St Landrew

Are you telling me that I should never phone the Netgear hotline mate..? Oh btw, I rang the Targa number and barely put the phone to my ear and it was answered. How about that for a technical support response..?

I was editing a film I'd recorded the other night, and the remote control on my 2+ year old Targa DRH-5300x recorder started to give problems. It had done this once or twice before recently, but this time the iffy buttons were definitely becoming an annoyance. So this afternoon I dragged my lazy arse to the back of the machine to note the serial number down, and then I phoned the Targa hotline. A female voice answered sounding reminiscent of Sabine Schmitz [Top Gear]. It was my first ever call to the hotline, so the machine's details were recorded. I then described the fault. To my utter astonishment there was no quibbling, no hesitation, just a friendly apology that the machine had let me down at all, and that a new remote control would reach me in 5 days. She asked me to test it on receipt and to bin the old one responsibly [i liked that bit - German environmentalism..!]. I'm writing this still slightly staggered. I was all geared for an argument, but this is proper after sales service. A guarantee [standard 3 year] that actually means something, and no cost or fuss to me. Of course, as soon as the new remote proves perfect, I shall be diving into the old one to fix it, but what the hell. I almost want something else on the machine to go wrong..!

Just finished watching Big Trouble In Little China, after not seeing it for years, and it's still just as much escapist fun. Kurt Russell is just this side of believeable bullsh!t [ready..? I was born ready..!]; the Chinese warriors were flying years before Crouching Tiger, and a younger Kim Cattrall looks utterly gorgeous. And the special effects are what we used to think of as special effects, and not wall to wall CGI. Good stuff.

Yes, I thought you'd got it a little miscontrued. I didn't mean it as a promo, but merely to illustrate that although I earned a half-decent salary, and an excellent one with bonuses, it was never the same as a professional footballer. And as someone has pointed out.. they don't have their arms and legs chopped off when they retire from football, so it's the same for all. To say that footballers today are paid obscene money would be a gross understatement.

Whenever racing drivers and motorcycle racers are being interviewed, I can feel my head tighten as I'm waiting for the first utterance of a... for sure... or fo'sure as they all like to say it. One never has to wait long. Please someone tell them that it's alright to say of course occasionally, or even a simple yes..! Who ever started saying for sure anyway..?

Certainly..! I should point out that it was only one week in 2 years that I earned that wage. Because of the wage structure, some weeks it would be £320 gross.

Interesting. I thought Lallana had a poorish game for his level. He often wasn't where you'd want him to be when Saints were attacking. When he got the ball, he missed opportunities to pass it timely, while he was beating the defender again and again. I thought Saints generally were toothless, and lacking in cohesion. At times it crossed my mind that the disease from the last few seasons, i.e. passes finding the opposition and not our players, was starting to take hold. OK, we started to put Bristol City under pressure in the last 20 minutes, but our pressure was disjointed, and came to nothing. Tbh, we never really looked like we would score, and if we had, it would just have been a relief. We were second to the ball, and in all honesty, Bristol City deserved their 0-1. I'm rather deflated on a wet, chilly saturday evening.

Who do you want in, Seatbelt..? Helen Clark or a coalition of parties headed up by Don Brash or [could it be possible..?] Winston Peters..? EDIT: Today - work. Saturday - Give IT To Ron work, and then SMS for the match. Sunday - Recover from the win..!

Whenever I go to the cinema I always find myself wondering why I don't do it more often, as generally it's a pretty good experience. Then I realise it's because there's hardly a film out there that really intrigues me enough to go to the bother.

Not at all. I merely put it there to illustrate how much ordinary footballers earn compared to avaerage people. That money was an exceptional week in an exceptional job. It it makes you feeel any better, I did consider not putting it there because it is private information to me, and nowadays I'm quite the pauper anyway. Perhaps you wrote your reply to get me to bite. well, perhaps you succeeded, because I won't be putting any of my personal information on this website anymore. There, I stepped back from the informal to the formal.

I've heard Matt say his best ever week's basic was £8,000. But his win extras were apparently very good indeed. Mind you, 8K a week is very good too, to the average person. The best I've ever earned in 7 days was £7,250 before tax in 1990. That was a very nice job that lasted a couple of years.

Maybe not insane, but perhaps your priorities are a little mixed up.

