Life in a call centre, Part 24

Been a while since we had an entry! Oh, where to start...

I think I shall cover a pressing issue first and then get a bit more gossipy later.

One thing that really annoys me is when companies screw me over with my money. I had previously posted about how they had withheld my wages in July and then said they could not pay me until the end of August. Well, I got my wage slip through the other day. Due to their error, I have been put on emergency tax. I was not due to get much in my final pay packet as I would not get my flexibility payment and they chose not to pay me my incentives but I have now lost a further £250 that I could really do with while I wait for my first wage from my new company. Allegedly, pay day is tomorrow but it remains to be seen as to whether I actually get paid or not.

Absolute arseholes.

Anyway.

Time for another little character study...

There was this bloke who was higher management. Did not know a bloody thing about the job. He often would give you outright wrong information and if you questioned him or proved him wrong, he got really arsey.

He had the worst hair ever and suffered from a Napoleon Complex.

41 and a virgin.

The Cozy Powell Project (Update 8)

Another former Cozy home! Cozy lived in this 3-bed cottage in Harwell in Oxfordshire (at the time, Berkshire) during the mid-1970s. It is now up for rent at £1500 a month. One assumes it has been extensively decorated since he lived there but it is still nice to have a nose around.

The Massacre of Braybrook Street

I have been reading a lot about this case recently but am yet to find a completely thorough article. This is also not going to reach that end but it hopefully gives people an introduction to the case.

I have cross-checked facts against different sources so the information included is correct to the best of my knowledge. However, please do enlighten me as to any errors and I will work to rectify them.

The Massacre of Braybrook Street (also erroneously referred to as the Shepherd's Bush Murders) shattered what was shaping up to be an idyllic 1966. England had won the World Cup and the nation was enjoying a period of relative peace and stability, especially when considered in relation to events in the United States at the time.

All of this was shattered in just a few short moments one sunny August day on a council estate in London.

On August 12th at approximately 3: 15pm, three police officers were on undercover patrol in East Acton, London.

They were 25 year old Temporary Detective Constable David Wombwell, 30 year old Detective Sargent Christopher Head, and 41 year old Police Constable Geoffrey Fox who was acting as the driver, a role he often undertook.

The men were driving through the Old Oak Council Estate when they entered Braybrook Street and noticed a blue Standard Vaguard van with three occupants. The estate was very close to Wormwood Scrubs Prison and it was common for escapees to meet their getaway drivers in this area and so the officers decided to question the men. There is a theory that one officer may have recognised one of the van's occupants as a known criminal but there is no way to confirm this. The van had an expired tax disc anyway (and, indeed, the insurance had also expired earlier that day) so was being illegally driven and therefore the officers had more than enough to question the van driver about.

The van's driver was John 'Jack' Witney and the other two occupants were John Duddy and Harry Roberts. Witney (aged approximately 36 and married) had ten prior convictions for theft while Duddy (37) had been in trouble as a youngster for the same but had no known convictions since 1948 and was working as a lorry driver. He did, however, have a drinking problem and had recently fallen in with his two co-occupants. Roberts was 29 and a career criminal with convictions for violent robbery amongst other things. Later in life, Roberts would tell of his troubled childhood in order to illicit sympathy but would also boast of killing prisoners of war in cold blood whilst in the army in Malaya; he would later say that police officers and prisoners of war were alike - inhuman and free to be killed at will. The three men were on their way to commit an armed robbery against a money-lender and so had handguns in the vehicle, an offence that would get them - as convicted criminals - a 15 year prison sentence.

DS Head and DC Wombwell approached the van and questioned Witney about the tax and insurance. Witney pleaded with the officers to let him off. Roberts, however, had other ideas. He shot DC Wombell through the left eye, killing him instantly. DS Head attempted to run back to the safety of their own vehicle but Roberts chased him down and shot him in the head, leaving him mortally wounded. Duddy retrieved a second of three guns from the vehicle and shot PC Fox three times through the window as he reversed his unmarked police car towards the scene of the initial shootings. Roberts also fired at him. As Fox died, the car lurched forward, running over the dying DS Head.
Witney, who had not left the van, collected his two accomplices and reversed out of the street and sped away, only to be noticed by a local resident who gave the registration number of the suspicious vehicle to the police. The van was actually owned by Witney and he was arrested at his home that evening. The van was found in a lock-up belonging to Witney the following day. Witney confessed everything to the police on August 14th and named Duddy and Roberts as the shooters. Duddy was arrested on August 17th in his home-town of Glasgow after his own brother tipped the police off.

That just left Harry Roberts.
Roberts was determined to avoid capture and did for over 90 days by using his military training to hide out in Epping Forest. He was eventually arrested on November 17th at Blount Farm near Bishop's Stortford after falling asleep in a barn, just as Duddy and Witney were about to start their trial without him. Indeed, their trial was adjourned to allow prosecutors time to prepare their case against Roberts so the three could stand trial together.

The new trial began on December 6th and was all over by the 12th. Roberts admitted killing DS Head and DC Wombell but Duddy and Witney denied all charges. Witney was the only one to appear in his own defence, painting Roberts as the ring leader who terrified the two men into doing his bidding. The three were convicted of the murders of the police officers and were sentenced to life imprisonment. The death penalty had been abolished the previous year but this case renewed calls for it to be reinstated in the circumstance of cop killers, an argument that rages to this day. While life imprisonment does not actually mean that in the UK and can vary as to how long is served, the judge did recommend a minimum 30 year sentence for each man.

There was public outrage that such a terrible event could occur when the three police officers were simply doing their jobs. Thousands of citizens and police officers attended the funeral and memorial service of the three men. There was also mass public support for the families of the three men with Billy Butlin of the Holiday Camps donating £250,000 to the newly established Police Dependants' Trust. The tabloid newspaper The Mirror funded a photography degree for Paul Fox, the son of PC Geoffrey Fox and helped his move to the United States in order for him to have a chance at a new life away from the trauma of that August afternoon.
In 1988, a permanent memorial was placed on Braybrook Street to honour the three men.

As for the convicted men? Duddy died in Parkhurst Prison of undisclosed causes on February 8th 1981. Witney had his sentence reduced as he had not actually shot any of the police officers and was released from prison in 1991. On 14th August 1999, exactly 33 years after his confession to the police, Witney was found brutally murdered in his home at 56 Douglas Road, Horfield, Bristol. Neighbours were as equally shocked to hear not only of his murder but also of his role in the Braybrook Street incident; they said he was just another quiet old pensioner who liked going to the pub with his friends. He had, however, revealed his past to his closest friends who said he had been haunted by the murders and was full of remorse. He suffered terrible nightmares and so chose to work with a rehabilitation program to help other offenders stay straight after prison. He had been divorced by his wife whilst in prison and initially became a lorry driver upon his release but was badly injured in a road accident in 1996 and so had to retire. He was beaten to death with a hammer by his heroin-addicted house-mate, Nigel Evans, and the killing had nothing to do with the events of 1966. Witney truly regretted the suffering he had helped to cause.

And then there is Harry Roberts. When parole comes up, he states he is remorseful for what he put the families of the victims through. The rest of the time, he makes pastry figures of policemen being shot and uses them as apple pie decoration or he paints very graphic pictures of police killings. He seems to take pride in his notoriety.

Harry Roberts became a cult figure for some; the cop killer who became a hero. Football supporters chant his name to goad the police at matches. OK, this is largely Millwall supporters who are the biggest bunch of fuckwits to ever work out how to climb on a bus and go wreck the cities of their opponents AT EVERY AWAY MATCH but they still, unfortunately, have a voice and are influencing a whole new generation of morons to hate the police and glorify killers.

Now in his 70s, Roberts remains in prison with parole being declined. Why? Because he is a danger to the public and should never be released.

