Boooo hooooo

I have an update on the continuing Virgin saga, but I can't face it right now, so just assume that things are going from bad to worse! Last night I was so upset by the whole thing I couldn't help but bleep and just wanted to sit in a ball and cry. How pathetic is that? Virgin you have driven me to the brink of insanity and I am about to lose it. I have never known a company like it. I don't even blame the workers, the faults are obviously intrinsic to the system and won't be solved any time soon.

Other than the Virgin saga, I'm not sure I have much news. We spent much of the weekend out in the garden since the weather was soooo beautiful. That left me a little behind with my designs, but I still managed to load a few posts from the comfort of my garden chair :)    I can't design outside because it means taking my not-very-portable laptop outside along with my graphics tablet and pen....it's all too much of a faff. Then there's the super-glossy (supposedly non-reflective) screen which reflects anything and everything.

Any other news? Well the diet is kind of steady at the moment - no gain and no loss, but it's been a rough few weeks and I'm actually grateful to have stayed the same considering what I've eaten. I've tried a new trick this week with the cooking and I'm hoping that helps. Instead of spending ALL Saturday morning and most of the afternoon cooking like I'd been doing recently, I've chopped all the meat, veggies and seasoning for each recipe and put it in the fridge in separate boxes. now all I need to do is put it in the slow cooker on the way out to work, and it's all done when I get home. Now, tell me that's not even EASIER than what I had been doing? This way the lazy cook can still eat a healthy, nutritious meal....woo hooo. The best thing is that the slow cooker doesn't make much heat, unlike cooking on the cooker or in the oven...perfect for the temperatures we've been having here lately.

Anyone else hate cooking? How do you deal with it?

Feelin hot hot hot

Andy & I are BIG lovers of hot and spicy food...probably me more than him. We're always on the look out for really hot chili sauces and things and today we found a pretty decent one. We got some Louisiana Pepper sauces in jalepeno and habanero flavours and we were impressed by the heat, but seriously could have gone hotter LOL. We've been watching that Man Versus Food program where he eats all the really hot food and it's been giving us some ideas....particularly for a trip to Charleston SC which was featured on the program. There's a place there that does really REALLY hot food and has this challenge too...I gotta go LOL.

So, this is it....Louisiana Pepper sauce....burning the mouths of unsuspecting people since 1920 ;o)

Really, really tasty with chicken :)

Can I just say....

I'm not looking forward to telephone conversation number 3 with Virgin this evening. That issue I wrote about here is still ongoing after me being told it would be sorted within 24 hours. I just don't think I can face it :(

I'm now changing my thoughts from "Laura from Virgin you SUCK" to "Virgin you SUCK". You know what, as much as I complained about Sky, at least their customer service was efficient and professional (even if the service wasn't). In 11 months and 3 days, I can switch back to Sky! Woo hoo!

Anyone else ever made a decision they regretted like this?

A weekend off

I had a weekend off custom designs and had lots of fun with the family yesterday. We had a barbecue in the afternoon and then headed out to my uncle's 50th birthday party in the evening.We set off back home about 10.30pm because we were driving home and we live about 2 hours away from my folks. We got home just before midnight and can you believe it was just going dark! Gotta love summer evenings :)

Today I spent about 10 hours designing my new digital scrapbooking kit. It still needs about 10 more hours spending on it but I've been pleased with the progress so far.  Tomorrow I'll be working on some custom designs and hopefully will shift that queue bit.

Ok, I'd better head off to bed now....at work at the crack of dawn...here's a pic of me & mum taken at the party. Its taken with my phone - which takes pretty naff pictures.

Day off...woo hoooooo!

Those of you who follow my design blog will know that I have been busy converting my old style backgrounds and headers into the new style templates. The work that has been involved has just been...well quite frankly....ridiculous! I'm wondering what I've started and have, at times, totally regret ever starting it, but I will continue. This will be a great addition to my blog and will make it sooooo much easier for people to use my templates. Just in case you're interested, this is what is involved in making that switch to the new new downloadable templates.

