Xmas in Lisbon

I'll be home from the 21st to the 27th of December.
Stasha and Associates, we'll have to gather around a christmas tree or under some mistletoe.

Ricardo in the Netherlands

So not everything is a bad thing.
Ricardo got a new job for Nike, and he's going to be training in some weird place in the Netherlands for 2 months.

Congratulations on your new job! :)

BT Broadband

Don't get broadband from BT - BT Services are crap and their system doesn't work properly. I'm having problems with BT at the moment and every time I call them to solve one, they come out with 2 new problems.

Like any call centre who can call itself a call centre, no one knows anything, I always have to wait for more than half an hour to get through and go around different departments.

This is a scheme of what's happening:


1. My landlord changes the landline telephone into my name

2. I got a letter saying that Broadband is going to be cancelled. Let me call BT to see what's happening.

Luis - I got this letter - blah blah blah... can you tell me what seems to be the problem?
BT - As you had broadband over that landline, and there was a change (the name of the owner) all the services are cancelled.

L - What?!
B - Exactly.

L - But why?
B - That's the way our system works.

L - But that doesn't make any sense.
B - I'm afraid there's nothing I can do about it.

L - What do you mean? Am I going to be without internet just like that?
B - I'm afraid so.

L - Well I'm gonna get a new provider then.
B - Well you signed a contract with us, and you broke it you have to stay with us for 12 months or we'll charge you the remaining.

L - What?!?!?

And so on and so forth.


Now I was waiting for last Friday for the cancellation but although I have no internet already, the cancellation period will be over this Friday.
And why do I need the cancellation completed? Because I need to re-order Broadband and after that it will take approximately 10 days to activate. I'll get broadband at home maybe next year.

Oh how I love BT, I think I'm gonna dedicate them a sonnet.

the job interview

First important thing: the job interview.
The position was a very good one, Technical Specialist for the Data Centre of the company I'm working at the moment.

As I was away during the period they conducted the interviews, working for them in Italy, they thought of not giving me the chance to even have a first interview. But after stalking them and their phone for the whole previous week, I got one on Wednesday first thing in the morning, right after my return to London.

It went great, they were impressed and I got a second interview first thing in the afternoon with the responsible for the department. It went really well as well and I got a third one with the Director of the Department. And it went quite well as well.

So I spent the whole Thursday and Friday in a wreck waiting for the results, more specifically waiting for a "Congratulations Luis, the position is yours". So on Friday I got an email to go and speak with the HR Director. When she started the meeting with "I'm afraid..." I immediately thought "oh, bugger all!"

Anyway I didn't get the job, was quite depressed on that weekend and the good thing is that it made me get up from my chair and look for a new job. Am currently sending CVs to everything I can see myself doing, but only in IT. Am fed up of earning just the enough, need to get a bit more than the enough.
London is becoming too expensive. Maybe I'm expecting more from London than before.

back from Italy

Well I'm back for almost 3 weeks now, but anyway, let's go back and talk about what happened since I got back from Parma - nothing good I must say - it's been like going on a downwards spiral.