Xmas was poo as usual. But then when the family is forced to be together it’s bound to kick off I s’pose. Xmas Day went OK, but Boxing Day was just one big argument.
For Christmas Eve we went to the Rising… big mistake. I really don’t ever want to go back there until they get a proper full-time landlord. One that actually gives a shit. Why oh why did they piss about with Ollie & Danny. They were the best landlords that place had in years… Anyhoo, This time they were serving Coke from big store-bought bottles so they were flat & disgusting (I hate coke, but watered down pub Pepsi is OK), so then I went for Smirnoff Black Ice which tasted a bit odd, so I checked the best before date… best before AUGUST 06!!! Alcohol takes ages to go off, they must have had those bottle for years! When it was taken back to the bar they got another from out back & said “August 06? Is that OK?” No it’s not OK, you could get closed down you fuck-heads! You have no idea how tempting it is to report them for selling out of date beverages (it was clear all of the bottles were out of date & that they had no intention of disposing of them) and the state of the ladies loos and watch the place get shut down… Oh yeah & I forgot the laughable bit… they charged people £2 to get in. There were about 10 people in there FFS! Luckily we got in before that started happening. There is no way in hell I’d have paid for that.
So anyway, gifts. This year I got:
Rent paid for December | Bird Table | Bird Feeder | Air Plant | Zoundz | USB Cells (basically USB AA batteries) | a big fluffy (toy) rabbit called Horatio | lots of chocolate | a Baking Tray | QI General Ignorance book | PhD book? | Gloomy Bear slippers | Vanimal Zoo Human Gass figure | Invader Zim/Gir talking figure | a fluffy hat | Very Intelligent Pocket
For myself, I got a new mobile phone. I hadn’t upgraded in 2 years and I really wanted a wifi phone. I spent ages looking around, but t-mobile just doesn’t have the best range of phones. The only 2 wifi ones in my upgrade price range either didn’t have a camera (yeah I hated camera phones at first, but now I’d be lost without one. I use it for all sorts of things where I would once have written stuff down) or didn’t have vibrating alert (nothing dodgy ;op but if I didn’t have this I would never answer my phone or know I had messages. At loud gigs it is invaluable). So I’ve given up on a wifi phone for now (praying that the N93 or better is available for my upgrade next year). I settled on the BlackBerry Pearl (8100g). I know lots of people hate blackberries, but this one was the same size as my current phone so not too bulky, but still with a large screen (I hate small phones, I’d lose them). I ordered on-line on the Thursday, heard nothing at all, not even a confirmation so then I queried it with CS on the Friday & it was dispatched immediately & turned up on the Saturday. Woo!… except it didn’t work :o( The phone itself was OK, although it kept hanging whenever I did anything. The camera on the other hand was completely DOA. Every picture came out bright pink and green. I uploaded an example. Clearly a hardware error. So I e-mailed CS again & got told no-one would be able to answer my query until Monday at 08:00. *sigh* I waited until Monday & at 10:30 gave up and phoned t-mobile. I was told I could either get it fixed, or send it back & get a refund. There was no way I wanted it fixed. I’d ordered a new phone, not a refurbished one. So I e-mailed off an RMA form. Waited 3 days (damn Christmas post!) for a pre-paid SD bag to arrive and sent it back. I’d been told it would be 5 days (not working days) from them receiving my returned phone to being able to re-upgrade. So I swapped my Christmas leave with a colleague so that I would be in Reading on the 5th day, ready to go into the t-mobile shop this time & re-upgrade. After hanging around in the shop for an hour & a half I finally got my upgrade, free this time, and the camera works! It’s great, I really like the numberpad and shockingly I’m actually using SureType & not multi-tap. I’m not as fast at SureType as I am multi-tap yet, but I’m getting there. SureType beats T9 into a bloody pulp so far imo. I didn’t want to scratch my new little beauty so I bought a skin for it, shame the black one isn’t out til January. It currently looks like it’s wearing a pink condom. Poor thing. It has a nice little 2GB micro-SD inside though :oD
As I am now ill with festive germs, I will no doubt be spending NYE at home. I’ve gone through the pain of the sore-throat and the general acheyness, but now I am a snot factory. I have to go back to work on Tuesday too. That’s too soon!!
