An Open Letter to the Director of Marketing, Avid Technology

Re my order your ref 2692768

I have been a stills photographer for 60 years and programming computers since 1959, when I taught myself FORTRAN.

As a retiree, I am reasonably computer literate and now write websites as a paying hobby.

I belong to a local art group of 75 members and have authored their 3000 page website which is well regarded.

Some 9 years ago, a Californian producer hired my stills studio to make a DVD. I helped with the lighting and learned a lot in a week of filming. One resolve was to continue to leave video alone!

But my art group want home-made videos about their members on their

communal website and my Californian customer raves about your Pinnacle software, so last Saturday morning I purchased Studio 15 on-line. I chose to buy the download as I did not want to wait for a box in the mail from the USA, especially since several recent purchased have been re-VAT charged.

I also elected to purchase the 'Training Manual' for a further £33.57 plus tax and what I understood from your website to be a long term back up of the program i.e. a disc for another £10.04 plus tax.

I gleefully started to download the program having received my emailed invoice.

My default browser is Firefox and after some hours of downloading, I had Part 1 and some of Part 2. The Download Manager would not accept that the second part was incomplete even though the file manager indicated it was '.part'.

The Download Manager did not seem to exhibit the intended function that it would re-start and complete a partial download.

Since the Training Manual was a much smaller file I decided to download this so that I could read it while the main programme was being acquired.

Now I discovered my second problem. The Manual is a collection of videos. I am profoundly deaf and don't even have a sound card enabled in any of may various computers - 2 Linux servers, 2 desk machines and 4 laptops.

So I found myself trying to lip-read the manual, until it became voice over a demo screen and then I was completely lost. I feel scammed because I assumed that a manual would be a PDF file I could print. I don't expect a refund but I know in my heart that I fully deserve one.

PLEASE make it clear in the order section for this item that it is a collection of videos and useless to disabled people like me.

The lack of the manual concentrated my mind on the Studio 15 download.
After some effort I finally discovered that your website knows there are problems with downloading and I identified that I could manually download and that I should add Java to my Firefox browser.

Again I could not get a full download, it took me a while to realise that I could erase the part download and start all over again.

I moved on to using MSIE and got 2 files neither of which were reported as '.part'.

These were used to try and install the software but it failed on a 'CRC error in Data Cab1'.

Now it may be that in the various attempts to download, I got a good part 1 file and in another effort a good part 2 file - but I have no way of knowing where Data Cab 1 resides, so I am forced to start over each time.

I have now tried, Firefox, Firefox + Java, MSIE, Chrome, and all those combinations on my second fast PC, I normally use for photo editing.

The second PC persistently re-boots at 27% of the download. After 2 days I
decided that you should know that this problem is a pain in the proverbial.

I believe that more warnings should be given on the order page about the
magnitude of the 2 part file and that it is known to suffer CRC download errors for some people.

I also think that it should be made easier to find the relevant support data, having stumbled on it once and knowing it was there I failed to re-find it !

It is either 27 or 28 times that I have initiated a download, I still do not have your product.

At what point do I get to have my software as a boxed set and give up this lunacy ? - I can't find a way on the website of requesting this ...

Yours faithfully,

A poor old fart who is trying hard and failing miserably ...

signed

Another few weeks of fighting the insanity of large companies.

I developed a new website for a friend who prints my photographs - Replicolour.

His domains were with MicroSoft and 123-REG.

Here is the response from MS about how to transfer his .com domain
(usually this is an unlock and advising the new hosters IPS TAG)


