November 05, 2009
Greene King court case
I have run a pub for nearly two years and thanks to the friendly brewery: Greene King, there is nothing left but debt...
Diary
Aug 2007: Lack of information
Despite several requests for information during the tendering process, nothing was forthcoming. The pub was presented as an investment opportunity; not a life-style choice (i.e. a reasonable profit could be made by taking on the pub).
Sep 2007: Incompetent change-over
Our pub tender was successful. Despite this, there was a lot of confusion over the time-table for the change-over. The pub suffered greatly over the period of a month with damage to the floorboards, equipment and walk-outs by some of the existing staff. The area manager, Peter Hussey, was incompetent alienating the current tenants, staff and ourselves.
11th Oct 2007: Contract diligence
Peter Hussey stated his surprise in our due diligence with their standard probationary agreement. He said that any changes would delay the change-over (which would mean we were without a home).
Oct-Nov 2007: Living on a building site
The flat was a building site for just over 6 weeks. We were assured the work would be complete and ready for living at the start of the tenancy. This was evidently untrue.
The workmen assigned to the flat started at 8am each day (unsuitable for occupants in charge of running a pub) and caused stress and sleep deprivation over the critical period after take-over.
The standard of refurbishment was poor and incomplete. The floorboards were bare, had nails protruding and numerous gaps. Some of the wall sockets, light fixtures and electrical were not safe. Fire hazards addressed in an email on 19th October 2007 were never properly addressed. The bathroom floor covering was incomplete. The banisters were not secured correctly and came apart after a short time.
Greene King refused to cover for any alternative accommodation during the refurbishment.
Throughout this time and the entire time we were living above the pub, water would seep through the ceilings and even a light fixture in the bedrooms. This issue was never properly rectified.
Jan 2008: Back-tracking on wood burning stove
As with this and several subsequent requests, Greene King back-tracked on its agreements. We had to expend time and energy on securing the wood burning stove we were initially told we were entitled to.
Jan-Mar 2008: Scaffolding
The essential maintenance to the exterior and roof is delayed causing scaffolding to be up for much longer than planned. It is present for over two months, noticeably effecting trade. No compensation is offered for loss of trade despite my requests.
Mar 2008: Damaged outdoor lighting
All the fittings and many of the connections of the newly installed outdoor lighting was damaged by the builders. All outdoor plants needed to be replaced due to damage. The eventually bill was settled by Greene King four months later.
Mar 2008: New signage
Without our consent, new signage was installed that went directly against the image of the pub. The pink “FT” neon branding was not suitable for a small traditional pub. This affected trade as it betrayed the feel of the pub.
Sep 2008: Garage doors
Reneging on previous agreement to fix two broken garage doors, they decide to fix just one. They didn’t even know which one was “broken” from the two.
16th Oct 2008: Rent increase
We signed for a second probationary year with the option to continue for up to five years. Despite stating that we had a difficult first year without profit, only having made losses, Greene King decided it was acceptable to increase the rent by approximately 10%.
Nov 2008: Real ale festival
We were nominated to host a real ale festival by Mike O’Connor (one of our many area managers). Unfortunately, the event was neglected by Greene King at the time as they failed to supply the ale and didn’t provide us with the equipment until the last minute. The event lost us hundreds of pounds in unsold ale.
Dec 2008: Avoiding delaps repayments
On the sole occasion we used our delaps fund (paid into by £10 a week), we were refused. The current area manager, Sean Clarke, refused to honour the previous area manager’s agreement to cover two improvements to the pub. After much email correspondence, he relented.
Mar 2009: Wall reinforcement charge
We were invoiced for approximately £5,000 to cover wall strengthening last year. This was Greene King’s responsibility. After several phone calls, this invoice was cancelled.
22nd Apr 20009: The deal
During a meeting with Sean Clarke to discuss reductions in rent, he let slip that the pub was put on intended for two people as it would barely make any returns for even one person. According to his own results using our accounts, he could not make the pub show a profit. He identified the rent as a major factor that needed to be addressed. He did not mention the price of wet stock as Greene King has a policy of never offering discounts to tied-in tenants.
Late May 2009: Rent review declined
After a long decision process, any reduction in our unrealistic rent charges were rejected.
3rd Jun 2009: Meeting
A meeting with Sean Clarke and a more severe David Carless, an area manager from London. As a justification, David stated “there was no point” as we would couldn’t recover either way. During the meeting he stated that we had to continue to operate the pub until the end of our second probationary year. With the full rent in place, it would undoubtedly increase our debt from £13,000 to something considerably more. David Carless returned to see Martha alone and acted in an aggressive manner in stating that we must stay at the pub despite our mounting debts with Greene King.
26th Jun 2009: Lieu
We were bribed with a small rent concession in exchange for signing a Lieu to Greene King. We did not sign the lien.
