Apr 18 2007

Good bye, Orange.

Category: geek — jkt @ 14:57

It’s been a relatively happy 7 years, but the time’s finally come where I want to say good-bye to Orange.

My contract expired at the end of March and I was holding out for the Nokia N95 to be released which, a couple of weeks ago, it duly was.

I spoke with Orange Retentions department and threatened to leave unless they stopped ripping me off (they’ve been charging £35/month for 200 mins). They offered me the N95 for £15, and dropped the price of the £25/month contract down to £15. Quite a good deal. The clinch came with their data offering.

According to various places on the web, Orange will, if pressed, offer ‘unlimited’ data for £8/month. I called, pushed, cited T-Mobile’s £7.50/month deal, and they still denied the package was available. If I want a proper data contract, I need to pay £80/month. To put it bluntly, f•ck that.

So this afternoon I signed up with T-Mobile. I’ve ordered a Nokia E61 on the Flext 25 tarrif and have added the ‘unlimited’ data package. I’ll be porting my mobile number over in the next few weeks, and Emma will be switching in May. Happy days.

Apr 18 2007

T-minus 4 days…

Category: consultancy, household, travel — jkt @ 07:14

In 4 days, Emma and Zachary are going to visit her Dad in Exeter leaving me to fend for myself at home.

I decided not to go with her as I only get 4.3 weeks holiday, and we’ve already booked one and are planning two further holidays of around a week each before year end. Despite it being my choice, it’s not going to make me miss them any less. I get lonely when they’re not around :(

Looking at the positive aspects of the time alone, I’ll be able to concentrate on my contract work without feeling guilty that I’m neglecting family responsibilities and hopefully I’ll be able to make headway into lining Zachary’s bedroom walls in preparation for painting – it’ll be good to finally mark that project as complete and move him in there.