Hello Mr. xxxxxxxx, Thank you for contacting us at Microsoft Office Live Support. This is xxxx xxxxxx and I have created Service Request # nnnnnnnnnnnnnn, so that we can track your concern.
I understand that you want to transfer your domain. I value the importance of your concern and I will provide you with the required information.
Mr. xxxxxxxx, In order to transfer the domain"website.com", first you need to cancel this domain from your Microsoft Office Live account as Microsoft Office Live does not support domain transfer. Upon cancellation of domain, you will receive the Domain Registry Key (DRK) of your domain, using which you need to unlock the domain from Melbourne IT (registrar of your domain). Once the domain is unlocked from Melbourne IT, they will provide you with the authorization code, using the authorization code you will be able to transfer the domain.
Note: after cancelling the domain "website.com", all the email accounts associated with the domain will also be cancelled. Therefore, before cancelling the domain, I would suggest you to take back up of your emails.
Once you have taken the back up of your emails, change your fourth level domain as primary by following the below mentioned steps:
1. Go to www.officelive.com
2. Sign in to your Microsoft Office Live account with the owner Windows Live ID and password.
3. On the Microsoft Office Live Home page, at the top, click 'More', and then click 'Domain Manager'. The Domain Manager page appears.
4. In the Domain list, find the domain "fourth level domain" that you want to use as primary domain. In the 'Options' column, click 'Make Primary', and then click 'OK'.
Before cancelling the domain, please ensure that you are first removing the Private Domain Registration to public and updating the administrator email ID in your Domain properties so that you can receive the DRK (authorization code) in your correct email account after deleting the domain.
To remove/change the Private Domain Registration to public and to update your administrator email ID, please follow the below mentioned steps or click properties link to know the same:
1. Click More and Domain Manager on top of the Home page.
2. Click Properties next to your custom domain name.
3. Click Edit Properties, you can change the Private Domain Registration to public and update your administrator email ID.
Now, you can follow below mentioned steps to cancel the domain from your Microsoft Office Live account.
1. On the Home page at the top, click "More" and click "Account Management".
2. On the Account Management page, on the left navigation bar, click "Cancel Your Account".
3. Under "Choose from the options below", click "Keep the account and remove only the custom domain(s)", and then click on the "Next" option.
4. Under Select which domains to remove, select Remove? next to the domain names that you want to remove, and then click "Confirm".
5. To remove the domain(s) that you selected, click "Confirm Remove".
Once the domain is cancelled, you can follow below mentioned step to unlock the domain from Melbourne IT using the DRK.
1. Go to http://www.melbourneit.com.au/cc/godirect/
2. Enter your domain name and DRK and click on continue.
3. Click on 'create a new account' below the text box where you are prompted for My account password.
a) Fill up all the information needed:
I. Contact Information
II. Login Information
b) Other Information:
I. The Country Code is "1" for United States (for UK it is 44)
II. The email address you enter must not be related to the domain you are attempting to transfer/manage.
4. After filling up all the information, check the box that says I have read and understood the Sign Up Terms and Conditions. I agree to abide by the terms and conditions, as stated there in.
5. Click Create. Now your account is created.
6. On the My Account Console page, click Logout on the right side of the page.
7. Now you will be redirected to the Melbourne IT web site.
8. Click Manage Domain Name on the right side of the page.
9. Type your domain and registry key.
10. Click Enter Management.
11. Click Transfer management to Melbourne IT.
12. Sign in using the username and password for your Melbourne IT account using the username and password, which you created for your Melbourne IT account. .
13. Click Continue after you have verified all the information on the page.
14. Click on My Account console.
15. Click on the link "View/Manage domain name" under the Domain Names.
16. Click on your domain name (customer domain name) under the Domain Name section.
17. Click on the Unlock Domain Name.
18. To change name server, click on Change Delegation Details under Name Server Details on the right side of the page. Here, you can change the domain name server settings as ns1.officelive.com and ns2.officelive.com.
19. To obtain new authorization code in order to transfer your domain, click Retrieve Domain Name (authinfo) Password (on the same page on point 17).
The above information is available online at, how to unlock a domain from Melbourne IT.
However, if you are unable to cancel the domain then provide us with the below mentioned information to verify your account ownership. After verifying your account ownership, we will cancel your domain from our end and we will provide you with the DRK of your domain.
1. Telephone number associated with your Microsoft Office Live account.
2. Billing address associated with your Microsoft Office Live account.
3. Last four digits of the credit card associated with your Microsoft Office Live account.
For your convenience, our support staff is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you have additional questions, concerns or need further assistance, please be sure not to change the subject line so that we can urgently address any remaining concerns.
You may be selected to receive a survey. Your feedback is valuable to us and we are very interested in hearing about your support experience. Should you receive a survey, we appreciate you taking the time to respond.
Regards, xxxx xxxxxx
Microsoft Office Live Support

Unbelievable !!

Then of course there is 123-REG for the .co.uk domain

Again this should be a 2 field entry on a website - BUT 123-REG don't want you to take the domain away, so firstly there is no link to make the change and then when you get Nominet to help you they keep changing the things like the DNS data so that the domain displays their advertising. The law says 5 days - they rarely comply.

Severn Trent
Our near neighbour (about 200 yards away) has a water supply issue. His plumber attempted to isolate their water using an old stop cock near our front gate. Sadly he broke off the handle.

Severn Trent were called in to solve the problem and we welcomed them onto our front drive because we have been unable to isolate our water supply.

Enterprise (ST subcontractor) arrive and start digging up the two old taps. After a large hole appears we discover that the taps are legacy and dry. But we also find 2 new blue plastic pipes.

ST arrive and agree to fit taps in the two discovered feeds in the hope that they will allow the isolation required.

They then disappear for 2 days.

The next thing I know there is an Enterprise truck happily filling the hole and assuring me that the tarmac applier is 'right behind us'

So now we have a large area of poor quality tarmac in our drive and neither us or the neighbour is any closer to isolating the supply.

UPDATE
Two days later the guys turn up to fit 2 taps - of course the hole is back filled and covered in tarmac

- 'was on a monday the gas man came to call' !!

Halifax
As I mentioned below, I recently changed banks. Sadly I chose the weekend that the Halifax integrated with the Lloyds computer system and fell foul of changing regimes.

My new credit card arrived and I wanted to change the PIN. The bank machine refused - in fact it didn't seem to read my card. After 4 new PINS, I eventually got the machine to change the provided PIN to the one I use. As soon as I tried to use the card it was rejected long before I entered any PIN.

When it first refused to read I suggested to the bank that it was faulty and that they should replace it. Their solution was to send yet another PIN.

Finally I rang the bank and said my card didn't work - so they offered a new PIN of course ! Then the guy made a mistake and said something like what can do for you and I said record that my card is damaged and needs replacing - success - only another 10 days to sort the new one.

Stranger on the Shore	Kuching Boys
Just Fishin'	Off to Play

The Lake is 50 miles long and used to calibrate satellites, because the salt is so flat in summer. Next door is the largest lithium deposit found in the world so far.