Back in 2001, Roberts was at an open prison when he started doing day release at a local animal sanctuary. He ingratiated himself with the owners initially, before he realised they had discovered his past, and then he switched to intimidation to maintain his cushy role. Amongst other acts, he forced the owners to drive him places, to insure a car for him (prisoners are not allowed cars), to host his criminal friends, including someone Roberts referred to as "the chainsaw man" following his revelation that the man enjoyed torturing people with the afore-mentioned tool, and to write a character witness statement for him to help with his release from prison.

The family were terrified of him and knew if they went to the prison for help, Roberts would find out. He regularly threatened them and caused them great emotional suffering.

The family managed to get a friend with high-ranking political connections to intervene and get him removed from their home. Roberts immediately suspected they had reported him and was livid when he was returned to closed prison. The authorities decided to use their evidence to keep Roberts in prison; they promised to protect the family from harm and never reveal their identities.

Over the next four years, Roberts called the female sanctuary owner up to five nights a week, making veiled threats and demanding she visit him in prison so that he could be much more graphic with his descriptions of his intentions.

This was the least of their problems, though. Over the four years, the family had to undergo one of their horses being hacked to death with an axe - she was a gentle creature who everyone loved; the killers attempted to hang her from a tree and dragged her a long distance where she fought them valiantly. They eventually chopped part of her head off - a donkey was beaten to death with a baseball bat, another horse was hit in the leg so hard that the vet had no choice but to put it to sleep, a further horse was blinded in one eye after being beaten with a pipe, the family cat was electrocuted (and later that day during one of his persistent calls, Roberts asked how the cat was, making it clear he had ordered this and other attacks, even explaining how easy it was to electrocute a cat), and a peacock was strangled.

The family remained strong and gave evidence, proving that Roberts should not be released. He remains in prison and the family are still traumatised by events and never received the privacy and protection that the authorities offered; they eventually had to give evidence in an open parole hearing with Roberts and his lawyer present.

Roberts has shown himself to be a violent criminal who takes pleasure in the suffering of others. He will never reform because he does not want to. He even once said he just wanted to go fishing, knowing that Geoffrey Fox was an avid fisherman and that his words would hurt the policeman's children greatly; after-all their dad can't just go fishing.

This information is all in the public domain. So why do people campaign for his release and hold him up as a great hero?

The quick answer is because they choose ignorance over common decency. They argue that he has done his time so should be released. While I agree with the principle, in British law no one should be released until they repent and can prove that they will not re-offend. Prior to these murders, Roberts beat an elderly man who never recovered from his injuries. Roberts was imprisoned for the attack but the man died just over a year later. Had he died two days earlier, Roberts would have faced a murder trial and the death penalty. He never showed remorse for that attack and went on to kill again. Sure, he is an old man now but with so many "followers", is there any evidence at all that he is no longer a danger to the public?

As for these "artists" that campaigned for his release? How about campaigning for his victims to rest in peace? You aren't being controversial; you are being stupid.

The Cozy Powell Project (Update 7)

I am still researching the exact time line on this one but Cozy's parents were living in this 3-bed mid-terrace in Cirencester in the mid-1970s. It is yet to be confirmed if this is the house Cozy grew up in...

The Cozy Powell Project (Update 6)

This is a house Cozy was living in during the early part of the 1970s... Taken recently, of course.

Got some very interesting documents through today. It amazes me how little I still know about Cozy. I guess there will always be more questions than answers but it is fascinating finding out what I can...

Oh, these ebayers!

So who sits there and thinks "I'm going to purchase £214.99 of stuff from someone and then not pay LOLZ!"??

Bracken18, that's who!

Dear Samantha of Brighton bought 3 items from me and then did not pay. I issued reminders and even messaged her to make sure there were no problems. After hearing nothing, I opened a dispute. After a few days, her "partner" messaged me to say that she had been in a "bad accident" literally TWO SECONDS after purchasing those items and now could not pay but he himself would pay on the 25th. By 11pm, nothing received. Reminder message issued. This morning, still nothing. What a total waste of space. She is obviously a time waster who likes jerking people around and then making up stories after. I'd take her to small claims court but she is obviously poor.

Ah the joys of the Priest camp

I cannot believe I missed this at the time!

At the end of July, John Baxter - Rob Halford's manager - posted on his website that there was a lot of bullshit going on within the Priest camp, referencing Glenn Tipton as the decision maker and Jayne Andrews as a "leach" and Glenn's "amateur thug".

The post was quickly deleted and Rob distanced himself from it while Priest (ie, Jayne) issued a statement that they would allow the courts to settle it all.

Umm. What?

The story has largely only been picked up in Europe, appearing in various publications with several stating that Jayne lives with Glenn. I am unsure if this is a translation issue but there have always been rumours...

As I said before, I do not think Jayne Andrews should be attacked because she is a woman in a male-dominated industry. However, if she is doing a shit job, she's fair game.

Anything posted about this whole issue is being censored so it is all very odd.

It is also incredibly sad to see this happen to one of my favourite bands. First KK left after citing management and personnel issues and now Rob's manager is citing management and personnel issues too...

We will probably never know the truth of what is actually going on.

I do feel that Priest's management need to take a step back and let the band do what they do best without issuing so many statements.

I mean, today is Rob's 60th birthday and the Facebook birthday wish from the band was signed Glenn, Ian, Scott, Richie and Jayne...

What?!!

The whole sorry tale in one hit

There are so many lies and half-truths going round right now that I thought it was about time I shared the entire saga. As you all know, I am brutally honest so interpret it as you will. I mean, you could believe me or you could believe someone who posts stuff on their blog, deletes it, then denies ever posting it initially... Your call...

So two Christmases ago, my mother bought me a Kindle. It was the Kindle 2 and she had it shipped from the US (then like two months later, they launched the Kindle 3 in the UK at half the price... thanks for that, Amazon...). I spent the next few months browsing Amazon, getting samples of books and then buying the most interesting ones. I love my Kindle. Anyway, after a while, I saw that a Hala Pickford had reissued Natacha Rambova's book and also written a novel about Valentino. Oh, a Pickford, I thought. They must know a lot about Hollywood history with that kind of connection AND writing about Valentino. That is, of course, what she wants you to think... I bought both books without getting the samples first. BIG mistake.

I read the Rambova book first and was deeply annoyed by the whole thing; the formatting was horrendous, there were glaringly obvious spelling mistakes, and the author had interjected her own comments throughout the text. These comments were all opinion and had no place in a book like this. Some were also just rants at other people (such as those who thought Valentino may have been gay... I did not understand the significance at the time...).

I posted a review on here and on Amazon as I felt entirely ripped off. Hala commented on here about various aspects and was largely respectful and addressed a few of the issues, though we will always disagree that there is a difference between talking and singing... As a former singer, she should know that herself. But I digress...

Hala offered to send me a paper copy of the book to see if it was any better than the Kindle version. Contrary to what others claim, it DID NOT fall apart. Sheesh!

I was reading her blog one day when I saw the incident between her and Tracy Terhune. I ran a google cache search that confirmed a lot of what she said was accurate (he posted various things on his website and then deleted them; incidentally, Terhune emailed me a while ago and said that I had posted absolute lies about him on here that I had got from Hala when in fact I had not posted anything that google had not already confirmed. I did not reply). I then posted a piece about it (since deleted after things started flaring up) and Hala contacted me to thank me for speaking out. I was tired of all of the bitchy personal comments on Amazon about Hala so I deleted my review on there, just leaving the one on here. From then on, Hala and I would exchange emails. She told me all the troubles she was having with Terhune and she also mentioned a David Bret, whom she said was abusing her on his blog and on various forums. I had a read through and some of what he said was wildly offensive and unnecessary so I blogged about that too. I will say, though, that there was no evidence for a lot of what Hala claimed; she did forward me a few emails allegedly from Bret but there was nothing that could actually be verified. David Bret posted some abuse about me, including taking my photos from my google account and making snide comments about non-issues. This went on for a while and then Hala told me about an Evelyn Zumaya who was also getting abuse from Bret after she had made some comments abut him on her own blog, Valentino Speaks (since deleted).

