Busy day, but we don't move from Whilton Locks

Moored Whilton Bottom Lock, Grand Union Canal

A ‘rest day’ for us today.. but I have had plenty lined up to do .. the family phone contracts are all up, and it is down to me to find the best deals on the internet for their new contracts for next year.  Trouble is they want the latest phones “I gotta have that one Mum!”   There are pink ones and lilac ones, and some phones you need a magnifying glass for to see the bloomin’ keys!!… There is nothing like the good ol’ Nokia 3510i.. Hey it’s a good phone that, I can see the keys, it isn’t complicated and it rings loud enough for me to hear, and long enough for me to get to it!

So today instead of doing narrowboat things I have been having fun finding the best tariffs and phones around.. so all the phones are the same as last year.. 12 months free line rental and a new phone!  You have to send in the bills on time to get a cheque back quarterly, but last year everything worked well and we all had a free phone and free calls for all!

I took the opportunity to also have a look at the new datacard from T Mobile.  I had been speaking to Mo of NB Balmaha, and Mo is on T Mobile for his connection to the internet.. “I pay £20 a month for unlimited data.. well capped at 2GB” Says Mo … WOW now that is pretty good… I pay £52 for unlimited with Orange capped at 1GB.. I also noticed that Mo had some very good reception, 3g in a lot of places that Orange only gave me gprs, so I investigated…..

“Not only is it the first HSDPA-enabled data card to be offered by a major network in the UK, but it's also quad-band and has integrated Wi-Fi. T-Mobile is currently offering the card with a voucher that allows free use of its Wi-Fi hotspots for 12 months.”

Well my contract is up with Orange at the beginning of next month.. so I am going for this one.  What does interest me is the HSDPA, which I have not yet got my head totally around but…. I am learning slowly with the help of reviews like this (click here)

Anyway, it will save me £32 a month, plus I will be able to watch some webcams, listen to some music, listen to Radio Oxford, in particular Paul Miller at 10pm each evening and on Sunday afternoon the Irish music program from 2pm ‘till 4, .. well lots of stuff I have not been able to do since leaving life between bricks and mortar and broadband.

OK, OK, I am sorry to those who come to my blog daily.. I have probably completely gone over the heads of most, but life aboard No Problem is not only about ducks, locks and the odd moan about narrowboats speeding past you know!

Talking of WiFi.. and at last I have got my head round that word, we are moored outside the Whilton Marina and they have WiFi, but I can’t use it because I need a password for it.. but looking on their website there is nothing on there to say that they have WiFi.. Maybe Andrew might be able to throw some light on that?