We got down there and Bournemouth was absolutely heaving. People clambering for their little space to watch the fireworks.

Everyone was asked to do a countdown shortly after the advertised time of 9:30pm. When we got to zero. Nothing happened. So the tannoy asked us to count down again. We counted down again. This time there was a crappy firework display for around 5 mins. I’ve seen better fireworks at Ashdown school on bonfire night!!!!!!!

Then came the record attempt. What a load of crap the barge lit up light a sparkler for around 2 seconds. Was so quick I couldn’t even get my camera up to take a pic. Then the boat caught on fire!!!

Either something went seriously wrong or it was badly marketed and peoples expectations weren’t met!!!!

Even their logo on their website indicates rockets. How much did this display cost to us the tax payer?

A quote from the Bournemouth Website says

Set to be a heart-pounding, roaring, glowing, explosive event like no other – the launch of 110,000 fireworks in 60-seconds or less.. ‘Roar on the Shore’ is set to rock Bournemouth on Thursday 20th August 2009 at 9.30pm.

I’ll post some pics when I can be bothered as I didn’t get many as there wasn’t many good ones!!!

* UPDATE *
If you weren’t there I found a good vid on youtube that shows you the amazing record attempt.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Bet you wish you were there now.

The Bournemouth Echo is saying that the night was a success. Dunno which beach they were on!!!!

Click Read more to see the email I sent him.

Steve,

The iPhone is a truly revolutionary product. I love the feel of it and am proud to show it to my friends. However, I thought I would send you this email to tell you about my experiences and what I believe to be the downside of it.

I bought a 3G iPhone shortly after they were released over here in the UK. Shortly after getting it I was browsing the web in safari, updating my profile in Facebook and playing Tap Tap Revenge on the train. All was going well until I started using the phone features in the iPhone.

Since Apple is new to mobile phones the general public do not know a lot about their phones and features. I feel that others like me make assumptions about what features will be on it. These assumptions are made from phones they have previously owned like Nokias and Sony Erricsons.
Let me start by listing the features and then letting you know how easy they would be for someone to implement. The features I believe the iPhone is missing are :-

1) Forwarding of SMS Messages.
2) Sound Profiles
3) Picture Messaging

Forwarding of SMS Messages

This is the feature that I miss most on the iPhone. All of my friends get sent funny jokes etc by text. It is then very common to forward these onto your friends. How hard would this feature be to implement?

My idea would be that when you load the SMS program and see the speech bubbles with the texts in. You would tap your finger on the message and a popup would then appear asking if you would like to forward it. A new screen would then appear asking you to select the recipients.

Also allowing people to forward texts would also generate extra revenue for mobile providers.

Sound Profiles

I use my iPhone in conjunction with my work exchange server. Push email is fantastic. Being able to read emails as soon as they hit the server is a great advantage in mobile working.

With SPAM mail so prominent on the internet and companies emailing you newsletters every hour of the day , it is highly frustrating that you cant setup sound profiles like you can on Nokias etc.

There is nothing more annoying than getting woken up in the middle of the night by your iPhone mail alert, checking your emails and finding out its an email from Apple informing me about the new range of iPod Touch’s.

I could flick the silent switch on the side of the iPhone but then I don’t want to miss important phone calls that might come in when I’m on call.

With my nokia n73 I could setup various sound profiles. I would set it up like below :-

Daytime

Ringtone – Maximum Volume
SMS Alert – Maximum Volume
Mail Alert – Maximum Volume

Nighttime

Ringtone – Maximum Volume
SMS Alert – Silent
Mail Alert – Silent

Train

Ringtone – Low Volume
SMS Alert – Low Volume
Mail Alert – Low Volume

With the iPhone, I have to go into settings and change all the options manually. Surely it wouldn’t be hard to implement this. All the other phones do it.

With firmware 2.1 you have added the facility to turn off individual alerts, but still I have to do this manually. Ideally you would like premade profiles which would change all the settings for you.

Picture Messaging

After doing a bit of searching on google I found an article which said that the reason why this wasn’t implemented on the iPhone was due to the small demand in the USA. In the UK however there is a demand and it would be nice to have this feature added.

O2 send a text to you taking you to a website to view the picture. This is just so old fashioned. When I tell people I cant send them a picture from it they are just so surprised.

Conclusion

The apple iPhone is a fantastic gadget but I believe Apple has concentrated on making it browse the web, play your music, and use 3rd party applications that they have negelected the key phone features. After all the iPhone is a phone, it even has phone in its name!!

So please can you take note of what I have said in this email and implement these key features.

Another fine example of their great service. NOT!

I’ll post a picture of it in a week.

I received an email back from interflora’s customer services. Surprise suprise that noone rang me. The email they sent me is basically one they must send out to the masses if they complain

I write in regard to your recent e-mail in which you brought to our attention your dissatisfaction with your Interflora order and please accept my sincere apologies for the time it has taken to reply to you.

I was sorry to learn of the complaint concerning the quality of the item delivered by our courier and would like to apologise for any disappointment caused to you and the recipient by this situation.

As it is the purpose of Interflora to provide a product that will bring pleasure we will arrange, in accordance with our Customer Satisfaction Guarantee for a full refund to your card, this should take 3-5 working days to show on your statement.
We would like to thank you for taking the time and trouble to bring this matter to our attention and allowing us the opportunity to acknowledge your disappointment on this occasion. Please be assured that all complaints made against our member florists and products delivered are logged and used for the ongoing assessments, to ensure that all Interflora florists are providing the service and quality products expected by Interflora and our customers.
Thank you for taking the time and trouble to bring this matter to our attention and please accept my apologies for the disappointment caused to you on this occasion.

Kind Regards Laurence
Ecommerce Customer Services

Interflora Customer Services
Interflora British Unit
Tel: 0870 904 5459
Fax: 01529 413 886

You think they would offer to resend the flowers as well but oh no they dont. S**t company and will never order from them again. Lets hope loads of people googleing “Interflora” come here and read this before they order. Stick with local florists, much better service!!

However this is what they looked like when my wife opened the box (Click To Enlarge):-

I have emailed Interflora and Phoned them (But was engaged!!). Lets see what response I get.

A friend of mine recommended them after he bought a 2nd hand xbox from them. My purchase from them was far from smooth.

I purchased an official XBOX VGA cable from their online store. 24 Hours later I had still received nothing from them with regards to my order. Not even an email saying “Order Received”. So I decided to pick up the phone and ring them on 0845 345 1664. Spoke to some bloke who put me on hold and then went off for ages. He eventually came back and said that my order had been cancelled as they couldn’t find the stock in the store. NICE!!!!

So I thought that was it. You can imagine my amazement when a day later I received an email saying that my order has been dispatched. This was on the 22nd of May. A few days later the goods had still not arrived. So I rung them again. I was told on the phone that the goods were definately dispatched on the 22nd. So I waited a few more days.

Eventually on the 29th May I received my cable. Now 2 things annoyed me when the item finally arrived.

1) Postmark was for the 26th May (So was never posted on the 22nd May)
2) The goods were not even the right one!!! (It was a XBOX 360 Scart cable not VGA!!!)

So again I got on the blower. Told them I just want a refund!!! He said post the goods back and we will do it. So I posted em back and got a full refund. They didn’t even refund me any of my postage. Bastards!!!

Anyway, my advice is stay well clear.