... 'Max that up'??

Regular readers of Charlie's Dad's Blog will recall that I have been spotting signs of the (still denied) onset of middle age in the author.  So it is with some regret (and more denial) that I have to report yet another piece of evidence to add to the growing list.

One of the penalties for resigning is of course the return of all the kit and gizmos that go with the territory and whilst I figured I could live without the laptop and the BlackBerry (for a time at least), I would need to invest in a personal mobile phone.  

Now this is not an area that I profess to having any expertise in at all bearing in mind that, as 

a Sales Manager in the early nineties I was at the vanguard of mobile telephony with an original 'car phone' the size of a house brick!  Since then, in a series of updates, I have partnered Nokia in the evolution of the mobile phone, receiving a new one every few years or so and cracking on with it.  Little did I know about the minefield that is mobile phone retailing.

I'm guessing that most of you reading this must have already travelled the road that passes through one of the mobile phone retailers and given that nobody warned me what a complete nightmare it is I can only assume that for you, it wasn't.  It must be my age!  It appears I'm on a pay as you go payment plan called 'mates'.  I have absolutely no idea what this means!

I am slowly figuring out how to work my phone... I refuse to ask my children anything about it... and I reckon that given a week or two I'll have it more or less sorted.  The biggest problem however is that I bought the thing on-line and when it arrived it was about half the size I thought it was going to be.  The only way I can see the the buttons is to hold it under a bright light with my reading glasses on and squint the way my mother does when she's doing a crossword!

I'm partially reassured by the fact that Natalie went through a similar trauma when she sorted out her own mobile a few weeks ago.  Nat opted for the face to face option and actually ventured in to talk to one of the suited up wide boys in Car Phone Warehouse (or whichever one it was) but was left floundering when he kept asking her if she wanted to 'max that up'!  Nat and I had a long debate about what this could mean but could only surmise that he was offering her a large portion of chips and a coke with it!

Back to things family and it was a 'kids weekend' this week so we had the full set to deal with.  To be fair it was cool (note to self: use of word cool is probably another sign of age... stop it); the highlight being the installation of two of Nat's birthday presents - the Wii Fit and the Dart Board!  Millie demonstrated her virtual hoola hooping prowess (impressive) and Jordi showed off his skills with the arrows (less impressive).

Harri celebrated his 11th birthday with a birthday tea - marked by the cooking of a chocolate fudge cake by me and Millie.  This was not a great success as Jordi took one bite, said it tasted smokey, then left it on his plate.  This is the first thing made of chocolate that Jordan has ever refused to eat.  Millie blamed me!

Charlie seemed to love having the kids around him, especially Millie.  It looks as though they are all coming to live nearby so we should be seeing a lot more of them.  The next challenge is going to be new schools and entrance exams... watch this space!!

... drugs bust

Charlie's Dad has a hangover... not the worst one he's ever had but the journey back from Manchester was a bit of a slog.  Of course, as an 'unemployed' it would have been far too extravagant to have paid the £4.50 to use the toll road so ignoring the warnings of congestion I headed straight into the M6/M5 bottleneck... and stopped... and remained stopped for about 45 minutes.  

I used the time to calculate that each minute of stationery time would have cost me 10 pence to avoid.  This seemed to me to be quite a bargain but then I realised I was becoming engrossed by lunch-time radio... a quantity surveyor and his teacher wife from Hampshire has been raided by police looking for Class A drugs following a tip-off.  They were most put out and seemed to have no idea who had falsely accused them.  For some reason I found this all very amusing and suddenly found myself thinking of people I could maliciously 'inform' on... and then the traffic was moving and I was glad that I'd taken the slower route home.  Such are the joys of an emptier schedule!

Charlie and Nat are up at her parents in Yorkshire.  I've not seen them since Tuesday morning and it feels very strange.  I was in London for a few days (meeting a few people about a few things!), then I went up to Manchester for an industry dinner.  It was very strange going to an event without a job... when I looked at the seating plan everybody else had a company name next to them but my name was just there, all on it's own!  I was good to catch up with a few friendly faces though and everyone seemed pleased to see me.  Not having the requirement to get up and go to work the next morning though, I clearly drank slightly more than my 44 year old kidneys could deal with in the alloted time so I woke up feeling a bit shit!

I vaguely remember trying to explain to people how Natalie has developed a special Charlie voice that I've never heard before but it's very difficult to describe it.  Maybe I'll try to secretly record her then add an audio link to the blog... that should go down well...