Month: June 2002

I’d just like to say: if you own anything, don’t insure it with Zurich. They are pants, in my experience.
Remember when the wing mirror got broken off the car? In March? Claim still not processed.
And when it says in a policy that, if you are in an accident and the car can not be driven, a replacement car will be provided within 24 hours, surely that includes weekends unless it says it doesn’t? (And, no, it does not say that weekends are excluded).
However, top marks to Chichester police, who have been most helpful and efficient. Again.

Blogger is being pants (again). Not sure when you’ll get to read anything published last night or today.

uurrrfff. I’m hungover. But duty calls, so off to work. guh.

Tonight is one of those nights when I don’t want to be alone.

Beer tonight with Hev, Libby, Leigh, Andrew, Patrick, Alan, Lee, Chris and other picture postcards.
Tonight, I finally told someone what I felt about her – in a very professional sense, before you ask. I hope that I will be able to offer what I have promised, for my sake as well as hers.
I need to sleep now. Today has been an extraordinary day. Respect due to Alan and Paul. Major league respect due to Hev – you are one of life’s greatest gems.
Tonight I wish good luck to Paul Murphy and his expectant wife. Good luck to Paul Ankers in all that you do.
Good luck in everything to Heather Martin – one of the finest people you will ever meet, and, I hope, someone I will be working with for a long time to come.
And good luck to Chris West – I wish I had achieved what you have when I was your age.
I’m a big old emotional mess now – best that I go to sleep.
Fingers crossed, heh?

Oh boy. What a day.
Started off well enough – went into the office, then out doing some errands. All seemed to be going fine. Then I got ready to go to college, hopped into the car, drove ten yards up the road and BANG! – I was driven into by an ******** in a red Peugeot driving the wrong way along North Walls (a one-way street). It must have hit me at around 20 or 25 mph, colliding with the front wing and pushing me across the carriageway.
Well, needless to say, there is a lot of damage to the car. What concerned me most was getting to college for my exam! I had to wait for the police to arrive, extract details from the other driver, resist the temptation to thump him one, inform everyone that needed to be informed, and then run off to college. I’d phoned ahead to explain what had happened, and got there about five minutes before the exam started. The invigilators were excellent and gave me a few minutes to go a freshen up and take a few deep breaths.
To say that my stress levels reached a critical level would be an understatement.
The other driver is lucky – the policemen asked me if I wanted to press charges, but said I would have to give a statement. I simply didn’t have time, so he has got away without being taken to court for careless driving. Frankly, he deserves to have his licence torn up.
Now I have to get to work, do some jobs and then meet my fellow students for the post-exam celebrations. I have to wait for the garage to come and pick up the mangled car, and then get to the nursery somehow.
Oh, and the exam! Well, it wasn’t too bad. I completely mismanaged my time, and struggled to answer the third question. But I put in a good answer for question 1 (worth 40%) and a fairly good answer for question 2 (worth 30%). Fingers crossed I did enough. Now to wait for results at the end of August.

In response to his ramblings in the comments, grayblog presents a new header in honour of Lord Percy.
Normal service will be resumed after the weekend.

I’ve just realised how tiring sitting exams is. I feel exhausted.
I think I did ok in today’s paper. At least I hope so. I’d hate to get a marginal fail. 51% will be enough – that’s all I need.
For those that sat it, I did Part A (obviously), and B3, B4 and B7. B7 was a lovely gift of a question for me, and B4 was pretty straightforward too. B3 was a struggle, as there simply isn’t much to write about PIMS, but hopefully I picked a few marks up there. As for part A – well, I fudged an answer for question 1a based around Porter’s Value Chain. Question 1b was somewhat sneaky in my opinion – had to really rake through the grey matter for Doole and Lowe’s 12Cs, and only managed to come up with ten of them, but I think it’ll be enough.
Predicted grade: C.
Feel more confident about tomorrow’s paper. I’m well prepared. My file is sitting by my desk, ready and waiting. It’s a thick tome, but the core is my strategic marketing plan, just twelve very elegant pages of simplicity.

I need to work in a place with more women.

Amazing. As I’ve said before, I wish we could travel to these places.