Been a little more stressful over the last few days, although I usually do my best to not allow the outside world to notice when I'm stressed. (The signs are usually me trying to stretch my back as it tenses up)
Couple of changes but mostly annual milestones getting passed.
One source of frustration over the last few months has been the satellite tv reception. As someone addicted to Input (as well as coffee and chocolate), I miss not being able to watch the stuff I want to watch. Plus there's the frustration of being prevented from doing something you want to do, due to mechanical or electrical mishap. Ok, in the case of the satellite, it's actually an agricultural mishap :-) due to the tree at the bottom of the garden blocking the signal. That's what I reckon has been going on, although I can't test it until I hook my skybox to someone else's dish.
So that's the first change, a bit of a mercy killing for the skybox. Oh, I also got two letters through the post today. The first was trying to get me to reactivate the repair plan for Sky, the second was acknowledging that I'd cancelled that plan. Left Hand vs Right Hand ?
All this meant I was a happy geek yesterday, tinkering with the new toy (Virgin V+ box) while watching England batter the West Indies in the cricket.
What's the verdict on the Virgin system ? Got to say, there's not actually that much useful information on their website. I had to go to wikipedia to find out how much recording capacity the box had. Well - coming from Sky Plus satellite, I've noticed :
Sharper picture. Things like being able to see a line around the box with the cricket score in it. Same telly, same SCART lead, different signal source. Could be because my Skybox was clapped out.
Skyplus is a friendlier system to operate - the menus are faster and smoother.
Recorded stuff planner. Again, Skyplus is better here, simply because it has oldest at the top. So you know what to watch first. Not usually much sense watching episode 5 before episode 1.
Tuners - Skyplus has 2, V+ has 3. Record 2 things, watch another.
HD ready - I'm still waiting for my TV to quit on me but it'll be good to be able to plug a new one up to the box in time. Sky either do normal TV or HD, the V+ is one box doing both. It ain't 1080p though, either 1080i or 720p.
On demand TV - Sky has Multistart but a satellite system just can't compete with cable for true On Demand. Managed to watch the first two episodes of Dexter season 3, which were amongst the victims of my clapped out Skybox.
Milestone 1 was performance appraisal, which comes around every year. I'm seen as fairly efficient at work (and do nothing to counter that notion, if "do nothing" is the right phrase !) but it's always a worry in case there's a surprise coming. I get on pretty well with my boss, 2nd RO and the blokes in charge of them and manage my work activities quite professionally. Although I could do with working on my absent mindedness, which can lead to me forgetting to do stuff.
And the second milestone is the one that was causing the most stress. One thing guaranteed every year is that I'll leave the MoT test for the car as late as possible. Well, it would have run out tomorrow, so I'm actually a little earlier than I have been in the past. The Focus I bought last year has done pretty well so far, the only sign of trouble was the brake warning light coming on. I put that down to a faulty sensor being loose, as the feedback from the car was :
Solid brake pedal - so no issues with low or poor brake fluid
Excellent braking performance - so I had brakes on all 4 wheels
Straight line braking - same with the potential of bad brakes
Trusty handbrake
Warning signs should be kept an eye on but sometimes it's a false alarm. And I've not seen that red light when I shouldn't have for a few months now. The MoT tester guy didn't spot anything wrong with the brakes today. Nothing wrong with anything actually, except for the trim thing I'm not fixing for superstitious reasons.
Every car has at least one problem - I'm very happy for that problem to be a bit of badly fitting trim :-) Much better that than the absent handbrake of the Puma.
Right - back to what I've been doing since I got bored with IPL cricket, book + music :-)
PS Last milestone - it's gotten warm enough that the butter is starting to spread easily. That's an important milestone for me each year, cos it means I can have buttery toast for breakfast. Or should that be toast with my butter ...
Here in Ontario, they have something called DriveClean which ensures cars don't spew more pollutants into the atmosphere than they absolutely must.
ReplyDeleteYou're obligated to have such a test every couple of years, and they're nice enough to tie it to your plate registration - which is equally conveniently connected to your birthday.
So....on your birthday, you must pay for DriveClean, pray the car makes it through, then pay for your new plates. Happy b-day from your government...now pay up :)
(Thankfully, everything was perfect this year. The wondervan performed as new. Whew!)
I think we may have that too, although it's not given a name ...
ReplyDeleteEvery year, UK cars over 3 years old need to take the MoT (Ministry of Transport) Test, which checks all points for roadworthiness. Things like :
Brake condition, tyre condition
Body condition (rust)
Pipes & hoses & bulbs
All sorts - one relatively new thing is emissions ... If the engine's not too healthy then it'll get picked up on that.
Different name, similar test :-) Bit more discreet though, we need insurance and a valid MoT to get our tax discs, which is a 2 inch thing posted in the windscreen.