New Gloves
I’m still loving the new bike, but I’m still getting used to the new riding position - whereby I’m less upright than on the old bike. And because of it, I’m supporting more weight on my hands, which has caused a bit of pain in my palms and numbness in my fingers on longer rides.
So I read that new gloves might help relieve the pressure, and so ordered some Chiba Comfort Gel Mitts. I’ve been using them for about a week now, and the difference is huge. I haven’t done any long rides yet (about the longest so far was about 5km) this week, but I can tell that the new gloves are really helping. There’s no sign of numbness, and the pain in my palms is much reduced.
Of course I’ve also read that hand pain can also be caused by a badly adjusted bike seat, so I may have to talk to the folks in my local bike shop to get some advice on how to change it.
May 20, 2010
Utterly Pathetic and Crap (UPC)
Whenever anyone asks me about my experience of getting TV and Broadband from UPC, I always tell them one thing: the service is great if you just set it up and leave it, but if you try to change anything they will make an utter mess of it. And true to form, they’ve done it again.
A couple of months ago I switched my current account to a new bank, and as part of the switching process the old bank notifies every company that takes a direct debit from me of the new account details. Now for every other company I deal with this worked fine. They received the details, changed the direct debit mandate, and took payment from my new account. But not UPC it seems.
The usual April payment didn’t come out of my account, but I was reassured by a text message form UPC saying that a double payment would instead be taken from my account in May. So I naturally thought they have received the new account details, but hadn’t managed to set them up in time for the April billing cycle. And so I waited. But then I got another text message a couple of days ago saying that I need to update my Direct Debit details online. So I dutifully logon, and give them the same details as supplied about a month ago.
But then I get a phone call this morning from the UPC credit control department, demanding immediate payment over the phone. They say that there’s no Direct Debit set up on my account, and that they will not set it up until I pay not only the April payment, but the May payment too (which isn’t even due yet). I ask them to simply collect this money by Direct Debit as per their original text, but they refuse to do so, saying that they can only set up Direct Debit mandates for accounts that have a zero balance. And they refuse to acknowledge they they’ve messed up at all. In their eyes it’s all my fault that the April’s Direct Debit was rejected, and further that I should have been in touch to rectify the situation, despite the reassuring text message suggesting that it’s all in hand.
So anyway, I eventually agreed to settle the balance owed over the phone, and gave them my card details - only to be told that they don’t accept Visa Debit card. I must provide either a Credit Card or Laser card for payments over the phone. But they do tell me I can pay by Visa Debit online, although I should select ‘Laser’ when I make the payment - but this turns out to be a lie, as they don’t accept Visa Debit online either.
Halifax Ireland to close
The Royal Bank of Scotland (Ireland), and their retail division, Halifax, are radically restructuring their banking business over the next few months. Around 750 bank workers are losing their jobs in the republic as part of the changes.
The bank are also withdrawing entirely from retail banking, so that all customers of the Halifax will need to move their current accounts, savings accounts and credit cards to alternative banks by the end of May 2009. All branches of the Halifax will also close. Mortgage customers can maintain their home loan until it is paid off if they want, but no new loans will be offered.
Rothar
If you’re in the market for a second-hand bicycle, need some bike repair training, or even just need some space and tools to do some repairs, then Rothar is for you.
Situated on the Phibsborough Road D7, they are a community project that takes donated old bikes (as well as abandoned bikes from around the city) and renovates them in their workshop; selling them on second-hand at a very reasonable price.
I really love the concept, because it promotes recycling and reuse, sustainable transport, and community-based education.
I just wish my new bike would hurry up and arrive in the shop, so that I can donate my existing ride to the project.
St Ann's Dawson Street - Choir Auditions
The Church of Ireland parish of St Ann’s, Dawson Street, Dublin 2 are inviting singers of all parts to audition for the church choir.
St Ann’s employs a professional chamber choir to sing it’s Sunday morning service. The choir sings a broad repertoire of traditional Anglican church music at the alternating Eucharist and Matins services on Sundays at 10.45am.
Ideal candidates will have experience of singing in a church choir, have a committed attitude towards the choir, have good sight-reading ability, and a voice that blends well in a small ensemble.
Auditions will take place on the afternoon of Sunday 21st March. Please contact the Director of Music, Charles Marshall, for details of the audition process and renumeration level.
Email: tcmcharlie@gmail.com Phone: 087 975 2017
Mornington Singers - Charity Christmas Concert
The Mornington Singers, the Dublin based award winning Chamber Choir and conductor Orla Flanagan are delighted this year to present their Christmas concert, Britten’s Ceremony of Carols and other seasonal favourites:
- Praetorius-Sandstrom - Es ist ein Ros entsprungen
- Tavener - The Lamb / God Is With Us
- Poston - Jesus Christ the Apple Tree
- Lauridsen - O Magnum Mysterium
- Maxwell Davies - O Magnum Mysterium
The concert will take place on Saturday 12th December at 8pm in the Pro-Cathedral Marlborough Street. Tickets are priced at €15 / €10 concessions. Tickets are available at the door.
