It's a Blog ! Not a Log !

To counteract the credit crunch hitting our household any further then it already is I’ve now cut my Virgin Media package to the bear minimum, reduced Mel’s phone to the cheapest best package we could get out of Vodafone, which was 600 mins and unlimited texts for £14.99 a month, no extra charges on top, so straight away I’ve saved £55 a month on bills.

I’ve also asked my mum for a % free loan to clear off 2 credit cards and a bank loan, which will be paid back at £350 a month, but will save us about £50-70 a month in payments and interest fees, so not doing to badly there, whats that total in all ? about £100 a month saved at the Its’ a blog household.

Also cancelled my subscription to 2000AD and Judge Dredd the Megazine, thats saved about £8 a month, its all adding up . . . the next thing is to try giving up smoking again, which by far will be the hardest thing to do, but got to give it a go if I want to start saving money again.

So if I’ve tried stopping smoking before, what makes me think that this time I might succedd, well my sisters been smoking for probably as long as me and she’s managed to stop, ok its only been 3-4 months, but its certainly much longer then I’ve ever managed and how has she managed this, well she’s been prescribed a drug called “Champix” the drug works by binding to nicotine receptors in the brain. Nicotine stimulates the production of dopamine, which is the “pleasure” chemical in the brain.

By attaching itself to the receptors normally used by nicotine, Champix fools the brain into thinking it’s had nicotine – so satisying the craving for a cigarette or so the info informs us, easiest way to find out if it works I suppose is to give it a try.

So as well as it being my birthday today, it was also the day I sat my MCP in 70-290 and just like the 1st time I sat it I failed again, just hoping my 3rd time will get me through it.

Thing about the 70-290 exam is its marked in 5 sections and if you do say really really crap in one and ok in the other 4 you can still fail, or so it seems, anyway for me it was a case of doing well in 3 and failing in 2. So tomorrow I have to face my MD and explain why I failed

My only excuse is that I dont get enough practice on live machines, can’t exactly do it on our active servers at work in case I fcuk up big style and I hate Virtual PC’s, just going to have to bite the bullet and see if I can wangle a couple of PC’s from work to set up a small domain at home that I can practice on and hopefully improve my scores.

On top of all this misery on my birthday, my no smoking plan is’nt exactly going to plan, ended up having about 7-8 ciggys today, think it was cause I was depressed tbh, must try harder

Well actually I’ve had a cigarette , only 1 mind you, though last night I had more then 3, but at least I’ve cut down the smoking at work one’s, just need to concentrate more on the evening one’s, think I might have to get a higher dose patch to be honest, as these 14mg one’s just don’t seem to be giving me the fix/hit I need/desire.

Would help a lot at home if Mel stopped smoking as well, then there would be less temptation to be had, really need to sit down and talk to her about it, maybe suggest/request/demand she gives up to . . .

Well yesterday I had VirginMedia visit our home to install a V+ box, which enables me and the missus to record TV onto a hard drive and watch it later, we also had the old box installed in one of the bedrooms so we could both watch our favorite programs, now this should have been a fairly simple job, but much like its predecessor NTL, VirginMedia made a rights balls up of it.

Let me explain, firstly everything worked except my Broadband, so after spending nrly an hour trying to connect using the new Modem with little succes I rang the Tech Line and spent another 1/2 hr explaining to a Techy in Mumbai that my BB didnt work, who then told me it had’nt been registered and I’d need to talk to the Sales team, who were now all tucked up in bed for the night, so I’d have to call back tomorrow. ok fair enough . .
So today I ring up them and explain what the Tech Line had told me and they register my modem, so I get that working and afterwards I think I might watch some TV, so try to access the Movie channels and discover my “Press the Red Button” button does’nt seem to work, so ring up Tech Line for TV packages and spend an 1hr speaking to someone else in Mumbai, whoa after much requesting me to do this and that to my V+ box still cant get it working and then informs me they need to send an engineer out to resolve the problem, but no engineers available till Monday evening between 4pm and 7pm (this means I have to take a 1/2 day to be available), so ok I say arrange it.

Now if this wasn’t enough I think ok maybe I’ll watch the program’s I recored the previous day on the V+ BOX’S Hard-drive, so do as the instruction’s say and press the V+ sign and now instead of getting the option to watch recorded programs get a message telling me that I are’nt subscribed to the V+ Service even though about 2hrs previously it said I was, so again ring the Sales desk and say hey it says I’m not subscribed, explain all of the above to the Sales person who checks my box and explains that perhaps the techy who had me messing with the setting has fucked it up and say’s they’ll put me through to the Techy line for TV packages again, so after spending 20 minutes explaining all of the above to this new techy persona dn carrying out test that they suggest and changing settings as they suggest still no luck and I’ll just have to wait for the engineer on Monday . . . so I’ve spent nearly 3.5 hrs on the phone tonight speaking to 1 English guy 2 Indian blokes and 3 Indian woman I still ain’t got my cable sorted, though I suppose I’m lucky my Broadband is at least working now . . just not my day today.

Will let you all know how it goes on Monday when the engineer arrives, but I ain’t holding my breath

On another note I really need a cigarette, looks like I choose the wrong day to quit smoking

Here goes another attempt at stopping smoking . .

Checklist :
Nicotine Patchs  : Check
Nicotine Inhaler : Check
Willpower           : Very Little

Yep I’m going to give up smoking yet again, wonder how I’ll do this time, maybe havving this blog will help, it’ll give me the oppurtunity to let everyone know that I’m craving and maybe by telling you lot about my craving will take my mind off actually wanting a ciggerette, but here I am now writing this thinking “God I want a ciggerette” and I’ve already had the patch on for about 2 hrs . .  I’m a lost cause I can see it

Need to find my inhaler and hope that it will take the thought of wanting a ciggerette out of my mind, need to also consider hypnotism me thinks as this might bolster my lack of will power….. anyway wish me luck and feel free to offer tips or advice on how to stop the craving and survive . .