Nick Gibbins

Mobile upgrades

posted earlier this evening to describe his experiences at the hands of T-Mobile customer services, specifically their refusal to let him upgrade his current phone to the G-1. I’m not that surprised by this, sadly. and I moved from Orange contract to T-Mobile PAYG earlier this year, mainly because we weren’t using all of our contract allowance, and we wanted something rather cheaper than Talk 50. A few years ago, we moved from our previous tariffs – the lovely-for-us (but not so great for Orange) Everyday 50 – to Talk 50 in order to upgrade to tri-band handsets. At that… Read More »Mobile upgrades

The Garklet Lexicon

The words have been coming thick and fast, and it’s been quite a while since I last tried to list his vocabulary, so this is not going to be an exhaustive effort. In general, his spoken vocabulary is less than half the size of his understood vocabulary, and he’s adding 5-10 new spoken words a week at the moment. Words he knows: Most of his body parts, although he has a tendency to get ‘cheeks’ mixed up with ‘chicks’. He also has the alarming habit of poking himself in the eye whenever he says ‘eye. Clothes. He says ‘shoes’, ‘socks’… Read More »The Garklet Lexicon

You have been outbid…

Bother. I spotted an emergency power off panel from an IBM 1602 on eBay over the weekend, and was out-sniped within the last ten seconds (I’d set my snipe for 29 seconds, figuring that there wasn’t likely to be a great deal of interest in a 3kg block of metal). On the plus side, the postage would have cost me the best part of USD50. For those of you that might be wondering why I’d want an obsolete IBM boat anchor, might I refer you to one of ‘s stories, particularly the last four paragraphs.

Dear Undergraduates…

Dear Undergraduates, It has come to my attention that many of you have chosen to celebrate the coming of autumn by donning unattractively formless sheepskin boots of the Ugg variety and shuffling around campus like a horde of denim-clad zombies. Perhaps you failed to read my previous missive on this subject? While I understand the need to keep one’s feet warm, might I suggest that your precious Uggs would last longer if a) you lifted your feet clear of the ground when moving your legs forward and b) you left the boots at home and wore some more sensible (and… Read More »Dear Undergraduates…

On Marcus Didius Falco

For , following the conversation at the Tun last night: Age of Treason (1993, TV), starring Bryan Brown. Lindsey Davis’ explanation

Another Bank Holiday, another flypast

This time, the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s Dakota, accompanied by a Spitfire and a Hurricane (not sure which ones), en route to Wings and Wheels. The slept through it all, alas.

Things you don’t see every day

The Red Arrows flying low over your house in formation, en route to Cowes. And I do mean over, near enough (maybe displaced 30m to the east at most). Still not quite as cool as the time a B1B Lancer flew low over the house, though; nine Hawks are nowhere near as loud as one Lancer.

What I did on my holidays

Got back last Friday from a week’s holiday in South Wales with the usual ex-Warwick suspects. Total head count this year was twenty-five adults, by my reckoning, with a further eight little ones. The was the only small boy amongst the kids; hopefully either and will produce another boy, otherwise it’s going to be him versus the monstrous regiment of women. Anyway, he enjoyed charging around with the elder girls (Lottie, Thea and the twins), even if it was a little trying on the eardrums of the rest of us.