Plymouth Argyle - a good ambassador for the city!

So Plymouth Argyle football club is to be relegated next season, and will find itself down in Division 2. Of course, it true PC fashion, this is actually worse than it sounds. Just like in education, where 'A' has always sufficed to distinguish the best results, we now need to have 'A*' - has the best really got better, or is it rather like the composer, Schumann, for example, who asks that a piece of music be played 'as fast as possible' - then asks for it to be 'even faster' later on!

Division 2 is, infact, Division 4 - the lowest you can get without playing on the village green. The Premiership is the old Div 1, the Championship Div 2, so it's worse than you think - but is it!

Plymouth, despite its relative size, is a fourth-division city - just on the news, the decision to shut Plymouth Airport will be greeted in Exeter with great pleasure, as this will now expand, and become the gateway to the South West.

Culture stops, anyway, at Bristol - something trickles down to Exeter, and then filters through to Truro, neatly bypassing Plymouth - a naval town, but where there's hardly much navy left.

Our traffic system's a complete mess - there have been major roadworks for a year - unlike everywhere else, our traffic policy seems to be: narrow the roads, increase the pavement width, give wider cycle paths, and sod the motorist. Other cities seem to realise that if you widen the arteries, the blood flows better!!

I am sorry to say that, virtually through an accident of birth, I am a Plymothian - it's probably the one thing I can't actually change, like my nationality. We can re-assign our sexes, but once we're born, that's it - I wonder whether the church would allow me to be 'reborn' somewhere else - after all. it extols the praises of marriage as a holy state, where people don't live together until they are married - that is, of course, unless you're a 'Royal'! It's sensible to try anything out before you sign on the dotted line - but it's hypocritical of the church to take all the money for these kinds of weddings.

...and we still give money to Pakistan!!

So the Americans have taken out Osama Bin Laden - good job they did, as if it had been us, we'd probably have apologised profusely to the guy for disturbing him in his stronghold, and offer him alternative accommodation here in the UK - with free NHS, or rather private medical treatment.

What is unbelievable is that his stronghold was in a fairly affluent town, not far from the capital - it looked like a stronghold, or fortress - it had no Internet or phone - and yet the Pakistanis didn't seem to know it was there?!? Had it been disguised as an Asda store, with mock petrol pumps, I could possibly have understood their confusion.

And yet the UK government persists in giving money to this regime! As I said at the start, a good job the Americans got to him first - good riddance, I say!

NIKON (UK) SUCKS! - in my opinion, that is!

Years ago, when I first needed a camera to take holiday snaps, my parents bought me a Canon, which was one of the first reasonably-priced compact 35mm cameras around - for all you youngsters, this meant that it used actual film to take the pictures, which then had to be developed! Irrespective of that, it lasted years, and never ever let me down - in fact I still have it upstairs.

Digital came in, of course, and the obvious advantage is that you can effectively just take anything, without worrying about whether you'll run out of film, or whether you shouldn't 'waste' a particular shot - with just 24 or 36 exposures on a film, before you have to change it - the difference was like chalk and cheese.

Mum had bought me a good pair of Nikon binoculars, so I thought that my first digital compact camera should also be a Nikon. The first one lasted a few years, but then the battery holder clip broke off (I prefer using AA batteries, rather than Lithium here, as they can easily be recharged, but they need spring pressure to retain them) - I had to bin this one. Shortly Nikon were bringing out their L20 which again used AA batteries, but where the battery case had clearly seemed to have got a stronger means of fastening it - perhaps they had learnt from this in the past.

I used it for under two years - we were going to York for Dad's 91st birthday a week or so ago, and so I took it out of its case, in order to get the batteries charged in readiness, and found that a small part of the bottom of the battery case had sheared off. I certainly hadn't knocked, since putting it away, and when I put it away after the last time, it was in perfect condition. After contacting Nikon UK it was suggested that I send the camera back to them to be assessed. When I discovered the small broken-off bit - see photo above - it was 4 days after the 2-year guarantee had expired! Had we been going the week before, I would have discovered it within the guarantee period.