I followed the blog as well as Bret's, observing the various arguments and mud-slinging. I will be honest, I did not like Zumaya from the start; I found her to be overly confrontational and rude. But at least she was standing up to him.

Hala and I continued to exchange emails and she told me other stories of her enemies, such as a Zachary Jaydon/Jaydon D Paull and all the problems they had had in Florida. I googled him and found a hate-filled blog, obviously set up by Hala. She told me he was a convicted criminal, etc. I have no idea if these two individuals are the same person but there is a Jaydon D Paull in the US who is a convicted criminal; he sued after an accident in a prisoner transport vehicle... It is handy having access to criminology databases sometimes!

I blogged various things but only about Bret as he was the most vocal and the only one attacking me directly at this point.

Zumaya continued with her own blogging and then Hala Pickford sent me a link to a blog and said I had better never tell anyone she had sent me the link. It was the Boycott David Bret blog and she gave me the password and invited me to write for it. I never did. She told me Zumaya was writing for it which she has since denied but there were two very distinct writing styles on there and there was stuff posted which was verbatim what was on Zumaya's blog. Even Bret picked up on that at the time and blogged about it.

In retaliation, Bret set up his own Boycott Hala Pickford blog. Various people received more of his special attention, including the three of us. I responded to some things, ignored others.

Then I got a series of emails from Zumaya. These were sent to my private email address that I only give out to a select few people, one of those being Hala Pickford; anyone can contact me via the two email addresses I have on my blog and I will reply from those until I feel they can be trusted. I was kind of annoyed about this as I viewed it as an invasion of privacy. After receiving the first email from Zumaya, I got one from Pickford, confirming she had passed on my email address and "I hope that's OK". No, it was not OK but there was not much I could do about it at that point. Zumaya's emails showed her to be a very bitter person with a serious vendetta against David Bret. She was so consumed with hatred that I was actually quite concerned for Hala as they were obviously friends and socialised together.

Then the Agenti emails appeared. Zumaya told me of the content in great detail while Hala just mentioned that Zumaya had received an email from someone with information about Bret. I thought it was all a bit weird and said so. Then Zumaya posted the emails on her blog, associating David Bret with rape, sexual abuse, paedophilia and lottery wins(!). That was it for me. I posted a blog entry making it clear I was through with the both of them as Hala obviously was far too dependent on Zumaya to see what she had done was very wrong.

Bret went quiet towards me but then bounced back with a particularly nasty post. I responded that he ought to fact-check before making wild accusations and then he emailed me, demanding to know if I had been reviewing his books. I confirmed I had not posted any online reviews and then we exchanged a few more emails and sorted everything out. Bret apologised for the abuse and I deleted all posts that contained source material from Hala Pickford as, by this point, I did not think she could be trusted. I believed that Zumaya had posted the reviews in my name but then Hala let slip that it was actually her that had done it. Lovely.

Bret and Zumaya stepped up their mutual abuse and then Zumaya suddenly deleted her blog. That was the end of it, I thought, until she appeared with another about a painting she was doing but I think that only lasted a couple of entries.

All was quiet, save for Bret and Pickford throwing things at each other occasionally. Then she had all of her restraining orders against people and then there was the defamation case.... By this time, the other anti-Pickford blog was in full swing. I was completely out of it by this point, being far too busy with other things to get involved any longer.

Then Affairs Valentino received a rushed release. I tried to buy it but could not. I blogged about this and then Pickford tweeted me that it would soon be available in the UK and I would be welcome to review it.

What utter bollocks.

When I finally did get hold of a copy, I started reviewing it and Zumaya appeared with a new blog and started harassing and attacking me! She had been a "victim" of this herself and then goes straight on and does it to someone else! Clever...

My reviews are honest; I don't think the book should have been published as it is. It looks like a rough draft that was thrown together and not proof-read at all. Aside from the spelling and grammar, the "facts" contradict other very well-known information (such as when Valentino actually died). Plus there are many issues with the sources... I have, however, already covered all of this so I will not go through it all here again.

While Hala Pickford addressed issues with her book, Zumaya's response? To post a picture of a dead animal and reference me in the tags, to accuse me of being controlled by David Bret, to call me the "depressed Bamboo woman", to make up other derogatory names for me.

Does this seem normal to ANYONE??

Seriously, what sort of decent author would behave like this?

I have raised important issues about this book and she replies by calling me Bret's "hate spewing mouthpiece". Where does she even get that from? I reacted to her abuse and she makes me out to be the bad person? Does she not see that if she had not been so absolutely nasty towards me, I would not have wished her a painful death? I guess she thinks she is allowed to do whatever she wants.

She attacks me because Terhune had commented on here and due to the people who follow my blog. Firstly, my blog is open so absolutely anyone can follow it. Secondly, as long as they are not abusive, anyone can comment on my blog. Except for tossers. Tossers get censored.

"Someone" (I know who) posted my real name and home address on various websites. Google removed one and the others were removed after I stated on here that I had gone to the police. I live with my elderly mother (have done since she suffered a major stroke). Are they hoping some psycho will come round and beat us both to death?

Whatever.

I received a tip-off the other night that the police wanted to speak to me so I contacted the authorities myself. I was informed "If any silly cow starts complaining about your blog to me, I will personally have them arrested for wasting police time. I bloody love your call centre posts!"

So there you have it.

Should you review a book, you will be harassed, abused, threatened.

I would stop reviewing the book (as I said, I am not finding it a "pleasant" read) but I know that will not stop her from harassing and abusing me. I have received several emails - one from a very surprising source - confirming that Zumaya will not stop until my blog is shut down. After-all, that is just a great way to deal with a negative review!

I have other more important things to worry about than this woman. As people are aware, my sister is terminally ill, my nephew just had his Olympic career ruined by some stupid twat that attacked him, and then there is taking care of my mother and grandmother. Also consider I am the primary wage earner in my family for various reasons and you realise there is more to life than having to defend myself from daily abuse.

And that's that.

The death of Morrisons?

I used to work for Morrisons up in Birmingham. I was 16 and was earning £2.09 an hour. They used to make me work til well after midnight on school nights (my shift was 5 til 10) and there was no mention of overtime. After I was assaulted by a customer one night, they were entirely uninterested so I quit.

I have no loyalty to the store; they really do not cater to vegans the way the bigger stores do. I would only pop in if I needed something in a hurry.

Over the years, I have had awful problems with security who profile people with tattoos. Funnily enough, so has one of my mates back in the Midlands... I would often get followed round by these young men who assumed all tattood people were shop lifters. A formal complaint means I am now generally left alone...

One checkout kid once complained to me that they would not let him go on lunch. He was diabetic and needed to eat.

Recently, my cousin had to leave his job at another Morrisons in Birmingham after he had a crate fall on his arm and they refused to let him go home early. By the time he got home and showed his mother, he was dangerously close to losing his arm. Arm was saved. Court case pending.

No respect for their staff or customers at all.

Anyway, today I needed a couple of bits so popped in to the local store. It was... weird... The prices are stupidly high; like twice the price of Tesco Metro. It was also dead in there. I was looking across the store and it just screams "dying business". They tend to get busier at Christmas because people always assume Morrisons will be quieter than Tesco but myprediction is this branch will be gone by the end of the Olympics next year. I just cannot see how they could be surviving as it stands.

I really shouldn't laugh but...

There's this lad at work who has a thing for flicking elastic bands at people. Tonight, the inevitable happened... The band broke and flicked back, hitting himself right in the eye.

You know when you laugh so much that you not only cry but you get a headache and really ought to go lay down in a darkened room for a while?

I did just about manage to ask him if he was OK...