Aug 2009: Tie-in fine
Sean Clarke dropped a £1,500 fine on us for buying stock through The Hop Poles, another Greene King pub, in Brighton. By this time we had no other choice but to buy from another source as Greene King required us to stay open, yet would not deliver any stock.
Sep 2009: VAT Collector
The VAT collector made a few visits to the pub. He did not collect any fixtures and fittings for auction. He said that he empathised with our situation and that other brewery pubs were in the same situation. It helped that I was in regular contact with our VAT office since the problems emerged with out VAT in summer 2008.
22nd Sep 2009: Electricity disconnected
Electricity was disconnected and the pub could no longer operate.
26th Sep 2009: Notified creditors
I notified all creditors that we were insolvent and no longer trading.
“Investment opportunity”
I personally invested many thousands of pounds in cleared funds into Farm Tavern Limited. Much of this was paid to buy fixtures, fittings and stock and to commence trading. The remainder of this investment was soon paid to cover stock and rent.
The tie
One landlord, one wet supplier = monopoly. They used this privilege to the full extents. The prices of stock, steadily increased above any tax increases and inflation through the period of our tenancy. At the same time, our customers demanded lower prices (almost every other pub in the area was aggressively discounting their prices). As we were tied in, we had to make further sacrifices that we could ill afford to keep money-savvy customers appearing in our pub.
In June 2009, Greene King performed the ultimate contradiction of requirements. They required that we continue trading. Yet, they would not supply any stock unless our debt was repaid in full. As we had no way to repay any money without selling stock, we were put in an impossible situation. Numerous emails are testament to this fact. Our area manager at the time, Sean Clarke, could never offer a solution. He just repeated that we must continue trading.
Subsequently, we were landed a £1,500 penalty for sourcing our wet stock from another Greene King pub at prices even higher than ours. This is a perfect example of Greene King greed, arrogance and short-sightedness.
The obligatory accountancy firm
The compulsory accounting firm assigned to us by Greene King: Roslyns, did not meet our basic accountancy requirements. We later found, the weekly takings and expenses sheet was an optional task, not compulsory – wasting our much of our precious time doing data-entry for them. The weekly approach was not suitable for us – monthly accounts show a better picture of expenses over time. The reports produced by this firm were not competently explained to us, making the data virtually useless to us as a new small business.
Most significantly of all, our liaison did not mention anything about putting aside money for our substantial VAT obligations. This had a significant impact on all future financial matters and prevented us from seeing the true condition of our accounts. It was at least six months before we realised the true scale of our VAT expenses, and we never managed to repay more than a fraction of what we owed.
Playing for time
At the start of 2009, we applied for a reduction in rent to help our business survive. We knew that we had to address our two largest expenses: wet stock and rent – both controlled by Greene King. Our area manager at the time, Sean Clarke, made us believe there was a realistic chance of having our rent reduced so that we could remain solvent and a stem our losses. In January we produced a detailed business plan to argue our case for a reduction in Greene King related costs. In April, after a series of unintended delays, we managed to secure a meeting in which we presented a second evaluation of the business and plans to reduce costs and maximise takings. A further six weeks passed and we were notified that we would not receive any reductions in rent at all. By this time it was already too late to save the business.
Obligating us to stay
Despite declaring that we could no continue as a viable business and wished to terminate our contract (3rd June 2009), our area manager, Sean Clarke, obligated us to stay at the pub until a new tenant was found. We now know there was little barely any chance in finding a successor, due to the heavy financial burden imposed by the brewery and the failure of an apparently successful pub.
By the end of June, I had made my intentions clear that we could no longer operate with such losses and owed it to our other creditors to stem our debt.
The pub remained open until 22nd September 2009 when the power was finally cut off due to non-payment.
Change of tune
Greene King are greedy. They know that most of their tenants fail in the first year. They end up with the majority of their investment and most of their takings over the period. If there are any debts left over at the end, they will pursue the signatories (individuals, not a limited company) as a matter of course to recover anything remaining. This is the case here and it is unlikely to be uncommon.
In June 2009, I informed Sean Clarke that, contrary to their beliefs, I was not financially secure with alternative revenue sources and a healthy savings account. This information fell like a lead balloon and their tactics changed as a result. Finding a replacement was now of genuine urgency. We were finally listed on their website and Martha observed some evidence of prospectors. Unfortunately for Greene King, the pub was evidently no longer viable even to inexperienced potential tenants. If we couldn’t make any profits with the great reputation, excellent Sunday roasts and regular events, then no one else would.
Conclusion
Greene King required us to sign the one year probationary contract in our own names, not as a limited company, on 17th October 2008. They have knowingly had us commit our personal savings, not the company, to an enterprise that would yield poor returns at best and most likely ruin us.
