Friday, July 11, 2008
Yet another new toy...
Dearest hubby bought me another new toy today as my birthday/Christmas pressie for the next three years or something like that. I wasn't really too bothered about getting it on day of launch, but that's one great thing about working in the city centre, I can go out on speculative jaunts during my lunch hour and stumble across chance finds of things on launch day. I managed to get a Wii fit when it first came out in a similar way.
I visited the Arndale Centre O2 shop to start with and there was even an official queuing system in place. About six people were there filling out their forms and when I asked one of the promo girls how long the wait was, she told me it was over an hour. As I only had an hour and I knew there were two other O2 stores in town, I decided to try my luck at Market Street instead. It's amazing what a few spots of rain can do to people - when I got to the other store, there was no queue and three assistants were stood having a bit of a chat. Jumped in and picked myself up an 8GB iPhone (the 16GB versions had run out in the first hour). Wuhoo and no queues!!
*Em gloats annoyingly in the faces of those people who queued for hours*
As the usual lack of foresight of my former employers meant the connection systems had crashed, the phone function is still not connected up, but I have managed to sync the rest of the phone and have hooked it up to my Wi-fi to start having a good ol' play with it and it's pretty cool. My faves so far are watching Super Trio on the Youtube application and downloading a load of applications, even a Mandarin phrasebook. So far, I have only got the freebies, but knowing my impulsive nature, I'm gonna have to be really careful not to go too nuts on games and other stuff.
Dearest hubby bought me another new toy today as my birthday/Christmas pressie for the next three years or something like that. I wasn't really too bothered about getting it on day of launch, but that's one great thing about working in the city centre, I can go out on speculative jaunts during my lunch hour and stumble across chance finds of things on launch day. I managed to get a Wii fit when it first came out in a similar way.
I visited the Arndale Centre O2 shop to start with and there was even an official queuing system in place. About six people were there filling out their forms and when I asked one of the promo girls how long the wait was, she told me it was over an hour. As I only had an hour and I knew there were two other O2 stores in town, I decided to try my luck at Market Street instead. It's amazing what a few spots of rain can do to people - when I got to the other store, there was no queue and three assistants were stood having a bit of a chat. Jumped in and picked myself up an 8GB iPhone (the 16GB versions had run out in the first hour). Wuhoo and no queues!!
*Em gloats annoyingly in the faces of those people who queued for hours*
As the usual lack of foresight of my former employers meant the connection systems had crashed, the phone function is still not connected up, but I have managed to sync the rest of the phone and have hooked it up to my Wi-fi to start having a good ol' play with it and it's pretty cool. My faves so far are watching Super Trio on the Youtube application and downloading a load of applications, even a Mandarin phrasebook. So far, I have only got the freebies, but knowing my impulsive nature, I'm gonna have to be really careful not to go too nuts on games and other stuff.
Labels: shopping
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Hurrah for the Shuttle Bus
I know I go on a bit about buses in this blog, but as I don't drive, I tend to spend an awful lot of time on them!
Anyway, I headed back to Liverpool yesterday to see the folks and pick up some TVB magazines, so when I came back today, my bag was pretty heavy. Usually, I am good and do the trek across town in Liverpool and Manchester on foot, but the extra weight in my bag today, coupled with the sticky heat and the prospect of a random torrential shower (like the one that's hammering down on the conservatory at the moment) made me take the decision to make the most of the city centre shuttle buses to get to and from the coach station.
In Liverpool, the '08 Capital of Culture S1 shuttle circles the town centre, linking up the tourist spots and the transport terminals. Fortunately for me, Chinatown and the coach station are on its track and with the distinct lack of users of the bus this afternoon (not sure where all the tourists were - probably getting drenched on the red open-top bus instead), I ended up having my own private bus for my journey! Well worth the £1.50 fare.
However, it is Manchester that wins again on what is becoming a Manc vs Lpool theme in my blog posts. The Metroshuttle No 1 bus whizzed me from the coach station over to Deansgate, where I had to drop off some DVDs for a friend and then the No 2 bus took me back over to the bus stop where I get my bus home. All for the grand total of ZERO PENCE! Yup, it's absolutely free and I love it!!
I know I go on a bit about buses in this blog, but as I don't drive, I tend to spend an awful lot of time on them!
Anyway, I headed back to Liverpool yesterday to see the folks and pick up some TVB magazines, so when I came back today, my bag was pretty heavy. Usually, I am good and do the trek across town in Liverpool and Manchester on foot, but the extra weight in my bag today, coupled with the sticky heat and the prospect of a random torrential shower (like the one that's hammering down on the conservatory at the moment) made me take the decision to make the most of the city centre shuttle buses to get to and from the coach station.
In Liverpool, the '08 Capital of Culture S1 shuttle circles the town centre, linking up the tourist spots and the transport terminals. Fortunately for me, Chinatown and the coach station are on its track and with the distinct lack of users of the bus this afternoon (not sure where all the tourists were - probably getting drenched on the red open-top bus instead), I ended up having my own private bus for my journey! Well worth the £1.50 fare.
However, it is Manchester that wins again on what is becoming a Manc vs Lpool theme in my blog posts. The Metroshuttle No 1 bus whizzed me from the coach station over to Deansgate, where I had to drop off some DVDs for a friend and then the No 2 bus took me back over to the bus stop where I get my bus home. All for the grand total of ZERO PENCE! Yup, it's absolutely free and I love it!!
Labels: buses