Pet Peeves II!

I'll pick up Pet Peeves! where I left off yesterday with MTN (makes sense since I ended with MTN).

5. Thank you MTN for the birthday present. It was very thoughtful of you and especially since you were one of the first to wish me a happy birthday with a text message at 12:35am.
Again, you chose not to tell me the 30mins free airtime, 10 sms and 30MB data would expire in 3 days. From my experience last year though I knew it would so I wasn't caught unawares. You were kind enough though to inform me that all the free stuff you gave me were for on-net transactions (thanks for the heads up), but you know I am subscribed to your BlackBerry service so there is no way I could use the data package you gave me, and I hardly send sms (I was able to send like 2 before the package expired). I am so not trying to sound ungrateful. I do appreciate the gesture and it really is the thought that counts. Next year, I'll get an Android phone so I can at least use the data package you send me :D

6. Water.
I (plus just about the rest of Accra) haven't had water running through my taps for like 3 days now. Eish! Have things got that bad in Ghana (I know things are bad but water)? Yesterday, I had no electricity and no water, and I knew I should expedite my conquering of mars mission or maybe I should switch to the Amazon jungle, since it has been proven to me beyond reasonable doubt that I can very well survive without certain amenities I used to think were basic.

7. Shoprite.
There's no way I could do a pet peeves post without mentioning Shoprite (would raise questions now, wouldn't it?). Aside the usual, there really isn't anything new to report. Was at Shoprite at the Oxford Street Mall last week and I'm proud to say the flies seem to have relegated themselves to just the fruits. No personal shopper this time. A friend did tell me that the apples in the Shoprite at the Accra Mall have been covered, but I haven't been there in it seems like forever. It appears I am able to tolerate flies more than roaches.

8. YFM.
Now how did they make it here? I love YFM. I keep winning stuff over there and they did send me to SA last year to see Rihanna.
8 (a) Ms. Naa. How did she make it over here? I love her morning show. It wakes me up long enough to last the hours at work before lunch time. What can I say? I have a reason for loving everyone and everything. So this morning, on Ryse and Shyne (Ms. Naa's show on YFM), she gives out a riddle and asks listeners to tweet the answer for a prize. The prize? A voucher to browse for free at the Accra Mall courtesy BLU (there were 2 vouchers to be won). The problem? A rep from BLU was on Ms. Naa's show I think sometime last week and he did say anyone can browse for free at the Accra Mall as long as the anyone makes their way to the BLU stand at the Accra Mall. I was at the Accra Mall on Monday and I made my way to the BLU stand, picked up a voucher (matter of fact, 2 cos the first one run out) for absolutely free and browsed for absolutely free. How then are free vouchers now prizes to be won on YFM? Unless of course y'all trying to say browsing at the BLU stand ain't free no more (which I doubt).

9. Food.
It really is none of my business what people choose to cook and others choose to eat. That's the thing. It's their choice and it has absolutely nothing to do with me. But...

drawing does kinda look like chicken thighs to me though

Really? hmmmm... like I already said. It's their choice and has absolutely nothing to do with me.
This week on Ms. Naa's show she gave a bizarre news story about human meat being sold in a Lagos (I think it was or at least somewhere in Nigeria) hotel (the restaurant) for ₦700.00 ( that's about $4.24) a piece I guess. Apparently some customers were consuming the meat without knowing it was human meat. One pastor ate the meat and tipped the police off who later found 2 human heads in the restaurant (back room I guess).
That one is the police business not mine. So I guess everyone will just mind their own business. But seriously, human meat for sale, what is this world coming to?

I really didn't want to, but there's a Pet Peeves III. Coming out tomorrow. Real short this time.

Pet Peeves!

Before I get into it, nah, just lemme get into it (I'm usually cranky this time of year).

1. Valentine's day (yuck!). I dislike, I dislike, I dislike. Val's day has always overshadowed my birthday and I hardly ever get to get a val's present and a birthday present in the same year (that translates to I never get the two).
How come name changes are allowed but not birth date changes?

2. I turned 29 on February 15 (see why I dislike val's day) but I don't look a day older than 17 (I guess that really can't be a pet peeve).

Judge for yourself. Took this right now!

And I got this lovely cake (which I am still eating) and have no intention of sharing. Boy is it huge!

My lovely, huge cake, which I intend eating all by myself (I've lost too much weight)

Reason it's a pet peeve (me turning 29) is cos I'm almost 30 and I haven't conquered mars yet.
It will happen. Still got a whole year (almost) to 30 :D
Before anyone jumps on my neck about me self worshipping, I'll do what I should have started with. I thank God for how far He has brought me, and I am grateful I have lived long enough to see my 29th year on this earth. I can't thank you enough Father, You have been extremely good to me, and I am grateful, and forever will be.

3. There's this ad I hear on radio for Edlorm Homes and it is just amazing. The person chosen to do the ad might possibly be a Ga. Why? He cannot or refuses to pronounce the letter 'H'. Did I say the ad is a home ad and he manages to say 'home' not less that 5 times without the 'H'? Edlorm Homes, are you serious or you trying to be funny? Patiently awaiting a parallelogram ad to be done by an Ashanti man.

4. I have mentioned this before, but I'll say it again (when has having said something before stopped me?).
MTN, the 18001 number you have on the back of your official cars for other road users to call in case your driver is driving recklessly still doesn't get picked up. You obviously need to employ someone to pick calls to that number, better still just take the number off the back of your cars (it's annoying when I see it since I know no one will pick up when I call. I'm sure your drivers know this that's why they are extra reckless on the road). One of them almost caused me to have an accident 2 weeks ago and I call and no one picks up the phone. Last time I did and blogged about it was July 1, 2011. So, it's been over 2 years and that number is still as it is.

