So after I got burglarised, we wrote to the Royal Mail to tell them the situation and basically ask them what they were gonna do about it.

Despite it blatantly being their fault, they wrote back to me stating that ‘every item of mail is important to us, but problems do arise’, and that Addict should settle it with me, then take it up with Royal Mail. They even went as far to say that Addict had used the wrong postal service, as if that excused the fact that their staff fucked up in not asking for ID.

Finally, they stated that as they did not have proof of postage (yet had proof of delivery … go figure) they couldn’t offer compensation.

I wrote to Addict, asking for proof of postage and outlining Royal Mail’s response. Addict (or rather, Matt at Addict, $deity bless you!) said that they would send me out a new order, and settle it with the Royal Mail themselves.

So I now have a rather fetching purple polo-shirt (which is an excellent fit) and an orange ‘Screwface’ Rose Camo t-shirt in my possession.

I really like the designs of Addict’s stuff, and the quality is excellent. This display of customer service just reinforces my loyalty to the company.

Royal Mail could learn a thing or two from them.

This week (Monday to Wednesday) constituted the only overnight stay of the contract. In Llandrindod Wells to be precise, at the Metropole – a hotel that immediately invokes memories of the Addams Family theme tune as soon as you see it.

Llandod, as we called it (and as it shall henceforth be referred to), is not exactly the most exciting place in the world. Situated smack bang in the middle of Wales it is surrounded by a lot of very little. “The arse-end of nowhere” is how one of my colleagues eloquently described it, as we loitered outside the back of a deserted pub sipping on lager in the crisp and fresh evening air.

The actual work we were there for was much of a muchness, and even more of a boringness. One member of our team had headed up to Llandod earlier on the Monday and started setting everything up, so by Tuesday afternoon, we were all holed up in an interview room, tending to the occasional user query but otherwise doing very little. The lack of … anything in Llandod was driven home further, when we failed to find anywhere that sold men’s swimming shorts (we wanted to use the sauna/steam room at the hotel and they sold them for £20 (!)).

One positive thing that I got out of the trip was getting to try out another car. We got an 08 plate Ford Focus ‘Style’ for travelling to and from Llandod (it’s currently sat on my driveway to be returned tomorrow). As a 1.6 diesel, it was never going to be anything special, but we ragged the crap out of the thing and it was actually quite a fun car to drive, if only for the comedy/fear “will-we/won’t-we” factor when trying to overtake cars on the A470/A483.

It’s a very well-screwed-together car, the quality of the interior got no complaints from me and the steering was tight and direct with a good-sized steering wheel to hang onto. The only complaint I had was the gearbox, which was just shockingly bad, considering Ford’s reputation. I’ve driven five or six Ford vehicles from small cars through to Transit vans, and all have had a decent gear change. The Focus we had absolutely did not, and it was all the poorer for it.

The other story of the week is that some pikey bastards have stolen from me, and I am most definitely unhappy about it.

I ordered a t-shirt and polo shirt from Addict Clothing Co. on Saturday 12th and was a little unhappy to find that the goods had not arrived. I contacted Addict, who supplied a tracking number telling me that it had been delivered on the 15th.

Long story short (as this is already a fairly long entry), somebody has been (we think) following the postman around. Seeing him attempt to deliver a package and fail, this person fished the delivery slip out of our front letterbox (there are scratches on the door from however this took place) and then gave it to someone else (we have a vague description) who went to Caldicot to pick it up.

This is where the Post Office messed up badly, as they are supposed to ask for ID. But in this case they didn’t, meaning that some thieving pikey cow has sloped off with nearly £80 of merchandise, paid for by me.

The police have been informed and are looking into it, but it’s unclear as to where the ‘blame’ lies in terms of how I can get my money back/goods re-sent. Either way I am currently significantly out of pocket, very unhappy, and on the lookout for a scruffy-looking 5′8″ woman with mousey hair driving a blue saloon.

It was bloody nice weather today. For the most part I was inside, sitting inside a room with 12 servers and no airconditioning, plus a number of other blokes, but after work it was still nice to drive home in the sunshine.

I also got to wear my summer shirt for this first time this year. It’s a Calvin Klein short-sleeved shirt with an awesome orangey-bluey-swirly-nonsense all over it, and I love it. Even though it is a few years old and a little small on the arms, I still pull it out everytime it’s very warm.

Let’s hope it continues.

I now have another potential music festival dilemma. Glade. It’s an electronic music festival on in July. The only name I really know is Pendulum (wooooo!) but it would be really interesting to go and get immersed in the whole thing. I’m just so indecisive about these things this year for some reason, it’s really annoying