Most other football based forums are not nearly as busy as this one, despite you thinking nobody posts on here.

That's another game. A very good one though. EDIT: You can see that one here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0StQKf5NRp4 Sorry about the sound quality.

Yeah it's hard to see past that one. Man City high in the top division; Saints going well in the 3rd Division, and with a reputation for attacking football. City scored first, and then Saints overwhelmed them. Afterwards, the famous keeper Bert Trautmann** who had been in goal for Man City, came up to congratulate John Sydenham saying, what a load of rubbish I had in front of me. But according to Syddo, 3 of the goals were his fault. **The keeper who played on despite breaking his neck in an FA Cup Final.

This is fun. Amazing I didn't spot it before. Stuck on Up The Hump, or whatever it's called, which is sort of appropriate anyhow.

Doesn't seem excessive to me either. It may not seem a lot of welding, but it has to be upto MOT standard. Get them to slap some underseal on it too.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7712611.stm And an excellent choice of film too. If anyone hasn't seen The Maggie, I suggest you check the schedules for the next time CH4 put it on. Haven't seen it for years, myself. Perhaps I should get tickets..? The perfect film for watching while being transported..?

When I first took my mortgage out, interest rates were around 12-13%. I could get a fixed rate mortgage for 9% at the time, but decided to go for a fully variable repayment one. The interest rates rose to 15% and more, and I thought I'd made a boo-boo. But within the space of one year, the rate was below 9% and falling. The mortgage has spent the major part of its existence around 1, 2 and 3%, without the need for re-negoitation. At least I've got one decision right in my lifetime.

Yippee..! At this rate [geddit..?], my fast disappearing mortgage** is going to be non-existent. **Fully variable.

Chairman Rupert Lowe said... as we become a bigger club there are fewer and fewer clubs who are attractive to our players...

A snooker table would be better though.

Every manager is going to dig their heels in unless they represent a very good company [note my opinion of PC World then]. She's within her rights to demand a replacement as the previous action by PC World has not cured the problem. The machine has not been fit for purpose. Don't be put off.

Ho-hum. Never, ever buy an extended warranty from a manufacturer. You can always insure the item more cheaply on your houshold insurance. However, years ago, when I exited University, I went to work for Comet while I decided what I wanted to do with my degree [actually I could do very little because employers now wanted a Masters for the position I was interested in, but I digress] and ended up staying for 4 years, ending up as a Troubleshooter for the South-East region. When I finally left, I was newly setting up home on my own again after a divorce, and so I bought a load of brown and white goods. One of these was a 28" Widescreen, Dolby Pro-Logic, Phillips TV. Because I'd given myself massive discounts [yes, I offered myself 40% off every item, which I duly accepted], I decided to extend the warranty on the TV to 5 years, which included tube replacement. The nice thing was if I didn't use the warranty within the 5 year period, it would be refunded in full. Comet sold a host of these warranties, and got a got of money because they held people's money and pocketed the interest. But in my case, nearly 5 years later, my TV was months away from seeing out its warranty. Tbh, I wanted it to fail, because TVs were going through a change period and the new technology ones were expensive. The tube duly failed and Comet replaced it. The TV is now going into to its 9th year and showing no sign of folding up. But I still wouldn't buy an extended warranty. Remember, goods sold in Europe come with a standard 3 year guarantee. Even British goods sold there.

Well tbh, at least a wood burning stove is converting the wood into heat directly. And nowadays it is quite easy to get a super clean burning one, that can even be used in the urban environment. When I lived in NZ, the country was awash with the things. There's no doubt NZ has been years [maybe even decades] ahead of the UK in the development of the high efficiency wood burning stove or fire. I can vouch for the fact that they are very quick, very warm, and can burn a thick green wood log quite spectacularly. And if they only burn managed wood, or dead wood, then they aren't doing huge harm. Remember that electricity is generated by various methods and because they are often a long way away from the comsumer, the losses over distance mean that a lot of the energy created goes to waste. Then remember what the electricity is being generated from, maybe coal or oil, and you get an electricity source that isn't any better, in fact is a lot worse in many cases. So the argument against wood burning stoves can very quickly go out of the window. But, I agree, they should remain only a fringe product, and utilise what wood fuel is available. Not create a special demand, as such. Their main advantage is that there aren't many of them though.