It wasn't so much that he had hurt himself but his reaction. He called the band a "slag" and then went and told all of the women in the office in the hope of getting some sympathy. It didn't work... He had one hell of a shiner come up almost immediately. I feel bad for laughing so may take him in a little present tomorrow...

It took him about 5 minutes to start flicking the elastic bands again...

"All fun and games til someone (literally) loses an eye..."

People fall for this???

Dane Williamson hazelebelfa324@yahoo.com to brenlally

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In other news...!

I have now done two weeks at my new job and it is still going great. Can't wait til pay-day... I know what I am doing which helps. I am even back to wearing make-up every work day which I gave up on very early at my last place. It isn't very good for my skin but my eyes look stunning...

I woke up at 4am yesterday and started vomiting like a trouper. Managed to keep it up for most of the day. Today it was all over but I was left feeling very weak. I hate doing nothing though so started my Christmas shopping. Most people are getting spa vouchers but I got the presents of all of those who are not. I have even got in early and ordered my winter boots... I am starting to feel a little festive because of the bad weather, I guess.

Part of my holiday season preparations always involves tidying out a year's worth of papers. I did that today and found a little notebook that I used to monitor my debts. In February 2007 (just before I started at my last place), I owed £21,000. Today I owe £7000. Not bad going, really. I will be paying off Barclaycard - my final credit card - by the end of the year and then that will leave about £5000 on a bank loan. I hope to clear that by the end of 2012. Of course, this does not include the £18,000 I owe to the Student Loans tossers... but I'm working on it!

My debts sound horrendous. I was not reckless with money; I had the usual debts in uni, even though I worked throughout my time studying and then I got involved with that wanker who ran up massive debts in my name. Then I lost my job. There was no help from the authorities and my only real option was bankruptcy. Then I started working stupid hours in a job I hated and put everything I had into getting my life sorted out. That job gave me the experience I needed to take a job I actually liked.

So it can be done. Just takes a lot of hard work.

More from that imaginative "author"

Apparently, I am David Bret. Or he is me. Or we are conjoined twins.

I don't know what the fuck she is rabbiting on about this time. Think she is finally losing it.

It seems that because David Bret and I share similar views of her, we must be the same person. Is she not aware that there is a much simpler common denominator here?

Her.

Her actions have caused our reactions. It is possible for two different people to share a similar view of a person due to that person's behaviour. Take Hitler. Most people think he was pure evil. That doesn't mean that all those people are actually just one individual; it means that Hitler's actions made him appear to be pure evil.

Both David Bret and I think you are a vicious, manipulative old woman. Could it possible be because that is what your actions make you appear to be?

Zumaya thinks constantly associating my name with David Bret will diminish the value of what I am saying. Oh do shove your latest hate campaign up your arse, my dear! I merely reviewed a book. OK, it was an awful book. But what can I say? I (unlike certain others) do not lie so cannot give the book a glowing review when it is full of so many basic errors. It is a rip-off, plain and simple. It has horrible mistakes, a dodgy style, and questionable content. Beautiful book? I think not!

Surely if the author had any basic worth as a human being at all, they would address all of the problems with the text. Instead they just keep posting the same hackneyed tripe. That just proves that the author rates her personal agenda higher than the subject.

Get over it. No one believes your lies any longer. You cannot destroy me the way you destroyed your own "literary career".

Oh, and I must say there is still one place where you can buy Affairs Valentino - Amazon.co.uk marketplace. I think they should be contacted, however, and advised that Amazon.com have refused to sell the book at all. I would hate for Amazon.co.uk to get in to trouble for allowing the sale of such a questionable text.

Is Evelyn Zumaya suffering from senile dementia?

Apparently, she has a new habit of denying all of the emails she has sent people.

Could it be that she is losing her memory as she gets older? I have seen it happen and her symptoms are not much different than those exhibited by my elderly neighbour who has dementia. Should that be the case, I am sure she could get into a really good care home with all of the money she has made from the "brisk" sales of Affairs Valentino.

She denies sending any emails about David Bret to anyone else.

Huh... that's a thought... when Bret stated that he had emails from that Agenti, she freaked out and was insistent that no one could have sent them to him, save from hacking her account. Surely that implies she was actually behind the Agenti account? Hmm...

Anyway, Zumaya denies that she ever sent me any emails about David Bret. Why else would she have contacted me? To talk about the weather?

No.

She sent me several emails that all followed the same format after obtaining my private email address from Hala Pickford (without my permission and certainly against my wishes), in which she obsessed on Bret and repeatedly covered the claims of her sexual relations with her father's corpse, to the point where I said on here that I thought she was a little too focused on it and was allowing her twisted hatred to interfere with her life far too much. I mean, yeah, no one actually believes she fucked her dad's still-warm body and I can understand her venting about it once but repeatedly??? Come on now. Adult? I think not... She asked me about a "Harry Plant" (I googled him and advised of what I had found, confirming that he was definitely not David Bret). She also advised me of the specific websites she was using to try to get David Bret's home address. Of course, it was Hala Pickford who had traced his IP address and sent me a list of email addresses for Bret's host servers so that I could "help" with her systematic attempts to get his websites shut down. I didn't bother. Zumaya also asked me for other websites or methods she could use to get hold of David Bret's personal details. Of course, she also described the content of the Agenti emails in very great detail and was "excited" about the new development. She did not try to contain her anger towards Bret and used several very inflammatory terms when referring to him. She was very focused on her plan to "destroy" Bret for what he had said about her "dear father".

I only sent her a couple of emails back (I don't like obsessive people) in which I said I thought that the blog was very dodgy as it was getting into legally murky areas. She didn't listen, of course, and then posted the alleged content of the Agenti emails and that was the point where I refused to have any further contact with her and Pickford.

ANY of this refreshing your selectively patchy memory yet???

I have been asked to post copies of the emails. I'm not falling for that! She claims to have kept every single email she has sent in the last 18 months or so. How about she checks her own "beautifully researched and impeccably referenced" email logs and then go bitch to someone who hasn't yet heard the same old whining speech for the millionth time....

You can deny it all you want but we both know what you said. Woman up and finally acknowledge your actions instead of hiding behind your "wronged little girl" persona.

Your life will be so much better if you finally admit that you have issues with the truth and seek psychological help with your demons...

Jeffree Star - Beauty Killer

To Evelyn Zumaya

You are the most hideous, evil, ugly-souled person I have ever had the misfortune of receiving an email from.

You sit there on your shitty little blog, spamming google searches with your mindless drivel. You constantly play the victim but you are a scheming bitter old woman, taking out your frustrations and failures on everyone else.

Why don't you tell everyone about those emails you sent me, requesting I help you "get" David Bret by furnishing you with his home address? Or how about how you admitted you would do anything to "destroy him"?

You mock me for suffering from depression. I bet you mock the disabled Vietnam Vets down on Skid Row too. How about poking fun at the mothers of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome victims? People like you are absolute scum. You should rot in prison for the suffering you inflict.

You are vile. You are hated. You play innocent but everyone sees you for what you are. That "email" you posted was not written by a native Italian-speaker. Poor sentence construction gave it away immediately. Another one of your creations? I think so.

Crazy imagination, you have there.

You need psychological help if you think your behaviour is "normal".

What sort of person wages a hate campaign against people that review their books? What sort of person reviews their own books? What sort of person calls themselves all that crap that you spouted?

I broke off all contact with you when you started taking things too far on that blog of yours. You associated David Bret's name with paedophilia, rape, domestic violence. You were calculating in your actions, thinking that you could bring him down with your claims. I have always believed YOU sent those "Agenti" emails. It was all too convenient when you suddenly started banging on about them to me but Hala mentioned nothing. Almost like you were trying to convince people of their authenticity.

