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Nature, Nurture? No Excuse!

December 6, 2011 By

I was chatting to a friend recently, suggesting she didn’t seem to get upset by much (too wise and too mature); she suggested it was part of her West Country Heritage. Interesting point – but by the same token, I’ve heard people with red hair claim that their bad temper wasn’t anything they could control… “It’s in my gene’s; I’m a redhead”.

Film poster for Blonde and Blonder

Image via Wikipedia

That struck me as no more sensible than the idea that blondes are dim.

And that in turn raised for me the old, old question of “nature vs nurture”. Now, I should add that with a PhD from a department of Geography and over 24 years research in universities, I’m pretty much committed to the idea that there’s an effect of space, but that doesn’t in itself exclude either of the options.

Now, I’m not saying there’s not a genetic issue here – you only have to look at the physical variation of humanity on a global scale to see how much people can vary physically and I’m sure there’s the possibility of psychological variations as well…

But what I am saying, is that there are two other things to consider as well.

Firstly, it’s very difficult to differentiate genetic character tendencies from culturally orientated character tendencies. (Don’t forget, we’re only taking tendencies here anyway!) Secondly, and for me more important at the moment is that people can often use a ‘condition’ or a ‘diagnosis’ as an excuse for not fighting the problem…

“My dad was a bully, so I’m bound to be.”

“All the women in our family are gobby.”

Sigh. Even if that’s true, it’s no excuse for not at least trying to not be a bully, not be gobby, not be whatever.

Medical diagnosis seem to be used the same way: “I’ve got social anxiety disorder”, meaning that the person involved didn’t feel the need to engage in the usual social order and had the ideal get-out to play. After all, we can’t make them be nice to people because they’re being rude, they’re just ill.

Maybe.

But to be honest, if you look at the definitions of many such ‘disorders’ they’re just labels to describe the symptoms… That’s a diagnosis in one sense, sure, but it’s not the same as saying that someone is hot, shivery and miserable because they’ve got a bacterial infection. With a cold we know the cause and we know what to do to help the person fight it.

Saying “I’ve got XYZ syndrome” is about as helpful as my GP, to whom I’d taken my daughter with a rash around the mouth saying “Ah yes… she’s got peri-oral dermatitis”… in other words, a rash around the mouth!

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Simon Raybould is one of the country's most widely read and regarded providers of voice and presentation skills training.
Filed Under: Latest:, Life, Simon Raybould

You say Tian Tian and Yang Guang, we say Sunshine and Sweetie?

December 5, 2011 By

In this age when we are more correct in our pronunciations – think Nestlé, Majorca, and probably many others that my brain has dumped to make room for more necessary things – can we really not be trusted with the given names of two giant pandas visiting Scotland?

Giant Pandas eating bamboo in Chengdu, Sichuan

Image via Wikipedia

Since hearing on what must have been a quiet news Sunday, that locally these two wonderful creatures are to be known as “Sunshine” and “Sweetie” (really…?), I’ve been rather annoyed that the British cannot be trusted with their Chinese names – Tian Tian and Yang Guang. Are these even the best translations?

Do we really need to continue this dumbing down, when some of our “great” nation may have their perceptions of people swayed by “reality” shows such as TOWIE, Desperate Scousewives and Made in Chelsea? Could we perhaps appeal to those who shudder at the very idea of watching such nonsense and encourage a more intelligent and more likely to be useful approach to all things? What happened to the nation of scientists, of inventors, explorers, shopkeepers even? Is it that we’re too busy working and earning to cover our lack of pensions to effect any kind of influence on how our nation is encouraged to think, do, act?

I do wonder what this country might come to – perhaps a sign of approaching grumpy old dotage? One thing’s for sure, If I was a visiting panda, I’d turn around and go home again.

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For her sins, Babs is editor for Blokes on the Blog when not helping people use WordPress for their website and/or blog. She wishes she'd had this much male attention 20 years ago...
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Was Clarkson’s Folly Once His Genius?

December 3, 2011 By

Image VIA WIKIPEDIA

Any foreign visitor reading the news in England today might wonder if Jeremy Clarkson is a trained journalist. There seem to be no end to his politically incorrect gaffs. One wonders if he is even employable in today’s troubled political climate?

