Alexander Graham Bell could have never imagined that his invention of the telephone would evolve into such a useful gadget. In fact, it’s not so long ago – around 1990 if memory serves – that mobile phones were only good for err… making mobile phone calls! My latest, the HTC HD2, now allows me to …
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Month:November 2009
Final Shopping Expedition of 2009..?
Ouch! I’ve woken up with a really stiff neck this morning – not sure how I’ve got that. We’re off shopping to Leicester to get any last minute bits-and-pieces. There isn’t much left to do and I’ve also got 50 quids worth of M and S vouchers from Lee and Bertie to squander – lovely!!! …
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Learning Network Group Meeting
We all met at the excellent Royal Festival Hall today for our final meeting of 2009. Rick took us through his experiences of measuring leadership performance through the use of a comprehensive questionnaire – the whole thing was fascinating and useful in equal measures. The small turnout of Lydia, Antoinette, Sharon, Angela and Jan, plus …
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Meal with David and Val
We returned to our fave Chinese restaurant – Han – in Market Harborough tonight. It was quite busy when we got there, but an hour later, it seemed that everyone (apart from us) was leaving at the same time! Still, it was a great experience and the food, as always was excellent! We skipped dessert …
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OCA Committee Meeting
It’s that time again. I travelled down to the BRIT School today for our ‘Old Croydonians’ Committee meeting. As always, I left really early – around 4am, to ensure I had a smooth journey there. One of the benefits of leaving that early is that by the time I got to the Dartford Bridge, it …
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Blood from a Stone?
A few weeks back, I had some new tyres fitted to the front of my car. At the same time, Kwik-Fit managed to scrape both the front alloys in doing so. They suggested I got the wheels refurbed and then they’d re-imburse me. Well, after numerous fob-offs by Kwik-Fit, I rang yesterday to explain that …
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TV: Paradox
Just caught episode 1 of ‘Paradox’ a new series on BBC1 starring Tamzin Outhwaite as cop Rebecca Flint. It’s only a short series – five episodes I think, but it looks promising (providing the plots don’t get too unbelievable). The premise is that images are being downloaded from space to some sort of research laboratory …
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O2 officially launches the ‘HTC HD2’
According to the O2 News website, the phone is being launched ‘this week’, but there is still no sign of it to buy on the normal O2 website. Glad I got mine last week from O2 then, before the official launch!!! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post …
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Search for a Cattery
We’ve decided to put the cats in a Cattery this year, whilst we’re away. Given how long we’re away and the dates, it’s not really fair on the neighbours to have to be looking in every day. After searching on the Internet, I found one based in Ringstead – Denbank Boarding Cattery – only about …
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Lee and Humberto’s
SATURDAY We set off early – 7am – Ann drove to head over to L and B’s for the weekend. Humberto is still in hospital and we plan to drive over to the ‘Norwich and Norfolk’ to see him. We had a good journey to theirs and arrived by 9.30. After a quick nibble, we …
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TV: Doctor Who – Christmas 2009
It’s a two-parter – Part 1 is on Christmas Day, and Part 2, New Year’s Eve. For casual viewers, it’s David Tennant’s final two episodes. The title for the Christmas Day edition is, somewhat predictably, The End of Time, Part One. Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post …
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Christmas Cards sorted…
Phew! That’s the last of the Christmas cards written today. We’d cracked 99% of them by last weekend, but I’d got a bit behind with so much going on in the Business compared to last year. We’ve sent fewer this time round – around 250. Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not …
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Yes, October!, No, late October!, No err, Yes, early November!, Maybe, No, 23rd November! No, the 30th November, No, maybe December 2009!!!
