365 Days Later
Tomorrow this blog is one year old. Happy birthday Blog.
However, as it's September 11th tomorrow, I won't be celebrating the fact this on-line diary has out-lived my previous pen and paper diaries by at least 49 weeks. No, tomorrow -- as long as I'm not in the middle of labour -- will be a quiet day of reflection. I shall close my eyes and remember the images of two years ago. And although I don't believe in God, I shall say a little prayer for those who perished.
Jump London
Channel 4's Jump London -- a documentary about the French pioneers of Free Running -- was shown last night and it was spellbinding. The master gymnasts / acrobats / stuntmen / fitness freaks free-ran 14 of London's most famous buildings and landmarks in a single day. And in some style, using precision jumps, leaps of faith, wall-crawling and cat leaping to turn the city into a playground. Their philosophy is a progressive mix of Bruce Lee's martial arts and Star Wars Jedi.
Unfortunately the program's use of drum and bass, cut-aways, and stupid camera angles / close-ups meant the viewer missed much of the classy action. But as a showcase for this new urban sport -- basically a pure form of extreme sports (e.g. skateboarding without the board) -- it was an impressive and unparalleled success.
It made me wish I was 16, fit, flexible and ten stones again. Pass me my running shoes.
Here's the best UK Free Running site I could find. Check out some of the (large) black and white jpegs for a taste of what it's all about.
Baby Update
I assembled the cot last night. It's a honey coloured cage. With a cute Humphrey Elephant Musical Mobile that Vic's workmates bought us. We're all set.
Wednesday, September 10, 2003
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
Practise What You Preach
I'm (still) studying for my CIMA exams. Many of the course modules deal with communication, systems and process management, e-commerce and the importance of looking after your customers.
Ruffles used to work at CIMA, and has many stories regarding the organisations lack of organisation. Most revolve around being unable to meet the expectations and requirements of their customers. Or to smoothly perform those fundamental tasks that are CIMA's bread and butter. For example, at exam entry time CIMA would be so overwhelmed by the weight of entries that the exam entry department would recruit everyone from all the other departments to process the things. John Smith, chef from the CIMA staff canteen, was likely to make errors when processing exam forms -- errors that could have costly implications and inconvenience for CIMA students.
In an attempt to improve the exam entry process -- and cut costs -- CIMA has now gone to a process of on-line exam entry. Great if you have access to a PC, not so great if you don't. To facilitate the process they sent out a log in Contact ID to all students through the post, and a secret password via email, to all students.
Except they didn't.
I got my password, but not my Contact ID. Lynn here at work got neither. And we weren't the only ones.
So when I try to log in on the site, it throws me off -- my Contact ID (I guess that is must be my Student Number) is invalid.
So I click the "mail to" link -- for help with on-line exam entry -- and send them an email requesting my ID.
I don't get an immediate "thank you for your query... it will be dealt with asap" automated response. Three days later I do get a "the postmaster says this email account is a dud" one.
So Lynn phones them up using the dedicated on-line exam entry help line. She is on hold for 15 minutes, then transfers the call to me. I am on hold for a further 15 minutes before CIMA hang up on us.
So I track down the correct email address and send them a new email.
No response.
Eventually we get through on the phone and get our IDs and passwords.
I log on to discover the site is complete shite. It should be a simple case of click on the exam hall you want to sit at, click on the exam papers you want to sit, close shopping basket, click on the payment method, complete transaction, bingo.
Except the pages kept failing to load properly, the user-friendliness was very poor, options to undo any errors were non-existent and updating your personal details and payment methods took forever. A complete mess.
But we managed to fight through the systems and book our exam papers. I even printed out the receipt showing my hall, papers and payment.
Yesterday Lynn and I both received requests for payment for our exams through the post, with the threat that unless we pay up by the 30th of September, we'll be dumped by CIMA and charge £50 in administration fees.
But I've already paid you stupid time-wasting idiots!
Not only that but my (increased) fees have gone to pay for all these extra bills, postal charges, customer helpline man-hours, website development and computer server capacity.
A piece of advice: Read your own course notes and stop wasting my time and money, because at the moment you'd make a great case study of now not to conduct e-commerce or customer-facing business.
The whole thing completely undermines the faith CIMA students have in their qualification's award body. No doubt we'll get an apology [cough].
