Category Archives: General

Complaints, General

My new sofa from CSL

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After my complaint against DFS some time ago, I swore I’d never used them again. True enough, when I needed to order a new sofa for my new house I went everywhere EXCEPT DFS, and finally settled on this one from CSL. It’s a damn fine sofa, and I’ve even bought the ‘cuddler’ chair to go with it, which is a chair big enough for two (or someone and a dog) to sit in, and it swivels!

It should be arriving on Wednesday, after I was assured I would get a phone call tomorrow to confirm the delivery. Can CSL do any better than DFS, or will they be as bad? Only time will tell, and so will I šŸ˜‰

hugo-chair

General, Google

HTC Magic Review

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I bought a new phone this last week, and took delivery of it over the weekend. The phone I bought (leaving Vodafone after a decade, but more on that another time) is the HTC Touch HD.

However, before I go into that phone (as I’m still playing with it and it’s late) I wanted to share this review I found for the HTC Magic. Now, I didn’t even know what a HTC Magic was, and this review makes me think I should have looked at it in some detail. The name ‘Google’ attached to the HTC Magic gives it a certain kudos in my book.

Have a look and see what you think. I’ll get to reviewing the HTC Touch HD shortly too.

General

British Ginger wins worldā€™s best job blogging on Desert Island

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You may have seen recently that the Queensland Tourist board has been looking for someone to work for them in what they have dubbed ā€˜the worldā€™s best jobā€™. The job entails swanning around on a desert island, eating barbeque food, swimming in the sea and blogging about great the holiday is.

For this arduous task theyā€™re paying Ā£73,500 per year!

They conducted a lengthy search, which obviously received thousands of applicants (over 34,000 to be precise), all looking for someone with good blogging skills and a penchant for adventurous holidays. Eventually they decided on 34 year old Brit Ben Southall, a Ginger.

Now, just why would you hire a Ginger to be your representative on a desert island? The tropical Queensland weather isnā€™t going to be that kind to Southallā€™s complexion.

Yet heā€™s still excited about his blogging job, stating:

I hope I can fill the boots as much as everybody is expecting. My swimming is hopefully up to standard and I look forward to all the new roles and responsibilities that the task involves.

Responsibilities? All he has to do is get smashed off his face every night, lie around on the beach during the day and write on his blog. A great responsibility indeed. The actual job description for the role read:

To explore the islands of the Great Barrier Reef, swim, snorkel, make friends with the locals and generally enjoy the tropical Queensland climate and lifestyle.

If I sound a little jealous about this, itā€™s because I am. However, could you imagine if Iā€™d actually landed the job?

Day One

Plane was late. Sodding Ryan Air, never using them again. The beach house has no running water. Despite there being only one car on the island, mine, Iā€™ve still managed to crash it… it wasnā€™t my fault.

Received first monthā€™s pay in advance, CSA have taken all of it… bastards.

General, Michael Jackson

Getting my scan results today

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Todayā€™s the day I get my results from my CAT scan and MRI scan that I had some months ago. Iā€™ll be seeing the spinal surgeon this afternoon, where I fully expect to be told that Iā€™ll need surgery to remove the steel rod from my spine and have it replaced to fully correct the scoliosis. If this is the case, itā€™ll be done sometime this summer, but not until after the Michael Jackson concert obviously.

Iā€™m not looking forward to this, but it has to be done; I can barely walk more than 50 yards now without excruciating pain. Not too clever really.

Stay tuned for the results as always!

General, Michael Jackson, The A-Team

Iā€™m gonna get my tools from the van!

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This weekend just gone was a special time for me because I got to say the immortal words ā€œIā€™m gonna get my tools from the vanā€ in general conversation. It might not seem like much of a milestone in life, but for those of us who donā€™t have ā€˜toolsā€™, a ā€˜vanā€™ or a reason to get tools from the aforementioned van, the chances of saying this immortal line from the A-Team are very slim.

What led to this momentous occasion? Well, I moved into my new house on the 9th March, and this last weekend travelled back to Wales in a rented van, from County Car & Van Rental, to pick up my huge collection of tat, which included my Michael Jackson Moonwalker Arcade Machine.

