pmsumner

I've got a few quotes now and trying to decide on my best option. Bonus payments are coming - I could use them to pay a year's insurance up front, avoid paying any extra in interest. Or I could save my bonus payments and use them to pay off my overdraught as much as possible, then use my pay rise to pay for the insurance costs.

It's a conundrum. Either way I will get stung for some interest - either from the bank or the insurance company. And I can't decide. Best quote so far? £678.85 paid up front, or 10 monthly payments of £76.04 This from http://www.aquote.co.uk/ - a site I have never heard of before, and no indication of who the insurance is provided by. http://www.1stquote.co.uk/ failed miserably to even get me a quote.

It's also tricky because I think I may need to give a month's notice for Direct Line, but don't currently know what date - need to dig out my original policy docs. Need to ensure that they don't get a penny more out of me than needs be - bastards :)

( BPS/Bonus Scores and Amounts )

Inspectors urged to leave Iraq

So the US is now trying to persuade the inspectors that their job is done, and that they should leave now in order to avoid being hurt? Let's guess exactly what this means.

But despite the renewed pressure, there is no sign that either France or Russia - which have both threatened to use their veto - intend to change tack.

China - another veto-wielding opponent of military action - remained adamant on Monday that the Iraq issue should resolved through the UN.

All this hatred directed at the French leader, why is nobody even mentioning the Russians in this? And the German government? And the Chinese? These are all veto-holding countries who are against military action.

I personally don't know what I agree with and what I believe. Like ellipse's comments, that "I feel somewhat schizophrenic" regarding the whole thing. On some fronts, I agree that beating the shit out of Saddam's regime would be a good thing, but I also believe that this action is currently unfounded - they appear to be co-operating, albeit slowly, with UN demands.

Confused, I am.

Yesterday I turned up at work about 2 minutes late for our pre-shift brief (we are supposed to turn up 15mins before our shift starts, which always confuses me - why not just schedule us in 15mins earlier?) Anyhow - we had a couple of the guys from TDMS (Technical Data and Multimedia Supprot) over to give us a brief talk, and to tell me I've been voted Technical Champ for the team (means I am the one that people will ask for help with technical shite before trying another department). This lasted half an hour, and after that we had "Get More" training until 12midday! Fantastic. 2 hours at work and not a single call taken.

The afternoon was heavenly. I think everybody decided to take a siesta at once, there were over 150 agents available from around 2pm-5pm, then it got busy again, poo! And as the icing on the cake? I'm getting signed off at last. Only 2 months late - but my probation is finally over. So I got taken off the phones for 45minutes to go through my development plan!! HUZZAH!

I like days like that :)

Gonna see what availability there is for o/t today, as I need to get my hours up a little. Only got 14 or so this month, and 2 weeks to go to make it as close to 30 as possible. Money is gooooooood.

I can see through my bottom windows! YAY! I discovered today (I've only been here 6 months) that my windows open all the way round, so that the outside becomes the inside. So I cleaned the - the bits I could reach easily, anyhow. My - it makes a HUGE difference. I can see through them without a layer of dirt!

Doesn't help that I live on a main street that they get so goshdarn dirty. They're a bit smeared, but that's easily fixed in the sodium glare. Amazing how street lights don't light up anything on the streets, but show up every single dirty spot on your windows.

Went to work for 4 hours, yay. Why yay? Because it made the day go so much quicker. And because I got paid for it! And it made me appreciate today's news so much more.

Today's news in short. UK and US diplomats announced that diplomacy was dead. Jeremy Greenstock scared the bejeezes out of me - his speech at the UN was chilling. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2857983.stm for more info) The way that he took his glasses off and glared, he looked like the Demon Headmaster when he delivered this line:

"The co-sponsors reserve their right to take their own steps to secure the disarmament of Iraq"

In further UK news? Robin Cook, ex-Foreign Secretary and current Leader of the House, resigned from the Government cabinet. His speech was well planned in every way and gave a point by point rebuttal of the reasons given for military action, and reasons for not supporting Bush. The reaction was stunning - a standing ovation, which I think clearly displays the amount of support the anti-war lobby has within the government.

It's interesting, watching and listening to the wranglings here. Never mind the rest of the world. I'd love to see some views from France or perhaps from the other Middle East countries (BTW - What do the countries in the Middle East call the countries to their West? The Middle West? The Far West?). Does anyone know of any decent English language relatively unbiased sources?

I caught Frasier, at long last. Been trying to watch it for ages, but keep on missing it. Nearly missed it tonight thanks to getting far too involved with BBC 2 & Newsnight. This does mean that I'm not going to have a clue what's going on, eh?

Oh, and you all probably noticed - the BBC News site? I love it :)