Pet peeves II tomorrow (post got long already, my new year just begun and I have changed my life).

Kwaku Doe - FIGHT OOO FIGHT...

Yeah, in true Ghanaian journalistic fashion, I had to make the headline sound dramatic. Well, the incident wasn't that dramatic though. Hope I at least caught your attention (I'm in a very dramatic mood today).

Apparently, there are quite a number of people interested in Kwaku Doe and why he begs on the streets everyday, even though he looks like an able bodied individual capable of working to feed himself. One such person got into an argument with him this morning, resulting in Kwaku Doe telling the person off and ordering her in Twi to "gerrout" with her car when the traffic light was still red. It was just hilarious. I couldn't hear the argument exactly but from Kwaku Doe's gestures and the look on his face, it seemed this person was telling him to go get an honest job and he, Kwaku Doe not too pleased with the advice he was getting, seemed to tell this concerned individual to go stick her advice where the sun don't shine.

I better be on guard next time I decide to ask him plenty questions (haven't done that in a bit though).

So, why am I in a dramatic mood today? MTN are totally pissing me off and they've been at it for a while now. I guess they seem to think it is sand particles that make up their 10 million customers and not individual customers. It seems they do not want my business any more. Well, I am prepared to move elsewhere (after all, mobile telephony is not a monopoly in Ghana run by MTN) but I will collect what is due me before I leave. I will of course write a whole post on MTN and my experience with their BlackBerry service (the reason I seem so occupied and don't blog often). Right now, I'm still feeling too dramatic to write a post about it that makes sense.

What's Glo Changing To?

So, a couple of days ago, I was thinking and something came to mind.

None of the mobile phone companies operating in Ghana is operating under the name they started operations with in Gh. Due to mergers and acquisitions, all the mobile phone companies have different names now.

Mobitel/Buzz is now Tigo
Celtel became Kasapa and is now Expresso
Spacefon became Areeba and is now MTN
Onetouch is now Vodafone
Zain is now Airtel

I guess you can't blame me for wondering who's going to acquire Glo Ghana before they've even started operations.

Mobile Number Portability

My mind in overdrive led me to write this post. How does Mobile Number Portability work anyways? Yeah, I know. You get to port your mobile phone number to another network while maintaining your original number including the original code i.e. 024/054, 027/057, 026 or 020. Great! Wonderful! But what happens to all the intra-network promotions?

E.g. MTN has its MTN Zone and most of the other networks have reduced call rates to phone numbers within their network at certain times of the day. Airtel for instance charges a whole lot less after 10pm to calls placed to other Airtel numbers plus there's also 8 free text messages to all other Airtel numbers everyday. My thought process might not make much sense right now to everyone but let me break it down.

Imagine I have Kwaku Doe's MTN number on my phone. Kwaku Doe ports to Airtel and doesn't inform me. I see on my phone that I get to enjoy 1pesewa per minute on MTN Zone to all MTN numbers. So, I call Kwaku Doe who has now ported from MTN to Airtel but then I don't know about him porting. Do I still get to enjoy MTN Zone with Kwaku Doe? Or do I get charged like I was calling an Airtel number? Does the wonderful lady who always comes on to remind you your credit is almost done, come on to tell me the number has been ported to a different network? Do I get notifications informing me when any of my contacts ports their phone number to another network? Or is it up to the other person to let me know they have ported? Some people will genuinely forget or for "mafioso" reasons they won't tell you.

On Airtel. I get 8 free text messages to other Airtel numbers. I decide to text Kwaku Doe's Airtel number. Unknowing to me, Kwaku Doe has ported his Airtel number to Tigo. Is the text message still free or do I pay like I'm texting to a Tigo number? Do I get to find this out after I've made the call or sent the text and realised how much I got charged (that wouldn't be fair though)? Some of us only make certain calls or send certain texts when we know the call/text is virtually free.

I understand this whole Mobile Number Portability thing and I believe its a good thing. At least it will introduce some level of competition to the mobile telephony industry. But there are some issues which I believe the industry should address. Imagine me calling up someone at night thinking the call is virtually free and falling asleep on the phone. I'd wake up with all my call credit done!

I'm not particularly picking on MTN and Airtel as it may seem but those are the two networks I use so I am very aware of most of their promotions.

18001

On just about every MTN official car, the inscription behind reads "In case of careless driving call 18001".

On my way home from work one evening, I'd just passed the Cal Bank and was headed down the Liberation road (hope that's what it's called) when just out of this MTN yard (don't know what to call it but I always see MTN pick ups coming out from that side plus the walls are all decorated with MTN ads) I saw this MTN pick up stick it's head out. Now since my speed was somewhere around 80 and I was so close, I assumed the driver of the car would not make a move to join the road, but how wrong I was.

The smart driver joined the road and I was going too fast to slow down enough or stop so I had to swerve into the next lane. If there'd been another car in that lane then both of us would have been goners. The usual me would have chased this guy, caught up with him and given him a peace of my mind but I relaxed, took down his car number with the intention of calling 18001 (cos that incident definitely counted as careless driving) and venting.

On my first couple of tries that very evening, I just kept hearing the phone was off or unavailable or something. I tried again a couple of days later and this time the phone rang but no one picked up. What I'd like to know is why does MTN have that number at the back of their cars if the phone is going to be off or if no one's going to pick up? Really? What's the point? Why pretend to be concerned about the driving abilities of their drivers when really they are not?