What the Shop do you want?

There has been extensive debate in the local London commuter rags about London retail staff being as rude as Sarah Palin's face.

What sparked the at times controversial dispute by us sullen bored and tired tube travellers was an opinion piece in the freebie london paper. It was written by a compatriot Australian ex-pat living in London. Our dear Aussie friend wrote a discussion piece on the lack of customer service by staff in London's shops, bars and restaurants.

Her major gripe (other than the bad weather [reverse whinging pom] seriously why did you come here, who ever said London had good weather?) was that retail and serving staff in London are rude, bitter and not on-par with what she misses from Australia.

She conceded that the minimum wage paid to most London shopworkers is very low, and that resentment is the reason they probably don't smile when they hand you your change - but come on when she said that every customer service experience at any store/restaurant/bar/service centre she has dealt with in London has been bad that has got to be overstated.

In the 2 years that I have been living in this global city, I've certainly had my fair share of rude shop assistants, bad waiters and awful call centre people - but that happens anywhere!

What I don't miss about Australian customer service is the people following you around in stores checking that 'everything is ok' and if they 'can help you with anything else?' What is worse is when they start coming into your changing room to see if 'everything is fine' Seriously? No thanks!

Can I elp you? Dere.

On other notes - according to Blankshooting there are 5 reasons that Sarah Palin should not be in the White House - but I think that the 6th reason is because she is as dumb as dog doo doo.

Work to live, or work to die........

According to The Age, the Australian newspaper which I miss :(

Two million Britons dread going to work because they can't stand their colleagues.

Woah, what? People don't like going to work because their colleagues are stank? I hate my work because it takes up time that I could be lying in the sun, sailing on a yacht, or watching Hollyoaks.

In addition, the study found that 8% despise fellow workers, while a quarter tolerate them because they are paid to. Nearly a third have quit jobs because of the animosity.

No reason that I could not say that there is no animosity at work and that relationships at work don't have a major impact on wanting to get up in the morning when Jordin Spark's No Air howls out of my mobile waking me from my slumber.

But I think that the number one reason why I would dread going to work is BOREDOM! Lucky for me, my work is almost ALWAYS busy - but spare a thought for those poor security guards working on construction sites the length and breadth of this country.

Near my work there is a construction site, with not 1 but 2 security guards who stand for about 8 hours of the day, staring into space. There aren't too many potential crims waiting to break into a building site where steel beams are gonna fall on their head and knock them out.

Now that the West End has banished the human sandwich boards, building site security guard has to be the most boring job in London alongside - selling the Evening Standard, handing out the Sport magazine, and working in a drycleaners with no business (I live above it)

Thanks to the global financial crisis, these boring jobs might soon be non-existent.
Thanks to Blankshooting we all know what the global financial crisis means.

Money, Money, Money Amen.

Born and baptised a Catholic, I am often at odds with the pontificating of our dear Pontiff - which ever one it is. Whether it be the Church's anti-contraception/safe-sex stance despite widespread aids in developing overtly Catholic countries, or the archaic views on homosexuality, women's role in the church or sex before marriage..

Today though The leader of the 1.1 billion catholics worldwide decided to come out and speak about the 'recession we had to have' - but unlike Paul Keating, our dear holy father decided to state that:

"now with the collapse of big banks we see that money disappears, is nothing and all these things that appear real are in fact of secondary importance."

Benedict says "the only solid reality is the word of God."

Now, try telling that to the probably more than 950 million Catholics worldwide who might now struggle to feed their families, pay for heating bills or afford to put petrol in their car to drive to Church...

According to many sources, the Roman Catholic Church is one of the wealthiest organisations in the world - an organisation that over 2000 years has amassed a fortune in real estate, artwork, cash and other financial investments.

Granted, much of this was put into the holy piggy bank in times gone by when the Church and state were one and taxes were shared by both organisations.

However, given the wealth of the Church and the common knowledge that it sits on billions and billions of pounds/euros/dollares - you'd think our inspired leader might have thought twice before suggesting that money is of no importance...........

