Ever had that feeling that somebody who always smiles knows that he is screwing you/the country/the world and is loving it. The Prime Minister as he is leaving and his replacement always seem to be smiling. Iraq and the Afghanistan problems seem distant issues.The super bugs flushing through our hospitals. The crisis to come with what this country will do when we find ourselves totally dependent on despots for fuel/energy.The country where you have to hock your soul to buy a roof over your head.When you do you can look forward to potential negative equity,being dependent on the economy doing well or a faceless bureaucat making a decision to increase the costs of borrowing and your whole world being turned upside down.
I love this country, these guys seem to in their way but is there reason to smile all the time. Is he really bovered. We will see, his fingers were burned by the recent elections, let us hope that the next ones are equally thought expressive. But what if another smiler comes to power....Can anybody remember Churchill smiling.

Just thought I'd tell myself that there are businesses out there that are prepared to understand that people over 50 are not over the hill.Just started working for a company called "thebestof".I took the job because the concept behind it was so good.Take a look at the website you too will be impressed I am sure. It just so happens that it gets more hits than bt.com,but that is not saying much as that particular site as I was told on a regular basis was slow and amateurish.

www.thebestof.co.uk

Want to get the equivalent of the old 192. Just call 118 707 all they do is give you the number for a set fee, no "can I connect you to contribute towards already huge profits and the cost of 21CN"

Have you ever thought how many people would be dead if only people who gave blood could receive blood. I appreciate that there are certain people with old illnesses and such that cannot. I also appreciate that the vain people of this world who decide on having regular tattoos also can opt out. Something to do with potential blood poisoning. So next time you see an advert for giving blood have a little think. You get a free healthcheck before you give blood which could save your life. They do not want to give any old diseased stuff to the needy. When you see major incidents on the telly when people require multiple transfusions,there is not a machine out of the back of the hospital that makes the stuff, it is usually from people who are prepared to share his/her blood with somebody they will never meet. Potentially saving their life. Could you in your life say that. As for the religious excuses,well I'm sorry I have just got to have a little sad chuckle. This is the 21st Century,something you believe in from so many years ago will condemn you AND others because the belief you pass on to your children will be passed on/indoctrinated so as to leave no doubt that what you say is gospel/right.I give blood to help my fellow man/woman whatever colour, religion, country of origin, criminal record, size shape or political persuasion. That is the ultimate in PC. By the way most companies do not mind you taking time off to give blood, that is how I started in my yoof, at BT. I calculated that given 1 hour per year to give blood I have the equivalent of a week off.

Does anybody out there feel as I do that the latest farce with the service personnel seem somewhat stage managed. Will in 25 years time when official documents are released the details come out that the UK government have used a Trojan horse to get in with the Iran government,when it did not seem possible when they have ignored all international threats over their nuclear programme ?

Having one of the best beaches in south Wales,dog mess permitting I would like to say that news just in is that the Barry Island Pleasure Park is not going to open this weekend.There will be plenty of outlets ready to sell you food and ice cream etc. Access to the area is via the causeway and it gets silly busy.Why not try for a change Cold Knap pebble beach,or the huge park near by.Porthkerry or the Mumbles, Swansea way.It is best to come by train as the station is only 100 yards from the beach

There are millions of mobile phone users and there are some who never check their bills,I know because I used to carry out a job that enabled me to do so.
Did you know that this sophisticated system, that has been building into the monster it is today, has many billing faults,one of the prime faults is your telephone number.If like me you chose to retain your telephone number for whatever reason and you chose to change your supplier to another of the big four it is the original supplier whose tariffs are retained for people who decide to call you.
Let me explain a little clearer. My mobile was with Cellnet the name to changed to o2.I retained my number when the whole of BT (when I worked there)changed to Vodaphone.Therefore the tariff for calls made FROM my mobile was the Vodaphone tariff.But if somebody called me they would be paying on the o2 tariff (cross network calls)from their mobile.Now this does not sound too tragic. It only does when you realise that cross network calls (o2 to Vodaphone,Orange to o2 etc) are more expensive than if you were to call from the same supplier. Your supplier can tell you what was the original supplier of your number or you can find out by checking your bill. The discrepancy will become obvious when you compare costs for calls to what you believed to be a like tariff user and the costs are different to what you expected. It is very convenient toretain your number, but like a lot of hings you never get something for nohing.

