This.

For the first time this week, I drove to work, but more on that in a moment.

Firstly, it's no secret I am quite the fan of B3ta - I reckon most people who read this are likely to have perused it once or twice at least. In my honest opinion, it's gone a bit downhill - not a fault of anyone in particular, maybe just the regulars being either taken for granted or moving on to bigger and better hings.

This is probably the best thing I've seen there for a while. It plucks at the heartstrings, and I'm even allergic to rabbits so find it hard to feel sad for the fuckers when I run over them.

Back to the bike - As above, I drove to work today. It was nice waking up at the same time I would be getting on the train, and not actually getting up until I would have been nearing Salisbury. Swings and roundabouts.

In the end the bill came to £250 - for new shocks (both sides), springs (both sides) and top mount (whatever that is). The nice chappie at ATS knocked off the labour charge, probably because we had a good moan together about how everyone is so "service expectant" nowadays that when things are out of the service persons control the customer expects an above-relative kickback.

The irony is that because I gave him a shoulder to whinge on, I did get an above-relative kickback.

Meh. I make up for it in the day job. My favourites did include the day I taught someone how to use Google* but my number one spot is currently filled by today's experience. Before the bell tolled I spent a goodly portion of my working day trying explain to a sales agent how to forward an email.

Yes.

How to forward an email.

They had received an email from a colleague with an attachment they couldn't open. They couldn't or wouldn't tell me what the attachment was, so I asked them to forward it - expecting it was a PDF format, or maybe a spreadsheet, and I could give a relatively simple solution.

But no. They couldn't grasp the concept of clicking on "Forward" and then typing in my email address. And despite the fact that I did not send them the email, that they are not a direct employee of either myself or the company I work for, this was MY FAULT.

I don't claim to be an IT wizard. In fact, I know I am severely lacking. I am a whole evolutionary gap below Stu. But there is surely, in 2006, a base level of proficiency that is necessary before entering a workplace where you will be expected to use computers on a daily basis?

*breathes in*

Cnuts. The lot of 'em.



* I reckon he was just lazy, and wanted me to do the research for him. I sent him false data, and he was praised in front of the board for his hard work. Go figure.