They say it’s your birthday!

It’s my birthday tommorow, I’ll be 27. No major celebration planned, just a birthday dinner – won’t even have a present! I want a Forest top for my birthday, but ironically now I’ve lost all the weight, I can’t find any tops in my size (large). Sure I could get one from the club shop, but they rip you off with prices in there. I’ll get a wad of cash tommorow to spend on some flashy new clothes instead!

Elsewhere, I’ve had a tooth out. This tooth had felt a bit odd recently, reacting a bit too much to hot & cold food, but a few days back it really started to hurt. I went to a 7 day NHS dentist in Hyson Green to see what they could do, and almost immeadiately they said an extraction was needed. Great! I’ll be toothless soon…

It’s a simple procedure, just soreness and achiness I’m currently experiencing since the anesthetic wore off yesterday. It’s also thrown me out of sorts due to the lack of sleep I’ve had thanks to the toothache. No worries though, as I write this from the confides of my bed on my iPhone, lazing away the Sunday with the footy on in the background.

Lastly, who could forget Lost! It came back this weekend. I’d forgotten how much I’d missed it, I could spend ages theorising, but everyone else does it so much better. All I will say is that I believe Sayid is now Jacob (just as the Man in Black/Smoke Monster is Locke), and that the decision to show the alternate timeline of ‘if the plane had landed’ is a great idea! And a great way to re-introduce old characters. It was brilliant to see Charlie, Boone and Claire again – though I’m guessing we will see Claire reappear on the island again soon…

The Great Nottingham Electricity Caper

So, an electricity sub-station blew up in Nottingham today and without electricity, things fell apart!

I had the afternoon off today. I need to buy some clothes, or at least a smarter set of clothes, and booked this afternoon off to have a look around Nottingham. About half eleven, I looked on the Nottingham Evening Post website (yes, that’s right – on the internet at work!) and saw that this place near the castle had exploded and cut the power over a lot of the city centre. I was honestly just about to tell the rest of my team about this when we were plunged into darkness.

On all floors, people were wondering what the hell was happening, while I seemingly was the only one who knew. Word did get around eventually, and despite someone getting stuck in a lift (and someone getting stuck outside in the rain) things did get sorted out. I’d hung around another half hour to see if everyone got sent home, but with the power coming back on, I left to have a browse around the shops.

Sadly, the Broadmarsh was closed. A victim of its closeness to the electricity sub-station. It also meant the bus station looked a little like this…

I gave up. Thought better of working my way through town. Quite how I found the bus stop though is another matter…

Samsung M8910 Pixon 12

At some point last year, I decided to get a new phone.

I’ve had the iPhone for 18 months now, the contract expiring next month, and I’d been keen to replace for a while. The next step up from the iPhone – the 3GS – looked good and that, but it wasn’t a great step up from what I already own. What I was looking for in a phone was a great camera, and a decent MP3 player. After a long and largely disappointing search, I happened upon the Samsung Pixon 12.

This was a phone that had the best camera, a 12 megapixel one to be exact. It’s a bit of a megapixel overload, and a tad too much for a phone, but of all the reviews I read of the phone its all put to good use. Often the camera on a phone can be loaded with megapixels, but the sensor will often fall short of most point’n’shoot cameras out there. This one however, is brilliant.

I’ve had the phone for a few days now and I’m still mightily impressed with it. As a phone its all that is needed, has all the mod cons that phones have nowadays – such as the aforementioned MP3 player, wifi, GPS et al, but it’s blatantly geared towards the standout feature. I was actually surprised that a phone with this kind of camera wasn’t more heavier or bigger, it’s actually smaller than the iPhone (smaller screen anyway) and the camera doesn’t jut out terribly on the back.

One big letdown was the lack of headphone jack. I’d become used to the iPhone providing my musical needs so in order to work around it I’ve ordered a bluetooth stereo adapter, where you plug in your headphones and it connects to the bluetooth, seamlessly streaming the music from phone to headphones. Amazing!

The interface is also hassle free, largely down to it not being a smartphone and therefore not having a distinct OS to run. One of the other phones I had looked at was the Nokia N86 8MP, which looked really good, but the OS on there was the Symbian kind, one which I’d had already on the N95 and – after reading a review or two – had realised that the interface hadn’t really changed a great deal over the years.

Samsung’s interface is easy to use, having had a quick go with my sisters Samsung Jet. The touchscreen is a different type to the iPhone. The iPhone uses the capacitive kind, which means only your fingers can use the touchscreen, and it also has multi touch. The Samsung is the resistive kind, meaning it isn’t as responsive as the iPhone but does allow you to use any method to use the touchscreen (stylus, gloved hands etc.).

The battery life is also better too. I’d known the battery life of the iPhone wasn’t great before I bought it, but i charged the phone every night so it wasn’t ever a major problem for me. The Samsung, even after a day of using the phone  – camera too – is still on a full charge. Obviously the more you use on the phones apps, the more it drains, but that’s to be expected.

