Seasonal changes

There have been many changes happening these past few weeks, what with the presidential elections taking place, fuel prices going down, all the badness going on with the economy and lay-offs hitting close to home.

But lets not talk about that. Let's talk Starbucks.

It's that time of year again when they bring out their seasonal drinks. Ditch that freaky salted caramel flavour they brought out a few months back (bleurgh!) and bring on the gingersnap latte. Masterful! The only thing missing is maybe a wee gingerbread man biscuit on top. May be I'll suggest that on their my starbucks idea site.

Reading through the ideas on here, what occured to me is that people take their coffee drinking experience really seriously. My favourite idea is the one about having coffee flavoured ice-cubes so that the drink doesn't end up like piss water.

I have to admit, for all of the flack that the 'bucks takes, this is a great example of customer embracing in action.

Election day

Even though I can't vote, I'm quite liking election day. What better way to celebrate than to gorge yourself with free lashings of unhealthy food courtesy of Ben & Jerry's, Krispy Kreme and Starbucks (though I have to be a little more sneaky with Starbucks since they are only providing free coffee to people who have voted).

It also marks the end of those eye-brow raising TV commercials about all of the political candidates who have either a) done dirty back-handed deals, b) sexually harassed people, c) employed (and paid ridiculously inflated pay cheques to) under-qualified spouses, or d) have a cocaine addiction. For non-American readers, yes... they really do say these things about their opponents in ads over here.

God bless America.

That citrus feeling

Recently I've been blocking time out of my calendar just so I can actually do some work and not sit in meetings all day long. It's a bit sad really.

But don't you just hate it when you get invited to a meeting and 10 minutes into it you think "What am I doing here?" because you have nothing of value to add to the conversation. So you then spend the remaining hour sitting there feeling like a complete lemon.

Need to remember to be a lot less promiscuous when accepting meeting requests from now on.

For the record, I prefer to be a lemon than take the more popular option of rambling on in areas that I have no clue about, or simply repeating what has been said in a tone that suggests that it hasn't already been said, just for the sake of being heard!

Not quite your local chippie

I just went into Panera Bread for my usual soup, baguette and packet of crisps (also known as chips to my American compadres).

As usual the lady behind the counter put me down as having baked crisps when I had ordered the fat ones (I think I confuse them by asking for "a bag o' chips"). When I mentioned I hadn't ordered baked ones they of course handed me a packet of fat crisps. But then the woman said I had to take the baked ones too.

When I asked why, I was told that because she had already touched the packet of baked crisps (with her gloves on) she couldn't take them back.

Wonder what the local kebab van would make of that.

The worm turns

I've been feeling a little fed up lately, mostly with having to deal with people who forget the golden rule of business - treat your customers well because without them you are nothing. You'd think that companies would be even more mindful of this fact given everything that's going on in the economy right now. But no.

Take property management companies, for example. After three years of being a model tenant I had enough of being ignored, and enough of being treated like crap when I wasn't being ignored!

At the end of the day people make choices. They chose to be total numpties, so I chose to hand in my notice. I am now moving into a lovely new apartment and directing my monthly cheques elsewhere.

The art of avoidance

I always enjoy going to a good conference or seminar to help sharpen my knowledge, meet new people from different companies and discover that I'm actually not doing as bad as I think, pessimist that I am.

If the conference is fancy, there may even be some kind of expo hall where you can meet companies selling their wares... but most importantly see how much free crap you can pick up.

A month after SES, I am still getting phone hounded and spammed by companies that I must have talked to at the expo. The only reminder I have being the branded power ball, remote controlled car, foam dog or other useless freebie currently collecting dust on my desk.

It seemed like a good idea at the time... When will I ever learn?

Amer-tish

I feel lucky to have experienced living in both England and America. But after a while you start to notice little quirks and differences people have (or lack). So I was thinking how great it would be to take the best from both cultures and clash them together to make a new super culture called Amer-tish. A bit like the Big Bang experiment.

From the American side, Amer-tish people would:
- Be service snobs
- Live in a place where the shops don't close at 5pm
- Have nice teeth
- Sit in public places, using as much free wifi and electricity as they wanted, with only a glass of water in hand
- Say hello to a complete stranger without feeling like horns are growing out of their heads

And then from the British side, they would:
- Have the ability to say please and thank you (and sorry)
- Hold doors open for people
- Give up their seat on public transport for someone who needed it
- Use a knife with their fork
- Spell words without missing letters out
- Tell you they didn't know the answer if they didn't know the answer
- Tip a maximum of 10% and not feel bad about it