Its Sunday and I’ve been out on my bike again…….
Image with added Lightroom4 cheese effects (much the same can be created in LR3 of course).
Another week, another bike
In what may seem like a weekly regular feature (it’s not) another Sunday comes along so another trip out on a bike. This time it’s a new (ish) bike. Time to present the 2008 G.T. Avalanche 3.0…….
After riding my Marin Bear Valley SE for a number of years it’s quite odd getting on a different bike. Being a bike fitted with front suspension forks the ride was immediately different. In fact it almost felt like peddling a bus, the tyres are heavy and steering felt odd. On the road the bike felt odd probably due to large tyres and I wasn’t overly comfortable without the toe clips that the Marin has.
The bike was a cheap acquisition at £75, however it’ll need a few quid spent on accessories.
I planned to use my existing lights so would need some Cateye spares. I say planned, because I noticed a Cateye gift pack which included a front and back light – but also with a computer. All for £31, the brackets on their own would come to around £10 so it made sense (with the added computer included).
So bits:
Peddles – £13
Clips – £7
Crud catcher (mud guards) – £14
Bottle cage – £5
So it’s probably another £40. Still not convinced I’ll keep the bike yet, but as the parts I’m buying are interchangeable I can use them on any future bike I get.
Generic update post
Well, it’s been a while and the year is almost upon us so time to bore you with what may appear to be a round-robin type blog post.
So what happened this year, not a lot to be honest. Family are all good, Callums speaking a lot more now, in fact he doesn’t stop. Rachel is probably cringing more at embarrassing dad now – which is part of the Dad handbook. Lou is still lovely.
I did lose over a stone cycling into work, so that’s an achievement. It’ll be nice to lose a bit more though.
Workwise, seems to be o.k.
Gadgets: Apple bought new shiny thing out – yes it was bought.
Photos: see post below
Unexplained mysteries: Why does my 2nd external HDD refuse to work in the cold, when the identical one next to it works fine (and the sluggish one has a PSU next to it which gives off a bit of heat!)
So there you go.
Cycling to Work
Not sure if I’ve mentioned it before, but for the last 4 (might have been a bit more I should’ve kept a note!) months I’ve started to cycle to work. I did a little bit last year, but I’ve been cycling for a good 3 months now. Only got soaked once, which on reflection isn’t too bad. In fact I’ve probably got caught out more when on the bus or train to be honest.
A couple of things have come out of it. First off, on balance I think it’s saved me money. My weekly transport costs used to be either £40 in petrol, or around £15 for a combination of bus/train. My bike…….
….is getting on a bit, so I’ve spent a little on maintenance.
Last year I bought some road tyres around £40, a new rear wheel this year £40, Mudguards £20, Light £30 and clothing around £100. So roughly around £230 in bits so divided over 16 weeks it’s a little under £15
The second benefit has been weight, despite me still eating rubbish I managed to loose a stone. Which to be honest is probably worth the £230 alone.
I do feel better for it and enjoy cycling through the endless queues of stationary traffic on the roads. I hope to continue throughout the winter probably purchasing some winter shoes and some water proof leggings (hoping that Aldi have another Bike offer to be honest). Also should add the bike really could do with a service. I think the crank bearings have seen better days – that said I’m hoping to pick up another bike (second hand) via a friend of a friend. So that might mean I can rest the old Marin for Spring/Summer duty.
A rant – because we’ve not had one for a while
In the early years of mobile technology you’d have excused a hiccup with a mobile contract being setup, after all things were a little different in the ye olde days of the early 90’s. I remember my first contract was a fairly time consuming task, filling in paper work, getting authorised then eventually my phone turned up.
So with the benefit of nearly 20 years you’d have hope things would be smoother. Recent I changed my mobile contract on O2 from a normal tariff to a simplicity contract – it went through fairly easy. Though there was a couple of hours when things got a little confused – which annoyed me a little, but in hindsight it’s not a real problem.
So where’s the rant, well you see being the lovely generous person I am I decided to give my wife my iPhone 3GS after I bought my iPhone 4S. The iPhone 4S is happily on a simplicity contract and everything is well in the world. The 3GS sat unused for a few weeks until we could visit an Orange shop to look at sim deals with data.
I’d initially thought of moving Louise over to simplicity but the Orange shop (Mell Square, Solihull) offered a deal which on paper looked ideal. Current she’s on a Dolphin (I think) plan (£15) which gives enough inclusive minutes/texts etc but no data. So she was offered a deal for £10.50 which was around 100 minutes, unlimited texts and 250mb data. Whilst for some that’s not much, but for Louise it should be fine. Only caveat is it was a 12 month deal, but the price was right so the paperwork was completed. As with all contract changes you get the normal setup texts which you need to read then delete. These came and then we waited for the contract switch over date of the 24th November.
On the day texts arrived saying the contract was working, so the sim jumped phone. Instantly the phone was online, data working (seems to be no APN settings for Orange networks). After a few days I installed one of the many iPhone apps orange produce. The one in question was to check the balance, so we did and found charges for data (only around a pound – but unexpected), then we get a text telling us that the account needs to be updated for data.
Confused really as Louise had signed a contract which included. So she contacted customer services and was advised that she was still on Dolphin (the one without data) and she’s have to visit the store. So Monday comes and Lou pops to Solihull only to find out that the shop manager shouldn’t sold that contract, but it could all be corrected for the next billing date (December 24th). Not happy with this she requested a PAC code to leave Orange, but this could not done in store – so she had to do it over the phone. So Louise called Orange Customer Services and after a while sorting out the maze of improbability that is the call options she eventually got through to a real person. A nice bloke call Alan who was apologetic, but couldn’t action the PAC code as the system was down.
This evening was a milestone though as we managed to get through to someone who authorised a PAC code (though 2 hours later it’s not turned up yet) and we’ve apparently managed to get a small credit for the data use (though the confirmation email has yet to turn up yet either).
So where next, probably O2 as the simplicity bundle is fine for Louise.
I’ll keep you updated with any further developments such as:
1) PAC code not actually turning up
2) Contract that was setup a few weeks ago re-appearing
3) Orange Customer Services not crediting us for the Data use
Personally I’m expecting all 3 of the above to happen.
Orange: Making 3 mobile look competent
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