O2 Are Idiots

I used O2 for years when I lived in the UK. The service was never great, but you put up with it, because the only real alternative is going to the hassle of moving networks, simply to receive the same shit treatment from someone else. I figured I was simply choosing to settle for the best of the worst. However, when I was thinking about moving to Ireland last summer, I was quite happy that I had decided to keep with O2, as the company also has a phone network in Ireland, and I thought that I would be able to simply keep my contract, with all the perks I had accrued over the years, and hop across the water. This was not the case.

Speaking to O2 over the phone a couple of months before going over to Ireland, it became clear that I would be unable to simply swap my contract over to the Irish network, although everyone I spoke to was either unwilling or unable to tell me why this was. In the end, I simply accepted it. However, whilst browsing the O2 website in desperation a little closer to the time of leaving , I noticed that one of the bolt-ons that the company offered was one called 'IRELAND', which allowed you to use your phone in Ireland on the Irish O2 network for the same cost as you were using it in the UK. Perfect! Or so you'd think. First I tried to apply this bolt-on to my account via text, but kept getting the message back that my attempt had failed. So I called O2 to get it applied, but was told that I was 'ineligible' for the bolt-on. Why, you may ask: the answer is that I did not live in Northern Ireland! Ah, of course, how silly of me to assume that people living in Scotland might want to travel to Ireland too! 

Okay then, I said to myself, time to simply cancel the contract and get a new one sorted in Ireland, I said to O2. Certainly sir, that will be a tidy sum of £200. 

WHAT?!

Little did I realise that when I initially phoned up to try and move the contract, by reviewing the terms of that contract, I was signing up for another 12 MONTHS! This was all due to be paid to O2 (who I have since been calling Owe2, but no-one seems to have noticed), BEFORE I could cancel my contract. When asked if there was anything I could do? Well sir, you can pay the lump sum off now, or simply pay in monthly installments. Well then, I think I'll pay in installments thanks.

So I moved to Ireland, got a GREAT deal with Meteor, but still had to pay 25 quid a month to O2, for the privilege of having once been a customer of theirs. Like a fool, I took this treatment for a while, until around October, when, hard up as I was at the time, I simply decided to cancel the direct debit, to see what happened. The first bill came in, then the second,  totalling 50 pounds. But then the third bill came in in December, and it seemed this time I actually only owed them £36! Money had been subtracted from my bill! Well, this is very generous of O2, I thought to myself, so let's leave it another month and see if the amount goes down again. Alas, I didn't hear anything from O2 for a while, until today I received a letter, telling me that as I had been unable to reach an agreement with the debt collections agency (I put this lack of agreement down simply to a lack of contact with me!) they were beginning to file legal proceedings in order to reclaim their £36! 

As much fun as a day in court in order for me to simply pay £36 at the end of it would have been, I decided to pay off what I owed O2. I'd love to say I'd never go anywhere near them again, but that shiny iPhone keeps dragging me back in. One of these days, I'll be back, but I promise you this: I won't enjoy a single minute of it...

Mission Statement

Afternoon! Well, happily I have something new to write. I have dabbled with this blog in the past, but through a series of strange coincidences, I have ended up with a job title that includes the word ‘blogger’. As soon as this hit home, I realised that I probably needed to start keeping my own personal blog again, if for nothing else then for a bit of practice. I’ve always felt strangely at home in the blogosphere, even if I didn’t always feel the need to contribute vastly to it. However, let me assure you that I am not being thrust back into the world of writing completely against my will. Allow me, if you will, to explain.

Until the end of January, I was working for the sprawling, demanding and not always particularly personable company that is known as Amazon. After my temporary contract there was made even more temporary, I was forced to reconsider my career. This (and believe me here) is still being considered, but whilst this navel-gazing and afternoon-napping that is more commonly known as unemployment is still really just a novelty to me at the moment, I was made one of those offers that you just can’t refuse. It was an offer to become a part of the Blue Bus Experience. So I hopped on board.