Although he never studied journalism in college Clarkson trained as a journalist with the Rotherham Advertiser. He also wrote for two other local newspapers before in 1984 Clarkson formed the Motoring Press Agency (MPA), which conducted road tests syndicating them to local newspapers and automotive magazines. This led to him being recruited by the BBC’s Top Gear in 1993.

Clarkson’s stance about most things is often contemptuously out of step with National policy. He frequently makes reactionary and politically incorrect statements espousing all our rights to free speech. This has made him lots of friends and more than a few enemies.

The problem for Clarkson today, however, is although there may have been a place for someone to laude common prejudices in the days when the Blair administration reduced critical thinking and common sense to politically correct ‘sound-bite pap’ we no longer live in those times.

Clarkson too is showing his years. Once a cheeky schoolboy, who got to drive Astons and Lamborghinis for our entertainment, today he is simply a blubbery fat git in jeans. Levi Straus hate him since the term ‘The Clarkson Effect’ was coined for men of a certain age wearing young mens’ denim.

He’s an unlikely Peter Pan, that’s his real problem. As an interviewer he always claimed to admire Alan Wicker, a veteran BBC reporter who toured the world asking impertinent questions of people with English charm. Wicker’s was an elder statesman’s charm, Clarkson is still attempting to be an outrageously naughty schoolboy and it doesn’t really work any more.

His most recent gaff was to state that people who commit suicide are selfish. Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind, described the comments as “extraordinarily tasteless”, especially in the wake of the death of footballer Gary Speed. I’ve read the ‘Sun’ article in which he made the remark. Much of it is utterly sensible, indeed it may be interpreted as inferring that Clarkson’s sympathies are with the bereaved relatives of people who take their own lives. A little more care in his wording and it would have been an excellent article that may even have done some good? Indeed, even though controversial, it might still make a few think twice before contemplating such a step.

What it ignores, however, is that those drawn to the kinds of suicide that Clarkson is writing about do so when their minds are unbalanced either by dint of social pressures, or because a combination of drink and prescribed drugs, or even a reaction to such drugs has, to their mind, left them with no other choice. People who genuinely make attempts on their own lives later freely admit that although they knew what they were doing was wrong, and they felt sorry for their families and friends whom they were letting down they couldn’t stop their thoughts and actions.

There are those who simply make suicidal gestures, of course, which are more akin to cries for help. I’m not writing about such people.

So what is Clarkson to do now, as if I should know?

He should resign. Take himself off the map. Grow cucumbers in a  Gloucestershire greenhouse. Give up smoking. Take a cure. Lose weight. Rest, meditate, sit under a tree.

Then he should investigate some incredible leak that reveals just how corrupt the world really is under all the spin and gloss that is peddled to us in the name of political correctness, and in the manner of a reformed, and now elder statesman like, character sock the establishment right behind the eyes and where it hurts.

Stephen Bray writes in a stream of consciousness, but sometimes is a good read . . .
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A real approach to Yuletide?

November 25, 2011 By

Each Christmas comes round and, almost inevitably, we react with faux horror to the traffic mayhem, the commercial exploitation, the loss of spiritual meaning and the absence of real feeling. The fault, of course, is all ours. We vote with our feet and retailers know it and stock up to meet demand for our crass, thoughtless purchases. We are all on an economic treadmill, we say. We haven’t got time to plan a genuine family celebration and craft thoughtfully-made gifts. We substitute real feeling with pappy, unwanted presents, glitzy decorations and false wishes of bonhomie underpinned by overconsumption of alcohol.

holly after

Our Yuletide holly wreaths echo the Holly King who represents the dark half of the year, while the other is personified by his counterpart the Oak King: the two battle endlessly as the seasons turn. Image by ali edwards via Flickr

But what’s Christmas really about? Strip away the surface celebration and its about our mythic relief that the days have begun to lengthen again and that we might just pull out of another cold, dark winter into new life with warmth, fecund husbandry and budding crops. It’s a pre-Christian celebration of mid-winter and it predates Bethlehem, Babylon and Memphis. Our Nordic and Germanic ancestors called it Yule but how did it become the 25th of December? Since time has been measured more accurately, and the Earth’s orbit of the Sun has changed slightly over thousands of years, the winter solstice now falls closer to the 22nd of December.

At one time the solstice occurred on the 25th December and it was this day that was always celebrated as Midwinter Day, the re-birth of the sun. It was a traditional day of getting together and feasting, sharing of gifts and thinking about others.

