Presents received from my daughters:
A pair of slippers*
Various bags of sweets and chocolates

Presents received from my next-door neighbour:
Star Trek (2009) DVD

Presents received from the missus:
A radio-controlled indoor “mosquito” helicopter
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Alice in Sunderland by Bryan Talbot
Dexter season 3
Eureka season 2
Castle season 1
Various boxes of sweets and chocolates
Bye Bye Birdie by Shirley Hughes

The Doctor Who Christmas day special was a curious mix of the wonderful, the magnificent , the daft and the disappointing. I watched it on Christmas night, but the viewing was constantly interrupted by my daughter crying in bed, so I didn’t get as much from it as I should, so I revisited it the following evening. I was very disappointed by the first viewing, but it was much more enjoyable the second time around. John Simms evidently had a ball. His Master was constantly hungry, which perhaps goes some way to his chewing the scenery in every scene – it was wonderfully, gloriously over-the-top. Tennant’s Doctor, meanwhile, had a much quieter time of it, and his scene in the cafe with Wilf was a masterclass in understated performance. I suspect we’ll see more from him in his final episode next week. The only thing to truly spoil the episode for me was Murray Gold’s score, which was often intrusive, and which pulled focus from the on-screen action in a number of important scenes. Part of the blame for this should lie with the editor, of course, who chose to RAMP UP THE VOLUME whenever something interesting was happening.

*The slippers thing
I’d known for weeks that Verity had chosen slippers for me for Christmas as I’d mentioned my need for some, and that I’d intended buying some. She said – “Buy some after Christmas, Daddy” and then paused, turned to my wife and said “It’s so hard keeping a secret, Mummy.” So every few days I’d say something like “my feet are cold – I need some new slippers” only for her to repeat almost verbatim her previous comments. She wrapped both slippers separately, so on opening the first I was able to feign surprise and then delight that I only needed to buy one slipper! I couldn’t get my feet into them as they were stuffed with packets of sweets, so I pretended they were too small, which was again the cause of much hilarity.

The opening of the kids’ presents took a long time, and Verity was reasonably happy with the helmet we’d given her. “I suppose I can wear it when I’m on my scooter, until I get  a bike.” After lunch we brought out her main present. It’s pretty difficult wrapping a bicycle with stabilisers, you know! She started to unwrap it. “It’s a bicycle! And it has tassles on the handlebars! AND IT’S GOT A BABY SEAT FOR MY DOLL!”

Two very happy children, and all in all, the best Christmas in a long, long time.

I cancelled my Direct Debit (figuring it was easier to fight charges before payment, rather than try to get them back after payment) and sent them a letter.

I recently received a letter from T-Mobile confirming all the charges have been waived.

This was the letter I sent:

Dear sir/madam,

I have just returned from a weekend away in Montreal. While I was there, my telephone racked up around £950 of charges.

The first I knew of this was when I received a text message informing me that I was approaching my credit limit, and that I should make a payment to receive continued service. As I had sent a few texts and made one telephone call, as well as check my email (text only) on a small number of occasions, this did not unduly concern me. My bills have always been between £40 and £60 a month, so I naturally assumed that I had been assigned a credit limit of around £75 to £100.

You can imagine how surprised I was to discover when logging on that my bill was significantly over £700! £238 of this was added to the account the previous evening when I was busy hosting a party.

I immediately turned my telephone off, and switched it on only sporadically during the day to see if I had any texts waiting, immediately turning it off again, afterwards. During this time, my bill increased from over £700 to around £950.

I queried the bill, of course, by email, but was informed by one of your representatives that the amount billed was mainly due to downloads while abroad. As already mentioned, I checked my emails only very occasionally.

When I returned home from Montreal, I discovered that the service had been switched off completely, despite the fact that my calling plan has inclusive minutes/texts/web time.

On my return, I checked online to see if others had experienced this problem, and it appears that it is a known problem with this telephone, and one that T-Mobile have encountered many times before. Why, then, when I called T-Mobile before travelling, to ensure I could use my phone when abroad, was I not informed that my phone would be constantly polling the internet when I was away, racking up almost a thousand pounds worth of charges (the G1 does not come with a manual)? Why, also, was my credit limit set so ridiculously high, when normal usage on my account has always been within the £40-£60 a month range? Why, also, have I never been informed of my credit limit? If I had, I would have insisted it be reduced to a more sensible level.

I did not download a large quantity of data when abroad – my phone automatically did this without my knowledge. I do not expect to be billed for this usage – particularly as T-Mobile were aware that this was likely to happen, and chose not to inform me.

I also do not expect to be billed for the time when my service has been switched off (for both phones on my account).

I would be grateful, therefore, if you would re-issue my invoice with these excessive charges removed. If you choose not to do so (though a reasonable response would be to accept your error in this situation), please inform me of the next stage in the complaints process – I assume I will need to contact OFCOM and work through their complaints process.

I look forward to receiving your response.

Yours faithfully,

Lee Harris

and the moral of the tail? No matter how big the organisation, when right is on your side you should always fight and try to win.

It’s a damn, damn shame, as it was a mighty fine magazine. In his official press release, Editor-In-Chief Matt “Did you know I set up SFX?” Bielby hints that all might not be lost, that the magazine (and its sister title, Film Star) might be back in the future.

I, for one, hope this happens. I am truly sorry to hear of its demise, though in the current economic climate, I’m not holding out much hope for its return – a magazine such as this relies on advertising revenue to stay afloat, and fewer businesses are buying advertising these days.

It’s a sad day, and I’ll be drinking a toast to the good ship Blackfish, and all who sailed in her.