Odd Thomas Odd Blog

For the past few years, Christmas has brought more than its fair share of surprises ... financial ones, that is. You can pretty much guarantee that something will happen that will involve forking out several hundred pounds at a point when you really can't afford to. As I have just been paid, I was planning to hold back on buying stuff for myself and use this money for purchasing the majority of this year's presents. No such luck! Whilst cooking tonight's dinner, the nine-year-old hob decided to cook more than just the contents of the pan and tried heating the worktop, too. Personally, I'm not into flame-grilled pasta, so opted to douse the unit in cold water (after switching it off of course!), and placed a large pan of cold water on it to help take the heat away. Ooh, déja vu moment there just reading over this first bit ... weird! Anyway, I don't suppose you can see it in this pic, but there is a nice puddle of water surrounding the heating element to try and ...

Have you been horribly ill at a friend's place and are wondering how to apologise? Well, wonder no more and try Serenata Flowers for all your apologising needs - they've never let me down yet!!

Crikey, what a weekend! As I've been staying up late recently (my system is just about capable of playing Crysis ), I ended up sleeping in longer on Saturday than I had originally intended, which meant racing round town trying to find the last bits for the US Serviceman uniform I was trying to put together. I have to say a big thanks to eBay users epic_militaria, daveblower and maxmoo2 who all provided a sterling service getting my bits to me in time - thanks guys!! For those of you that haven't read any previous posts, this post should explain the need for the outfit... So, I arrived, all dressed up in my gear and camo face paint ... 15 minutes late! My sense of time is getting worse. I think I knew about one-third of the people there, but have only met them a couple of times so was outside of my comfort zone again. All good stuff to tell the life coach tomorrow!! The host, Julie Noted, had done a great job organising the Café Resistance and laying on some quality food wh...

Good question and, going by the news today , the answer is a resounding: "NO!" What a bunch of incompetent, bumbling idiots !! Ignoring the fact that the first thing they have done is to blame a junior - who, lets face it, would have been told what to do by someone senior anyway - this type of data should never, never, never be left floating around on disks or mobile devices. And I mean, NEVER !! This is the type of data that should be stored in a centralised location under a strict security regime, with strict access and usage protocols. Anybody else find it interesting that the preliminary of the UK Data Protection Act 1998 (c. 29) *, under section 2 Sensitive Personal Data , doesn't cover your personal financial data?? The following is extracted directly from preliminary of the above site: 2 Sensitive personal data In this Act “sensitive personal data” means personal data consisting of information as to— (a) the racial or ethnic origin of the data subject, (b) his pol...

Leeds . Just the very mention of the place makes my stomache turn. Well, to be fair, more specifically the phrase "The Leeds Office". I have no objection to Leeds at all as a place ... I mean, how can you when they have stuff like the Carling Weekend going on?! However, our customer has an office there and this is currently the source of the wall imprint on my forehead ... I look like I'm turning into a troll or something, with textured rocky features and a constant scowl. All I need to do is cultivate the unibrow and stick out my bottom lip, and I'll be there. Unfortunately, tomorrow sees me taking my sorry little troll behind to this very place. I am not looking forward to this ... I always come away having dark thoughts and wondering how I can improve my CV . Wish me luck!

It is with sadness that I must announce the early demise of one of my tenants. Yes, one of my little Ladybird friends has suffered a fatal blow, literally ... well, its his/her own fault for diving down the back of my shirt! Let that be a lesson learned: you wanna get a feel of my hot bod, ask first!

Well, I arrived home Friday to find an important communication waiting for me on the door mat. It seems that Le Resistance is about to make its move against enemy forces... I can't wait!

Well, this lunchtime I received a response back from Martin McColl regarding my query about their inflated prices ... admittedly not an answer, but at least a response... From: customerservices@martinmccoll.co.uk Subject: Price Query Dear xxxxx, I am in receipt of your email regarding the prices at our branch of RS McColl. A copy of your email has been forwarded to our Buying Department who constantly monitor the prices being charged at our branches. As a company committed to providing an excellent level of customer care, we are disappointed that you are not completely satisfied and would like to offer our apologies that you feel that the price was not what you expected on this occasion. On behalf of Martin McColl may I take this opportunity to thank you for your valued comments and for bringing this matter to our attention. If I can be of any assistance in the future, please do not hesitate to contact me. Yours sincerely, Customer Services Martin McColl ...we are disappointed that ...

