Ageing (dis)gracefully!
Archive for August, 2009
Marillion Weekend – Day 1
Aug 12th
So, it’s been a good couple of months since I got back from Port Zelande in Holland, the scene of probably the best weekend of my life! I was over there attending a music festival run by veteran rock band, Marillion.
They have held four previous ‘Marillion Weekends‘, each proving bigger and better than the last. The format is that they book out an entire holiday park and put on three big gigs on the site. Fans buy a weekend pass which gives them accomodation aswell as access to all of these gigs and the other events held onsite.
The events have traditionally been held in the UK, with fans travelling from all over the world to attend. However, for 2007 the band decided to look to mainland europe, settling on a very large ‘Center Parcs’ in Port Zelande, Netherlands. This site enabled them to erect their own purpose built arena, rather than rely on the facilities of the site itself. It also had superior accomodation and facilities compared to the ‘Butlins’ site they had been using in the UK. The 2007 event proved to be their biggest and best ‘Weekend’ so far, so for 2009 the same place was to be used.
This is where the irony steps in for me. The band have held four previous weekends, three of which have been within a stonesthrow of where I live. Despite this, circumstances at the time (lack of money and my sister getting married during one of them!) dictated I couldn’t go ..yet now, I was prepared to travel to another country to do this. Crazy? nah!!
Another slightly daunting prospect was that we were sharing accomodation with two blokes we had never met in our lives. The first, Ian, is a guy I have gotten to know through the fabulous last.fm. We have been in contact for about 3 years and get on really well, so when booking the tickets for the weekend we decided we would share digs. Then there was Jim. As we needed a fourth person to fill our chalet and avoid us having to pay a supplement for under occupancy, I posted an advert on the Marillion Forum with the title ‘Wanted: 1 Alki‘. Jim, apparently an alki, responded within a few hours and we added him to our party.
A few months after booking, I had noticed a post on the Marillion Forum from a chap called John who was looking for someone to share a car to the event with. I was intending to fly, but still still responded to say hi when I noticed he lived in the local area (literally 10 miles down the road). We exchanged a few emails and he also decided to fly, mentioning the fact he wanted to stop over in Amsterdam for one night before heading to Port Zelande. We (me & Leigh) decided that was a pretty damn fine idea, so arranged we would tag along with him. Marillion happened to be touring last autumn too, so we arranged to go to one of their gigs with John, to put a name to a face and so we knew who we were going to be travelling with. Thoroughly nice chap.
Nothing Is Easy!
Aug 10th
A dilemma we have had off and on for the last few months is whether to keep hold of my car or sell it. Lucy is now on maternity leave (and possibly not going back) and we could probably get by with just one car, although it would make things inconvenient at times due to the hours I work. We debated it off and on for months, but eventually decided that we would keep it for another year. This meant reinsuring the thing …
The renewal quote from my current insurer was, as usual, way above last years premium, so I set about the usual task of getting quotes from confused.com. All fine, got a quote that was cheaper than last year so gave the current insurers a call to see if they could match it… however, the guy I spoke to obviously didn’t like his job much as he flat out refused to lower the original quote they sent me (despite it being over £100 more than my current premium and me having 1 more year of no claims!). He was obviously not that interested in doing his job, so I ended the call and tried again .. different person, same attitude! ..seems they didn’t want my business, so I advised them I wasn’t renewing the policy and that was that.
I then went through the arduous task of calling the company providing the cheapest quote on confused.com, this meant providing all of my details again (despite already filling them out on the website). 15 minutes later, policy agreed, bank details provided for payment, the guy on the other end goes ‘oh, do you have an imobiliser?’ … I don’t, and never said I did ..so said as much too him. He then advises me that he’ll have to transfer me to customer services as he can’t amend my policy once it’s saved. I query if the price of the policy will go up based on this, but he assures me it won’t.
Five minutes later I speak to a customer services girl and she advises my policy has now gone up by £20 as I don’t have an immobiliser. I tell her I never said I did have one and that I was only asked AFTER I took the policy out, so the rise in price was unfair. She basically tells me ‘tough’ …. so I ask to cancel the policy. I am then advised I have to pay a £30 cancellation fee! ..for a policy I have only taken out 5 minutes ago!… At this point, I go ballistic! (this happened on the same day as the Facebook saga a few posts below, so I wasn’t in a good mood anyway!).
Anyway – long story short, after being on hold for another 15 mins while she spoke to her manager, they agreed to give me the policy at the original price.
I hate renewing insurance …guarantees me one argument a year it seems!
Cold Turkey
Aug 9th
I think I have successfully gone cold turkey on my Facebook status updating! Honestly, it’s as addictive as I imagine crack might be!
It will be 7 days tomorrow since my last update and it feels so good to have a relatively bare profile page. The addiction has passed I think!
I haven’t even ramped up my twitter presence to compensate .. think I am cured! 
Why I Am Done With Facebook
Aug 6th
I’ve been on Facebook for a couple of years now. To begin with I barely touched it, then gradually over time it became a daily obsession of mine to log in and keep track of friends and family. I also found myself compelled to post status updates several times a day. I just had to do it!
Over the last few weeks I have posted a few status updates regarding Amelia and her unsettled time, referring to her as ‘Devil Child’. This week I posted a specific update and whilst several people made some jokey comments a few made some that I just couldn’t take as joking. Generally about my lack of understanding of Amelia and questioning if I even love her. Several steps too far I am afraid. It’s been pointed out to me that the comments could still be considered as humour, but I took offence. If it was enough to offend me, it was too far.
I proceeded to get quite pissed off and set about deleting every recent status update relating to Amelia so no further comments or judgements could be made. I was then in a foul mood for the rest of the day. It’s during that day I realised how much Facebook has become a large part of my life. The fact that something on there could upset me lead me to realise I have been spending far too much time on there. It shouldn’t have got to me the way it did.
So, i’ve made a very conscious decision to back away and to very rarely update my status (I will never say never). I could always have deleted the ‘friends’ who made the comments, but that misses my point slightly. I need to step away! I’ll still log on and still comment on friends and family, but I refuse to open myself up on there again.
The good news is, this blog will become more active as almost everytime I have something worth blogging I end up posting a small status update on Facebook instead. Every cloud ….
Runkeeper
Aug 5th
I’ve been trying out a pretty cool iPhone app called Runkeeper over the last few months. Essentially, it is a GPS tracking app, but is designed for use in physical exercise. It uses it’s GPS to plot exactly where you are, even drawing a nice little map (see below). It also gives a load of stats on your chosen activity, such as speed, length of time, calories burned, elevation (uphill, downhill), average pace etc etc. When you are done, you upload your activity details to the runkeeper website (it does it automatically if you set it up to do so). You then have a statistical history of your activities, including maps!
It also has the option of speaking to you as you go. E.g. every 5 mins a voice comes out of the iPhone to tell you the vital stats and to give you a hurry up if it thinks you are not going quickly enough. Easily disabled, but if you wanted to use this app in an fitness regime it would be ideal!
The below walk was from this morning. We do this ‘loop’ almost every day as it is a perfect length to get Amelia to settle.
More stats from this walk are here: http://bit.ly/2dlpbu
It’s a great app. Almost makes me want to go jogging!
