09 septembre 2009
NEW COUNTRY & NEW BLOG
Here is my new personal page :
http://hellasbutnotleast.blogspot.com
See you there !
08 septembre 2008
Long time no see...
Almost two months without any news on this blog. Life goes on. Lot of work, few spare time and even less money ! My misfortunes with HSBC knew a new episode in the middle of August when two more cheques were honoured by my-bank-who-told-me-last-month-that-they-had-cancelled-my-chequebook ! One of these cheques was for a sum of 900 (nine hundred!) pounds ! So, me and my wallet didnt really feel like partying in August, and i am now looking for a new bank.
However, some things happened. My company organized a Quizz Party, where employees were asked to team up and compete together. Of course, i had mine, and we finished... last. Which was good too because we won... an empty promotional Corona bucket, and a shot of something which tasted like Vodka and detergent together. But i am very proud not to know Brad Pitt and Angelica Jolie's babies or the name of the fancy UK band of the moment. No surprise we lost !
At work, I am very close from the end of my probation. It seems i have done well enough to deserve the right to stay for as long as they need me (and as long as i need them). The problem is that I feel this job is beginning to dry my brain out. How long will I stand this ?
06 juillet 2008
Cheques me out !
Sorry for those who could have waited for the last updates of my life here, and other fancy pictures of the town, the truth is that I had something other, but not really better, to think about the last times.
My problems with the bank have reached a point where it has become simply ridiculous. But i'm not fair, my problems were not with the bank, but with the post office. They messed up, and sent my first debit card and cheques to the wrong address. Never seen the stamp of my mail during one week ! So, i ordered a new one, which arrived in due time. My banker cancelled my first card, but NOT my cheques. And, in the meantime, i discovered that, whoever got my card and cheques in his/her letterbox, (s)he had time to spend nearly 200£ with them !
So, back the the bank, to put in a dispute. I went saturday morning, and spent 2 hours and 20 minutes with a great member staff. It happened that we were totally lost, me and him, and bemused, flabbergasted, irate (whatever is the word!) by the maze of the customer service of HSBC. Actually, we were calling in India, where all the fraud departements are based. Of course, with the bad communication, it took twice as much as time to make them understand, and to understand ourselves.
The good thing is that I happened to be with a very very very stubborn and bad-tempered member staff, disillusioned by the amount of time and energy to spend in such a trivial case, who would not hang up before to know if/when i would be refunded. He kicked their asses off until they would tell him : two weeks. I guess that, had I to do all this by myself on phone, I would have given up after one hour... Then, merci Kevin !
And now, let's go to the police...
11 juin 2008
THE ARRIVAL
After 5 months in France, I have eventually found something new to do, maybe not as fun as in Czech Republic, but still, it's abroad, in a new city, far from home, and with a lot of new things to see and to do. So, here I am, Belfast ! :)
So, i guess the first thing you wonder is : "Why Belfast?" Very simple : because of the job. I simply answered an announce on a website, the company called me back the day after, i got files to fill in, then i got a telephone interview and eventually they told me : "Book the first plane! We want you!" Well, of course, there it's all about boasting...
Because when I arrived for my first day at work, I was far from being the only one French to start here. Actually, we are a dozen of French people, who come from quite different horizons, and have been chosen by my company (which name i think i'm not entitled to unveil) to become part of the team. Here is what will be my "office" soon :
What is my job about ? Very simple. I'll be customer agent. My company is to Customer Service what Ryan Air was to airplane companies. They have started with a dozen of employees in 1999 and now, they have more than 500 employees, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and they have even opened offices in Eastern Europe. This company counts among its clients some of the most known informatics and internet companies in the world.
I arrived in Belfast last sunday. I was provided a room in an hostel for the first days, booked by my company for the newcomers. Curiously, they chose one far from the city centre, right in the districts where Loyalists and Republicans used to fight. That was a good place only because i could have a good view of the city skyline, or kind of :
To go to the city centre, I had to follow the Peace Wall, a great wired fence which is the frontier of the Republican districts. What is sure is that i've never seen a city with so many barbwires, fences, walls, security cameras in my all life ! It's like a war zone. But, it's far from being what it used to be, 15 years ago. Thank God, money has poured in, and foreigners too, like me. So, sectarian violence is decreasing steadily.