After 37 years

I got something today I have not had since I was about 12, a pair of Converse basketball boots. My daughter and son got them for me as a father days gift after a very subtle hint earlier in the year. I ended up getting my third choice as the previous 2 were not available in my size, they are pretty much the traditional style, in black.

Not only did I get the Converse's I also  got a Build a Bear Teddy Bear sporting a "World Best Dad T Shirt". This bear comes in a box like a pet carrier and is big enough to carry a small dog in. I guess that why I was given it today as they were unable to smuggle it in the house without me seeing. Makes a change from the normal best dad tea mug!!

Well the kite flying never happened today, early rain shower along with wind that was marginal and verging on the wrong direction just made it pointless in trying. If I had of gone I would probably ended up being wound up by a miserable day.

I actually got round to downloading the pictures from Tuesday night Bike night, from the camera's this afternoon, just got to go through them and do the processing 

Well I guess you have noticed the site has changed, while I liked the blue site is was..............to blue, so I have gone for something that a bit brighter still keeping it simple, must remember to feed the fish

For the third day

I have had more run ins with BT today, the third day running, the latest cockup up is one of there best. One of the lines that was faulty was our fax line so we report it as a fault (bear in mind that we still have outstanding faults on other lines still). The engineer duly arrives and we show him where the socket is and he sets about his repair. Later he calls one of the staff over and shows him the phone ringing when he calls it and the member of staff can here a dial tone on the phone, problem fixed..............er no. Later in the day the manager tries phoning the fax machine, the line rings but the fax machine is doing nothing, maybe the fax machine is dead, so we put a phone on the line and call it, still nothing but the number is ringing on the phone. So the manager dials out from the phone to another phone in the office and then does a 1471, surprise surprise the number he is dialing from is not the number of the fax line but another line in the office. When we inform BT of this they turn round and tell us there is no line fault and to re check our equipment..............

Turns out to not be a good day in the office today, there some paperwork which should of been handed in last week and I only get told today about it.

Well tomorrow is Saturday and a day of rest and relaxation, yeah right, no lie in as I have to take wife to work then its back home to pick the kids up and go shopping. Then it back to pick the wife up from work then a bit more shopping and then hopefully a bit of kite flying late afternoon early evening, let see how it pans out.

Not again...........

I have been dealing with my least favourite company today BT, I just can't put in to words how much I despise that company, they have a monopoly on the telecoms industry in this country and they are allowed to get away with what they want. Just trying to get anything done is hard work, one of our office has had major telecoms problems since the storms on Monday night (lightening hit the cable between the telegraph pole and the building). Will they send an engineer out to resolve all our faults, no we have to list every fault and they will assign a single engineer to each job, but how do we know if the line is working or the phone itself is dead, they are so hard work.

I had the joys of working from home today, did think about going outside and work from the gazebo but the wind got up and wind & paperwork don't mix to well. Not only was on the phone to my least favourite company but every phone calls I got seemed to arrive at the most awkward moment, just as I was going to the loo, just as I was about to have dinner, just as I was going out (to the local branch to drop some paper off), getting paranoid that they have a cctv watching me.

Thankfully it is Friday tomorrow, been thinking all day to day was Friday, (probably because I thought yesterday was Thursday). I keep checking the wind as I want to get my kites out over the weekend, Saturday afternoon is looking the best day between the two. Got a BBQ to do Sunday afternoon, the weather looking good, sunny and warm just the damm wind in the wrong direction.

Managed to sort out the mobile broadband on the laptop tonight. Now I have working mobile broadband dongle on my Linux powered laptop. I had a thought the other night about when I got my new phone and Mobile broadband dongle. I am used to going in and there being a host of paperwork to sign, contract, direct debit mandate etc., but we signed absolutely nothing, 3 separate contracts and not a single signature was given, I was always lead to believe that you had to sign for thing you have on contract?

Sorry!

I have not done the motorcycle pictures from last night, been watch the Speedway on TV which which over ran by about an hour due to having to carry out track preparation due to the rain. It was not a bad meeting with a 5 man home team (two riders injured in the first couple of races) managing a draw against a strong 7 man team. Tomorrow probably going to work from home, I can get more done working from home, less interruptions from people coming into the office, now if I could get a way with switching the mobile off..........

Work was interesting today, more and more problems falling out the wood work, while they are not my problems they have ended up on my desk for me to sort out as nobody else has the ability to do it. Had quite a bit to do and ended up working till 7, only stopped as my dinner was ready.

Been playing with my new phone, starting to get the hang of it, bought a memory card for it yesterday only to find that it came with a memory card, I was told it did not so I never bothered to check. Got a few things to try to get the mobile dongle to work on the laptop but I have not had the time.

