An Illness in the Family

Unfortunately The Youngest was ill this week. On Tuesday night we were all sitting in the living room after dinner, when she turned to TW and shouted, "Mum, I'm going to be sick!" So we told her to get upstairs to the bathroom, which she did, where she proceeded to vomit the most amount of vomit I think I've ever seen.
The Youngest is five years old, and I was very proud that a) she realised she was about to be sick, and b) she handled it really stoically.
Unfortunately she blew it later, when she was sick while she was still asleep, and she covered her bedsheets and duvet in vom. But the beginnings are there... Then she was sick several times more during more the night; a couple of times she came up to our bedroom to let us know she had been sick, but we shouldn't worry, and a couple of times she called us to help her.
These days, of course, if a child is ill, i.e., she vomits, she is not allowed to return to school for at least 48 hours. So that meant The Youngest was off school Wednesday and Thursday. I dashed into work at 6am on Wednesday morning to get my laptop, and worked from home that day. I actually got quite a bit done, I left TY in the living room watching telly, while I got to work in the kitchen.
Friday morning was quite funny; we had told her that of course she would be off school for two days. However, on Thursday night she still seemed a bit touch-and-go, so I brought my laptop home just in case she didn't go to school on Friday.
But it seems our fears were groundless, she came down to breakfast in her school uniform, and would brook no interference; when we asked if she was okay, or if she wanted to go to school, she was set on going in. Which was great, that meant that I got to go to work as per normal.
So that's been the major drama this week, there have been other smaller things but I might get to those later.
TTFN.

14-09-27 Throwing Muses

I went to see Throwing Muses on Wednesday night in Brighton, with a couple of fellas, and the music was great; we saw a bit of Tanya Donelly supporting, and she was on stage again later with Kristin Hersh for a spooky rendition of 'You Cage', which was great. I need to listen to more Muses (not Muse!), I reckon.
 That's the beauty of live music, isn't it? You can get enveloped by the loudness of it and transported by the immediacy.
Two more gigs at least for me this year; Cud at the end of October and Carter USM in November. Bring it on.

Sunday 14-09-14 An Impromptu Barbecue

We were at home today and we got a text message inviting us to an afternoon bbq starting at 15:30. I don't think that the invitation mentioned '15:30' precisely, the invitation probably mentioned half past three, but I took it as 15:30.

I wasn't intending on snooping but I couldn't help but notice that other guests arrived at 15:25. So I quickly phoned TW and told her to get her skates on. We arrived en masse and started drinking (my head hurts this morning) but it was a lovely day and evening, a lot of merriment was had.

Saturday 14-09-13 - Laid Low by a Headache

So yesterday was a strange day. TW went to work early in the morning, and so I was left in charge of the girls. I was not doing much, upstairs and down, when I realised that my vision was not great. It was like I had masses of sunspots, or big sunspots, in my vision.
I was feeling okay though, so I carried on with what I was doing (the washing up, mostly). It was only after about 30 or 40 minutes that I started to get a hideous headache. We hadn't planned to do much in the morning anyway, so I let the girls veg out in front of the telly and I had a bath and put the washing on. When TW got home, we had lunch (she was due home shortly after 11, but only got home at 12:30, just after the youngest had had a creme caramel...) and then she took the girls out for the afternoon.
That was about 2pm, I went to bed and slept until 5pm, so I must have been ill... Never mind.
The evening was a bit of a non-event, the girls stayed up past 8pm watching the final of 'Tumble', another one of those shows where 'celebrities' attempt something they're not very good at. And it wasn't even as though the best gymnasts won, instead they gave the 'winner' award to the injured contestant. Some sort of sympathy vote going on, I think.
Anyway, that was my Saturday, I'm not sure what Sunday will bring, but it looks like the Winx Club is already here, thanks to the girls, let's see what else happens along.
TTFN.

Monday 14-08-25 - The GiL

Yesterday we headed to a big Sainsbury's nearby, to buy school uniform for the girls. On the way we stopped in to see the GiL. We'd phoned ahead and warned her that we were coming. When we got there we rang the bell, and waited for her to answer the door. Then we rang the bell again. And then a third time. At that point TW headed into the garden and through the back door, to check that everything was alright - after all, she is 96.
GiL was sitting in front of the TV, apparently watching F1, and was oblivious to the doorbell, and TW shouting "Grandma!" as she entered the house. It quickly became apparent that she was absolutely stocious, she was on a Gin bender. She had drunk herself into a stupor. She had to gather her thoughts before she  spoke, and every time she did speak, she had to speak slowly to enunciate her words properly.
I know that she's 96, and probably bored, but it seems like she's removing herself from living. She had drunk herself into a place where she didn't need to think or worry about time passing. If she had been an 18-year old on a Friday evening, she would have been saluted as a drinking hero. However, as a 96-year old on a Sunday lunchtime, she's a cause for concern. Still, I'm not sure that there's anything we can do about it. She's 96 and that's all  there is.

Monday 14-08-25 Glad to Not be Karen Carpenter

How does the song go? "Rainy days and Mondays always get me down."
Imagine how pissed she'd be to encounter a Monday which was also a rainy day. Well, right there you have the traditional British August Bank holiday. And so it has come to pass today, the heavens have opened and the rain has prevented us from handing the kids off to the grandparents. So we've been stuck altogether in the same room all day, looking at the grey skies outside, getting slowly more crabby with each other. We've played Scrabble and the girls have watched a film. The grandparents have been over for a cup of tea. TW has been out shopping. I can't believe I'm going to have to go back to work tomorrow having wasted a day here at home.
Ah, well. I'm sure it'll dry out soon, and maybe we can go out and get some fresh air.

Thursday 14-08-21 - Jessie

So my girls watch 'Jessie', a TV show produced by Disney.
It's awful.
The premise is that an aspiring actress becomes nanny to a family of adopted children. The parents are generally absent because they are very successful film stars. So you can see that the target demographic is very limited.
Because the parents are mostly absent, the show is about the kids, and they are damned annoying. There is a white kid who lusts after all grown women, and seems to think that Jessie is his girlfriend. There is an Indian kid who has a lizard as a pet (Mr Kipling) and is generally dorky. There's a black girl who is quick-witted and sassy but has poor grades. And there's a white girl to make up the numbers, by the look of it.
All the children are over-privileged and horrible to each other and everyone else.
And because they are children (apart from Bertram the neurotic butler / housekeeper), it degenerates into a high-pitched whiny insult-fest, with no redeeming features. Unfortunately it's not even funny.

I can't believe Disney have endorsed this tripe. There are no positive role models and it is not wholesome family entertainment. If you get the chance, avoid it at all costs. If there is any paint drying in your immediate vicinity, it would be more entertaining to watch that than 'Jessie'.

Of course, all of the above is my personal opinion and it may or may not have any bearing on reality as experienced by others.

Wednesday 14-08-20 - Sunshine and Showers

At Sussex County Cricket Ground again, for the last game of the season.  We've already had a shower, although it was nothing really to talk of.
So here I sit, mellowing in the afternoon tranquil atmosphere, in my raincoat and sandals. I brought my sandals with me because I thought it might be warm enough; as it is my shoes and socks were too  warm, so I've decided to dress down.

Monday 14-08-11 - Mercy Dash to the Post Office

So, we were up and at 'em early yesterday morning. I'd been awake since about 04:45, so I got up and read some stuff on the Web. Then back to bed,  and up again at 06:15. I had a shower and then listened to the news headlines,  then went downstairs for breakfast.
I was intending to get to the Post Office before going to work. I think that's why I woke up so early; I was excited. I'd been away for the weekend and there was a note through the door advising that there were TWO parcels waiting for me to pick up. I've ordered a case for my Nexus 7, which I'm using to write this, and I was hoping that one of the parcels would be the case. It's been over a week now, I think I ordered it last Sunday night.
So I headed off to the Post Office, replete with Weetabix and tea, and slightly anxious that there would be a queue of Twirlies so long that they would be spilling out onto the pavement outside. As it was, the drive in was fine, apart from not taking as much caution as I should have done while circumnavigating a bin lorry. No one was hurt, or in danger of being hurt, but I could have used more caution. At the Post Office there was only one chap in front of me, so when it was my turn I eagerly handed over my ticket, and I waited with bated breath.
You can imagine my disappointment when I was handed two flat packages. Comics. Not nice cosy things for my electronics. Comics.
Don't get me wrong; I love comics. I buy a lot of comics, and should read more of them. But I was really looking forward to receiving a snazzy case for my tablet.
So, I walked back to the car with less of a spring in my step. I drove home and took the appropriate care around the bin lorry, which was a bit further along the road this time. And I made my sandwiches.
I left for work, the comics unopened on the floor in the living room, worrying that I might have to do it all over again tomorrow morning.

