Our eldest son David is off to Uganda on 3rd September for a 6 week medical student elective.
See : http://davidinuganda.wordpress.com/ to find out how he's getting on.
Sunday 30 August 2009
Friday 13 February 2009
Tiscali - just DON'T do it !!
In a vague attempt to save money on my phone and ADSL bills, I decided to an alternative provider to BT was the order of the day. I looked around and decided against Carphone Warehouse (too many negative comments) but went for a supplier that I also found negativity for, but some customers reporting good service.
Mistake - cos I chose Tiscali.
Day 1 - ADSL account dropped by BT - but phone was working OK… so I thought.
However, no account set up details from T, so tried a few options with no joy. Called T but was told welcome pack would arrive the following day. What good is that? - a welcome pack delivered the day ‘after’ the service is provided.
Pack did arrive, but when I tried it, there was no ADSL.
Tried calling support line (5p per minute) - and told it would be OK in 24 hours. No joy next day, so tried again. Decided to check phone line - and discovered the number had been changed, despite everything telling me I’d keep the same phone (PSTN) number. Called T again - advised that in 24 hours it would all be OK again. Do you see a pattern emerging here… if you wait 24 hours, the magic Tiscali Fairies somehow ‘should’ magic something up… apparently ! Get real… there are no Fairies in the world of telecoms, and so, as expected, nothing actually happened.
Got very cross, and demanded a call back to tell me what they were doing… no call !
However, after ONE WEEK, finally managed to get to speak to a 2nd line engineer who immediately diagnosed the problem, and told me the same thing I’d been telling them… that there was a crossed connection in the local exchange. T got a BT engineer to pop into the exchange and hey presto, only 8 days after the service went live, I got my ADSL line back.. and a phone with the same number that all of my friends and family actually know.
So - not a happy experience, but we’ll see how it pans out over the next few weeks. Any problems and my wife has demanded we go back to BT.
Watch this space…..
Mistake - cos I chose Tiscali.
Day 1 - ADSL account dropped by BT - but phone was working OK… so I thought.
However, no account set up details from T, so tried a few options with no joy. Called T but was told welcome pack would arrive the following day. What good is that? - a welcome pack delivered the day ‘after’ the service is provided.
Pack did arrive, but when I tried it, there was no ADSL.
Tried calling support line (5p per minute) - and told it would be OK in 24 hours. No joy next day, so tried again. Decided to check phone line - and discovered the number had been changed, despite everything telling me I’d keep the same phone (PSTN) number. Called T again - advised that in 24 hours it would all be OK again. Do you see a pattern emerging here… if you wait 24 hours, the magic Tiscali Fairies somehow ‘should’ magic something up… apparently ! Get real… there are no Fairies in the world of telecoms, and so, as expected, nothing actually happened.
Got very cross, and demanded a call back to tell me what they were doing… no call !
However, after ONE WEEK, finally managed to get to speak to a 2nd line engineer who immediately diagnosed the problem, and told me the same thing I’d been telling them… that there was a crossed connection in the local exchange. T got a BT engineer to pop into the exchange and hey presto, only 8 days after the service went live, I got my ADSL line back.. and a phone with the same number that all of my friends and family actually know.
So - not a happy experience, but we’ll see how it pans out over the next few weeks. Any problems and my wife has demanded we go back to BT.
Watch this space…..
Monday 2 February 2009
The new boy
First day at a new job - feels like the first day at school !
Had a nice day though.... lots to learn and it's going to be a steep learning curve but already been assigned a project and so am in at the deep end. I do need to go through some serious training - hopefully very soon.
Will be careful not to mention too much - so wont include any names here... sorry !
Had a nice day though.... lots to learn and it's going to be a steep learning curve but already been assigned a project and so am in at the deep end. I do need to go through some serious training - hopefully very soon.
Will be careful not to mention too much - so wont include any names here... sorry !
Thursday 29 January 2009
Change ISP - increase your Carbon Footprint
'How does that work?' I hear you say...
Well - I decided to change from a BT Phone and separate ADSL contract to one with Tiscali -
an all inclusive package. In the past couple of weeks, I have received SIX letters from the two organisations (and a few phone calls), telling me that it's going to happen early next week, and I suspect more will follow once the conversion is completed.
Now - does it really need that many notifications - each one on several sheets of paper and an A5 envelope? One from each would have been fine by me.....
