Crouching Steak, Hidden Gas

No post yesterday as I was at a training session at the BT buildings near Airport Road. It's a very 90's building using that light pine wood look with huge glass panelling for the reception. We were led down a corridor with training suites on either side and into the café which reminded me of a beer hall in Munich minus 90% of the atmosphere and 100% of beer. However, they served real coffee from percolators instead of that acrid foul tasting granulated nonesense which gets big marks in my book. They also had a selection of scones and biscuits. Oh to work in a place like this. I would soon put on weight faster than a bear getting ready for hibernation.

The training itself was for MS Publisher. I don't use the program and I wasn't going to go on the course but I fancied a day out and there was a space available. Turns out that it's very much like Pagemaker with the added advantage of having numerous templates and features. I wont bore you with the details but it's very easy to use. Whether or not I'll use it much depends on what I will be asked to do but in the past, my Pagemaker skills have been self-taught and used to help other people rather than do something for myself.

Our trainer was from Canada and very loud and talkative like an American. Turns out he's a fan of Family Guy and we spent lunchtime beginning conversations with "Did you see that episode where.." and "Do you remember that scene where..." over a very delicious meal. If you thought a fine selection of scones was the culinary peak then think again because lunch was a toss up between chicken and ham pie or a steak ciabatta. Oh the angst of choice! I settled for the steak ciabatta with a cous-cous salad. If there's a training session for something here again then sign me up!

That morning I purchased £20 of gas credit at the Spar on Great Victoria Street. For some reason the cashier put the transaction through in 5 £4 payments. What did I care as long as I had £20 on my card? Well, turns out that when I put my card in the meter, nothing transferred. I returned to the shop this morning and was told that the transaction was unusual but they could not verify that £20 was on my card and that I would have to contact Phoenix Gas!
I phoned Phoenix Gas and was casually told that my card was faulty and that I would have to replace the card at £4 and purchase another amount of gas credit. If I posted back the old card and receipt, I would recieve a re-embursment. As to how they knew my card was faulty, I have no idea but for the sake of my sanity I have posted them the card and receipts along with a letter explaining everything and will have to waste an hour or more after work picking up a new card, registering it at my meter and then return to a shop and purchase credit with it to transfer it on the meter again. All very annoying.

Watch this space tomorrow for a follow-up and a review of Constant Gardner.