After yesterday morning’s scrum in ‘our’ restaurant (masquerading as guests having breakfast) we decided that we’d return to the relative calm of the ‘other’ restaurant by way of the tunnel connecting the two parts of the hotel. Although busy, this turned out to be a smart move, in spite of the slightly chaotic atmosphere.

After brekky, Ralph and I spent some time getting our head why I wasn’t able to get a reliable internet connection whereas Ralph had been able to post to Facebook without any problems. I’m not sure we found out the reason why, but between us, I did manage to get connected in the end – although currently I still can’t upload any blogs (but email and Facebook post OK). Oh well, we’re getting there albeit slowly! UPDATE: It seems that the trick is to post early, whilst their router is working less hard. Hopefully, by the time you read this, the previous three posts will be ‘up there’ at blog.StevePalmer.com

The day panned out slowly – and that suited us perfectly! We had a very lazy morning by the rooftop-pool, before taking a slow stroll down to Cathedral Square for a look at the err, Cathedral and then grabbed some lunch.

Lunch at ‘El Patio’

Entertainment too, courtesy of ‘Bacanao’ (We even bought their CD)

The Cathedral – outside

The Cathedral – inside

We then took the familiar walk back to the Hotel, but by now, it was getting even hotter and more humid. As a result, I think we must have lost half a stone walking back!

 
Views on the walk back

We were shattered when we got back! Time for ‘feet-up’ and maybe a snooze before meeting up with R and K for a light meal somewhere in the Hotel tonight.

Phew! I think today was the hottest day since we arrived – it must have been up there in the low/mid 30s – and together with the very high humidity made it very uncomfortable doing anything! We’re glad it was a lazy one! We finished our day back by the rooftop-pool where the Waiter was happy to go ‘off menu’ and conjure us up some light snacks.

It’s a full-on day tomorrow as we have an all-day tour to the west of Cuba – Vinales (where all the tobacco is grown).

Steve Palmer

I 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 for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Cuba – Day 4 appeared first on Steve's Blog.

I stumbled across this yesterday – who knew!

Like this infographic? Get more content marketing tips from Copyblogger.

Steve Palmer

I 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 for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Social Media Timeline appeared first on Steve's Blog.

OK, after years of constantly below-par broadband speeds here, I finally ‘bit the bullet’ and did something about it.

For as long as I can remember, it seemed like everyone else (apart from the rest of the neighbours in our immediate area) were getting faster connection speeds than us.

When the houses were built 20+ years ago, they made no provision for the ‘information super-highway’ and recently, the mighty Virgin confirmed they had no plans to change things – even though we occasionally get mailshots from them promising us Bolt-like speeds.

BT have been strangely quiet, and even Sky wouldn’t sell me their broadband package because of the (low) speed. 

The simple truth is that, for broadband-by-phone, we live too far away from the Exchange. On a good day, I might just get a 1.25 Mb/s download here, but as the work-day progresses, it just gets slower and slower – and many of our neighbours are languishing with speeds even slower than mine. Technology can put a robot on Mars, but it can’t get Tynan Close a 2 Mb/s broadband connection! It’s soooo sloooow that services like iPlayer and YouTube sometimes won’t run at all on our TV.

Currently, it takes almost a day to download a 60 minute episode of Mad Men!!

Mad!!!!!

Prior to looking at alternative ways to receive broadband, I carried out a speed test. The result below, is the BEST I got over a six hour period from Demon Internet.

Download speed: 0.81 Mb/s

Upload speed 0.38 Mb/s

Preparing for Changeover
So, what did I do? Well, a quick Google search revealed a broadband service delivered by satellite. The company I chose is based in the UK (that’s  a bonus!), and is called Tooway. They offer a number of speed packages – I chose the 8Mb/s, as I’m pretty certain that will meet my business and personal needs. There are faster options available – right up to 18 Mb/s at the time of writing, and a slower one (2 Mb/s) if you’re on a budget. 

The process with Tooway was very straightforward. Call them, pay the upfront costs for: installation, hardware and your first month’s fee – and the ball is rolling. OK, unlike some other internet providers, you’re not going to get lots of add-on goodies like a free calls bundle and free access to wireless when out-and-about, but what you DO get, is a promise of a reliable and fast connection that doesn’t rely on where you live. Nice one!

