All entries for December 2004

Screw you O2

I've had my Nokia 6100 on the O2 Online 100 tariff now for over a year, I decided it was time to upgrade, not because I'm fed up with my 6100 but because I am entitled to an upgrade so I may as well have one. I had my eye on a phone in particular; the Nokia 6230. I got the number for upgrades off the website, called it and followed the voice prompts which informed me I needed to call a different number, how useful?

So I call this new number which has nearly the same voice prompts and get through to a women in Manchester called Vicky. She asks for various detalis to verify my identity; mobile number, name, address, date of birth, number of guys i've slept with, which bum cheek my mole is on etc. I tell her I want to upgrade to the Nokia 6230, she tells me its not free and costs £99.99, I tell her I'm not paying for it when providers are offering it for free with new contracts. She makes up some bollocks about it being a hassle to start a new contract and that I wouldn't be able to keep my number (also untrue) and then tries to recommend other phones to me. I'd had enough, told her I didn't want to upgrade if its going to cost me, she apologised for not being able to help.

Ok, plan B time, call the disconnection department and request a PAC (port authorisation code) so that I can take my number to Orange and get the phone for free (well actually I didn't actually plan on moving to Orange, but may have done if the result was different). So I call back the number I'd just called, followed the prompts for disconnecting and it then told me I needed to call the first number, stupid system, I called the original number and got through to a guy called Carl.

He asked me how he could help, I said "I'd like a PAC number please.". He took all the same annoying details I'd just had to give Vicky and then asked me why I wanted to cancel my contract, so I told him straight out "I want to upgrade to the Nokia 6230 but you want to charge me £100 when I can get it free on another network", he says "Who are you thinking of moving to?" so I told him Orange (surely one of their biggest competitors?), he very quickly says I think there's probably something we can do about the price of that phone. I wasn't sure what to expect next, was he going to offer it me at a discount price and then I'd have to up my threat to leave? He didn't, he just said we can let you have the phone for free.

So there we go, I'm getting a new, free, Nokia 6230 and all I had to do was threaten to leave them! You may ask if it is right to swindle them out of £100 like that but I'd have to ask "Is it right that they try and get away charging £100 for a new phone to existing customers when they offer it free to new customers?", I think not!

: 20 Dec 2004 12:57 |  Comments (5) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Diamonds and drag are a man's best friend

Tonight was my work's (Thats the pizza place I work at during the holidays, not Asda) christmas party. We started with a meal at a place called Diamonds in Rotherham. Its a nice little place, the meal was ok, nothing special. The entertainment was fabulous, I've never seen a drag act before and wasn't exactly sure what to expect. They were fairly comical, and got themselves involved with the audience, the main person Ruby (or Rich if you prefer) was very funny and even borrowed my camera at one point and took a couple of pics that are in the gallery like the one of the underware and the cock pick.

Because I had taken a couple of the photos of her and she had borrowed the camera she wanted me to email them to her, so at the end she called me up on stage, and as she was also wise to it being my birthday soon made a big deal out of me whilst giving me her email address. It was all good fun, I wonder whether she could tell I am gay or not, most of the people I work with don't know you I was being careful.

Not too careful though, by the end of the night I was being a bit too obvious although it didn't matter as everyone else was more drunk then me, I do think though I wouold have enjoyed it a whole lot more if I could have been my gay self but time will bring that hopefully. We then went on to a bar and met more staff from work (those that had been working tonight) and had a bit more fun.

It was a good night which I thoroughly enjoyed, time now to go and email Ruby (Rich) with some photos before going to bed so I can get up for work at Asda at 11am tomorrow.

: 19 Dec 2004 03:47 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

A blogless day?

I'm wierd, no one can deny it, earlier I was thinking about what I could blog about and I decided that I didn't really have anything worth blogging about, all i've done today is work at Asda which isn't worth blogging. So my train of thought was that perhaps I could write a blog entry saying how this would be a blogless day because I don't have anything to blog about today and tomorrow I'm going out and wont be back till after the day is over.

It then suddenly struck me that if I were to write a blog entry declaring this a blogless day that it would no longer be a blogless day. Now instead of not blogging and having a blogless day, I have blogged about blogging about blogless days (if you understand that then you deserve a prize). So I think that clearly demonstrates my wierdness to those who couldn't already see raving loony stuck to my forehead. It also shows how tired I am.

