4 posts from January 2008

I've been neglecting you lately. Not on purpose, you understand, but life has been a bit 'busy'. Work has been totally manic, with whizzing deadlines and impossible workloads and timescales. Personal life has been hectic - I can't remember the last time we had a weekend free, just for 'us'. Evenings have been spent vegging out, or working on my other web sites which need attention (see previous posts for details on this). Family telephone support has been needed too, as one of my daughters dogs was involved in a collision with a car - 2 broken legs, a broken hip and fractured pelvis, poor thing survived though - he's a fighter!

I fully intended this year to find time to leave more comments to my neighbour's posts, as well as to try to keep up my own posting rate. But here we are, 3 weeks into the year and I've failed so far. I've even been neglecting Jaiku and only posting once or twice a week at best.

I did log into Vox earlier today to try to catch up on what's been going on in the neighbourhood, but OMG - 7 or 8 pages later and I'm still not seeing posts I've seen before! The intention was to find the last point, and read/comment forward from there, but I'm so far behind that any comments would probably be superflous now. I'll have to revert to a quick scan and only comment where I'd be adding something substantial to the post rather than using comments as a way of saying "Hi neighbour!" and not really saying anything (don't you hate it when that happens?)

Hence this apology of sorts. Still, it means I've made another post, so things can't be all bad, can they?

Being a bit paranoid about the poor performance of the battery in the N95, I decided not long after getting the phone to purchase the portable power pack (Mobile Survival Kit) from Proporta. 

I should say right at the start that I'm rarely far from an electric power point and Nokia charger, whether that be at home, in the office or in the car. My idea of getting the Proporta was for those times when I'm on holiday walking across the Cornish moors and in need of GPS, or Google Maps. See, I told you I was paranoid!

Anyway, the kit comes with multiple connectors for various phones, and the battery is charged via a USB port from the PC although an adaptor for a mains plug is also included. The good news is that when fully charged, the pack can be carried with a short connection lead for when needed. It's not much bigger than the N95 itself, and can charge the phone from flat up to a maximum of three times from a single charge! More than enough to get me off the moor...

The nice thing is that with the variety of connectors provided lots of different devices can be charged.

Have I used it in anger yet? Well no, to be honest.  It's always kept fully charged and ready for action, but I've been lucky enough to not be away from power points long enough to have needed it yet. I look upon it as a form of insurance for now...

I got this headset for Crimble, having had it on my Amazon Wishlist for a while. I've used it a few times, so it's time for a mini-review.

There are three buttons on the right earpiece, which will no doubt confuse all the lefties who buy it. Up/Down volume, and a do-it-all function button. Setup was straightforward after charging the headset, which comes with a mains charger only. Pairing with the N95 was an easy process: switch BT on, switch the headset on and Add Device on the N95. Enter the id-code (0000) and away you go!

In fact the process was so straightforward that I got confident and even paired the headset with my PC for Skype usage and listening to LastFM at home without being tethered to the PC by wires. With the PC upstairs, I can hear music in every room in the house through the headset, which is great!

In use, the headset is quite comfortable, then the headband resting on the back of the neck takes some getting used to. The set is light enough not to be a problem, even with extended use - and it even fits on my 7 and 3/8ths sized head!

I find the sound quite bassy, which I like, though I have experienced some cut-outs as reported by others. Apart from that, sound quality is more than acceptable - this is the first headset I've had that lets me actually hear the music during my commute on the tube - my iPod was never really up to fighting the ambient noise levels of the trains and traffic in the street. I was a bit confused at first, as playback was so quiet through the headset, even set at full volume. Then I realised that the N95 was only set to 40% volume! Pushing that up to 90% easily solved the lack of volume problem - I had to subsequently reduce the headset volume a tad to make it comfortable.

I've not really used it for making calls as yet, though this can obviously be done (I make very few calls on the phone, believe it or not). Tests with Skype have proved that the voice pickup is clear enough for use, though it can at times sound a little 'echo-y'.

Overall, I'm more than happy to be finally free of the wires, and would recommend this set to other users.

I've never really understood the 'drink yourself silly' aspect of new year celebrations. Actually, I've never really understood the need to 'celebrate' the changing of a diary date, to be honest.

What I do love though, is that everybody else does. They stay out far too late, getting far too drunk while I'm in bed, fast asleep. I'm a natural morning person, never able to stay up late. But that does mean I can wake up early, and enjoy the early morning when no-one else is around. New Year's Day is a perfect example of that.

We woke in the dark (though I must say my sleep was disturbed last night by the fireworks), and left the house just as it was getting light, for a drive around the Essex countryside. I'd planned a circuit route starting from Ongar, and Mikki laughed when I said the starting point for our journey was some 35 miles away! We got there in no time at all on the empty roads, though there was a heavy mist coming down. I popped into Ongar Church to take a look as it was signposted as being founded in 1080. It's one of those quaint Essex flint churches, with a weird octagonal spire.

The main purpose of the drive was actually to hunt out some more village signs for my database, as well as checking out a mediaeval castle. I'd spotted two village signs by the time we'd got to Ongar, so had started the day well. We headed in a general north-west direction, taking in the villages of Fyfield, Willingale, Roxwell, Good Easter (yes really!) before getting to Pleshey. By this time the mist had thickened into a fog, and I'd checked out several old churches on the way too.

Pleshey Castle now consists of a moat and some fairly major earthworks and not much else. Check out the OS map for the village (use the Get-a-Map service and type in 'Pleshey' as the search term). The castle is in private hands and is open by appointment, and payment of a fee only. What I did see was a fairly large motte and bailey castle, surrounded by what is stilll a significant moat for a castle that's been derelict for over 400 years.

Having reached the main target of the day, we started to head for home - it was now 10:30 and the day was getting on, there was much more traffic noticable, even on the back roads by this time. We managed to stop for a few more village signs though - High Easter, Leaden Roding and Sheering were all spotted, and we even did some shopping in Harlow before getting home in time for lunch.

Highlights of the day? The two hares sitting in a field on the approach to Pleshey, the two roebuck deer wandering along the road on the other side of Pleshey, and the sheer delight of driving on empty roads through the London suburbs early in the morning. This is the only day of the year when the latter is possible!

So other than sleep in, what did you do?