I have been looking for a new office in Sanbach for about a month now.

I’m just tired of driving 30+ miles every day to Manchester, just to then have to tackle one of the worst car parks I have even seen, when i used to live 4 miles from work, it used to take me longer to park, than to drive there.

Anyway, I found a nice office a mile from home, even has canal views and all .. but like everything else in Britain when it comes to business … nothing comes easy.

At around the 12th of last month I made an offer for the office and it was accepted, I explained the realtor I need to be in by July 1st (who by the way SUCKS .. Butters John Bee .. worst realtor I even dealt with, the are slow slow slow, and didn’t even remember at the beginning they represented suck offices in Sandbach to lease …)

So they tell me .. “no problem”, “we will send out for some references and draft the contract”.

They sent for the reference, got them back, never acted on it, I had to constantly call and push them to get anything done, then comes June 30th .. and still no contract.

Since I had had it with them, I decided to track down the building owner .. which I did, only to find out he is in the process of selling the office building and no new leases can be drafted.

So the realtor had kept me on the dark, and July 1st came and I had no office, I called them furious, ad after a ton of apologies from them, they promised to get me in there ASAP.

But why could they have not told me this weeks ago, I would have planned for it, I dont understand the ideology behind it, didn’t they knew July 1st come and I would be knocking on the door ?

Anyway, my problem is, there is no other offices in Sandbach which meet my requirements like those, I could get a place in Crewe, but I want a local office so I can ride my bike to work on good days, so the closer the better.

So now I am waiting for the new owner to pay the old, so we can proceed with the Lease .. sheesh …

Technorati Tags: Work, SandBach

Popularity: 16% [?]

I was working at home today, when the wife called me and said she had an accident with the 500 quid Merc.

My mother (folks are visiting) was with her, after I accessed that everybody was OK, I proceeded to yell at her over the phone for not being careful

She had the accident on one of those country roads between Sandbach and Macclesfield .. so she could not tell me where she was, eventually somebody from the other vehicle got on the phone and explained it to me.

I preceded to drive there, and was quite literally furious, I only have 3rd party insurance, and since she told me it was her fault, I knew I was in for a big bill.

She had hit a small bus/motorhome, by the time I got there it was gone, so was the police, the car had some damage to the front right side, if it was a new car, it would be fine, but such an old car, is just not worthwhile to fix.

To add insult to injury, the owner of the motorhome was on his way home fror the paintshop, he just had it re-painted.

So I’ll be putting it on ebay, see if I can get some money for it, damage is just superficial and to the front-right lights .. there is some frame damage, mostly a rusted area that split (under the bonnet) .. but it’s still drivable.

A friend of mine (Chris) did sent me this as a reminder it could have been allot worst.

Technorati Tags: Accident, Mercedes, Wife, SandBach

Popularity: 15% [?]

Today was the spooky 6-6-6 day, supposedly the “devil’s day”

Fortunately it was a good day for me, my folks arrived from the Azores to visit, they had a nice flight (no plane crashes, no doomsday), the sun was shining, the highway was not congested, and the kids somewhat behaved.

I even got a nice surprised, I found out one of the guys on yaxay.com was the one that had register relio.co.uk (wich I been wanting to get for a while) and was willing to let it go for a tenner (10£)

If this was the devil’s day, maybe I am the devil ?

Technorati Tags: 666

Popularity: 14% [?]

I have been chasing a bargain for a while now, and I finally found it.

I was very keen on the 42PD6600 because of how it looked, I know for some people it’s Ugly, for me, it’s perfect, it’s color matches my fireplace style, and on my house, a silver TV would just look alien.

But allot of people at the AVForums.com recommended against it, it was a hit or miss, if you got one that worked, they are great, otherwise, they start giving problems and it’s back and forth to the repair shop.

It was nice, but once again, the silver on it was a bit much, but I knew the speakers could come off, so with Richer Sounds advertising it for 1299£ .. I was a few hours away from getting one, when somebody offered me a 42PD6600 ex currys demo for … 650£
I drove over and they had 2 of them, the seller had bought a lot of Curry’s ex demo TV’s .. mostly missing parts, the two 6600’s he had where both missing the floor-stand and the remotes .. but hey, 650£ .. but even a bargain ca be expensive if it’s crap, I turned them both on, and the image was perfect, even on composite, so I loaded it up, ordered the remote online for 14.99 (arrived today), got a tilting wall-mount for 38£ and for less than 700£ I now have a nice HD capable TV on my living-room

since this was a demo, and seems to have been on for a while, I am going to assume any problems would have shown by now ..
I dont understand why people knock it down, it’s a terrific TV and the quality is outstanding, I’ happy .. just wished he had not sold the other already, or it would have gone to my bedroom
some pics, still sorting the cabling, but it’s getting there, next step is to get a 360 with component output.

The pictures dont make it justice, especially with the flash :p

Technorati Tags: 42PD6600, Hitachi, Plasma, TV

Popularity: 15% [?]

What a crappy day, the wife went to B&Q with the kid son the Merc, on the way home she ran out of Petrol (how the heck you miss your fuel gauge on red is beyond me), so she called me to come and help, but had no clue were she was.

After I instructed her to check TomTom (GPS), I had an idea of where I could find them, so I went to a Petrol station, bought a container, 5 liters of Petrol and I was on my way.