Yule is taken from the old Nordic word Jul, meaning wheel of fire. The Sun is re-born and hence the cycle starts again, the wheel turns once more. The longest night shall pass and give birth to longer days. Between Samhain and Yule, the God of Night, the Holly King has ruled and been our guide.

Yuletide traditions abound, habits which precede Christmas by millennia are still preserved. Holly is used as a decoration to depict the outgoing Holly King, usually in the form of a wreath, hung upon the door, and a Yule Log is brought in (today more often in the form of a cake) to celebrate his rebirth as Oak King.

Mistletoe, which is sacred to the Sun, is used to invoke fertility and the healing powers of the increasing solar power. Sacred trees are decorated with offerings: the Christmas tree only dates back to a tradition introduced by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s consort.

Also worth a mention here is the Roman feast of Saturnalia: gift-giving of luxury items seems to originate in this feast. It honoured the god — you guessed it! — Saturn and was long established by the Romans before they invaded Britain and celebrated on the 19th December.

It was a time when masters waited on servants at mealtime and gifts of light were given, particularly candles (this may have been in honour of a solar deity for the upcoming solstice). This practice is reflected in the British Army’s tradition of officers serving soldiers their Christmas meal.

Economically, many of us are feeling the pinch and perhaps we can use hardship to give us a real sense of what Yuletide is really about.

Whatever your faith and beliefs, I hope you will join us this Christmas in celebrating the simple joys, friendships and love, thinking about those still suffering the after effects of the Japanese tsunami, Turkish earthquake, Thai floods and all other natural disasters; stop to think of those who are less fortunate than ourselves who continue to suffer without murmuring.

Briggs' illustration of the snowman.

Films like this help us see and celebrate the real spirit of Christmas. Image via Wikipedia

I hope you will see through the commercialism to the celebration of the wheel of Yule turning towards longer days (you will just have to turn this on its head in the Southern hemisphere!). For those of us fortunate enough to have families, let’s take joy in all family members, however hard they are to put up with.

Let’s visit those in homes and institutions, volunteer our time to those who are isolated and feed anyone who has less than we do. Let’s honour the real spirit of Yuletide rather than just going through the motions of cards, presents and hollow greetings.

We will all be tired and need a midwinter break but in our own ways, I hope we will also celebrate Midwinter’s Day in the tradition of all our ancestors, by giving thanks to Mother Earth and the re-birth of the sun, by thinking about others less fortunate and cherishing our own family and friends, by caring about all the other life that we share this planet with.

Jeremy Dent is a marketing communications leader specialising in content strategy, production and management for websites, blogs and social media. He’s married with three adult children, lives in Stockport and likes the great outdoors as well as having a studious (and household crafts) side. He also writes a personal blog.

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Jeremy is the business development co-ordinator for Carbon Creative, a design agency (graphic, Web, digital) based near MediaCity, Salford. Carbon, as the name suggests, has a neutral footprint and specialises in brands with green credentials.
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Do Charities Need Tribes To Survive?

November 22, 2011 By

As Christmas approaches major charities will be communicating with you via the post and e-mail exhorting you to buy their cards and Christmas gifts. Many will do so, frequently because they feel an affinity with the cause the charity represents.

Stephen Bray with survivors of the 1999 Turkish EarthquakeThe author in 2000 with some survivors
of theTurkish earthquake of 1999

You may, for example, have an almost biological drive to help animals, in which case the RSPCA, or PDSA are likely charities to support? Maybe you, or a close relative, or friend were abused as children? The NSPCC is then a likely choice for you.

It’s twelve years since my eldest brother died of cancer and my widowed sister-in-law, who is now pushing on through her seventies, still helps to run a small charity shop that provides help for cancer sufferers in the North of England. The experience of watching my brother die painfully over many months initiated her into a tribe.

I wrote in an earlier post of how my grandfather became addicted to codeine, and how this affected the lives of my mother, my brothers and me. We too belong to a tribe. It was this sense of belonging that helped me to work for ten years as a consultant to Streetscene, an addictions charity based in Bournemouth. I watched it grow from a small hostel to having three residential treatment centres as well as a day care facility.

During that period I also trained the senior staff in therapeutic and management skills. I loved working with this group and felt an affinity with them, even though I did not share their direct experience of being an addict.

