The memory's the first to go...

Forgot one event of interest and one random conversation from the past week.

Event - met up with Gareth and went along to pub quiz at the Prince Regent in Herne Hill last week. I felt a little rusty having not been at any sort of quiz in easily a year. Have to say this was reflected in the very few things I actually knew (notably the chemical symbol for Ozone and the name of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' nemesis) but in spite of my poor contribution we still WON! And walked away with a handy £45 apiece in prize money.

Am worried that the precedent thus set might be a bit too ambitious for future attempts, but will worry about it if we ever go again.

Conversation - rang up Orange yesterday morning in order to get some sort of code which would allow me to switch network providers but still keep my phone number. I have been pretty much forced to do this because Orange provides no coverage for my phone in the new flat and in order to get reception I have to dangle out of the kitchen window. And while it provides a mildly amusing mental picture, that sort of thing's simply not convenient on what we might call a regular basis.

Needless to say the process of getting through to someone who could help me with this need was quite involved and required a lot of 'if you require this, press one', 'if you require that press two' etc. Once I finally got through and explained to them that I had no reception in my house and that I needed the PAC code, I got transferred to some guy who then launched off on a giant spiel about all the good deals I could get from Orange, the number of free minutes and text messages a month I could have and why Orange is the best mobile service provider on the face of God's green earth.

I let him stop for breath before reminding him that the reason I was choosing to stop using Orange was not price related but because all the free minutes in the world are no use at all when you HAVE NO COVERAGE.

To which he said, in a tone of utter contempt, 'you have no coverage AT ALL?'. I got the feeling it was only by a thin thread that he was avoiding telling me I should clearly just move house.