As of now, I have decided to make a stand - albeit a lonely one - against over-priced newsagent, Martin's . With over 1300 stores nationwide, how can they justify their excessive prices?? An example in point, I like to buy a Mars bar (or two) at lunchtimes, along with a bottle of Summer Fruits Oasis and, currently, a can of Red Bull . The price difference between Martin's and the local Tesco is a staggering £1.25 - perhaps not a lot in ordinary terms but added up over time this is money that, as a consumer, I could be putting to better use. So, the intention is now to shop at Tesco ... until they do something to upset me! However, in the meantime, my sense of injustice has gotten the better of me and I have fired off the following email to their customer services: To: customerservices@martinmccoll.co.uk Subject: Price Query Dear Sirs I am writing as a member of the consuming public to ask you to justify your prices when compared to the likes of Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda. W...

I have cupboard space! After years of clogging up my cupboards* with nearly decades old tins and jars of ridiculously preserved food, I have finally had a clearout. When I arrived home from my Mum's birthday party last weekend, I did the usual thing of dumping everything in the living room. This Saturday, I decided it was about time to start putting things away so, after spending half the day in Presence drinking coffee, eating chocolate chunk shortbread and learning my lines, I decided to start putting stuff away. Unfortunately, I was in just the right mood to clean ... headphones on and listening to my eclectic music collection that would make my peers blush with embarrassment, let alone my niece and nephew ... so cleaning the dust off the top of the fridge-freezer to make room for the alcohol triggered a bit of a frenzy. I seriously did have food stuffs nearly a decade old! Don't believe me, then check the date in the pic on the right here... ... June 1999!!! I know this s...

A friend of mine from 'Up North' pointed me in the direction of this great little cartoon today. Those of you who are cat lovers will probably relate to it!! This got me thinking about my favourite cat cartoon that I saw a number of years ago and that I have never been able to locate since. All hail the YouTube !!!!! Whichever of you thought this wasn't a post about cats ... shame on you! ;-)

Ever plagued by indecisiveness, different voices telling you different things? Why not sign up for a TomTom and download them for some peace and quiet! ;-)

Tring appears to be composed of two main groups of individuals: youngsters and wrinklies. With a Performing Arts school attracting the next generation of celebrity wannabes and a range of charity shops attracting the Walking Stick Brigade, its easy to see why most of the kids are pretty well behaved around here: even I wouldn't want to meet any of the grannys round here down a dark alley. If there was ever a battle to be held between the two groups ( Tring Park will do as the battle ground), I'd put my money on the older generation! Yesterday, I had my first interaction with one of the WSB members; a little slip of a woman who goes by the name of Betty. I say she goes by that name because it is apparently not her real name! I won't give any personal details away*, but she managed to condense a rather interesting 83-year life story into 1½ hours whilst I was on my 1 hour lunch break. Yes, I was late back to work, but hey, I didn't have the heart to stop her mid-flo...

Well, ignoring the growly post where I practised my Lion's roar, I finished off last week by suggesting I was working on something rather interesting. To be honest, it probably isn't really all that interesting to anyone other than those involved! This Wednesday, Journey South 's one and only fan ... my Mum ... will be 60, so this weekend my Dad put on a bit of a surprise party for her. Being the kitchen demon I alledgedly am, my little contribution was to make the birthday cake (which earned me a nice bottle of Jack Daniels). However, I had totally forgotten that my little plastic hand mixer had chewed itself up when I last used it, so I had to go on a hunt for a replacement machine. I hunted everywhere, but couldn't find anything that was nothing more than a lump of cheap plastic that couldn't realistically be used on anything stiffer than egg white. And then I found this beauty , my very own Saucy Lawson in sleek metal form, complete with curvy bowl to put my...