My latest competition win arrived today and has been added to my list of 2009 competition wins. It's an Anthony Worral Thompson Breadmaker from the Gadgetspeak website advent calendar comp.

According to the invoice enclosed with it it's worth around £100. A nice win. It's going to get some use to. My wife made some pate (following Jamie Olivers recipe from last week) and it is going to taste even better on some fresh home made bread.

We just need some time now to look at the instructions and work out what to do. Time is in very short supply at the moment as our toddler seems to get more of a handful with each passing day. At the same time I'm moving all of our family bank accounts from Lloyds TSB and it's taking a lot of time and effort to get it all sorted.

Unfortunately Lloyds TSB have let me down badly. I was with them for around 15 years but this apparently counts for nothing with them. Nor does the fact that during this time I paid all of my bills with them for loans, credit cards and mortgages on time by direct debit.

I'm still trying to sort out problems with my mortgage with them after several weeks in which they appear to have forgotten I exist. It will end up with a formal complaint being made and, ultimately, I will be moving the mortgage elsewhere too.

They are not only losing my accounts but those of my son and wife too. Don't suppose they care much, although they should do judging by the empty branch this morning when I went in. Only one other customer in, I've never seen it that quiet before. Clearly others are being treated in a similarly appalling manner and leaving in their droves!

Once you lose a customer in that way you will never get them back. I certainly won't be using Lloyds or any of their subsidiary companies again.

Good service on the other hand should be rewarded. I recently wrote about a good experience with Virgin Mobile. As a result I've upgraded my phone with them and taken out a new contract for my wife in addition. It has all gone through smoothly and she's happy with the new phone, and I'm happy with the tariff. I would recommend them to anyone.

This is probably going to be my last post before the 25th so have a Happy Christmas everyone and a prosperous New Year.