I actually laid off your awful book for a while because, as I said at the time, it was just too bad to read. You were not intelligent enough to realise that if you stopped attacking me, I would not review your shit book any more. You just had to keep sniping at me, didn't you. Affairs Valentino is the worst-written book ever published. I will make sure everyone knows that. Hell, you can't BUY IT any more because it was so shit.

You constantly try to bring me down with your vicious attacks. Hoping I will kill myself? Would that finally make you happy? Another victory in you twisted little game? You attack all Valentino fans that do not go along with your schemes. You deserve to suffer for every evil you have done throughout your life. Does Hala Pickford even know how you were forwarding her emails to one of the "cultists" whenever she ranted about them to you? You are responsible for a lot of her problems now and you claim to be her friend. Shame on you.

How anyone could ever have liked, let alone loved, you is beyond me. You poison every life you touch. You take pleasure in the misery of others; that is why you keep Hala close. Seeing what she is going through must give you a real buzz.

I hope you die alone and in horrible pain, thinking of all of your terrible actions.

And don't use this as yet another chance to play the victim. You created all of this with your lies and manipulations. No amount of deleting posts and threats of lawsuits will hide what you have done now.

You have finally shown your true colours.

Affairs Valentino - A Review (Part 8)

Thought I would give this another go. At least with the formatting being as horribly poor as it is, it does not take long to read a chapter...

Best Friend and Manager - So we have now jumped to 1930. Know when I said that it read like a 3rd rate romance novel?

Look, if Zumaya wants to write fiction, that is fine. I am sure she could write a great little piece for the Peoples Friend but to write a "biography" in this style is doing a terrible disservice to the subject. Then again, we have already seen that she just does not care....

We start with an episode that has no references to back it up. What is the source for the discussion between the maid and the "stranger"? How do we know exactly what the maid did and how she spoke?

Also, is Zumaya suggesting the made is stupid by the way she talked? Or was she trying to suggest the maid was African-American? She is on VERY dangerous ground here...

Again, more very precise detail about what Ullman was thinking but where is the source?

The notes are in the wrong order at this point, by the way. They are jumping all over the place, much like the entire text, really.

An entire block of conversation here. Was this copied verbatim from the memoirs? This is not made clear. If it was not then it was, of course, a complete invention.

There is no source cited for Ullman thinking about "failing banks" and TB. What is the source? I mean, it is very dodgy to state someone was thinking something specific at any given point without evidence, is it not?

Page 113 - I don't know about anyone else but I get the feeling that Zumaya is throwing in information purely because she knows it and is kind of showing off (ie, "I have this flying donkey. You can't see it but I will tell you every last detail about it"...).

Zumaya really does hate Alberto, doesn't she? I mean, she does not even try to hide it. Sickeningly poor "journalism".

Oh I get it now! Zumaya sees herself as a modern-day George Ullman! The way he had to defend himself against Alberto is the same (she believes) as her defending herself against David Bret! They are kindred spirits, fighting to defend their honour and completely ignoring all of the questionable things they have done themselves! In truth, Zumaya needs Bret in order to keep up her little scheme. Without him, she is less than nothing; an "author" with a book that cannot be purchased because even online retailers view it as too bad to be sold though their outlets. Pathetic.

Ullman has a lot of enemies, doesn't he... I wonder if he was a supercilious loud-mouth with an over-zealous imagination too...

Quick note to say poor grammar/punctuation but we don't expect anything better by now anyway...

Zumaya clearly knows nothing about Buster Keaton so should not be writing about him. She cites a source but the claims she makes are not on that website.

So we have the interactions between Ullman and Schenck. Did Zumaya have to write them in such a boring way "This happened and then this happened and then this happened....". Wow.

Still jumping all over the place... It isn't even quaint any more.

Huh. So Alberto liked his lawsuits as much as Zumaya claims to.

Anyone else noticed that? She's made all these legal threats to Bret over the last year but nothing has come of it.

Oh more unsubstantiated claims... Is this getting repetitive for anyone else? I still cannot understand how Zumaya's proof-reader did such an awful job. I do hope Zumaya never paid them. In fact, I hope she sues them! Ha!

Ugh. Jumping YET AGAIN. "I have all this shit to share so I will use the most tenuous of links to throw it in".

My word, there is a lot of unnecessary waffle in this chapter. I really am quite bored with it.

It may be several weeks before I attempt to tackle another chapter...

Reed.co.uk

I still get a lot of job emails, largely because I have not bothered to unsubscribe from various mailing lists. I get this one once a week right now -

See a problem with it? It isn't actually offering any jobs I could apply for because I have none of those qualifications. They know this because they have my CV. Therefore, the expectation is that I will PAY to do these courses in order to stand a chance of getting one of these jobs.

Will I fuck!

This is just another example of people taking advantage of desperate jobseekers.

There are plenty of jobs available that would not involving me having to retrain. It also shows that Reed holds no value in formal higher education (ie, your two Masters degrees and extensive customer service experience is not relevant so give us some money and do our shitty course instead!).

Bollocks to that.

The Cozy Powell Project (Update 5)

Still doing a lot of background work. Did you know Cozy's adoptive mother was 90 when she passed away? That's a pretty good run...

Got some documents on the way plus forming basic ideas re structure, etc. I really can't see me writing much until my exams are done with in October but at least I am covering some basics right now.

Brings me on to this -

I found this the other day and was a little intrigued. I was wondering if the final project would be more than rehashed youtube videos and swiped google images (don't mean to be harsh but that is all the trailer is) so checked out the film maker's website. What got me is the claim that it will contain exclusive interviews with Cozy's family.

What family would that be?

I do hope it it not that idiot that claimed to be Cozy's dad after the accident...

I remain open-minded but sceptical...

Life in a call centre, Part 23

I don't like all this positive bollocks so time to start bitching again!

This is the post you have all been waiting for... My rant against my former manager!

Oh I do like an early morning rant...

I don't even know where to start! Well, my manager was a really devoted grandmother. She had loads of photos of her dear little granddaughter all over the place and would always tell you how wonderful she was. What she failed to mention was that she refused to have any contact with the child until a DNA test had been carried out when she was 6 months old to prove paternity as she hated the mother so much, even though the mother was MARRIED to her darling son!

Her son! Steroid-addicted, tiny-penised fuckwit. It isn't his fault though... She was your typical bad mother. She raised him alone for a while because her first husband (his father) fucked off because she was so difficult to live with. Even when he was 15, she would stand over him while he brushed his teeth and force him to drop his trousers in the living room every morning so that she could check he was wearing clean underwear. I personally think that is bordering on abuse.

She remarried when her son was a teen. Her new husband was an absolute arsehole. He used to beat the son whenever he answered back and would take scissors and cut through his computer cables if he found any untidiness in the house. This man, on meeting his wife's colleagues, would ask all females for naked photos. Some actually obliged! Though it was mainly that slutty one I mentioned previously... He would phone her in work upwards of 30 times a day. I would often take the calls and be asked what I was wearing... Ugh.

Oh and her and her husband? Swingers.

She also had repeated affairs on the side, including with work mates. She got so obsessed with one guy that he had to leave his job as she was becoming a danger with her stalking.

She felt the need to talk about her sex life with her various men with me. I seriously did not want to know about any of it.

She was an obsessive cleaner at home but her work station in the office was just a shit pit. She regularly lost things (like my sick note) and then blamed others. She even once lost a week's worth of time sheets and messed up our wages.

She was a gossip and would discuss every tiny little detail about you with her office friends.

She had an affair with a 19 year old lad on our team and a 17 year old girl from another team. Just thought I'd throw that in there....

She claimed to be 45 but was actually 51.

She did not wash her hands after going to the loo and then would touch your keyboard... Eww.

She was a compulsive liar and would often forget her lies, getting herself caught out regularly.

Then there was all the times she told the team the wrong incentive criteria and a lot of us lost out on around £1000 bonus a month. We ended up having to get another manager to sort that out for us.