Saturday 14-07-19 eBay Disputes

I don't use eBay that much, mostly to sell unwanted (but pristine) comics, and to buy some cheap electronics. I managed to get a lovely Barnes & Noble HD+ 9" tablet for under £100, which I was very pleased with, although I got stung on p&p charges :( But those fade in the memory over time and I am able to enjoy the tablet.
You may have noticed by now that I love a bit of technology. I was counting up the number of electronic devices I own the other day, or actually that exist in the house, and we arrived at the following answer:

HP Laptop - 15" running Vista, due for replacement
Samsung Netbook - 10.1" running Linux Mint
Samsung Chromebook - 10.1"
Barnes & Noble HD+ 9"
CnM 7" tablet
Nexus 7 tablet
Samsung Tab Original 7"
Barnes & Noble Simple Touch e-reader
HTC One X

I did buy a 'broken' Samsung Tab 2 cheaply off eBay, all it needed was a factory reset, then I decided that I didn't need it so I sold it on eBay, again, and made a few pounds. The trouble is, though, that eBay and PayPal fees eat into any small profits, and in the end it ends up costing money rather than being a benefit.

The one tablet I'd not tried was an Amazon Fire. So I bought one which was again sold as 'not working'. It switched on, but didn't get past the initial power-up screen. I thought that maybe I could do something following an XDA script, and possibly recover it? So unfortunately I didn't get it to work, and relisted it on eBay as 'spares or repair', and that's where the disputes bit comes in.

I was quite pleased with the price that the device sold for, but then the buyer started asking questions about the device. I had described my attempt to replace the bootloader, and I had also included the fact that I had taken the back off and tried to repair it. Admittedly, the focus of that was that I had damaged the edges of the Fire, but the information was there. I had also advised that returns would not be accepted as the device was described as not working.

So, the buyer's first gambit was that it wasn't the type of Kindle Fire he was looking for. I asked what his intentions were, and he advised he was thinking of returning it, which came as a surprise to me, as this was the first I'd heard. Then he claimed that I'd interfered with the tablet and it was not as described. At no point did he actually ask for a refund, and I think he was hoping that I would offer one. Unfortunately I had listed the item as 'no returns', so I wasn't going to offer voluntarily. And now there is a case open against me, because apparently the item is 'not as described'.

I think he was hoping that he would be able to plug the device in and get it to work, in a similar manner to the method I had employed with the Samsung tablet earlier. Unfortunately that wasn't the case; as I'd described in the sale, the device was completely unresponsive. And now the buyer is trying to back out of the sale, claiming it was not as described. And that's just part of the problem with culture today, in my opinion; no-one is willing to take responsibility for their actions.

If the buyer had asked for a refund, I would have considered it, which is the strange thing. If he'd said that actually he hadn't read the description, that he had made a mistake, I would probably have (reluctantly) refunded him. After all, I would then have to relist the device, or contact the 2nd highest bidder and offer the tablet to them. But I cannot accept that the device was 'not as described', I spent a lot of time ensuring that the description gave any reader fair warning of what to expect. And so we have come to an impasse. I rejected his claim, because in my opinion it is as described, and the buyer hasn't actually asked directly for a refund. Of course, we are now past the point where that kind of request might be accepted. So it is now 'sub judice' with eBay and we are waiting for their adjudication. We'll see how that goes.

This is all of course the turn of events from my point of view, and actual facts and happenings may have occurred differently in reality.

Sunday 14-06-29 - Party Day

And the day of the party arrived.
I was in bed at about 22:30 on Saturday night, and I woke up at 00:30. TW was still not back, and I was slightly concerned. I did think about texting her, but decided not to, and went back to sleep.
I was woken again at 03:30, when a very drunk TW staggered in and slumped into bed. I was a bit miffed at the time, as she didn't close the toilet doors or the bedroom doors.
To explain, we've recently moved up into the loft. Things are still a bit ad hoc, and we haven't got any blinds or curtains up in the stairwell or the bathroom. And, what with it being right at the height of summer, or at least the time of the longest days, it's important that we close the doors to keep the light out as the mornings creep up on us - it's only sporting to give them a chance.
So that was annoying. Then when I got up later, at about seven and went downstairs, I thought it was odd that I could feel a breeze. As I got to the ground floor, I spotted that the front door was open. So not only had she not closed the doors in our bedroom, to keep the light out; she hadn't closed the front door to keep the burglars out!
I did a quick check; of course, nothing had been taken. In matters of that nature we are quite lucky. Eldest had requested three types of sandwich for her party: ham, jam and egg mayonnaise. Once the others roused themselves and I had drunk a sufficiency of tea, and caught up with the latest events in 'The Winx Club', I headed to the kitchen and started buttering. I made the jam and the ham sandwiches, and then TW surfaced. I told her she had to make the egg sandwiches, but unfortunately she wasn't up to the challenge. She had boiled the eggs the night before; on Sunday morning she got the girls to peel them, and then mash them. When it came to loading the mixture into the actual slices of bread, she couldn't take the smell.
It was cruel of me to make fun of my wife at such a time, I admit it. But hangovers are self-inflicted and it wasn't like Eldest's party had come as a surprise: TW had booked it, planned it, and organised it. For her to lie on the sofa, groaning, asking me to take over, was a bit much, especially as I hadn't really been involved up to that point. She eventually knocked on a neighbour's door and asked her for help when I refused to make the egg sandwiches - which I wasn't expecting.
As it turned out the neighbour wasn't available but her daughter came round to help out. So once I'd cut up the carrot sticks and celery, I took over the egg duties, for my sins (I really don't like egg sandwiches).  And once we'd done that, it was time to go to the party.
Once others were involved TW perked up, of course. But that was good because obviously it meant that the girls had a good party. Of course, after we had cleared down and got everything home, TW went straight to bed, until about 5pm. We spent the rest of the day eating party food; all those ham and jam sandwiches I made earlier, and party sausages (no, not that type of party sausage...). And then, of course, it was bedtime.

Saturday 14-06-28 - Party Prep

So the weekend arrived. And the first thing I had agreed to was a work-related call at 09:00. How very relaxing. I logged on to the laptop in advance of the call and saw that the team had emailed me the results I needed to check, rendering the call unnecessary. So, I checked the results, provided some feedback and thought that would be it. 'Ah', advised my colleague over IM (Instant Messaging), 'now we can move on to the second stage of the change'. Oh, bugger.
'Do you need me online for that?' I asked. In three hours or so, came the reply. 'Okay, I'll log back on at one pm', I wrote back.
TW had, by now, taken the girls to gymnastics, and so I showered and went to pick them up. Once we returned, I was faffing around with something, then TW's best friend (and husband, and young son) arrived. So we had a very nice time chatting and drinking tea. TW made lunch, some lovely burgers in rolls, and by then the son was getting tired and so our visitors left, heading back to the Big Smoke. Or actually Maidenhead, I think it's where they've moved to. Anyway, then I checked the TV listings and saw that there was some T20 cricket on, so I sat and concentrated on that while TW was very active doing washing, and shopping and stuff. She does do things in a disorganised manner; if I was her I would arrange my life so that I actually got to sit down for a few minutes. But that's not her style; even when she's busy (or says she's got a lot to do), she's quite happy to sit and play Candy Crush for 20 minutes. So, I've given up trying to work her out. She was going out in the evening, some wedding reception which I wasn't interested in attending, and she wanted to make sure that things were ready and in place for Eldest's party on the Sunday.
At 6:30 or so she got a text message - we had arranged to buy a tent and the guy selling it was back and available. So I jumped in the car to go and pick it up, and guess what? Heavy summer showers. As soon as we do anything related to camping, it bloody well rains. We just don't have the luck. So I collected the beast (it was so big that light was bending around it)  and took it home.
Once I'd unloaded that, it was time to ferry TW in to town.
That evening I had a couple of EPAs from River Cottage and watched a bit of telly. I headed up to bed at about 22:30 I think.
I had forgotten to log back on to the work laptop to validate the second lot of results...

Friday 14-06-27 - Sussex vs. Middlesex at Hove County Ground

Friday came as a bit of a surprise; as I had taken Thursday off, I was in full-on weekend mode, and not really in the right frame of mind to be in the office with my nose to the grindstone. But I struggled through and made it to 4:50pm.
On a Friday it's one of my customs/traditions/habits to get a sausage sandwich from the canteen in the morning, but unfortunately on this occasion by the time I got to work they had run out. Just lately they've been pushing the breakfast items - sausage and egg muffins, bacon and cheese croissants, and I think they've created a bit of demand for cooked goods early in the morning. I had to take the second-choice option of a Danish, which is probably just as enjoyable, but it wasn't a sausage sandwich.
At lunch I decided to save my sandwiches (homemade by TW) for the evening, and I had a salt beef ciabatta with piccalilli. It was delicious, but I think that was down to the piccalilli rather than anything else; the salt beef was a bit chewy, but I managed it nonetheless.

