Ooh, shiny-shiny!
The other day while taking money out at a cash-point, I noticed that there was rather more money in my bank account than I'd been expecting. The next time I had a spare moment, I went online to find out why, and saw that a payment of £477.34 had been made into my account by Queen's University Belfast.
This worried me for a few days. I've finished working there, and my last pay-cheque came in at the end of September. So why were they suddenly sending me more money? Was it a mistake? Or some kind of tax rebate based on the erroneous assumption that I was now unemployed?
Either way, my future looked likely to involve hassle and having to pay it back.
Until, that is, I actually got a pay-slip from them yesterday, where the money was described as a redundancy payment. Now, to be fair, I did get a letter from the Personnel department shortly before I left saying that staff who'd been employed by the University for a year or less were due a week's worth of their salary as a redundancy payment if their contract was terminated. But I got a lot of other rather nonsensical letters that were obviously being generated automatically by some sort of 'system' around the same time, and assumed that it didn't really apply to me, since I'd been on a fixed-term contract and had always known it was going to end when it did.
It seems, though, that this particular letter really was true. So, to celebrate, I popped round to Richer Sounds this afternoon, and bought something I've been meaning to buy for some time, and especially since I was in there the other day buying a coaxial cable and saw it there, winking at me on the shelf: a combination VCR / DVD player / recorder. This one, to be precise.
Is this machine teh sechs? Oh gods, yes! These are some of the benefits it has brought into my life:
Meanwhile, in a somewhat-related vein, I also feel that the world should know about the bill I got the other day from BT:
Now I'm going out. I look forward immensely to my DVD recording of this evening's episode of A Bit of Fry & Laurie when I return. Let's just hope I managed to set the timer correctly...
This worried me for a few days. I've finished working there, and my last pay-cheque came in at the end of September. So why were they suddenly sending me more money? Was it a mistake? Or some kind of tax rebate based on the erroneous assumption that I was now unemployed?
Either way, my future looked likely to involve hassle and having to pay it back.
Until, that is, I actually got a pay-slip from them yesterday, where the money was described as a redundancy payment. Now, to be fair, I did get a letter from the Personnel department shortly before I left saying that staff who'd been employed by the University for a year or less were due a week's worth of their salary as a redundancy payment if their contract was terminated. But I got a lot of other rather nonsensical letters that were obviously being generated automatically by some sort of 'system' around the same time, and assumed that it didn't really apply to me, since I'd been on a fixed-term contract and had always known it was going to end when it did.
It seems, though, that this particular letter really was true. So, to celebrate, I popped round to Richer Sounds this afternoon, and bought something I've been meaning to buy for some time, and especially since I was in there the other day buying a coaxial cable and saw it there, winking at me on the shelf: a combination VCR / DVD player / recorder. This one, to be precise.
Is this machine teh sechs? Oh gods, yes! These are some of the benefits it has brought into my life:
- Its alluring silver shininess.
- The ability to record programmes while I'm out once more, which I simply could not figure out how to do on my old video once my Sky box was added into the equation. Which means that I can now:
- Continue watching the latest series of Six Feet Under, despite the fact that it's on on Tuesday nights, when I'm down the pub.
- Record Paramount Comedy 2's current precious showings of A Bit of Fry & Laurie, which are as gold-dust, since the series still isn't available in full to purchase on official videos or DVDs.
- Stop having to spend hours downloading episodes of the new series of QI which I've missed due to being out while they were broadcast.
- The ability to show DVDs in my lounge, rather than just in my bedroom - which is all fine and dandy for *koff* intimate friends, but not so great for parties.
- The ability to watch all of the complete collection of Jeeves & Wooster DVDs I got for my birthday, about half of which stick when I try to play them on my computer.
- A remarkable colour-coordination with my Sky box (although both are now unfortunately ganging up to make my television look awfully old and out-dated).
- A futuristic-looking blue LCD display.
- The as-yet unexplored ability to record from video to DVD or vice versa. Which means I can now make copies of things for people dead easily!
- The thrill of popping out and spending £200 without really having to think about it.
- A general sense of having arrived in the 21st century.
Meanwhile, in a somewhat-related vein, I also feel that the world should know about the bill I got the other day from BT:
Now I'm going out. I look forward immensely to my DVD recording of this evening's episode of A Bit of Fry & Laurie when I return. Let's just hope I managed to set the timer correctly...