New grounds and new phone!

So the phone came through!! It's very similar in look to my old K810i which is good as its familiar in the way it runs. It looks slightly sharper. Its nice to have the torch function that the K810i didnt have as well as all the extra features...

So at first the internet was very slow and Google maps had been taken off (for some strange reason) by o2, so I wasn't happy! But I then went online and went to www.GetJar.com (wap.GetJar.com from your mobile) and downloaded Google Maps which works perfectly and also downloaded an internet browser called Opera Mini and its so much faster and shows the full internet instead of the old compressed mobile version of old. I also downloaded eBuddy which means you can use MSN or Facebook Chat on your mobile - its actually so much more reliable than Facebook Chat on your PC! I also, and you'll love this, downloaded the Bible to my mobile!! All of this was free. So for the moment, after 24 hours, I love my phone.

So in the past 4 days I've been to 3 new grounds. Firstly Pilkington XXX, it's my local club. They were playing Cadbury Athletic in the FA Vase and XXX won it 2-1. The ground was old and cute, it has a stand of 50 seats and 3 stone steps that go most of the way round the ground. Next up for the me was Sutton Coldfield Town on the Tuesday night. They played Halesowen Town in the League Cup and guess what... it went to penalties! Halesowen scored a 30 yard screamer, one of the best goals I've ever seen, had their goalkeeper sent off and still won it!! The ground was alright, plenty of covered terracing, small stand and a nice tea bar. My final ground was Aston Villa FC for the League Cup clash against QPR. Only 21,000 in that night to see QPR cause an upset. So that puts me on 133 grounds. I reckon I'll surpass 150 by the end of the season, that's unless I became settled at a club.

Phones 4 me!

Ok, so some of you will know that I recently upgraded my phone to an iPhone, I was on a £35 a month contract (600 mins anytime, 500 texts, unlimited internet) but had to go to a £45 a month contract (1200 mins, 500 texts, unlimited internet) to get it free...

At first I loved it. I loved the way that you could have full internet, access to email, a gps system (very helpful to find things like you local HSBC etc), an iPod and other such fun things. But after a week I noticed a few things that I really didn't like. So here's the list: you can't bluetooth anything to any other phone or computer; the camera is poor at 2 megapixels and doesnt record video or have flash; you cant forward text messages and when writing texts you have no way of knowing if youve gone into a 2nd message; you cant have songs as ringtones, only ones downloaded from itunes; and also the battery life is extremely poor which is hardly surprising considering what it does.

So I sent it back, saying I wasn't happy with it. o2 were fine with it. So the search for a new phone began and I came across a very good review of the Samsung Omnia which is very similar to the iPhone but it also does the basics very well. Happy in my choice I phoned o2 who then told me that they don't offer that phone! I guess it isn't that surprising seeing as its the most similar to the iPhone. Vodafone offered that phone and a pretty good contract with it for £35 a month (600 mins anytime, unlimited texts and internet). So that's better than my existing contract and it offers the phone I want. So I then phoned o2 AGAIN and they did the usual blurb and I then said I wanted to end my contract at which point things changed. I got put through to the retention department and they offered me a similar contract (600 mins, 1000 texts and unlimited internet) for just £20 a month! The different phones they offered for that price were the o2 XDA Ignito, Blackberry 8310, Nokia 6220 and the Sony Ericsson C702. I looked at all of them and the winner was the Sony Ericsson c702.

So I'd say that its well worth phoning around and seeing what deals are out there with whatever phones. I think I've done pretty well out of it. Looking forward to the phone turning up now. Remember though, it was only when I said I was disconnecting that they offered me the great deal at £20 a month.

A new era.

It's been since November since I last blogged. That's quite a while. Probably a big part of me blogging again is because I often want to say more in my facebook status than I really can, so thought I'd ramble on here again!

So I'm now living in Birmingham. Got a shared house with Tim and Will in Selly Oak and it's a pretty good house at a pretty good price. I'm working for YFC as the West Midlands Sports Development Officer. I'm also about to start studying for a Masters in Sport & Christian Outreach. Quite amazing how things can change in a year!! My car died after a year, which is good for me, and I'm waiting to get a new one. Still single, which is good. I'm not playing football at the moment due to moving to a new era but hope that will change. Also now been to 131 football grounds.

So we shall see if I actually continue to blog. I think I may.