Well, most large companies show some goodwill in similar circumstances, so I sent it back, recorded mail, as suggested, and waited to hear their response. I heard nothing to say it had even arrived, despite having given them both my postal, and email address - tracking the parcel confirmed that it had arrived there. I got back in touch with Customer Service at Nikon UK, to say how appalled I was that I hadn't heard anything yet. The agent kindly 'escalated' the matter, so that I would hear 'soon'. The next day I received an email with an 'invoice' - they estimated that the repair would cost £51+ - it would even cost me £6 just to have it sent back!

I contacted them by phone immediately, but they were TOTALLY inflexible. They claimed that, as 'I had damaged it myself', the guarantee was invalidated, and I would have to pay. Needless to say I told them where to stick the camera - it might come in handy for bowel screening. I emailed back to Nikon UK * to say how very disappointed I was, but have heard nothing more since! I have now emailed the CEO of Nikon UK, to make him aware of what I think is poor service by his company. I WOULDN'T BUY ANOTHER NIKON PRODUCT OF ANY SORT AGAIN, AND WOULD RECOMMEND THAT YOU THINK TWICE, TOO, BECAUSE OF MY EXPERIENCES, NOT ONLY WITH THE PRODUCT BUT WITH THE COMPANY IN THE UK. I've just seen the same camera advertised - brand new, as it's now a previous model, and this was only £49 - so I'd be daft to pay more than that for a 2-year-old one And why, if it only cost me £2.53 for recorded delivery, would it cost £6 to have it returned!! Despite my accompanying letter clearly showing my Post Code and city correctly, they addressed the invoice and explanation not to PLYMOUTH - but to PORTSMOUTH. Just how inefficient are they at Nikon GB!!

In terms of my having damaged the camera, obviously it's my word against theirs! All I can say is I recently had two similar instances where damage occurred and where I was claimed to have caused this - on a recent pair of expensive spectacle lens a scratch developed, which I know I didn't cause, and Optical Express gave me the benefit of the doubt, replacing the lens free of charge. The latest pair were rimless, and these started to fail at the drilling point, again something which 'careless' use might have caused. Optical Express again came up trumps and replaced everything for nothing. Here, in both case we weren't talking £120 or so which was all the measly little camera cost, but £4-500 on each occasion. But then, Optical Express obviously respects what their customers say. They could so easily have said that I must have damaged the lenses etc.

No, I think Nikon UK have been unreasonable and inflexible here - they could have shown some goodwill but didn't. This is strange, as previously I've had Honda and Toyota cars, and they really did seem to have care and concern for their customers.

* While I heard nothing fro their CEO, they did make me a slightly improved offer - 25% off the cost of the repairs, and possibly free return back to me. They also apologised for confusing Plymouth with Portsmouth!

However, I went into our local Jessops and emerged with a really great offer on a brand new camera - obviously not a Nikon, but from one of their leading Japanese competitors. This came with a brand new memory card, card-reader, case, small tripod, 3-year warranty and cleaning cloth - and, furthermore I got to be served by Plymouth photographer, Suri Murrani, originally from Baghdad. This was an altogether pleasurable experience, and I am happy to draw a line under the whole sorry episode with Nikon GB.

I hope you enjoyed the Grand National!

I hope all of you who were sad enough to watch yesterday's Grand National enjoyed it, and made a lot from your winnings!

I don't suppose, though, that the two poor horses that died during the race found it quite as entertaining - at least they gave their lives for sport, and thus something of little real consequence.

Wouldn't it be lovely to see the jockeys actually run and jump the course, being continually whipped by the horses it they didn't try to kill themselves in the process!

Of course, with a good number of the jockies being of Irish origin, perhaps it wouldn't be that hard to convince them!

Let's ban this terrible spectacle, and complete waste of animal life!

Ant and Dec - One decked, one to go!