She often took time off to accompany her husband for his cancer treatment but then he would call us to ask where she was...

She was a really Johnny Two-Sheds. Hate that.

This one is good... She would tell us that she was a top seller who used her incentive money when she was on the phones to pay for her mortgage and various extensions. Then I got talking to her old team members... She was nothing better than a mediocre seller and daddy paid for everything...

She was totally hated by every single person on the complaints department.

She often did overtime on the phones and I would hear her telling customers outright wrong information. If you tried to correct her, she got very defensive... "Who is the manager here?" "You but you're shit at it..."

She would say she would call customers back who had requested a manager but then not bother.

She once called a customer a "stupid little cunt" on the phone. That one went right to the CEO and she still got away with it.

She had no concept of motivation and would just belittle everyone.

2 hours a day. That's how long she spent in the loos every day, doing her hair.

Worst driver ever.

She personally requested one guy be fired after he took a week off firstly because his dad had died and then (two days later) his girlfriend lost their baby. The guy had a breakdown.

She lied on disciplinary investigations.

I often had things go missing so started locking things away in the drawer. She then forced my drawer open while I was on annual leave and stole all my stuff.

She... well, she was a shitbag. Get it?

I will probably have to do another entry on her when the rage has subsided a little....

David Bowie - Imagine

RIP Dave Dilloway

RIP Jani Lane

Queen and Paul Rodgers - Imagine

Life in a call centre, Part 22

Words cannot describe how happy I am in my new job. It is still a call centre but there is no stress at all. Whereas my commute to work previously was 2 hours and my journey home an hour, now it is 15 minutes in and I am home literally 12 minutes after I finish my shift. I don't come home worrying about horrible things that have been done. My manager isn't a complete psychopath. Perfect.

Quick story.

At another call centre, a lad had a real screamer on the line. After a while, the customer demanded a manager. The lad put the customer on hold, called the local pizza place, asked for a manager and then transferred the customer through.

He was fired.

I bet it was worth it...

Elf - Imagine

Wishing all the best to Jon Lord

Riots

I got home from work at about 11pm last night and just stared at the TV feeling nothing but total devastation.

The riots started in London at the weekend. The official story initially was that people were protesting the police shooting of Mark Duggan on Thursday. Shall we start there? Yes. Mark Duggan was a drug dealer. He pulled a gun on armed police. He was shot and killed.

He is not a martyr. He was a dangerous criminal that fed on the misery of others. The community should be happy that he has been removed.

Instead, youngsters took to the streets, burning and looting as they went. And I mean youngsters. 13, 14, 15 year olds.

There were images of a woman trying on shoes before she took them from a sports store. This is not looting; this is basic theft. If you loot in a riot, you take what you need; during the LA Riots in 1992, there were many stories of people looting water and toilet paper from stores because that is what they actually needed. No one needs an HD ready flat screen TV or 30 iPhones...

One teenage girl handed out scarves and told looters to cover their faces. There was a kid with a megaphone, organising his gang.

They have burned down historical buildings, businesses, homes.

They beat a young Asian man (he looked like a student) and then one of the rioters helped him to his feet before stealing his wallet.

Rioters snatched a baby, purely to traumatise the mother.

They have badly injured police officers who are only trying to do their jobs.

Are you feeling proud to be human yet?

Last night, the rioting spread to Birmingham and Bristol with varying reports coming out of Manchester, Liverpool and even Cardiff.

I was unable to sleep last night due to the police helicopters circling above my neighbourhood in Newport.

When my mother went to feed my sister's cats in town yesterday evening, a gang of 10 - 12 teenagers tried to stop her car. She locked the doors and put her foot down. And this is in quite a well-off part of the city.

They say on the news that this is a political protest, these kids are campaigning against the lack of socio-economic progressions available to them.

Utter bollocks.

These kids don't give a shit about any of that. How is stealing trainers and burning down the properties of independent shop keepers fighting the system?

This is pure, unadulterated thuggery. There are Facebook groups that are calling for violence in other cities. Why have Facebook not handed over the details of every group member to the police yet?

There is a growing underclass in Britain of people who choose not to be a part of society. They like living off the state or subsisting on petty crime. Even if they were given the chance to take the best available jobs, they would rather just rob and harm others.

Bring in the army. Bring in the water cannons. All rioters should get a minimum of 10 years in prison. At least then they will be adults by the time they are out and they may have actually learned a trade inside. The parents of these rioting teenagers should also be given prison sentences. You should all know where your kids are at night. You don't? You're failing as a parent.

It is ordinary people that are going out to clean up the cities today. You can find out where the nearest meet-up point is on Twitter.

Stop hurting each other.

You will never achieve anything this way.

Life in a call centre, Part 21

Only a short entry today as there are other issues I need to be addressing...

Yesterday was my first day at a new call centre. OK, I am in a completely different role to before but the attitude is totally different. It is actually fun and the people are friendly; there is no constant battle for dominance and everyone helps out everyone else.

There has also clearly been a lot more time, money, and consideration put into the well-being of the call centre staff than at my last place...

Give me a few weeks, mind...

Life in a call centre, Part 20

More from L!

One team member spent a month not accessing policies and just told callers he had done what they had asked him to. He even faked taking payments!

The whole team were taken into the office to query why they had accessed "Mr Dick"'s policy 32 times in one day. They were all reading the notes that confirmed the name was appropriate...

Reminds me... With our system, if people accessed the website and ran a new quote under slightly amended details, it would then change any active policies they had with us. I once had a Mr Lying Cheating-Bastard call... Then there was all those men that called after putting themselves online as women and I would enjoy asking if they had recently had a sex change... I once had a guy who phoned up to change his name to Ms and he was being so rude to me that I said "There's no need to be so aggressive 'Madam'". He hung up on me.

Back to L...

Spelling mistakes! We were supposed to leave notes every time we accessed a policy and under the Data Protection Act, the policy holder had every right to see a copy of these notes. L once wrote "Policy holder is cunt" instead of "Policy holder is cont."... Someone else once wrote "Cunt access policy history" instead of "Can't...". You get the idea. One of my trainee team was disciplined for deliberately writing "Customer is a stupid twat" in the notes!

Then there was a time a gang of lads waited in reception for Anthony after he called one of them a dick as they were intending to smash his face in!

Ah, I'm glad there were a few people willing to put him in his place...!

Life in a call centre, Part 19

Oh-ho-ho-ho!

I sent a link to this series to one of my former work-mates (one of the few that was not getting up to anything shameful at the office... that I know about!). She reminded me of a few people and events that I had entirely forgotten...

Her own story is the best... She was a really polite call handler but like the rest of us, she had her moments... She had a man on the phone that she was trying to sell something to but he hung up on her so, like anyone else who had targets to hit, she shouted across to a colleague "this fucking wanker hung up on me!" Yup, he hadn't... She very cleverly said it was a crossed line and got away with it!!!

There was this lad... I don't know how I forgot him! We'll call him John... He was hilarious but sometimes not very bright in his actions. On his first day, he was in training with his new team when this hot blonde walked in. He hauled her onto his lap and grabbed her arse. Of course, she was his new manager... He miss-sold one product for 6 months by telling customers it was £16 instead of £40. It took them that long to find out why he was so successful with this one product and actually bother to listen to his calls. He had to call every single person back and check they were happy to pay the higher price that he had actually charged them. Then he hooked up with this girl... The best thing about call centres is that NOTHING IS SACRED. They were getting down to it at her place when she whipped her box of tricks from under her bed and shoved a dildo up his arse! No word on how he felt about this... I kinda feel dirty that no one told me this at the time though!!! When he left, he managed to take no calls for his last week. That was pretty impressive...

Moving on, there were these three girls that I just did not like (one of them is the psycho liar I have blogged about before). They used to sit there, painting each others' nails whilst on calls. They even once dyed the one girl's hair while she was on the phone! One of these girls was a larger lass so used to hide it by wearing jeans that were two sizes too small... Yeah, because that always works... Then she discovered alli and lost the weight. Then she missed carbs... Made me giggle to watch her yo-yo...

