Sad Site
7th June 2008

Those eagle-eyed students amongst you would have noticed that this majestic site was offline for a few sad and lonely days. This is unlikely to happen again as your Shihan has learned his lesson and he has occasionally had to face the stark fact that at times he is just a buffoon with a fancy badge.

He would like to take this opportunity to thank the rather lovely and talented Siobhan Brewer alias Tinrobo and the wonderful Michelle Shihan Murray and finally and not least the hugely important Colin Steward for coming to the rescue of this sad Shihan.

Although in mitigation he would like this opportunity to relate the story of The Shihan and his Sad Site.

Well, it all started like these things often do with an innocent request, the majestic Shedhead Colin Steward best buddy to your Shihan for more than twenty five years and commercial artist who amongst his major commissions was responsible for all the initial Budo Warrior Schools web activities asked your Shihan if he would like after all these years to pay his bill for the http://www.budowarrior.co.uk domain name directly to the company concerned instead to his buddy who would in turn pay the bill. Your Shihan had a total of twenty-eight days to pay the bill, this is an important point that needs to be made twice; he had twenty-eight days to pay the bill.

So, on the twenty-seventh day he contacted the relevant company to offer to pay the bill. Your Shihan was promptly given another company with a different number to call and again he offered to pay his bill and your Shihan was given another company with a different number to call and he again offered to pay the bill but they said it was nothing to do with them, so, your Shihan called the previous number and they said it was nothing to do with them and every thing to do with the other company who initially said it was nothing to do with them. Finally the initial company who said it was nothing to do with them agreed with your Shihan and the other company that it was to do with them and it was at that point that thinks started to get frustrating!

Evidently it was far too simple to just pay the bill over the telephone with the aid of an eager but threadbare credit card no, this company that will remain nameless decided that they would forward an email to your Shihan in the form of a form for him to fill out and then he had to fax it back. FAX! WHO HAS A ******* FAX NOWADAYS!

This meant that Michelle on the following morning would on behalf of the NHS have to send the fax (thank you NHS). The fax was duly received and that afternoon your Shihan rang once again to offer to pay the bill, but there was a problem. This company that shall remain nameless required more information despite the fact that it was there form and it was all filled in and guess what they would email another form and quite a different form which guess what, it would have to be faxed back! Michelle was at work, so another day would go by.

The following morning Michelle again with the aid of the NHS sent back the fax. That afternoon your weary Shihan once again contacted the nameless company and once again he offered to pay the still outstanding bill, but there was another problem and this problem was of a more technical nature that was promptly and stylishly dealt with by little Miss Tinrobo (thank you Siobhan) and thankfully this nameless company could deal with that particular information over the telephone. Once again your weary Shihan offered to pay the outstanding bill and guess what they accepted! Thankfully the whole fiasco was over.

The following morning your frustrated and weary Shihan again rang this nameless company to check when http://www.budowarrior.co.uk would be back on line as the several days wasted had resulted in a black out, but there was another problem... Evidently, the domain name did not technically belong to him it belonged to the prodigious Colin Steward who originally set the whole site up several years previous. This nameless company would need a fax from Colin stating that he did not wish the ownership of the said domain name and that he would be ecstatic that your Shihan could retrieve the ownership. When your Shihan contacted his best buddy Colin, he exclaimed, “FAX! WHO HAS A ******* FAX NOWADAYS!”

Finally Colin did manage to send the required fax late in the afternoon. The following day your tetchy and frustrated and weary Shihan contacted the nameless company to find out when his beloved site would be back on line, but there was another problem!

This nameless company explained that on deeper thinking and closer inspection they decided that technically speaking the domain name did not actually belong to Colin Steward either but it did in fact belong to Colin Steward’s graphic design company. Once again this nameless company would require another fax to confirm that Colin Steward was the same Colin Steward who ran a specific design company that just coincidentally shared the same address.

The following day your seething and tetchy and frustrated and weary Shihan rang this still nameless company to find out when his beloved but unfortunate site would be back on line, but this time there was no problem and it would be flying high that evening.

Well, it all ended like these things often do with a whimper and not a big bang...