Replacement iPhone

WTF I mean WTF!!!

The new iPhone not more than a few weeks old has died on me!

Last Friday I was just accessing the calculator (I was doing my tax return, fun eh!) and it crashed and wouldn't come back to life. It's not like I was even doing something very unusual, the calculator app is one that comes with the phone and not some dodgy bit of software I downloaded.

Now this is quite a problem for me as I currently have no other way of staying contactable. I don't have a land line in the flat since the British Telecom farrago last year. so having it crash at 3 pm on a Friday is a bit of issue.

OK, not war and famine scale issue but still annoying.

So fortunately the apple store is a couple of streets away from work and so it was straight back around there to sort this latest out. The process was pretty much the same as the last time with people not quite believing me, pressing buttons, then giving up and handing me on to the next person.

In the end, what they call a 'Genius' called Judith give me a new phone and a short lecture on backing things up.

I got most of my settings back when I sync'd the new phone to itunes so and was able to meet up with my friends at the weekend. A lovely little trip to one of the City Farms where we found a eating place to rival the best in the area.

Its been three days now and the phone is still working but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Windows and Boilers

I sorta fixed the boiler by switching thermostat and fuses around so its half working. I'm getting the top element working but that's fine as its a big boiler.

I won't know more until I can get some more fuses. For some reason the thick cartridge fused that go in the fuse box are not easy to come by in central London, even in hardware shops (the temptation to say 'fork handles' was almost overwhelming!).

On the good news front. I got a knock on the door the other morning before I left for work. It was the building manager to say we are getting brand new windows put in, hopefully before Xmas. So that should be nice, warm and add to the value of the flat. Checking back we've been paying into the window fund quarterly for 3 years so that's one bill I'm glad to see go.

Bloody Boiler!

Unbelievable I definitely think my flat is out to get me and knows I've put it up for sale.

It now appears that the boiler has stopped working at some point during the weekend. I was so bombed out from being up all night on Friday I didn't really notice until I tried to get a shave on Monday morning.

Fortunately I don't need hot water for my heating or washing clothes just for the bath and doing the dishes. So I've been to the gym (as they have OK showers) and not eaten in. If it really has broken then I'm going to have to get a new one and that will invalidate my HIP energy certification (and cost 250 GBP to get a new one) and my HIP is really the only reason the flat is still on the market.

So I'm growing a beard again!

Aaahhh!

Oktoberfest

I did some thing slightly crazy at the weekend (only slightly crazy)

I helped out at the SCIFI London Oktoberfest all-nighter, which is where alots of fans of anime, zombies and really bad movies (plan 9 bad) stay up all night and watch films and drink lots of red bull. I helped with the handing out of the red bull and ice cream. I got to watch a couple of the MST3K movies and a very very bad scifi movie Xmas special, which with the lack of sleep seriously messed with my head.

I got back to the flat about 10ish on Saturday morning and then did nothing complicated the rest of the weekend.