It's been one of those weeks, started with a bad head cold which continues and loads of stuff that has been a hassle.
We had a chunk of time without Internet and phone (VoIP) which is not great for a web agency and was not at the time we were told it would happen. It's obviously far too difficult, or more than their job's worth, for Redcar Council/Virgin media staff to fix the offending fan outside of office hours. I also loved the fact that they emailed us to tell us all Internet was down, after it had gone down.
I'm getting rather miffed with Redcar Council and their incompetence when it comes to the Palace Hub. Their latest "effort" regarding our leaking windows is to have someone from their internal maintenance team to pop in and say "there's nowt we can do", so it will now be passed to the external contractors. I have now pointed out to the council that I regard them as in breach of the license terms and we can walk any time. I will be seeking advice next week and am considering withholding rent and service charge payments or paying a reduced amount based on a suitable deduction for their poor service - if they want to fight that I'll happily enjoy the publicity of a court case.
The amusing thing is they are planning to hold a public celebration of the Palace Hub and they had asked me to speak at it as it seems I am the only tenant with a positive view - I think they should ask someone else.
Other hassles include the delight of having my credit card blocked. We had a VAT bill that was significantly larger than any previous VAT bill we've had. I paid on-line via credit card, or so I thought until my credit card company decided that was a strange payment and blocked it from use. Now I'm fairly happy that they look out for things like that but it was to HMRC, not like I'd bought a Ferrari. Anyway all sorted now.
Surely nothing else can go wrong! At least not until I got up this morning to find that my SIM card had been deactivated. I had upgraded my phone but have not received the new phone or SIM but seems that the company I upgraded with have kindly registered the new SIM. Been through EE/Orange who to be fair to them have been very helpful, old SIM should be back on later today and upgrade cancelled, I'll then do an upgrade myself but will stick with EE/Orange as they have done a good job for me today, assuming my phone becomes active again.
So I'm in a big grump today (what's new) but am starting to reflect on the good stuff including a 4-1 for Boro yesterday. We're really busy and I'm very confident about the future of the business (hence the much bigger VAT bill). There's lots of potential in the pipeline not just on our own but some collaborative work also. I've also made some decisions on a few side projects that I will do. I am going to extend my Geek Author role and write a book plus set up some workshops for local businesses to improve the way the use the web and get more business as a result. Need to set my self some deadlines so I get the workshops ready for after Xmas and write sections of the book.
In a couple of hours I'm off to Bolton for a night and day at the Reebok and I've not been there since a 1-0 loss by Boro some years ago. I'm travelling over with some fellow members of BNI Links and we will be attending the Build a Better Business Conference tomorrow - looking forward to it. Our BNI chapter is going well, passing lots of referrals and growing. There's a great bunch of people involved and it will play a big role in the growth of my business.
Lots of positives so I'll stop grumping.
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