Another opportunity to raise the same ol' issue to the Chairman and CEO of Renault-Nissan Group...will take notice this time around...well I'm not that hopeful!

"Dear Mr Ghosn,

I do believe that the timing of this letter cannot come at a better time, as we are see a spate of "high-profile" safety issues being noted around the world; with one notable exception, no formal recall has been published to resolve the Clio-2 Bonnet catch mechanism failure safety issue that are still apparent.

What is more surprising is that after 4+ years after I filed the first formal report to Renault of my Clio bonnet flying up and smashing my windscreen whilst I was driving (without warning), we still hear incidents being reported. The continuous increase of reported cases is extremely concerning, and all efforts have to remain on ensuring the root-cause of the issue is fully resolved for the sake of all Clio-2 owners.

Let’s quote an article in the recent US Congress hearings into the massive Toyota recall – there are some synergies to your own safety concerns:

• Toyota "consistently dismissed" the possibility that electronic failures could be responsible for acceleration problems

• the report that Toyota commissioned to look at potential electronic problems appeared to have "serious flaws" and the company was too slow in initiating it

• Toyota's public statements about the adequacy of its recent recalls appeared to be "misleading".

It is clear that the comments raised by the US Congress refer to the same context for Renaults own bonnet catch safety concerns. You may also realise that in the UK the DoT VOSA definition is as follows:

• the evidence indicates the existence of a safety defect in the vehicles; and

• the defect appears to be common to a number of vehicles; and

• some of the vehicles involved have already been sold for use in the UK.

What evidence would a manufacture require to confirm that an issue exists, your Engineer’s and VOSA quoted corrosion was present affecting a part that was design / manufactured as maintenance-free? If there is a chance that a mechanism that acts as a safety device that does not operate in 100% of cases, then this is a defect, the catch is simply not fit for purpose. A report which you published jointly with VOSA outlines that there are known contributable factors which can result in the mechanism failing to function effectively.

I call upon you as the Global Head of Renault Group to respond directly to the concerns raised and the risk that continues to exist with your vehicles in the UK and around the world. Your lives of your customers continued to be put at risk; surely this alone goes above all other points and policies, common-sense should prevail in this particular safety concern. Please issue a recall and replace the defective parts."

Do you think they will do anything based on the above?

Well it has been quite a funny start of the year, work still as challenging and busy as ever, with a few stressful moments in-between.  Not helped when I was going to Moscow for a business trip, and had a tight timeline to get a Visa...

Getting a Russian Visa involves quite abit of "administration".  It took 5 days to get a Business Invitation, plus then passing it to a Visa support company, who would work with the Russian Consulate in London to obtain the actual Visa on my behalf. 

All was well until I started to realise that it was Monday, 1st February and I was meant to leave on Wednesday, 3rd February at 9am and I still didn't have my passport or Visa yet.  The Visa was ready at COB Tuesday, but I had to ensure I got my passport and Visa back from London to Haywards Heath that evening.  Luckily a bike-courier managed to drive it down on Tuesday evening - the sort of activity one calls "Just In Time" :)  Phew!

I was then all set for the trip to Moscow!  Yay!  A fun, but extremely busy trip!

Having missed out seeing Bangkok during Christmas 2008, due to the political unrest there, I decided to go and visit some family in SE-Asia and visit Thailand again. 

I was expeting a good last minute deal, so was searching extensively over the Christmas holiday, but nothing really came up in the price range I was expected.  I was after something around £700-800 for a 10 night stay.  Anyway, I tried with my Amex Staff Travel office, and they also couldn't really deal with the requirements I laid out.  I think the problems with Travel Agencies (Amex Staff Travel included) is that they just offer a basic set-up, anything slightly outside or bespoke, they can't deal with!  Grrr!  So I ended up doing an A la Carte offering.

I wanted to go at the end of February or early-March.  There was a 50% January Sale offer at the Hilton, so wanted to stay either in the Bangkok Hilton or the Hua Hin resort for part / all of the stay.  Flights were okay, with Thai Airlines proving the cheapest.  We also found details of the hotel in Bangkok recommended by my counsin and noted that they also had a price-promotion on...another 50% offer!  Looking good already hey?  We tried Trailfinders.com - and through their sales desk they managed to sort out the flights and the Bangkok part of the trip.  I then phoned Hilton Honors Reservations (to take advantage of my VIP Loyalty status) and booked the stay at Hua Hin resort.  I managed to break up the booking into 3 parts to spread over the 2 weekends - thus was able to take advantage of the 50% offer on 2 sets of 3 days.  Very nice indeed.  To top this offer, I managed to then use my Hilton Honur points for the 4 other days in between, so the Hilton part of the stay was extremely cheap.  We literally paid the quivalent 3 full nights for the whole 10 days stay!  Luvly indeed!  AND I should hopefully get an Executive Lounge upgrade by being a Hilton Honors VIP Loyalty member.  The hotel / resort looks pretty nice too!  Bonus!

Well having purchased the iPhone 3GS, one must protect it, so I do what I normally do and purchase a cover (or pouch) and screen protection.  I normally either buy something from Krussell or Proporta, as I've purchased items in the past and (usually!) never have had an issue with their products.  Well until now.