Driving across Salar de Uyuni	Cerro Sillajguay
Lago Uru Uru	Volcanic hot springs near Estancia Chulucuma
The Road to Chile	Crops harvested near Patacarya
Near the Salt Hotel on Salar de Uyuni	Refuse collection operative, Oruro
All these colour shots were taken in Bolivia in the late 1990's	In a Hurry - La Paz

Well the exhibition season is really on the go now.

I have work hanging in The Walls as part of the BVA Opens Studios event

Next is my 100ft long photograph:



this will be draped all around The Willow Gallery in Oswestry and be available to view from Friday 3rd June

There will also be a metallic paper colour version of my picture called The Angel Diana



and hopefully my new image 'Kuching Boys'



Then I will be exhibiting colour images from Bolivia and more liths and some tigers at our Annual Open Studios

This year I am using the Summer House at Highfield to show my work

I have completed 3 more websites this month:

The Sychpwll Centre

John Wragg

and MWAC - still awaiting instructions to go live

I am offering the website 'love2race.com' for sale, lock stock and barrel £1500

I am having a fight about website domains bought in good faith - more next month when that is resolved hopefully.

Good and BAD this month

Her indoors, the Dragon spent a week on a Tall SHip in the Canaries.

As far as I can tell she had a good time and was enthralled that they actually spent one day sailing. The rest of the time was spent chugging about looking for wind.

Her flight back was due at midnight and delayed by 2 and half hours or one hour or 15 minutes depending on which website you believed.

So I was obliged to go to Birmingham Airport and park up in the short stay car park for about 60 mins. I am delighted that I did not choose the 'drop and go' park as some folk did. After 15 minutes the rate is £5 per 15 mins or part thereof. I would have been asked to pay £26 although at midnight the place was deserted. I passed an angry black who was arguing with a machine voice that he no money to pay.

Safely home she complained of wind, then a pulled muscle and lastly it is Saturday morning and she can't stand up. She phones ShropDoc and is promised a callback from a doctor within an hour, which duly arrived.

The doctor asked her to attend the local A&E which we did by appointment after another hour. We waited a good 30 minutes past our appointment and were then seen by a delightful Italian doctor at Gobowen hospital who diagnosed acute appendicitis.

Next stop Shrewsbury Hospital on a sunny Saturday, we arrived to find a wheelchair in the lobby and I pushed her via the lift up to the ward where a bed was waiting. There follows a day of tarting about with mixed opinions as to diagnosis. Then the surgeon decides to scan and finds that the appendix is bad but in the wrong place. This is the cause of confusion over symptoms. At 10.30pm Sunday night she goes into the theatre. She rings me Monday morning to say that I should bring this and that .After an hour or two she rings to say she is being discharged.

Why all this detail? Well I was supposed to be phoned that she was safely in and diagnosed, when she went into theatre, when she came out theatre in an OK state and when she was ready for discharge - but nothing. Were it not for the use of cell phones I would not know what was happening.

The receiving nurse Anna was cheerful and helpful but as an SRN herself my wife was not happy at the standard of care being offered to other patients on the ward. I also had to visit 3 toilets to find one that operated properly.

Now for the good news, at discharge I was 15 minutes ahead of normal visiting time and assumed that parking would be easy as it had been at the weekend. I drove around the car parks for 40 minutes trying to find a space - the attendant who just watched the chaos of 500 people trying to occupy 200 spaces finally allowed me to park in a forbidden spot

When I get to the front door there is a row of spaces with 10min waiting, especially for quickie pick-ups.

I had photographed the 10 cars there on my arrival and they were all still there except one when I brought my wife out to the fly-parked car an hour after I first arrived.

So the surgery was fine, but the surrounding management of the premises, toilets, parking etc. leave a lot to be desired.

Never used to be like this when nursing experienced matrons ran hospitals instead of professional managers from industry.

To end on a really high note - you can't take flowers into the ward because they are dangerous ...

Well that was Xmas

So many things that drive me nuts.

A couple of years back my family virtually filled business class in a 747 to spend Xmas in New Zealand with the sister of my wife (the dragon).

Her brother and niece joined us from Australia. Would have been cheaper and greener to send the 3 people £20,000 and tell them to come here. Xmas day in a warm garden is ok but not worth the premium.

This year we went one better. The other granny lives in the West Country and invites us all for Xmas for a long week.

We all say lovely and then she declares that Xmas is in the South of France.

Not the coast, a farmhouse in the remoter countryside SE of Bordeaux. With a herd of grandchildren and presents, flying is impossible, especially as the nearest airport at the other end is hundreds of miles away.

Worse than that it is very cold in the UK and I am concerned that the house will freeze because the oil boiler is on the blink - it won't fire in very cold weather. So we leave a 2kW fan heater blowing on the boiler (which cures the problem and we don't know why) for 10 days over Xmas and isolate the water at the main.

So off we go in 3 cars packed to the gunnels in the middle of the pre Xmas snow. If it isn't snowing it is dangerously foggy on the autoroute.

Xmas goes OK but there are bits of collateral damage. The local 3G phone service was effectively non-existent, so maintaining contact with the internet a bit like playing roulette. Some of us had people and websites to keep up with and the sometimes, maybe, mostly off Edge and 3G was meanderingly tenuous.

