If you remember, I have had a few problems with BT, the UK's main provider of landlines. We were stuck with a 12 month contract after we moved house, and they charged us £200 to reconnect a line that was already there (but disconnected. Oh really, is that why we could make and receive calls? ... Unfortunately they had just amended their terms and conditions to say they could do such a thing, so we didn't have much of a choice but to pay) and we had internet on the same account because of a prior agreement with the landlord of our old house. All of this was in said landlord's name, and they refused to change the name on the account, saying that we were mid-contract and were not allowed to change anything. Pffft.

Anyway, fast forward to August, when I was shopping around for more decent ISPs. Our 12 month contract had been up in June but we hadn't had time to go and find a new provider as yet. Having found a new one - Plusnet, if you're interested - we called BT to tell them to cancel our internet. They did everything they could to try and keep us, promising that they would lower the price to the same rate as Plusnet and blah blah blah. NOT THE POINT. The fact is, you messed us around so much last year that I am not prepared to give you any more money.

We decided to keep the landline with BT for now, as we weren't sure if we could get a better deal elsewhere, but when the bill came - still in our old landlord's name - we decided to complain, again. They wanted us to agree to a 12 month contract if we changed the name on the account. I'm sorry, what? Since when do I have to agree to a further 12 months of staying with you because YOU refused to change the name in the first place? No, I don't think so. We switched to Plusnet for our landline as well, and couldn't be happier.

That means we are completely free from BT, FINALLY. Good riddance, I say. Don't let the door hit you on the way out and all that.

23°C (73°F), bright, sunny, not a cloud in the sky. :D I love the south of England (visiting mah parentz, yo) for that... The north (where I currently live) doesn't give us much other than wind and rain lately :(

Does anyone out there have a T-Mobile G1 or an HTC Magic phone (i.e. an Android-powered phone)? If so, since the update to Android 1.5, has your phone been unstable? I have a UK version of the G1 and my calendar crashes on me ALL THE TIME. Some sort of patch was released on Friday but that hasn't fixed my constant issues. Googling seems to suggest it's not a widely known problem so I wonder why mine is being weird. Also, my battery life has gone from around 2 days to less than one now and I'm hardly using the thing. WTF >:(

And now back to fiddling with old computers. Yay! /geek

It occurred to me that I haven't blogged in over 3 weeks. This will change. Yup.

...not that I actually realised those 3 weeks had passed. Is it me, or is time passing more quickly? I find myself waking up Monday morning, then all of a sudden it's Friday evening again (which is more than welcome, mind you - yay weekends!). Then it's Monday. Rinse, repeat. I will have been in this house a year at the end of the month and we STILL haven't unpacked some things. Also, don't get me started on the fact that it's May. I don't know where March and April went at all :|

In case you've been living under an e-rock this past week, you will have heard (well, seen) that Jem is expecting a baby, which has drawn some negative comments. Apparently it's wrong of Jem to have a baby when she is unmarried and opinionated. "Are you going to ... give them a Nappy Award for their first bedtime accident and tell them they're worthless?" said one such comment. Since when do you have to be married to be a good parent, and as for the pants award comment, obviously Jem's humour is wasted on these people who think she's serious. /rant
Oh, and I think it's a boy. :D Based on nothing but guesswork, that.

If you haven't been living under an e-rock, perhaps you've been living under a real one, and haven't heard of the OMG SWINE FLU PANDEMIC!!!!!11. I have two cases in my area, yay! Does this mean I'm going to go round in a face mask and avoid anyone who coughs or sneezes? No. Well, no more than I normally avoid people who cough/sneeze :P If you read/listen to the news you will probably be under the impression that swine flu will kill you and eat your babies and blah blah blah. If you look at the facts, it's just a flu. It won't kill you if you take good care of yourself, just like 'normal' flu. K? K.

And while I'm in rant mode... It appears that a lot of people don't know how to use one of these -> ' (an apostrophe). Let me demonstrate.

An apostrophe normally implies ownership. For example, "the dog's bone" "her mother's necklace" etc. An apostrophe should not be used for plurals. "shoe's" "sofa's" etc. All examples I have seen. When you have a plural AND an ownership, the apostrophe goes AFTER the S. For example, "my parents' house" "the dogs' bone". There is some confusion as to whether apostrophes should be used for acronyms, e.g. CD's/DVD's vs CDs/DVDs... I prefer the latter, since I think it's more correct, but I'm not 100% sure it's right. It seems like a grey area.

And with that I will disappear for the next 3 weeks. Maybe. ;)

PS: Happy birthday to my mum! :D

PPS: Snark is back! :D :D :D