The next step now is to get some screen protectors. The screen is holding up well after these past few days, but I’m not going to chance it so I’ve invested in some protection! The phone also came with a pouch to keep it out of harms way, which was an added bonus.

The iPhone isn’t getting away lightly however. It’s still a good phone even after 2 years, and upon the discovery a few weeks back that it’ll work even without the SIM card inserted, i plan to use it as a sort of iPod Touch with extra camera. That way I could also serve my music listening needs without putting too much pressure on my new phone!

I bought this phone outright, so I have no contract other than the one I’m running down on the iPhone right now. I’m waiting a week or so before I decide exactly what I’m doing, that’ll be when the last month of the contract begins and also when I can negotiate upgrades. Obviously no need to upgrade the phone, but I can upgrade (or downgrade) the contract to serve my needs. One that gives me basic texts & calls with unlimited internet would do fine, but i won’t know of O2’s prices until next week. Something else to consider is Pay as you Go. To not have to pay for a contract for the first time in years? It’s something I am thinking of, plus you can add a ‘bolt on’ of free internet for about £8 a month if i happen to be getting withdrawal symptoms! Maybe I could do without it though, as I’m near the internet at work and at home, and i rarely do anything else other than check Twitter or facebook even when I do venture onto the internet on my phone.

So, I’m a very happy man with an early birthday present. Buy the Samsung Pixon 12 – it’s marvellous!

(and here are some sample pics taken with the phone itself )

Indulge Me

First post of the new decade. First post of the fourth year I’ve been writing this blog. Will I ever shut up? Not likely.

It’s the 1st of January TwentyTen, 2009 is over and I have plenty to be happy about. Not that the past year was bad by any stretch, it’s been the most productive year I’ve had for a good long while. I managed to get a new job, finally freeing myself of Royal Mail and the dead-end nowhere ‘career’ that I was facing. I finally have a decent job with equally good prospects. Plus I earn a few bob more too. I also managed to lose all the weight that I had gained. I’ve done this time and again over the past decade, so while it is great that I’m now thinner, I’ve been through this all before to refuse to believe that the weight I am now is the weight I will remain. Don’t get me wrong, putting on seven stone again is not on the agenda, but it never was before. That, sadly, is life! Christmas has also come into it to, i’ve indulged myself an awful lot this festive period, no doubt a few pounds heavier than I was this time a few weeks ago.

So, I look toward 2010 feeling good about my future, rather than being fat and a failure. Not sure what to expect this coming year, apart from a new phone, and being 27. The iPhone contract is nearing its end and I’m ready to dump the 18 month year old technical marvel for the equally brilliant Samsung Pixon 12. A 12MP camera phone. Was it a good camera or a decent MP3 player i desired in my next phone? Turns out it’s a good camera. Will be certain to blog about this phone when I get it shortly.

Other than the overindulgence, this christmas has been great. I spent a few days down in London with Iain, who is without Aleks as she’s back in Bulgaria. So it was a few days of Xbox gaming, drinking and trawling a wet miserable Oxford Street, but a change of scenery was needed. I’m a little sad that the christmas break has come to an end, but also looking forward to getting back to work. I don’t think I had that with Royal Mail, even when I started there.

Prediction for 2010? Nottingham Forest promoted to the Premier League – you heard it here first!

Everybody’s havin’ fun…

I love how busy everything gets during Christmas! It all builds to a crescendo, then everything slows to a halt after the day itself.

It’s been a good past few weeks. I’ve been to a work christmas lunch, have a work christmas party tomorrow, and will be spending the last few days of 2009 in London at my brothers. The christmas lunch yesterday was excellent, more of an all out meal rather than a lunch, it nevertheless was a great time out with my workmates. We dined at a place called Fashion in Nottingham, they are owned by the same people behind another well-known Nottingham restaurant, Sinatra’s. I had a burger with Applewood smoked cheese and chunky chips, but done dead posh. The chips were so chunky you only needed four, and the burger presented in such a way that I felt the need to use a knife and fork and to eat it rather than pick it up with my hands.

Tomorrow is what I’m looking forward to the most, it’s the work christmas party. There aren’t a great deal of people coming (56 people out of about 200), but no matter – I managed to bag a complimentary free room at the hotel where the party is taking place! Jury’s Inn give a limited number of free rooms to people who book their christmas parties there. They drew the names out of the hat and I won! It’s a free room and free buffet breakfast, so I’ll be sure to make the most of it by booking in at the first opportunity and sticking around until I absolutely have to leave. The party includes a dinner, but no free drinks sadly – I’ll have to use my plentiful wages for that…

Talking of money, I was literally quids in earlier. On the floor in Doncaster’s meat market was what looked to be a tenner. Quickly pouncing on this unclaimed banknote, it was indeed £10. An early christmas present? I think so!

Finally, after the festivities of christmas have ended, I’ll be ending the year in London. Iain’s missus is back in Bulgaria for the christmas break, so I’m down in Wood Green keeping him company for a few days. Can’t wait! I doubt I’ll be having a break anytime soon, so it’s great that I’ve managed to fit one in.

Christmas in one week – it’s getting exciting!