fscked.co.uk

Mobile data in the UK

Three’s rates are ridiculously cheap. We have friends of Danielle’s from America staying next week so I had a quick look to see how much it would cost to get them some basic cell service for their visit. They have HTC smartphones of some type, although I don’t yet know if they are carrier-locked. Hopefully not, so I can just swap their SIM card over to a UK one when they arrive.

I can get a pre-pay SIM card for free — well, actually for £10 with £10 of credit preloaded. That £10 of credit can buy a bundle of 500 MB of data, 100 minutes of voice, and 3000 SMS messages — all valid for 30 days. So that’s easily enough to cover their entire visit. For a tenner! And Three are by no means unique — I can similar deals from at least six different companies (our main networks Vodafone, O2, Orange and T-mobile, and some MVNO services like giffgaff and Tesco).

Feel free to try and work out how much this would cost on AT&T in the US and how much hassle it would be to buy. I’ve been around this loop when trying to make my unlocked iPhone work in the USA; it’s a pain in the arse and costs far, far more. This is because your mobile telecommunications market is fucked, America. The hippy-dippy European GSM patent-pooling business model won out over the ruthless American CDMA-style ruthless business model, and this is the proof.

Achievement unlocked: booked a honeymoon

Danielle found the hotel and this evening I have:

• renewed my UK driving licence
• found and booked flights
• found and booked car hire
• booked an airport hotel for the night before
• unblocked my credit card after my bank’s trigger-happy fraud department blocked it
• booked airport parking
• pondered how much I hate travel websites (recall that I write travel websites for a living…)
• ordered a pre-paid currency Mastercard (gives a better exchange rate than using my normal bank card)
• mooted the purchase of a second Kindle so we’d have one each
• filled all the pertinent details into TripIt

Phew. And I still have travel insurance to figure out, which is a barrel of fun because of my pulmonary embolism.

My weekend ahead, in food

1. for tonight: I’m going to the pub to see my friend the Egg, so it’s something quick and easy. Chicken portions with stuffing and wrapped in bacon (pre-made by my butcher), with tenderstem broccoli and corn on the cob (both steamed).
2. for tomorrow: my butcher had a deal on pork tenderloin, so I bought some off-brand bourbon ¹ and I’m going to try my hand at a barbeque sauce, which I’ll use to slow-roast the pork in with onions (also inspired by Robin reminding me of the excellent time she made this for me and Danielle). Served with some sort of cajun rice concoction I haven’t worked out the details for yet.
3. for Sunday: toad in the hole (which I’ve been obsessing about since my sister tweeted about it) with roast potatoes, peas (dammit I should have bought some fresh mint) and gravy (probably instant though).

Gentlemen ², start your digestion!

If any of this turns out well, there’ll be posts on Objection: Salad!. If you see no posts, assume the food was a disaster.