I run my phones (Galaxy S and Galaxy TAB) on PAYG and usually get by on £10/ month. Of course rates from outside the UK are scandalous so I dropped nearly £600 in phone connections that didn't really work.

Much worse than that I bought a VAIO laptop last year (the thin one with solid state everything). It comes with an Orange SIM that is locked. The SONY and VAIO and ORANGE blurb calls the system of connection INTERNET EVERYWHERE. It is supposed to work ALL OVER EUROPE showing coverage on a map.

The laptop works in the UK but everywhere in France it failed to connect. It costs me £15/month for a product which doesn't do what it said on the tin.

I guess it is another 4 hours on the bloody support line, being told that I need to do this or that which should be obvious but is especially hidden from intelligent beings who can programme computers. I can't bring myself to make the call until I cool down a bit.

Then of course we had to come home, nearly 1000 miles of foggy motorway with cars packed to the roof again. One car had a flat battery so the start was marred by delay, and it seemed to degenerate thereafter.

Don't even ask me about Le Manoir, a run down B&B with bread for breakfast.

The French police wanted to search the car before we left, then the French customs, finally as we crossed the UK border in the docks in France, the UK Border Agency wanted a go too. Something about guns so I guess we were confused with a party that they had been tipped off about.

Thank goodness it is New Year and one is home again.

The world is a strange place full of weird people

And it all comes to rest on the internet !

We need a chimney balloon.

I have a slab of plastic I place in front of the fireplace to kill the draught but the Dragon hates it's appearance.

So Google is my friend. A quick look suggests 5 websites offering similar products.

The website designs are so different it is almost a masterclass in the Good the Bad and the Ugly.

It is fairly obvious that one of the sites actually makes the balloons and the others either re-sell or maybe copied the market leader. The website wording is transparently copied from one to another, but the design is entirely mixed.

It almost looks like the maker has said you can copy our words so you get them right but make the appearance quite different.

Fascinating stuff!

Buying stuff on-line

Her indoors instructs me to buy a case of champagne and a case of white wine as our contribution to the family Christmas.

The brands are well established so a quick search shows ASDA / Tesco / Waitrose have the champagne at £2/bottle cheaper than the mainstream wine folk.

HOWEVER they have ended the low prices on Nov 30th so they can put them up for the Christmas rush.

THEN when you try to order them, the product is 'out of stock'.

They SHOULD NOT PROMOTE low prices if they cannot deliver.

At last something great happens

Such a pleasant surprise !

I won an ebuy auction and got the Secret Santa present well under budget.

Whilst there I lost one for an ear trumpet that I would have quite liked but it went for silly money.

I DID buy an early trumpet of a type that I do not already have. It came all the way from Canada and although a bit bashed is a nice example of yet another type of Victorian hearing aid.

And then a few days back I finally got the pair of trumpets I have been seeking for ages. My granny used to wear a pair of horns on a headband - like old fashioned ear phones. I have searched for years to find a similar pair.

Although a bit smaller they are in the same faux tortoiseshell (plastic !) and in excellent condition.

Somewhat expensive but at least I knocked the London dealer down a few bob.

So to toys !

I have been a smart phone fan since I had my Samsung Jet, which I eventually gave to a well deserving teenager when I bought my Galaxy S.

Compared to almost anything else I looked at it really is a great piece of kit.

I notice it is now recognised as the best small phone to have. ANDROID is gaining popularity every day and well it should.

I would love to see the guys at Microsoft etc get a run for their money from, the Open Source group.

Now to a nice tail: I don't use the phone part of my phone, even on my car phone I don't usually make one call per month.

My phones are for me to connect to the net and read my email, NOT be on a piece of string whenever anybody wants me.

After I had the Galaxy about 7 weeks, it rang. I unlocked it and there were 2 buttons, a red and a green.

I frantically dabbed the green button but nothing happened. In desperation I dabbed the red and lost the call. So I had to find the callers number and then call them back to apologise that I did not know how to answer the phone.

The ignominy of having to surf the net to learn how to receive a call - don't dab at it - you have to stroke the key - of course there is no hint of the necessary action.

My son had warned me a few months back that a Samsung tablet was coming to compete with the eyefone.

Last thursday I bought one from Tesco.

It came on Saturday morning. I have always tried to RTFM.

But after a few pages I realised it was gobble de gook and just switched it on having charged it.

After a few bits of finger gerpoken it was asking for a SIM which I had bought friday.

Then I just followed it's suggestions and my phone was set up with WiFi at home, GMail & GCalendar synchronisation, internet access for £10/month - almost anywhere. AND I can read most of it without glasses because even the email has pinch zoom.

and for those who think an eyepad is wonderful check this list:

My ANDROID has:

USB
WiFi
A-GPS
2x RAM
FM radio
multitasking
bluetooth 3.0
Adobe FLASH
more free apps
SMS / MMS texts
expandable storage
two cameras - video calls
fee free tethering - use as APN
file drag and drop from computer
3G phone with phones / loudspeaker

Now for society meetings I need only the tablet, the phone and laptop are in the cupboard.

This month is about mapping

Mr Google recently upgraded the mapping opportunity for websites.

