Girl flu

It's like man flu, and ladysolly has it. I know it's bad, because she was supposed to go out today to play bridge, and she cancelled. She also cancelled tomorrow, because she might still be feeling umpty. So I might have to cancel tomorrow, in case she needs me.

I was planning to go out caching, to finish off the Hamble Ramble (near Southampton) and get the bonus, and to make a bit of a dent in the "Auf Wiedersen" series. No problem, I can do that any time.

A few more bits and pieces arrived today - the mini spade fuses (for the car) and a green-LED voltmeter, because I think it might be more visible in daylight than the red one. That's for the bike I'm going to be building when the wheel from China arrives. I ordered it 5 weeks ago, it's been in transit for a month now, and no sign of it yet.

I got a phone call today - the caller said she was phoning for Barclaycard. She was actually with GFKNOP, and gave the Market Research Society as willing to vouch for her. They said that they knew GFKNOP, but didn't know if Barclaycard had hired them - why would they? So I phoned Barclaycard, who said that they hadn't asked anyone to call me. So I told the Market Research Society about all this. Then GFKNOP phoned me again, and this time I let them ask some questions. "Are you the decision maker" was the first one.

It's a cardinal rule in sales - you don't waste your time talking to anyone except the decision maker.

Then they asked who my card processor was, and how much turnover I had. Barclaycard, of course, already know all this.

My theory? It was a sales call, masquerading as market research. I've told the Market Research Society about this, and left it to them to decide what their actions should be.

And I got a spam email from Oracle, inviting me to a meeting of the Oracle User Group UK. So I called the OUGUK and told them that Oracle is bringing them into disrepute by spamming on their behalf. They're going to look into it.

Now I need to feed the HMRC with their monthly data feed.