I broswer Proporta's website, and noticed that there was a Mirror Screen Protector, something which I had previously used on my iTouch.  The thing was pretty good - though not brilliant when in use outside (reflects the sun - obviously, hey?), but decided for some reason to go with this.  I got the item just before Christmas and put it on my iPhone.  After a few days, I noticed that I was getting eye strain, and checked with a few friends who also said the effects on the screen was quite poor.  It made the screen look quite blurry and actually created a rainbow-effect - in short it was causing my health concerns!

I commented to Proporta stating that I wanted it to be replaced to just a standard Screen Protector.  Due to the snow, I couldn't pop the item back in the post, so I knew the replacement item would be delayed by several days.  In the interim, I had a business trip aboard, and whilst at the airport, I needed to ensure I had some protection for the phone.  I didn't receive the cover/pouch yet and had already put the previous screen protector in an jiffy bag ready to send back to Proporta.  So I went to Dixons at LHR and purchased a cheap one - better than nothing I suppose, still set me back a few quid though!

When I returned, I managed to send the item, and continued my complaint with Proporta.  They confirmed that they had received the item, but the standard Screen Protector was out of stock and asked whether I wanted to wait, or obtain a replacement Mirror Protector.  Yep, that's right, replace the item I complained about with a replacement item of the same type/kind!  Hmmm....didn't they get it yet?

Anyway, with this response, I formally complained about the (lack of) support I was receiving from Proporta, and commented that no gesture had actually been made so far.  I did ask for my whole order of about £17 (cover and screen protector) was refunded back, I also commented that I had to purchase an alternative / temporary cover in the interim.  They finally sent me the replacement screen and I also between received the cover product which had been delayed because of the snowy conditions over the last couple of weeks.  Currently, they have now provided a refund for the Mirror Screen, sent me a free replacement standard protector and offered a cut-to-size protector as well.  But this is pocket-change in comparison to the whole order.

I hope they do the honourably thing and refund the whole order.  We'll see!

Well it has been quite a start of the year.  I've only managed to spend 2 days in the office with the ruddy snow pretty much shutting down the Brighton office for a few days at the end of the first week, and continuing the early part of last week.

Added to this the busy week last week with a business visit, meant that my brain feels frazzled already, and it's only the middle of January :)

Right, can only mean one thing...I MUST book that holiday.  I am looking to do a trip to Thailand (if the price is okay) - for late-February / early-March.  There is a 50% weekend offer on at the Hilton so hopefully I can take advantage of this, if possible!  Hopefully I can find something this weekend.

Well, my last day in the Office was 18th December, and I was snowed-in, and had to work-from-home. Was an interesting way to spend the last day finalising all of my year-end bits and bobs...pretty funny actually!! We then had a nice Christmas and New Year break, and then went into January 2010 thinking it was just be Business-As-Usual. Well kinda...

It started with a great first couple of days, great catch-ups, and moving forward stuff. Then, we started to receive interesting news...well weather warnings actually that a severe snow front was heading for the SE of the UK...and, they weren't wrong. As of Tuesday, 5th January evening, a plentiful covering of snow came down from about 8pm continuously for about 5-6 hours. In fact by the time I went to bed at 11pm, there was already about 3-inches of snow on the floor (outside of course, you know what I meant!).

When I woke up, I opened the curtain and almost a foot of snow had landed (about 10 inches initially). BUT the snow hadn't stopped...it snowed continuously throughout Wednesday...and by the day had ended, there was a over a foot in the front, and slightly less at the back. Madness! I've never seen anything like it, well I've seen snow but not this much in such a short space of time, and twice in 2 weeks! I was pretty much snowed in, there was no hope to get around. I actually had to re-stock supplies (Guinness, Milk, Break, Salad etc...) and the road leading to Sainsbury's wasn't gritted or ploughed...it was that treacherous! I knew it could only get worse before it could get better...after the snow, there is the icy conditions and then the thaw. That meant we had another few days of this rubbish! Arghhh!!!

Well, work has to continue, so whilst some people were "off-work" around the UK, some of us office folk continued to work on our laptops and blackberry (in between the odd power cut, we suffered). Luckily, work was at a moderate level, so it wasn't too bad, but still unfortunate that I couldn't go out and fully enjoy it, until the late afternoon or evenings!

On Saturday, I went to my parent's place in the other side of the town and dug the car out (again, I must add)...this time there was a foot of snow ON TOP of the car, and over a foot on the ground. This time, the neighbours had already tasked themselves to dig two trenches in the road to enable us to reach the tarmac beneath the snow and ice, and actually had obtained some grit to help in the process. I then ensured that our drive way was clear and that my mum's car had enough space to manoeuvre. Hard work indeed! But actually quite good fun!

So we have survived the snow (just about), now I am just expecting the flood warnings to be announced during the big thaw - ha!

Well I've taken the plunge, and after waiting months(!) waiting for the applicability under the O2 Open Corporate loyalty scheme to come into force for the Apple iPhone 3GS, I decided to join the iPhone clan - yippee!