By the time I arrived there, she had killed the battery as well, and better yet, as she opened the sunroof a fuse blew, so the sunroof was stuck open.

So now I have Petrol, but no battery, I told them to go home on my car and decided to call the AA (same as USA AAA) and wait for a Jump.

They told me 90 minutes, which by itself was already allot longer than the promised 1 hour or less you get when you buy into membership, I was wondering if I should just call the wife and have her buy a set of jump cables and come back, I decided to just wait.

After 30 minutes, it started to rain Hale .. just my luck, as the sunroof was stuck open, I quickly improvised by using a dry cleaning bag to prevent the Hale and rain to come in, but I had to sit there with my hands holding the bag so it did not flew away .. by this time i am cursing up a storm.

When the rain subsided for a while, I quickly went to the fuse box under the bonnet, replaced the blow fuse with one of the others, closed the sunroof and returned the fuse to it’s original place .. at lest now I could wait and be Dry ..

After 90 minutes, i got a call form the AA saying they were late, not happy, but still I was now comfortable (mercs are incredibly confy, even old ones) .. it was raining, so I just decided t take a nap
Eventually they arrived after 3 hours, the AA driver was asking me to put in a complaint, as this was too long of a wait, I just wanted ot get the hell out of there.

After a jump and some extra Petrol, the Merc was running like new once again, great car, but it managed to wreck my Sunday.

Then again, I did manage to get a nap and had some quiet time to myself

Technorati Tags: AA, Breakdown, Mercedes

Popularity: 14% [?]

Now that we moved to the new house, I needed a second car more than ever, my job is 25 miles away, so when I leave in the AM, the wife has no car to do the school run

I was all set to buy a SAAB 9-3 Convertible, but the tough of getting in debt hunted me (we worked hard to be debt free), so I decided to get a cheap banger instead.

And here he is, my 500 Quid (well, it was actually 550£) Mercedes-Benz

I always wanted a Mercedes …

Technorati Tags: Mercedes, Car

Popularity: 14% [?]

I’m going North on the M6 this morning, when the traffic starts to slow down, after a while of 20MPH speed I notice that for the past mile or two there has been no cars on the southbound lanes, it was quite eery .. a few minutes later I discover why, this car/trailer was overturned in the middle of the Motorway and the cops were not allowing any traffic by

What amazed me is that the car and trailer are pointing North in the Southbound lane, so not only the trailer overturned, it skid around 180 degrees.

I was swearing for not having my camera with me, when I remembered the phone also takes pictures
The people from the car were on the side of the road and looked unhurt.

Technorati Tags: Accident, M6, Motorway, RV

Popularity: 34% [?]

It’s official, starting today I am in debt up to my ears, but I am also a homeowner in the UK.

We got the keys to our new home in Sandbach at 5:00 PM EST, we then took a drive to the property to check how the old owners left it, we were pleased, they removed everything they had to and didn’t left a mess to clean up.

My Co-Workers are actually amazed a the speed and efficiency of our purchase experience, 2 other people in the office bought properties the past month, and their experience was allot worst than mine, actually, I cant fault mine at all, I kept bugging the solicitors to get moving, and they did .. so it pays to be a pain i guess
We wont be moving until the 1st of April, we decided to install new carpets and paint some of the rooms in the house first, this way when we move in, we dont have to mess around with furniture in order to pain and re-carpet.

This is the second house we own, the first was a pre-fab in Florida, which was 1/13th of the price of this one (yeah .. split this house price by 13 .. thats what we paid for our Florida one), house prices in the UK are insane .. but what can you do, one needs a place to cal home.

And the amazing thing is, this is the North of england, where housing is actually cheaper .. this place down South and you can double the price… ouch.

But hey, we are ecstatic, we have a place of our own, on a great and safe community, were we can raise our kids and hopefully, just be happy

Technorati Tags: Cheshire, Family, House, SandBach

Popularity: 25% [?]

I have since received a new Jasjar from Mobile Fun, and it’s much better.

But I still find that sometimes when browsing on 3G or picking up mail, it will fail due to weak signals .. I assume the O2 3G network is just not that great right now, I have turned 3G off and enable GPRS Only .. and sure enought, it works fine, ALL the time .. yes, it’s not 3G speed, but I dont need it to check e-mails .. GPRS suits me just fine.

If I am ever using it to connect with my MAC t the web, then I look for a strong 3G signal and enable it ..

I have also installed TOMTOM 5.1 with a Bluetooth GPS receiver … and I am loving it .. you never realize how much you need a Sat Nav until you get one.

My last beef with it i sometimes I find the volume on the headset can be a little low during calls, even at the max volume, but I am ordering a Bluettoth headset, hope that solves that last hurdle.

Technorati Tags: Jasjar, O2, XDA Exec

Popularity: 21% [?]

Today I am “sick as a dog” .. now, I hardly ever seen a sick dog, so I don’t understand were the term comes from.

Whatever the term, I feel like shit .. my daughters have been sick, and I got whatever both of them had, doubled, and with a vengeance .. my throat hurts,, I got a high fever, I pulled a muscle on my neck from coughing and blowing my nose … and I literally “look like shit” also :p

So I stay home from work today, no sense in going there and getting the other guys sick as well.

I need to get my tonsils removed, they are so prone to infection, and every time I get a small cold, they make it even worst.

Technorati Tags: Sick

Popularity: 19% [?]