bookmark_borderTwuntage: Take 2

They did phone.

The engineer will be out on Wednesday to fix the problem. You see somehow the ‘switch’ lost our details. So if you rang our number, it rang. Just not at our end. The engineer requested the details from the ‘switch’ and found it was blank (presumably except for our telephone number) so had to get that remedied before they can fix the fault that was there all along, between the box in the street and the phone socket in our house.

If you understand what I just typed, please explain it to me, as it reads awfully like: You had a problem, we spent a few hours faffing around. You still have the problem. We will fix the problem on Wednesday.

Mind you, at least the customer service woman said that compensation would be offered, saved me having to throw a hissy fit (but as I’ve not had one for ages I felt kinda cheated).

Anyway, bugger this – I was going to talk about favicons, discussions in comment boxes and highbrow ‘web’ stuff like that but I can’t be arsed. Got me Horlicks, I’m off to bed.

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bookmark_borderStage 2

Thank you all for your flattering comments about the re-design. I’ll let you in on a wee secret though, all I did was change two graphics, and two margin settings in the stylesheet. So the horizontal background image (repeated across the page previously) was replaced by a vertical background image. The banner was the other change. Then it was off to the stylesheet to make sure the background repeated vertically, to remove the ‘auto’ left margin and make the content column a little wider. Total time – 15 minutes. Sorry. It IS a good advocate for CSS design though.. sooo easy to change things.

Not finished yet, ohh and whilst I remember, for those STILL using 800×600 (you know who you are) I apologise for the horizontal scroll, however my main aim was to ensure the content remained visible at all times as that, I think, is the most important thing.

So onto the next phase of tweaks:
1. Add a little more room between the posts – possibly re-introduce a graphic between them?
2. Show/hide for the blogroll and the archives.
3. Figure out a way to make the miniblog stand out.
4. Make a decision concerning the URL – I’m swaying towards gordonmclean.co.uk as the MAIN domain, with the .com and snowgoon.co.uk as redirects.

Of course I’m far too busy to do any of this… no really.. I’ve got real work to do, but well you know how it is.. put things off until the last minute… scared of failure… not confident in abilities… yadda yadda yadda… Oy! enough with the psycho-analysis already!

bookmark_borderTwuntage

(thanks for that word Lyle)

A quick bit of background: We are with Telewest who also supply my our broadband connection and cable TV package. We’ve been with them since we moved in here, about 2 and a half years ago. I’ve paid every bill by direct debit.

So, Friday afternoon I realise our phone line is dead. I phone customer support and they arrange an engineer for Monday (today) between 11a.m. and 2p.m.
Doorbell goes at 1.02p.m. I’m not surprised by this having had Telewest engineers out 3 times since moving here and they’ve always appeared on time.

Come on in, I say. The engineer says that there isn’t any need as he’s been trying to fix my problem for the last two hours but hasn’t been able to get anywhere.

Confused I ask him what he’s talking about. He explains.

Basically, seemingly (ridiculously) Telewest have ‘lost’ the fact that I have a phone account with them. So they disabled the service. This is despite the fact that on Thursday last week, the monthly bill came through, and I checked it to see how many international calls we’ve made (to Spain to Louise’s Mum and Dad) to see if the International calling package I’d had added to our account the previous month was saving us money (which it is).

GRRRRRR – surely there is some step in their procedure that states: if the person has been paying for a phone line, and has made calls USING the phone line then they are entitled to have the phone line. I mean it’s not like I was trying to cheat them but using a phone service I hadn’t paid for…

So they are going to phone me (!) to clarify the issue. I’m not sure if they will contact me on my mobile (which should be fun as the reception in the house is lousy) or if they will re-enable the phone line to do so, either way the matter of three days of lost service will be discussed!

bookmark_borderIf you believe..

Was thinking of heading to bed early last night, decided to take a last flick through the channels and was rewarded with the opening scene for Man on the Moon. This was a movie I’d wanted to catch when it was at the cinema, and never managed it, I guess I could’ve picked it up on DVD but it kind of slipped my mind.

The film deals with the life of Andy Kaufman, best known as Latka Gravas in Taxi (you know, the one that spoke in a funny voice and wore white overalls). If you’ve never seen Jim Carrey in a serious role I’d suggest you watch this movie, he handles the role extremely well, handling the demons that came with Kaufman’s character with some empathy.

Rumours abound that Andy Kaufman staged his own death, but I doubt that.. although the film does hint at this in the final shot. Needless to say, when the movie ended I decided to find out a little more about the man, and came across a very good Andy Kaufman site (thanks Google).

bookmark_borderWhat? Eh? Ohhh fine…

Bit blurry today, helped neither by the clocks changing nor the two bottles of wine last night. Still a quiet day planned, helped largely by the fact that our phoneline is dead (engineer out on Monday). So that leaves today free to… bugger.. do some work. Mind you, the wireless connection and the laptop mean I can do it from the comfort of the sofa (where this very post comes to you from) and have, currently, the Woman’s Premier League Cup Final on, although I’ll be switching over in about 30 secs for the Old Firm game, and probably watch Arsenal take apart Man Utd. later on.

Ohh and there are emails to deal with including two (well one was a comment) from friends of my parents, all prompted by my 1000 words entry, not to mention a hazy memory of agreeing to do a 12 mile walk for charity sometime in June. This falls nicely into place as just yesterday Louise and I were talking about doing more, getting fit, losing weight… all that stuff. For me this means exercise. This time last year I was playing football twice a week, the occasional game of basketball and even going to the gym now and again. Since breaking my foot late last year I’ve done precisely nothing to improve my fitness. Embarassingly I find myself out of breath just nipping up a flight of stairs. I’ve never been this unfit in my life and I’ve had enough.

I know all the ‘tricks’, take the stairs, get off the train one stop early, stop eating an entire pack of Jaffa cakes by yourself.. common sense stuff. I’ve considered Yoga (my flexibility is awful), jogging (not until I lose some weight), and will start by doing situps, pressups, and all that stuff you used to do at school. What I need is a cheap (free) home based exercise routine. Suggestions?

(Yes, I know I said I’d stop asking for suggestions but what can I say, I’ve been so impressed with your responses recently I thought I’d try with this – if nothing else it could be fun finding out just how fit us bloggers are… no?)

bookmark_borderMust stop

Over the last couple of days I’ve asked a few questions here – site design, old PC etc – and firstly I’d like to thank everyone for their suggestions, even the daft ones.

But I must stop. I’ve got plenty enough to do as it is..

Anyhoo, spent day window shopping, picked up a few bits and bobs (including a DVD player for £34, won’t be long before you’ll get one free with every two DVDs purchased…), and I’ve just opened a nice Ruby Cabernet.

Rugby? What rugby?