Dublin Cycling Websites
A collection of web sites that are useful to cyclists in Dublin and the rest of Ireland:
- Cycling in Dublin - City of Dublin cycling portal, with bike route maps and a facility to suggest and vote for new cycle parking stands.
- Dublin Bikes - the bike sharing scheme with 40 rental stations around the city centre.
- Dublin Cycling Campaign - representing the interests of everyday cyclists.
- National Bike Week - which ran from 14-21st June 2009, and organised a load of biking events,
- Smarter Travel - Department of Transport site outlining sustainable transport plans, including the National Cycle Policy Framework.
- Bike to Work - details of the government’s tax-efficient scheme allowing staff to purchase new bikes for commuting to work through their employer.
Lower Estimations
We don’t often get anyone knocking on the door. We’re in what I like to call a “gated community” - in that an electronic fob is required to get through the gate into the grounds of the apartments, and again to get into the lift/stairs - and so visitors have to call on the intercom or phone when they arrive, to be let in.
And so, when there was a knock on the door earlier today, I assumed it must be one of our neighbours. But no - it was a salesman - and he must have persuaded one of the other residents to let him in. I’ve flatly refused to let other salespeople into the apartments in the past, as I hate the concept of being doorstepped with a hard sell.
Anyway, so this guy was from Airtricity, and he was trying to persuade me to switch electricity suppliers to them. He asked if I had a recent electricity bill that I could show them, and he would explain how much money I could save. I declined, but he kept talking, trying to persuade me to play along - reminding me why I hate this kind of selling.
The thing is, I’d been considering moving my supply to Airtricity anyway, as they have the cheapest prices on the market at the moment, and are a good way for eco-agnostics like myself to feel a bit better about saving the planet, without any of the down sides of being properly green (such as putting in any effort). I even had the company’s website loaded up on one of my browser tabs. But this recent visitation has put me right off the company, and I may well end up going with Bord Gais instead, just on principal.
Time for a new bike?
My bicycle is broken, again.
On my ride home from work today I heard a distinctly loud clunk, and stopped to find that the rear wheel was way out of line and rubbing against the brakes and frame. And at first thought, I guessed it must be a broken spoke or two, but I checked them and they all seemed fine. So I looked a bit more, and eventually spotted the wheel axle itself was broken. A disc of metal had broken off, and all this lubricant stuff was leaking out, and you could see the ball bearings popping out.
It’s yet another repair that I have to deal with. The bike itself was pretty cheap - but with the amount of money I’ve spent on it since then, replacing and repairing various bit, I’ve probably doubled the original outlay. And there’s only so long that I’ll be prepared to throw good money after bad.
I had been pondering the idea of a new bike for a few of weeks anyway, and I guess today’s problem is helping to focus my mind. I have an idea about the kind of bike I want to get, and I’m rather hoping that my employer with embrace the Irish government’s Bike to Work tax-efficient scheme, as it would give me a significant discount.
And until I decide whether to go for a new bike, I’m rather loathed to get the old one fixed. After all, I sense this repair might cost a few quid, and if I then tried to sell the bike on second-hand, I doubt that I’d get that money back. And so, I guess I’m back to being a pedestrian again for a few days.
iPhone 3.0.1 Jailbreak
I decided to spend a bit of time last night jailbreaking my iPhone, using this tutorial on the Gizmodo website - and it all worked perfectly (although one bit missing in the instrucutions is that when the phone says it is “waiting for restart”, you may need to unplug and replug the cable to prompt it onto the next step).
It’s not that I’m particularly interested in installing dozens of unauthorised applications. Indeed, I’m quite happy with all the legit applications I’ve downloaded from the iTunes store. I did the jailbreak in order to unlock the phone and allow me to use another network’s SIM, ahead of an upcoming trip to the UK.
I’ve been stung quite badly in the past by data roaming charges. In one case last year, I had a similar trip to the UK for a week, and while there made only light use of the phone, but still managed to run up a staggering €160 of data roaming charges - based upon a cost of about €5 per megabyte. And although O2 Ireland have improved things slightly since then (you now only get charged for the first 4 megabytes each day while roaming - but still at €5 per megabyte - so a potential of €20 a day), I was still looking at a potential bill of well over €100 worth of data charges if I wanted to use data.
This is in contrast to the domestic data charges of an operator such as Orange, who charge a maximum of £2 per day for up to 25 megabytes usage - and that’s on their prepaid tariff.
And so it was pretty-much a no-brainer, in term of deciding whether or not to get my iPhone unlocked. I’m going to be saving a fortune while I’m away - and as I’ll have my UK SIM in the iPhone, I’ll not have to carry two phones around with me.
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