So, anyway, on to the cricket. As ever, I left work slightly early and tried to get to the Hove County Ground in time for the opening of the gates. Of course I missed that, but I got there early enough to get a front row seat, which was pleasing to me.
The cricket was okay; Sussex managed to restrict Middlesex in the first innings, which was a surprise after seeing how Middlesex performed on Sky on Thursday night. One of Middlesex's sure-fire boundaries was stopped by a seagull, and the moment was captured for posterity by the cameras:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&CMP=EMCSPTEML942&v=g2C22nbwg2s

Sussex's response was pretty good, but inevitable. They completed their run chase in 16 overs. On the way out, people were saying that it was the best game of the season; somehow I don't think they were right. The first game of the season was a real thriller and that one was nip and tuck all the way, with Sussex winning off the last ball of the innings. I think that is the best game I've seen so far this year - and possibly for a number of years.
So I headed home a happy man that night :)

Thursday 14-06-26 - To Goodwood Festival of Speed

Thursday came, and I had booked a day off work. Dad had bagged two complimentary tickets to the Rolling Roadshow, the first day of the Festival of Speed at Goodwood.
The Festival of Speed (FoS) is a petrolhead's wet dream, a living record of the racing industry from its early days in the 1910s and 1920s, all the way through to the current day. They have Formula One cars, Nascar entrants, touring cars, winners of Le Mans and supercars, as well as trade stalls showing all the latest street-legal and concept cars.
We got there by about 9am, and wandered in. The first stand / stall is the exhibition of the cars who will be driving up the hill. The whole thing about Goodwood is showing the cars off, how they drive, and during the day there was a steady procession of Fiats, Peugeots, Fords, Audis, Ferraris and others going up the hill.
I did suggest to Dad that he ring up Audi and ask for a trip up the hill; to be fair, he did, but unfortunately the woman he spoke to advised that she had already allocated all the spaces and so he was fresh out of luck. But that didn't ruin the day; we enjoyed ourselves and the weather stayed with us.
We skipped past the first stand and proceeded deeper in to the FoS. Dad had done some research and apparently there was a GT40 somewhere in there; Dad used to own a kit GT40, and so that was a highlight he was looking forward to. The way that the cars are displayed at FoS, you can walk up and down and in between them, peering into their cabins and inspecting their engines and exhausts. As I said, it's a petrolhead's dream. Dad was in his element; I was just there for the day out. We talked about allsorts; the economy, work, family, you name it. It was a nice relaxing day. The Thursday is normally busy but not crowded, and so it proved. Dad got to see his GT40 in the 'Style et Lux' paddock, which is where it really belongs; I'm not any kind of car specialist but the smooth curves of the GT are something to behold.
We left at about 1:30 or 1:45 and headed home, Dad had seen all he wanted to see and TW was busy in the afternoon and relying on neighbours to look after the kids, so it made sense.
It was a good day; it was good weather and it was nice to spend some time with the 'old man' (i.e., Dad). Hopefully we can have a few more like that during the summer.

Monday 14-06-23 (II) - Delays Ahead

So, on Monday morning  I set off to work early, having already celebrated Eldest's birthday and opened her presents with her. As a family we were awake half an hour earlier than normal, and I thought I would take the opportunity to get to work early and start the week at a canter.
I headed to West Worthing station and jumped on the 07:47 and decided to change at Worthing; that normally means I can get a seat, and the train goes direct to Brighton. If I'm reading,  or  listening to a podcast, I can carry on uninterrupted. The other option is to change at Hove, which means (normally) waiting longer on Hove station, and then not getting a seat on the train. I know it's only two minutes from Hove to Brighton, but I like a sit-down if I can.
So I got on the train at Worthing, and it promptly went nowhere. The conductor advised that some piping had fallen off the bottom of one of the carriages, and they would attempt to fix it. This meant that they switched off the electricity feeding the tracks, and so all trains behind us were also delayed.
Eventually he advised that, due to the electric tracks and the hot train exhaust, they would not be able to rectify the issue, and so we were obliged to disembark and get on subsequent trains.
As a result, I didn't get into the office until 09:10, probably twenty minutes later than I would normally expect to arrive.

I am starting to believe that I am jinxed; life seems to plod on normally and all is well, usually, but as soon as I try something different or unusual, Fate slaps me down. So from now on, it's routine, routine, routine. I shall aim to be at the station in time to get the 08:02, and take it from there...

Monday 14-06-23 (I) - A Birthday!

Monday was our Eldest's birthday. She was nine years old. She is so grown up, though, it is more like she's 12 or 13. She so wants to be a grown-up, it's a bit sad. I spend most of my time wishing I was a kid again, while she's wishing her childhood away.
TW did well with the presents, as usual; she managed to procure some dungarees off of eBay, BNWT (brand new with tags, for those of you not keeping up with the modern yootspeek). Also we got her a baseball jacket, which is nice in pink. Her aunt and uncle sent some lovely turquoise headphones, and her other aunt and uncle sent a bag, which Eldest liked very much. M&P got her some weights, and we also agreed she can have her ears pierced at the start of the summer holidays, so we gave her a voucher entitling the bearer to have her ears pierced at the Leisure Centre. No, I don't know why the Leisure Centre are piercing kids' ears, but apparently they are doing it much cheaper than anywhere else, so that is what we're going to do.

Sunday 14-06-22 - The Day After

So it was the day after the Summer Fayre. And didn't I know about it. I had a horrible hangover, which I've not had in a long time, and in addition my body ached from all the standing I did while serving burgers and hot dogs on Saturday, as well as the lifting and carrying we did to tidy up afterwards.
Eldest wanted to go to Arundel Lido, which of course made my heart sink, as there was nothing I wanted more than to sit inside and not move all day, but I started to feel better about the possibility when TW advised there was shade. I could sit in the shade and read my newspaper, maybe? But then TW put her foot down and said no, it would cost £16 and that was too much. She was planning to take Eldest out for dinner the following day, so two treats in two days was out of the question.
We decided to go swimming instead at Splashpoint, which was a bit of a busman's holiday for TW considering she works there, but at least the kids were pleased and it was a good choice to soothe my aches and pains. Probably not the headache, given the noise levels, but you can't have everything, can you? We were joined in the pool by some friends and after the swim, when we were mooching in the cafe, they offered to look after the two youngest for the afternoon, which was nice. We arranged to go to theirs for a bbq later, so we dropped the kids off and went to Tesco to get supplies, and also a new phone for TW. She's been using a 7" tablet as a phone for the past three months or so, since hers just inexplicably stopped working. At least I get my tablet back. She got a nice Moto G, which I hope will last out the two year contract... We also bought a new TV, which was a bit unexpected, but we were planning to get one for the loft and they were selling them off, so I think we've done okay. Apparently though we do need an aerial, so I'll have to look into getting one - I'm hoping an indoor aerial might be sufficient, and they're only a fiver or so off of Amazon. We'll see...
The barbecue was nice and relaxed, despite the children all being in high spirits. It's amazing how much enjoyment can be extracted from a bit of sun and a paddling pool by five girls. I thought we had our hands full with three, it's quite crazy how much energy five children can expend when combined.
A couple of beers (quite literally, two cans) and then home. I could have quite easily gone to bed at nine I think, if I'd been on my own, but TW watched Masterchef and we headed up at ten, as usual.
It was a good day, despite the unpromising start. I really thought I'd prefer lying in my pit, but a bit of activity and conviviality goes a long way.

Saturday 14-06-21 Summer Fayre Day

So,  Saturday was the day of the summer 'fayre'. On Friday I was working like a Trojan to set it up, and Saturday afternoon I was drinking like a bastard to forget how involved I'd been.
In the morning, I served a *lot* of burgers and hotdogs. It was a hot, sunny day, and the barbecue stall was probably the busiest of the lot. Nothing like making things hard for myself. Oh, it started nice and slowly, but soon ramped up. At times it seemed that the queues were never-ending. In the two and a half hours we were trading, we sold all the meat we had - 250 burgers and 250 sausages, all at full price - which was a good deal. I think we were selling them cheaper than last year, so maybe we could have made more profit for the school funds, but we didn't have to discount any at the end to ensure we sold all the stock.
There was another helper, an old boy, who didn't appear to be interested in any system or organisation. He was a pain in the bum, swanning off and eating the burgers, or stealing the cheeseburgers I had asked for & planned to sell, or taking cash from my customers while I was sorting out the orders. Still, I suppose there always had to be at least one fly in the ointment.
So it was full-on for the full two and a half hours. And once the 'fayre' had ended, we needed to put things away, so we carried tables and hay bales, and deconstructed gazebos and drank beer. Did I say we drank beer? It didn't even feel like it touched the sides on the way down. Then, at about four pm we finished up and went to the pub, for more beers which slid down just as easily. That was a nice session; we all felt that we had achieved a lot, and we're all in a good mood. We were home by seven thirty or eight, to tell the truth I was quite drunk and can't recall precisely. But the kids were in bed and TW fell asleep on the sofa at a quarter to nine, so I brought her up to bed and went back down. I had another bottle of Fursty Ferret and a cider, and then came up to bed.
A full-on day, and I'm glad we only do it once a year!