During the past two years, I have never received any income from the pub and have been repaid a paltry £2,000 of my initial loan. Now, I am here today, testament that all our money, all our hard work, all our time is not enough for this brewery and monopoly over our business. They require more, they require all the money we could possible have and then some. Unfortunately for them, I have absolutely nothing left to give them. No businesses. No savings. No assets. Nothing.
I strongly believe that their actions towards their tenants is a big con and immoral. This con should end now.
Posted by Nahoo at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)
September 01, 2007
Sea swim
Martha an I swam a mile in Hove for BHF in 45 minutes.
Posted by Nahoo at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)
July 13, 2007
Facepact
I am fed up with having a crap complexion, so I am going to cut out processed sugar (even from coffee if that is possible) and stop touching my face until things look better. I'll be charting my progress here.
Posted by Nahoo at 08:47 PM | Comments (2)
June 15, 2007
New Phone
My new SE K810i phone from Orange just arrived. It was "free" with a contract as apposed to over hundred pounts as an upgrade. My line-rental has gone up by £10 a month, but at least I can take 3.2Mpx photos now…
Posted by Nahoo at 05:28 PM | Comments (0)
June 10, 2007
Church Club sunk by demented person: Alex
Its been a crazy week. I went to the first and last night of a new club in Brighton. I helped setup the place with Martha at the beginning of the month and then looked after a handful of coats in the cloakroom that night. The "owner", Alex, had no clue what he was doing and managed to piss off both the clubbers and the staff before the end of its second attempt at a launch night on Friday 1st June (the previous team walked the week before).
I have never witness such a deluded, desperate and dishonest person in my entire life. He blatantly grabbed all the cash out of the bar registers and argued about how little money he was making in front of all the staff and at the bar in clear view of paying customers. As it was a new (well relaunched) club, it takes time to establish itself. Usually, it would take several months or even years to get a club going, yet he wanted it all on the first night of opening.
On the same morning, Martha withdrew her licence and the following night licencing came to forcibly close the venue (he tried to open it illegally). He convinced the DJs and doormen that it was business usual... well, for the first 30 minutes. Then, after that "amicable discussion with the authorities", he proclaimed it was a "private party".
Just to show he has true idiotic conman status: he has never paid any of the managers, promoters, bar staff, DJs, cleaners or even the brewery for the alcohol. If you want to run a con, at least get past the first night without getting yourself run out of town. Most Brighton knows about his escapades now. Using excuses like "I need insulin because I am diabetic" to get out of thousands of pounds of debt and stolen stock (i.e. unpaid stock with the heavies coming...). I wonder how things will turn out for him with lots of pissed off powerful people wanting their money back...
Anyway, this guy ran a new club into the ground faster than skydiver with lead shoes and no parachute. It is guaranteed that when this club reopens it will have a different name and Alex will be no where to be seen.
Posted by Nahoo at 12:39 AM | Comments (0)
May 08, 2007
Flat found!
I have finally found a nice place to live in deep Hove on Portland Road. My new flatmates are two women, one a graphic designer and ex-club manager called Martha and the other a off-licence manager called Unica.
And yes, all my recent posts start with "Flat".
Posted by Nahoo at 06:05 PM | Comments (0)
May 06, 2007
Flat to myself
I have got the large flat to myself now! All I need to do is find somewhere nice to live before next weekend...
Posted by Nahoo at 04:25 PM | Comments (0)
April 28, 2007
Flat hunting line
Over the past few days I have looked at three flats directly in line with my current place!
Posted by Nahoo at 01:06 PM | Comments (0)
April 25, 2007
Flat hunting
Just got back from a rather stressful experience, negociating a price for a room plus a small part of a mezzanine for office space. The price is £450 pm including bills (gas, electricity, water and coucil tax and internet) so that is £350 based on the estimated bills. Now, for the small amount of office space and the small increase in electricity and heating figures of around £550 were being banded around. This does seem like a steep increase. That is £200 per month extra just to work from home. It is a nice place, but is it worth it? I'll have a few days to decide...
Posted by Nahoo at 10:01 PM | Comments (1)
February 24, 2007
First date
I went on my first ever proper date today! I think it went well, she seems nice and I'm sure we'll be friends.
This is the only picture I have, taken officially at the LoveBrighton.com launch party (not me on the right). I was on the guest list last Wednesday as the dating site LoveBrighton.com is designed by me.
Posted by Nahoo at 05:59 PM | Comments (0)
January 17, 2007
My first second cousin!
My first ever second cousin was born last week on the 10th January 2007 (one day after Leah's birthday). Her name is... Noa Renée. Perhaps inspired by my name or maybe a rainbow? ;)
I am sure they'll be more photos to follow as Darien is very reliable!
Posted by Nahoo at 04:21 AM | Comments (0)
January 12, 2007
Alex blows it
Finally, Alex Beston has sent the final rude and insulting email to me. After many years of him telling how valueable he is to me and how much business he gives me, he has finally got the message: I don't care!
