ever been cheated?

Other pub quizzes. At university - we used to always come 2nd or 3rd in the weekly rag quiz, so extra points were like gold dust, and, being geniuses the lot of us, there were several times when we *knew* we were right. We missed out on literally dozens of cans of weak lager.

Does car insurance count? The grasping fuckers. But I'm just bitter.

I consistently lost at darts on Sunday, even though I was clearly the best player. Very frustrating.

On a more serious note, our last landlord before we boarded the property-owning juggernaut ripped us of for £150. It didn't seem like much at the time, but I could really use it now... We did get our deposit back even though the place was a shithole, which was some consolation.

Well, for two years I've been banging on to my editor about having to go to Berlin to do a Berlin Is Da Bomb-type piece and doncha just know, one of the staffers was clearly cribbing and got sent over last month. I complained directly to that staffer ("you WANKER!" said just jokingly enough, "I had an open blag from an airline to go and do that story for us!") which was fine, and my editor gave me the cover story for next issue to make up for it (although this was not explicitly stated).

Getting cheated is pretty rampant in the media, d'oh. If people believe they can get away with it, they do it. It's that simple. I never do, because ultimately I'd have to live with myself afterwards and would be annoyed at slipping up in the principles department. The thing is, it's considered even more unprofessional to remind an editor that they've allowed something unethical to happen, it's as good as a virtual P45.

However there is a little thing called KARMA. The person that cheated me most carried on treating others just as badly after I'd stopped having anything to do with her and now she's having trouble getting a project off the ground. People just don't want to deal with her and she moves onto new circles of aquaintances every few months thinking she's on her way to the top. She isn't. She'll never be headed to the dole office as is a Thatcherbaby, but started out believing she would be more famous than Madonna. The silver lining is what was once seen as a massive and squalid form of betrayal has now diminished into something I don't need to take personally, to boot.

All these editors. I think Suzy and the Pinefox are the same!

I. Don't. Think. So.

i had an editor "friends" swipe ideas I'd pitched and then gave me that blank, uncomprehending, "qui moi?" look when confronted. keep everything in writing - and e-mails are good for dating things.

You never see them together.

Landlords are the be-all and end-all of rip-offs. Day before we move out: I use cooker. Next week: you broke the cooker, goodbye deposit. That was an attempted rip-off not a successful one I'm happy to say.