There's a FAT Rat in mi Kitchen what am I gonna do?,

Place. A Kebab Shop - Bolton Town Center
Date. 24/02/2011
Time. 23:30

I've just visited a new customer of mine, a Kebab Shop, somewhere in Bolton Town Center. The shop seemed to have acquired some unusual pets, a Family of Fat Rats, those where running about and roaming, like nothing is going on, and that it was all normal. And what's even more disturbing, is the attitude of the staff's, and their  acceptance of these visitor, I could swear that someone was even throwing scraps of food to the family.

How old am I?

Or, how old do I feel. Even though this shell of a body disagrees, I still feel like an 18 year old, which is exactly the age I was, when I left Iraq back in 1981.  It's like I suddenly stopped growing, and the whole of my maturity and future development, was stuck (and indefinitely paused) at that moment in time.

I know that many things have happened to me since, I fell in love, practically everyday, I got married, I had kids, I had grand kids, I worked, I played, I laughed, I cried, I loved. I hated, I lost many dear people along the way, and gained some new family members, I gained weight and, gained weight and, gained weight, I had pets, I lost pets, I had cars, I lost cars, I watched TV, again and again and again, I did do lots of things, but deep down, I'm still an 18 year old kid that never had the chance to grow. A bit like Peter Pan...

but without the Fairies





or the 80's haircut & jumpsuit

Isabelle..

This is a True Story....

Customer rings me with many problems on her PC. I get there, firstly, the printer has stopped working, so she went out and bought a new printer, but this one is not working either...  The second problem was with the Internet Connection (or lack of it), this happened since they bought a new router. And lastly, they needed to share the not working printer, on the a 3 PC office network...

The first problem was because the original printer has run out of paper, and instead of adding some more, the woman decided to go out and buy a new printer, and when that did not work (due to lack of paper, ink, sense and everything else), she phoned me... So I added some paper, and there it was, page, after page, after page, after page of print, all the print jobs from the past 2 days (I didn't bother clearing the print queue)...

The internet problem was due to the fact that the new router had a manual Wireless OFF Switch, you can use that to secure your wireless network when not in use.

.

Crossing Boundaries - "Pakis Out - Muslims Out"...

This is one of the few posts that I will be sharing, on this, and my other Blog(s)... Today, somebody decided to spray paint the back of my house with the following graffiti - "Pakis Out of England - NF - EDL - BNP" and "Muslims Go Home".

Needless to say, mine was not the only house that had that treatment. Every Asian household and business, regardless of whether they were Muslims or not, on the road seemed to have had a similar message sprayed on their walls....

I have no doubt about the culprits. Some small minded, Daily Mail reading, idiots. Who have been Brain Washed by all the, hate-filled, anti immigrant / anti Islam, xenophobic fervour, stirred and encouraged, covertly,  by Right Wings, gutter, Politicians, including our new PM, and Media.

These losers have NO EDUCATION, NO JOBS, NO FUTURE and definitely NO SELF RESPECT, AMBITION or PROSPECTS, and lets face it, it is because they are so very lazy, and think that the World owes them something, that they still blame everybody else for their problems and misfortune, especially the immigrants.

I remember back in 2000, when I lost my nice, cushy, well paid, programming, Job. I did not moan or complain, I just went out and looked for a Job. And the only thing that I could find, was a Night Time, Manual Labourer's position at a local Bakery (paying minimum wage)...

I started work at the same time as 35 other people, and out of that number, 6 were immigrants (including myself, even though I have been living in the UK most of my life). The job was hard, smelly, demanding and very physical. Still, and by the end of the first Night Shift, we had only 8 people remain at the said bakery. The 6 immigrants and 2 others. I stayed there for 3 further years, shifting crap at night, while Developing Software during the day, and paying my taxes and my way, so that lazy ass, good for nothing, Bastards, can  afford to buy spray paint, with their Benefit Money, to write things on my wall...

And today, in 2011 Cameron's Britain, I'm glad to see that racism is alive and well.


"Evil will triumph so long as good men do nothing". And I'm not prepared to do nothing, and nor should anyone...

 Glad to see that literacy is still king.