Posted by Nahoo at 08:46 PM | Comments (1)
January 07, 2007
New place search
Just looking for a new place to stay in Brighton with 2 or 3 other people who don't smoke. I think I'll be moving out of this place at the end of February as I have so much going on with work at the moment. Any expressions of interest can be left as a comment.
Posted by Nahoo at 07:04 PM | Comments (0)
December 18, 2006
Breakup
After over three years, just broke up with Lydia today. We will still be good friends.
Posted by Nahoo at 05:07 PM | Comments (0)
July 25, 2006
A rock to the domain thieves
Just posted a rock from Brighton beach to the "Domain Registry Of America" who send out false invoices to steal people's domain names for a high price.
Posted by Nahoo at 05:11 PM | Comments (1)
July 16, 2006
Futurama lives!
Fantastic news: Futurama is going to live again! Apparently, Fox and Comedy Central are going to get together to make another series and see what happens from there... Read more at GotFuturama.com.
Posted by Nahoo at 02:44 AM | Comments (0)
July 04, 2006
Lemonade stand
I received a copy of the photos taken during the Kemptown Festival. Lydia and I sold freshly squeezed lemonade and lemon&lime-ade directly outside the house.
The weather was scorching, so it went pretty well for our first attempt. Lydia was frequently rushing to replenish our supplies of lemons, limes, water, ice and sugar.
Posted by Nahoo at 01:15 AM | Comments (0)
June 11, 2006
Met Conny
After almost 2 years, I finally caught up with Conny in Brighton. He had been offered tickets to fly over from his current home in Switzerland to stay in Brighton for a week. Unfortunately for me, he is going back on Tuesday night.
Here is a photo outside our favourite cafe: Redroaster.
Posted by Nahoo at 10:49 PM | Comments (0)
June 10, 2006
BBQ in Alfriston
Ooh, its a hot day and I am going to Lydia's dad's farm in Alfriston for a BBQ. I'll put some photos here when I get back. I'll miss the football, but England will win 3 - 1 or something so there's not much point watching it. Also, Conny is meant to be in Brighton (on a week holiday from his new home in Switzerland), but he hasn't called me since he arrived a few days ago. Where are you Conny?
Posted by Nahoo at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)
March 25, 2006
Gave Google Video a go
On my mission for the remaining Star Trek Voyager clips, I tried searching on Google Video. When I clicked onto the TV Show category, I found it was swamped by a single chat show at 99¢ a video. It seems that this new searchable medium has some way to go before it starts to become useful.
After no success with Voyager, I went onto the Popular category. There a brilliant French clip about a hidden-cam egg factory, a really dodgy Russian road tunnel, a gaseous American preacher and some other stuff. After a while the "Popular" videos appeared again and again. Have a look for yourself at: video.google.com.
Posted by Nahoo at 03:12 PM | Comments (0)
January 17, 2006
Sleazy conversation
I just finished a pretty nauseating conversation with Sheona's mum's newish boyfriend. The shit started after he said that he had "heard all about me"... (groan). I continued with the something along the lines of "You've heard about all my gay escapades?". From then on, he was hooked into a downward spiral of sexual references.
I continued about all the lude acts that I had done in my depravity... including only remembering the names of people that I hadn't slept with. He appeared to buy every word - sarcasm really didn't seem to work on Skype for this guy.
Then he started talking about his penis size... (e.g. how enormous it was) and I thought - oh shit, someone with a small willy complex. I really hate this kind of people... whenever they run out of steam, out comes their dick and how big it is... and they always, always say how much bigger it is than mine (as if they would know!) What is it with these kind of people, is there anything less blatant than this as a desperate cry of male insufficiency? Why would anyone that wasn't content about their sexuality be it hetero, homo, bi, trans or whatever, go on about direct comparisons on the size of their penis?
The conversation, pathetic as it was continued to reach new sleazy depths as I commented that his age (42) was not as young as I heard earlier in the conversation (something about him being a young lover-boy) - I thought this meant an age closer to 18. He replied that with "U prick" and then said that he was pukingly: "young at heart"! Argh, that's what you say when you are are 90 and on your deathbed. I cannot stand people saying "young at heart" when they evidently are not. Its the kind of thing you hear from from someones granddad who still gets an erection when watching Vorderman on Countdown in the afternoons.
Its a little unfortunate that I managed to delete the bloody Skype history as I removed Sheona's listing from Skype in an effort to get away from this idiot. This guy sounded like a right sleazy twat.
Posted by Nahoo at 12:42 AM | Comments (4)
December 18, 2005
Times Sudoku
I am just getting worse and worse at adding new entries to this blog. I really must put a daily alarm somewhere to remind me to write something here.