Imagine a site designed to help you find hotels. One way to search is by location, and a map with a little marker for each hotel is a nice starting place.

Sadly very few of the travel sites seem to handle this well.

I have been trying to book a B&B in France near Xmas and I know where I want it, but all the searches are by price and even then don't yield a map !

I run the best website in the UK for finding Photographic Studios.

My old postcode driven map works well but takes 2 minutes to load the page and does not offer any zoom facilities.

The point is that when you look at London, there are over 200 studios and 200 little icons is too much information. So now you can cluster the icons into one big ugly one !

Look at my latest efforts.

Just click the fat icon and zoom in to see the detail.

Croc Shoes

her indoors tried to order some plastic boots from this outfit. After spending an hour filling out forms the website would not take her order. This non-event was repeated 3 times. In frustration she found another vendor and placed her order.

Less than one hour later she had an email saying the goods were shipped. Soon after, the tracking data said the shoes were in Dublin, from where we know not. The following day she got up early and reviewed the tracking which stated that the shoes had arrived in Wrexham and 'were on the van'. They arrived shortly after mid-day less than 24 hrs after ordering - this is how it SHOULD be !!

Helfa Gelf

Finally I have been following the Helfa Gelf open studios trail. 125 Welsh Artists open their workplaces to the public in the hope of selling some work.

Two things emerge - I wanted to see all the photographers - there are about 6. Their website shows all 125 artists on a map of N Wales using the near standard Google map.

BUT there is no way to see which ones are photographers.

Lovely page well crafted for every artist yet no way of finding 6 out of 125 without ploughing through every one !

just ASTOUNDING !!

I emailed the webmaster and she sent me a list but left off one because she could not find them either !!

I bumped into a lovely photographer, self taught and totally obsessed with her art - take a look at Llinos

Mr Grumpy rides again

BUT, before that, a nice story about a company that tries to give service.

Before I went to India in April I bought some new safari trousers from Rohan.

These came with an integral belt. Somewhere in the last days of my trip a hotel laundry sent back my washed trousers without the belt.

So this month in a moment of enthusiasm I rang Rohan to order a spare belt. The girl informed me that they did not keep the item as a spare part. She then took my address saying she would 'look at the issue'.

The very next day, a new belt (even the right one) arrived in the post !

Three cheers for Rohan, who have got my attention when I next need clothes.

Barcelona
Her indoors - known as the 'dragon' needs take-offs and landings to add to her pile of air miles.

So we book 3 days in Barcelona, Spain.

On arrival I planned to use my pocket satnav to find all the sites because my android phone is a bit battery hungry if on satnav all day.

We get to the hotel around lunchtime and eat at tapas in La Rambla. By 5pm the dragon is feeling unwell. She has caught some virus from looking after grand kids and it started her heart fibrillation problem again. She lands up spending 3 days in a hotel room that had no food service.

Getting her on a plane home without admitting she was ill was a nightmare.

She is currently much improved but still very weak.

So for 3 days I am planning to visit museums and art galleries.

My little Garmin satnav is wonderful, but when we landed in Spain I discovered that as far as maps are concerned, Spain is not on my Europe map.

Off I go to a shop in La Rambla and after a lot of signage they convince me they do not have anything Garmin.

Played with the 'net on my phone and found that garmin have an office near Barcelona. Got the hotel clerk to find the address on his A-Z and set off on the Metro. Clean enough but hot and still quite cheap.

When I got off the metro in the suburb I was looking for I found that Garmin were nowhere to be seen. Bought a large bottle of water for 10% of what they sell for in La Rambla and found a taxi.

The driver said that Garmin was miles away so I spent $50 and an hour being driven to a town outside Barcelona, called Badalona.

Trooped into the Garmin office and eventually found a lovely girl who spoke english. I put my pocket satnav on the table and asked for a Garmin Barcelona map.

She explained that they could not sell me a chip but 3 dealers near my hotel could do so.

They call a cab and another $55 dollars later, I am back in La Rambla. The first dealer is the one I visited the day before. This time they have someone who speaks english and they said 'yes they could order the chip for me'.

Since I am there for 3 days and it is already day 2, I am not amused.

I visit the second dealer about a mile away in 38deg C and my feet are beginning to complain. Noone speaks english but if I wait for 15 minutes someone will come. Another pretty girl explains that:

1) Garmin don't do a Barcelona map

(the previous night I had tried to download the map for £7.49 but could not get it from my phone into the satnav chip - clearly she did not want me to do that).

Realising I was on a losing wicket I asked for a Spain map.

2) Yes she could order that for delivery in 3 days time...

As I walked about 2 miles (in 39degC) to the 3rd dealer I was getting irritated.

I eventually found a helpful assistant with a few words of english. YES! they had a map of Spain - it was a topographical with no streets or POI.

And YES - they could order me a tourist one ...

So WHY when I went to the Garmin office did they not sell me a chip and take my money. Call their favourite dealer and explain what happened and send them the retail margin on the chip.

Happy customer, happy dealer, another sale.

As it is I won't be buying a Spain map as I may never go back.

the three retailers were
Raig SA, Pelayo, 62
Oryx la botiga, Balmes 71
Berdala, Balmes 6

This month was supposed to be the holiday of a lifetime.

DONT book Lionscape to shoot tigers in India without asking me why.