One lad left a customer on hold for 45 minutes while he went to lunch to save losing a sale!

Another girl was sacked for stealing legal documents (I never even knew about this one!). So that's three we now know of.

A lovely young lady told a customer to "shut the fuck up and let me speak!" Wow. Just wow!

Then there was "Anthony". He was the top seller on the floor so got away with so much shit. He once refused business to a customer because he did not like the customer's attitude! He used to have at least three calls a day taken over by a manager due to the way he spoke to them... I had three taken over my entire time I was there... He would be so rude to everyone and no one dared say anything to him.

And these adventures are all just from one team! Well, aside from the incidents involving that beast from my team...

Thanks to L for the info! Keep it coming!

Life in a call centre, Part 18

This pains me as a feminist to say this but I believe the reason I never got along with my line manager was because she was a middle-aged grandmother on her second unhappy marriage while I was a 20-something graduate with no man or child holding me down...

I always got the impression that there was an anti-woman feel in the office. While we had quite a few female line managers, all of the top management positions were filled by men. All of the promotions in my time (with the exception of one) went to my male colleagues.

There were not actually that many men working at the call centre and I think that is the cause of many of the issues...

Now, this is completely my opinion and experience but I believe that the older female managers viewed the younger women as a threat so did everything they could to keep us all down.

There was always a bit of gossiping about me because I was in my late-20s and childless because I had never married and had been spiteful by choosing to go to university rather than dedicating my life to reproducing...

My manager looked down on me because at my age she was divorced from her first husband and raising her only child alone (he'd fucked off abroad because he hated her so much... don't blame him; bet the kid would have gone with him if he had been given the choice...). Of course, she hated all graduates anyway...

Any time two women became good friends, there was always a campaign to get them apart again. Very odd for that kind of environment.

Just my opinion but yeah... Keep us down because - God forbid! - we may actually do a better job than some of the incompetent idiots running that company.

Life in a call centre, Part 17

This series will be coming less regular from tomorrow when I return to full time work. I'll try to leave you with something good, though.

Today, I thought I would talk a little more about how call centre life affects your health. I have a long-standing back injury, occasional asthma, and FMF so sometimes I am unable to work.

The response by my manager on behalf of the company?

Repeatedly attempted to fire me.

Wankers.

I have been left partially deaf in my right ear due to their negligence and still suffer a lot of pain from the injury I sustained because my manager refused to acknowledge I should not have been on the phones that day...

Sam, who was bi-polar, needed regular time off for her condition (she was reacting badly to her medication and was suicidal) but she was forced to leave.

One girl had very bad asthma but was not allowed any time off with it through fear of losing her job. Another had a very public meltdown when she was not allowed a day off when she had exceptionally bad headaches; she was escorted from the premisses and has not worked since. Kay resigned after suffering a miscarriage in work and they would not let her have a few days off to come to terms with it.

The thing is, all these incidents were cases where we just needed a few days off to get ourselves sorted out but that was just not allowed.

Company policy is you were all treated the same, even if you had a long-standing medical condition.

It kinda sucked when we would see what others would get away with though.

One of my friends had been on customer services but was struggling with the selling aspect so went to the finance department. After a while, they decided she was needed back on customer services because we were so busy. She immediately claimed she felt unwell and went home. She was promptly signed off on sick leave with "stress". She told me she had faked the whole thing but she got 3 months off and then did not have to return to customer services afterwards.

No one questioned her but if you said you were having a heavy period, they wanted proof...

Life in a call centre, Part 16

I never meant to get people fired...

I really didn't.

I just think people should always be honest and should not take the piss all the time.

We had this guy on our team. I absolutely adored him. He would tell me how beautiful I looked every day and would always notice when I changed something about my appearance. He was gay, of course. He used to like going out to the clubs in Bristol and then stagger in to work the next morning on no sleep, having consumed nothing but carbon dioxide...

We thought he was entertaining so we all made excuses for him. Then he started taking things a little too far. He kept claiming his mother was ill and started taking a lot of time off, all the while posting on Facebook that he was suffering from the night before far too much to go work. Well, after a week of this, I was at my desk, chatting with one of the lads and I mentioned that he had said this on Facebook and I made some joke about it, not realising the head of the department was standing behind me. Within an hour, his contract was terminated, based purely on my comment. I was livid that they did that. At least the guy was able to go on and get a much better job.

Then there was that kid. I actually sat with him quite a bit when he started (more experienced members of staff would do that to help newbies) so we got on quite well. We were also Facebook friends. I had been off work for a while - using up annual leave, I think - and he'd said on Facebook that he was quitting as he'd had enough. The next day, I was back in work and happened to be talking to his manager who was a good friend of mine and I joked that he'd had a hissy fit and asked what had happened. She said she was not aware of anything and, as she was not on Facebook, asked to borrow my phone to see what he had said. I handed it over without thinking. What I did not know was that after his initial comment, he had gone on to have a big conversation with two colleagues about what a bitch his manager was and how he wanted her to die, etc. I genuinely had no idea. She was devastated as she thought they were OK. I felt so bad that I ended up buying her a box of chocolates... He was put through the grievance process and fired. He brought it all upon himself but again it was my casual comment that started the whole process...

We had this lad on our team who spent all day perving on girls. He was incompetent and we all knew it but my manager kept forcing me to lodge formal complaints every time a customer was not happy with his behaviour. Normally you would just have a quiet word with one of your own team. He was fired based on the complaints lodged by myself and others.

Final one was a classic. I hated this guy. He fancied me but he was weird and ugly and constantly lied. Hell, he told me he was older than me when he was actually two years younger. What is the point of that? Anyway, he hated the job and kept claiming he was being offered jobs elsewhere but then never actually left. Then he started taking a lot of time off. One evening, we were the last two left on our team and he told me he wanted the next day off so he could go play bowls as he was the team captain. I said he had no chance and would have to suck it up as paying the bills has to be more important than casual hobbies sometimes... He agreed and the next morning, we met in the car park of the call centre. He started crying (or trying to) and claimed his niece had had an accident and he needed to go with her to the hospital. I told him to tell a manager and go which he did. When the team all arrived, I mentioned this incident and said I thought he was lying to me (I can tell when a man is lying... years of experience...). Then one of the lads passed me his iPhone. There was a full-on text conversation between the two of them in which the guy asked for advice on how to get the day off as he had a job interview. The lad in work said rather than calling in sick to make the effort to come in and then claim a close relative had been involved in an accident...!!! We were all annoyed about that. If you wanna screw the system, that's fine but do not lie to your mates about it... I mentioned it to a manager-friend of mine and he was gone within a week.

Goes to show ya 1. be careful what you say in jest and 2. don't be totally stupid when trying to fight against your employer as you will (nearly) always be caught out...

Life in a call centre, Part 15

As I mentioned previously, I made £3k less last year than the year before. I was not the only one with this issue so many of us took second (or third) jobs.

It was stated in our contracts that anyone taking on other work would need permission from their line manager. I assume most did not even ask...

When I started, I was running my own business which I maintained until April 2009. I had declared it at the start so there were no problems. When I decided to do voluntary work with the police force, however, my repeated requests were never put forward so my external work was never approved. Therefore, I was not able to take the job (I believe this was because it would have helped me in my chosen career in criminology and they wanted to keep me at the call centre for as long as possible).

My jobs were boring, though...

C = bouncer

K = stripper

S = stripper

T = phone sex line operative

M = drug dealer

G = sold the same product that we sold but privately

E = Ann Summers rep who brought her samples to the call centre with her every day

Then there were the slightly more dull supermarket assistants, translators, babysitters, taxi drivers...

Some of these were a real conflict of interest but they either were not declared or no one cared. None of these people were discreet so others must have known...