It was from Streetscene that I first realised the importance of what Seth Godin refers to as tribes. At the time I simply thought of addicts who had passed through Streetscene, and also Clouds, another addictions charity to whom I later provided services, as a collection of people with something in common. As time passed, however, I realised that the bond, for those who had managed to regain a measure of control over their lives, was far deeper.

Today many people who have successfully restored their balance continue to keep in touch with each other, and also support others who are struggling with faltering steps, to follow their paths.

According to Godin a tribe is a group of people who are connected to an idea, and a leader, who can inspire their passion. Human beings, he says, have a need to belong. There is apparently a sense of safety in belonging, but that sense of belonging also enables people to take action. In the past a tribe meant belonging to a village. Later industrialisation broke up villages and people worked in organisations. Today the Internet has, to a degree, changed this as more and more people are returning to home based work made possible by working within today’s digital economy. There are, of course, other kinds of tribe. Narcotics Anonymous is a tribe, within Seth’s definition, as was the CND and the Greenham Women. Greenpeace supporters may be tribal, at the core they undoubtedly are, whilst at the edges some will simply make donations from their armchairs.

There are elements of tribalism that can exist within charities when leaders take the initiative with projects. The U.K. photographer Rankin, for example, created something extraordinary in the project commissioned for Oxfam when he visited the Congo to take images of Congolese villagers living in conditions of extreme hardship. His were no harrowing images of pot-bellied children, but images of ‘real’ people, like you and I, full of emotion and humanity. In some ways Ranking’s images connect us to the tribe. We see ourselves in the village’s faces, which at its core is fundamental to belonging to any tribe.

Over the years I’ve worked with several charities, and all the really successful ones have an active tribe of supporting them. One group from a project that helped survivors from the 1999 Turkish earthquake are still in-touch, although now separated in different locations across the world.

This week I will start to help yet another. It is a charity that is registered in both the U.K. and in Spain. It’s a small organisation that provides help to children in India, Burma, and Ecuador. Over the years people have sponsored children in these countries; schools have been built, and medicines dispensed.

I’m sure the charity could do much more, if it had more funds. The trouble is, however, that the current supporters help mainly because they like the cause, or know the founders. The tribal kinship is weak, so my job will be to devise means of communication that can strengthen it among existing supporters and also provide a more communal and rewarding experience for those who find it along the way.

There’s much more to do, or course, but to my mind the future of this small charity will be made, or broken, by its ability to grow its own healthy tribe.

Seth Godin @ NextGen: Charity 2010 from NextGen:Charity on Vimeo.

Stephen Bray writes in a stream of consciousness, but sometimes is a good read . . .
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Twenty Twelve – Are You Ready?

November 21, 2011 By

It is fast approaching 2012, with an excellent 2011 almost over, I have sat down and started mapping out what needs to be in place for next year.

HTML5 & Flash Content

Adobe have finally thrown in the towel and will no longer be supporting Flash for mobile browsers, which is about time, but this will seriously affect websites with any flash content on them. If you are using WordPress (I really do not see the point in using anything else these days), this will be an easy transition thanks to VideoJS, a great plugin that will detect flash and non flash capable browsers, converting to HTML5 version if no Flash is found.

A few weeks ago when I was looking at mobile stats in the UK, I found a staggering stat, 16.7 Million people are browsing the internet with their mobile phones, in the UK alone. So making sure you are mobile friendly online is not a fad, it is a must.

Google Plus logo

Image by Bruce Clay, Inc via Flickr

Social Media Changes

Ok, so the biggest social media buzz so far this year is Google Plus (G+), which I am a massive fan of, as this seriously affects your Google position. If you already have a G+ account, you would have seen the difference in search results from people you are linked with (Circles). If you have not yet got a G+ account, make that the second thing you do after reading this blog (the first is to comment, yes, I am an attention seeking whore!). You can now have a personal account and a business page on G+, get increasing your circles, add the G+ button/widget to your websites, email signatures and any other social media linking you do.

Facebook and Twitter are far from dead, but G+ has the biggest affect on your search engine positioning.

Video Content

This is becoming insanely popular, we saw Google starting to drop videos into search results this year, and with approximately 24 hours of video added every minute on YouTube, the growth is tremendous. I can appreciate there will be some people reading this that think their industry does not need videos, but I assure you, they do!