In fact it was great fun sporadically interrupted by the idiocy of big companies.

We travelled via Heathrow to Delhi and on to Raipur after an overnight stay.

I had planned to donate a genset to my favourite charity and this had been ordered through Honda in Bhopal. The plan was to meet it at Raipur Airport and drive it up country in our 4WD.
I paid by draft weeks before and right up to the last minute the Raipur based dealer was being instructed via emails to the sales manager in Bhopal.
Right at the last minute Honda said, we won't deliver come and collect it !
I sent what might be termed a curt note and got no reply...
On arrival at Raipur I was looking out for my 4WD driver and the man from Honda's agent.
Both were waiting - hooray ! BUT the Honda man wasn't allowed inside the airport with my 1m cube cardboard box on the back of a tuk-tuk.
We moved the 2 vehicles together just outside the airport gate and were descended upon by a platoon of soldiers in a large truck and accompanied by a Ferret style vehicle.

There was lots of yelling in various languages and then all became clear.

A VIP was flying out and we were being suspicious on the convoy route. Eventually we moved the genset, signed for it, and started to go on our way - only to be stopped until the whole 24 vehicles went by.
When we got to the charity base in Kanha I bought a changeover switch and various bits and pieces and wired it to the house.
The very first evening, the lights came on at 6pm and promptly went out - we wound up the genset and all was well. My good friend Maggie will now be able to use her phone and email when she needs it to order medical supplies etc..

Our stay at the charity base was a couple of days and we drove to Bandhavgarh to shoot tigers - if we could find them.

The first 2 days we rolled around in a jeep and saw a few bits of wildlife. Then we had 4 days on elephant following the tigers around.

On the next elephant was a lady sporting 3 huge lenses on cameras. When we were close we could hear the camera shutter going like a mchine gun. She was shooting continuously. When I questioned about how quickly she might fill the camera memory, she stated that she was using 32Gb cards. She then added she was carrying 40 of them - this represents some 80,000 pictures in a session - we wondered if anyone ever looked at them. I think she was a rich amateur - no professional photographer works that way.

Then there is O2

I have a pay-as-you-go mobile - a Samsung Jet.
I arranged use in India before I left.
On arrival they sent me a text saying dial *111* 4444 for customer service.
What they did NOT say was dial *111*# and wait for a call back - then answer the phone and dial 4444#
So I had to text a friend in the UK to ask how to connect to customer service.
Then I needed to top up my credit - of course calls to customer service are £2 so if you run out you can't top up.
I managed to add £18 with my credit card - in theory anything from £10-30 but Mastercharge only allow £20 and each top up call costs £2.
THEN I can only do it once month !! I was using £30 / session on my laptop.
Back to the friend by email to get more money added. A helpful O2 shop added £500 to keep me going.

Now the real hassle.

All non India calls had to be made with the *111*# pre-dial - I eventually worked it out but the lack of necessary help was daunting. Just changing the origial text message would have been very useful.

--------------------------
We are in good company at our hotel in Bandhavgarh.
the speaker of the Indian parliament is staying in our hotel.
We are surrounded with troops and flunkeys and hangers-on.
All the soldiers salute and ask our names but sometimes 2 minutes after they last asked !
One benefit is that a troop of Baiga tribals came to dance.
I cried my eyes out as the drums beat their captivating rhythm

11 April
We had quite a good tiger day - shot some 700 images and at least 10
are OK.
Overall at Bandhavgarh we had a very good time.
food and room were just fine although a bit countryfied.
The tiger shooting was wonderful and images may be viewed here.
After 8 days chasing tigers we went to Kaziranga to find the Indian one horn plated rhino

Wed 21st
I am lying here on my bed at Dipuhl River Lodge after a nice supper and 3 large Kingfishers (local beer) on the first night

There is no phone, internet or anything useful !!

Thu 22nd
It is our first day at Kaziranga after a hairy drive yesterday.

The lodge is on stilts because the whole area floods.
After this first evening we are the only guests.
The bar area and restaurant are pleasant - this looks to be OK too.
The rooms are spacious and the bathrooms properly equipped

We have air conditioning in the room, but so far a fan has sufficed.
We went on our first game drive this am started at 7.30 and drove about 10 miles to the main gate.
We were joined by a soldier with a service rifle, to protect us from marauding rhino, Indian vistors don't warrant a guard !

Within the first hour we had seen the one horned rhino - just eating near the road but half submerged in elephant grass.
Then another rhino walked across the road right in front of us.
We saw pelican, hornbill, drongo, vulture and long beak eagle.
As we got to the far end of the park a female rhino roared out of the bush across the road in front of us.
A few moments later it's mate appeared and took the same route.
So I have pictures of 3 rhino on the first day.