A Few Day Later…
Having ordered the product over the phone (you can also order online), a few days later, two packages arrived containing all the hardware. A few days after that, an installation company called to arrange installation. You can do-it-yourself, but I’d recommend leaving it to the professionals. It’s not a difficult job in itself, but aligning satellite dishes is something most of us won’t have much experience in! Just remember that it means another dish on your property, and sometimes you might need permission. If your residence is restricted, Tooway do provide an option to receive your TV through their dish.

Installation Day
On the day of the installation, it all went pretty well. The Installers arrived slightly earlier than expected – and that turned out to be an advantage because it took them slightly longer to ‘point’ the dish. Depending on where your house is, you may be limited on suitable locations for this essential piece of metal – it has to be able to ‘see’ the satellite and there shouldn’t be any visible obstructions like trees or tall buildings in the line of sight.

A few hours later, everything was up and running. It’s worth remembering that the installers will only configure the modem to work and confirm your connection is working. It’s down to you to connect the modem to the router (which Tooway sell) and make any adjustments to the settings on your PC. In short, don’t expect the installers to touch your PC at all.

Any Good?
Oh yes! Everything is working as it should. I didn’t notice much difference with normal ‘surfing’, but downloading and/or streaming is a smooth and speedy process. Downloading Sky Movies is now a breeze, so is watching iPlayer – and I can even look at Facebook and Twitter on my TV – how sad is that!

As a quick test, I downloaded a 120 minute movie from Sky and it took just 23 minutes – and because of the faster download speed, Sky let’s you start watching it before the download is finished – in fact the film was viewable within about three minutes. Perfect for a film addict like me.

Here are the results of the BEST speed tests carried out over a two-hour period for the Tooway setup – remember I’m on an ‘8Mb/s down’ and ‘2 Mb/s up’ package.

Download speed: 8.4 Mb/s

Upload speed 1.9 Mb/s

Just compare these to the broadband-by-telephone results above

I’d say that was a fantastically good result – 10 times faster downloads than the previous setup.

Hats off to Tooway. The service has been excellent, there’s an efficient customer service team and the technical help and advice (not that you’ll need much) is spot on. It’s also nice to be able to talk to real people, rather than spend ages trying to get through to a faceless call-centre. Call Tom on 0844 874 0600 if you have the need for speed!

This has definitely been one of my better decisions of 2012!

PS. Only the satellite is connected to Tooway, I’m not a relation of any of the staff, nor part of their organisation – just a VERY satisfied customer!

Steve Palmer

I 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 for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post The Only Way is… Tooway appeared first on Steve's Blog.

Well, maybe! But all I need during our week away (Lee’s house-sitting), is a mobile phone signal! Apparently the properties around Fountain’s Abbey, have ZERO bars, even though it’s one of the most visited of National Trust locations.

No phoning, no email, no blogs, no Twitter, and no Facebook! Eeeeekkk!

Maybe the thought of ZERO communication for a whole week might seem like the perfect scenario for some – but for me, it sounds like Hell!

Steve Palmer

I 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 for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post There be Dragons! appeared first on Steve's Blog.

I spent some time this week giving my personal website a bit of a makeover. Nothing too drastic, but I haven’t touched it since June 2010, and it deserved a bit of a tidy-up. The major changes included:

• adding links to my LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter accounts
• removing some crappy graphics
• enlarging the page dimensions so it fits better on modern screens
• tidying up the ‘photographs’ page
• adding a custom search function
• adding a lightbox function to some of the hyperlinked graphics

Steve Palmer

I 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 for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Website Makeover appeared first on Steve's Blog.

Hello world! This is a test blog to try out a new facility that posts my blogs to my ‘wall’ on Facebook automatically. The previous script just posted a LINK to the Blog, so if you’re reading this on Facebook, it’s come from my Blog, so that means the technology is working!

PS That reminds me, I need to add ‘post-it notes’ to the shopping list!

Steve Palmer

I 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 for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Test Blog appeared first on Steve's Blog.