Now if you intend to read this blog regularly, you will learn more and more about the Blue Bus Experience as it develops. Suffice it to say, its creator intends it to be, and I quote, “the world’s greatest travel experience provider.” After an initial meeting, where I babbled about the online potential for his company, I then proceeded to spout a lot of words that he’d never heard before. In said creator’s mind, this not only rammed home the fact that I was significantly younger than him, but also revealed to him a whole new, hidden world: the world of the blogosphere. He was excited enough by this world to ask me to document the various challenges and successes we will be having over the coming months, whilst we go about creating the Blue Bus Experience. And you, my friends, will be able to read all about it here, and also on our soon-to-be-created website (more details to follow). 

You will also, no doubt, be coming back here for the other little things I have to offer. I like to write, and to take photos. I also watch a lot of films and listen to a lot of bands, and I fully intend to be writing about all of these things, in no particular order. So I invite you to stay tuned. 

Thanks for reading, and welcome again,

Karim.

The Dubliner

Still in Dublin, enjoying these last few days of (relative) freedom before the REAL hard work starts. Not exactly what you'd call a relaxing sunday though - my girlfriend, S, is slaving over her drawing board, and I'm reading a book on Kant's aesthetic theory of nature, desperately trying to find some nuggets of wisdom for the old dissertation. The Masquerade Ball we went to on tuesday was really fun. It was in the Royal College of Physicians - very swanky. About 200 people were there, looking stylish in black tie. I took lots of photos with my new Holga, but haven't had them developed yet as the place where I normally get 120 film developed in Ireland has to send away to have black and white films developed, which strikes me as a little ridiculous, but never mind. I'm popping back to good old England for a few days this week before heading back to Edinburgh for the final straight of study, so hopefully I'll get them developed there, and when I do, I'll pop them up right away. In lieu of swanky ball photos though, here's another one I took in Dublin with my Diana - it's of the food market in Temple Bar's meeting house square. The square itself is filled with cool places - The Irish Film Institute and the Dublin Gallery of Photography, as well as some lovely restaurants. To top this off, every saturday there's an amazing food market, filled with Ireland's best offerings - from oysters to pies, vegetarian nibbles to sushi, and whenever we're in town we always pop down to grab some al fresco lunch. You should try it out sometime. 

Hibernophilia

I'm in Dublin this week for a masquerade ball that's happening tomorrow night. Bought myself a Holga at the weekend as well, I've already been playing with it a bit, so stay tuned for the results. It's a gorgeous day here, but I'm stuck inside working on my dissertation. On the bright side, in a month's time I won't have to worry about my degree any more, because I'll be finished! Hope you like the picture, it was taken in early spring from the Halfpenny Bridge in Dublin looking west. Ah, I love this country.

Analogue Epiphany

My discovery of film photography has been a relatively recent one; although in my younger years, before the prevalence of digital cameras, my parents had used film cameras, by the time it came to getting my first camera it seemed folly to go with anything but digital. And there's a lot to be said for digital photography - it's a whole new art form, if you will. My art teacher at school used to wax lyrical on this subject whenever he was given a chance, and it was really him that stopped me from even thinking about experimenting with film: there's a lot to be said for viewing your pictures the instant they've been taken, deleting them if they don't suit; the ability to take 300+ photos without having to have a lorry filled with film follow you about; and of course, the fact that if you want, you never have to pay to have a single film developed.

But my girlfriend bought me a lomo camera (a Diana+) for Christmas last year. From the first time I picked up this plastic beauty, I knew something had changed for me. There was no 3 inch LCD screen to show me what I was shooting - there was no way to delete a shot if it didn't go the way I wanted - and my telephoto lens had been replaced by a chunk of clear plastic! But I wasn't intimidated - I was excited. When you're so used to the comforts of digital photography - the knowledge that even if your shot isn't great, you can download it and fiddle around with it on photoshop till the cows come home - getting used to the idea that every time you snap that shutter, you're making something permanent can be quite off-putting for some. But therein lies the beauty of lomography.

Winter's End

Even though flurries of snow are still flying past my Edinburgh window at all-too frequent intervals, it really does feel like we're coming out of that horrible period you get when you're this far north - the time of year when everything you do is coated in this horrible feeling of futility, because the daylight is so fleeting. As the days open up, so do the possibilities, it seems. Still, I'm not complaining about the snow - it's one of the very few things I enjoy about winter.