Someone from the Times newspaper emailed me last week, looking for some Sudoku for a special Christmas supplement. I said that we could provide Sudoku that match their existing difficulty ratings (with improvements) and so they took on 72 of our Sudoku from easy to fiendish. The fiendish Sudoku puzzles are actually harder than the usual puzzles in the Times, so if you have a copy of the supplement then these puzzles should take quite a bit longer to complete than normal.
In other Sudoku news, the Big Brain Game Sudoku will appear this Thursday at 8pm on Sky One. Carol Vorderman will present the game show with four other celebreties, one of which won the Strictly Come Dancing competition last night. I'll write more about the show after it airs to avoid giving anything away.
Posted by Nahoo at 03:09 PM | Comments (0)
November 27, 2005
On and off on new designs
I am getting worse and worse at keeping my blog up-to-date. The homepage looked fine until I accepted a few comments which seemed to force all my out-dated entries into the archive.
I have been quite busy recently with Sudoku and new website designs. One of these designs fell through, thanks to the idiot client changing the deadlines to suit the mess he created himself and a second website is for a restaurant/bar in Brighton called BNONE.
Posted by Nahoo at 02:47 PM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2005
Meeting madness and Brighton and Reading clubs
It has been a very busy week. I am sure that I have more meetings about new websites over the last 10 days then I had for the entire Summer!
Lydia and I fine tuned the Sudoku Solver newsletter in preparation for its launch into over 7,000 inboxes (yes, they are members, not random emails nicked from Sudoku websites and forums). We created quite a packed newsletter with mainly information about the site features, but also an interesting Maths-lite article on the number of solutions that are possible in a 3×3 Sudoku. Have a read for yourself.
The Birthday weekend went really well... albeit lacking a few of the friends I had invited. They all had their excuses... no matter, Sheona, Lydia and I had a great time going to various pubs and clubs in Brighton and Reading.
Posted by Nahoo at 01:12 AM | Comments (0)
October 20, 2005
Birthday
Hey, it's my birthday today! I am planning to go out this weekend with some friends, the Engine Rooms on Friday and the Vodka Bar in Reading the next day.
Posted by Nahoo at 01:53 AM | Comments (1)
October 06, 2005
TV's gone
My TV shorted out today after some of the ceiling fell on it.
Just making a mammoth pizza for dinner now. I piled loads of stuff on this one including three different types of cheese.
Posted by Nahoo at 10:09 PM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2005
Revolver
Whoops, I am neglecting my blog duties...
Despite what the critics said, I really liked Richie's new film: Revolver. I went to see it on Saturday with Leah.
I didn't lose track of the plot even as it approached the end. It did seem clear enough to me that the two new fellows that introduced themselves to the main character where either figments of his imagination or the same people incarcerated next to him for several years in jail.
I am off to play badminton now, so I have to stop for now. I'll return to blog and photo gallery duties shortly.
Posted by Nahoo at 12:44 PM | Comments (0)
September 05, 2005
Newsletter done
I have finally completed the Kehillat Kernow newsletter. This issue is better than previous issues because I have had access to enough articles and photos to cover the 6 pages with ease. Also, there are no laborious or pointless articles like on occasions in the past.
Today I should be finishing the application form for a job as "Project Leader" for an interactive learning agency in Brighton. I really hate forms, especially if it involves compacting my entire life's achievements into a long list of bullets. Perhaps one of the main obstacles to a completely new (and possibly interesting) job is the bloody application form. An accompanying sheet talks about all kinds of people skills that are essential to any applicant. I simply skimmed over the list, as reading it would just send me straight to sleep.
Posted by Nahoo at 12:49 AM | Comments (0)
August 30, 2005
Reading Festival
I knew that I wouldn't have time to create a new entry here on Monday. Anyway, at least I have started on my photo gallery which now has 33 edited photos taken on my phone and using Lydia's digital camera (both have their problems).
This photo shows me trying to sell my extra tickets. Unfortunately, I didn't sell them for much more than I brought them for and it kept me out at the festival for a good hour. In the meantime, the heat got to Lydia and she became more miserable just as we arrived in the festival area.
I'll write some more here shortly, but are now I have to start work on this month's Kehillat Kernow newsletter.
Posted by Nahoo at 09:43 PM | Comments (0)
August 27, 2005
Reading tomorrow
Lydia and I are off to the final day at Reading Festival tomorrow. Everything is set, the water bottles for vodka, the seven tickets, plenty of batteries for Lydia's camera...
There will be lots of photos, so stick around!
Posted by Nahoo at 06:45 PM | Comments (0)
August 20, 2005
Leah's visit
Leah come to visit for a few days at the start of the week. She seems to like it here as there are lots of shops, everyone seems relaxed and it seems more continental than other places.
On Wednesday we walked along the Palace Pier without going on any of the rides. I don't often go to the pier as it is really tacky and there's always bad music playing on the loud speakers and, above all, there are loads of tourists around.
