Monthly Archives: April 2008

Nokia N810 Ordering

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I’ve ordered my new, shiny N810. Sure it’s cost me £289 quid, which is quite a lot for a portable web browser doodad, but I’ve sold my N800 to my cousin for £100, making it £189. And where did I order this marvel of the modern age from?

Why, PC World in Leeds of course. PC World, that shop of cheap consumer electronics at out of this world prices. It’s partially “must have it now” tech lust, but also the result of ten minutes Internet Shopping. If you use Froogle there are some sites charging a mere £229 for the Nokia N810… but that’s a lie! a dirty lie! It’s the price without VAT and without delivery.

Curiously the cheapest place on the web ends up costing £8 less than PC World by the time you’ve added VAT and £15 delivery. It’s really not worth saving £8 and encountering the hassle of chasing couriers after work to claim new devices from them.

Let’s hope PC World Leeds is just as bored as the ones in Barnsley were. “Here’s your laptop mate, see you”.

Slugs in my house!

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Found this sliding across my carpetWhat the hell! There I was, writing some prattle on the Internet when I heard a strange crunching sound from by my foot. At first I ignored it, then decided to investigate. A few shiny trails on the carpet caught my attention and then I had a major moment of disbelief.

Stuck to the top of the yoghurt carton is a slug. One of those brown ones that live in the garden and eat all your plants. Only it’s not in the garden eating plants, it’s in my house eating a yoghurt carton. It even made weird little chewing noises.

After staring at it in disbelief, having a little rant about it on the Internet I did what any self-respecting person does… whipped out my digital camera and took a picture. The slug is now outside again, I hope it finds plants nicer than plastic.

The weird thing is I can’t see where it came in. The slug trail stops at my settee, it doesn’t go underneath. Now if used car salesmen read this blog, maybe my landlord does too; in which case I also have a loose slate on the roof that needs repairing.

NUT Teacher's Strike

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It’s nice and quiet in here. The school is shut to students, and anyone who’s a member of the NUT are on strike. I’m not an NUT member, so I’m not on strike although I do see why it’s happening. Want to see what we’re griping at? Here’s an Excel spreadsheet explaining how much we get paid… And a small excerpt for those allergic to Excel:

        SEPT 2007 £   SEPT 2008 £   SEPT 2008 £   SEPT 2009 £   SEPT 2010 £
            proposed   if pay had   proposed   proposed
                 matched inflation        
                         
MAIN PAY SCALE
1       20,133   20627   21,607   21,101   21,587
2       21,726   22259   23,315   22,771   23,295
3       23,472   24,048   25,191   24,601   25,167
4       25,278   25,898   27,129   26,494   27,103
5       27,270   27,939   29,267   28,582   29,239
6       29,427   30,148   31,579   30,841   31,551

So as you can see, in six years time I can look forward to earning £30,000 a year before tax.

It’s an INSET day tomorrow that we’re being given back as payment for overtime worked previously in the year. I’m using today to get all my work for next week done, saving me from having to do it tomorrow or at the weekend. I’m having an observation next Wednesday so it’s nice being able to faff about in my classroom sorting out time-consuming things like random piles of paper and junk that accumulates over time.

And for anyone wondering, there wasn’t anything interesting happening outside the school gates. Those that are on strike are simply not here and it’s all calm and quite relaxing really. Bizarrely I seemed to have more time this morning before setting off. I wasn’t in any particular rush and still arrived on time.