Krispy Kreme

I have issues with Krispy Kreme. Don't get me wrong, the doughnuts are great. They are not the source of my Krispy complaint. My Krispy complaint was caused by a coffee cup catastrophe followed by incredibly crappy customer service.

I bought some doughnuts and coffee from the new Krispy Kreme shop in Central and I discovered two things: a) if you like clean shirts, you should never bite into the centre of a jam doughnut, and b) their coffee cups are crap. I was carrying a bag in one hand and the coffee in another and by the time I got to my destination, which was only five minute away, my hand felt like it'd been carrying red hot metal. I had to put that bad boy down every 30 seconds to stop the pain.

Needless to say, I wrote a complaint letter to Krispy Kreme.

I first wrote to the address in Hong Kong - no reply.

I then wrote to the customer service department in the US. They replied as follows:

"Thank you for your email regarding your recent Krispy Kreme experience. We
appreciate you bringing this matter to our attention.

We have forwarded your feedback and contact information along to the
appropriate individuals for their immediate review. A representative from
Krispy Kreme will be in touch with you shortly.

Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to resolve your concerns."

Not bad, but 6 days later no one had replied. I wrote to them, quoting my reference case number and I got an almost carbon copy reply, saying they had forwarded it to the appropriate people and would get back to me soon.

Well, dear friends, I will not be fobbed off by so called 'customer service' people so easily. I have a valid point and demand to be heard. For this reason, I call upon you, my friends, to say that you've heard about their bad coffee cups and customer service from me, and frankly, you're disgusted. You can quote my case number if you want - 685865.

Something like this would be great.

"I heard from my friend that the Hong Kong stores have coffee cups that get too hot. What's more, I heard that Krispy Kreme's customer service department doesn't address complaints directly and tries to get rid of customers without helping anything. I think this is disgraceful and will never shop at Krispy Kreme again."

Click here to fill in a complaint.

Call it a sociological experiment. Call it a push for free doughnuts. Call it what you will. But I am always interested in testing the power of the pen... or in this case, keyboard.

It's time to stand up and fight, people. "Hell, no, we won't go, give me doughnuts, don't say no."

If this experiment works, I'm turning my attention to British Airways... but that's another story.

Back to Work

As you may have guessed from the quantity of blogs over the last week, I've finally got some work to do at work! Shocking as it may sound, I find myself actually busy for once. The first six weeks of the school year were a bludge the likes of which have never been seen, which is why I started doing the blog in the first place. Now I'm teaching classes again and it's heaps better. I've finally got a projector and screen in my room, which means I'll be able to do screenings of 'He-Man' at recess. I say it's for the kids, but I'll be more than happy to kick back and reminisce about my childhood with Orco, Prince Adam, Skeletor and the other Masters of the Universe.

Can anyone think of any other classic cartoons that I could show? I've got some Mickey Mouse and stuff, but I'm looking for some better ones. Not Scooby Doo.

So anyway, I'm back in the teacher chair and loving it. I want to take some video footage of my apartment, school and some spots in Hong Kong, edit it together and post it on the web. I guess step one will be to 'borrow' a video camera from school and step two will be to finally get my computer at home. Can you believe I'm still waiting for it? So.. I guess I'll do it one day.

Until then, take care of your good selves.

What's in a Name?

At Rob Zlondak's suggestion, I'm doing a post on names that people call you (or write) incorrectly.

Some of mine are: Mick, Micky, Nicole, Lick, Dick, Mr. Olifaa, Mr. Olifant and Mr. Elephant.

What are yours?

Memories

I just stumbled upon a great little site about 80s nostalgia. It took me back to the glory days of board games, bad fashion and after-school cartoons (remember James Valentine? Michael Tunn?). If you feel like a trip down memory lane, click here.

Speaking of the 80s, Mick Molloy has a new film coming out called BoyTown. All I can say is, I'll watch anything that involves Glenn Robbins dancing.

Limerick Town

After the deluge of creativity that came with my first limerick post, I thought I'd encourage all you budding wordsmiths out there to have another crack. This time I will provide the first line and you have to finish it. Your time starts.... now.

There once was a man young man from China

OR

There once was a woman from China

What are you waiting for?

Bruce Lee's Brother

One of the great things about teaching English as a Foreign Language is the ripper comments that students come up with. Here are a few gems I've heard over the years:

"Do you know the names of all the Beatles?"
"Yes, of course. John, Paul, George and Tony."

"Mr. Oliver, you smell. You should take a bath." - from a 4 year old Hong Kong girl. At least her grammar was perfect!

"Poo poo is very dirty" - from a 2 year old while sitting on the toilet

"How old do you think this baby is?"
"100"

"My Grandma is very fat"
"Now, King Lok, it's not nice to call people fat"
"Oh... my Grandma is very, very big!"

"Do you know Bruce Lee? Do you know his brother? Ug Lee?"
(half the class gets the joke and laughs and one smart girl puts up her hand)
"Yes?"
"Mr. Oliver. You are Bruce Lee's brother!"

Cheeky.

Classic Catches

Ask any guy and I bet they can remember some of the best catches they've ever taken. We can't remember birthdays, phone numbers or what we had for dinner last night, but ask us about a diving left hander we took in 1991 and our face lights up with immediate recognition. Without any effort, I can call to mind the best catches I took in Primary School. (Falling over the fence one hander at Callum's house and a reflex fluke at short leg on the road outside my house). This is why when you give a group of guys a tennis ball and something to jump off, you can keep them entertained for hours.

Our imaginations are set free and just for a moment, we are the heroes of our youth taking the catches we all remember - Steve Waugh behind the sightscreen, Dean Jones diving in the outfield, former rugby player Fatty Vaughtin's freakish one hander in the Allan Border tribute match. Fatty's catch, in particular, has enormous staying power. This is from wikipedia:

"In the 1994 cricket exhibition match celebrating the playing career of Allan Border, Vautin took one of the flukiest catches ever seen in any form of cricket, and it was replayed ad nauseum on the Nine Network. It has also been parodied by The Twelfth Man, and partially due to this parody it is sometimes referred to as "That F*cking catch".

To see Fatty's F*cking Catch, click here.

Anyway, when we all went on a junk trip last weekend we had a ball trying to take some classic catches. I was quite proud of myself, as I started the day too scared to do anything but a pin drop but by the end I was diving off the top of the boat and dropping catches like all the other madmen. Although I fear I will never be ballsy enough to attempt the backflip that Matty has perfected.

As with all days that involve boats, food, water and tennis balls, a great time was had by all. I'll leave you now with a couple of pictures. They are a) Matty's backflip, b) the boat we travelled on, c) a fully recovered Daisy Daniel and d) Hong Kong's famous erection, the IFC Tower - the sixth biggest penis, I mean building in the world.









Photos by Duncan Woodland