Leah suggested that I become a Maths teacher because I like showing people what to do (in a good way). I mulled it over and couldn't find too much wrong with the idea, so I may pursue the idea further this year.
Later in the afternoon we had a look around the inside of the Pavilion. Leah successfully attracted the attention of a Spanish member of staff who knew of the Pavilion's history and details about the people who lived there, namely King George IV (Prince Regent for most of his reign). He also pointed out a few Freemason's logos dotted around the walls of the banquet hall, saying that the royalty used mostly Freemason architects and labourers to build the Pavilion.
By the end of our walk through the Pavilion we had found out much about the decadence of the Prince Regent and about life at the time in Brighton as it was becoming popular with visitors from London.
After a spot of shopping for Will, Leah and I went to see "Fantastic Four" for £4.50 at the Odeon. It wasn't a great film, it had too many annoying "scientific" explanations to explain a rediculous series of events.
That evening Lydia joined us for a meal at a cheap Italian restaurant in Ship Street. I can't remember the name, as there are so many that start with the letter "p".
Posted by Nahoo at 03:38 PM | Comments (2)
August 07, 2005
Tori's BBQ
Yesterday, Lydia and I went up to Tori's place for a birthday BBQ. Darien flew over from The Hague with his new girl friend and quite a few of Tori's work colleagues were there already.
Some of Tori's guests were surprised on how nice the food was (they hadn't been before). I had a vodka with lemonade and then a Pimms, but it seemed to go to my head pretty quickly even though I already had quite a bit to eat.
Leah and Will arrived a little later on, they travelled all the way from Cornwall to be there! They were just in time for some of the famous white chocolate cheesecake. It was very good!
We all talked in the garden as the weather got colder. Darien took some photos (which I will add here shortly) and showed us some political cartoons about Busy and Kerry from jibjab.com. Unfortunately, Lydia didn't bring enough warm clothing with her and she was starting to get a little chilled.
Our return journey by train was a bit of a mess. Two people were already at the first platform saw, but they made a mistake as no train would arrive there. So, thanks to this, we missed the first train from Bushey because we were at the wrong side of the station. On the platform at Harrow station we waited inside, but there was a man playing some awful Indian music on his phone in speaker mode. What's wrong with a head phone?
Almost three hours later we arrived in Brighton. In St. James's Street there was a full on Gay Pride party taking place. Lydia was pissed off because she only had sandals and there was broken glass everywhere. When someone decided to throw their beer around (and some landed on Lydia's jumper) she was more angry. Anyway, we both made it back at half-past midnight.
Posted by Nahoo at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)
July 31, 2005
Womad and Manly photos
I was meant to be at the WOMAD festival in Reading today, but my Sunday ticket failed to arrive in the post this week. By the time I called the ticket office, they were already closed for the weekend. At least I'll be going to another festival in August: Reading Festival.
I took a little time to update my photo gallery with some of the Manly Beach photos taken on my first day in Australia.
Posted by Nahoo at 06:16 PM | Comments (0)
July 08, 2005
Big Tabasco
The day has arrived for me to open my new enlarged bottle of Tabasco! Unlike the little squirt you find in the supermarket, this one fits into your hand. This is much better it should last me a little long than the usual "one week".
Posted by Nahoo at 08:09 PM | Comments (2)
July 01, 2005
House Of Cyn party
Last night I was invited to join Letitcia for the launch party of an adult website in London. As Cynthia wished for some Brighton transvestites to appear (and too few were around), I was listed as the last TV of six invited.
I met Letitcia at the Selfridges Hotel located nearby. It was a very stuffy evening and the hotel room was not ventilated well and the corridor on the third floor smelt like an overflowed toilet.
On checking for my name on the list, the lady at the door complained that I really hadn't tried very hard with my appearance. I tried to convey that I really wasn't a transvestite at all, but she didn't hear me. At the time I took it to mean that I generally looked shabbily dressed for the occasion - not the best start for what I thought was a mega-posh-do.
Thanks to the lovely glass roof, nearly everyone was having a hard time keeping their cool. It felt like I was the only one perspiring, but as I looked more closely at the people around me, this wasn't the case at all.
Letitcia informed me that I was representing some Brighton magazines as their photographer. I should have started straight away, but I made a decision to leave people to their free champagne; then taking photos of a more interesting crowd.
Cynthia appeared to be a little flustered with the occasion, I think that she was pissed off with the organisers putting up such an ill-thought out event. I don't remember seeing one piece of information relating to any website or anything - it appeared that the organisers completely forgot about anything relating to a "launch" at all.
Posted by Nahoo at 02:33 PM | Comments (0)
June 29, 2005
Sudoku tournament
I have just returned from The Independent Regional Sudoku Tournament held in a hotel on the seafront of Brighton. Unfortunately, I only managed to complete the first two puzzles in the 45 minutes given. The third puzzle had an annoying error somewhere and the fourth puzzle (probably the hardest) was only half complete when time was called.
