Are you going?

Wow the organisers of yesterdays fast one have certainly set a VERY high bar for this years races to follow. The Tshirts were great, the start was excellent and on time and the real champions have to be the Marshall’s on route. They were brilliant! Pot holes were well mark and at serious points there were traffic cones up and half a dozen Marshall’s warning of the dangers. Man brilliant, it was an absolute pleasure to ride this race yesterday, to all of you who organised thanx very much and congrats on an excellent job! Last comments – stunning medals!

Thank you

This week I have been over come by the desperation in the world – highlighted by the plight of the rescues in Haiti. The news coverage has been nothing short of brilliant. CNN must have half a dozen film crews there capturing the desperation on the faces of the Haitian people. Seeing the lady and the kids being pulled from the rubble with the final death toll and loss of the country still adding up. One of my personal triggers is that of desperation, seen in all forms however this week seeing the sheer desperation in Haiti bought me to tears. It is really sad and mulling it over in my head this week it dawned on me how catastrophic it really is. I mean imagine having nothing and having that taken away rom you? How do you take nothing away from people who have nothing? Then hit them with another 6.2 earth quake! Think about it for a second , scientifically it makes no sense however it is happening / happened in Haiti these last few days. Anderson Cooper – big up to you, I saw you get involved in a skirmish – you put humanity before work  and you could not stand there while all this is going on around you – NICE!

Ok I am a parent and certainly feel for the parents however guys come on now we are 3 years on now! Enough already, you have two kids at home and if you keep globetrotting and sequestering donations and funding all the time you are in essence neglecting the 2 kids that are alive! They are the ones that are suffering the most in all of this with the amount of time you spend away from them as you are clearly focused on the missing / departed. Are two in the hand not worth more one in the bush? Well it certainly is in my books. I am not saying it is easy to go through and accept what has happened, however please this seems to be nothing more than a PR exercise. Do you honestly prefer sitting in courtrooms, police stations and TV shows to being at work (This is what normal families do to eek out an existence) and trying to return your family to some sort of normality! Your constant face in the media – noted with out your other 2 kids – one certainly can assume they are being neglected!

Come now Mr and Mrs Mccann move on and get on with your life!

Sent numerous emails last year excluding the number of calls I have made calls in the past to the customer service lines. The start of the year and you must have 10 bikes out of commission out of a class of 35 odd bikes. Really guys this is not lekker!  “We” write what is wrong with the bikes on the board because we enjoy it? How far do members have to go to constantly advise you of the sub standard service and equipment you have going on in your gym. May I say that it could be attributed to your lack of team work and cohesion as a team. I have said this before and for the benefit of regurgitation here it is again:

I also think that this is compounded by the lack of support the instructors seem to receive from the staff at the gym. This morning was a prime example, there generally enough *decent* riders in a class ask if anyone else could take the class, have some spare CD’s in the lifestyle desk…?. When I asked this morning for assistance from the “lifestyle desk” I was advised to go down stairs to some or other office…just seems to be a lack of cohesion and team work within the staff members and instructors alike – just my two cents and some feedback as a gym member.

This non committed, I do not give a dam attitude approach is now expressed by the instructors. The poor  young lady in yesterdays class tried at least 4 different bikes before giving up and leaving the class – did the instructor help? Na man this is planet fitness Fourways they do not give a dam!

Oh and guys here is a link where you can buy some koi for your pond of a plunge pool!

NEW YORK (Reuters) – McDonald’s Corp plans to offer free Wi-Fi service at most of its U.S. restaurants, starting on January 15, a spokeswoman said on Monday.

source

Is that just not the greatest move for clients that will certainly own a new wave of service for clients. Imagine that where internet access is free while you eat. Yes certainly I believe we are years away before we see anything of this magnitude here in SA. We are generally a few years behind such bold developments however as an end use I am certainly excited at the scope and bold step of Mc Donalds. Good on you!

This is certainly what is called trend setting!

Suprise you been in the mall for 1 hour and you need to pay for parking! You saw the sign when you arrived and went into the parking you can see the sign above the cash point, then why I ask is it such a suprise when the machine says pay R7 and NOW you have to start searching for your purse and then money in your purse – this is not an age thing I have noticed this been done by young and old. I must say more often than not it is a female doing the suprise thing at the front of the que, this however I believe is slanted due to the % of men in the mall is minuet compared to the female population.

