Bloody Mobile Phones

Typical, isn't it!

Last weekend Hubby went out and bought us both a mobile phone, a Motorola Raz 3 thing, brilliant, really neat and fits the hand a treat. Takes good photos (except for the fact it's a mobile phone so you always get a bit of a blur going when you hit the shot), and exactly the same except his is black and mine is (very) pink.

So we go on the website to make them web configured, and his works and mine doesn't.

Doesn't matter what I try, no go. Tried everything, bar throwing it out the window, and believe me that is next.

Been on the website and cleared the cache, taken out battery and reset the SIM and tried again, and then gone back to make sure put in the right number and then etc etc etc.

Still doesn't work.

Gone right back to the beginning, checked all settings - the brochure for the phone doesn't have a troubleshoot page. This I find very unusual and slightly disturbing. Could it be that the phone is so bad that the trobleshoot page would be longer than the main instructions??? We may never know.....

Not even swopping his SIM over to my phone has worked so it's clearly the phone.

Shame. Wanted to use it over the next few days as well.

Had a bad couple of days actually. Went over to see Mum on Saturday along with the rest of the family. Went over originally to see Oldest Nephew who has just passed his GCSE's. He's done really well, and so we bought him a laptop. Got to flex the Rich Auntie muscle very occasionally!

Mum however was on form. The entire nation is being overrun by immigrants apparently. This has always been Mum's point of view of course, it's just that they have been more sneaky of late, because they're not black! I try to shut her up, - she knows it leads to friction between us so why does she do it? But she is on a roll by now. I tell her I don't want to discuss it because I believe that because most of the people who come here are between 20 and 40, and work, they are contributing to the country. They are young, single and healthy, so they pay taxes, do not use schools or hospitals. So on balance they put in more than they use up.

But they take up our houses, she says. Apparently there is a household near them, with a young family - man, wife and a couple of toddlers - living with the in-laws. They have been on the housing list for ages, and now apparently, because we have the entire population of Warsaw and Portugal living here, they have had to- sharp intake of breath - they have had to go into private rented accommodation!

At this point I tell her quite sharply that I do not see this as a problem - so they may not be in a council house but please don't tell me that private landlords are a problem. Hubby and I rent out two houses after all!

I haven't mentoned yet (although I will, I will, one day!) that Dad gave up work when he went out of business and has been on benefit since he was 48, and she therefore has been a "burden on the taxpayer", ie me, since she was 41!

Instead I simply say that when we go to Spain to live we will expect to be given a courteous welcome, and so I will offer the same to anyone coming here!

Anyway, enough of that. Oldest Nephew was suitably gratified and Middle Nephew took note. We could see him working out how much revision he can cram in now before his exams in May. Eldest Niece still wants me to showher how to do a french plait, and Youngest Niece cleaned the bathroom while we were there. This was treated with suspicion. Sister wanted to know what she had done which resulted in such a cleaning frenzy and Husband of Sister made a mental note to order a new toothbrush. (the story that will be told to all prospective husbands of Youngest Niece is how she used Husband of Sister's electric toothbrush to polish the shells of several snails she had gathered on the garden wall! )

Youngest nephew still looks like Rooney and still needs a good slap!

Anyway, work has been a pain. Put into practice something I learnt at management training a week or so ago. always dangerous, however it didn't go too bad. Only one of the team resigned! My Boss by Proxy shook his head and proceeded to run down the motorway to meet with aforementioned Resignee to talk him out of it, whereas my reaction is, if they want to go, they will go. Actual Boss agrees with me, so we'll see.

Hip has been hurting like a bitch though over the last two days. yesterday was very hot and humid, not bad for this time of year, however today was rainy all day. Doesn't matter, hip very bad whatever the weather, so that sainsbury's zimmer needed two bottles of wine for ballast at least! Up to eight tablets a day from the prescrbed 6, but what the hell, it's my pain!

Only 6 weeks left now before the operation, so hopefully all will be on the up after that!

Hamster has a bad day

Heard the news today about Richard Hammond having his accident. Once again there is a rift between what the media think we think, and what we think we think.