Had a falling out with the daughter earlier on, she was acting like an injured prima-donna so she had to be brought back down to earth. She eventually apologised before making her way to the local A&E department. That girl has a season ticket for the place, although it has been about 4 months since she was last there. Normally it her wrist (as it this time), either falling over on them or running into things. Just a bruised wrist and cracked bone in the elbow, not sure if she just bandaged or plastered, she is not saying and she is still on her way home.

Who thinks of these things

So the latest brainwave from the government is that we all pay 50p per month per phone line to the government to give everybody a 2mb broadband connection, what a pile of poo that idea is. Excuse me for asking but where is the profit that BT has been making for years with its near monopoly of the UK telecommunications network. BT fed it fat cat directors and it share holders and now have the government having a whip round so they can upgrade there rural network to provide broadband for all.

I am not against everybody having broadband access but there are two point I will make, 2mb (the government target is UPTO 2mb) is not fast and will leave those that can only get this new government supplied link sat on the broadband cycleway while the rest of the country trundles of down the dual carriageway. While most of the UK's broadband enabled users trundles along the dual carriageway, the rest of the worlds broadband users are whizzing around the autobahn.

Why should those that have already borne the cost of being early adopters of broadband have to pay for BT to enable its remaining exchanges. In the past where broadband was not available companies have had to pay extortionate amounts for BT private circuits. BT should be forced to go to the open market to borrow the money and take some form of tax break, against the money they have to borrow to make it look nicer.

If hearing about the 50p levy was not enough today, this was followed up by British Airways asking its staff to take between a week and a month salary holiday, e.g. still come to work but we won't pay you. Now I don't seem to remember any headlines in the past where British airways offered there staff a extra months pay because they had made so much profit, once again the fat cats are left to lick the profit cream.

Apart from my rant, my day went quite well today, jobs I had to do were accomplished without a problem, I scored a morale victory at work today which was a nice feeling and we managed to get down to the bikes tonight and it was packed, certainly the most I have seen down there. Will process the pictures I took and get them up on a web site somewhere.

Well that did not go to plan

Tonight was weigh-in night for the diet, let just say I am back to playing the human yo-yo's again. After last week and getting within spitting distance of the 2st lost mark, it all now a distant memory and my diet is back on the drawing board. I just can not consistently lose weight. Currently sat here hungry and wondering what I could eat and fortunately daughter comes in from work and hands me a fruit salad pot (fresh), they had reached their expiry date so they were selling them off, 10p each, that fill a hole.

Work came and went in its normal fashion today, I only exist when there is a problem or somebody wants something. Off to head office tomorrow so that should be fun.........not. Will try and do it SAS style, in and out again before they even know I was there.

Spent the evening trying work out how to use my new phone, it like having a new PC but with a screen and keyboard a couple of inches square. Got all the basics working, just got to sort out the more advanced bits. My next job is to tackle the modem on the laptop, really want to try it now but I know if I do I will be sat here for another couple of hours playing and I have an early start tomorrow.

Tomorrow night is bike night on Poole Quay so weather permitting I will be going down for the first time this year so I may have a couple motorcycle pictures tomorrow.

Opps I forgot

I was to busy watching the Le Mans 24 Hour race to write my blog last night, just love that race, I did not even realise that it was on this weekend. One day I will fulfill the promise I made myself and go to the event.

Did very little Saturday, went to the company BBQ in the evening. Nearly never got to the BBQ because some silly women thought she would pull out of the lay-by in front of me to see if my brakes worked, thankfully for her they did. Did a bit of window shopping earlier in the day and that was it, rest of the time was spent watching Euro Sports Le Man coverage, makes for a pretty boring blog!!

Part 2
Well that was an expensive shopping trip, had to go to Sainbury to pick up a couple of items for the evening BBQ we were intending to have, so why did we spend over a hour and a half in the 3 mobile phone shop and walk out with 2 new phones and a mobile Internet dongle??

I am now sporting Nokia's version of the Blackberry (daughter nicknamed it a nokaberry), don't have a clue what button to push but hey. Wife has a new Samsung, the one she wanted as well, decided to get a the 3 version as it was free with her chosen call plan, when she questioned Orange (her existing supplier) about one, she had to upgrade her call plan and pay for the phone, her new 3 call plan is cheaper than she is currently paying on Orange and has more call time and unlimited text. Best of all these phones work in the house which Orange don't.

Managed to get the grass cut this afternoon but somewhere along the lines I lost a couple of hours, as the aftrnoon ran away from us, we cooked the BBQ in doors as parts on the BBQ were in the dish washer being washed and the dishwasher was not due to finish until 6:30, so we sat down to an indoor BBQ and watched Madagascar 2 on DVD. Not as good as the original (when is the follow up ever better??) but still not a bad film.

Spent the evening learning the feature on the new phone and trying to convince the USB dongle to work with my Laptop (it does not run Windows or OS X), so far not succeeded yet.