Tales of customer service

Wenge and I went to Frederick's on Friday night.  Hidden down Camden Passage in Islington, it's a conservatory-like room, and features the kind of service that makes you feel special but not suffocated.

After a tartiflette starter I went for a cote de boeuf, a ribeye on the bone that should have been bursting with flavour.  It was OK but not as good as I'd have expected, so I ended up leaving quite a lot of it on the plate.  When the waiter came to take our plates away he asked if there was anything wrong, and I explained that I was disappointed in it.

No sooner had he taken the plate away than one of the management came to send the chef's apologies and to tell me that they wouldn't change me for it.  The desserts, when they arrived, were exceptional as was the gigondas that the sommelier had recommended to go with our meal.  So we'll definitely go back.

Contrast this with Ministry of Sound's favourite caff, Terry's.  I took Brian there on Thursday as he'd never been but had heard all about it.  As we walked in, licking our lips in expectation of eggs, bacon, cumberland sausages, chips, beans, mushrooms and the rest, we were met by the boss who casually informed us that he wouldn't be serving fryups today.  I thought that maybe there was a problem in the kitchen but no, the reason Terry's weren't serving fryups was that they had too many dinners and wanted to use them up.

A restaurant that won't serve what's on its menu?  Ridiculous.  But we'll also be going back to Terry's, no question...

In God's country

Wenge and I went up to Edinburgh at the weekend for a whistle stop visit. It was supposed to be a surprise party for my younger bruv Nigel, who celebrated his 50th a couple of weeks ago. Then, when he announced that he was getting engaged, it became a double celebration. Except that he found out about it, so it was no longer a surprise. Still, that helped with the pickup arrangements.

We left Luton on Saturday morning in torrential rain, and arrived in Edinburgh in glorious sunshine. We had a couple of hours in the centre - most of it at the Debenham's sale - before heading out to Torphichen, where Nigel and Fiona live. My older brother, Scott, was also there with his girlfriend Rosemary.

The day was spent eating, drinking (yes, in moderation) and walking into the village. At night we went to nearby Linlithgow for a pretty average but enjoyable Italian at Bar Leo.

The next morning was torrential again but we made it back without any problems - I'd maintained radio silence since getting on the plane so that I could watch the Rangers game when I got home, only for it to be abandoned at half time due to the waterlogged pitch.

Have I mentioned the new kitchen we're having fitted? It should have been done and dusted by now, but another week's gone by and Lincoln is still here. I won't bore you with the details but suffice to say I'm looking forward to christening it by cooking something special - I'm just hoping it won't be Christmas dinner...

Weekend treats

I've been a bit remiss with my updates lately, for reasons I've covered previously. So, a quick catch-up ...

Last Sunday saw the first Chiswick Casuals barbecue. The boys gave me my barbecue for my birthday last year so it was my way of saying thanks. The weather was fine and we had a good turnout - all in all a great afternoon. The menu featured a chicken dish I learned at my Indian cookery course last year, sausages from the Farmers' Market, sweetcorn, vegetable kebabs, home made guacamole and coleslaw and a few other bits - it all seemed to go down well.

Wenge I and spent this weekend with the Arch, Debs, Marc and Margaret at Arch & Debs' holiday cottage in Orford, a couple of hours up the A12 in Suffolk. It was a welcome break (tm) from London, in beautiful surroundings, with great weather and of course great company. From our arrival on Saturday morning just in time for a hearty breakfast, to leaving on Sunday afternoon, it was a peaceful and relaxing time for all. In between we had a very enjoyable walk in glorious sunshine, including a ferry (rowing boat) trip and a pub stop; another walk through the village to the quay, and a meal at a nearby pub/restaurant. The only sour note of the weekend was our host's failure to bring a clean shirt for dinner which, frankly, let the side down. No matter, it was one less thing to crumple when he fell asleep in front of Match of the Day on our return.

So, another part of Britain that I now know, having never set foot in Suffolk previously. It moved the dream of a place away from it all closer in my mind... tomorrow would be nice.

Holiday? What holiday?

The good news is that Wenge and I had 10 wonderful days in the south of France. The sun shone relentlessly, with the mercury by the pool reaching 47 degrees one afternoon and a sea temperature of 25 degrees, so it was a holiday for relaxation rather than activity.

Since we were in the foothills of the Pyrenees, we had planned to spend some time walking, but it was too hot and frankly more enjoyable to spend it by the pool or just reading a book. Or cooking, which I did a fair bit of.

We treated ourselves to a couple of days in Collioure, and found ourselves in the most beautiful sanctuary of a hotel just a few hundred yards off one of the main streets - a real oasis of elegance and calm in the throng of holiday crowds.