Honestly, I doubt that I will make it to the grand final in London as some people there completed their puzzles within 30 minutes. I should have practiced a few more difficult Sudoku puzzles before trying for a place at the final.
Lydia is still working on the Sudoku solver and generators to improve the logic used to solve and generate the puzzles. The more sophisticated the logic, the more difficult the generated puzzles will be.
Posted by Nahoo at 08:25 PM | Comments (3)
June 27, 2005
Battles at IKEA and the pigeons live another day
Yesterday, Leah told me more about her day out (literally) at IKEA. At the checkout, she had a problem with the price of the dog basket and caused a huge queue in one of the three tills open that day. She let a couple people with only a few items ahead of her, but this made things worse as one spent 15 minutes getting all of their cards declined one after the other.
The dog basket, listed as only £5, with no price tag added another half an hour. A woman from a Croydon estate started shouting at Leah and Will to get a move on and started threatening them. This started another woman off who was behind her. Leah and Will made the whole thing more interesting as they just laughed at the irate woman from Croyden. Leah told her that she was acting like a little kid and she found her behaviour laughable. The lady behind her moaned about her kids and Leah asked why she would bring her kids to IKEA in the first place?
The best bit was left to last: the poor guy at the till simply left after Leah and Will paid up, saying that he simply can't work under these conditions. IKEA, I love it.
Today is yet another really sunny day in Brighton. Lydia and I went to play a round of Badminton - only one as the cheap hour was nearly up when we arrived.
The pigeons outside our house are keeping Lydia awake at night. As the rat poison hasn't attracted much attention, the next option was the air rifle. As we don't happen to own one of these, we tried our luck a gunsmiths. They didn't offer air rifles for hire and the full powered air rifles we required started at £180. So, no dead pigeons today.
Posted by Nahoo at 06:24 PM | Comments (0)
June 25, 2005
Lydia's table
Leah called up today to say she was coming down to Brighton with Will. She mentioned that they were going to do a little shopping at IKEA on the way down.
Conveniently, Lydia needed a better computer table for her new Shuttle computer. The IKEA website offered quite a few options that simply didn't exist in the store, so we settled for the Birch effect.
A few hours later I called Leah to find that she was still there! Now she decided to grab all of her stuff from her old place in Epsom and make her way to Brighton with everything in Will's van.
I did a search on Google to find that someone else had created a Super Sudoku solver. I took down the "only Super Sudoku on the Internet" announcement from the Super Sudoku website.
Lydia discussed the Sudoku generator project on the beach. She was going to start with the 9×9 Sudoku generator before going onto the Super Sudoku generator. This way, the levels of difficulty can be calculated mathematically on the more common Sudoku puzzles before going onto the unknown quantity of the Super Sudoku version.
In my experience, the difficulty of a Sudoku puzzle is mainly down to the types of logic used and the swapping between different methods. A simple puzzle requires more of the same, a complex solution requires many different methods applied at the right moment.
I have created a document listing many cool features for the Sudoku websites, but I'll wait a little before mentioning them here.
Posted by Nahoo at 08:31 PM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2005
Bullshit II
Another day attempting to contact Bulldog support over the phone. The new 8Mbit broadband gave out before its first day!
I wrote a long email to the complaints department:
“Dear Sir/Madam,
On 26th My I ordered Bulldog broadband on a new phone line. As the price of an installation of a new line was previously too expensive, I took advantage of the offer at the time. I asked on how my Ethernet router would work with the new connections. I was told that there would not be a problem here and I could easily connect the router to the broadband connection.
On ordering the new line I made every effort to avoid mentioning the existing phone line which is on the Onetel network. I wanted to ensure that no one would try to convert this line as the phone call charges are much lower than Bulldog's prices.
The "welcome email" promised within a few days never arrived. I called Sales and Customer Support on a number of occasions to follow up my order. The NTL broadband was due to be cancelled and I needed a replacement service as soon as possible. Over two weeks after the order, I finally arranged a day and time for the BT Engineer.
On Monday 20th June the Onetel phone number went dead and no one could call our number. I tried to call on that same evening without a reply. This caused a lot of inconvenience on the day.
When I tried to call out on the home phone number, I received a Bulldog phone message. This phone line should NOT have been altered in anyway. I did not request the line to be transferred to Bulldog and I did not make any agreements with Onetel or Bulldog for any changes here. I have written to Oftel for further information on this matter.
The BT engineer who was booked in to install the new phone line was due on Tuesday, yet he failed to appear. I wasted an entire day away from work to wait for his arrival.
On Wednesday, the BT engineer finally arrived. Thankfully, he was very cooperative and installed the new telephone line to the study as requested. Our home phone number was now completely disconnected and did not have any dial tone. Onetel were called to contact a BT engineer to sort out the mess.
