Category:Holiday

Looks like the World-conquering iPhone will soon have a rival in the shape of the (codenamed) ‘Leo’ from HTC. Web-wise, it’s about the company’s worst kept secret with quite a few photographs showing up on various geeky sites. A little early for full specifications, but it has a 4.3 inch screen, running Windows Mobile 6.5 …
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We decided to use our final full-day here by travelling by train to Yokohama. So, after the predictable lack-lustre breakfast at the Marriott and arranging transport to the Airport tomorrow, we headed for the subway station, just down the road. Around 45 minutes later, we were in Yokohama, and after a short walk, the Harbour …
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It’s Sunday, so time for a lie-in. Until well after 8am actually (very unusual for us!). We went down to breakfast at 9.15 and it was absolutely packed – so much so that they set up the bar as a temporary eating area. We think it must have been because a Tour was due soon, …
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  We had a lay-in, before pigging out on the excellent breakfast a little later and then heading off to Kyoto station for Osaka (the second largest city in Japan). We took the subway to the waterfront area to visit the well known Aquarium and when we got there, it looked like the rest of …
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Just a quick note to say ‘ooops’ – it looks like someone has hacked into my occasionally-used Google-mail account and has been sending emails to all my address-book entries. Sorry about that – I think I’ve now fixed it, so if you get any more after today, just let me know! Steve PalmerI got into …
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We slept well – so for now, all is right with the world! 🙂 We were up at 7 and ready to tackle the extensive range at breakfast – yum! With brekky over it’s time to head west once more, and today it’s Hiroshima and Himeji Castle (the only castle in Japan to have been …
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Hmmm, we didn’t sleep well last night and by the time we did, three seconds later, the alarm went off! So it was rather a rushed breakfast in the hotel restaurant. For the short time we spent in there though, we enjoyed the range of food on offer. We’ll appreciate it more tomorrow when we’ve …
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At last, we slept right through – perhaps we’re at last, getting used to the time-zone. Ironically, on the day we had to check-out, we slept-in until 8.30am! Breakfast was the usual disappointing selection of luke-warm half-English-style; more boiled vegetables; duff pastries perfected by a non-baker; yoghurts and cereals. As for the coffee, it tasted …
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We were both up by 7.45 today and after yesterday’s disastrous day, weather-wise, we were hoping today would be different. I took a look out of the window and it looked good – Dry and a clear blue-sky. We had breakfast in the hotel – it was busier than yesterday with at least a dozen …
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We landed at Narita Airport around 9.00 (25 minutes ahead of schedule) local time, which was a good start! Once we’d got through the elaborate security (photograph and fingerprints!) we collected our bags and headed for the coach. To our surprise, we could see a local Representative with our names on a card, and after …
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John, our taxi-driver arrived at just after 9.30. We had a reasonably trouble-free journey down to Heathrow and about two-hours later, we were walking into Terminal 3. We’ve booked with Virgin and splashed-out on ‘Premium Economy’. I’m not sure what that gives us over-and-above the economy passengers, but I guess it’s greater leg-room and posher …
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Paul and Karen invited us round for one of their legendary feasts, so as soon as we got back from the film, we headed straight there. We’d estimated we wouldn’t be there until 9, but the film finished earlier than we thought and we were soon chatting and drinking with Paul, Karen, Tom and Julie. …
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What is this new phone that the ‘net is talking about? – it’s supposedly the ‘iPhone killer’ – the ultimate in mobile phones/PDAs. Dubbed the ‘Firestone’ by its makers HTC, there seems to be two images ‘doing the rounds’ but they may of course both be fake! Allegedly, the specs are: Quad-band GSM/EDGE connectivity Dual-band …
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Well that was a pleasant surprise! I had a problem with my PDF creator on the main PC – it worked fine on all the other PCs on the network, but not the one I use the most. Every time I tried to create a pdf file, it threw up ‘cannot load options’ error message. Reinstalling …
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We popped down to J and J’s for tea tonight – a Chinese takeaway – Scrummy! It was a great opportunity for Ann to let the girls know about her new job! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong …
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7.00am. What a right pain in the posterior! Just when I was getting ahead and I had nothing pressing to do work-wise, I discovered that for some unknown reason, my NetBook was booting-up and then freezing. Several re-boots later, nothing much had changed, so it was obviously something serious! After a bit of detective work …
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After a shed load of research, we settled for the Panasonic HDC-SD200. We tried John Lewis, but they wouldn’t match the internet price we’d found. Another quick search revealed that Photobox had suddenly become the cheapest by a mile! Key Features: Full HD recording Dolby Digital 5.1 sound Records to SD and SDHC cards Smaller …
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This appears to be pretty useful! It’s also completely free too! It’s a piece of software that installs to your mobile phone. You go to the web-site – www.Dashwire.com – and set up a FREE account and then download a piece of software to your mobile phone. Once that’s done, your phone automagically backs-up all …
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I wasn’t his biggest fan, but like most of the population I do own a copy of his album, Thriller and I respect him for the impact he had on the pop-music scene. Singer, songwriter and dancer – what a talent! I can remember back in the early 80s, going to a business meeting at …
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Microsoft Live Mesh finally got dumped in favour of Microsoft Live Sync today. I’d been using Mesh for almost nine-months but I’d had my suspicions for a few weeks now that Mesh wasn’t automatically updating files across the network – even though the software itself said it had. New files were OK, but changes to …
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Some nice ambient/chill-out albums for those lazy hot summer nights – if we ever get enough of them to get through four albums!! All downloaded from the MP3 store at Play.com Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love …
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We booked the BA flight tonight for our holiday in Barbados later this year. There are still some HOLIDAY-odds-and-ends to sort out, but all the main bits are taken care of.   Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong …
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Lee and Bertie left us around 10.30 today, returning home. We’ll be catching-up with them in a few weeks’ time. 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 …
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The replacement Router arrived from O2 as planned. I plugged it in and guess what? – it made no difference! After about an hour on the phone to BT and a further 45 minutes with O2, I was no further forward. BT pushed me back to O2 whilst O2 said there was nothing more they …
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