Found this article which is both practical and funny. I might try some of these next time, which I am sure won’t be too far away:

Banish annoying sales calls forever

I for one am very glad that Orange has threatened EasyGroup’s proposal to launch EasyMobile with the obligatory orange branding.

Stelios told reporters “I am confident we have the right to use the colour orange and I’m going to enforce that in court if I have to. I believe the only motivation of Orange in making these threats is because they are afraid of competition,”

Interesting, given that EasyGroup has spent the last few years threatening a large number of legitimate Internet users who own “easy� domain names. What is EasyGroup afraid of in these instances?

At one level, it’s just as daft to try to trademark a colour – orange - as it is to trademark a word – easy. However, there are differences. The EasyMobile orange branding could be more closely linked with Orange mobile branding than someone owning the domain ‘easycrap.com’ being associated with EasyGroup (hmm, on second thoughts)

Stelios’ entrepreneurialism is to be applauded, but some of his tactics are certainly not. I hope Orange do not back down on this one.

I have had intermittent pain in my ear for the last few days and it’s getting annoying now. I have done all sorts of research into what it could be.

I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a mixture of:

• Poor sinuses - my throat is a bit gooey now though it wasn’t to start with.
• Over-vigorous ear cleaning - cotton buds, water et al - silly boy.
• Neck and shoulder stiffness - my right-hand side has been quite stiff or tender recently and that seems to have an effect.

I’ve been taking pain killers and today have taken some Sudafed (I’m on the sinus theory at the moment) which seems to be working a little bit (only took it an hour ago though). This morning some yucky stuff came out of my ear and I am not sure if it was wax or pus - but anyway - sorry.

Hopefully this won’t last much longer - it’s annoying me.

More for my benefit so I can find it when I get home, but you might like it too.

Keyboard Yoga: neck and shoulders

Wow it’s been over two weeks since I last posted anything on my blog.

Here’s brief highlights of what I’ve been up to in that time:

1. Turned 30: Yep, I am now in my fourth decade. Had a fairly quiet and refined 30th two Saturday’s ago - a meal at Pizza Organic (used to be Pizza Piazza) in Kingston with about 15 friends. Very good.
2. Holiday for two weeks: Time away from the office for Julie and I. We didn’t go away anywhere for any length of time, mainly because we can’t leave the cats for long, they wouldn’t like going into a cattery, and we don’t have anyone who can come in and look after them. Also just nice to be around and not have to be a tourist somewhere.
3. Visited Julie’s parents: Went to Bristol with one intention of Chris and Sue buyinig us our wedding present - they have wanted to get us something for some time but we haven’t known what we wanted. In the end we picked a lovely moonlit seascape picture and frame from John Lewis in Bristol.
4. Got broadband: Almost by chance, was called by someone from Netvigator. Usually I don’t have any time for unsolicited sales calls but I stuck this one out and we now have wireless broadband. It was a shock moving from broadband back to dialup after the wedding and move, so it’s great to have it back.
5. Got iPod mini: Yep, finally got my hands on a mini iPod. Tried to buy one in the shops a couple of weeks ago not realising there was some major waiting list. Who should have stocks of all people but PC World. Don’t like to admit buying too much stuff from PC World, but on this occasion I’ll make an exception. I love my iPod!
6. Created a proper study and art room: We have separated our two computers and I now have a proper study and Julie has an art room (we now only have one official bedroom!). I’ve even wireless-networked the two computers together. Eek!
7. Tours: We’ve also toured down to the south coast a few times - Chichester, Arundel, Selsey and so on. Very nice to get away from Aldershot even for just a couple of days at a time.

Well that’s all for now. Back to work tomorrow and will probably be back on form with blog entries.

Sorry, I’ve missed a few weeks. Here we are again, though.

1. Sting: Bee
2. BMW: Germany
3. Jeremy: Nick MacDonald
4. Audacious: Cheeky
5. Drag Queen: Lily Savage
6. Title: Heading
7. Stamp: Foot
8. Bad: Evil
9. Snow White: Seven Dwarves
10. Delegate: Pass on

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