May I welcome myself to my own blog,to share a load they say is to halve it.I may be the only person who reads this but may I say if one person extra does and understands where I am coming from my work is near completion.
I left BT at the end of November having served the company for over 33 years,to be more precise 33 years and 6 months. I must admit during that period I did take approximately 5 to 6 days sick leave (my last boss who admitted to me found herself surprisingly pregnant after being with the company for all of 6 years took 6 months off).
I am proud to have worked for such a company but my going was not without sorrow and a little ire. The manner and process of my departure has left a bitter taste to this day.
The company in my opinion has tried to re invent itself over the last few years and unfortunately it is failing,miserably.Ask a BT person what they think of 21CN (this is the marvelous new equipment that will cost BT in the region of £12-£15 billion will have a return of investment of £1 billion per annum therefore taking 15 years to pay for itself). The joke is that BT have a £5 billion hole (possibly more, creative accounting) in the pension fund and BT have promised to fill that hole, you guessed it over a 15 year period.
The best part of this is that anybody can ask BT how the progress of this tremendous 21CN white elephant is gettin along.Questions such as how many customers are benefitting from this technology 6 months down the road from it's launch.
But ask yourself this question over the last 5,10,15 20 years how many companies have looked into bidding for BT.What is the price of a share in BT. How are they performing,what is behind the facade.
Did you know as the UK quietly celebrates the Falklands war the Conservative government at the time allegedly sold BT to fill the coffers emptied by the huge cost of such as short engagement.Does anybody remember Mercury ?
Senior BT managers are conspicuous by his absence in the business world,BT buys organisations for amounts that are equivalent to a few hours revenue looking for attention and potentially trying to placate the market with thoughts that they are a dynamic organisation.Ofcom plays the music and BT has to dance to whatever tune is being played.
Think about this BT buys its "airtime" off of BT (BT Openreach).BT Openreach the seller has more money than they can handle therefore this side of the house is very rich,BT the buyer is the poor relation and both sides work for the same master.
I have spoken to other organisations that try to run telecommunication businesses and they pale in the shadow of BT relying on price everyhing else coming a distant second.I loved BT and I worked for BT but they are geting things wrong.
One manager was brought in on the spefic understanding that he would slash and burn staffing levels. He did not disappoint.Six months into his tenure 60% of the Corporate Field Sales Force were wiped off the face of the map being replaced by the same amount of people working out of an office in Bristol, fresh recruits mostly lacking in background in the telecommunications market.Customers wanted to know why the person who they could talk to on a face to face basis was replaced by somebody on the end of a phone and somebody that did not have the experience of the contact they had lost.
6 month after this debacle and the manager who was recruited to carry out this somewhat PR disaster disappeared.
So where is BT now, one of the biggest companies in the UK, as safe as houses in my opinion, there are more managers than you could shake a stick at and the staff just keep their heads down waiting for the next proclamation.
The workers in BT are well respected, ask any customer and they remember the engineers in particular, never met a bad one myself. The middle management unfortunately still hold the power in BT.
My last Deputy General Manager (I will just give you his initials MD)advised a full room of people that one product was definately not fit for purpose and recommended that his team approximately 20 people should not sell this product,yet 10 months down the road I still see BT advertising the same product as a panacea for business.

I am still looking for work, as I am over 50 there seems to be a reluctance in the business world. I went to see one such organisation called Glamorgan Telecom, I was told that there were only three other applicants and that either way I would be told yes or no as to my succes or failure. I am still waitin for the call....

I will write to myself again real soon.