‘Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face, great chieftain o the puddin’-race!’
Oh Lord, here we are again. January 25th, and time for Scots the world over to celebrate their heritage and salute that great Scottish-Jewish poet, Rabbi Burns.
Now I’m the first to admit that the greatest piece of luck I’ve ever experienced was to win the heart of a gorgeously sensual Edinburgh lass, but like any of life’s riches, it’s come with some baggage, or a bloody great steamer trunk in the case of haggis.
Now cunters from sarf of the border will have heard of this culinary abomination, but may only have a vague notion of what a haggis actually is, so let me include a brief explanation courtesy of Wikipedia:
‘Haggis is a savoury pudding containing sheep’s pluck (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices and salt, and cooked while encased in the animal’s stomach’.
Every January 25th, I have to go through the ritual torture of a Burns Supper, where this abomination is served up with tatties and neeps, to the accompaniment of the maestro’s ‘Address to the Haggis’. And I have to like it, or else. Take it from me, haggis is an open invitation to a three-day bout of acid reflux, or a bad dose of the shits, or both. I’m living on borrowed time as I write. The good news is that it’s another 365 days before I have to endure the ordeal again. Still, at least I get a good, warming shot of Glenlivet single malt to wash it down with. Every cloud has a silver lining, even if for the most part, the cloud resembles a ball of lead. And for dessert, what about that other Scottish culinary masterpiece, the deep fried Mars Bar? Man, that’s really living, as any Dying Scot will tell you.
Nominated by Ron Knee
PayPal, they can be cunts.
Let’s start from the top, When I separated from Mrs B mkII I changed the details on my PayPal account to credit sales to the ex as we downsized.
I don’t sell for myself on Ebay so it wasn’t a problem, the funds went through to her and that was that.
Some years later I agreed to sell on behalf of a charity, again no problem the buyer buys whatever and the funds go to PayPal and PayPal passes them to the charity, or so I thought.
I received an e-mail from PayPal saying they would hold the funds for 21 days, again no problem.
Then after 21 days PayPal took the value of the sale from my current account and sent it to the charity!
The reason is simple, an unverified PayPal account, the phone number is obsolete, we don’t live at the address and super-duper my ex-wife’s name is on the account.
For over 3 months I have been fighting with what I can only describe as the most obstructive people I have ever dealt with, call centres that do not seem to have a grasp of English, to downright rude yanks.
Latest fob me off is waiting for a call back from a manager who may never bother returning my call.
Followed by 42 min hold just to be told they will only speak to my wife.
As a financial organisation it is like a vending machine that does not give out goods.
Massive bunch of cunts to a person.
My next port of call will be to get the charity and the buyer to contact them and explain the situation in the hopes of getting my money back (£106.00)
Nominated by Lord benny