In October 1999, it was announced that more than 99 percent of bank notes showed traces of cocaine in the UK - mainly through cross exposure in cashpoints, tills etc to the 5 percent of notes that had been used directly to snort the drug.
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Well today is my last day in the Brighton office, my last day of work in 2012, my last day with Amex UK, and the UK, before I start my new chapter of my life in Singapore.
I am certainly starting to look forward to the opportunity - and everything is finally slotting into place. My last day ended with a team meeting for most of the day, followed by a team lunch, and then drinks after work - and I was honoured to have received such a farewell from each and every member of the Brighton teams. I will certainly miss the people - possibly the work too - and I think it really is the people that made the work and life fun over the 8 years that I have been in the team.
At the same time, I will put another 'pause'' on this blog and set-up a dedicated one for my new Singapore chapter - it will be located at http://singaporelife.brigatti.co.uk or
http://www.brigatti.co.uk/singaporeadventure - whichever is easier to remember :). Keep checking it out for the fun and games I have in the Asia region...until then, I will sign off from the Brigatti Blog for a while!!! Bye for now...
Well it is time for another annual service of my boiler, and after the bad experiences last year (which silted in hefty compensation from British Gas from a total quality of service breakdown!), I duly booked up and planned to work from home on the day.
They gave me a slot of 8am to 12pm on Friday, 2nd December - so I hope it goes smoothly. I worked from home that morning and the time slipped by. I looked at my watch and it was about 11.30am and no visit yet. I then got a call around 11.45am stating that the engineer was stuck at a previous job and couldn't turn up for my appointment. They arranged a re-scheduled appointment for Tuesday, 4th December - and due to my work commitments that day, I arranged for my dad to turn up for the 4-6pm slot that they allocated. Apparently, if the first appointment is delayed, the second one is prioritised, so I was expecting it to happen without issue.
But...yup you guessed it....it didn't! In fact, we didn't hear a thing and no one turned up by 5.50pm, so I phoned them and was told that they had cancelled it at 5.30pm. I said why wasn't I contacted? They couldn't determine why! I went berserk - I had told the guy that if they told me that it was cancelled or re-scheduled, I would be peed off, and they had done exactly this. I asked to speak to the supervisor, and I must admit, they had to eat humble pie, as there was simply apologies occurring on the other side of the phone. No matter what they could say (they didn't say that much) it was simply a total breakdown of servicing once again!!
I agreed to re-schedule the appointment, as I needed the boiler service - under my Homecare contract - so they committed it to be on Thursday, 6th December between 2-4pm. I told him that it better happen - and he promised that it would. I then asked him what form of recompensate that they would offer - he said none as they were committed to re-schedule and would not offer any financial compensation. I then said, this was unsatisfactory, and told him I would give him one last chance, if nothing is offered, then I would need to complain formally to his head office. All of a sudden he agreed to cancel the next two direct debits - so two months free service... Equating to about £55 - I accepted this, as felt it was the least they could do.
The moral of the story - always push for more, and never take nothing as a response to compensation - what a mess, once again!!
To follow in the footsteps of what I arranged for the Brighton teams, I decided to visit the Krespie Kreme store at London Victoria station and redeem the voucher offer again... This time I decided to go with the buy two dozen, get another two dozen free - so 48 doughnuts in total. for about £20 in total. A nice treat and gesture I thought :)
Anyway, I did this, and brought them into the office early - only to find that a work colleague also got wind of the offer (from my Brighton episode) and also brought 2 dozen doughnuts too ... So between the two of us, we had purchased 72 doughnuts for the office... Ouch!
You may have heard that in November, Amex UK deployed a merchant campaign called "Shop Small", to help customers spend at their local small establishments.
It doesn't seemed to have been heavily promoted but Amex employees received an internal email announcing the offer and for staff members it was just too good to be true... The offer was that a card member spends £5 and receives a £5 rebate on their statement a few days after the purchase has been made. That's right a free £5 purchase.
Now you don't have to be stupid to calculate the benefits of this if you spend at the respective merchants. There was no limit - you just are limited to spend at the same merchant once in the statement cycle, and as such once during the promotion - which ran from 1st - 30th November period.
