Vodafone UK Network Coverage

As a loyal Telecel customer, converted to Vodafone and quite satisfied with the network coverage in Portugal, I was dismayed to arrive in the UK, home of Vodafone, and discover such poor coverage.

Getting off the plane, I dutifully selected Vodafone as my preferred network, so that I could retrieve my voicemail messages, but reaching my sister's house was faced with "Emergency Calls Only" as there is no Vodafone coverage. It was the same story at my parents' house and at the hotel where I went to a wedding.

As O2 and Orange seemed to be available everywhere, I am seriously considering changing to Optimus, which also has better coverage where I work in Lisbon. It's strange how such minor annoyances can spoil a personal opinion of a major company.

Disposable Generation

The French students demonstrate, rightly in my opinion, against the new labour law, claiming that it will make them the "Kleenex" generation - used once and then disposed of.

I wonder what the marketing people at Kimberly Clark think of that.

Motoring Pundits

Radio Capital has an early evening feature where anybody can request to have their say on the air about issues affecting motorists. That's all very well, but it continues to fuel the pundits - the bad drivers are always in the other cars.

Of course, we're all motoring experts: locals, expats, old, young, men, women. When did you last hear anybody admitting to being ashamed at the way they drive? That's the root of the problem. What's missing is a dose of modesty and introspection.

Maybe Radio Renascença should have an equivalent feature: "Forgive me Mr Presenter, for I have broken the Highway Code." I think not. That's just giving raw material for the comics to parody. How about AA (Automobile Association?): "Hi. I'm Zé. I'm an accident waiting to happen, but I haven't touched a solid white line in 37 days." Which radio station would host that one?

Fixed my Template

After much head-scratching and attempts to upload files, I have managed to re-size the template provided by blogger to 1024 screen width.

Thanks to Miguel for suggesting the solution - putting the background files in a post so that they would be available on blogger. I actually set up a new blog just for such postings.

That leads me to my first complaint to date about Netcabo: having worked out how to upload files to my personal web-hosting space, the files could not be seen by blogger, nor via ftp at work, presumably because netcabo only gives customer access if you are using their connection.

So I've learnt some html, what next? Onward and upward, I hope.

BCP offer for BPI

Who benefits from the proposed takeover BCP has made for BPI?

For individual customers, acquisition of an aggressive, customer-oriented bank by a less-competitive institution is hardly positive. The consolidation of the customer bases of the two banks is never a simple addition - there are customers who have accounts at both, and BPI customers who do not want to be part of BCP.

For staff, there is the prospect of mass redundancies. The synergies from the takeover inevitably mean that fewer staff will be required in back-office operations and there will be branch closures, just as we saw with the BCP / Nova Rede / Banco Mello / BPA consolidation.

For corporate customers working with both banks, after consolidation their credit lines will almost certainly be merged, not added together.

So who stands to win - only the faceless shareholders, fund managers and the like who, even at their peak of intervention in corporate affairs in other countries, only focus on management salaries (BCP watch out!).

Let's hope that the core BPI shareholders decide to hang on to their independence until a suitor appears who doesn't simply want to eliminate domestic competition.

Eating out - Mexican

Senhor Taco restaurant at Amoreiras Shopping Centre yesterday. No Portuguese bottled beer except Bohemia - so drink Corona at twice the price. Apart from the chaotic service, the strangest part was Chilli con Carne with no chilli and nearly no beans. The waiter was unsure if they had chilli - no Tabasco, they eventually produced ground green chilli sauce, plenty spicy.

Actually, the food was not too bad, just not what we expected. At least it didn't resemble the plastic food at Cantina Mariachi in all the other big shopping centres.

Even so, I won't be going back.

Milosevic - a coincidence?

They have got to be joking. Two deaths in custody in the space of a week. The Dutch are known for their honesty, not for their cover-ups, but the conspiracy theorists are going to have a field day with this one.

Worse than the news itself, were the reactions - a man loved or hated, provoking exaggerated reactions from Serbs, Albanians and Americans alike.

What are the lawyers and judges in the Hague to do now, other than keep the gravy train rolling?

The IKEA Effect

There´s been no time for blogging recently. I have spent most of my free time over the last few days assembling (not "mounting") Ikea furniture.

Now I'm not a fanatical recycler and Ikea's eco-friendly labelling leaves me cold. But I just can't resist folding all that recyclable packaging and dropping it at the recycling point - a real feel-good factor.

It's not for nothing that the owner of Ikea is the world's 4th richest man.

(Posted by email from my Palm Treo, written in the car while stopped in rush-hour traffic. Free time, what free time?!)

Croat Serb Leader Dies in Jail

This is ridiculous. How is it possible for a convicted criminal to commit suicide in a secure UN facility? Maybe "secure" and "UN" are incompatible.

After all Milan Babic had been through - mass murdering, hiding out, surrendering to the peacekeepers, testifying against Milosevic, it's hard to picture him as suicidal.

Another dent in the armour of the Untied Nations....