• load them onto a test blog
• format the blog
• make the extra bits (like post dividers) that I didn't already have
• load all those extra bits onto a test blog
• copy all the code
• insert it into a Google Doc
• take screenshots
• format/crop the screenshot
• upload to Photobucket
• actually writing the post

...and then repeat for the Stretch version....it's taking about 4-6 hours per template AT LEAST. Aaaaarrrrgggghhhh!

But today is my uncle's 50th birthday and I'm going to see my family and spend the day with them. We're not a very close (extended) family and I haven't seen some of them since my grandma's funeral 3 years ago. It will be nice to catch up. We'll be spending some time with my folks before we go to the party so I'm looking forward to that too.

I'm going to go enjoy my well earned day off now - talk later and have a nice day everyone.

Now I know why...

For a long time now hubby & I have been putting off a move to a new telecoms provider knowing that (as everything seems to be these days) it would just be such a RIDICULOUS hassle to change. Well with the impending death of yet ANOTHER Sky box we finally had enough and looked into changing...after all our previous deal was years old and there MUST be something better out there.

Having made the move to from Sky to Virgin, I now know why we didn't bother. It was indeed a terrible hassle, for no real improvement in...well....ANYTHING. I keep hoping that once the teething problems are sorted then everything will be hunky dory, but after the conversation I had this evening with their customer service department, I can't really say I'm left with a warm, fuzzy feeling.

When we got the new telephone account, Virgin applied their answer-phone service to the line - not something we knew about, but no biggie as it should be easy to remove. So I rung their customer service and spoke to some lovely Scottish lady who pomised me it was taken care of but would take a couple of days. 2 weeks later it still isn't cancelled and, because we don't get alerted by a beep (or something) that anyone has left a message, we keep missing messages, which is a total pain with Andy getting calls every day about job interviews and things.  So tonight, I decide to ring them back since 2 weeks is getting a bit silly.

Here is how the conversation went...
Virgin: Hello you're through to Virgin, my name is Laura, how can I help?
Me: Well 2 weeks ago I rang you and asked you to take the answer service off my phone. I was told it would take a couple of days, but it's still there. Could you switch it off please?
Virgin: What's your account number?
Me: I don't know it off the top of my head, but last time I rang you accessed my account via my phone number?
Virgin: What's your number then?  ***think "abrupt" and "terse" here***
Me: 01234 567890
Virgin: What's your password?
Me: oh heck I don't remember giving you one. Erm......apple? ***I have no passwords like that really, incase you're wondering)
Virgin: No ***abrupt...again***
Me: ermmmm.....orange?
Virgin: No
Me: ***wondering just how long we're going to go on like this*** I can't remember, last time I rang I was given a prompt to remember it. There must be some other security questions you can ask?
Virgin: No
Me: No, really? No promts, but last time ***interrupted***
Virgin: I can't give you a prompt ***obviously getting VERY annoyed now, but seriously what are you supposed to do if you can't remember your password?***
Me: Oh...well last time when I rang the person seemed a lot more helpful ***said in a nice, calm voice, but go the point across I think ***
Virgin: CLUNK!

That was the sound of the phone being put down.

Really? I mean, was there any need for that? I wasn't even mad, crazy or angry...just....normal. So Laura McOldroyd from Virgin customer services (or whatever you said your name was)...you SUCK!

I promptly rang back on a different number, put in an official complaint and tried AGAIN to get the service removed. Hopefully all will be sorted this time because I obviously don't want to ring back! The guy was really helpful this time though and understood that I felt upset and that I shouldn't even have been having to ring back anyway.  During his conversation he told me that our account hadn't even been activated and that we shouldn't even have been able to get TV, internet or phone! Seriously.....you kidding me? You want to give me any more problems because it's NOT like I'm regretting my decision already or anything....

Anyway, incase you missed it the first time, Laura from Virgin customer services....YOU SUCK, YOU SUCK, YOU SUCK!

Breathe.....