It was our usual type of getaway on Veronika’s birthday, but this time we’ve missed an oportunity to go abroad, so opted for some quite local place :) And since Veronika loves all kind of bath-beaty-therapy-spa things, the choice of destination was not a hard one.

We stayed in Bath for three nights, so had enough time not to only explore the city and surroundings, but to actually relax. Our top highlights were the visit to the Bath’s famous thermae bath spa (very enjoyable, especially the open roof top pool, highly recommend :), a trip to the Stonehenge (interesting place, though no vibes for me… probably because it was too crowded there) and visit to the Roman Bath Museum (it’s quite amazing what Roman already could do and build in those ancient times).

A quiet and friendly (still a bit buzzy) town that borders with country-side with everything within a walking distance, has a clean air and even cleaner (must be mineral one) tap water. A really nice place for retirement ;) Anyway, returning to overcrowded, busy and smoggy London felt a bit weird and wrong…

Few more pictures you could also see on my Flickr account, as well as story continues here (the next blog post).

Who would think that power station could be that beautiful? Built in 1939, it is maaaaassive, reminds me of a huge ship (Titanic? ;), and it’s Art Deco all around (my favorite :).
It’s been out of use for decades and it is such a shame to see its decadence. Well at least it will not demolished, but will become a part of a new to-be-fantastic development. But for now what you see is an abandoned monster. Beautiful monster.

The next picture was taken on a completely different occasion, but I thought I would add it.

Genre : Pop/Electro

The other (pretty gloomy, I guess) day I was asked to play some gay (ie happy) music at the office. So I played Juvelen, an artist I had discovered recently on last.fm. Few minutes later i received an email saying it was ‘too gay’. Doh!

Well yeah, sometimes people are surprised it is actually a guy :) The sound is quite unique and… cheesy, sometimes. So it’s probably you either love it or hate it. I was not sure what to think myself when was listening to the album for the first time. But you give it a chance. Or two. I needed two. Now it’s stuck in my head. Typical.

The video below is not to the best song from the album (to my taste), but it will give you an idea. Listen to the others on myspace.

Genre : Indie-Pop

Pretty mainstream, but still… The very first time I heard their That’s Not My Name single i liked them. A lot. Punchy, catchy (maybe even too catchy) and a bit raw with quite a minimalistic sound. And this how how the whole albums (it’s quite short) goes. A bit indie sometimes, but has a few real gems. Great DJ and Keep Your Head are the nice one, and Be The One and We Walk are absolutely lovable and, of course Shut Up And Let Me Go, my all time favorite :)

As usual, myspace and their official space.

Genre : Electro/Pop

Dima, this one is for you. Cause you might be feeling a bit nostalgic about all those years you spent in Canada… For me  this electro-pop duo sounds like a Canadian version of Sam Sparrow :)

As it happens often to me, when I listen to some record for the first time, I am neither bored nor impressed. But then I listen again… and just can’t get enough. ‘So This Is Goodbye’ has been annoyingly spinning in my head for the last few weeks and I suspect my office folk could be also quite fed up with it :)

But you go and check yourself. Myspace.com/juniorboys, www.sothisisgoodbye.com, and finally www.juniorboys.net

Not sure what to think of the video below… so probably just listen, the song is great.

On this picture you can see the fine example of a superb product wrapping/packaging. Makes you want to keep it…yeah…or to put it in a frame… or to donate it to the local art museum… beautiful…

So it has finally happened. iPhone has arrived. And yes, O2, my new mobile operator screwed up my supposed-to-be-the-happiest-day-in-the-year-of-2008. Doh! In spite of the fact that I made sure to register myself for my new friend the very moment I received an email saying ‘Go! go! go!’, and though the website said ‘yes, your 16G black is still in stock for you’ at that early morning hour, and even though my bank account was credited immediately (thanks guys!), they still failed to deliver it to me on the day of the release. Those were the darkest hours of July 11… Too dark to write about…

The next delivery could only be expected in a week or so, and still that was not the fact. So I mourned for almost two days… And then I found out that Apple store had got plenty of them in stock. The next day I called O2 and told them I did not want iPhone from them anymore, but was going to go down to Apple store and buy it there. And this is exactly what I did.

I made sure to skip my lunch break and thus finished my day earlier. I was in the store at Regent street right after 5 pm. There was a queue of around 15 people on the ground floor, which I joined. After queuing for 45 minutes and already reaching the top of the line I realized that at that point there were already 50 people behind me. I felt lucky. And smart, for coming earlier. At 6pm they stopped taking any more people into the queue, which meant it was going to take up to 3 hours for the last guy in the line before he could actually get his lusted tool of communication.