I had my own treat - my annual visit to the local wine merchant who gave me a guided tour around his selection of local wines (I swear he knows every winemaker personally) and helped me get my credit card bill to a respectable level. Our neighbours, who let us use their house, arrived as we left and are going to bring my purchases back in the car with them when come home - now that's what I call good neighbours.

There was a slight hiccup on the way home, when we had to get off our plane on the runway due to a technical fault and wait 5 hours for a replacement plane. Still, as it was Ryanair we were expecting them to just refund the £29 fare and tell us to f*#k off and make our own way home, so it wasn't too bad.

A long bank holiday weekend and it was back to work - my first week in my new position as Head of Internet. As I write it's Thursday evening, 3 days in, and I can't pretend that it hasn't been tough going so far. I'll be glad to get the week over and make a fresh start next week. Thank goodness for the weekend.

A Hed of the game

We finally launched the all-new www.hedkandi.com on Thursday.  Just as with the Ministry of Sound relaunch in April, this was a race against time, and it was a relief to get it launched with no significant problems.

I remember when I used to work in live events, there was so much adrenaline involved that when each event was finally over we used to need a period of cooling down before we moved on to the next project.

That's what it's been since Thursday - a bit flat. Not helped, of course, by an epic celebration with the team on Thursday night which ended with me falling asleep on the Piccadilly Line and ending up in Southate at around 1.00 am.  Friday was a day of recovery.

The weekend was pretty sh#t.  I had an injury that prevented me playing football on Saturday, so after a double session with my osteopath, Wenge and I drove out to Abingdon.  Not much there, although we did see Helena Bonham Carter shopping.  Yesterday was just a day of doing nothing, and getting frustrated by not doing what I had planned to do.  One highlight, though, was watching 'The Butterfly Effect' on Friday night.  A very clever film - the first time I've seen Ashton Kutcher acting - that keeps you on edge right to the end.  And I finished Season 3 of The Wire.

This week I have a couple of meetings with recruiters, and a proper interview, so along with planning a development schedule for Ministry of Sound I should be pretty busy. My challenge, though, is to break the in-early, leave-late cycle that I've fallen into while working on Hed Kandi. 

Oh, and it would be nice to see some sun again...

That damned glass

After the high, the low. For reasons that I can't detail here, things have got a bit tricky at work. I'm trying very hard to resolve it but the outcome is either going to be bad or very bad, and it's hanging over me like a yellow card in a Champions League semi final.

Steve knows very well how Maslow's hierarchy of needs kicks in rapidly in these situations so it's difficult, and frankly it's doing my head in. 

In the interests of topping up the eponymous glass, Wenge and I went to Razorlight at the O2 last night and really enjoyed it. After a slow start the hits started flowing. Johnny Borrell has a great live presence, at times reminiscent of a young Jim Morrison. The highlights for me were Wire to Wire from Slipway Fires, accompanied by gospel singers, and a stonking America.

Today's going to be a difficult day - partly because of the situation at work, and partly because I somehow managed to leave my glasses at home. All of HMV's spamming is going to come to fruition - I'm going to have to Get Closer after all.

Oh, and there's the not so small matter of Rangers v Celtic tomorrow, of which doubtless more later...

Same old, same new

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary.  24 years since I drove out to High Wycombe on a scorching, sunny evening and got married a day later in snow - ah, the British weather!

Anyway, I left Wenge a card yesterday when I left for work, and when I got home there was one sitting on the table for me.  Yes, you've guessed it - of all the cards in all the world we both went out and got the same one... there's one for the romantics.

And, no, we don't wear matching woollen pullovers and jackets when we go out.

Good times

Last week was one of those good weeks, where everything just seemed to go right (apart from Chelsea beating Liverpool on Wednesday - but it was an absolute belter of a match so that made up for it...) and I seemed to be on top of things.

Relaxed by the long weekend and buoyed by the success of the ministryofsound.com relaunch, I got into the office on Tuesday fired up and ready to go.  Those who really know me know that I'm what in football circles is called a confidence player - when I'm feeling good about myself I operate so much better, so I was ready for a good week, and so it turned out.

Rudy was on holiday, so I hot-desked in his chair for the week with the rest of the eCommerce team - much more fun than the new desk that I moved to a couple of weeks ago.  The banter was flowing all week.  

I had one main thing I needed to achieve, and that was to produce a requirements document to give to the agency that we've appointed to design a new Hed Kandi site: the strangely-named but very impressive (so far) Code Computer Love from Manchester.  Team meetings, wireframes and mind maps all came together by Friday afternoon and I managed to do what I set out to do.  Box ticked.