It rained on us and we got soaked but who cares

Thu 22nd
We just finished our first day afternoon drive.
It was very quiet - saw several rhino in the distance including a baby.
There were lots of birds including the open billed stork.
We had a lot of dragging along seeing nothing and suddenly a tiger lying in the grass.
It got up and ran off fairly quickly and it was impossible to shoot apart from a fleeting glance of it's departing bum.
As we left the park we saw huge herd of water buffalo

Thu 22nd
After sups at Kaziranga and several gins on the first game day.
I am a bit bored with Indian food and need a plate of shepherds pie.
There were bangers and chips for breakfast - maybe tomorrow I will succomb beyond my cereal and banana

I am sitting here naked and the only sound is a ceiling cooling fan.
A big thunderstorm is raging outside - the electricty is on and off

The local mobile phone system does not accept incoming calls from the UK.
My phone doesn't even connect to the tower a few yards from my room.
This is a 'security' issue

Fri 23rd
Last day here tomorrow

We were on elephant again at 5am this morning.
Lots of people and lots of elephants, most of which had following babes

We saw more rhino but I still haven't got the shot I am looking for - there is always a piece of grass in the wrong place - often across his eye !

This afternoon we went looking for gibbons but didn't find them. The drive was very pleasant in a leafy forest in the next reserve along.

We also found an acre of marijuana.

I normally do email about ten times a day. 4-5 days without and I am worrying about what I will find. It has probably been good to be off the net but it doesn't really feel like it

One of my camera bodies has failed - it won't focus, however it was one of two the same so no real problem. Nikon will probably want £250 to fix it - I wonder if I will bother

Tomorrow morning another elephant ride with the rhinos, an afternoon bump around the reserve and it will a few beers before the madness of the drive back to Guwhati Airport

5 hours on a 2 way road like our 'B' roads, being overtaken by someone who is being overtaken - so we are 3 abreast.
In the opposite direction 2 approaching trucks travelling side by side compete for their nearside lane.
In the middle of all this probably 20 cows on the road and numerous motorcycles.
At the very last minute someone gives way and it sorts out, only to be repeated a minute or 2 later.
As soon as we hit a clear bit our driver may resort to the RH lane if it looks smoother.
Coming up here from Guwhati we overtook some 50-60 trucks running nose to tail in convoy.
Our little 4WD had to push in each time something came the other way.
If we came across a really bad piece of road - maybe washed away - all vehicles head for what looks like the best route through, noone waits, we get passed on both sides in both directions and all the time everyone is hooting.
Occasionally you see wrecks at the side of the road, they are always complete write offs.
Trucks in 2 pieces, unrecognisable lumps of squashed car and sundry things like an engine or axle lying in the road.

We are on our way back to Delhi - I am dying to see if our return flight is delayed by Iceland's vocanic dust

At least I get WiFi at my Delhi hotel

Thinking about the last 3 weeks in India, it is fair to say we had our share of problems that might sway an unseasoned traveller.

But I have been India several times and both my wife and the UK based tour guide are also seasoned travellers

Expensive, but I have a ruck of pictures to choose from for a show in July

Seeing wild tigers at play as well as hunting is great stuff.

The one horned rhino is also an interesting beast

AND 3 weeks in India without Delhi belly !!!

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We got home to a mad situation with Orange Mobile - they are run by idiots.

My photo studio spare part (4m of aluminium bar) was delivered before we got home even though the actual delivery note said drop on a specific day.

I think I am the epitome of a grumpy old man. This last month seems to be a continuous war against large organisations who have lost the ability to treat me like a customer.

HSBC
sent my bank statement to a third party. It has taken 3 months to get a reaction and then no apology just 'it probably won't happen again'.

They lost a huge some of money from my account. So large that it unbalanced the branch audit. It took them from Sep 2009 when they made the error until Mar 2010 to sort it out. I am awaiting a catch up interest payment.

And now new ignominy, they want me to download anti phishing software for windows. I use UNIX - it is no good to me. Yet they remind me every time I log in. They claim the reminder goes away after 4 attempts - rubbish. I have threatened to close my accounts to get their attention.

I feel that WE own the banks now and should be getting a positive approach at last.

DX Secure couriers
Then there is out-sourced government. We went to request Visas to visit India again. Personal application was essential because of the multiple errors on the India High Commission website
1) wrong address
2) wrong price
3) wrong download form

Having arrived at the out-sourcer, we had no problem except they needed a week to put the Visas in our passports. They said they would be sent by courier. The receipt said they would be sent by Royal Mail. A tracking number was given on the receipt.

Then I got a text on 20th Mar about 1530hrs saying they would be delivered between 8am and 6pm that day. Of course they didn't turn up.

On the Monday I finally found a £1.95 / minute help line. I explained the tracking number when inserted in their website said the parcel had gone to Royal Mail. The tracking no did not work on the Royal Mail site. I then said I had a text from DX secure couriers.

I was given another £1.00 / min phone line.

They knew they had tried to deliver, and when challenged admitted that the postcode was not the one given to the out-sourcer. They had elected to give the driver a different postcode.

They would not discuss if they could locate the parcel or give any useful info whatsoever. They agreed that if they found it, it would be delivered the next day. If they didn't find it we would hear no more.

When the parcel finally arrived it had our correct postcode AND another label added by the courier who had 'checked' it - just indescribably amazing.

SONY
On a brighter note I bought a new laptop from Sony.

Phone ordered and next day delivery promised. Of course it didn't arrive.

Sony do not have a way of reaching their company by email.

They have no complaint line.

The Sony store in Shrewsbury has a manager who was sympathetic and said he would get a Sony manager to call me, but even he failed.

The laptop turned 6 days later, no manual, a locked phone and loads of useless pre-installed software. It took me 3 days to clean the machine and then my son a further few hours to tidy it up.

