12.20.05
Out With The Old…
Ho Ho Ho! Tiz the season to be jolly!
I hope everyone’s feeling the Christmas spirit (or at least drinking some ;-))!
Hanne went off back to Norway this evening where she’ll be for a week with her family before returning to ring in the New Year with me. As for me, i’m off to spend Christmas with my grandmother, uncles, parents, and brother up in Wales! This will be the first time in 3 years that I haven’t spent Christmas with Hanne, which is a bit of a downer, but as we’ll be apart for barely a week i’m sure we’ll get by.
So the main point of this post is just to vent my frustration at my own ineptitude. Last Saturday I put down my mobile phone SOMEWHERE in this house. It then decided to run out of batteries before I had a chance to call it and find out where it was hiding, and now it’s lost somewhere! I swear the thing has legs. But perhaps this is a blessing in disguise… I’ve had the Sony Ericsson K700 for over a year, which, at the rate some people go through phones, is an eon and a half.
I’ve been thinking of switching back to Nokia, as with my last phone and it’s predecessor (the T610) the little thumbstick seemed to become quite unresponsive after a couple of months. Over the last few weeks I’ve had to give up completely on trying to move it into the “up” position, instead having to scroll downwards through the entire list of menu options, only to just miss the option I was aiming for and having to go through the whole rigormoral again. A couple of months ago Nikolai acquired the Nokia 6680. Although it’s a little chunky it is a nifty piece of kit! More recently, Nokia has come out with the N70, which seems to have all the same great features of the 6680 but packed into a slightly slimmer, sexier shell.
I called up Orange to sort out the upgrade. Having been a loyal, satisfied customer for about 15 months I figured they’d have no problem in giving me the phone (assuming I signed up to a new contract or something, which I would have no problem doing)… but noooooooooo. If I just want to upgrade, the new phone would cost me around £240!! WTF! So for new customers they’re willing to give the phone away, but for me I have to fork over the same amount as if I wanted a new video iPod?!? Pah. So in order to save the money it looks like I’ll have to cancel my contact and then sign up. Unfortunately this means i’ll have to get a new phone number and seeing as I can’t find my old phone I have no way of notifying everyone of the change. Arse!
Incidentally, a few weeks ago I received a call from someone claiming to be calling me on behalf of Orange, asking if I’d be interested in upgrading my phone. The number looked like a regular mobile number to me so I was having doubts about the authenticity of the caller, and promptly hung up. Then I remembered something Simon Willison had written a few weeks prior, having had a similar experience himself. I hadn’t even proceeded with the call far enough to get to the “security check” phase he mentions, but I definitely wasn’t going to give out security details to any cold caller.
Anyway, hopefully I’ll get this new mobile business sorted before Christmas. I’ll probably stumble across my old one within a day or two anyway…
EDIT +1 day: Yep, like I said, I found the old one! It even seems to be working a little better now that it’s had a few days of “vacation”.