We are shocked at the news of his accident, in the same way we are about Steve Irwin because we see them on the TV, and we think we know them. So of course we are shocked when we hear things like this, we are only human after all.

I can remember when Diana died. I hate the gossp magazines, Heat, Chat, Hello, Crap and so on, and because I don't read things like this I think I am not succumbing to the gossip, but because it is everywhere you look, front pages, television, websites etc, you forget that you absorb details about these people without realising.

So when something happens to them it is like hearing about a colleague or friend of a friend having an accident or being hurt, or something.

Except with this you get angry at all the nanny stuff. "Top Gear idolises speed", "Ban it now" etc etc.

We forget that Richard is doing something he always wanted to do and he lives his life as a result - it pays his not insubstantial salary after all.

I heard someone on TV today say that presenters in the days of yore never felt the need to do these things, they would stand at the side and interview the participants. Try telling that to John Noakes after he went down the bob sleigh run on his head - he couldn't wait to show off his bruises on Blue Peter.

What about the steeplejack chap? he became a presenter after a while, the Dibner chap. So which is worse, a chap who goes up the side of huge tall chimneys and steeples and then becomes a presenter, or someone like Hamster who is a presenter first and then takes on things that people would not usually do.

All I can say is that to take advantage of an accident like this to call for banning the programme, to start quoting Health and Safety before the facts are known, to behave as if the producers and Richard would attempt something like this without taking as much care as they possibly can, is insulting.

get well soon Richard and hope to see you back doing what you love soon.

Work, holidays and getting ready for major surgery

Woah, quite easy setting up this blog thing.

Hubby not too happy though, he has enough to deal with considering I have about 1,000 books, all about crime and serial killers! Deaver and Cornwall, Kellerman etc, all devoured. I can read a book in a day, given the chance. Funny, some people have days off work to play golf, or watch tennis and this is considered totally rational behaviour. Hitting a ball into a hole! I, on the other hand, find it hard to justify taking a day off just because I have had a delivery of Koontz.

Got a few days coming up though when I will have as much time as I want. I can see the thought crawling across the minds of colleagues when I mention that recovering from a hip operation is likely to take 6 weeks. The word "wimp" wanders into view, albeit hiding in corners and behind the back of larger colleagues. It does sound like a long time, and you look at it like a gift - a gift that someone else has been given that you would exploit far better - do more meaningful things or just more shopping, depending on your character. Six weeks. How would you spend it? The fact that I will be recovering from having a hip operation, a re-surfacing no less, is a small price to pay.

Imagine. I will be able to get up when I want, watch what I want on TV, read thirty books at a time, do crosswords, become an expert at sedoku, hobble to the loo, can I sit in a chair without dislocating my new hip, how big will my scar be?

I am 46. I need a new hip. I appreciate that I led a very wild life when I was younger, associated with people in the pop world, went to the London Fashion Week and appeared in videos, danced, yada yada yada, so I should be able to take this in my stride!

Can't walk very well though. I mean, really cannot walk very well. My foot thinks it has lifted up and it hasn't. If I am holding the hand of my husband when I start going over then fine , it is a Stumbleclench. If not, then I fall over. Simple as that.

I use the trolleys in Sainsbury's like a zimmer frame, and we bought new bikes in the New Year so we could exercise to get rid of the post smoking spare tyre and I haven't been able to sit on mine. Ever. We sold the VX220 cos it hurts to sit in it, and I haven't been on the motorbike for two years. Couldn't manage the Via Condotti.

When shopping is suffering then something has to be done.

So, my doctor sent me for an X Ray, and looked at it with a frown

"Hmmm" he said, "Never had a patient as young as you who needs a hip replacement!"

So, I will be "going private" as they say when you are not in the army.

Will be having a Birmingham hip - could have been a Windsor! - and it appears that it is really quite new technology. At least as far as the States is concerned. We have been doing it over here since 1996, however it has only just been signed off in the US.

Never had an overnight stay in hospital before, never taken major painkillers (legally) before, never really had anything wrong with me before so this is all new and I am terrified.

Still, 6 weeks off work just before Christmas. hell of a lot of Koontz!