Friday 14-06-20

Friday was spent at school, preparing for the school summer 'fayre'. It was a day of hard work, lugging tables about and generally faffing. We put up gazebos, because the weather was great, and left them up overnight. TW drove to school and I walked with the children, which was nice. I'd taken the day off work to help TW set up, and it was a bit manky really. Obviously she had a plan of what she wanted to achieve, but to be honest, she's not very good at sharing the big picture. So I did bits and pieces, and everyone else (all women) remarked on how 'good' I was for taking time off and volunteering. I don't feel I did very much; I went to pick up a shop from Tesco Click and Collect, and I also went to the Post Office to pick up a Kindle Fire I'd bought from eBay.
I was begging to leave by 4:30, but as Molly in the Middle had a final practice for her country dancing demonstration on Saturday, we stayed quite late on Friday, putting the finishing touches to it all.

When I got home I tried to fire up the Kindle, but of course it was sold as faulty, and so it turned out. It did get past the boot-up screen to where I should have been able to unlock it; but unfortunately as soon as I touched it, the damned thing rebooted. Since then, I've not been able to get that far again; it's stuck on the boot screen, displaying 'Kindle Fire' in white and orange, and steadfastly refusing to be recognised by my laptop. If my laptop was able to recognise the Fire, it would be relatively straightforward to fix. Unfortunately these things are never straightforward for me... :) So now I've ordered a 'factory cable' and I hope that that might work. I *think* the device is not in fastboot mode, and I'm hoping that the cable can help force that. We'll see. If it doesn't work, I shall just put it back on eBay and sell it, hopefully for about as much as it cost me - £30 inc. P&P.

Wednesday 14-06-18

Well, it's the third day and I think I've run out of things to say. I spent the day at work, the same as usual. I don't want to talk about work though, it's quite dull. It's just office work - relationship / account management.
I did hear a news item on Radio 4 this morning about making the school day longer, so that children will be able to do their homework at school. That doesn't make any sense to me; with my 'Dad' hat on, surely that means that the responsibility for bringing up our children is being taken away from us? And at Parents' Evening at the start of the year, it was stressed to us that bringing up the children was a shared responsibility between us as parents and the school. But if the school now take responsibility for the children doing their homework, surely that takes away our parental duties? Oh well, if that's the way they want it...

I've been quite busy on the Oneplus forums today, trying to get my greasy mitts on an invitation for a Oneplus One. I'm patient enough.
Anyway, that's enough for today - more of the same tomorrow, I expect.

Tuesday 14-06-17

So today I did something really Dad-like; I went to a presentation at Eldest's school about a week-long residential planned for September 2015. It looks like it's going to be pretty good fun; lots of outdoor adventure type stuff, but it's also going to be pretty expensive. We need to provide our £100 deposit by 11th July, and in total it's going  to be £350 for a week away.
There are going to be 140 kids or so, and I'm sure they'll have a great time, it looks like what the Eldest did previously at her First School, but that was only a three day residential, which I believe was two full days' worth of activity. They are not allowed to take their phones with them (aged 10!) or anything they can put a SIM card in, so no iPads either :)
Eldest loved the three day residential, and I'm sure that she will love this. She was apparently really good at orienteering last time, and I hope that she finds a new skill this time out too.
Now we just need to decide where we are going to find the cash to pay for it. And then that will set the precedent, and the other two, "Molly in the Middle" and Youngest will also want to go. That's over £1k in the space of five years for a week away each. I don't think we paid that much to go to EuroDisney - in fact, I know we didn't. Ah, well, the alternative is that she stays at home and has an "activity week" at school. It might be worth £350 to have her go away for a week. In fact, if we pay £1,050 now, can TW & I have a free week? It might almost be worth it... :)

Monday 14-06-16

So, more GiL-related escapades today. GiL, that is, Grandmother-in-Law, not 'gilf'. Brrr, I've just made myself shudder. She's 96, you know. She doesn't have all her own teeth any more.
Anyway, the GiL.
As TW had looked after her all night in hospital and had only come to bed at 03:00, I made sure the girls were dressed and had sandwiches for school. I also walked them to school before setting off for work.
I had reached Brighton rail station before TW called and advised that the GiL had absconded from hospital. She'd walked out unnoticed, possibly in her slippers (although that's unconfirmed at this stage), without telling the staff she was going. I tried calling her home number (the GiL's, that is) but she wasn't there. I had a bit of a brainwave and called TW back to tell her she should alert GiL's neighbours that she might be coming home - after all, where else would she go? I got a pat on the back for that later on.
Apparently she was a 'misper' for a while - I knew those years of watching The Bill would come in handy - that means, the Police were supposed to be out scouring the streets to track her down. As it turned out TW drove to Angmering and knocked on the door, and GiL let her in. The police phoned later, while TW and the MiL (Mother-in-law, of course) were there.
It turns out that GiL had started cooking a microwave meal - not in the microwave though - oh no, perish the thought; she had taken it out of its sleeve and put it in a saucepan and was cooking it dry on one of the rings on top of the cooker. Because of course that makes much more sense. Then, of course she had forgotten what she was doing (I had to write that down so that I don't forget) and the neighbours spotted the smoke coming out of the door. Of course because she'd been melting plastic the firemen wanted to take her in to hospital for a check-up, but she refused to go. And that's when TW got involved and the whole circus began.
So one outcome, the immediate outcome, is that GiL's cooker is being disconnected and removed tomorrow. So that when she inevitably changes her mind in a week or so, she can't reconnect it. And we'll have to see what the other consequences are over the next few days.

Sunday 14-06-15

So I have decided to try and write more often in this forum, and it seems like I chose the right day. I went with a friend to watch Sussex play Somerset at Arundel, and although it wasn't sunny, the clouds refused to share their load with us and we had a relaxed and enjoyable time. The only fly in the ointment was Sussex's refusal to win.
Unfortunately when we got home The Wife had to go to see her grandmother who had smoked out her house. She's still at the hospital now, so we'll have to see how things go there. I think that physically she's okay, we'll have to see what the doctors say.
The children all got on well and enjoyed each other's company. Because a friend was with TW, I and his partner had to wait at home with the kids until he returned. That was about nine pm, the two youngest had already gone to bed but our eldest who isn't nine years old yet was still up. I hope that they're all okay getting up in  the morning. I shall be heading to bed very soon... Tomorrow looks like I might be working from home to ensure that The Wife gets a rest and I'm around in case I'm needed. I'm beginning to like working from home, it is a bit more relaxed and on occasion I actually get more done than I would in the office.
So, nighty night and maybe more of an update tomorrow - who knows?

Thanks, Amazon !

I ordered a shaving soap from Amazon and paid for it using my mobile phone. One of the options you can set is 'mobile 1-click settings', to easily buy things. To be honest, I'm a bit wary of these settings which make the checkout process too quick, it takes away any chance you have to reconsider the purchase.

Nonetheless, it was early in the morning and I gave it a bash.

The item I was purchasing was £11.89 so you can imagine my surprise when I saw £17.90 on my credit card bill. I wrote an email to Amazon complaining that there weren't any options to choose free postage in the 1-click settings; I didn't request a refund, but to be fair to them they refunded me £6.01 postage.

Nevertheless, if you can't choose free postage as a default in the 1-click settings (and you can't), this makes the option a bit useless for me. I looked at all the outlets selling the particular item I wanted, and some were selling it for £10 + £3.95 p&p. I figured £11.89 without p&p costs was a fair price. So to add 50% to the selling price unnecessarily makes Amazon uneconomic. The item I wanted was £10 from the retailer so obviously the £1.89 covered the p&p. I don't want to then pay for p&p a second time.I'd be better off searching out the item in a real shop In Real Life. And I don't like things In Real Life...

So what's the point? Several things, I guess...

