AnneMarriott

Sad to say but Osipova but won't now be doing any of her autumn performances due to injury. For R & J she's replaced by Sarah Lamb. This is from a Friends email today.

Edited to add:

Sorry this is old news - just seen the Ballet News forum!

Dear Bruces both, I am suitably chastened and as a semi retired photo/journalist I should know better. I just wanted to read the article about Christopher Hampson as I am a great supporter of his works.

Well I read the Christopher Hampson article with no trouble at all - and I'm definitely not a subscriber to the paper. All very curious!

Bad news Anne.  Hope you get it sorted.

 

Thanks, Janet. I've been at the other end of this sort of thing several times in the past and now I know what it feels like to be the "perpetrator".

Password already changed as a knee-jerk reaction, but thanks for the reassurance and good advice, John.

Bruce got the mystery email but the sender address wasn't mine so he doesn't think my yahoo account was hacked. I was probably worrying unnecessarily but better to be safe than sorry.

What a nuisance all this sort of thing is becoming. As I have said on many previous occasions, I HATE technology.

If anyone has received an email purporting to come from me in the past 24 hours containing just a link DO NOT OPEN - delete!

Sorry for the drama but I want as many people as possible to be aware, just in case.

News reaches me of:

 

Someone in America injured by his own bullet which ricocheted off an armadillo...

 

and an elephant-hunter in Africa who has been trampled by the elephant he was trying to shoot.

 

I would say "Serves you right", but I don't really need to, do I?

Definitely try charging it up first - flat battery was my first mistake. Then expect a message telling you to switch to EE and good luck from there on. Yaffa will be able to help you in the absence of a semi-techie husband!

[quote name="Sunrise" post="137229" timestamp="1437468143"

Anne I sympathise - I was on PAYG Orange too before they were swallowed up by EE. It's been a rubbish experience since. There's always some network problem so I can't top up or log in, but I can't call customer services without credit, so I have to go for days sometimes without the ability to call anyone. I'm desperate to switch to another network, but my boyfriend is on EE on a long contract so I'm stuck on it too just to benefit from a few free minutes.

My goodness - that's really awful. I really sympathise! Just thanking my lucky stars that I waved Orange/EE/T-mobile goodbye ...

Maybe we should start another thread called 'Smartphone joys'…

I shan't be contributing!

Update: after a lot of tears, tantrums and torn-out hair, and thanks to the kind advice given above as well as to my wonderful husband who understands how these things work, I now have a new mobile phone and a new service provider.

I haven't been able to retrieve the credit from my old phone, which is a sadness because I had hoped to donate it to charity.

So the three things I have learned from this experience are firstly not to load up too much credit, secondly to use the phone to make a pointless call every month and thirdly not to believe a word they tell you in mobile phone shops!

Update on my tale of woe: called into the T-mobile/Orange/EE shop which thankfully opened only 15 minutes after opening time so the four other customers and I didn't have too long to wait. The five-year old girl who served me was clearly astonished to learn of my lack of interest in anything other than making and receiving calls.

The upshot of my query is that (a) I can't have the service I used to have and ( I can't have a refund of any credit and © coup de grace, my phone has been deactivated because I haven't used it and it can't be reactivated.

I declined the offer of buying another phone "with top-up" and came home sadder but not much wiser.

I seem to have introduced a little face above. It should read (. As I have already said, I HATE technology.

The other comment Anne is that credit does have a time limit so you may not be able to get a refund.....

Oh well that just takes the biscuit!

EE did take over Orange but if you call the helpline you should be able to get back to a normal pay as you go that you had before with Orange.  My youngest still has a pay as you go mobile with them, although I 'upgraded' as they offered me a deal on a monthly plan so I now pay less than I used to spend.  I doubt you can do this online as I know they are converting all orange accounts slowly onto the EE system but you should be able to phone and get your phone account restored to what it was.

I haven't been able to achieve anything online or get anywhere with the help line. I'm going into the local shop tomorrow to throw myself on their mercy. If the worst comes to the worst I'll ask for the considerable credit remaining to be refunded, throw the phone away and start again.

I just HATE technology.

It's confusing. Orange, T-Mobile and EE are the same group though I think they offer slightly different services. I don't use my mobile often and have an EE plan called Talk and Text for which I pay £1 a week and get 35 mins of calls and 50 texts. Seems good value.

The trouble is I only use the phone once in a blue moon so I don't want any predetermined minutes of calls or texts, I just want to pay for the one call I may make in six months or so. It may seem miserly but I am reluctant to pay for 35 minutes of calls I don't make!