After quite a few false-dawns resulting in a massive 240,000+ posts on the O2 Forum (that only started on 24 September), the new HTC HD2 phone has finally arrived on O2! I’d actually resigned myself to the fact that it wasn’t going to be available until Monday, 23rd – next week -at the earliest, and …
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Humberto – Still in hospital
Poor Bertie is still being kept in. Apparently Social Services haven’t got round to assessing him yet. We’re going over there this weekend, so hopefully, things will be a little clearer then! Lee is doing a marvellous job of keeping it all together whilst he’s away – must be difficult! ☹️ Steve PalmerI got into …
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TV: Being Human (Series 2)
Regular reader(s) will recall that this was the ‘sleeping giant’ of a hit on BBC3 earlier this year. Now, series 2 is almost ready to go. It promises to be more epic in scale, darker in tone (and it was pretty dark in places in the first series!) and, introduce some new characters to the …
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TV: Doctor Who – The Waters of Mars
BBC One, 7pm. David Tennant makes his penultimate appearance at the Doctor in this darker-than-normal episode (his final appearance will be during the two-parter showing over the Christmas period.) Also starring the ever-reliable and versatile actress, Lindsay Duncan, the 60 minute episode centres around the Doctor’s visit to Bowie Base One on Mars in 2059. …
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TV: ‘Collision’ (ITV)
ITV showed this contemporary drama over five nights last week. We were both too tired to watch it each evening, so we sky-boxed it instead. I’m glad we did, as it turned out to be very watchable indeed (I’d not expected it to be this good!) The story was about a multiple car-crash on the …
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TV: Doctor Who – The Waters of Mars
It’s 2059 on Mars and the Doctor is distracted by visions of his own death… BBC ONE, 7pm tonight Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness …
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Cambridge, here we come!
Ann, Nicki and I set of for Cambridge just before 8am, to finish off the Christmas presents. The weather was truly atrocious – gale force winds virtually everywhere in the UK. We had a smooth journey there and were soon amongst the hundreds shopping at The Grand Arcade. I managed to get the last of …
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Nicki joins us
Nicki joined us tonight and is staying over. We’re all going shopping in Cambridge tomorrow. We’d laid on a fish & chip supper and Jo and Janet were able to join us too. It was great that we were all able to get together given that all five of us were in completely different places …
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O2 missed the boat!
After all the excitement of the new HTC HD2 mobile phone being launched by O2, it seems that others have got in there first, like Vodafone through mobiles.co.uk. And if O2 can’t offer the phone nor any tariffs, how come mobiles.co.uk can on both O2 and Vodafone? I’m slightly confused and a bit irritated (like …
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Bertie returns to Hospital
Bertie has been admitted back to hospital. He’s having problems breathing, and his heart-beat is a bit irregular. His dementia seems to be getting worse too. All being well, he’ll be out Saturday. Given everything that’s going on, Lee’s coping brilliantly with it all. Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing …
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New tyres… new damage… to my alloys!
I took the car into Kwik-Fit in Kettering today to have the front tyres replaced – the car has covered 14554 miles on the previous set and apparently that’s about normal. What I wasn’t expecting, was to acquire some damage on each of the front alloys as a result. I zoomed back to Kwik-Fit where …
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Sometimes, life just ain’t fair…
Our good friend Rick, who we’ve known for years, is certainly having a bad time right now and ‘Life’ has surely dealt him a bum-hand! First of all, he, with his wife, invested in a second property in London and then soon after, she left him, with two kids. Then, as a result of that, …
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The Patter of Tiny Droplets
Another in the series of ‘Boys and their Toys’!!! My new Canon Pixma 640 All-in-One Printer arrived today. It uses technology where the ink droplets are extremely small – currently, the smallest around – 1 picolitre, (whatever they are!) This results in ultra pin-sharp images and text, that even at very small point sizes, will …
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Ralph and Karen here for the Weekend
Saturday We met up at Bicester Shopping Village and after a coffee and a slice of cake, Ralph and I headed back in his van whilst the girls did the hard work and carried on shopping! The van was needed because R and K are getting rid of a lot of garden furniture and because …
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Mum and Morphine
Mum’s been prescribed morphine to dull the pain she’s experiencing in her leg. It’s in the form of ‘patches’ and seems to be doing the trick, but I don’t like the idea of such a strong pain killer – isn’t it addictive too? Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my …
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Play: A Streetcar Named Desire…
We drove over to Stratford-upon-Avon to see the Second Thoughts production of A Streetcar Named Desire. It was an excellent event and Ian did a great job as Props Manager, especially the part where Stanley Kowalski throws the radio ‘off set’ and we hear the sound of it breaking. Apparently a well-timed catch from Ian …
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How fast is your Street?
This is useful. It allows you to enter your post-code and then the resulting web-page shows a comparison of other internet providers’ speeds in the area. Currently, because the data is sent in by people like you and me, there’s not much there, but I can see that when entering our post-code, internet speeds are …
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HTC HD2 – Launch date gets closer…or does it?
Depending on where you look on the ‘net, the launch date in the UK for the most technologically advanced cellphone to-date, is either next week (the 12 or 13th)…or possibly the week after. In the meantime, those clever people at XDA Developers have managed to acquire the Quick Start Guide and the Full Operating Manual.Nerd …
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