While moving along the line my heart was being filled with a greater and greater joy. And then I was taken to the top floor and found out there were… another 30 people queuing there, separating me from the Holy of Holiest - IiPhone counter. But the good news was there were chairs for all those impatient consumerists, so the queuing experience just got much better from that point. Luckily I had my laptop with me, so just started answering all the email which were begging for my attention for quite a while. And when I got bored with that I started talking to a gentlemen sitting next to me, who had a Russian name Yuri (actually named after Yuri Gagarin, the first Russian cosmonaut). So, long before we ran out of topics of conversation I was called to the counter. Another half an hour of formalities, credit check, collecting of details and all sort of registrations and finally, it’s here and it is mine! Mission accomplished! Now my life is perfect. My life is complete :)

It’s great, it’s awesome. It changed the way I organize myself, deal with emails and facebook, entertain myself while commuting, search places, navigate in town, traveling, communicating … etc etc etc. Though at the same time it does a fair bit of spoiling me, because now I want more of it: I want copy & paste, I want sync through wi-fi, I want it as a storage space, I want video recording, I want MORE… MORE… MORE… I want it to find me new music I would like, entertain me, talk to me, pay my bills, cook my breakfast, do grocery shopping… Oh… wait…

Yeah, I know what you are going to say… Other phones can do the same things… Yeeees, but it’s not that much about what it does, but rather HOW it does it :) And yes, there ARE things I could whine and complain about, but it is still The Gadget of this year. (It also brought texting back into my life [at this point i am getting quite emotional. Where was my handkerchief?? ] … I hated doing it on a tiny (yes, now it is tiny) Nokia screen with a help of just 10 buttons… I never used more then 5 texts a month out of hundreds available free on my tariff… Ouch. What a waste! …)

And one more thing. The very next day after I told O2 I was getting my iPhone from Apple store, surprise..surprise… I got a text, saying my headset had been dispatched and would arrive the next day. So, basically they were saying, ‘Oh Mr.Skrinda, you know what? We went down to the warehouse and searched it through and oh, wow, we found one more headset right behind those big boxes in the corner! And it’s just like the one you have ordered!” Yeah, right… Sure….

PS. As stupid as it might sound, there was something about queuing there. Something charming. Probably the dedication and excitement of those sitting next to me :) A bunch of morons, you say?

This image represents me as being very angry, because someone is wasting my time. Also… because reading long posts is boooooring, so here you go, a picture. And yes, it’s a facial mask. Good for your skin.

Since the 11th of July, arguably the happiest day of the year 2008 in the Universe, the day of jezuzPhone’s second coming, is approaching, I made sure I was ready for this glorious day. I called my mobile service provider to terminate my contract. I was suspecting they were not going to be happy about it, but I failed to realise the catastrophic effect my leaving would produce. :) Keep on reading.

So, the conversation went something like this :

- Sir, what is the reason you are leaving us?
- I’m paying too much.
- Ok… Give me a second… We can actually offer you a much better deal. For just £10 a month.
- Now this is exactly what pisses me off. Last time I called, you told me the lowest plan possible was £25 a month. No, I want to cancel my contract.

The rest of the conversation isn’t worth mentioning, for the guy was still trying to convince me. But I was as solid as stone.

Few days later i got another call from another department.

- Sorry you are leaving… But we want to give you a better contract. £10 per month, 500 minutes, 800 skype minutes plus brand new handset and on top of that, this 10 quid a month plan will be for you for the rest of your life.

Ok, that was quite a proposition :) And funnily enough, they convinced me. No, I wasn’t going to give up on the most perfect mobile gadget of all times, I just thought, “Hmm, ok, maybe I should keep both numbers and have that ridiculous amount of minutes?” So I agreed.

The next morning though, I checked their website for available offers and found out, that the deal they were giving me was good, but not mind-blowing. Besides, do I really want the hassle of owning 2 phones? Naaah, screw it. And I called them to cancel the contract. Again :)

They thought they got me already, but not quite :) So the girl was going:

- Do you think you can get such a good deal anywhere else.
- No, I really don’t think so. But I don’t want it.
- iPhone is a very nice phone. You can keep both.
- No, I don’t need that hassle.
- But you can keep this new phone for someone in your family…
- Everyone in my family is happy with their contracts [not that that was really true, but that wasn’t the point ]

She was trying for 15 minutes before she gave up. Finaaaally!

In a couple of days I still received the new handset. Ok, nice try ;) I called them back to arrange the return delivery. And the guy on the other end was going:

- So, sir what’s the reason for your leaving?

Wooot?? They just don’t get it.

- I’ve told you my reason already. I’m leaving for another company.

And then I thought this waste of my life was over. Nope. Silly me. They just don’t give up! The very next day (today, actually) I got another call from them:

- Sir, we just wanted to confirm you have received the PAC code. [ As if I haven’t already confirmed that last time ]
- Yes, I have received it, thanks.
- So, sir can you tell me what is the reason for your leaving?

Ha-ha! No way!! They are still doing it!

- I told my reasons to you guys several times already. I am not going to do it again. Check it in your system.
-Thank you sir, good bye.

Is it ‘good-bye’? I don’t know, but probably yes :) So here is the morale: if you are not happy with your contract, just call your provider and tell them you are leaving (don’t say you are thinking of leaving, though, otherwise it’s not going to work), and you can definitely expect a call from them within the next few days with a much more sound offer. Seriously, just do it!