When complaining, do it well.

We often find good cause for complaint however, there are ways to complain which will see the complaint noticed.
The following was very original and obviously well thought out. It caught the attention of a very senior person.

VIRGIN boss Sir Richard Branson has thanked the author of a 1000-word tirade - complete with embarrassing photos - that slates food onboard a Virgin airlines flight as a "culinary journey of hell".

The anonymous email - which has whipped around the internet - is described by the UK Telegraph as one of the best airline complaints in the world.

Opening the lid of the main meal was like being given a "dead hamster as a Christmas present", it says.

The disgruntled passenger fired off the missive to Sir Richard after a disastrous flight from Mumbai to Heathrow on December 7 last year.

“Imagine being a 12-year-old boy Richard," the email says.

"Now imagine it’s Christmas morning and you’re sat their with your final present to open. It’s a big one, and you know what it is. It’s that Goodmans stereo you picked out the catalogue and wrote to Santa about.

“Only you open the present and it’s not in there. It’s your hamster Richard. It’s your hamster in the box and it’s not breathing. That’s how I felt when I peeled back the foil and saw this (see image 1).

The complaint continues: “…It’s mustard Richard. MUSTARD. More mustard than any man could consume in a month. On the left we have a piece of broccoli and some peppers in a brown glue-like oil and on the right the chef had prepared some mashed potato. The potato masher had obviously broken and so it was decided the next best thing would be to pass the potatoes through the digestive tract of a bird."

The passenger also complained about the size and “baffling presentation” of the "criminal" cookie he was served (see image 2).

“It appears to be in an evidence bag from the scene of a crime. A CRIME AGAINST BLOODY COOKING. Either that or some sort of backstreet underground cookie, purchased off a gun-toting maniac high on his own supply of yeast."

The dessert was just as bad, with the passenger asking: "What sort of animal would serve a desert (sic) with peas in (see image 3)?"

“I know it looks like a baaji but it’s in custard Richard, custard," the passenger wrote.

"It must be the pudding. Well you’ll be fascinated to hear that it wasn't custard. It was a sour gel with a clear oil on top. It’s only redeeming feature was that it managed to be so alien to my palette that it took away the taste of the curry emanating from our miscellaneous central cuboid of beige matter."

The onboard entertainment also copped a pasting thanks to a “flickering” television screen (see image 4).

The angry passenger then turns on the Virgin boss's eating habits.

“How can you live like this? I can’t imagine what dinner round your house is like, it must be like something out of a nature documentary.”

Sir Richard Branson telephoned the author of the letter and thanked him for his “constructive if tongue-in-cheek” email, according to London's Telegraph newspaper.

Paul Charles, Virgin’s Director of Corporate Communications, said Virgin was sorry the passenger had not liked the “award-winning” in-flight meals which he said was “very popular on our Indian routes”.

Author: Kate Schneider
Source: www.news.com.au
Date: 27 January 2009

Marriage Assassin or Economy Assassin.

In his book, Right People, Right Place, Right Plan, Jentezen Franklin exposes things which can destroy a marriage.

He lists number 8 as Economic Pressure.

"Arguing about money can destroy a marriage. The thing that bought you together didn't have anything to do with money. When you were first married, life was all about being together. It's so easy to lose sight of that.

For many marriages, I highly recommend plastic surgery. That's when you cut up those plastic credit cards that are charging you 18% interest. Put yourself on a budget. Don't try to keep with the Joneses, because by the time you've finally caught up, they will have refinanced."

Good, simple advice.

It's interesting that the Western economy is teetering on the brink of recession largely bought about by people like you and me wanting more and more, so that we may keep up with the Joneses.
Banks and other lender have been more than happy to supply money to people like us because they were charging us ludicrous interest rates and, for quite some time, we were paying.
Then suddenly, well some would say not so suddenly as a fall had been predicted by those bold enough to say it up to 2 years prior, people could no longer afford to pay.

The Sub Prime fiascio hit the U.S.

This quickly spread across the world as the lenders in the States started revealing the depth of their exposure and the amount of their losses.
Banks in other countries slowly began to state possible losses because they too had exposure to the Sub Prime market. They too had been pouring money into, what had seemed, great cash producer.

Investors became nervous and started selling stocks and they kept on selling. The oil price rose and kept going and base metal prices started going south. The stock market is now a shell of its former self. Investors have lost millions and many Superannuation funds are a shadow of their former glory.

Would it be too bold of me to suggest that the state of our world economy today has been bought about by our need to over use that piece of plastic that we have secreted away in our wallet.
The world economy consists of a whole lot of smaller economies and they consist of smaller and so on, right down to us and our household economy.

How well do you manage your economy?