Self Service Gobshites....

I was doing a bit of grocery shopping the night before last at the local store...

About 2 years ago, they installed some self service tills. They are very handy, you scan, pack and pay for your groceries at the one machine yourself. The queues generally move very quickly.

Anyway, in front of me were 2 ladies, one older than me and one younger than me. Neither were hotties. Both had issues using the self service tills and scanners. One in particular kept scanning the same item, perhaps she was deaf and did not hear the beep, perhaps she was blind and did not see it appear on the screen or perhaps she was just fucking stupid.

The same girl then could not work out why the till flashed up a note indicating that she had removed something from the bagging area, she looked perplexed at this, even though she was holding the damn box of Persil in her hands whilst calling for help!!! Perhaps not only is she deaf, blind, and stupid, she could also be illiterate!

It took her almost 10 minutes to scan, bag and pay for 4 items, 10 minutes!!!

People, if technology perplexes you so much that you have trouble using the self service till, please go to a normal check out, one where a member of staff will scan and bag your groceries. All you have to do then is pay! Surely you will be able to handle that little act!!

The case of the naked portraits and the Taoiseach

I can't for the life of me work out why Brian Cowan would be upset at these pictures... Do you not think he looks well?? He has a fine set of moobs!

Maybe its just my over active imagination, but I thought that the pictures accurately represent the last 12 months of the Irish economy...



First off, we were caught unawares... with our pants down...



and the second one then shows that we are in the shitter....

Superb political satirism! Well done the artist.

(credit to the original artist for the paintings, whoever they may be. Also, the pics are direct links to files on timesonline.co.uk)

Well its official....

Created by OnePlusYou

And more Irish Success..

Bernard Dunne is the WBA World Super Bantamweight World Champion!!!! He knocked out Ricardo Cordoba in the 11th.



Dunne got the first knockdown in the 3rd round, he floored Cordoba. Cordoba got back up and knocked Dunne to the floor twice in the 5th round. After that, the fight swung back and forth, perhaps in Dunnes favour.



On to the 10th and it started to look like Dunnes night and then in the 11th, Dunne had Cordoba on the canvas 3 times within seconds. After the 3rd, he didn't get up, couldn't get up... It took him 5 or 6 minutes to regain conciousness and left the ring on a stretcher.



Well.... what a weekend, 6 nations champions with a Grand Slam victory over Wales and Bernard Dunne, World Champion!



Its all Hunky Dory!!!!

61 years......

This is the moment that 61 years of waiting was finally over...

Ryanair v Aer Lingus

First things first, I don't care who I fly with for short hop flights. It all boils down to price with me. For 2hrs I will slum it in with the cattle if it is free!

Today I booked a flight to London. Both Ryanair and Aer Lingus have flights leaving Dublin within an hour of each other and likewise with the return from London Gatwick. Either of the times suited me, so it did not matter at all.

Anyway, the basic cost of the flights were as follows:

Ryanair:
Ex Dublin - 10euro
Ex London - 20euro

Aer Lingus:
Ex Dublin - 1.99euro
Ex London - 6.99euro

Now then, any reasonable person would look at that and think that Aer Lingus is the cheapest by roughly 21euro.

Well if you though that, you would be wrong. The Ryanair flight, with all its taxes and fees, worked out at 54euro. The Aer Lingus flight, with all its taxes and fees, worked out at 67euro.

Somehow, somewhere along the line, Aer Lingus manage to get more expensive than Ryanair. The swing went from being -21euro at the start to +13euro at the end.. a swing of 34euro. How??? Seriously. Do Ryanair have a better deal with Dublin and Gatwick??? Do Ryanair pay different taxes to Aer Lingus???

Anyway, once again, I booked with Ryanair and am more than happy to fly them.

Restaurant Issues....

This little monkey went out for dinner last night... good company, good craic, good food, but......

Well when a waiter causes an issue at the table that destroys 3 meals, covers guests in wine, water and wax, well... well I kinda feel that a serious apology is in order. 3 of us ended up eating our meal 30 minutes after the other 3, not exactly the perfect situation.

When the bill came, we at least thought there might be some sort discount for the hassles involved, boy were we wrong.

I asked to see a manager and had to deal with a young (and very attractive lady) who was on the defensive from the off. It took 15 minutes for her to make a token gesture.

In a situation like that, it should be a no brainer. The waiter was at fault for ruining 3 meals, we should have been looked after as a matter of course.

Good customer service costs nothing. Bad customer service costs you customers.

Tender Day......

Oh for the love of jaysus, please let today end quickly!!!!

Seriously, I hate tender day when it is only me looking after the tender. It is hard enough getting everything sorted on the Elec side, but then having to go running round and sorting out the Mech too???? Its wrecking my bleedin head!!!

Oh and sure lets not forget the old favourite of "changing drawings on the last day" or "No, my spec. is not ready yet"....

Hmmmm....... I think I am getting stressed.

New U2 Stage Design...

Well now, this looks interesting. I am looking forward to the gigs already!

What the fuck..

2 soldiers were shot dead last night in Northern Ireland. The first British Army members to be killed up there in 12 years.

Along with the 2 soldiers killed, 4 others have been seriously injured, including 2 civilians from a local pizza delivery company.

Unbelievable.. So much good work done up there in the last few years and now this.

Its a sad sad day.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0308/massereene.html

Possible new tax in Ireland...

There is talk that the Govt. are going to try and raise revenue by taxing text messages from phones.

According to ComReg (Irish Telecoms Regulator), 25million texts are sent everyday here in Ireland. 25million!!!!!

Talk is that the Govt. want to impose a 1 cent tax on each text. So.. lets do the sums..

25million x 365 x .01 = 91.25million Euro a year just from the tax on texts.. That excludes the extra texts sent on holiday periods. Vodafone say that their customers sent over 27million texts on Christmas Day and New Years eve alone... Lets not forget that other great day for texting too, St. Patricks Day.

In reality, it looks like the tax could bring in upwards of 100million Euro a year.

It would probably add about 1euro to 1.50 euro on to my bill every month.