You can film tutorials, how to videos, help videos, product demonstrations, speeches and just about anything you can point a camera at (or capture on screen).

Not something I use, but a few clients love the FlipCam, I think they are around £100 or less, perfect for a quick movie here and there. For screen capture I use Camtasia:Mac, but there is a Windows version too, great bit of kit.

UX – User Experience

This is being dropped in nearly every phonecall I have at the minute, UX is the hands on side to anything you do, the thing that makes people click, email, read, browse, contact and get involved. We have been changing for years, people want things that they are involved with, not just flat text and info. Remember when the “Red Button” first popped up on TV, now it is the norm, press green for reminder, press to record series link etc, fully interactive. This is something you need on your websites, bland should be taken outside and shot.

Think how you can create interactivity for your visitors and clients.

What Else Was There?

This is a cheeky little tip, but you should be dropping Olympics into your keywords, lets face it, most people reading this have something to offer the Olympics, so people will be searching for it, Olympic Web Design, Olympic Marketing, Olympic Social Media      …you get the picture.

I mean, if we have to host the thing, we may as well take advantage of it!

If I have missed anything out, comment below and share your pre-emptive 2012 tips and ideas.

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Chris "Kip" Carrier

Kip's natural habitat is at the mac messing around with websites and graphics . . .

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God save me from Hen Parties

November 16, 2011 By

Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for fun; I’m all for people enjoying themselves and they can be as sound and excited as they like.

Is The Bride Well?

Image by Eric The Fish (2011) via Flickr

But could they please, please have their (noisy) good time on a different train? I don’t mind what train they get on, just not mine.

My father-in-law has a similar approach to wind turbines. He’s fully and completely clued up on the need for renewable energy and he’s fully supportive of the idea of having wind turbines….

….. just not where he can see them. After all, there are other parts of the country which are just as windy. Windier, in fact. Obviously. it stands to reason that they’re windier? Why? Because they’re Not Near Him.

The lady on the train next to me as I type this has just commented to me that the people a couple of rows of seats in front of us should pass around their bottle of wine. I like that idea, to be honest, and she’s quite serious about it.

But I wonder how she’d react if I applied the same idea to her pile of crisps, biscuit and bottle of orange juice.

Not long ago I attended a meeting in my local church hall about some new houses that were proposed for the neighbourhood. I lost count of the number of people who said there’s a dire need for new houses, so that young people can get started on the property ladder these houses should be built somewhere else.

They may have been right, of course, but I’ll bet my pension that a similar meeting in the church hall at ‘somewhere else’. would say the same thing.

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Simon Raybould is one of the country's most widely read and regarded providers of voice and presentation skills training.
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I Do Watch some TV – Graham’s Top TV

November 14, 2011 By

In my totally rational hate of reality TV some of you may have thought that I don’t actually watch anything at all. That is not the case I do. However what I watch is limited and for a specific reason. I don’t do the channel surfing thing as there is never anything on of course.

Here, therefore, is the stuff that I watch and why.

Dragons' Den (UK)

Image via Wikipedia

1) Dragon’s Den
Obviously it is a bit contrived, I am sure they only let some of the ideas in there to take the Mickey, but Dragon’s Den is an awesome show which shows what you should be looking for if you are ever thinking of pitching your ideas to investors. The show is a general “How Not To Do it” at times but some pitches are excellent. After reading “Pitch Anything” recently I watch it now with even more interest.

2) Derren Brown
The guy amazes me with his skill of course but I watch it for another reason at times, especially the latest series of The Experiments. The psychology of the tricks, misdirections and manipulations I find fascinating. Obviously there are things that can be used in business without resorting to cutting somebody in half and that is what I am on the lookout for.

3) Liverpool matches
Obviously steam has to be let off at times and this is my outlet even if I have to find a dodgy stream with an Arabic commentary. (At this point I would like to thank Roy Hodgson for the primal scream therapy that the first half of last season meant to me when watching the Reds was like picking one’s own retina out with a pair of tweezers.)

4) Reruns of Mock the Week, and sometimes “Have I Got News For You”
I want to keep up my cynical nature of course. I just cannot believe that this format has not been sold to Spanish TV as there is so much raw material here that would make it required viewing and they could easily do 24 hours per day.

5) Scooby Doo
Nothing to do with business, self improvement or anything of the sort. It is just that at the moment this is my kids’ favourite and it always seems to be on in the background while I am doing something else.