• 1-click settings might suit Amazon, but they might not suit the consumer.
• Amazon are good at providing refunds, even if not requested
• Amazon are not always the cheapest solution; you should watch the cost of things in real life.

Sussex vs. Surrey, May 16th, 2014

And so to Hove County Cricket Ground for the opening match in Sussex's bid for T20 glory.

Gates opened at 17:30, and I was in the ground by 17:40. I chose a nice spot in the second row in the General Admittance area, at the Cromwell Road end. I did choose to sit in the Pavilion area once last season, and it wasn't all that... I had purchased a chicken pasta dish and an Orange Fanta from the Tesco at the station, so I tucked into that as I caught up on last Saturday's Times. Get me; reading the Times and watching cricket - am I old before my time? Anyway, it was a lovely sunny day and so I applied the suntan lotion liberally several times. It seems to have worked, I'm not sunburnt today. The ground filled up around me as I caught up with what used to be current affairs, and then it was time for the match.

Surrey won the toss and decided to bat first, led by Graeme Smith. I was struck (and continued to be struck throughout the match) by how tall he was. I know Sussex are a short side, with Yardy, Wright and now Zaidi, but Smith towered over his own players as well. Very tall. Apart from that, Smith didn't trouble us much; he was out for seven in the fifth over. The rest of the Surrey players were a bit of an unknown to me; Smith's opening partner was Roy, who stealthily accrued runs and got a half-century while no-one was watching. Davies, who I did recognise, was out quickly, and Roy was then partnered by Wilson, who again accumulated the runs without anyone noticing. He also scored a half century. O'Brien, who troubled England a while ago didn't trouble the scoreboard at all; he was in and out quicker than the Hokey Cokey.

Towards the end of the Surrey innings it seemed that they were just getting more runs than they should have done. Sussex had done well to limit Surrey's scoring ambitions, but they had seemed to let Surrey away with it in the last overs. When Azhar Mahmood came in to bat, he managed a bright n' jaunty 23 off 12, and all of a sudden Surrey had managed to get 171 for 7. It was probably 20 or so more than I expected them to get, but that did include a six run penalty because Sussex were bowling their overs slowly. We were all watching the clock tick down, but Sussex showed no signs of hurrying. And then, when the clock ran out they got pinged. It was a silly piece of organisation; we were all concerned in the crowd but it didn't seem to bother Joyce.

After a shortened interval, Wright and Machan came out to open the batting for Sussex, and to start the run chase. It was getting colder now, so out came the fleece on top of the jumper I was already wearing. Machan and Wright had to keep up a run rate of nine an over, and they were managing to keep at about eight. I say 'they', Machan was out for one, Joyce was out for seven - just like the illustrious Smith, and Yardy was out for five. Hamilton-Brown came in and tried to keep Wright company for a bit, and I thought they were having a boundary competition between themselves, and unfortunately Wright then got himself out - but not before getting 56 off 31, and losing a ball over the hospitality area (south-east corner).

It always felt that Sussex were on the back foot, and after Wright went that didn't change - in fact, it became more apparent. RHB tried his best but was only able to hold steady, and not push Sussex ahead. Nash caused himself an injury and Joyce had to come on as a runner. Things never end well when runners are involved, but actually he did okay. 21 off 20 wasn't good enough, but it kept Sussex in the game.

In the final overs, Sussex needed 30 off 12. In the 19th over Jordan hit the only boundary, and then Nash was out. Brown came in, Jordan was out, Brown hit a six to put Arafat on strike and eight required off the last two deliveries. Given their performance to that point, I wasn't holding my breath. But they had stayed in the game, and it had been a brilliant start to the season. Dernbach ran up and bowled, and Arafat hit it to the boundary. So from the final delivery he needed to do the same again. Dernbach delivered the final ball and Arafat nudged it behind to the boundary for four runs. It was a great match, Sussex managed to come from behind and take the match away from Surrey right at the last second - you might optimistically call it good timing, but I think Sussex only just managed to stumble over the line in time. It was thrilling to watch, and Sussex managed to achieve the impossible, which you only see rarely in sporting fixtures. They didn't give up but kept on playing, hoping that things would turn their way - until they did.

Unfortunately I am going to miss next Friday's fixture against Hampshire, which is a shame, but I'm looking forward to the next chance I get to see Sussex play.

Ladies and Gentlemen, my new phone...

I am taken by the specs and the low, low cost. Apparently this bad boy comes with a Snapdragon 801 processor (I'm not so worried about that, my current HOX is fast enough), a 5.5 inch screen, with some kind of power-saving technique which means it draws as much power as a 5" screen, and a 3100 mAh battery. And it's 4G. Excellent.

Except...

It's not 64-bit. I was listening to Android Central's podcast the other day and they mentioned the move to 64-bit is gathering momentum. Not that I really understand the difference between 32- and 64-bit; I need to look it up again. But they were talking about a possible future where the apps / OS were written for 64-bit and the 32-bit solution was a half-baked, cobbled together afterthought. Having said that, though, 64-bit processors for Android won't be available until 2015, so I'd get at least 6 months with what is apparently the best processor in the market at the moment. And what will this bad boy cost, I hear you ask?

£269.

You read it right, people. £269. I don't have it in my hand yet, and I haven't told my wife, but the 64gb version is going to be my next acquisition.

There's a bit of controversy around the way this phone has been promoted. Firstly, the company have claimed they are a start-up. Oneplus was started by a VP who left Oppo, and wanted to have a company with a different philosophy. Both Oppo and Oneplus have Oppo HQ as stakeholders, but apparently they are different firms.
Secondly, they encouraged people who wanted a One to smash their current flagship phone. They were running a comp to identify 100 people who would be able to buy the phone for $1. They will also be given three invitations to buy a phone which they can give to their friends. And then those folks, when they buy their phone, might also get invitations which they can hand on...
Thirdly, the invitation set-up is rubbing some people up the wrong way. Some people reckon they should just take pre-orders like everybody else. But at least people are talking about it.

Either way, none of those things bother me. This is a phone I'm planning to keep for at least two years. I can hold on for another month or two before ordering, and the specs look good enough at a reasonable enough price, that every time I look at it or use it, I will probably be reminded of what a bargain it was (will be).

Once I get my sticky mitts on this lovely beast I'll update here. I hope to have a glowing report. :)

Easter

A long weekend was upon us.
Friday, we did think I would take the girls to a National Trust property, but as it turns out they were tired and I didn't.
On Saturday we
Sunday was Easter, and so if course the girls received their eggs. Mum and Dad came over and gave them more eggs. Then we spent the day at a neighbour's house (thank you Chloe). A lovely roast lamb dinner, a game of chess, and Epic - a good way to spend the day .
Monday was the day to go to Silverwoods, our annual pilgrimage to GETH, the Great Easter Treasure Hunt. We yomped across the West Sussex countryside and of course we won - we got the most clues in the quickest time, and Daughter #1 found the champagne as well, but The Wife decided that we would not take it all - at least, not on this occasion.
Today was back to work with a bump - roll on the weekend!

Galaxy Tab 2 7.0

So  I bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 from eBay. It's not like we don't have enough tablets in the house, but this was a proper bargain. The seller described the tablet as 'not working', but in the description she went on to say that the tab was locked because a family member had set a lock code and forgotten what the code was.
Now, you and I know that if you forget your lock code, you can factory reset your device (if it is Android) by pressing a combination of the power key and one or more of the volume keys. So, as the tab was on eBay for less than £20, and the postage was £7 (or £6.95), I put in a bid of £33.75. I knew that would take me over the £40 mark, but I thought that would be an okay price for me. Please remember, I am a skinflint and we already have several tablets in the house, so it was an impulse bid and I would not regret losing the auction if the price went above £40 (incl. postage).

Actually, at this stage let's take a small detour and list the tablets we have / had....
Firstly I started with a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7, the original. I used it as a phone for a while, because it has 3G capabilities. And while my HOX was being repaired recently, I went back to using it. God, it's cumbersome! But a great little device.
Then when the Blackberry Playbook started tumbling in price, I bought one of those. I think it was £129 for a 64gb 1080p 7" device. It had a very nice screen, and I used to watch TV shows on it while commuting to work. Unfortunately the design flaw in the Playbook was that you could put the USB cable into the socket either way, and if you put it in the wrong way, you could damage the socket. Guess what I did? Unintentionally, of course... Luckily I had taken out insurance from Currys, and so they replaced it with a 1st generation Nexus 7. Then I think we bought a no-brand tablet for Daughter #2 for Christmas.
I also bought a Nook Simple Touch when they were being sold off dirt cheap, and then became interested in the Nook HD 32gb when they were being sold off cheap. I managed to get one of those off eBay for £87 or so (the P&P was unreasonable though :) ).
Next I bought a broken Blackberry Playbook for £21 but couldn't get it to work, so I sold it for £25, and now I bid on the Tab 2 7.0.