I'm (still) studying for my CIMA exams. Many of the course modules deal with communication, systems and process management, e-commerce and the importance of looking after your customers.
Ruffles used to work at CIMA, and has many stories regarding the organisations lack of organisation. Most revolve around being unable to meet the expectations and requirements of their customers. Or to smoothly perform those fundamental tasks that are CIMA's bread and butter. For example, at exam entry time CIMA would be so overwhelmed by the weight of entries that the exam entry department would recruit everyone from all the other departments to process the things. John Smith, chef from the CIMA staff canteen, was likely to make errors when processing exam forms -- errors that could have costly implications and inconvenience for CIMA students.
In an attempt to improve the exam entry process -- and cut costs -- CIMA has now gone to a process of on-line exam entry. Great if you have access to a PC, not so great if you don't. To facilitate the process they sent out a log in Contact ID to all students through the post, and a secret password via email, to all students.
Except they didn't.
I got my password, but not my Contact ID. Lynn here at work got neither. And we weren't the only ones.
So when I try to log in on the site, it throws me off -- my Contact ID (I guess that is must be my Student Number) is invalid.
So I click the "mail to" link -- for help with on-line exam entry -- and send them an email requesting my ID.
I don't get an immediate "thank you for your query... it will be dealt with asap" automated response. Three days later I do get a "the postmaster says this email account is a dud" one.
So Lynn phones them up using the dedicated on-line exam entry help line. She is on hold for 15 minutes, then transfers the call to me. I am on hold for a further 15 minutes before CIMA hang up on us.
So I track down the correct email address and send them a new email.
No response.
Eventually we get through on the phone and get our IDs and passwords.
I log on to discover the site is complete shite. It should be a simple case of click on the exam hall you want to sit at, click on the exam papers you want to sit, close shopping basket, click on the payment method, complete transaction, bingo.
Except the pages kept failing to load properly, the user-friendliness was very poor, options to undo any errors were non-existent and updating your personal details and payment methods took forever. A complete mess.
But we managed to fight through the systems and book our exam papers. I even printed out the receipt showing my hall, papers and payment.
Yesterday Lynn and I both received requests for payment for our exams through the post, with the threat that unless we pay up by the 30th of September, we'll be dumped by CIMA and charge £50 in administration fees.
But I've already paid you stupid time-wasting idiots!
Not only that but my (increased) fees have gone to pay for all these extra bills, postal charges, customer helpline man-hours, website development and computer server capacity.
A piece of advice: Read your own course notes and stop wasting my time and money, because at the moment you'd make a great case study of now not to conduct e-commerce or customer-facing business.
The whole thing completely undermines the faith CIMA students have in their qualification's award body. No doubt we'll get an apology [cough].
Monday, September 08, 2003
Baby Boom, Shake the Room
Nothing happening as yet. She's still in there, snug as a bug.
Even a full four hours of high volume tunes on Saturday night failed to coax her out. Although I'd secretly hoped that Vic's waters might burst all over the dance floor, nothing happened. The most exciting thing -- apart from Dexy's Midnight Runners, seeing Scott dance, and getting a flash of Sarah the Bride's stockings and suspenders* -- was sharing some excellent chips, and a battered sausage, with Simon. Scott even managed to duck out of our Grand Rap Battle Showdown Challenge.
I claim moral victory!
"Scott, you a yellow belly,
you lost much respect,
like Des Lynham,
da fool on the telly."
[Clenched fist punching the air like Rocky / Gladiator]
* Phwoar!
Nothing happening as yet. She's still in there, snug as a bug.
Even a full four hours of high volume tunes on Saturday night failed to coax her out. Although I'd secretly hoped that Vic's waters might burst all over the dance floor, nothing happened. The most exciting thing -- apart from Dexy's Midnight Runners, seeing Scott dance, and getting a flash of Sarah the Bride's stockings and suspenders* -- was sharing some excellent chips, and a battered sausage, with Simon. Scott even managed to duck out of our Grand Rap Battle Showdown Challenge.
I claim moral victory!
"Scott, you a yellow belly,
you lost much respect,
like Des Lynham,
da fool on the telly."
[Clenched fist punching the air like Rocky / Gladiator]
* Phwoar!