BUT, there is a slight bitter taste, in that the O2 Open loyalty scheme has changed though during the same time, I assume O2 were simply losing lots of revenue from the previous scheme...

Here's the O2 Open before and after outline... 

• Under the old scheme, you would have to pay the full price of the handset, but receive a 30% line rental discount. 
• Whilst under the new scheme you would just receive a flat rate £75 off the handset - but without any line rental discount - ho-hum!  Under

Lets talk money and in real-terms though:

• So with th 24mth £34.26 tariff, the standard rental would be £997.43 under the contract. 
• However, with the 30% line rental saving under the old O2 Open scheme this would bring this down to £750.76 for the contract period. 
• Under the flat-fee new scheme, this would be £922.43. 

A whoopping difference of £171.  But alas as the new 3GS was not available under the old scheme, and since November, the old O2 Open scheme doesn't apply, didn't have much choice but just to accept this. 

At least it's a saving - better than nothing as they say! :)

I hope everyone had a magical Christmas this year.  It's been a year of ups and downs for every family - and I wouldn't be surprised that every family has been affected in some way by the financial mess that we nicknamed the Credit Crunch at the start of this year.  It's really been a year of survival!!

For most of you, I am glad that you have made it through the worst of it, and I've been fortunate enough to take some bold steps forward in a year where I didn't think it would be possible.  I completed my house purchase in March of this year, and purchased a new car in September.  This is not to say I could afford all of these luxuries at face value, but wanted to invest in both purchases at a time when I had sufficient savings that weren't really worth "saving" in the conventional way.

Hopefully over time, I hope these investments plan out.  I wanted to get rid of the Renault Clio, after the previous one almost killed me, so wanted to go with something that had a bit more reliability behind it.  German or Japenese of course topped the list!  German pipped it the post though :)

Work - well that's where the credit crunch really hit home.  After Amex made 11,000 people redundant during late 2008 and early 2009, it's been tough for everyone!  We all knew friends and colleagues who were affected, with some leaving the company for good.  For us who remained, we were just thankful that we had a job, and just kept ourselves going.  Motiviation was very difficult, but I think we stayed as cheerful and productive as we could.  Although some projects went on-hold, the irony is that we ended up focusing on more and more on the detail of the outstanding projects, so actually each project remained extremely challenging and mentally trying.  But it was a very valuable lesson on how to question every little thing and thinking of the longer term effects of a particular decision.  No doubt we will continue with the same focus in 2010 with possibly more surprises along the way.  BUT, I will continue to treat it as an enjoyable challenge if possible, and make the most of it.  We'll see what 2010 has instore for me.  I've now performed my current role for over 5 years (December 2004) and been with Amex for over 6 (September 2003), maybe 2010 is a time of change?  Who knows. 

Outside of Amex, well I'm extremely pleased to have kept in touch and socialised with a merry bunch of folks.  I've got some very good friends who I trust and respect, and value their friendship indeed!  I have also been fortunate to meet some great new friends most recently, and feel there might me something on the horizon, but we'll see what happens in 2010.

In short, I've had a rather "different", actually quite an "interesting" year.  I've had a couple of significant positives, but hope I can start to settle down and focus on where I want to be and do in the future.  Who knows what the futures holds.  Wish me luck...

I hope you all have a wonderful time, I trust you will spend it with you friends and family, and I look forward to see some of you during 2010!

Over the last 2-3 months I've been quite busy actually...inside and outside of work.  Work has been challenging at times, but I've made it through, and the last week in the office has actually been quite pleasureable.

I sense January and February is going to be a busy month already, but alas I'm prepared for that.  Business trip scheduled and booked already!  Hey-ho!

Chrimbo has come upon us all very quickly...in fact looking back at the last 11 months, each one has raised by extremely quickly.  Not that bothered really, cos it has been a topsy turvy year, and I would have hated it to drag on, so a blessing really!

Outside, well things have been a bit funny this year...I got to know a few folks quite well during the year...some the same motley crew, others some friends which I have seen for years!  Been brilliant.  Oh and on the ladies front, we'll see.  I haven't really focused on this as much as I should, although I've met some luvly people during the year.  We'll see what 2010 brings!

Today, is my last day in the office.  I was meant to be going to London for a Chrimbo party and celebrations with one of the business teams I have worked closely with over the last 6-8 months, but alas the snow arrived, and the South-East of England in classic-style is in chaos again...so the party was cancelled.  So I will be spending my last day in the office WFH - aka relaxing!

With 5 days holiday carried over into 2010 - I will make sure I use this wisely :)  Maybe a 3 week holiday?  Who knows, that's for me to decide in early 2010!  Bring it on...

This year, it's been pretty hard going on the party scene...from a joint farewell, Chrimbo and Birthday bash, to a small-team and large-team party, to another celebration party...can my body keep up!

Heck who cares...bring it on!  2009 has been an amazingly challenging, busy, fun, rewarding and for me tangible-results year...so it is definitely a great chance to raise a glass (or two) and celebrate our successes.  Here's to 2009, and hopefully more successes in 2010 and beyond!