So for a while the bid was sitting at £16.70 or so, then it rose to £33, just shy of my limit. I hmmed and hawed and upped my max bid to £38.25. With the postage that would have been just over £45. But as it happened, no one else put a bid in, and so I got it for £33 +£7 postage.

So it turned up yesterday and I spent most of last night trying to reset it, The problem was (and this wasn't mentioned in the eBay description) that even when the power cable was unplugged, the device thought it was charging. When it was plugged in, the red 'x' showed in the battery, but it was charging. When I unplugged it and switched it off, if I pressed the power button the screen showed the charging animation. The state of the phone (that it thought it was charging) was preventing me from booting into Recovery and resetting the tab. But I scored a breakthrough, and realised that if I unplugged the charger from the wall but left it plugged into the tab, it could work... And so it did, I was able to reset the device. So I had a working Tab 2 7.0 for £40 including postage.
Then, unfortunately I noticed that the issue with the battery was persisting; that when I was charging it, the red 'x' was on display, and when it was unplugged it thought it was charging. But I noticed that there was a software update available, which would take the device up to 4.2.2 from 4.1.1; would that fix the issue? I was thinking that if the update didn't fix it, I could always put it back on eBay as 'not working', but aim to make a small profit.
As it was, the update did work, the tab is now running Jelly Bean and the battery issue appears to be fixed. So that is a result - perseverence pays off :) .

Now though, I am in a quandary, as She is expecting me to sell one of the tabs we've got in the house.
I am not losing the Nook 8.9", nor am I losing the Nexus 7. So it's down to either the OG (Original Gangsta) Samsung Tab or the Tab 2 7.0. And to be fair, the Tab 2 7.0 is really nice.
I've hacked around with the OG Tab, it's running 4.2 as well, I believe, but I think I will sell that one. I see that they go for about £100 on eBay, even £75 would be okay I guess. We'll have to wait and see, though. I know that until recently I had kept the box it came in, but I suspect I've thrown it away in the moves in and out of the loft, and so I'll have to take a hit on that. It does have a lovely case though... I'll let you know how it goes.

Cruzer Force (32gb Thumb Drive)

So I bought a Cruzer Force 32gb usb stick earlier in the week and it arrived yesterday. Looking at the photos, I was expecting a large-ish drive that would slope down to a usb junction. How wrong I was.

It's tiny! I don't know how they managed to write 'SanDisk' on there, let alone squeeze in 32gb of memory...? It's a great little invention, and it was in a flash sale on eBay - £9.99.
A bargain piece of tech. And I might find a use for it...

Speek Yer Branez I

So that Maria Miller then, eh? Gone, like that. In a flash of allegation and half-truths.
I'm not going to go into them. I'm sure it's all well-documented somewhere.
But, how depressing must it be to wake up day after day, and realise that your fizzog is going to be all over the news AGAIN, for all the wrong reasons? Politicians are a hardy, egotistical bunch (my own conclusion based on my senses), but to know that your 'misdemeanours' will be driving the news cycle must be depressing. Ah well, we build em up, and we knock en down. And tomorrow's another day.
Sleep well.

Windows Vista Service Packs 1 & 2

You know, it's strange. For such a neophile, I didn't realise that I hadn't installed Vista Service Packs 1 & 2. Crazy, when you think about it. I've been fussing about the latest update to Android and sweating on the release of the Chromecast. But my laptop was running an outdated O/S.
So I've updated to Service Pack 1, via manual installation. And I'm currently installing Service Pack 2. It seems to be going well. I'm hoping to get regular updates once this Service Pack is installed. But I know that Vista is at the end of its serviceable life, and really we should get a new laptop. But I like tinkering, as you know by now, so it's a good way to pass the time :)

Mayor's Charity Swim, Worthing

And so to the Mayor's Charity Swim in Worthing.

This was held at Splashpoint, the new swimming pool in Worthing, and very nice it is too. The only possible criticism is that it is not big enough. (I reckon when the old Aquarena was still in action, a lot of people used to go to Burgess Hill, so maybe they underestimated its popularity on that basis?) Even though the leisure centre was closed to the casual swimmer, it was still packed. There was the choir from Thomas a'Becket First School, as well as their parents, and the swimmers and their parents/families.
The choir sang 'Learn to Swim' to open proceedings (Daughter #2 is in the choir, I have to declare an interest) and then it was to poolside to watch the swimmers.
There was a delay in starting, as it took time (as I understand) to arrange the swimmers into ability. And as a result, there wasn't a clear break between the first and second session; more swimmers just kept being herded into the pool.
There were a load of people raising money for the Mayor's charities, and I'm sure he was pleased with the turnout. All the swimmers got a certificate and some goodies, that certainly seemed well-organised.

All-in-all, it was a good afternoon, and a lot of people came together to do something good. Well done Worthing,

Jonathan Creek - A New Series

Well, I'm not a happy bunny.

Alan Davies is back, playing Jonathan Creek, and I have a lot of time for his downbeat, slightly other-worldly portrayal of Creek. He manages to get over the idea that Creek is always thinking about slight of hand and deception, to the detriment of observing what's going on here and now.
This is a run of three all-new episodes, but the twist is that the crime is shown before Creek arrives on the scene. Unfortunately this takes away the dramatic intrigue and the engagement of the viewer. All we're left with is Creek bumbling around in his usual way, humming and hawing, and 'Oh, I see'-ing until we know that he has caught up with us.
I watched two of the three last night (thanks iPlayer and Tivo!) and I will watch the third, but I'm not waiting with bated breath - which is a shame.

Chromecast for the UK

So, disappointed to realise that the Chromecast is not available in the UK today. I've been checking the Google Play Store, Currys, and teh interwebs in general, but no joy.
I don't know what I would do with it; I quite fancy signing up for Netflix, but I can access that through the PS3, so I don't need a Chromecast for that, The girls will probably end up using it for 'casting Youtube to the TV, and we can do without that.
I guess I just want to be at the forefront of technology; again, I think that tech will provide the answer, but really the Chromecast is a means to an end, and not an end in itself. Likewise my Chromebook, and my Nexus 7, and my HTC One X should all be means to an end and not an end in itself. But I believe the acquisition of new technology is driving us onwards, to consume more and more...
I've just replaced the battery in my One X for the princely sum of £45. I'm hoping that will enable me to put off replacing it for at least another six months. And then I am very interested in getting the Moto G as a replacement. £160 for a 16gb mid-range Android phone running the latest software with ease - nice.
My O2 contract is up for renewal on 5th April and I think I'm going to go SIM-only with Tesco. I believe they have a decent mix of minutes and data. I don't use many texts, so that's not important to me. With the combination of a Moto G and a SIM-only deal, I reckon I'll save a few pounds...

The UK Royal Family and Ivory

From The Times yesterday: Charles Hides His Ivory (paywall)

Basically the gist is: Wildlife and campaigning charities are asking the royal family to destroy their antique ivory pieces; that is, ivory pieces that they collected and were given before the trade in ivory was declared illegal.
To me, this sounds insane. Destroying these items won't change how they were made, or the pain and death  inflicted on the elephants killed to make these items. But they were made at a different time, when we had different values. Destroying these items will mean they no longer exist, and therefore the pain and suffering of the creatures killed to make these items will have been in vain.
Surely it would be better to display these items and change the message to a 'never forget' kind of message? Reinforce the hideous way in which these items were obtained and impress on the public / kids looking at these displays that we've moved on and are not so barbaric any more?

The Saturday Times

Who says the Times is dumbing down? These five (four on show here) full pages of ads give me a breather before continuing with the important info contained in the 'Register' section.

Resetting a CNM 7" Android Tablet

So my daughter, the silly sausage, set a password on her CNM 7" tablet and promptly forgot what it was.
I googled a solution, but was unable to find anything that worked.
First suggestion was to try Google's password recovery service. Tried that, no luck.
Then, link the tablet to a PC using a USB lead, and find the Username in the Play Services downloads.
No dice, tablet didn't link to the PC.

I found one suggestion, that I should turn the tablet off entirely, and then hold the Power and Volume Down button in together for 12 secs, which (the advisor claimed) would put the tablet into reboot menu. As it was, the person seeking advice saw a table of options but in oriental (Chinese?) script.
The next bit of advice was to turn the tablet off, and then hold down the Power and the Volume Up buttons together. I did that and got into the necessary menu - and from there, chose the Factory Reset option.

So if you're looking, the solution is:
1. Power off completely.
2. Hold down the Power and Volume Up buttons at the same time for approx. 15 seconds
3. Choose the Factory Reset option.