Apple TV top and front

Image by niallkennedy via Flickr

6) Apple TV
The latest videos from YouTube and other places streamed using the iPad and iPhone to the TV so we can constantly watch the Panda sneezing, Charlie Bit My Finger, and any number of fail blogs for my kids amusement ( and mine too of course)

So the question is of course is what you watch these days. Do the watch the incessant drivel of reality TV? (more on that to come in a future post comparing Spanish reality TV with the UK) Do you live on a diet of sport? Are you a documentary freak constantly amazed by the voiceovers of David Attenbrough? How does the goggle box work for you?

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@VodafoneUK – Customer Care #Fail

November 9, 2011 By

To set the scene, my father has just turned 63, he is disabled, suffers with mental issues (this could be down to his son!), is not very internet savvy, and has been a Vodafone customer for 5 years with a business account.

Happy Birthday, From Vodafone

My dear old dad had a birthday at the end of October, so I popped over to the family home for the weekend to celebrate, drop presents, cards and sample some home cooking.

I am still here, four days later, luckily I can work from anywhere, but my father is not too well, so I am here doing a few bits and bobs and generally giving a bit back from all I have taken over the years, shame Vodafone cannot do the same.

I pick the story up this morning, when my dad is asking me if he is going mad, has he got the right address? Now I am scatty, quite distant at times, so forget things like this all the time, but my dad is in quite a flap at this, he thinks he has forgotten where he lives (seriously, and dealing with anxiety is not his strong point). I check the letter he has in front of him, from Vodafone, one of their bills to my dad’s address, I check the address against the one he sent them in an email saying did not match to his account. It did, I can assure you, exactly the same!

Dad relaxes a tad and asks what should he do now? So obviously I want to know what has sparked all this off, my dad is nowhere near being committed to a care-home, but he is not well, and is not as internet and spam/scam savvy as I; I am always telling him to check email addresses, especially when replying.

Anyway, he shows me an email he sent to them on the 27th (actually, they said their computer systems were down, so he could not send this to them until the 28th October 2011). My dad has been with Vodafone for 5 years, with both of their (his and my stepmums) phone bills going through this account, he has recently taken a couple of iPad contracts out too, so he was querying why his anniversary date had been changed without his knowledge, why one iPad contract is 48 months (he was told about this afterwards in a retail store), why he had received a message to XXXXXXXXXXX saying his internet allowance was almost used up, when he was on unlimited usage and he could not list the other complaints, as he had ran out of characters on their “webform” (I will get to that in a moment*).

 

Add to this, the fact that he also reminded them that they had taken two unauthorised payments from his card this year (I believe this is called theft), the first of which (14/02/2011) was promised to be returned to his card/account and never was, it was credited instead, meaning he still didn’t have it back in his own account specifically used for Direct Debits (this is budgeted from his savings account when they are due out). The second was taken, without authority, on 08/09/2011, and refunded on the 14/09/2011 (so it seems they can refund, not just credit).

Now, obviously this annoys me, because this is my father, but it get’s worse when they reply!

Vodafone – Security Conscious Company?

How many times are we told never to share our pin numbers, or that “our company or representatives will never ask for your pin number”? This is a online security room 101! So what is the first thing they ask my dad for? His pin number! I am always on at dad about what he sends online, so he sent them his address instead, from the email that is linked to his account.

Their answer: This address does not match the address on your account (remember we started here!), so this really is being strung out, and with my dads mental issues, it is really sending him to a place nobody likes to be. A question raised on the 27th, still has no answer, or even an “I’m sorry Mr Carrier, bear with me while we look into this for you!’.

Having looked at their Privacy Policy (something which in my line of work, I am extremely familiar with), and I quote 008000;">Security, 5c. Communications over the internet, such as ff0000;">emails, are ff0000;">not secure unless they have been encrypted. Your communications may go through a number of countries before being delivered – this is the nature of the internet. We cannot accept responsibility for any unauthorised access or loss of personal information that is beyond our control.

Yet they ask for a pin number, and personal information that can clearly be snatched from the digital atmosphere, could they not have called him? Could they not have given him a customer care team number to ring?