The Bank Of Horrors.. Part IV

I seem to have more problems with my Bank than anybody else, here, here, here & everywhere else. After all the mess, the hassle and the last fiasco, I was seriously thinking of leaving the Bastards and go to Pastures New, as they say...  But before I could do that, my Bank Manager phoned me and asked to see me... I agreed, I thought, I will go, give them a piece of my mind, tell them what I really think, and to stuff it where the sun does not shine, then leave.

Sadly, and in reality, it did not work this way at all... The Bank Manager was very nice, she told me what date of Birth they were using, and she changed the records, right before my eyes, to the correct date of birth. With no hassle or proof of anything. She just did it (I know it's probably got something to do with the big fat loan that she arranged for me), but hey, live and let live.

So, I go back home and try my Internet Banking, sadly, this did not work, because it needed my WRONG date of birth for it to work. So I type this in and request a new user ID.

3-5 Days later, I get my new user ID, sadly, I have to register Internet Banking via Phone Banking, in order to get this to work. So I ring the bank, tell them the code showing on the website, my account details, sort code, account number, branch, details of any standing orders, etc... And then my date of birth... Now, which date of birth should I use, the right one or the wrong one. Knowing full well, that the Internet server would not entertain me without the wrong date of birth, and it did get me half way through the registration process. So, I thought, and because I'm talking to them about my Internet Banking, to give them the wrong date of birth.

What a big mistake, this did not work, because they were adamant that I was not the real person, because I did not know my date of birth, and now I'm back to square 1.

I really, really, really, really, really... Hate my bank....

Racial Profiling...

I think I will start using Racial Profiling when selling to customers. I wonder whether people would appreciate it if I have a Tee-Shirt with these images depicting who to serve and who not to serve...


I hate SHOUTING...

I really hate SHOUTING to get my point across, sadly this is happening more and more every day. You try and be civil with BASTARD customers, do them a favor or two, and you get kicked in the nuts.

This is one of those stories. Around November 2010, I supplied one of my BASTARD customers a POS pack (PC, Touchscreen Monitor, Printer, Cash Drawer, etc..), at cost. Because the man just had one of these packs stolen from his shop and he told me that he did not have the money to pay there and then, and he would appreciate it, if I could do him a favor and wait a bit, I said OK, I will wait for a month or so, because I didn't need to pay for these just yet.

And guess what, when the time came, the BASTARD decided to mess me about, avoiding my calls, saying that he will pay tomorrow, this week, next week, Monday, Tuesday, or whenever, but he never did.

I really had enough of the BASTARD. Life is hard enough without messing about and wasting my time on idiots like him. Thankfully, I always have a "Plan B", this involves me ringing the machine with a certain mobile number, and that would render it useless... So I did, and the man promised that, if I switch the machine back on, then he would pay me, the very next day (so I did).

And once again, we are back to square one, with him refusing to pay or talk to me, and even becoming more aggressive with every call, threatening to physically harm me and my family, should I disable the software again... Still, I gave him an ultimatum, to pay by Friday, otherwise, this shop will stop working and so will his other shop, (you have to raise the stakes), and the man replied by telling me that he will Kill me if do that...

Now for the weird bit. Whenever there is a problem, or I'm stuck for something, or struggling with money or anything else, something usually happens to sort things out. I don't know if its fate, a guardian angel or just luck, but things seem to have a way of sorting themselves out.. Now, I did not mention that the said outlet was based in Stoke-On-Trent, and I'm based in Bolton, Gt. Manchester, and on the same day, I got a phone call from somebody who is based in Stoke-On-Trent, the man was interested  in my software. Apparently, he had a warehouse / wholesale business in Stoke-On-Trent, and during the conversation he asked me whether I had any outlets using the software around his area, So I mentioned the BASTARD customer, and my problems.  He said, just leave it with him and he will sort it for me. I thanked the man and, really, thought nothing of it, I really thought it was just gonna be some more BS, and I will just have to fend for myself...


And good to his word, the next day and out of the blue, I received a phone call from my BASTARD customer, apologising, paying me in full, and asking me to tell my new customer that all is good now, and we are now the bestest of bodies.Apparently, the new customer is MR.BIG in Stoke-On-Trent, and he was not happy with the way that I was treated, and he used some Gentle Persuasion to achieve this result...

Thank you MR. BIG...