I did the 400 mile round trip in one day, arriving back in Manchester late Saturday night after the rugby had finished. Then on Sunday I wanted to put my bed up, which required me to get tools. Where were the tools I had discovered I owned only the day before? In the van of course.

This allowed me to say ā€œIā€™m gonna get my tools from the vanā€.

A proud moment indeed.

My Moonwalker machine fits in nicely into my new house by the way, very classy.

British Telecom, CSA, General

CeMAP Training

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I had wondered what the term CeMAP Training actually meant, but as Iā€™ve just bought a house (which completes on Monday, when I get the keys) Iā€™ve now realised what it means and exactly why itā€™s so important in the current climate.

The term means the ā€˜Certificate in Mortgage Advice and Practiceā€™ and is awarded to people who qualify from their CeMAP exam to become mortgage advisers. My own personal mortgage adviser was with Lloyds TSB, and he ensured I had the right mortgage package so that I could afford the house Iā€™m buying in Manchester, so he was very helpful to me, when most people wouldnā€™t have given me a mortgage right now because of the CSA deductions Iā€™m currently experiencing, despite having already paid off more than their stated arrears.

But thatā€™s for another blog post. This one is about my new house, which Iā€™ll be living in from Monday 9th (which also happens to be my youngest sonā€™s birthday) and Iā€™m able to finally ditch BT, as Iā€™m having Virgin Media installed.

So Iā€™m getting a new house, with REAL broadband and Sky Sports. Things are looking up. Thanks for the help Tim!

General, Home Delivery Network, Rants

Home Delivery Network to sack 700 people?

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Great news for consumers who like to get their purchases delivered properly, as incompetent delivery firm, HDNL (Home Delivery Network Limited) look like theyā€™re going to make 700 workers redundant, adding to the unemployment in the country.

Now, when this sort of thing happens to most companies you can expect a tad of sympathy, but with HDNL youā€™re not going to get any sympathy at all. Iā€™m glad theyā€™re sacking 700 workers, in fact, why canā€™t they sack all of them and just wind up the company? My original post about how Home Delivery Network botched a delivery has attracted well over 100 comments from angry customers who have also had their items lost, damaged or stolen by HDNL staff, and also comments from HDNL delivery drivers who have spouted racist abuse at customers via this website.

The post has become one massive advert as to why you shouldnā€™t use HDNL.

The news that HDNL could be sacking almost a thousand staff is great news for people who like to have their items delivered properly, as now perhaps Amazon will have to use a decent delivery service.

Julia Long, from the ā€˜Uniteā€™ union, stated:

We have been working together over the last year putting changes in place to help the business move forward and become profitable after years of what we believe were bad decisions and poor management.

Irene Radigan from the Usdaw union added:

We are working with HDNL to minimise compulsory redundancies as a result of this restructuring. The home shopping sector has seen a steady decline over the last few years and these redundancies are not a direct result of the economic downturn.

According to the reports, HDNL depots in Basildon, Daventry, Newcastle, Eastleigh, Burslem, Sheffield and Edmonton will be closed, and the staff made redundant. HDNL has 59 depots in the UK, so thereā€™s a few more to close before we can expect decent service once again.

General

HTC Touch HD

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htc-touch-hd-001I’m looking at getting a new mobile phone to replace my Windows Smartphone (which is the size of a small car and is getting quite slow). The phone I intend to get is the new Windows Mobile 6 HTC Touch HD, the one without the keyboard. I’m not getting the keyboard version because my fingers are huge and I can’t operate the tiny keys anyway (I can’t even use the keyboard on the Eee PC properly).

One thing I need to check out though is the best place to get one, as obviously I can’t buy from Carphone Warehouse, as they’re likely to rip me off the same as they did the last time I used them, where they lied to me repeatedly. Their staff as bad enough too, as one of their former store managers proved when he emailed me just to abuse me. Quality customer service from Carphone Warehouse.

So, where do you think is the place to buy a mobile phone?

I might get lucky and hang on a few months as I’m due an upgrade on the Nokia N95 I had from Vodafone, but not sure I can wait that long.