Throughout Wednesday I continually dialled the Bulldog Customer Support phone number and failed to get through on a single occasion. I spent most of the day attempting to call Customer Support, yet to no avail.
On Thursday, after many attempts and 40 minutes listening to the same track of music, I finally managed to contact Bulldog Customer Support. They were able to give me the login and password details (which I had not received by post or email) so that I could connect to the internet for the first time.
I had since discovered that the Netgear router was not configured to handle broadband connections and I required a modem to connect the home network to the internet. An ADSL modem with Ethernet out will cost me an extra £50 that I had not accounted for. The sales person specifically stated that my Netgear router would support the broadband connection without any further equipment. It was fortunate that I had accepted the free USB modem for single user internet access.
Today, a BT engineer connected my home phone number, four days after it was disconnected. I have wasted a lot of time and money to get the home phone number restored to its original configuration with Onetel. There was absolutely no need to touch my existing phone number. As a direct result of your error I have not received phone calls from friends, family or business calls for almost all of this working week.
After one day's internet access, the speedtouch modem has stopped working. I called Customer support again (after 10 attempts and a 30 minute hold). The person I spoke couldn't offer any support and advised me to call the Speedtouch support line. However, she didn't have this number available and told me to call 118118! This is simply unprofessional. Now I have been on hold to a premium rate number on my mobile phone (20p/min) trying get through to their support department. When I finally talk to someone, I discover that she gave me the wrong number! I had just spent 30 minutes of my time and £6 on an unnecessary call given to me by a rude member of staff!
After one hour, I finally got through to Bulldog for the Speedtouch modem number, just to find that it was unnecessary in the first place. The customer support person told me that there was a problem with the connection and it was unlikely that the modem was at fault. I was informed that there are many occurrences such as this: malicious errors by the engineers at the phone exchanges. He told me that it was unlikely for a member of the technical support team to resolve this problem before Monday as it was already Friday evening.
I have had only one day of broadband since the supposed start date of 21st June. Due to the unreliability of this broadband service that you provide I have re-entered into a 12 month contract with NTL (my previous ISP) so that I will always have a backup internet connection in the likely event that your broadband fails. I am on the NTL connection as I email this complaint to you.
The entire phone support system is infuriating, even when I do manage to get past the "extremely busy" disconnection message, on several occasions I am disconnected before being put on hold or as customer support retrieve the call.
This is clearly the fault of Bulldog Broadband and as a result I want financial compensation for my time and money spent recovering from your installation process and faulty gear. I would also accept an equivalent additional months broadband from you.
I am very unhappy with the appalling level of customer service I have received to date. I have stopped recommending your service to friends and family as I would not wish to put anyone through this ordeal.
Yours,
Noah Hearle”
If anyone else has a similar level of Bulldog incompetence, reply here!
Note: Since posting, I have secured 2 months free on top of the first free month as well as 2 weeks extra for the downtime. If you complain loudly to the right people, anything is possible...
Posted by Nahoo at 08:19 PM | Comments (5)
June 23, 2005
Loads of Bullshit
As I cook some spaghetti, it may be a good time to update a blog that hasn't seen much action recently. Those heady days of daily updates... ahh well, never mind.
Over the past few days I have transferred my broadband from NTL to, the four times faster, Bulldog. It hasn't been a walk in the park.
First of all Bulldog decided that I didn't want my existing phone line with Onetel. I specifically requested a new number as they were on special offer (£1). I discovered that no one was calling me at home any more as they had transferred the line to themselves.
Yesterday, Bulldog continually disconnected my call to customer support each time I tried to sort out my phone line. I had to wait until today today to actually talk to someone and sort out the mess.
As I do not have a ADSL modem with Ethernet, I have had to share the internet connection with Lydia's computer from the free USB modem they sent me. I hope that the Windows firewall holds out until I buy a better modem from eBay. I appear to have found a good Netgear modem with the DM602 as it should tie-in with the router and firewall I already have.
I am now less inclined to recommend Bulldog broadband to others purely due to their awful customer service. I wasted most of the day trying to call them to no avail. You have to select option 1, wait for the "try using the website" blurb and then you are told that they are "extremely" busy. So busy in fact, they just hang up on you. When I do get through, it is only after half-an-hour of the same music over and over again.
Posted by Nahoo at 09:15 PM | Comments (1)
June 13, 2005
Badminton corners
I am trying to improve my badminton skills so that I can pinpoint the far corners. I think I played better last week when I did manage to get the shuttle cock in the target area for most of my match against Lydia.
If anyone wants to play me on Mondays at the King Alfreds Leisure Centre, please get in touch with me!
Monday: 12pm to 2pm, Tuesday: 10am to 12pm. £1.25 for an hour session.
Posted by Nahoo at 08:34 PM | Comments (0)