Trish popped round with her (very nice) laptop. I managed to sort out her Facebook access problems, delete a phantom account, sort out her email address and generally have a tidy-up. All-in-all, it went very well.

I loves compooooters!

Steve Palmer

I 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 for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Laptop sorted! appeared first on Steve's Blog.

If this shows up in Facebook, then the cross-posting plug-in has worked

Steve Palmer

I 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 for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Test: Cross Post to Facebook appeared first on Steve's Blog.

A bit of a quiet week here business-wise, so it was a good opportunity to finish off the re-design of my personal website. Actually, I’d been tinkering with it all week but for some reason, I’d not being particularly productive with it all.

So, with grim determination, resulting in some significant re-design along the way, at last, it’s all done! I’ve even managed to incorporate my twitter feed on the home-page, but I can’t figure out how to do the same with Facebook – ideas anyone???

Steve Palmer

I 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 for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Personal Website re-launched appeared first on Steve's Blog.

It’s exactly six years since I started blogging – pre-dating FaceBook and Twitter by a few years – a total of 1500 entries. Phew!!!

Steve Palmer

I 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 for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Blog, Blog, Blog appeared first on Steve's Blog.

We got up early to ensure we were away by 8.15. It looked like it would be a fine day for the Marathon (contradicting the forecast given on the TV!). We had a short breakfast with Mum and left on time. We  travelled over to Abbey Wood Caravan Club to meet Susan, Janine and Lauren and got there around 8.50. We were lucky enough to get the one remaining parking-space just inside the entrance – perfect! Susan met us and we took a short walk to the caravan where Lauren and Janine were getting ready. Susan commented that Roy was in good spirits and he had eaten like a horse the previous evening – pasta, pasta, shepherd’s pie and pasta!!!

We watched a bit of the Marathon on the TV before heading for Abbey Wood station and taking the short journey to London Bridge. Then, we all jumped on the DLR and headed for Canada Water. Boy it was getting warmer and warmer and the area was packed! We we were notified by text that Roy had started at 10.08, so it was quite straightforward to work-out what time he was likely to get to our  first stopping-off point. We all tried to spot Roy with sufficient notice for us to get some photographs, but by the time we saw him, it was too late to take any shots. Plan ‘B’ then – go back to Canada Water and go to Canary Wharf. Unfortunately Plan ‘B’ was scuppered when we noticed that 1000s of people were also trying to board the Tube at there. What a nightmare….and completely pointless to even try! So, we walked to Surrey Quays shopping centre and settled in Burger King at around 12,30 to recharge our batteries. The day was turning out to be a scorcher and we then took a brisk walk along Jamaica Road via Southwark Park (lovely!) before jumping on the Tube at Bermondsey. We got off at Waterloo and walked over the Bridge. We realised that looking over the bridge down onto Victoria Embankment was the perfect vantage point to get some shots of Roy – and perfect timing too as according to our calculations, Roy was due in the next 15-30 minutes. We all managed to get to the front of the crowd and the perfect view lived up to its promises. Roy appeared about 10 minutes later and I managed to get around half-a-dozen reasonable shots. Mission accomplished!!

We walked along the Strand in search of a cuppa and eventually ended up in Whitehall (just like last year) and popped into McDonalds for some drinks – it was packed! We just had time to refresh ourselves before Roy rang to confirm he’d finished! We wandered down Whitehall into Horseguards (zillions of people milling around meeting the runners) where we met Roy who had just been ‘processed’. Nice medal and a ginormous goody-bag

We then walked to Embankment station and headed for Charing Cross. We then caught the train back to Abbey Wood. We had a quick drink with everyone before heading home. We had a good journey and we were home by 7.35. Walking back Roy commanded a lot of respect from passers-by congratulating him on his achievement. Quite right too!

It’s been a great day. The weather was gorgeous and it was very enjoyable walking a round London. The Marathon definitely brought out the best in people and there were various times during the day when we were talking to complete strangers! Over 35000 people took part this year and all of Roy’s training paid off and he clocked a personal time of the 26.2 miles in 4 hours and 31 minutes – well done mate!

We are shattered..and we didn’t even do the Marathon!

Steve Palmer

I 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 for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post The London Marathon 2009 appeared first on Steve's Blog.