The males however do make up for themselves when it comes to the Toll gate. You see the signs for over 20 kilometers! Again and again that a toll gate is coming up and how much to pay – however you wait until you are at the front of the que to search for the R22.25 that you need to pay the toll person – and my do you look really suprised to be told you have to pay R22.25! Wait for it -

Surprise! You a looser!

Yup I am in the service industry however aren’t we all in some way or another as that is what we do for a living right. You need this I do it and you pay me. That is what work is. Now over December I am gobsmacked to experience how totally lame people become over December. Some examples   – there was an urgent matter that needed to be cleared up before xmas – needless to say I get the email sent to me yesterday that was sent for action to the 3rd person on 18 December – that is almost 3 weeks of in activity on an urgent sensitive issue. Another example was trying to get someone out to assist with a stuck car between xmas and new year, the answers received and I tried over a dozen ranged from , “no sorry cannot help call another branch”, tow the car here and we will have a look – interesting 3 places said this! or sorry to busy call someone else or another prime one, um no I am on holiday! Sure people are allowed to take vacations however surely if you are in business you make alternative arrangements so your business continues? Or maybe that there is a mechanism in place where you assist the client or potential client that came to you in the first place? Surely this will get them coming back next time? Surely? Or have a missed the boat completely and I am a workaholic and must back off? When I menti0ned this to someone this morning they put it down to level of service and yup I agree at this time of the year it seems to rear its ugly head further than other times and it is more noticeable.

With this in mind I have had 3 great experiences in the last 6 hours that has restored my humanity. First one this morning the owner from the Mac Donalds in Rivonia called me to agree that the burger was bad and they are working on it. Nice! 2nd one was my lunch – the sandwich shop was very busy so the owner bought me my lunch! Awesome service! Then lastly it was I went to a tool hire place this morning and you can judge by the warehouse they deal with larger companies – this DIY guy (me) was helped by the manager of the store who actually stopped doing what he was in the back to come and help me! Nice one guys!

Ok I did collect a fair share of tshirts and even the free ones were better off than the paid ones from the 94.7 cycle challenge – wore it this holiday and I must say I dare wear it again, it is the most flimsy ugliest t shirt I have likely worn – ever. Agreed I did not have the best ever race so may be a tad disgruntled with the shirt however lets face it guys this is a shirt we paid for. If it was a sponsored freebie then hell no problem – hopefully it’s next owner will make more use of this shocking t shirt! Forget “memorabilia”  I am too scared to wash it as I do not believe it will survive a standard washing cycle. LOL maybe I should ‘hand wash’ it when I wash my car with it.  (Expensive luppie) 94.7 add this to that clump of metal you called a medal at the finish line – what a let down after a fantastically, organized, brilliant event!

Well I thank the lord we returned home safely yesterday from our holiday away. Last night I was amazed at what the road death toll is standing at with a week still to go. I am shattered to learn that the toll was sitting at 1050 last night, statistically speaking with the figures given aprox 25% were drivers and over 35% were pedestrians! I mean wow man that means that the pbiggest portion of deaths on our roads are not even people in motor vehicles!  yes I certainly have blogged on road accidents before however lets face it is the arrive alive campaign targeting the correct people. It would be interesting to see an elaboration on the stats:

• How many pedestrians were killed at night?
• How many drivers were killed after hitting a pedestrian?
• How many pedestrians were over the legal driving limit? They are after all road users?

This certainly would shed light on where the arrive alive campaign should be focusing. I had an idea that all pedestrians coming close to the road should wear reflective armbands or sashes, I believe these have been made however clearly not on a wide enough scale as I have not seen one in use. This would be a great way of advertising not only for arrive alive however also for the breweries, give them out and when people leave the shebeens at night, leaving wearing a sash. Are you aware that in the USA the bars can get the arm of the law coming after them if they serve alcohol to people are clearly over the limit. Yes I know it is not the establishments responsibility to their patrons on this level and the more they drink the more money they make, it is however in their best interest to keep their clients coming back.

In defense of bus drivers – yes I realize their are the rouge drivers out there and that despicable bus driver caught drunken driving – not on and not cool – I believe that bus accidents should be seen with the rest of the stats on road accidents.  Are there more people who use buses than cars over the festive season? What % of road users do bus passengers make up? Is it relative? I am sure it is! Yes in an ideal world we do not want any accidents and certainly not with buses or taxis due to the sheer amount of passengers they carry.

In conclusion I sincerely hope we do not see the current death toll rise any further before the world starts turning again.