*And Another Thing…

I am more critical than most when it comes to online contact, websites etc, as this is what my company does, so to see Vodafones email coming from “Webform”, I mean come on, I have sole trader clients that have more professionally set up email than that! Webform, this narks me completely, I charge for services I/we provide that are professional and image conscious for our clients customers, and when we set up their emails and contact forms, they would never be left with a standard templated description such as Webform!

I am utterly disgusted at this shoddy, amateur giant.

I expect much more than an apologetic email for my father, it is not something you want to see, the man you wanted to be as a child, big, strong, assertive Dad, flapping and getting seriously upset because some minimum wage, desk jockey, untrained in correct customer care, does not know how to help! I mean come on, who shares their pin online, via an email, to a company, who’s email says “Webform”, not even “Vodafone Online Care Team” or whatever, you get the point. Rank amateurs. And then going on to say the address is wrong, but it has been fine for the years they have been taking payments for their terrible reception, overpriced contracts, poor service etc etc! Why the hell my dad should pay for their F1 advertising when they cannot even get his contracts or address correct, I don’t know!

7 days from the first enquiry, and nothing…

Chris "Kip" Carrier

Kip's natural habitat is at the mac messing around with websites and graphics . . .

Filed Under: Blogging, Family, Internet, Kip, Latest:, Life

Phew – The Town Is Ours Again!

November 8, 2011 By

This week Turks are celebrating the Kurban Bayramı. This is the Islamic festival known elsewhere as Eid el-Adha or Eid el-Kebir in Arabic. Tour guides who claim that this is a bad time to visit Turkey are wrong. It’s a time when you will find Turks enjoying themselves with friends and family. Although Turkey is a secular state with no official religion most here are Muslims and so the religious holidays have a similar significance to those celebrated in the U.K., even when no faith is being sanctified.

This year the Kurban Bayramı coincides with the end of the tourist season. The little restaurant at the end of the pier closed a couple of days ago and so yesterday we were forced to travel the two kilometres into Turunç, our nearest town in search of fish.

In the summer I hardly go to Turunç, or Marmaris the nearest place of any size at all. They are full of tourists many of whom seem to have lost all traffic sense as they wander around in the roads complaining about the heat. Why do they come?

Amos Restaurant, Turunç, Marmaris, Turkey - image © Stephen Bray

Amos Restaurant, Turunc, Nr, Marmaris, on a Summer's Evening.

It’s difficult to say. Certainly not for Turkish culture, not in these parts anyway. Our restaurants have learned that a stable menu of Heinz Beanz with H.P. Sauce is a great attraction. Offer someone Lahmacun or Gozleme and they’ll say ‘wot’s that?’ and seek directions to the nearest MacDonalds.

In Turunç we’re fortunate. We have more discriminating tourists than Marmaris. We used to be a fishing port and many restaurants still offer freshly caught fish. Our mayor’s family have owned one of these since 1956 and although I’m never to be found there in the summer it was my first choice when yesterday fish summoned. It was a good choice.

We sat as a family on the sea-front. The mayor greeted us warmly, as did his wife and mother in due course. Later a steady stream of people stopped by our table to extend Bayram greetings and catch up with gossip about the season. Where in the summer everyone is on their toes now we are all relaxed. We are like a family once more.

Indeed, not one but three, chefs suddenly emerged from the kitchen insisting that we examine the fish at close hand. They were huge. There were heaps of them waiting on chilled trays. More varieties than I have ever seen elsewhere all fresh and staring out with eyes so bright I expected them to blink.

The mayor’s brother, who runs the restaurant, reminded me that soon we will be able to barbecue fish on the beaches. I love this. The phone rings and one of our locals, usually slightly pootled, speaks with Mrs. Bray. “Come, come”, he extols, “We’re on the beach”. The beach in question may be the one at the end of our road, or it could be five miles away and accessible only by motor-cycle or 4 x 4. Anyway we go and the hospitality flows. Wives are never invited to these gatherings, but Mrs. Bray is an honorary ‘bloke’, maybe because she wears my old jeans on these occasions, as they are now tight around the girth for me?

In the winter families who would charge us fairly for cups of tea, honey,or stew, in their restaurants provide it freely for us in their homes.

Last night, sitting at the table, I realised that I have come home. In seven years we have made friends, become part of this community. People trust us and enjoy our company. When they need something they ask, as we do to them. It’s a nice feeling, especially when the town is ours again.

Stephen Bray writes in a stream of consciousness, but sometimes is a good read . . .
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