Hello, it's been a while... midway through working lots of early shifts this week, and when I haven't I've just been (quite) busy (and partly lazy and tired).
Work loadings have been quiet the last week or two. Makes a nice breather between the busy summer and totally hectic christmas periods. On the early London-Scotland on tuesday morning I had only 12 on board (out of 26 bookings). This generally has between 50-70 people on. And a colleague arrived into London yesterday morning from Nottingham/Leicester/Milton Keynes with a total of 1 passenger! Although Milton Keynes often has 20-30 booked every day, usually very few are there. Well allegedly a very well known competitor has been buying these tickets (the cheaper ones) so any passengers trying to buy them won't travel at our higher fares and they buy their tickets instead. Although it seems silly as our company won't mind all these tickets being sold, as a fare is a fare, even if nobody shows! Plus having to pull into Milton Keynes even if nobody is there is only advertising our services. Ah well, strange stuff.
Decided to switch back to my
Samsung D600 today. My
Nokia 6131 is a great phone, well they both have strengths and weaknesses. Just a case of deciding what's more important.
Here are highlights: (Samsung/Nokia)
Screen: QVGA 262k/QVGA 16m
Camera: 2.0MP, great quality, light/1.3MP, average quality, no light
Audio: High quality stereo/Standard quality mono
Style: Chrome slide, professional, sturdy/Black flip, plain
Themes: Poor choice/Lots of personalisation
Power: 7 hour talk/3.5 hour talk
Gallery: Awkward, part screen, possible workaround/Great, easy to use
Music: High quality player, no radio/Average player, radio with earphones plugged in
Bluetooth: Yes, good with stereo/Yes, basic
The Samsung is a better all-rounder it seems. I did go to Carphone Warehouse to get an
SE K800i, looked great, did everything, then I could get rid of the older ones. But despite advertising it instore and brochure as available SIM-free, they decided they couldn't actually sell me one as 'they were tied to contracts' (which means they did have them in stock. Well sod them if they don't want my custom, it's their loss!
That doesn't actually bother me, but the fact I had to drive 7-8 miles each way in busy traffic with one idiot cut me up (looking in a mirror is too difficult obviously, and following the correct lane is no good either, tut...) and a silly arse wouldn't move over to let me pull onto the A45 dual carriageway from the slip so I floored it and nicely fitted into a big gap in front which she didn't like (just because she's incapable, she'd rather see everything on the slip road stop instead of merge, which is how it is supposed to be done silly moo (idiots on the road really get to me sometimes!)), then get to the shop to have to stand in a queue of about 4 or 5 people for maybe 20-30 minutes before they actually get to you as they take soooo long serving. And that was with 4 staff.
So decided to get an
iPod Nano instead. My iRiver is great but no good when I need something lightweight for my travels (which is where the K800i would've sufficed). The amazingly small size and ease of use is what made me choose it. Coupled with the
radio remote control it works and sounds lovely. Looks lovely too, made from aluminium with a metallic green finish. Although I do prefer my Sony earphones so I'll use them instead of the white ones (or I could get the white Sony ones).
Also picked up a
TomTom Go. Everybody at work raves on about these things. And I see why, brilliant piece of kit. Not just for the navigation, but traffic alerts, weather forecast, speed camera warnings too. Oh yeah and it can also connect with my mobile phone, to provide the traffic updates etc (via Bluetooth and phone internet connection) and also to act as a handsfree kit (again via Bluetooth). What more could I need? Oh yeah it can control an iPod too, if I need it to.
And how about funny voices, such as John Cleese (real, not impersonated), a crazy German psychiatrist, a mafia Don, an alluring woman, and a Sven Goran Eriksson soundalike (check them out on the
TomTom site!)...oh yes. Well 'Jane' and 'Tim' are very boring. OK well some bits do cost a little extra but it's nowhere near as much as I thought it'd be.
TomTom also has a speedo in it, measured by the GPS, which confirmed my thoughts that my car speedometer reads high, possibly 5-10%. Which is fine as it could save me should I go too quick past a camera. Checking the same thing on my coaches today, which have calibrated speedos, the reading was exact according to TomTom.
It's quite amazing how accurate a location it reads is too.
Think thats all for now, I should think about getting something to eat before getting kip. Thought about it, now I should go and do it!
Take care.
