Fun New Things

Well it's been a busy-ish week. On Tuesday I went to SCM and on Wednesday I got my brand spanking new Samsung Galaxy S4. I love it. No doubt I'm not even using close to it's capabilities yet ... but it's so pretty and works so well. Has been ages since I was so happy with a phone upgrade ;)

Although I remain skeptical about the move to Cell C. I moved because they have a better deal for the price (although that may now all end up being a moot point since we're hoping to install adsl at home fairly soon ... in fact, the Telkom landline installation is scheduled for today). But regardless, I switched from Vodacom, which I have been on from day one.

The initial service wasn't great ... I popped into the Cell C store on Monday afternoon to find out what I needed. I had to wait ages just to speak to someone. There seem to only be 3 people who work at this store in Northgate and mostly they seem flooded. Anyway, on Tuesday I went back, armed with the necessary and signed up. With the intention of them activating the port on my account on Thursday (01 August). But on Wednesday morning I called Vodacom to find out when exactly my contract with them would be ending and apparently they'd already switched me to pre-paid. These days with WiFi at home and work, it's barely noticeable when you actually can't use your phone to phone (I mean who does that anymore? Haha).

So I called Cell C later (when they opened at 9am) and said they could go ahead and start the port and I would collect my phone after work. Yippee yay!

So when I called just before leaving work, it turns out they hadn't even started the port ... rushed off their feet, short staffed, so busy. They'd do it for me later today and I could collect my phone tomorrow.

I decided that was nonsense. Surely if I went into the store, I could take my 10 minutes as their customer and they could do it then, I could still get my fancy new phone and it could port overnight. Winning.

So I did that. It only took me an hour at the store (again, with the same 3 staff members I'd seen on ever visit before - no idea how many they usually have). And by the time I left there was barely any standing space left in the store it was so crowded with people waiting for attention. One staff member was tied up by a single customer who had apparently been there for 2 hrs trying to get her billing issue resolved.

Anyhow. Glad I'd done my paper work in advance, I just had to wait while they had multiple attempts to put thru my port ... the first staff member was just a trainee and the second time the system hung.

But I took home the phone and on WiFi I could get everything set up and start playing :) Sadly I lost a bunch of my contacts ... I think in retrospect it's because they were stored on my old Sim and not on the phone perhaps (because I didn't lose everyone). But now I've finished cleaning up and setting up who I actually want. A clean-up is always good :) This weekend I'll finish by moving the content (photos etc. from the old S2). I also need to find myself a suitable case for it before Oppi! Any suggestions welcome. Am not 100% sold on the Flip Cover .... although for Oppi perhaps what I need is a ziplock bag for the phone, cover and all o_O haha.

On Wednesday evening we headed to Indulgence Cafe with @clairam and @obitadicta for a Beer Tasting event by League of Beers.What a great evening!

I'd never been to (or even heard of) Indulgence Cafe before, but it's quite a cute little spot ... would not be out of place in Riebeck West! The food (by Lollipops Catering) was a selection of curries. Man, the Green Curry was good, made me wonder why I haven't had any in ages! Haha.

And then the drinking began in earnest. I think what League of Beers could've benefited from was perhaps print-outs for each patron with a list of the beers they were tasting, a scorecard even ... Or just to have a shelf up somewhere showing each bottle. I decided to make my own so that we all knew what we were drinking currently and could compare it, knowing exactly what we'd drunk previously. Plus it looked damn cool by the end :)




Okay so I pretty much already know I'm not an avid beer drinker. But I have enjoyed the craft beer festivals this year immensely. This is a little different. And I didn't enjoy many of the beers. I love the Darling Brew Bone Crusher (a well known fact). And the best I can say about the rest is I think I might try the &Union lager (2nd) and the Clarens Brewery English Ale (4th) again ... And it was very clear that I am not an IPA fan AT ALL.

No . 8, my favourite <3 @DarlingBrew Bone Crusher: wins hands down on both the label and the flavour! @leagueofbeers
— phillygirl (@philly_girl) July 31, 2013

Anyway, we had a great evening :) I highly recommend trying one of these just for the experience ... since it is different to a Craft Beer festival as you taste everything and you might find something you like you wouldn't have tried before? They have another event on this evening at one of my favourite restaurants, Eatery JHB, and it looks like there are 2 tickets left :)

I worked from home again yesterday and we had Mom's Mac 'n Cheese (we'd frozen a dish when she was up here) for dinner.