Another little task in town was to get my daughter a mobile phone and upgrade mine since my contract is now a year old. I wanted the Sony Ericsson T610 with the camera phone but I wasn't prepared to pay anything for it.

When I got to the shop, however, it appeared that, since I don't make many calls, T-mobile wanted to charge me £75 upgrade plus £100 for the phone. That's absurd and I told the guy so. He agreed but said I could switch providers, keep my own number and get the phone I wanted for free.

Fan-bloody-tastic. That'll show them. However, I needed to talk to them to confirm that I was me at which point the woman proceeded to negotiate. In the end I persuaded her to waive the upgrade. As the salesman started to sort it out, we found that the T-mobile woman hadn't waived the cost of the phone and it would still cost me another £100. I should coco!

So, we went throught the process again and now I had to choose between O2 and Vodafone. Vodafone was a little cheaper per month, but since Vodafone sponsor ManU and O2 sponsor Arsenal, I found myself unable to go for Vodafone. I felt a little silly revealing this to the salesman, but he admitted himself that he'd never go with Vodafone for the same reason.

I thought that was funny and indicative of the strength of feeling amongst football supporters in this country. It also made me think that in a lot of ways, team sponsorship may very well be counterproductive.

Happy ending though. The T610 is very groovy and although I'm unlikely to send MMS to anyone, I rather like the idea of carrying yet another little camera.