: 18 Dec 2004 01:50 |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Warwick Bloggers Calender 2005

Writing about an entry you don't have permission to view

Sam was saying how he'd like a Warwick Bloggers Calender for christmas, we'll I think we can just about manage that. It would be cool, and a good way for me to waste away more of my christmas hols. I can't do it alone though, I need you guys to email me photos (preferably of digital camera quality) with suggested captions and the moth you think the picture belongs to blogcal@justwait.co.uk and I'll get to work on making a lovely calender.

Then if anyone would like a copy of the finished article I will look into either printing them myself for a small fee to cover costs or maybe get a cheap printer (anyone know of any) to make us some. If I get overwhelmed with pictures I'll have to blog them and open them up to a vote as to which are included.

Lol, this is very sad and I bet no-one really cares to want one, even if it could be used to show your love / hate of certain people by kissing / stabbing it.

P.S. I would liked to have kept up my streak of naming my blog entries after Oasis lyrics but I don't think Oasis have song about Warwick Blogs, maybe I should suggest it to them perhaps?

: 17 Dec 2004 01:02 |  Comments (18) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

So wish me away to an unknown place

I've just made another one of my crazy decisions, I'm off on a day visit to a friend tomorrow. Ok so you're probably thinking thats not so crazy, right now here's the crazy bit, he lives 220miles away in Portsmouth, thats a nice 4 hour drive away according to all good route planning services, so 8 hours driving is in store for tomorrow. I haven't had a good drive in a while.

I've never been to Portsmouth (hence the 'unknown place' part of the title), I hope to have a quick look around the university whilst I'm briefly down there. I might even take a few photos if I remember to put my camera battery on charge before going to bed which I need to do real soon if I'm going to set of for Portsmouth at about 8am.

Another reason why this is so crazy is because apart from the cash I have lying around (which is ear marked for an evening out on sat) I have a total of £46.59 available across my student bank account, visa card and my mastercard and this journey is going to use up most of that in petrol, in fact if it wasnt for the fact that I have at least a half full tank of fuel in the car I would be able to afford to go. So tomorrow evening I shall be the most skint I have ever been, a totally new low!

: 16 Dec 2004 00:49 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

You don't like me why don't you admit it

As you should all have noticed the lovely people in IT Services have now added the favourite blogs feature to the blogosphere and slowly people during the day have been creating their favourites. For those who haven't noticed we can make all these favourite viewable to different people so that others can see which blogs we find interesting and read regularly.

At first the idea of seeing other peoples favourites was appealing until I looked at one or two of my favourite blogs and saw I wasn't on their favourites list, it was depressing to see, and at that moment I decided that I wouldn't publish my favourites list as not to offend those who aren't on it. After some thought though, I have changed my mind and decided that I don't really care if I'm not on others favourites, at the end of the day my blog isn't particularly interesting or funny.

I am on a few peoples favourites (some of which were unexpected) which is really nice to see, although I do wonder why sometimes, I've never seen my writing as particularly good, and if its is insightful its usually only insightful about me and not much else. Seeing myself on others favourites has made me feel more motivated to keep up my blogging as its now clear its not only myself that finds my ramblings, which are largely for my own benifit and self-confidence, useful.

So whilever I have fans and, to be honest, even if I didn't I shall blog on.

: 15 Dec 2004 01:38 |  Comments (11) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

We can talk and find common ground

I have been back from uni just over a week now and only just got round to going out for a catch up drink with my friends, it was only actually 3 of us though as most still aren't back from uni, so it was Mike (who is actually at Warwick anyway so I see him everynow and again), Matt and myself. The night has lead me to one conclusion, catch-up drinks are never really what they claim to be.

Yeah sure you spend about 2 minutes filling each other in on each others lives over the past couple of months but most of it no-one really cares about, its the kinda stuff you had to be there for to really appreciate, now what does seem to make the best conversation is reliving shared memories and experiences. It's far more enjoyable to have a good laugh over past events which were experienced by all then to just listen to someone talk about something that happened with their uni friends.