I'm sure someone will warn me that moving to 'T' is not a good idea - but on paper, it's going to cut my costs in half - most of the cost of the phone is rental as we don't make that many calls. I'm also getting unrestricted Internet traffic - better than BT's 10Gb which I was getting close to or exceeding in recent months, mainly due to the BBC iPlayer which will only get worse as more and more content is pushed that way.
I'll let you know how it pans out.
Well - I decided to change from a BT Phone and separate ADSL contract to one with Tiscali -
an all inclusive package. In the past couple of weeks, I have received SIX letters from the two organisations (and a few phone calls), telling me that it's going to happen early next week, and I suspect more will follow once the conversion is completed.Now - does it really need that many notifications - each one on several sheets of paper and an A5 envelope? One from each would have been fine by me.....
I'm sure someone will warn me that moving to 'T' is not a good idea - but on paper, it's going to cut my costs in half - most of the cost of the phone is rental as we don't make that many calls. I'm also getting unrestricted Internet traffic - better than BT's 10Gb which I was getting close to or exceeding in recent months, mainly due to the BBC iPlayer which will only get worse as more and more content is pushed that way.
I'll let you know how it pans out.
Wednesday 28 January 2009
A new month, a new job
Further to my posting of yesterday, I just wanted to say thanks for all the messages of support and congratulations that I got from so many people, by email, Facebook updates, phone calls, and good old fashioned face-to-face communications.
The last 6 months has been an interesting time, with 3 months of it as ‘garden leave’ (still being paid not to work is quite nice – up to a point) and then a month of being ’signed-on’ at the Jobcentre, followed by a month of working for the Post Office, and another month almost to the day of being ‘unemployed’ again. The Post Office work, as many of you know was slightly frustrating, and following a time with my outplacement company contact yesterday when we looked at a what sort of skills I like in a job, I can see why I found the old-fashioned and out-dated procedures a tad testing.
Anyway, back to the present……… the new role is as a Project Manager with a nice small company based in Bournemouth who develop and supply Air Traffic Control and Fighter Control simulation systems. Should be very interesting, if not a steep learning curve for me, but involves some clever technology to get to know, and the company appear to employ some great people that I be working with. I start on Monday - it's all very quick.
Thanks again for your prayers – please continue to pray for those who are still facing unemployment, uncertainty and change in this difficult time.
The last 6 months has been an interesting time, with 3 months of it as ‘garden leave’ (still being paid not to work is quite nice – up to a point) and then a month of being ’signed-on’ at the Jobcentre, followed by a month of working for the Post Office, and another month almost to the day of being ‘unemployed’ again. The Post Office work, as many of you know was slightly frustrating, and following a time with my outplacement company contact yesterday when we looked at a what sort of skills I like in a job, I can see why I found the old-fashioned and out-dated procedures a tad testing.
Anyway, back to the present……… the new role is as a Project Manager with a nice small company based in Bournemouth who develop and supply Air Traffic Control and Fighter Control simulation systems. Should be very interesting, if not a steep learning curve for me, but involves some clever technology to get to know, and the company appear to employ some great people that I be working with. I start on Monday - it's all very quick.
Thanks again for your prayers – please continue to pray for those who are still facing unemployment, uncertainty and change in this difficult time.
Tuesday 27 January 2009
Answered Prayers
Having been to the outplacement agency today and organised the next steps to securing that elusive next role...... I had a call at lunchtime to offer me the job for which I had an interview last week. So it's fantastic news and I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU for your prayers and concerns for me over the last few week and months - and of course to Him upstairs for answering them.
I'll post more info later - but suffice to say for now that it's working as a Project Manager for a nice little local company who make Air Traffic Control simulation systems . I start next Monday providing all goes to plan.
I'll post more info later - but suffice to say for now that it's working as a Project Manager for a nice little local company who make Air Traffic Control simulation systems . I start next Monday providing all goes to plan.
Monday 26 January 2009
Map My Run
Having been on another run to the beach this morning, I thought I'd check out a webpage recommendation from a colleague and see how far it was.
Having tried other similar products, I found http://www.mapmyrun.co.uk/ to be far superior in that it allows you to 'auto-follow roads' rather than have to keep on clicking on a route. If you're like me and follow a number of roads on a run, then this makes it so much easier to use. Also, you can click off this when going 'off-road' and it changes the setting immediately. I also found it much quicker than a previous product I used and the account set-up process so you can store routes is very easy to use.
So it gets 5-Stars from me.
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