There are some things, unfortunately, which, as a member of the general public, you can't really do - even though you'd often like to!

It has always amazed me what people can see in these two people (I can't call them comedians, as Morecambe and Wise would turn in their respective graves!) - I suppose 'presenters' is about all they do. But they're always in your face, always on the box, and as far as I can see, their only 'claim to fame' is their Geordie accents - hardly unique there then, man!

Now The Hairy Bikers, and Alan Shearer, for example, all sport the same dulcet tones - but at least they've got some obvious talents! In the first instance, they're good cooks, and are really funny - in the second, he was a really good footballer.

So when I read that someone had punched the 'Ant' one - I don't know or care which is which above - in a pub - all I could say was, well, it saved me the trouble - or just putting my fist through the TV screen.

Sadly these are just two more cases of genuine non-talent that plague our screens and lives today. Hopefully someone might now follow suit with the other one!

New mobile phone!

As soon as the contract was within 3 months of finishing, I updated my previous mobile phone, and got a new BlackBerry Bold 9780 - what a brilliant phone it is - emails arrive even quicker than they do on my home broadband and everything else works a treat.

Although being wooed by Carphone Warehouse, I eventually went to Phones 4u, where there's an excellent branch in Plymouth, just down from the shopping mall, and where I got a fantastic deal which saw me virtually not having to pay much more a month than I was before, but now enjoying everything the BlackBerry has to offer. I can't recommend Phones 4u too highly!

One consequence of basically continuing my previous contract, was that I retained a limited SMS account, but never going over 300 a month, this was no hardship!

However, on my previous phone, there was a built-in SMS counter, but strangely on the BlackBerry there wasn't one.

But with all the apps now available, I found a 'SMS Counter' which cost just a couple of pounds, and which does the trick.

The only problem is that it doesn't appear exactly as it is advertised, and a couple of its features are not overly clear. As with most things, there is a support service to email, which I have done now, more than once, but with no response. It's not crucial to me, but I've noticed other occasional references to this particular company NOT bothering to reply.

So, just in case you're considering an app from them, bear in mind that their promised support might not materialise.

The company is called GetEmpower - you have been warned!

Caveat emptor! - BT Cordless Phones fail all too easily, it seems!

Let the buyer beware!

I just wanted to share our experience with BT Cordless Phones! I use one in the house, and one in my studio, where the intercom facility is most useful.

The first one I bought was a BT Synergie model - that failed after a year or so. This was then replaced by another BT model, the Studio 1100 - that, too, failed, not long after it was out of warranty.

I know I should have thought twice about replacing this in October 2009 with the new BT 3100 model, but feeling a certain loyalty to BT, I went ahead. That has now failed, too - it's not long out of warranty, but I don't suppose BT will have anything to do with it.

I've since read some reviews, and it seems that people are preferring the models by Siemens etc - which they mention are a 'replacement' for BT ones they'd and, and which had failed.

I did email BT, but am not holding my breath for an answer. I know they're not that expensive, but they still ought to last longer - the original cordless phones did! So, like me, if you're looking for a cordless phone, or pair of them:

DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON BT PRODUCTS! THEY'LL PROBABLY FAIL CONVENIENTLY JUST AFTER THE 1-YEAR WARRANTY!

SIEMENS, on the other hand, is German, I think! That probably tells you something, even if they're both ultimately put together in the Far East!

STOP PRESS: Having had no joy in trying to get a repair/spare part, I went and bought a Siemens (Gigaset) model - what a difference! Not only cheaper. but with a real quality feel, and more facilities.

And yes, I was right! 'Made in Germany' is there for all to see! Far more comforting than 'Made by BT'. I'm just wondering why I stayed loyal to a seemingly dud product for so long!

EXTRA: I did find an excellent firm, actually also situated in Devon, and they supply spare parts for BT and other products. They sent me a new power adapator, which is what had actually gone wrong, and it was pretty cheap, and quick coming. I'd thoroughly recomend them.