We had a very good laugh discussing people from our old school (teachers included), how many of them we could remember and what they were / are like. It was really nice to be reminded of certain people and things that had happened, it would be really nice to organise a reunion, not so that we can all catch up to say "Yeah uni is going fine, how about you?" but so we can look back on our schooldays and celebrate the good times and laugh at the less fortunate events.

: 14 Dec 2004 01:30 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Put yer money where your mouth is

If only I had money to put where my mouth is, I am so skint at the mo. I'm down to my last few pennies, well actually it's a bit worse then that as I have borrowed money (on top of my overdraft and credit cards). I won't have any money till Asda pay me on Christmas eve, or the next working day after which is Wed 29th (i think). There's also a bit of doubt that they'll pay me correctly, in which case I might get less then I need this month and more next month so money could be tight.

I really have to stop my spending, I have gone crazy over the last month, I've spent a fortune on DVD's. I bought the extended version of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King yesterday to complete my set, why couldn't I wait till it was cheaper instead of buying it on the day of release? I also get carried away at Christmas as I love buying people gifts and have bought loads of people gifts this year when usually I'd only send them a card. Postage is gonna to cost me a fortune too.

It's not helping my plan to pay of my Mastercard debt of £5500 by the time I graduate in Jun 2006, a goal which I believe is obtainable but one which I will have to work very hard at to do it, I will need to make sure I do lots of hours over the holidays. I'm never going to achieve it if I keep spending like I have been recently. Hopefully once christmas is out of the way I will be able to have a cheap term as I don't have much to buy and am not planning on doing much, unless of course some more concerts are announced, I already have tickets for Feeder and Oasis though.

I always end up buying everyone else's tickets and not getting my money back till we actually go, like at the moment I have paid for 3 Feeder tickets which I am owed money for and 1 Oasis ticket, plus my brother owes me £50 and my step dad owes me £20 so I guess it's not to bad, although I feel I shouldn't take this attitude as it's precisely that attitude that means I keep on spending!

: 11 Dec 2004 23:50 |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

These are crazy days but they make me shine

In true Chris Knowles style (as anyone that knows me will tell you) I am going to do something a bit on the crazy side. Oasis are one of my all time (if not all-time) favourite bands and I have longed to see them play live for many years but my stupid friends have failed to invite when they've been (maybe I smell?). I knew they were touring again this summer but didn't find out till after the tickets went onsale by which time I expected they'd be sold out.

I recieved my weekly email from Ticketmaster tonight and for one I actually bothered to skim it, I noticed Oasis were mentioned so I clicked the link, thinking 'Why have they mentioned Oasis, surely its completely sold out by now?'. It turns out there are still a few tickets left to a couple of venues, the first being seated only in Glasgow, just a mere 255 miles (5 hour drive) from Sheffield so I didn't pay much attention to that, but low and behold further down the page there are standing tickets available to their gig in Southampton, which is marginly closer (200 miles – 4 hour drive).

Now tickets aren't cheap, face value of £32.50 and they are very far away but I was severly tempted to just buy one ticket, drive all the way to Southampton, see them play and drive all the way home, all in a day but then I discussed the matter with Rhian who said if she were me she'd buy 2 tickets, try and find someone else to go and if not then sell the 2nd ticket and go alone. So in the end I went from considering buying a ticket to actually buying 2 tickets. The good news is it looks like I already have someone to go with which makes life much sweeter.

I really can't afford to be buying tickets as I have no money until I get paid on Christmas eve but I really don't care, I'll manage, it's going to be totally worth it. I can't wait already and its over half a year away, I have a feeder concet to go to in the meantime to which I also cant wait to see, no doubt I'll be squeezing more gigs in all over.

: 10 Dec 2004 01:22 |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Depressing Blogs

No, blogs in general aren't depressing, in fact most are quite funny although that in itself can be a little depressing realising i'll never even be half the blogging man that Sam is. The depressing thing is how the quiet the blogging world has become now its the Christmas holidays, people are no longer needing to blog to avoid writing that eassy due in the next day, people are no longer commenting on my entries (except the occasional loyal readers, you know who you are and I love you). It's just upsetting to see my popularity has dropped from next to nothing to hardly anything at all.

: 09 Dec 2004 01:57 |  Comments (14) |  Close comments |  Report a problem