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What you can do in 2.5 months!

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Earlier this year, I proposed that I would keep up with my blogging more often. A promise to myself that I just could not keep! I tell you what, it’s really hard to keep up with these things especially when there are so many distractions in life. I started out with good intentions when I started catching the train to and from work. I had a solid hour each way to write some cool stuff for you to read. My Samsung Galaxy S2 started playing up and the battery began draining really quickly. There was also nothing to do on my iPad either apart from typing up a blog. A few things happened though in a short space of time. My new work place, The Social Partners, handed me an iPhone. 68 games completed later and the BBC decided to allow users to download content to watch anytime on iPad. Suddenly, I find myself finishing off a few more achievements in Tiger Woods Golf on my iPhone whilst watching last week’s Dragon’s Den on my iPad.
Dragon's Den on BBC iPlayer on Apple iPad
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Terrible cold calling whiplash claim companies

Only last week did I watch the terrible exploits of cold calling companies on BBC’s Panorama. People from these cold calling companies were outright lying about who they were, who they represented and made ridiculous claims to either gain a fee from people making personal injury claims or to exploit money directly out of victims on the other end of the phone. One method of claiming money from people was to get the victim excited about making a claim before giving victims a fake claims number and a premium rate phone number to call to follow up. Victims calling the premium rate number would then be placed on hold for a long time while they were getting billed directly from their phone network. I got hit from behind which resulted in the endless cold calls
Just over a year ago, those of you who followed me on Twitter or Facebook will have seenRead More »Terrible cold calling whiplash claim companies

Media Week's 30 under 30 awards

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Kwai Chi Media Week 30 under 30 award
Kwai Chi Media Week 30 under 30 award

Yesterday night, I received an award for my contributions to the media industry. Normally awards for marketing are given out for campaign work for clients but the Media Week 30 under 30 awards are given out to those who are deemed to be the most talented people under 30 working in the media industry. This was the first year I could enter and it would be my last as well as I only just met the age criteria this time around.Read More »Media Week's 30 under 30 awards

Made to measure suits (also known as personal tailoring)

As I look back at my YouTube videos from 2006 I have noticed one major difference… I used to be a lot thinner. Oddly as I have gotten older and fatter, people still ask whether I am a recent graduate. I even got asked for ID when buying a £10 meal deal from M&S recently. I’m pretty sure that I don’t look 18 anymore let alone younger but it appears that many do! I figure that some of this is down to my ultra laid back casual look.
In an attempt to turn forward the age clock or perhaps the respectability factor, I am going to turn back to the tried and trusted male staple of the suit to bring me back some professional pride. When I started out working in investment banking over a decade ago, I used to wear a suit every day. Back then there was little choice in what to splash the cash on when it came to suit buying. Basically, you went with a nasty cheap suit from a store that fit really badly or you went bespoke from a tailor down Savile Row. There was the ready to wear option but the suits were really naff.Read More »Made to measure suits (also known as personal tailoring)

UK to Stuttgart to Metzingen to Lake Garda to Munich to Calais road trip

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It’s been a long time since my last blog post which is kinda what I had said last time around. So a brief update of Germany and Italy. Let’s take this in order.
UK to Stuttgart
The drive from England to Stuttgart is a really long one. It’s also incredibly fast in Germany before and after the Frankfurt bit where you get restricted to a measly 130kmph. Stuttgart is a little on the pricey side and you can’t park in the centre unless you have an emission badge. I couldn’t be bothered with all of that so I stayed with the missus near the airport but right next to a train station in Echterdingen.Read More »UK to Stuttgart to Metzingen to Lake Garda to Munich to Calais road trip

Things to do in Germany & Italy

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It’s been a long time since I last posted an article here and that is for a number of reasons. The key ones being work commitments, moving house and also lack of access to my own blog. Remarkably I had no access to the admin pages until very recently when my SQL database finally got upgraded by my host who I will not be renewing with! For name and shaming reasons, they are called ixwebhosting and they charged me $50USD for the privilege. I miss the travel write up and the video capture and over the last couple of yearsRead More »Things to do in Germany & Italy

Don't shop at Direct Sports Online!

To save confusion this is not a review for Sports Direct (http://sportsdirect.com) or Direct Sports in the USA (http://directsports.com) but my personal experience of the UK based Direct Sports (http://www.directsportseshop.co.uk)

Direct Sports is an online sports store specialising in racket sports. Their website is either http://www.directsportseshop.co.uk or http://www.directsports-eshop.com. After selling one of my current rackets I thought I would try something new out for 2010. After much research I was on the hunt for a Babolat Pure Drive Roddick GT Plus. The best price was at both http://www.prodirecttennis.com and http://www.directsportseshop.co.uk. I finally chose Direct Sports because they took Paypal (which I had some credit on already) and they also offer a stringing service for just the price of the string (even though the string is overpriced). On ordering they also threw in a free gift of your choice (A choice from rackets, balls and bags) and so I chose a Babolat Club Line 3 Racket Bag as part of my purchase. To top everything off, next day delivery was free of charge because I had purchased a racket (normally 2-4 days is free of charge). All looked great, I put my order through at 3pm on 29th December 2009 which was the cut off time for next day delivery and so I was looking forward to having my shiny new racket on the 30th December 2009.

Direct Sports Shop Order

I was very excited on the 30th December 2009 and so I logged on to my order history and the status had not changed from ‘Payment Taken’. I waited until 3.34pm but it hadn’t arrived yet so I called customer service on 01740 646961 and Read More »Don't shop at Direct Sports Online!