasn’t until 04:50 the following morning. We could have extended our room stay for 15 lev PER HOUR (about £100 in total!), an option most guests decided against.

Having said all that, there ARE some positives!
The rooms at the hotel were clean and tidy, the pool area was immaculate, and the location of the hotel is in a great, quiet location.

Bulgaria itself seemed to me to have lost it’s identity. My lasting feeling is it’s been invaded/liberated by several nations and hasn’t regained it’s own sense of who it is. The country has lots of history but didn’t present me with a strong picture of ‘This is Bulgaria’, more a feeling of a country that is a place between other places.

I may be being unfair, but that’s my opinion (and the same as the people who were holidaying with us it seems).
I would recommend a trip there with a big caveat to not expect too much and to try a different hotel (the Riu Evrika got a good review from some of the people we met, but it’s away from the beach)

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I’m a resident of Leeds.
Usually this is something that doesn’t even cross the threshold of conscious thought; Not until the STUPID strikes by the bin men!

As I understand it, there is a disagreement about the pay structure.
Apparently some bin men are paid more than female care workers.
In general this sounds like the old male / female inequality thing, but bear in mind that rubbish collection and carework are unrelated industries. Why there should be equality across these industries baffles me! I am not paid the same as a merchant banker, airline pilot or Premier league footballer ~ perhaps I should go on strike!

The net result of this stupidity is the local vermin getting fatter, a strange smell around the area, and lots of unhappy citizens.

On the plus side, my bin WAS finally emptied; It only took 3 weeks!!

Also – remember this: Broadband Tax?
It looks like the Government is committed to making this a law! (BBC News article)

This beggars belief – why should people with ‘old’ technology pay for those who decide to live in rural areas?
I would think firstly, some people DON’T WANT BROADBAND, secondly, they could pay for their own services just like we do.

Also, if the technology is ‘old’, why are they still rolling it out to consumers?

Stupid stupid stupid…

P.S. This is an early timed post ‘cos I’m off on holiday today

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There comes a moment, when you really need telling – not that it’s always a pleasant experience…

Both Tor and Chris decided I NEED to go on holiday ~ I was told I have been a miserable, grumpy so-an-so for a few days.

Personally I blame it on not being left alone to just get on with things.

(I’m heading for Bulgaria on Friday :D)

NOTHING at all to do with my mood…
Any suggestion to the contrary will receive the full force of my wrath

:evil:

Recently we’ve been doing all sorts of stuff, it’s getting increasingly busy as those “Green shoots” of economic growth poke through the bleak outlook of recession.
We’ve seen a constant month-on-month growth since January and it’s still progressing now.
We have also noticed that clients are getting more and more selective about the suppliers they use and are more often relying on word of mouth and personal recommendations, rather than the ‘shot in the dark’ advertising.

This is exactly where we position ourselves

After bucking the trend and actually RECRUITING during the recession, we are starting to reap the rewards – and it’s a good feeling.

the down side is though, we are more busy, and therefore more tired = more grumpy
Sometimes it’s a good thing though, going home late, knowing you’ve done a good, hard days work is great – and knowing you’ve helped some people along the way makes it all worthwhile.

Going to bed with a yawn now…

Nighty night

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This amused:
‘Booze therapy’ for brain injury
Comments like “Experts cautioned people should not interpret the findings as an excuse to drink more alcohol.” and “The fact is, being drunk increases your chances of getting into an accident in the first place. When judgement’s impaired, we can put ourselves at risk.” Made me smile

I’m waiting for the first case in front of the judiciary stating:
The defendant claimed: “I’m just protecting myself in case of severe brain trauma officer”

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It’s back to the grind from the hiatus that was my holiday ~ kinda sad in a way but happy in others.

Sad, in that I had to leave the fantasy realms of the rich and famous and re-enter the problem strewn arena that is the I.T. world.
Happy in that, our business seems to be going from strength to strength. :)

Many of the businesses with which we deal on a daily basis are seeing signs of economic recovery – even the ones in the hardest hit areas (we look after a few businesses directly related to the property markets).
Lets hope that these dark times are soon to end.

In some quite astonishing news it appears Microsoft are releasing a FREE version of it’s up coming Office product (Office 2010) as a free online version much like the Google Docs system.
Read the full article here

It’s another step towards Microsoft and Google going head to head ~ especially as Google recently announced a ‘Chrome’ operating system (read all about it…) aimed squarely as competition for Windows.
This seems to be shaping up as a ‘Clash of the Titans’ and will hopefully make Micro$oft pull their socks up and release a GOOD operating system after the farcical Windows Vista.

In some other news, it looks like the big boys are seeing sense in relation to the Phorm advertising system ~ Both BT and TalkTalk are pulling out of the venture.
This is good news for users of the Internet as it MIGHT lead to less advertising, though I strongly doubt it…

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P.S. the image is from a McCain product ~ Smiley fries known as ‘Smiles’.
They’re aimed at kids but I kinda like them!

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