Try Giff-Gaff.  DD has used this for some time.  There are various options some of which are very cheap.

Thanks for this - I'll investigate.

Until yesterday I was happy in the possession of a simple Orange pay-as-you-go mobile phone. Then I gave my mobile number to an organisation offering to provide quotes for decorating but the promised call to validate my number failed to appear.  When I tried to investigate it turns out that Orange has handed its service to something called EE (or is it ee?) and neither Bruce nor I have managed to fathom out how to get reconnected on the same terms as Orange provided.  So I now have a mobile phone that doesn't receive calls!  And only makes them intermittently, to boot. 

I don't want to take photographs or play games or check my bank balance or send emails.  I don't want any packages or apps, nor do I even want to text - all I want is a mobile phone that makes and receives calls.  Is that really too much to ask?

Brilliant.  They force us to get in before office hours open (if we want decent tickets) and then we get "Server Error: Service Unavailable (503)"

 

Seriously not impressed.  And every time I try adding anything to my shopping basket I get "There was a problem with your request.  Unknown error".  Very helpful.  It's not as if it was only the Osipova/Muntagirov R&Js, either - it's been every performance I've tried.  I've had to watch tickets disappearing from under my nose while I can't get at them.  Rubbish. 

Oh dear, Alison - I genuinely feel your pain..  I got the Server Error once when trying to speed up the turning circle, but went back again and to my astonishment and delight got two Stalls Circle standing for Osipova/Muntagirov R & J.  I'm still in shock!  It was the only thing I was booking for so am well pleased (sorry to sound as if I'm crowing ...)

Looks intriguing.

Did nobody attend the first night - dying to hear impressions ...

Thanks, Fiz - got it.

Ye gods, MAB - what on earth is the hidden meaning of Pale Azure (euphemism just to be on the safe side). And I can't imagine what you christened your daughter, Fiz!

Sorry to be dim, but what is bot-voting? Until recently I was unaware of the amount of bile washing around on the Internet and having happened upon an example I now do my best to avoid contact with it. There must be an awful lot of unhappy and frustrated people in the world judging by the loopy, self-righteous and sometimes downright cruel comments masquerading as contributions to online discussions.

P.S. I once made the mistake of googling "Naughty Sophia" because I wanted to try to trace a piece of music used as the theme tune to a Children's Hour drama based on a novel by that name and broadcast several decades ago. I got a rude shock at some of the links that came up. I wish some of that had been blocked too.

Can I put utility companies into Room 101? I changed gas and electricity tarriffs with SSE/Atlantic in April and have been expecting a request for meter readings. Heard nothing so checked online. Somewhat dismayed to find that the supply address (Windsor) is correct (address where we've lived for 32 years) but the billing address is for my father's house in Ipswich. He died in 2000. 20 Minutes listening to muzak interspersed with a collection of recorded messages, then more minutes on hold while the assistant kindly dealt with my query.It's been sorted out - but that won't stop me checking again in a few days just to be on the safe side. Dreadful visions of some poor innocent soul in Ipswich receiving a large bill for eneergy use by a person they've never heard of living in Berkshire.

Period 1 (autumn) booking went smoothy this mornhing, even a welcome smattering of stalls circle standing for some performances. Osipova/Muntagirov R & J tickets were disappearing before my eyes and I had no luck there, ditto first night of the Viscera/Carmen etc mixed bill. Otherwise pretty satisfactory.

Into Room 101 - (quietly livid about this because I've been backed into a corner regarding ferrying relatives about, and which now also means I will now spend more than 5 hours driving on the day instead of being able to enjoy myself):

 

Other people's weddings.

Not strictly Room 101 but your tiny grump about driving relatives to weddings reminded me of an incident decades ago when my brother and I were dispatched to pick up an elderly distant relative for a cousin's wedding.  We drove to the address and found an elderly lady, smartly turned out, waiting anxiously on the pavement.  She answered happily to "Auntie Vera?" and we bundled her and her walking frame into the car.  .  Next day the bride's mother rang to ask who she was.  Poor Auntie Vera missed the wedding but on the plus side her inadvertent stand-in had a lovely time at the reception...

I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I really hope you get the chance to experience it again, despite the wind and the aching back. If it helps, next time try to get in early and bag yourself a spot right up against the stage so you can lean on it - but beware being involved in the action if you do!

Yes, we'll be there - and very much looking forward to it.