waider

Dalkey, with a population somewhere short of 10,000, currently has at least four coffee shops and a half-dozen pubs where you can also purchase the brewed bean. That hasn't stopped Starbucks from renovating a premises in the middle of the town, due to open some time soon going by the "Staff Wanted" notices. Personally I'm hoping that their general downturn in fortunes due to rapid expansion might mean that this particular outlet never sees a single customer...

What happens if you print your bank details in a national newspaper? Also, I am amused to note that last year's much-publicised loss of UK citizen data happened while said data was en route to The National Audit Office. As jwz said not too long ago, "The universe tends towards maximum irony. Don't push it."

Someone was refused drink at my local last night. A young-ish girl (I'm thinking early twenties at best) who was obviously intoxicated when she arrived at the bar at about ten thirty or so - talking in an annoyingly loud voice to friends standing next to her and enunciating with the excessive caution of the I'm-not-really-drunk-honest. She was with friends who bought the first few rounds, not out of trying to protect their friend from evil barstaff but simply because it was their turn at the bar. I know this much because one of them crowded up to the bar next to where I was sitting and her bag bounced off my elbow as she turned around. But when the subject of this tale approached the bar herself some time after eleven the barman politely declined to serve her on the grounds that she'd "had enough already".

I did giggle somewhat at the schadenfreude, then went back to my awful Bill Hicks bio.

You will recall from here where I mention how our Eurovision contenders think they have the best song. hahahaha. Note the protest that it was on account of "block voting" that they failed, not because, you know, the entry sucked or anything.

It's a sad thing to see people lose their jobs, but in a previous employment these are the people who sent me unrequested and unwanted copies of manuals no matter how often I asked them not to. If they'd only paid attention to me and, no doubt, other customers, they might not have had to engage in such dramatic cost-cutting.

Apparently, and I say apparently because I got this from Sky News (think Fox News) who tend to have a "report first, ask questions later" attitude, the Americans (yes, all 250 million of them, lest there be any doubt about what I mean when I say "Americans") are complaining to Russia about the Iraqis' use of Russian-made jamming equipment. I presume they mean radio or radar jamming, as opposed to amps, guitars, and microphones. If this is true then I shall be immensely impressed with the ability of the relevant people to make such complaints with a straight face.

On-the-ground interviews with troops seem to indicate that the suspected chemical weapons factory was just an arms dump, but another location is under investigation. This is why I'm preferring the BBC coverage over most of the others; they're reporting non-favourable news with about as much weight as favourable news, which on the whole gives me the impression that it might actually be based on the truth.