Bad news if you're a Vodafone shareholder, they've decided they already make enough profit and don't want to take any extra money from customers. Well, it least that's my experience.

I've finally upgraded to a 3G handset - a Nokia E51 since you ask - so rang up Vodafone to add a data package to my account. £7.50/month gets me 120MB, with the first month free. Within a few days it was obvious that 120MB doesn't go very far when you're using mobile apps and emails with attachments, so I looked on their website to see what else was available. £15/month for 3GB, that's more like it, so I rang them up:

V: Sorry, that can't be added to a phone contract, it is only available with a USB modem and as a seperate contract.
Me: But I don't need a USB modem, my phone is perfectly able to act as a modem.
V: A USB modem will be quicker than your phone.
Me: No it won't. (I checked afterwards, it won't.)
V: You won't need more than 120MB on your phone.
Me: I've been using it for 6 days and I've used 80MB, I'm guessing I probably will.
V: A USB modem would be better. Why wouldn't you use a laptop?
Me: Because I don't have a laptop with me all the time.

-- we went round in circles like this for a bit --

Me: Look, I want to give Vodafone an extra £90 a year, but it seems you don't want it.
V: We haven't got a tariff that lets us add the mobile data to a phone contract.
Me: [gives up]

So there we go, they're happy to turn down £90 a year from an existing customer because their system can't handle it. If I'm going to be forced down the route of taking out a seperate 3G contract, I'm as likely to go with another provider as I am Vodafone. If I'm not able to add the 3GB to my phone contract when it comes up for renewal in July I'll be moving to T-Mobile, who offer exactly what I'm after - a reasonable data allowance that I can use as I need it.

Wedding of the Year provides a central place to collect and share guests’ digital wedding photos in
five easy steps:

1) Purchase an online wedding album either for yourself or as a gift
Wedding of the Year will send out personalised cards to the wedding couple to include with their wedding invitations or thank you cards, and table cards to remind people on the day. The cards contain their unique guest log in details, chosen at registration.

2) Guests upload their digital photos
Using the instructions on the cards, guests log in to a guest area where they upload their favourite digital photos of the day. Only the wedding couple can view the uploaded photos prior to publishing their album.

3) Wedding couple review and edit their online wedding album
They can create categories, change the order of photos and add captions to really personalise their album. They can even delete photos they don’t want people to see!

4) Publish wedding album online
Once they are happy with their album, the wedding couple then publish it online and it remains live for twelve months from the wedding date, with the option to extend.

5) Guests view the album
The published album is then viewable by family and friends, including those who couldn’t be there on the day. Only guests with the unique guest log in details can view the album – they can also sign the online guestbook.

Wedding of the Year is also a real alternative to using disposable cameras at your wedding, as you get the benefit of photos taken throughout the day without the disadvantages of poor, grainy photos and a limited number of prints.

Of particular interest as I have family living in Evesham, albeit well out of harm's way. I was there for the Easter 1998 floods, but a roving reporter on the ground (my Mum) tells me these are worse.

There are a few photos of the floods on the BBC and Sky news sites, but as usual it's the blogs and forums that have the most extensive coverage.

A series of photos showing the rising water level:
5.12pm 20th July
6.28pm 20th July
8.03pm 20th July
5.51am 21st July

Some photographs on the ukworldweather forum. The helicopter shot on page 2 of this thread is as good as any you'll ever see in a newspaper:
Evesham Flood Rescue

More here at the Volkszone Forum:
More Flood Photos

A report by someone trapped in their riverside flat:
Trapped by the floods

And finally, a few photos taken by my Mother:

Terribly sorry, where are my manners. A perfectly good website here and a podcast that deserves promoting.

Not content with a radio show on a small, provincial station, Sony award-winning Danny Baker has gone global with a daily one hour(ish) podcast, the All Day Breakfast Show. Everything you'd expect from Danny, David Kuo, Baylen Leonard and Amy Lame, just without the news and travel getting in the way.

Visit the website, or subscribe to the show on iTunes.

I'm not usually a podcast kind of person - I don't own a portable MP3 player for a start - but I'll be making an exception for this.

Fancy some extra cash each month? Yes, me too. Most online bookmakers offer a free bet when you open an account with them, usually after having placed an initial qualifying bet. If you bet 'normally' with them you risk losing your qualifying bet and your free bet, ending up out of pocket.

Matched betting involves laying (hedging) your bets at a betting exchange so you always end up in profit, usually by about 90% of the free bet amount. I've been doing it for just a week, and with 2 free bets I've made just short of £30; by the end of tomorrow that should be around £40. Sure, it's not enough to retire on, but it will certainly help pay the bills.

The javascript calculator that I was alluding to in the previous post is a matched betting calculator, which tells you exactly how much you should be staking at the betting exchange.

Visit Matched Odds for more information, a step by step guide and to follow my progress.

Just me playing around with Javascript, although some people may find it useful. I have a much larger calculator-type page planned and this was just to warm up.

Mortgage Calculator