Sour Blackberry? Try Orange

No, this blog isn’t about fruit, but phones. This Wednesday, my Blackberry broke. Again! The third time in as many months and with the same problem each time. Thankfully, I have it insured and Orange send out a replacement the very next morning. Now it was getting very frustrating to have the same problem for three times so I asked if I could have a different model. Unfortunately, they could only offer me one different model which was actually larger in size than the one I have now. Most of you will know that Blackberry’s with a full keyboard type pad aren’t the smallest phones available so I didn’t want the different model. Oh well, at least I would get the replacement the next day. I did indeed and to my surprise, Orange sent me new accessories too as well as a memory card by way of apology for the disruption of having so many problems.
However, the problems didn’t finish there. Once I set up the phone I found I couldn’t connect to the internet. I had no idea what to do, so I phoned Orange. A very polite and helpful bloke on the other end of the line talked me through what I needed to do to regain connection. Perfect! A good job done and I was very pleased. After hanging up I then discovered that the email application had disappeared. How frustrating! I wasn’t able to send or receive emails now. One of the main reasons I have a Blackberry. So yet again, another phone call ensued. This time I was greeted by a very polite young lady. I explained the problem and she instantly knew what to do. I removed the files necessary and she some how sent over new replacement ones which appeared on my phone as we spoke. Again problem sorted. So although it was very annoying to have the problems in the first place, the very polite and friendly people at Orange sorted it out no problem. So it just goes to show that not all customer services are rude and unhelpful and it was refreshing to get such a good service from a large company. (Plus it was nice to speak to people without foreign accents you cant understand!)

Also this week, I took part in a golf day at Newmarket golf course. The weather turned out to be pretty good after the deluge we had the previous day, and the company was great. I have never played at Newmarket and it was a very nice course. It was also very interesting that a few of the holes you had to play over the Gallops used by the many Racehorses in Newmarket. Pretty unique!

Sports update now! The rumour is that McLaren might be making a bid for Jenson Button as he is still to settle on terms for a new contract at Brawn. Jenson was being paid £10 million a season whilst with Honda and took an 80% pay cut to drive for Brawn. He now wants to be paid £10 million again. This may seem a lot. But consider he is now the world champion, Kimi Raikkonen gets paid £25m, Fernando Alonso gets £20m and Lewis Hamilton gets £15m. Also a story leaked that Jenson had to wash his own overalls after each race. When he put in the bill to the teams finance department, they refused to pay it! Is money really that tight at Brawn especially as they have a new multi million pound sponsorship deal for next season?

- Jenson Button discusses
washing powder -


On to football. Ipswich conceded a 94th minute equaliser midweek to take their winless streak to 13. To any Liverpool fans reading this, you think you’re having a poor run of form?

I watched the Fulham match against Roma in the UEFA cup. Sorry, Europa league or whatever its called. FIFA are trialling the use of two extra officials to stand on the goal line to watch out for any incidents that the ref needs an opinion on. For example, ball not crossing the line, penalty area fouls etc. 20 minutes from the end, a Fulham player brought down a Roma player on the edge of the six yard box conceding a penalty. Also the player was to be sent of. After a brief discussion between the Ref and the official on the goal line who was less than six yards away, the wrong player was sent off. After much confusion the player who committed the foul had to tell the ref he was the perpetrator and should have got the red card. So the stupid people who thought it would be a good idea to bring in extra officials instead of video technology have proved that it doesn’t work and have built another case for the video replay. When will they understand.

Finally, after the last blog I have a quick beach ball update: Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neil has signed the goal scoring beach ball as a replacement for Emile Hesky. In a recent press interview O’Neil was asked if the rumour that the ball was being paid £50k a week was true. To which O’Neil replied, ‘Of course not. It’s just hot air!’