Hello to my readers at AGL. I know they’re reading because earlier this evening someone from their customer advocacy team rang me up, saying AGL management had found the whole name change saga (Googling “AGL”, apparently) and passed it to him. He explained what had happened (old data used by a mail house). I understand, ... [More]
A couple of years ago I noted that supplies of recycled (facial) tissues were getting more scarce. But I was able to keep buying the Safe brand at Coles in Caulfield until just recently, when they stopped stocking them. Or maybe they stopped receiving them some time ago, and they’ve finally run out. Recycled toilet ... [More]
I got a note from my electricity provider AGL, which, unbelievably after the number of times I’ve told them, got my name wrong again. To add insult to injury, it appears that although I switched to green power just before moving in late 2005, when I moved they completely forgot about that, and I’ve been ... [More]
So the Australian Do Not Call register launched yesterday (only for the web site to fall over under the demand). It sounds good in theory. But I’m pondering if I (with a silent line that virtually nobody ever calls except people I know) should bother joining. Apart from the fact that the registration expires after ... [More]
It’s ANZAC Day, and time to pause and reflect on the sacrifices made by our forebears. Hardly the time to be thinking about money. But due to a set of circumstances last week that saw my bank balance drained to close to zero — something that hasn’t happened in quite some time — I have ... [More]
From the Daniel’s been playing around with web stuff in his copious spare time and trying to learn PHP and here’s a blatant plug department: You know how sometimes you go to the cinema and you can’t remember which membership card you need to show to get the discount? Is it the RACV card? Or ... [More]
My waterproof jacket self-destructed late last year, and while Melbourne hasn’t been over-endowed with rain recently, part of my plan to become a dedicated pedestrian includes having the appropriate gear to stroll down the street no matter what the weather, so I’d been meaning to buy a new one. Last week via some junk mail ... [More]
Here, looking very posed, is a piccy of me on my new couch, which arrived on Saturday. Super-comfortable. Feels quite high off the ground, compared to the old, saggy one (which hopefully some lucky Freecycler will want). None of the pictures taken quite captures the colour exactly, but this one is as close as any ... [More]
Wow — a piece in the Good Weekend last week that wasn’t about Barry Humphries. It was about houses being built modelled on Martha Stewart’s homes, apparently being bought by people who have no original ideas for themselves, but trust Martha to design something good. “We’re delighted because we have no vision ourselves and Martha ... [More]
Have you seen the latest chain email, claiming that Woolworths/Safeway are going to donate all their profits on January 23rd to drought relief? As someone who gets chain emails regularly, and has to almost always Reply All and tell people it’s crap (generally providing a snopes.com URL to prove it) I initially scoffed at it ... [More]
Is airconditioning turning us into wimps? We (and I’m as guilty of this as anybody) go from our sometimes-airconditioned houses in our airconditioned cars or our airconditioned trains to airconditioned offices or airconditioned shopping centres. If it’s not 20 degrees indoors, we’re complaining. If the train is not airconditioned, we’re complaining. If we have to ... [More]
Just occasionally I feel like researching something to the Nth degree, gathering some stats, working it all out. Sometimes it’s useful; sometimes it’s really not. This probably falls into the latter camp. Some may recall one day in December 2005 when I got 28 pieces of junk mail in my mailbox on a single day. ... [More]
OK, I admit it, I’m getting a little stressed about Christmas. After a good start, the shopping has all fallen in a heap over the last few weeks. I’ve still got numerous things to buy, both known and unknown. The way it’s looking, this Christmas it won’t quite be gift vouchers at twenty paces, but ... [More]
Two great blog posts I’ve read recently: If you’ve ever worked in a service industry, and been on the receiving end of someone’s arseholedness, have a read of this — Nice consumer takes-on Nasty. I don’t recall ever encountering people of the moronic calibre when I was working in a shop. Either I was lucky, ... [More]
Sometimes I despair of the human race. Yesterday morning I was lazing in bed when I noted an advertising supplement that came with the newspaper, called something like Christmas Essentials — 64 pages of totally stupid gift ideas. Admittedly some of the featured items were okay, but it also included some of the most useless, ... [More]