I'm Back!

It's been some time since I last posted.

Here are some of the things I've been pondering recently:

Thought One:

• Do (completely) blind people have higher or lower lighting bills than the partially- and fully-sighted?
• On one hand, they have no need to turn lights on.
• On the other hand, they would not know if the light was on and so would not know to turn it off. This could be a particular problem if visitors have been
• The question may sound flippant but there must be scores of problems that those with sight or hearing problems must face (running taps, alarms, etc)
• This line of thought is probably driven from my realisation that I'm less than six months away from being thirty and, hence, officially "old"

Thought Two:

• Is it reasonable to pursue a complaint about being supplied with the incorrect service if it turns out the substitution worked out better?
• A group of us went away to Devon last weekend and we hired a car. Nothing special - just a 1.6 Ford Focus
• Upon collection, we signed all the paperwork and then, in what I considered to be a "bait and switch" they casually informed me the car was a diesel.
• I protested (I don't spend good money hiring a car so that I can feel like I'm in a tractor!) but they maintained that it was all they had and that, in any case, it was "better"
• Their assurance that the engine was the "same size" just made me more upset.
• I asked if it was a turbodiesel and they said no.
• However, pleasure upon pleasure, it turned out that it was a turbodiesel and that it was more than satisfactory.
• (In other news, driving through central London on a Friday morning is hell. Driving through central London on a Monday afternon is just fine. Go figure)

Thought Three:

• What is the difference between "Business Process Management" and "Case Management"?
• I rather like Bruce Silver's thoughts but I'm still not entirely settled

Thought Four:

• They changed everybody's badges at work recently (to enable a groovy new salary-sacrifice tax-efficient payment system). Problem: they printed my old "fat Richard" picture on the card.
• They also messed up my card so that I couldn't spend my tax-free cash on it for the first two weeks
• Question: I can calculate my losses from having to buy my lunches from post-tax income and the lost interest on the money I spent that would otherwise have been saved but what is the cost to me of having to wear a sevel-year old photo?