Sucked in ...

First of all I would like to thank all of you who have owned up to the frilly knickers. You are all complete liars ...

Sorry for not posting yesterday (this pledge is harder to keep than a New Year's resolution!) but as as it is still before 9.00am I figure it sort of counts.

After a long day's shoot for our TV pilot yesterday (more of this anon), my Beloved and I decided that a nice relaxing night at home was in order. A glass of wine, something to eat and an evening watching movies was the go - but what to watch?

Despite the vast array of titles in our DVD library we were keen to watch something new and my Beloved, trawling through the internet, found the perfect solution. A LEGAL site offering free downloads of recent films! To the computer, of course, but an excellent solution was soon found.

Place laptop on bed, plug in speakers, snuggle up and bob's your auntie! Better than a drive in and certainly far more commodious and comfortable than the old panelvan in which some of us (not me, of course) used to frequent such places.

We chose "Get Smart" and were soon giggling away to the antics of Max and 99. Fabulous!

Except that half way through the movie the action stopped and the following message was displayed:

"You have now watched 72 minutes of this film and reached your download limit. Please wait 54 minutes to continue watching, or click here to join up and enjoy unlimited access."

What the ...?

Now there is a marketing ploy. Don't pull this stunt 5 or 10 minutes into the movie when you might well just abandon the whole thing and go back to the DVD library. No - wait until you're well engrossed and then impart this vital tidbit of information.

So what did we do, you may ask? Well of course we signed up, didn't we!

Of course this was not as easy as it sounds. Payment (and actually it was a very reasonable fee) was through PayPal with which I have an account. Except that I hadn't changed my profile to reflect my new email address, nor had I updated my expired Visa card details.

So get glasses. Go to PayPal. Update email address. Run to other computer to click on the confirmation email to activate changes. Refresh. Time elapsed - 24 minutes.

Grab wallet. Update credit card details. Run to other computer to click on second confirmation email. Refresh. Time elapsed - 42 minutes.

Whew - so glad we saved that 12 minutes and could get back to our film!