You could do an off license run, or a pub crawl, or buy a shirt for a ridiculous price :) A fantastic card member and merchant campaign :). Happy shopping!!!
Well with my new opportunity in Sngapore confirmed, I had to sort out a few logistics - and more importantly start to liquify my assets...the first one was my car!
I had quite a bit of interest with 4 parties keen to buy it (her) of me. But only one came it tops at the end - as a quick sale.
I managed to sell it to a neighbour near to my mum's place - and sold it for £10,500 - which isn't too bad for a 3 years and 2 months car. I do think I could have pushed it for £11k but I wanted a quick sale - so I think it was a good price under the circumstances.
It is sad to say goodbye to the car, as she was a perfect ride - a great size, a great fit for my personality, great quality and was a great purchase when the dealer was keen to push for a sale. I also think the new Audi A3 model - which I also recently test-drove last month - is a bit different. Especially, the electronic hand-brake, which needs a bit to get used to.
I am going to miss driving the car, driving in general and the convenience of it all - but on the positive, I can drink plenty more pints of Guinness without any recourse now - I just have to get used to the public transportation and commuting malarkey :). Wish me well!!
I saw that Krespie Kremes had a vouchercloud.co.uk offer - a BOGOF one, where you buy a dozen doughnuts and get another dozen (original) free. So a colleague and I decided to go to get some from work for our team meeting on Friday, 17th December.
We walked from the shop at North Road in Brighton to the office (and we didn't eat one on the way - haha) and they went down well. They only costs us £9.50 - so we went halves. What a way to spice up our weekly Team meeting :)
I think I may do the same in London one day, before I leave :)
There has only been 2 years that I have ever missed Lewes Bonfire Night on 5th November, over the past 12-15 years or so, it was really such an annual event :)
Historically, we usually opened the restaurant and did a sterling trade, so by default, I managed to enjoy the amazing sights and sounds of the night. But last year I was in Singapore and this year, I wasn't feeling that great. So I decided to give it a miss.
Hey-ho...there is always next year....whoops...I've in Singapore as an expat for the next couple of years, so possibly I may have to miss it again :(. Well I will remind myself to schedule a return around to coincide with one of the forthcoming nights in the future - it just HAS to be done - haha :)
After a year of tooing and froing, I have finally got the confirmation of the new job in Sngapore - and started the process of transitioning my responsibilities over to other members of the team, whilst preparing myself for the move.
The flight is booked for Monday, 10th December and my Visa is sorted (it was completed in less than 24 hours - that is impressive!). The home search is the key thing that I feel a bit unsettled about, mainly because it won't be resolved until I arrive in Sngapore - but if that's the only thing outstanding, that's not too bad, is it!?
I decided to go with the minimalist approach, and take limited items with me. I am not taking any furniture (as I am hoping to get a fully furnished apartment), and I really only need clothes and immediate needs - everything else is just optional - or I just buy it in Singapore.
When one is preparing to leave, one has to say farewell to quite a few people. When one is embarking on a new chapter of their life in a different country, the number of people to say goodbye too grows and the more sessions are then scheduled.
So in advance, I say sorry to my liver :). It's going to be messy.
With a couple of other leaving doos already in the diary for other people who are retiring from the company - the only date that was available was Friday, 24th November. I duly booked this date up and booked an area of the Open House near London Road train station.
I also booked up a session in London on Thursday, 29th November - again scheduled around another big leaving Doo session scheduled for a trio of people leaving.
AND another couple of people were also leaving the Brighton team / Country - so another couple of leaving drink sessions were also scheduled.
Boy it is the season of leaving drinks and massive hangovers :). Hey-ho if needs must!!! Wish me well (or should that wish my liver well!!!)
Well I am going to be 33 years young very soon, as I hit another birthday milestone. Where have the past few years gone - they have certainly flown by.
Looking back, there have been challenges, it's been hard work, long hours, moments of enjoyment, and some great experiences - but there is two things that I do miss...and which should my next focus over the next couple of years to make it complete!
Anyway, that's enough contemplating...lets think of the future and plan for the future...I should try to sort out a Party or Birthday meal at least... Just need to decide who to invite and where to have it :)
Maybe Donatello Restaurant - with some close friends!! Lets see what I can sort out over the next week :)