This will reset the tablet though, and you will have to reapply any settings and preferences, as well as download again all apps, widgets and wallpapers you had installed. The reset will restore your device to 'factory fresh' condition.

As 2013 Comes to an End...

In 2013 I ran 91.1 miles and weighed 13st 7lbs (At one stage I did weigh over 14st) - that's 86kg.
If I can reach the end of 2014 weighing less, having run more, and feel in better shape, that would be an achievement.
I'll also have to cut down or cut out the alcohol, but that will be a tough ask.

It's a simple aim, I need to break it down in to weekly and monthly targets in order to achieve it... :-)

Wreaths all Year Round?

It struck me the other day that it would be nice to have wreaths on our doors all year round. They do make front doors look nicer. They would have to be non-festive; you couldn't have holly up all year around. But you could have seasonal wreaths, marking spring and summer.
I'm not sure if anyone's already thought of it; I don't think I've seen any, but maybe someone could design something nice which didn't immediately signify Christmas, and we could put up on a semi-permanent basis?

How Important is Facebook?

In the UK at the moment, there is a news item about a missing 17-year old, Jayden Parkinson. I don't want to talk about the case, or what's alleged; it must be dreadful for all involved.
What struck me as odd, though, about the reporting, is this: I was in the canteen, eating my customary bacon and cheese turnover, when the BBC reported what Jayden's mother had posted on Facebook. I thought that was odd, but looking on Google tonight I have found the same information in the Guardian and The Mirror.

When did Facebook posts become newsworthy? I don't understand; I think this is an invasion of privacy and an unnecessary intrusion into someone's personal tragedy. It doesn't 'add colour' to the story, which I suppose might be an argument. But do you really need to see what someone posts on Facebook to imagine what they are going through - if you have to imagine that sort of thing? Surely updates on social media sites are personal and not news? If this was just the BBC, I would shrug this off, but the fact that other news sources are reporting from Facebook as well strikes me as bizarre.

Having said that, maybe I'm just an old fuddy-duddy who isn't moving with the times.

S.A.D.

Very difficult to believe that currently the sun is going down before four p.m. at the moment. It seems that we're living at night, although that was always the case. By the end of this week, though, the days will start getting longer again. And then, next stop summer on the beach in balmy summer climes...

America's Got Powers

I have just finished reading “America’s Got Powers” by Jonathan Ross and Bryan Hitch. A number of months after everybody else, I expect, but it was worth the wait.
Originally billed as a six-part series, eventually this ended up stretching to a seven-part series. Maybe that was why it took so long to come out; the first issue was dated April 2012 and the final issue was dated October 2013.
I had read Ross’ previous effort, “Turf”, and so was expecting big things of this new story. Reflecting on it now, I don’t think I was disappointed.
The story starts with the arrival of a large intergalactic crystal which glows brightly and gives nearby residents ‘powers’. Of course, the authorities investigate and end up separating those with powers in some kind of apartheid. And they also have some TV show in which those with powers have to combat challenges and each other in some vicious kind of ‘Gladiators’ game show with real consequences.
There is a kind of arms race developing, whereby those with powers want to be free of their ‘normal’ overlords, those without powers want to harness their capabilities for their own ends, and some people advocate pacifism.
It’s a thoughtfully-written story, as well as being exciting and entertaining; any more than that might result in spoilers, and it really has only just officially ended.

I see that Ross has a new series out in Jan called “Revenger” - based on this and “Turf”, I will be getting my grubby mitts on a copy. The one thing I can’t understand is why the full series #1 - #7 are available on eBay for pennies. I spent about £15 collecting that series, and you can, if you’re lucky, pick it up for less than £2 (not incl. P&P) from the online fleamarket. Not that I want to sell my set, I was just wondering how much other people valued this set at. Maybe it’s a slow burner?

Everyone Sin a While

Today I took the girls to Splashpoint while TW went Christmas shopping. She's already done most of it, there were just the last bits to do. And of course she couldn't take the girls with her.
Which was lucky, as TW was out until the wee early hours and when she got back she woke me up and even our eldest. So she probably needed some time to get her head straight, as she was certainly out of it last night.
So, anyway, Splashpoint. I was rather reluctant, as I had already ferried T and L to gymnastics, but they really enjoyed it; flitting between the slide, the diving board, and the inflatable, they played nicely together and enjoyed the variety. When we got to the hour, I told them they had ten minutes; T went off to swim lengths and the other two went back on the inflatable for a final two times. L was upset when I told her that time was up, but they were well-behaved and got dry and dressed in good humour.

I was really surprised by how empty Splashpoint was. Apparently it's been like that for a week or so. I reckon everyone is off shopping for Christmas. They'll probably be swamped again after Christmas, but it was nice, just once, to stroll in, walk straight up to the counter (rather than queue for 20 mins) and collect our bands. It may never happen again... :)

Thinking About My Eldest Daughter

So, here's a thing: I get frustrated *a lot* by my eldest daughter. Much more so than by my other daughters, even if they do the same things. So I got to thinking why that might be.

My eldest is quite mature for an eight-year old; that might sound strange, but all her friends are older than her, so even though she is the eldest of her sisters she has role models to emulate. And she is quite tall as well - taller than some twelve year olds in the street.

So I think it boils down to this:- I think my eldest daughter is older than she actually is. I need to remember that next time (and the time after that) she does something childish... She is actually a child. So it's to be expected, and these things happen and should be used as an opportunity to teach her how grown-ups handle situations.

Grant Shapps and the BBC

It seems Grant Shapps has misjudged the British public, so I question Grant Shapps:

Grant Shapps told the Sunday Telegraph the BBC must tackle a culture of secrecy and waste in the wake of recentscandals and rows over stars' salaries and pay-offs to senior executives.Would that be in the same way that MPs have 'tackled' the culture of secrecy and waste in the wake of the expenses scandal?

And he said there was a "question of credibility" for the BBC over whether it applied "fairness" to its reporting of politics. If the public were asked who was more credible, MPs or the BBC, who does Shapps think would be voted 'most credible'?

Shapps said the £145.50 annual fee would be "too much" if the BBC failed to reform. I'd be happier to pay more, if there was a chance of not receiving the BBC's output.

Shapps made clear Conservative frustrations with the BBC: "They have ended up working in this culture which is buried in the last century, which is 'we are the BBC, we do what we like, we don't have to be too accountable'," he told the paper. And which century do MPs operate in, with their weird customs and ways of doing things? Do MPs really think they are 'accountable'?

Shapps: "But they are raising £3.6bn through the licence fee, which is a tax, and, quite rightly, the public wants to have sight of how the money is spent. Things like the pay-offs have really caused concern, as have, obviously, things like Savile and Hall and the culture that goes around that. I think it is one of too much secrecy." MPs' salaries are a tax as well, and we get much more for the the money we pay to the BBC.

He said the BBC director-general, Lord Hall, should consider publishing all expenditure over £500 – including stars' salaries – and opening up to freedom of information requests. Can I opt out of paying MP salaries? Agreed, transparency is a good thing.

Shapps: "If they do that they can make sure they win back public trust. If they don't, they are in danger of frittering away Auntie's public trust that has been built over a long time." In my opinion, the BBC have never lost the public's trust.

Shapps: "I would also say that £145.50 is quite a lot to pay for everyone in the country who has a TV. It is too much if we don't see the kind of reforms [we expect]" Like Grant Shapps cares about the level of the licence fee. Is he going to suggest some of that is shared with Sky?

A BBC spokesman said: "Mr Shapps is right that transparency is key to the future of the BBC. So is its freedom from political pressure.

When I read this sort of crap from people like Shapps I think perhaps Russell Brand is right - we need a revolution to get wrong-thinking people like Shapps away from power and out of situations where he could harm perfectly decent public institutions.
If people weren't happy paying the licence fee, there would be more cases of non-payment.
Shapps should reconsider his ideas on this occasion, IMHO.

Deportation by SMS - WTF?

So here is the story: text messages (SMS) are being sent to people advising them that they are not at liberty to stay in the UK and they should leave.

Link to Guardian article
Link to Indepenent article

When I first heard this story, in the Independent, my brain could not compute.
Firstly, why would anyone choose to communicate regarding such a delicate subject using such an impersonal method?
If you send an SMS message, you can't guarantee it's been read. I have friends I text about possible nights out, and they never respond - it's so frustrating!

But still the SMS comes. So you assume it's been sent to the right person.
I get a load of texts from O2. That's only right; they supply my phone and airtime, and I can't be bothered to go online and update my preferences so that I don't receive these text messages. There is no follow-up; O2 don't ring me up and ask if I received their SMS. My learning? There are no consequences to ignoring SMS.

