Christmas cards

My daughter is delighted. She received loads of Christmas cards from her friends and teachers - for the first time in her life.

We didn't receive that many cards. With the advent of email and e-greeting cards, I guess the tradition of sending cards on festive occasions is slowly dying. It may be the environmentally friendly way as well but I sometimes do miss receiving loads of cards during festive occasions.

What most males dread

My fate one day

Apart from impotence, I think the other thing that most males dread is the upward creep of their hairline as they get older. Some men lose it later, others much earlier. There are various reasons we lose our hair including medical conditions as well as bad diet and stress. However, the main reason appears to be androgenetic, also known as male-pattern baldness, caused by hormones called androgens and genetics.

I would be lying if I said that I wasn't concerned as well. It's in my blood. A guest who was invited to one of our family reunions remarked that most of the men in our family - from grandfather, to uncles and sons, looked similar. I pointed out that it probably might be their shiny heads. Some had even shaved it to a fashionable bald look. Even though I still have a thick tuft of hair in place, I know it will be gone one day or the other.

Anyway, it's kind of comforting as I look around my classroom to find out that I am actually doing quite well in that area as compared to some of my colleagues. I guess a PhD does that to people. The topic did come up once in a while and the issue of treatment was often discussed. It was clear that some had even tried various potions and so called miracle drugs without any success. I guess we sort of agreed that hair transplant might be a more effective solution.

Is there any hope?

Monday morning blues

Or should I say red?

Woke up this morning to find this...


(that's frost on the windows)

Like a lot of people in the UK, we usually park our car by the pavement or the sidewalk, as it is known in the US. Well, someone broke the side view mirror on the left of our car.

Must be one of those B"£$%^& kids on the way to school.

Later went to my favourite garage here in Coventry - Taxi & car repairs on Stony Stanton road. Isfaq, the owner of the garage, fixed it for free. Thanks a lot.

Scotland trip cancelled

We were all set to spend a week in Scotland. Had a cottage booked, serviced the car and even bought snow suits for any eventuality - we were hoping that it might snow over there. However, it appears that we won't be able to go. My son is teething - he has four new teeth coming out and is in a great deal of pain. He is not eating and drinking much and we were quite worried when he came down with fever day before yesterday

We had hoped that he would get better by today but that was not to be. He's in a bad mood the whole day and it really breaks my heart to see him grimacing with pain. So we finally decided to cancel the trip. A call to a friend also confirmed our fears - that the money won't be refunded.

It was a bit of a downer but I tried to look at the bright side - we saved on fuel and other expenditure and it's probably too cold to enjoy ourselves over there. A case of sour grapes, I know but it certainly helps us feel better a bit.

Financing a car

One of our friends was recounting how they bought a car and to finance it, took out a loan. The interesting thing was that their decision was based on the advise of the salesman at the dealer where they bought the car. According to them, the salesman made it sound so attractive and that they were the best deal around. However, as they later found out, that was really not the case.

It's not surprising as I also financed my previous car - Proton, with a bank recommended by the dealership. Talking to a few other friends also confirmed the same thing. That is apart from a few other guys who were wiser because of prior experience. They had done their research and went with a lender that gave them the best deal.

It's amazing with a wealth of information at our fingertips on the web we still depend on the salespeople at dealerships for our financing. There are numerous sources on the web that can provide comparisons between the various offers available.

If you are looking to finance car purchases, do check out the the car finance section of the Motors Today (http://www.motorstoday.co.uk) website. They have links and information relating to loans, insurance and a link to HPI, a UK Company specialised in checking the histories of used cars.

They also a car tax calculator that will show the tax payable for the next three years. As for insurance, the company has paired up with Money Supermarket so that you can instantly compare quotes from leading UK motor insurers.

Reconnected finally

I have a big grin from ear to ear as I am writing this.

As you might have guessed, we are finally connected to the net from home. This is the first post I am making using the TalkTalk broadband connection.

The modem and the installation CD came by post today morning. The modem was fairly easy to set up but I was not really keen on setting up a network with wires in the house. It took me a while to figure out but I later realised that I actually didn't need the installation CD to connect to the net after all. All I had to do was reconfigure our old Netgear wireless router with the new user ID and password, which by the way, TalkTalk had already sent over sometime back.

Kick myself on the backside a few time

I will be posting the technical details in my SEO Expert blog.

Haven't checked the speed as yet but it definitely feels much faster than our old AOL broadband connection. Incidentally, both AOL broadband and TalkTalk are part of the Carphone Warehouse Group PLC.

3 Skypephone competition

I lot of guys have been asking me about the 3 Skypephones. Well I have some great news from you. The guys at 3mobilebuzz.com are running a competition. The winner stand to win not one but three 3 Skypephones, the second place gets two and third place gets one.

Also, two devices will be awarded to the blog that refers the winning entry. So, I may win too if you name me as your referrer.

All you have to do is say why you want a 3 Skypephone – and this is not limited to bloggers. It can be a forum thread, a webpage, a set on Flickr or even a YouTube video. Check out the the clip below:

It depends on your creativity. However, the content should be original.

Finally, one more thing - don't forget to inform Jack (the hallowed keeper of prizes, enforcer of rules and judge of all) about your entry by emailing him at Jack@3mobilebuzz.com

The deadline for submissions is midday on Monday 17th December

Check out the post on the 3mobilebuuz.com site for more details: "3mobilebuzz is running a competition!"