Fasthosts and Google Apps, an unhappy marriage

Update: In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out that due to issue with zone Edit, I switched to xname.org (which is not without its issues, but doesn't seem to work).  I'm not sure what happened with Zone Edit, maybe it was just a glitch, but I'm impatient, and a friend recommended xname.org - so far, so...ok.
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As with all bad relationships, the problem here stems from poor communication.  If you host a domain with Fasthosts (ukreg) and then require that domain to host Google Apps, you will have no doubt spent an unreasonable amount of time shouting "What the hell do you mean invalid...these are the details Google gave me!".

Yes, it is true, no amount of counselling is going to make Fasthosts any less stubborn (I don't normally like to take sides, but yes, this whole problem really is Fasthosts fault).  They don't accept the FQDN that Google provides and if you're patient enough to wade through all their attempts to prevent you from actually speaking to them...you'll find that they're aware they don't, they have no intention of changing, and they don't much care.

So, you can either pull your domain to someone who is able to allow the MX update necessary, or you can look for the 3rd party.

I've just registered a new domain, so I'm stuck with Fasthosts (for now), so I looked for a 3rd party.  I found it in Zone Edit.  Now, don't be put off by their 90's-esque web design nor their love affair with Times New Roman; look past this, as this may just be the salvation you're looking for.

Zone Edit will host your Name Servers (the things that actually directs your traffic when someone types www.example.com).  So you then just change your NS with Fasthosts (very easy) and have all the setup on Zone Edit; simples.

Now it takes about 48 hours to update your NS with a host; why it takes longer to update DNS details with a service provider than it takes to fly around the freakin' world, I don't know...but it does (I'm confident the same explanation is likely at the forefront of why it takes an ISP two weeks to activate a DSL line).  After this period however, you should be free to go ahead and squirt your domain all over the place.

I have to honest, aside from this inane arrogance from them, I'm actually quite pleased with Fasthosts for the registration procedure (very simple) and pricing; but with more and more clients wanting to "Go Google", you just can't afford to be like this.