Hopped Up On Lotus

So, I just got back from Devon. Yay! Set off about 9am in the trusty Metro, and headed home. Via The Gibb (nr Chippenham), via Stratlan, via Ringstead. All in all she managed 700 miles without incident over the last seven days. I don’t think thats bad going.

We thought it was odd it was so windy when we were trying to play Tennis this week. It was only on Thursday when we went to check up on The Hampster’s progress that we found out we were on the tail end of a hurricane. Whoops. Managed to cut my foot running away from monster waves on Bude beach Friday afternoon. Its a touch painful.

A lot of the week was spent muching up DotA, Monopoly Tycoon and Starcraft from our log cabin. 6 laptops and a projector, what more do you need on a holiday!
Got in some swimming too.

Just checked all my emails. 570 in my work inbox to sort through tomorrow, a mere 50 in my personal inbox. However about 569 of my work emails will be spam, all of my personal emails require sodding action.

So what did I miss?

PS. Go watch Clerks 2.

How hard can it be in this day of modern communication and electronic wizardry to keep track of a �50 payment.

So why has my payment been in the works for three weeks and still isn’t showing on their system?

I got an e-mail two weeks ago saying it hadn’t been paid, I called them back and faxed them the receipt from the bank. Oh, they say, you have paid. We’ll unbar your account, sorry for the hassle.

Last week, my phone was barred again… I phone up and they tell me I now owe �93 phone bill. �47 from last month. I point out the last call and the receipt and the person says “Oh, I see. It just hasn’t come through yet. Sorry, I’ll unbar your phone and leave a note on the system to not bar your phone until it’s sorted.” I thank them, and hang up.

Today, I wake up to an e-mail telling me my phone has been disconnected. I call them on my land-line and ask why? I haven’t paid last month’s phone bill they say. I explain the situation and they put me on hold… five minutes later, I’m disconnected.

I call back and have to explain the whole situation again… they say how odd it is then put me on hold to speak to someone else. After a few more minutes she comes back on the line and says the line is busy. I ask for the number so I’ll call them myself. I call it, press the options and extension I was told… and get back through to the Customer Service centre, not the Disconnection centre I was expecting. I explain everything AGAIN, get put on hold AGAIN then put through to a line that tells me every minute how important my call is and how I will be answered soon.

Twenty minutes later (I’m Stubborn), they answer I explain the situation again since their ’system’ can’t access the comments from the customer care ’system’ and they apologise and say they’ll reconnect my phone. I tell them I’ll be going into the bank on Monday to find out where the money has gone and if it’s gone to O2 then O2 have lost it and I’d like the �50 removed from my bill. The person I spoke to agreed that sounded fair and put even more notes on the system to that effect.

Why do I get the feeling it won’t be as easy as that….

I like to post the odd or annoying nights on here, and tonight was both. First, something happened and I thought “I’ll post that. ” Then something else happened…. then something else! It’s true, these things happen in threes.

So, first one. I pick up two girls and a guy and they want to go to Northampton, Far Cotton are in particular. I tell them it’ll be about �25 and they seem happy enough. As we’re almost there, I get a bit of a bad vibe from these people. First they say they need to go inside to get some of the money but one of them says she’ll stay in the taxi. As she’s saying this, she’s edging towards the door. They want to be dropped off on Queen elanor road which has a large open field on one side. Sure enough, we stop, I unlock the doors, and they run. My normal tactic of leaving the car in gear and accelerating hard won’t work since there’s parked cars so it’s the hard way time. They run onto the field. I switch off, take keys, and go after them.

It’s a very bright moon out there, it’s an open field, and they’re drunk and wearing high heels. I catch up easily. As soon as I get close to one, she screams for her sister and both the other two come back. The guy has the guts to say, “What’s your problem?” to which I reply “You haven’t paid yet.” “How much?” he says, “�20, and that’s me being nice.” “�15″ he says. I give him what Niall would call the Look and say calmly “�20.” He visibly tenses and looks me over. I can tell he’s trying to decide if he can beat me in a fight. He then pulls out a �20 and gives it to me before walking off. I say “Thank you.” and went back to work.

Second thing. I set a price to drive a group of guys back to Rushden. The price (�14) is a little low and other firms would charge at least �5 more than I did. They try to haggle me down to �10 halfway through the trip because they think Taxi driving’s a really easy job with hardly any payouts and no danger at all so why should they pay extra just because it’s 2am. I decide I can’t be bothered to argue with them, and just close the window.

Third, I’m waved down by two guys outside the Hind hotel. They must be at least 50. Both are very drunk, and laughing about something. They tell me that they’re on a mission and need to recruit me as a driver. They want me to take them to Santa Pod Raceway, wait ten minutes while they’re going to superglue their mates tent shut, then drive them back to Wellingborough. We drive there with these two guys laughing and joking all the way and quoting the Italian Job and get to Santa Pod where the Security Guards on the gate are ASLEEP IN THEIR CHAIRS! We drive through, park in the middle of tents and mobile homes where the guys sneak off. I wait ten minutes and they come running back, jump into the cab and literally shout “GOGOGOGOGOGO!” then fall about laughing. We drive out through the gates where the security guards are STILL ASLEEP and back to Wellingborough. All the way back they’re making bad puns about zips, glue, and being locked in. All told, the little trip was about thirty minutes, and they paid me �40. I don’t mind that sort of salary!

A few other jobs and I came home. An odd night.

Hmmm…I’m not really that clever, a lot of was common sense and guess work!!

So my iPod died on Friday on the train home. It locked up so I mashed a few key combinations until it reset, unfortunately I was then greeted with the pretty picture below of a rather unhappy looking iPod.

Not very happy with this i went to the URL it told me to to find the fix. None of the five fixes worked so I started Googling around for some more info. As I searched some forums I kept seeing a lot about the ‘click of death’ and sure enough while holding my iPod to my ear I could hear it clicking. Then I came across a link to this page.

It certainly was an unlikely fix but with as much amazment as everyone else who had tried it, my iPod rebooted and the click of death was gone. Proof if proof were needed that smacking things which are broken may actually fix them!

I suspect this won’t be the last time I whinge my iPod has blown up though in the next few weeks…