Why oh why is it all so sodding difficult ??

The publicity leaflet for the Annual Open Studios Exhibition put on by the BVA is finally at the printers.

Please look at the final version.

My little toy car, the Merc SLQ 600, is now 6 years old and had to pass the dreaded MOT - flying colours of course.

I spent 4 weeks with some new hearing aids on trial. These ones shift frequency down and were slightly better than my current aids. But at £6000 each not good enough to invest all that dosh.

Just doing the final planning for my April in India - visiting the Baiga and shooting tigers. It will be hot - about 40deg C plus

Having just had weeks of snow on and off it will be quite a change.

My local hospital asked for 3 more photos to hang.

I am still looking to buy an Ariel Atom

Spent a lot of time this month on preparing the publicity leaflet for the Annual Open Studios Exhibition put on by the BVA.

It is our 10th year and we will distribute 10,000 leaflets so they have to be right !

I will foregoing my usual practice of showing some photos framed up for sale and presenting an installation. I plan to fit a 1200mm lens to one of my digital cameras and train it on a special 'wildlife attracting' set-up in the School Grounds, more nearer the time.

I had a load of problems with web hoster Name.com. They failed to remind me a domain was overdue and then shut the website down.

It cost me $139 USD to have it restored, which is daylight robbery. Their position is that if they neglect to remind you about a $13 renewal, then they can charge a $120 re-connect fee - thieving bastards.

I also had some problems with non techie user trying to upload vast pictures on to a website - to the point that it was off air periodically. So I have re-jigged my uploader so that it can't be teased so easily by learning a bit more about trapping user errors.

I donated 3 exhibition images to be hung in my local hospital.

I am still looking to buy an Ariel Atom

So that is Xmas over with.

Or Winterval if you are living in Birmingham.

How is it that if I am an immigrant my religious beliefs are supported by the law as well as custom and politically bloody correct custom.

Died in the wool Brit and I have to call MY religious festival by a different name to avoid upsetting a visitor.

When I lived in the USA or France or Italy I had to live by their rules.

No wonder they queue up at Calais to come to our sinking island.

On a lighter note one grandchild has a toothbrush that plays music.

The Xmas pressies included a plastic Meccano a bit like lasagne, a robot piggy bank that counted the money saved, StarWarsLego, a handheld terminal with plug in programmes (that one is for a 4 yr old), an MP player and even a complete plastic super market checkout with scanner and credit card reader.

Fortunately for me there was also a trike, a hula hoop, a skipping rope and a few other 'proper' toys. At least I knew what they were for.

And on a personal note my audiologist has retired and the new bloke listens to me.

He has lent me some aids costing mega bucks which frequency shift the incoming sound. Last week I heard the indicator on my 5 year old Merc for the 1st time. I can listen to the car radio but sadly I still need sub titles for the TV. Back next week for an MOT but I don't think they will rescue my hearing well enough to drop £6000 on them.

Finally, I built another art related website for a local group.

an old friend who is disabled via polio once told me that life is 2 concentric circles

the inner is what you have

the outer is what you want

the area between the circles is a constant, so as you get richer or whatever you get closer but never arrive at the outer circle

he combated his disability by making his inner circle touch the outer one at one point, not necessarily always the same for all of life

this means you actually get what you want by ignoring other options

AND

If it seems too good to be true - IT IS !!!

one of my customers got scammed by a company pretending to be Google and offering to get her to the top of Google's search results

she spent £500 on some keyword stuffing, an XML sitemap and geo-tags

in addition the scammer wanted her FTP details so she could have their website linked from her home page !

HK was bloody hot but it is still a fascinating city.

I recommend the budget hotel guide best option as the YMCA Salisbury Road - less per night than 4 double gins at the Peninsula.

Food very good value for money, rooms clean and functional - spend your money on chinese food and avoid all the designer restaurants.

The truth is the chinese are not good at other peoples food, the designer restaurant pizza was like a Prezzo and dins for two was £150.

In contrast a lovely multi dish meal at a local hostelry was £60 for two and we had everything you could want. a cafe full of chinese and super food.

We took a £2, half hour ferry to Lamma Island, which has 2 villages, no roads. One fishing village has a dozen eating places.
Large fresh lobsters chosen from a big tank, lots of chinese beer and cheaper than dinner at 35 Willow St.

Absolutely amazing value and the very best fare.

art
We found that the Hong Kong Museum of Art had a calligraphy exhibition of work going back to 400BC - just stunning and fascinating.

In addition they have a pottery collection of Chinese work going back through Ming and Tang to pre Christian times.

The works include classical porcelain and lots of VERY beautiful stuff from the best workers. The art is well presented with dialogues in English in a modern built for purpose building . If you are a potter it is an absolute must. If you an artist you will not be disappointed with a day spent here.

I think she is getting better, she has been out of hospital several days and starting to argue again - so that is a good sign - I guess.

I have to record my dis-satisfaction as a tax paying shareholder in all the big banks. Almost without exception and contrary to political will, they are re-claiming debt from soft targets where the collateral is way in excess of the loans in question.

The silent majority HAVE to get stood up and counted so that this is made to stop, otherwise we will be so deep in recession they will have to introduce rationing.

Grand daughter Rowan was christened this month