sjdean on the blog

I pre-ordered the Google Nexus from Carphone Warehouse a couple of weeks back on the 19th November. What Im surprised with, is that they've taken funds from my credit card before having the stock available. I do actually have some sympathy for them. Phones are high cost items, they don't want people placing lots of orders and cancelling when another provider eventually delivers. Makes sense. But. both the 32 Gig and 64 Gig variant were down for 1st December shipping. Great! You'll have it before anyone else! I'll order the 64 Gig from you. That has now been pushed back 2 weeks to 15th December. The 32 Gig has also similarly been pushed back to 8th December. And we all know how phone releases work - 15th December is an estimated date, and I quite expect actually to see no stock arrive then and it will be pushed back to maybe start of January. So Carphone Warehouse will be sitting on my money for at least four weeks if not longer. Usually in the world of Mail ...

Not often I find myself with a vendetta against someone, but right now, I've got one against TSC Cars. Oh, I don't mean Im going to send round some flaming horse muck in a bag or anything. I mean, Im going to do whatever I can to make sure people realise what they're like - restorative reputation. As you know, my problem, is that my car is so reliable, it's difficult to get rid of, but it has got a few sore points like blowing oil past some valve stem seals. I visited TSC Cars near Balsall Common, though I think they also say near Kenilworth, Honiley and Coventry, probably a couple of years ago to look at a VW Passat. I was very unsure about it and wanted to do my research before buying. Im not your average consumer, I look at MPG, real world and quoted, reliability, timing drive vs belt, problems with the vehicle in general. Not being able to make up my mind, I never took it for a test drive. Second car, was actually a more reasonably priced Peugeot 407, but ...

Dear Sir, I was in the left hand lane of Church Road to turn right onto the A4040 in Yardley Birmingham when a white vehicle in the right hand lane also turning right, cut across into my lane. You were also in the right hand lane and wound down your window to start explaining that the left hand lane is for the store and I should go back and take a look. I explained both lanes for the A4040 and you should take a look. I hereby offer the following picture for your future reference: While the left hand lane is indeed for the store, I hope that you can see both lanes clearly show A4040. Not only that, the lanes on the round about are clearly defined. Im hoping you don't tell people off for driving in bus lanes outside their hours of operation?

Am I over Rush . Nah. Rush are brilliant. Many years ago I bought a great rock album from 1997 called Cheap Trick. Not the first Cheap Trick, but the second Cheap Trick. I wasn't too keen on their earlier stuff. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I find myself seeing Cheap Trick videos on YouTube and being blown away about how good a band in their early 60s are. This surely gives Rush some hope. Forget Rolling Stones. Cheap Trick and Rush are at the forefront of progressive OAPs. Gives me some comfort that life isn't over at 40. I've found that the strained voice of Robin Zander I found on the 1997 album is a bit of an act and the guy has a brilliant vocal range and still in his 40 years of touring with Cheap Trick, still delivers flawless performances in the same Chicago range. Tom Peterssons 12 string bass has a really great sound to it, I can only hope Teddy Lee picks one up for the next album. Rick Nielsen is a funny and charismatic guitar player who see...

I have been boring people to death with thoughts about buying a new car. I am unfortunately not one of those people who can simple say "I want that one". Ten years ago, maybe, when Nissan were reliable. However newer cars have so much more fangled gubbins to go wrong - and that's mainly with the diesel engines, from diesel particulate filters that require a certain way of driving (eg 60km/h for 20 minutes) to re-generate, dual mass flywheels, injectors, timing belts vs virtually indestructable timing chains, egr valves, even service intervals. My Primera, do an oil and filter change at 6000 miles and the car continues. However my car is now smoking at start up, so it's nearly dead. On top of the diesel problems, and each manufacturer has their own unique design and way of doing things, some belts last longer than others, some injectors are better, some engine designs are more robust, others disintegrate, Ford Mondeo legendarily reliable in 2007+, but econo...