As always, different standards, depending on how much your manager liked you...

Life in a call centre, Part 14

Lawsuits abound.

In my time, I saw 8 of my colleagues be fired and then sue the company; 6 won significant damages and one got her job back.

You would think they would have learned...

Every single case (except the woman who got her job back) involved injury sustained at work or emotional issues; falling down the stairs, falling on a wet floor, tripping over bags left in the way, faulty chairs dumping people on the floor...

You get the idea.

The biggest payout was over £100,000 due to what the company put a woman through after her son died and she suffered a breakdown.

As for the one that got her job back? She had asked her manager a question and she was advised to take the matter higher so she asked the same question of a senior manager. That senior manager forwarded the question to another senior manager who asked how serious this person should be taken. The first senior manager responded that she was "some Newport council estate scum. She can barely think without assistance" and cleverly copied in this women's line manager. The line manager then forwarded the email straight on to the original women (she had not read it and assumed it was just misdirected). When this woman was understandably upset, she made a complaint and was promptly dismissed. She took it as far as she could and got her job back. The senior manager involved was forced to apologise to both this woman and her husband.

She told me it was hilarious to watch him suffer.

Good on her

Life in a call centre, Part 13

When you work in a call centre, you generally have access to the financial information of customers. You are certainly exposed to private information and have to undergo training to fully understand what is acceptable practice when dealing with sensitive data.

So why were there so many thieves in our office?

I've mentioned the guy that stole legal documents. He wasn't the last one. We were able to issue certain documents (once we had clearance) to customers if they were needed in a hurry. We had an entire file of these blank documents disappear. Someone had been flogging them to their mates down the pub.

We used to have a birthday club on our team. We stopped it due to the number of times the birthday money was stolen.

The managers had their Christmas party fund money stolen (£800). That was taken from a locked drawer.

One manager (a single mother) had her purse stolen out of her handbag while she was away from her desk helping someone. It could only be one of her own team that did it.

Numerous mobile phones went missing over the years.

One person downloaded a load of customer address and date of birth details onto their iPhone and just walked out of the building with it.

Another posted customer credit card numbers on Facebook.

It was actually very rare for anything to be seen to be done about this kind of behaviour, however. Especially considering what the FSA would do if they found out...

I was not going to post this...

...largely because I don't like giving attention to people who are so desperate for it...

However, I think I need to make some things clear.

So, because I did not like a book, Hala Pickford has publicly mocked me for suffering from depression.

So, because I did not like a book, Evelyn Zumaya has posted images making fun of my devout veganism; images that could actually be interpreted as a threat.

So, because I did not like a book, Evelyn Zumaya has decided I, as a well-educated (and I mean real education, not crap you make up to pretend your book is actually good) woman, am not able to think for myself and I must be being controlled by David Bret.

So, because I did not like a book, I have had my personal details posted all over the internet.

So, because I did not like a book, Evelyn Zumaya has taken to referencing my following of Buddhist teachings as a negative thing.

I don't read David Bret's blogs. I don't read Zumaya's blogs (as I said, I stopped after she was dismissive about all of the factual, grammatical, and spelling errors in the book). The only one I occasionally dip into is the Boycott Hala Pickford blog because, well, it's quite funny! Yes, David Bret and I resolved our differences - differences that were largely caused by Hala Pickford feeding me false information. Such a story-teller, that one! I don't have any further conversations with him, though. All of my information comes from a Rudolph Valentino fan who is as offended as I am that other Rudy fans feel the need to behave like such utter fools.

To say that Bret is controlling me is just laughable. This just shows the negative attitude Zumaya has towards women, the same attitude that thoroughly poisons her writings.

After-all, Valentino isn't allowed to be gay or bisexual but he isn't allowed to like women either. Is that not the impression everyone else is getting from her book?

I guess I am lucky I am not a lesbian or I would really feel her wrath! (See previous reviews for examples of anti-lesbian comments made by Zumaya in her text).

Yes, I am a vegan. Yes, I follow Buddhist teachings because I believe they are most logical. Yes, I suffer from depression (my battles with that are well-documented on here as I believe being honest about things will help others... kinda like my honest review of Affairs Valentino is helping others not waste money on it until it is greatly improved). What next? Making fun of me because I have tattoos? How about because I am British? Maybe even because I am a Jew? I bet she could really have a field day on that one!

To have Zumaya deny that my details have been posted all over the place when I have screen caps and it is being investigated by the police is just hysterical! I find it funny that after I stated that initially on here, a lot of the information was removed before I had chance to make formal complaints. Denying it does not change the facts. You know, you get people who deny the Holocaust. Does that make any of it less real?

I had a Valentino fan apologise to me yesterday for what I am being subjected to by these two women. Again, I did not like a book so started posting honest reviews (on here only; I am yet to be able to form a complete view to post a more truncated review elsewhere). It could be any number of Valentino fans being harassed now but all of the others are too scared to review the book. Either that or it really has not sold that many copies...

You know what is really ironic?

When this whole war started between Zumaya and Bret, she kept insisting all she wanted him to do was address issues she had found in his work (ie, what the sources were, etc). She then claimed he went crazy on her and refused to respond, instead just attacking her.

Sound familiar?

I merely want Zumaya to address certain issues that have been raised about her book -

Why are there so many spelling mistakes?

Why are there so many grammatical errors?

Why are there so many glaringly obvious factual errors?

Why are there supporting sources for some things but not other (much more important) statements?

Why are the notes so jumbled?

Why is the main selling-point of the book that is constantly raised the fact that it has 60 pages of notes when in reality it only has 43 pages of notes?

Why is it written in the style of a third-rate romance novel?

Any decent publisher will send out advanced copies of the book to be reviewed by major publications. Why did none of these publications actually review the book? I know Amazon.com withdrew the book from sale because of the slanderous introduction (and this was not the work of the "cultists"; for a book to be withdrawn, it would have to be looked over by their own legal department. They would not just go by the word of someone sending in a quick email, now would they?). Is that also the reason why no one wanted to review it? I mean, not being harsh but who gives a fuck if a blogger gives a book a bad review? None of us are that influential. But should the literary critic of the LA Times comment either way, that would make a difference.

I could go on...

Zumaya raised issues about Bret's work and got attacked. I raised issues about Zumaya's work and got attacked. Difference is I never called her a rapist or a child molester. So who is really the bad person here?

Say what you will about Hala Pickford but when there were issues with the Kindle version of the Rambova reprint, she had the sense to withdraw it from sale. She actually LISTENED to what was said. That's why I still think it is a shame that she has allowed herself to be dragged down by Zumaya.

Again, I am not reading her blog (I was sent screen caps of the bits attacking me) and I don't intend on starting now; all she seems to be doing is stating the same things over and over in the hope that Google will bump these statements up in their search results... yeah, kinda like keyword spamming. Therefore I do not care what lies and abuse she posts about me next. Surely Evelyn Zumaya is too old to be playing kids though, yes? I mean, she is the one that is making herself look bad.

As I said previously, I will continue to review the book (when I can be bothered). I will not be bullied into silence by an author who lacks the literary skills to answer a few - repeatedly asked - questions.

Oh and one final thing... I choose to be known online as Irezumi Muzan. I do not share my real name very often (the reasons for this are well-documented on my blog but I guess certain people are too busy just obsessively screen capping posts about Valentino to notice anything else on here). Hala Pickford chooses to be known as Hala Pickford and Evelyn Zumaya chooses to be known as Evelyn Zumaya. Therefore, that is what I call them (except when I am talking about book authors/publishers specifically and then it is considered acceptable to use last name only or when I am talking about anti-lesbian comments and then FUCKWIT is the common term applied). It shows a real lack of basic manners, respect, common decency, hell, even adultness to refuse to use the name someone is known by and make up new - derogatory - names.

Do we expect anything less of these people know, though?