Over the Easter weekend I had sent out an update to many of the recruiters and headhunters I've been in contact with - taking the opportunity to bring them up to speed with what I'm doing at Ministry of Sound.  I had a really good response with a number of them contacting me during the week and a couple of potential opportunities coming my way for consideration, so that's encouraging.  Having said that, if the right permanent opportunity came along here at Ministry (and I know exactly what that is) I'd definitely be interested.

To the weekend: always good to see the sun, and I took advantage of it on Saturday when Wenge and I had a walk in Hampstead Heath followed by lunch at Carluccios; later we went for a Thai at The John Baird and then saw "In the Loop" at the Odeon.  Some very funny moments and world class swearing, but still more suited to TV than film for me.

Yesterday I watched Rangers beat Hibs, a game that featured two of the best goals anyone will score this season (watch them - they're in the link).   There was even a minor bonus when I found out that Razorlight at the O2 is on Thursday 7th May and not Wednesday 6th when Chelsea are playing the second leg  of their Champions League tie against Barcelona. 

It's the end of Monday as I write, and the new week has started off reasonably well, so let's see if I can stay on the roll...

Spain

Wenge and I went to Madrid for a long weekend to celebrate her birthday. It's one of the places that's been on our list for a while and in the end it was a choice between there and Seville with the lure of the capital proving too strong.

I won't bore you with the details, but highlights were a couple of excellent meals in the Teatro and Latina areas, some glorious weather for Thursday and Friday at least, and the chance to see Picasso's amazing Guernica, created in response to the Nazi bombing of the town in support of Franco. It's made me want to read up on the Spanish civil war.

A walk in the Retiro park was also a treat.

In truth, both Wendy and I were a little disappointed in Madrid. We had a good time, and enjoyed it, but not as much as either Barcelona or Bilbao (sorry Ana). Maybe it's just the scale that means everything is spread out; maybe it's because it's a big, working city; maybe it's just too far from the coast...

Anyway, it's back to work now with a vengeance. We're in UAT for the relaunch of the ministry of sound site next week, and although things have been going pretty well so far, a major panic is only ever just over the hill. For a number of reasons it's critical that I get the site successfully launched next week.

A new acquisition marketing person has joined the ecommerce team, which has unfortunately meant I've had to move to a new desk space away from the team. Shame but I decided to hot-desk up in the dev area today, coinciding with another casting session just below me once again, the glass filleth...

The weekend

I had a really good weekend. On Friday evening Wenge and I went to one of our regular haunts - Pradera in Hornsey, for some excellent tapas. On Saturday we walked down to Crouch End to pick up some ingredients for an Indian chicken recipe that Wenge saw on TV. Apart from that it was a catch-up day although I did have a lengthy transatlantic phone call with Steven about all things Mac. I still don't get spaces...

I managed to stay injury free at footie, where we had a good 5 v 6 game.

James arrived home on Saturday night, understandably tired from partying all through the previous night then playing football for the university team. Those were the days...

Actually, one of the highlights of the weekend was James showing us some photos from uni. A large proportion of them seemed to involve him surrounded by assorted babes, which drew interesting and differing reactions from Wenge and me.

The mother's reaction was: "That's it. You're not going back to university with all those girls"

Mine, by contrast, went more like: "Get back to Surrey and make sure you send pictures".

Today has been tough, as most Mondays are. Negotiating the terms of my new contract; meeting with the development team; fleshing out requirements with the e-Commerce team. I even had time to talk to a headhunter about an interesting role (which would, however, require me to be an expert in SEO). I've got a feeling that it's going to be pretty intense from now on as I try to manage stuff at Ministry of Sound while keeping active in the job market. But I'm thankful that I do have some work, so I'm not complaining.

Meanwhile, Lee emailed to say that all zavvi head office staff were made redundant today. Good luck to everyone.

Are we human?

So I got a call from the headhunter that had put me forward for the Ann Summers job. They don't want me back for a second interview. It seems that what they really want is someone with in- depth technical knowledge, and I was too marketing and strategy focused for them. That's fine.


They also thought that my energy levels were quite low, and that I seemed a little laid back about the whole thing. I can't help thinking that that was probably due to (a) the stinking cold I had that day, (b) the two hour journey there and (c) the fact that I'd pretty much decided I didn't want the job by the time I met them. Still, it's something for me to watch out for next time just in case that's not the reason. Maybe I should have taken one of their Golden Root capsules - that would have got the energy levels up...



I was driving back from a weekend with Wenge's family in Leek this morning, and heard that 800 mini workers are to be made redundant. Isn't that illegal, laying someone off just because of their height?