Soctober

Days are shorter, it feels colder, I walk in wet puddles in the morning and I am increasingly seeing more and more christmas bits and pieces everywhere.

What it means? It's already nearly 1 week into October - a month which according to Wikipedia in common years starts on the same day of the week as January.

What else does it mean? It means that work gets busier, there are endless countdowns of how many shopping days till Christmas and we are reminded that in the 19th century it used to be the month of the year dedicated to the Rosary by Roman Catholics (another wikifact)

In the US, this month marks many a social and cultural milestone. It's Filipino American History Month - yay pinoy!
However, given that so many nationalities must make up the US population, Pinoy Americans can't have the month alone - it is shared with Italian American History Month AND Polish American History Month....

It is also National Spinal Health Month and in a show of coincidence it is both orthodontic health month and dental hygeine month.

To mark the coming of Autumn, when we all have to start trying to warm ourselves up - forget movember, how about we have soctober. I propose that everyone wears socks tucked into their trousers and show them in style. It would go well on the following national days:

National Day, China - All socks are MADE IN CHINA - Chinese socks rock
Independence Day, Croatia - Zadom Spremni! Socks Smrdi!
Day of the Romanian Army - Former Eastern Bloc Socks!
Halloween, US - Pumpkin Socks - trick or treat!
In addition to US Sock activity - maybe some one could do the world a favour and put a sock over Palin? Then she wont be able to conduct her foreign policy by way of sharing a border with Russia and Canada.

Brrrr it's cold in here

There are no torros in the atmosphere, but geez London is one crazy town.

On Saturday we were sat in the park, having drinks, laughing in the sun and getting sunburnt - this morning we were hauling out our umbrellas, stiffening against the chilly wind and trying not to slip over on the wet pavements!

Officially or not officially Winter has arrived in London town, borne into this fair city on the back of the credit crunch, economic downturn, recession and all other manner of good news stories.

JOY!

Stupid or a tourist?

Now I have been a tourist in loads of countries where I have had to get my head around how to navigate public transport - Milan's Metro, New York's Subway and Marrakech's donkeys - but sometimes you have to question if tourists in London are culturally confused or indeed stupido.

Today I watched a European tourist continuosly try to insert their ticket in a Piccadilly Circus gate barrier that had in big red lights "NO ENTRY", complete with a giant red cross - the universal symbol for NOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Not convinced by the red sign, she repeatedly tried to push her ticket into the reader until the ticket was so bent that it was of no further use.

After this display of stupidity, she then pushed in front of the heaving crowds of busy London commuters - especially me - to try and force her bent ticket into the right machine.

The underground staff member just stared and said nothing. no surprise.


toothpastefordinner.com

Come Dine With Meanie

You would think that as a contestant on a TV show which base premise is for people to come together and share a meal - you would like to eat food.

As a consistent viewer of Channel 4's Come Dine With Me, (For those who don't know - it's where 5 strangers come together to cook each other a dinner party [entree, main-meal and dessert] and then vote out of 10 after each dinner, the winner with the highest score gets £1000) I can't understand why you would go on the show when you don't like eating new food...

This week Julie, who hates dessert screwed up her face at bread and butter pudding and upside down ginger cake and ended it by putting tarte tatin in her handbag.

Last week, Tanya the Sri Lankan cooking queen turned her vegetarian, tee-totalling nose up at everyone's cooking and despite the fact that everyone pandered to her tastebuds she never once liked one meal she ate.

Who would want any of these mean people at their dinner party?

Other people I would not want at my dinner party:

Simon Cowell (he'd tell me my food was not good enough yet, but that it had potential)
Sarah Palin (only eats American food from America which doesn't leave the country and is from Alaska
George W Bush (If he didn't like my meal he'd announce that I had WMD in my kitchen and declare war)
Dannii Minogue (having her unachieving presence in my dining room would make my food taste bad)