Open All Hours
Posted on
It's been another interesting week. As I type this I feel like Ronnie Barker at the end of an episode of "Open all hours" hence the title.
Yesterday was a mammoth day in all aspects.
I had a gig through an agency and it said the set up time was 11am. This is fine normally for most gigs for most Deejays as they don't tend to stray far from home and go to said place in between setting up the show and actually coming on at night, some even programming the background music to come on before they get there in the evening. Ian, I so admire your confidence in technology..I on the other hand, cover the entire South of England so I can't just pop back from Salisbury to jolly old Barnham for some dinner and TV. I meant to ask the bride if I needed to be there at 11am as I knew she was not getting back to the venue until 3:45pm but forgot and called her the day before to ask her this very thing. Alas, she was at a friends house for the day before and for some reason, she may still not have received the mobile answer phone message that I left her. Have you ever had that thing where the message turns up days later? I know I have. Anyway I had another brilliant gig as you will see when I put the video blog up and even got given a bottle of wine as a thank you (for being here all this time and staying awake?) from the Bride and Groom who were a wonderful couple and had many friends who had helped out with the costumes etc. which shows that I'm not just saying they were wonderful! On the way home though, I suddenly realised I should have brought some matches to prop open my eyelids as I couldn't drive anywhere without really wanting to close them. I've been a temp truck driver for years so I know all about odd hours and "sleep driving" but this was severe! I've never been this tired before. Never mind, I'm still here to tell the tale.
Being in business it's really important to have your phone on and be available not to miss that call. Early this week I changed my mobile contract to try and save on the 3million "free" minutes I was paying for and not using. No problem. "Do you want a free upgrade" they said. "No Thanks" I said. After all, I have my Ideal phone already. It's a razor v8 Motorola. Slim, second generation so not too many design glitches although the first one (v3i - Are they meant to sound like cars?) was ok. Fit's in my pocket without looking like I'm over excited. What more could the man about village of today wish for? After all Who uses WAP and Facebook on the move anyway? I have enough trouble keeping up with it at home not to mention all the generated email!. Anyway, I digress. I didn't go for the free upgrade for the afore mentioned reasons but also I am becoming more and more aware of the shear number of mobile phones on poor hapless planet earth by the year and I don't at this time need to add to the pile. Now, that being said, also early this week the battery decided to die on me.
Ok I thought, Lets get a new one from Orange. After navigating my way into the not-often visited site, I eventually discovered that you could still after significant web site potholing find through many sub-drop-down menus; a genuine V8 battery. Yey! Joy too soon though. Unfortunately, Even though my credit card, visa debit card and address are all genuine, plus the annoying add on bit for my bank to add extra security complications, alas, "My details were not the same as the ones on record at the start of the transaction". Oh yes they were. Even on the third attempt I was still getting the same stupid message. My award for the hardest site to buy something off of this week goes to Orange.co.uk. It doesn't end there though.
I had decided before going to the Orange site that I wouldn't get another useless generic battery from Ebay like last time but now what else could I do? I went on to Ebay and found a supplier of GENUINE Motorola Batteries. Brilliant! Once again, Much cheaper than Orange. The upshot? It's Sunday now and I'm still waiting for the bloody thing to arrive. I've "emailed a question to the supplier" but I'm guessing he's on holiday and conveniently not told anyone on the site. Don't you just hate that? I'll tell you this, If I go on holiday, I''ll take my phone and diary with me and if it's Australia where the time difference is unbearable, I'll tell you on the front page!
In Short, You'll never get the shoddy treatment I've had this week! Period.
Here endeth todays moan, sorry blog.
Yesterday was a mammoth day in all aspects.
I had a gig through an agency and it said the set up time was 11am. This is fine normally for most gigs for most Deejays as they don't tend to stray far from home and go to said place in between setting up the show and actually coming on at night, some even programming the background music to come on before they get there in the evening. Ian, I so admire your confidence in technology..I on the other hand, cover the entire South of England so I can't just pop back from Salisbury to jolly old Barnham for some dinner and TV. I meant to ask the bride if I needed to be there at 11am as I knew she was not getting back to the venue until 3:45pm but forgot and called her the day before to ask her this very thing. Alas, she was at a friends house for the day before and for some reason, she may still not have received the mobile answer phone message that I left her. Have you ever had that thing where the message turns up days later? I know I have. Anyway I had another brilliant gig as you will see when I put the video blog up and even got given a bottle of wine as a thank you (for being here all this time and staying awake?) from the Bride and Groom who were a wonderful couple and had many friends who had helped out with the costumes etc. which shows that I'm not just saying they were wonderful! On the way home though, I suddenly realised I should have brought some matches to prop open my eyelids as I couldn't drive anywhere without really wanting to close them. I've been a temp truck driver for years so I know all about odd hours and "sleep driving" but this was severe! I've never been this tired before. Never mind, I'm still here to tell the tale.
Being in business it's really important to have your phone on and be available not to miss that call. Early this week I changed my mobile contract to try and save on the 3million "free" minutes I was paying for and not using. No problem. "Do you want a free upgrade" they said. "No Thanks" I said. After all, I have my Ideal phone already. It's a razor v8 Motorola. Slim, second generation so not too many design glitches although the first one (v3i - Are they meant to sound like cars?) was ok. Fit's in my pocket without looking like I'm over excited. What more could the man about village of today wish for? After all Who uses WAP and Facebook on the move anyway? I have enough trouble keeping up with it at home not to mention all the generated email!. Anyway, I digress. I didn't go for the free upgrade for the afore mentioned reasons but also I am becoming more and more aware of the shear number of mobile phones on poor hapless planet earth by the year and I don't at this time need to add to the pile. Now, that being said, also early this week the battery decided to die on me.
Ok I thought, Lets get a new one from Orange. After navigating my way into the not-often visited site, I eventually discovered that you could still after significant web site potholing find through many sub-drop-down menus; a genuine V8 battery. Yey! Joy too soon though. Unfortunately, Even though my credit card, visa debit card and address are all genuine, plus the annoying add on bit for my bank to add extra security complications, alas, "My details were not the same as the ones on record at the start of the transaction". Oh yes they were. Even on the third attempt I was still getting the same stupid message. My award for the hardest site to buy something off of this week goes to Orange.co.uk. It doesn't end there though.
I had decided before going to the Orange site that I wouldn't get another useless generic battery from Ebay like last time but now what else could I do? I went on to Ebay and found a supplier of GENUINE Motorola Batteries. Brilliant! Once again, Much cheaper than Orange. The upshot? It's Sunday now and I'm still waiting for the bloody thing to arrive. I've "emailed a question to the supplier" but I'm guessing he's on holiday and conveniently not told anyone on the site. Don't you just hate that? I'll tell you this, If I go on holiday, I''ll take my phone and diary with me and if it's Australia where the time difference is unbearable, I'll tell you on the front page!
In Short, You'll never get the shoddy treatment I've had this week! Period.
Here endeth todays moan, sorry blog.