Finally - and beware before you read this last bit, because once you do you'll never be able to listen to the Killers 'Are We Human?' again in the same light - have you noticed how incredibly similar it sounds to Chris de Burgh?


Next time you listen, just imagine Chris De Burgh singing and you'll know what I mean...

The weekend

It's been a great weekend so far. Yesterday, we took James back to university and did some shopping in Guildford, driving back to London just in time to make the early showing of Slumdog Millionaire.

All that's been written about is true, and then some. It's been billed as a feelgood movie and it's definitely a movie that makes you walk out with a huge smile on your face. But it only gets there via a series of personal journeys that are anything but feelgood and it's this combination of hardship and tragedy coupled with love and dreams that makes Danny Boyle's film one of the best I've seen in a long time.

Emerging from the cinema into gale force winds and horizontal rain, Wenge and I took refuge in the John Baird where we had a drink and a Thai meal in their Black Orchid restaurant. Very nice.

In the meantime, Kris Boyd scored 2 as Rangers beat Falkirk 3-1 - how Rangers are even considering selling him is just beyond me... he's started 99 games for Rangers and scored 92 goals.

This morning, Wenge and I had a bracing but highly enjoyable walk on Hampstead Heath, and I've just seen that Aberdeen have beaten Celtic to reduce the gap at the top of the SPL to 2 points.

Now, it's up to the Eagles to cap it off with a win in Arizona tonight. Another excuse, I believe, for a gratuitous pic of an Eagles cheerleader.

I'm only joking, of course. I wouldn't be that shallow. However, I'm sure you'll all want to join me in congratulating Amy, who has been named a 2009 Pro Bowl Cheerleader.

Pluses and minuses

It was a weekend to remember, and a test of glass half-fullness, if such a thing exists...

On Friday, Steve and I went to Liverpool to meet with a potential fulfilment partner to replace EUK. In the morning there was a Times article saying that we were about to go into administration, and on the way up we heard that the administrators have given up on EUK and had made 700 people redundant. So by the time I got home the glass was definitely close to empty.

Let's say, then, that the weekend started on a score of -5.

Friday night saw the first of two football nights out, with my Thursday night football crew. Drinks at a pub in Hornsey followed by a curry in Crouch End. While we were in the pub, one of the guys produced a 'chocolate roulette' game - spin a pistol and it points to a numbered chocolate that you eat. Except that one of them is laced with chilli. The way my week had gone, nothing was surer than the fact that I would get the chilli one and, sure enough, fate didn't disappoint. It felt like one of those comedy film moments when leading man has lost his wife, kids, house, job and everything he has, and to cap it all a dog pisses on his leg. So that was another -1 (-6 cumulative).

It was a good night though. Rob put together a football quiz that was great fun, and I wisely bowed out at around midnight instead of going to Will's for cheap liquers. +2 (-4).

Saturday morning, and a visit to my accountant to find out the damage for my tax return. To my huge relief, the bill is just over half of what I had expected. A big +2 (-2).

Rangers could only draw 2-2 at Dundee United, giving Celtic the chance to open up a 6 point lead at the top of the league -1 (-3). Celtic could only draw 1-1 with Hearts +1 (-2).

Saturday was the Chiswick Casuals day/night out. Started with team go-karting, in which Sav and I came second. Annoyingly, and to my mind controversially, I was given a sin bin penalty for entering the pit lane too fast, which could just have made the difference between first and second place. Still, never let it be said that I'm a poor loser...

A great game of football followed, then drinks and a Thai meal. I brought along a copy of the quiz from Friday night, which was fun. Soapy and I got home by Scooterman - a guy with a fold-up scooter who drove us back in Soapy's car. They really haven't marketed this properly - it's a great idea and should be more popular than it is.

All in all, a good day and night out +2 (0).

When I got home on Saturday, James was home for the weekend. On Sunday Wenge went to Nottingham to pick up Laura. In the meantime, I went to the Race of Champions at Wembley, with Lee, Suzanne and Michael. A 6 hour motorsports extravaganza on a mobias band of a racing track, with appearances by Lewis Hamilton, Chris Hoy, Michael Schumacher, Jensen Button, David Coulthard and others. That said, once you've seen a couple of cars racing round Wembley, it doesn't really matter who the drivers are or what cars they're driving - so it was mildly interesting for a while but not that long. The much-vaunted race between Chris Hoy and Lewis Hamilton didn't take place for safety reasons, which must have been annoying for the people who came because of all the publicity around it. +0 (0).

So we left before the final round of races, which allowed me to get home in time to have roast dinner with Wenge, Laura and James. A very big +3, taking me to +3 for the weekend and restoring my faith in the power of Melvtopia...