Monthly Archives: January 2008

And, it’s not quite a Jag-u-ar. In fact, it’s not much of anything at the moment – seeing as when I left the house this morning to toddle up the M18 it point-blank refused to start. At all. Turn key….”click click click click”. Damn. I suspected the battery, but all of the interior lights seem to work, the radio switched on when I put the key in, and the central locking worked fine.

I call out Mazda Assist, who tell me that they’ll have someone out at 11. So, I ring work and arrange to work from home today. When the recovery guy turns up, it’s around 11:30. He clearly already suspects the battery, as he’s arrived at the door with a portable battery charger/car starter ready to fire the beast up.

He pops open the bonnet, and hooks up the battery charger, whistles and wanders around the car to the drivers door, gets in and tries to kick the engine over. “click click click click click”. No dice. “OH”, says the man. He clearly wasn’t expecting that!

Continue reading →

Today was the ‘other’ reason we were in Shropshire – Emma’s mam had laid on a bit of an afternoon party spread for Emma’s 30th Birthday. All of Emma’s close family were present, and it was lovely to see all of the kids playing together.

Woke this morning to four kids jumping up and down on the bed, climbing over the pair of us and generally being very, very LOUD. Kids! One of the monsters was our own, the other three were Emma’s step-sister’s trio. Her kids are great – they’re all obsessed with Aimee, as she’s the youngest in the family. Well – youngest apart from her step-brother’s lad, but, hey, he lives in Australia! Jammy get.

The party went well, and Emma’s mum made a great job of the food. After most of the festivities died down, Mark brought out Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii, and we had a bash at trying to be Slash, and, generally failed at doing so. It’s good fun, though! My mum actually ordered this game for me as a Christmas gift too, but the internet retailer didn’t deliver it in time for Christmas – I wonder if it’s arrived with my mum yet? I need to have a more in-depth crack at this, it’s a great laugh.

Continue reading →

One of the reasons we’re in Shropshire this weekend is because we’ve been invited to one of Emma’s old work colleagues’ 60th birthday party. Unaccustomed as I am to attending a sexagenarian’s birthday party, I wasn’t really sure what to expect.

I don’t know anyone attending, other than the birthday girl and her husband, so I was planning on being the party wallflower, and finding a quiet corner to hide in. In social situations like this, amongst strangers, I’m generally fucking hopeless. I become insular and my confidence disappears.

Imagine my unease at being handed a card as soon as we arrived containing our ‘secret identity’ – a party game. More or less everyone attending the party were couples, and every couple had been matched up to a famous twosome. Each couple’s identity had some link to their real lives – ours was pretty tenous – we were Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee, from Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings. Thusly linked to us because our dog is called Frodo.

The idea of the game is to be an ice-breaker – forcing everyone to speak to one another in order to ascertain everyone else’s secret identity. Great if you’re a networking whore or a social animal, not so good if you’re a fish out of water at the 60th birthday party of someone you hardly know! So, no chance whatsoever of hiding in the corner for me!

Continue reading →

Bah. My first ‘backdated’ entry. I had a journey across the country on the train in the evening, I drank some tramp fuel on the train and by the time I’d gotten to my final destination – the warm, dark and inviting living room of my mother in law’s, I fell asleep and broke my New Year’s resolution.

So, this entry is being authored a day late. Damn. I’m so annoyed with myself that I can’t think of anything worthwhile to write. Feh. Continue reading →

For those of you not familiar with the title, it’s a reference to a Fonejacker character – an African fraudster who tries to deceive people into divulging their bank details to the unsuspecting punters he rings up. Today, I am that punter.

Yes, today I found out that I am the victim of Visa fraud. No – I didn’t divulge my details to an African chap wanting my sort-code and account number – but it appears that my debit card details have been plundered by some scammers.

I got a call today at work on my mobile from a polite young lady claiming to be calling from Barclays Fraud Detection Team – being fairly paranoid and wary of the lengths fraudsters will go to to steal one’s identity, I didn’t divulge any personal information to the lady and rang the bank up using the number printed on the back of the plastic card. After some faffing around with Barclays’ phone system, I was put through to the Fraud Team, and ended up speaking to the lady I first spoke to.

Continue reading →

God, I hate those adverts. You know? The ‘Phones4U’ ones. The ones with, well, what can only be described as ‘special’ people struggling to comprehend the latest mobile phone offer which the annoying gimp with the Ted Rogers-esque twiddly-finger ‘Phones4U’ gesture is hawking to them from the back of an Ice Cream van. I’m sure you know the ones.

I’m in the market for a new phone. The contract is up on my T-Mobile provided Nokia E61, and I’ve been hunting around for a decent deal on its bigger, brasher, heavier! brother – the Nokia E90.

I had a little wander around Meadowhall the other day, figuring that with the plethora of mobile phone shops inside, I’d be bound to play them off against each other and end up with a sweet deal. It didn’t quite pan out like that.

The trouble is, the E90 isn’t your average consumer mobile phone, and, generally – that’s all your High Street mobile phone dealer wants to flog you. Whatever the latest Samsung Vomit or LG Chavty is what they want you to end up leaving the store with.

I went into the Meadowhall branch of Phones4U just to see if they had any E90′s in. Needless to say, as soon as I crossed the threshold I was pounced upon by the spotty salesdroid.

Salesdroid: “Can I help you at all sir?”
Continue reading →

As is traditional this time of year, Apple use the MacWorld Exhibition in San Francisco as an opportunity to show off and demo their new products. This year is no exception, and Apple have just launched their newest member of the Mac family – the “MacBook Air“.

Apple fans, myself included, have long been speculating about the void left in Apple’s product line-up ever since they axed the 12″ Powerbook following the launch of the Intel-based MacBook Pro in 2006. The 12″ Powerbook struck the perfect balance between true portability and, at the time, power. With the launch of the MacBook Air, I think Apple have shot themselves in the foot, somewhat.

The ‘Air’ certainly looks the part – following the familiar lines of the iconic aluminium Powerbook/MacBook Pro whilst being razor-blade thin – 0.76″ at its fattest point! It’s also got some cred in its display, being LED-backlit and likely to be very clear and bright. However there’s a few clanging shortcomings.

No one expected an optical drive to be fitted, so I don’t believe that this is a major suprise – fitting one in a case so thin would likely be physically impossible. It’s the omission of a few basics that make it a deal-breaker for me.

Continue reading →

Nothing interesting of any sort happened today at all. Nothing. Depressing.

A dull, wet, late, drudge up the motorway, followed by a dull day at head office, followed by a dull jaunt down the motorway.

Life is so good to me! Continue reading →

I’m quite pleased with myself that I’ve kept up with my blogging New Year’s resolution and have entered something for the last 12 days. Now I’ve got to stop kidding myself that I can write something actually interesting every day. Perhaps it’s indicative of how boring my existence is!

So, this one’s a short and sweet entry, possibly the first of many!

Spent all afternoon with Aimee, playing with her Duplo and other Christmas toys. She’s very hard work, when you’re on your own. Nothing is sacred – she wants everything, and she’ll stop at nothing to get it. “No Aimee, you can’t have the coal out of the fire”, “No, Aimee, you can’t swing on the DVD cabinet”, “No, Aimee, you can’t use a mug as a drumstick and the TV as the drum”.

Emma and the in-laws loved the pantomime, not my bag at all, really. Tomorrow Emma and I might actually spend some time together, as Aimee is spending the day with her grandad and grandma – so we might do something without Aimee – blimey! Continue reading →