How to tell when you have grown up?

So knowing I was due some extra pay this month I have been checking out laptops for weeks and weeks finding the best laptop out there for me, everything from size and weight to the speed of the processor and front buss speed, size of the hard drive and making sure it would be able to handle video editing and odd game I want to play. Having owned the laptop I'm sat at right now for the last 4 years it’s something that will have to keep me going for some time. So I found it as stated in a earlier post, The Sony Vaio CR11Z/R and it’s the top of its range so my decision is set, all I needed next was the funds to get this wonderful piece of human engineering and that would have been today (even though the tax man took nearly £850 off me) so I potter down to the two shops in Manchester who have it in stock and I was going to play one off against the other until I got the deal I wanted as the cheaper deal would have taken too long to come. So off I went only to find out there is a updated model coming out in the next few weeks* with a larger hard drive and faster processor. * Now I say a few weeks but every where I look its due to come out ‘the beginning of October’ now for me that’s the 1^st but the sneaky people at Sony I believe don’t see it this way so I'm betting on mid October. Now to my point, think you have finally got the money to get that one thing you have wanted for some time, you have sat there just waiting to get your hands on the thing but now I could get more for my money, 10 years ago I would have got one today but I now find myself not and willing, if not too happy about it, to wait until I can get my hands on the better of the two.

I'm now grown up (to a certain extent)

Over the past few weeks I have had a lot of old friends coming out of the wood work so to speak, I went out with a bloke who I shared a house with 9/10 years ago, we also worked at the same cinema cleaning screen and the normal usher duties. It was really good to catch up with him for a few hours and chat about the good old days, I also had another friend from the same time in my life wanting to go out for a few, sat I'm going out with another old friend from Blackburn and I have a school friend who I have not seen for 12 years wanting to catch up. I'm not complaining and I'm looking forward to it but have I won the lottery or something? Maybe there is just something in the water.

Ok you may remember that I had some issues with my bank (That would be you NatWest) and there complete incompetence with home insurance and the loan I had with them, well I did get round to sending in a letter of complaint as the customer service I revived was below piss poor, please don’t just thin I wanted to vent me anger at them, I would in a very customer service orientated environment and I only expect the same service they would get coming to watch a film at my cinema. So one complaint was about the fact they were still trying to get money out of me for something that my name was not on and after informing them of this they then had wrote my name on the top (spelt wrong by the way) still wanting about £80 all down to the fact they could no longer find the person whose name was on the policy and all this was sent to my mums house and she was not happy, the next part of my complaint was about the fact I had tried to pay off a loan for 6 weeks and then they tried to charge me interest and fines for paying late and then put poor credit on my name all down to the complete failing of the loan department. So I hope you can see why I would not be a happy bunny.

So I got 2 letters back, 1^st would be the loan wanting more details back from me, they are MY bank, they have all my details and this is my reply, I also go along to point out that I would hope they would be able to check my details for a loan in my name and that I would hope there computer systems are to a point where they would save information.

The 2^nd letter back would be regarding the insurance, this one started off really good, they said they had sent a letter to my mum apologising for her distress and they would no longer be trying to get any money off me (ITS NOT IN MY NAME!) and that they have listened to my conversation (one on many) I had where I changed my address. Well not only did they get the address wrong but my mum received no such letter, the address they said I had changed to is 126 miles away from where I had moved to! Does this mean I had post going to Durham? In my reply I ask how can my bank who I entrust to look after my money not even get the small details correct like address and the spelling of my name?

To be honest I am not letting this go easy, I could just drop it but the amount of crap I got from NatWest during a very difficult financial time without any support has given me the right to give them a hard time during this time and im enjoying pushing the customer services as any one should come to expect from any service they get from any company.

I’ll keep you updated as im sure the next set of letter I get will be interesting.

Tech Blog Vista Vs Xp

As you may have noticed I like my computer, there are people out there who don’t like computers or want anything to do with them well I'm at the other end of the scale. I like making web pages, editing videos, playing games, surfing the web, most things computer related. I thought I would give the new vista a go so installed it so I have Xp and vista in the same computer and just picked which one I would like to boot to at the start, I wanted to do this just in case I thought it was crap, things went well until 2 days in and somehow I lost the boot sector and my computer would no longer boot! Well for me that’s not a good thing, to be honest its not the extra work and problem solving its losing things like photos that is important to me, you can get back your music and you can go out and buy your photos. So I got a pucker copy of Vista and installed it and you know what I like it, before all you Mac users start to explode your right, they did sit there with a Mac and seal loads of ideas but what you going to do about it? There are some niggles like the ‘are you sure’ aspect, everything you would like to do you have 3 buttons to press to say it ok, I switched this off within minutes. The other problem was hardware, the only thing which is not compatible was my TV card so I had to get a new one for it to work. If you are getting a new computer soon I would recommend Vista as there would be no hardware issues and it a easy OS to use but if you are thinking of upgrading check out the Microsoft compatibility web site also the manufacture of you motherboard, graphics card, hard drives, TV card, sound card and any usb devices you may use as drivers still seem to be a problem.

So keeping on the Tech side of blogging I went out for some food last week with some friends, out of the 10 of us 3 had Mac’s (and 1 really wanted one) and 4 had PC’s (the other 2 didn’t want to going the Tech conversation. The topic of me buying a new laptop came up and we discussed what is the better of the two, PC or Mac? We all had good arguments but one thing that I did notice is how PC users tend to see why someone would want a Mac and why they are good but Mac users don’t have anything nice to say about PC, May be you have to be like this to own a Mac! Don’t think so but I did think it was strange.

Started to play Medal of Honour 82nd's First Airborne on the Pc and what a good game, we all have different interests and one of mine would be war, not just the killing but deeper than that, the friendships formed like no other and the things people have to do just to survive, I find it truly amazing. So I like war games, granted its not like the real thing and I don’t think it ever will be unless the game starves you, kills of some of your friends and puts your life in real danger but I still like to play them and 82nd's First Airborne is a good one, if you have seen Band of Brothers its like that just you get to run round. If that’s the type of game you like I would recommend it.

So as I said I'm thinking of getting a new laptop, the one I have now is good but it does not have the power I would like to edit videos so seeing as I may have a little extra money coming my way I thought it would be a good time to upgrade so I have been looking around, The one which caught my eye is the Sony Vaio CR11Z/R which RRP’s for £999 but after a little web digging I found it for just under £900. This may be a lot for some people to spend on such a thing as you can pick up a ok laptop for sub £500 now but this will keep me happy for some time (I hope) and I will sell the one I'm typing on now for £250+.

One thing I did spot (ok the Girl friend spotted) was how many bars now have free Wifi, one being the Trof! This is great news. Quite Sunday, Girl friend has a new book, I have some videos to edit and we both would not mind a drink, hey presto we are there strawberry beer in hand. L like this plan.

Ps i have no idea what is going on with my font, Blogspot is in German aswell!