So, people don't respond to SMS, and ignore SMS which are not from people they know.
Surely a better option would be to have someone visit the intended 'target' - that would be more effective.

What's the point of sending these, and why be so impersonal?

I'm a floating voter. I think the Tories are doing better on the economy, but Labour are more considerate.
When I hear about initiatives like this, though, it makes me wonder if there aren't more important things in this life, like manners and compassion. And then I start thinking about Michael Gove and other less 'nice' Tories, and it makes me think that possibly it might be worth having a Labour government again. Sod fiscal discipline, at least if we're all nice to each other we can go to hell in a handcart all together and smile about it.

Eco Day at School (TAB First)

Saturday morning and we go to school regardless. For today is "ECO DAY" and our our presence is required.
In truth, Eco Day is just a bit of gardening, but on an industrial scale. By turning up to help, we are probably doing about a term's work in a day for the school. We move soil, weed flower beds, and generally titivate areas so that the school looks nice and attracts 'mini-beasts' (insects to you and me) at the right time of year.
The day was supposed to go on until three pm, but it was raining and a bit miserable, so we called it a day at about one pm. Then went home and had a bath to warm our chilly bones.

Ralph Miliband and the Daily Mail

The whole affair has affirmed my view that the Daily Mail is not a pleasant paper to read.
Why bother dragging up and insulting the memory of a dead man?

Others have said that Cameron's and Osborne's upbringing has similarly been questioned.
But I don't think that's right.
Someone said they've been accused of being 'posh boys' - that was actually an accusation levelled at them by Nadine Dorries, a tory. And in my opinion, the front bench on either side of the House is equally posh. So that doesn't wash.

The fact that Cameron's and Osborne's status has been questioned, I agree with. People have said they are products of Eton and they don't know how people on benefits live, that the laws they pass benefit people like them. I agree with that as well.
But I don't know Cameron's father's name, or his views, nor do I know Osborne's father's name, or views. I know he ran a paint company and became fabulously wealthy.
I don't believe any journalists have completed a widely-published hatchet-job on Cameron's or Osborne's father.

On the other hand, I don't think I'll ever forget Ralph Miliband's name, or the diary entry he wrote when he was 17.
Nor will I forget that Ralph Miliband served in the Royal Navy for three years while Rothermere sucked up to Hitler.
Nor will I forget that the Mail's attempt to smear Ralph Miliband, and Ed by association, backfired spectacularly and kept news from the Tory conference off the front pages.

The article published last week, and still causing bad feeling, shows more clearly than ever that British newspapers are merely the mouthpieces of their owners / editors, a way to promulgate bilge (in the case of the Mail).

You can love a country and question where it is going at the same time. You can question the necessity of the institutions and direction of political travel. That's because we live in a democracy.

The reason Ralph Miliband is so despised by the Daily Mail/Dacre, is because he questioned things.
The Daily Mail doesn't want you to question things.
It wants to tell you what's wrong with this country, and have you accept it wholesale.
It wants you to follow blindly its worldview.
You can't stop to think about this.
If you stop to think, you might notice the little man behind the curtain, telling you that this country is going to hell in a handcart.
What? No, there's no man there, don't look over there, look here, look at how Labour will screw up the country.
Look at how the country is falling apart because women don't stay at home to look after the children any more.
Look over here, and see how immigration is bringing this country to its knees...
Just don't look over there - there's nothing to see.

It's almost enough to make you vote for Ed Miliband, just to prove to Paul Dacre and the rest in charge at the Mail that this sort of crap won't wash.
If you deal in dishing dirt for long enough, you'll end up smelling of shit.

Banshee

Catching up on Banshee, the new U.S. drama somehow related to True Blood. I believe the same creative team are behind both. However, whereas True Blood is fantastical and a tale of good vs. bad, Banshee is a grim ultra-violent tale of bad vs. worse.
It's grim. Did I say that already? The episode with the albino in prison is especially memorable / repugnant. There is a liking for stretching out the violence too far in this show, so where other shows might have the fight last two or three minutes, Banshee pulls it out to seven or eight. And then pounds the unconscious skull with a hundredweight.
I will always remember 'are we good?' with a shudder.
I'm sure in years to come, it will take on the same horrific meaning as 'is it safe?' in Marathon Man. Not that I've seen MM in full, and I'm not sure that I want to; it is more a case of having to. Banshee could turn out and if to be a turning point in TV.
Where The Sopranos was psychological, and True Blood was sexy, and The Wire was involved, and Battlestar Galactica reinvented the space odyssey, Banshee has pushed ultra-violence that bit further and made it integral to the plot.
The story of the ex-con taking on the role of the Sheriff and then defending his position by all means necessary is a good plot device - you start rooting for him, but then as events occur, you start questioning exactly what is going on, and who you should support.
The scene in the prison with the albino is particularly intense, or at least it was for me. I believe I'm on now ep09 of 10, and that still pings around in my head when I'm at a loose end. It's quite an intense scene.

Anyways, I guess I'm saying that Banshee is compulsive viewing, and I'd recommend it.

Syria - What's the Endgame?

So, I've been following the news about Syria. I'm quite concerned that we might go in and attack. I don't understand what the endgame is. What are we hoping to achieve by this?
Until someone can explain that to me, I suggest we leave well enough alone.

Test

Test

Test IFTTT

So I've set up a couple of IFTTT 'recipes' which will do some cross-posting for me. Let's check whether my Tumblr and WordPress blogs pick this up.

Mad Domestic Skillz

So yesterday I spent the day with Daughter #1 while TW took Daughters #2 & #3 to Petworth House. We went on a bike ride to see M&P, as they wanted to install Skype and needed some reassurance from me. Dad also sorted out my bike tyres. Then we cycled to Sea Lane Cafe and had an overpriced slice of banoffee pie and some Millionaire Shortbread for the heiress.
TW took an age at Petworth, so I popped to the Co-Op and bought dinner. I cooked sausage and mash for the girls and chilli con carne for the adults.

I wouldn't make a song and dance about it, but we live a very traditional lifestyle; TW does the cooking and I earn the cash. So for me to cook two meals in one evening is a bit of a special occasion. And of course I tidied as I went, so the place was tidy at the end as well - result!
And then TW went to work this morning, so I've cooked breakfast, fried egg and bacon sandwiches, and washed up too.

Now all I need to do is put on a load of washing, and I will be King of the Domestic Chores...

TTFN.

Illness and Frailty

Child No. 2 was sick this week. And by 'sick' I mean we awoke to the sound of vomiting on Monday morning. Her little six-year old body was wracked with vomiting 10 times in three and a half hours. And then, as quickly as it came, it went. We'll never know what caused it. And I got to work from home on Tuesday because the school insists on a 48 hour quarantine.
In other news, I banjaxed my neck on Friday morning and have been suffering since. It's on the mend now, but I'm taking it as a sign that need to get running again.

My Bloody Valentine

So, another of my lifelong wishes achieved. I got to see My Bloody Valentine at a sold-out Hammersmith Apollo on the 12th March 2013. I went with a couple of friends from Uni; Ewan and Erin, as well as Ewan's sister who was celebrating her 50th, and Erin's friend from the U.S., Rachel.
I've never been to the Apollo before, and I was impressed by its grandeur. It must have been a theatre or a cinema in a previous life, but all the fittings in the main auditorium have been taken out, except the strips of carpet leading up and down in between the rows of chairs.
On the bars were free earplugs, and signs saying earplugs are available everywhere, so I took a pair and placed them very carefully in my coat pocket. We got a beer, and moved into the main room. The support band, Le Volume Courbe, were good and worthy of further investigation - I may have to check if they have any releases on Amazon. They reminded me a bit of Stereolab at times, but then they went a bit folk-y. So, 'drone folk'? Is that a musical category? I'm not sure, but they were interesting.
Then, about 21:15, MBV came on. They didn't talk much; I don't think anyone expected much chat. They built slowly, played a couple of songs I knew - I've got the "You Made Me Realise" EP, with five tracks on it. They played a couple off that, some off Loveless, I think I recognised "Soon" off the Glider EP.
Then they played the track we were all waiting for - You Made Me Realise. Wow. What an epic track. The wall of noise MBV produced was amazing. I could feel my jeams moving around my legs with the air vibrating, which was unexpected, and the drums were thumping against my chest.
I would have put my earplugs in, but unfortunately I had taken off my coat and packed it in my rucksack. The noise was building and building, and I did have to plug my ears with my thumbs instead - for the very last crescendo. So I can say that I experienced the MBV wall of noise - and survived.
And then, it was time to go home.
Unfortunately I missed the 23:17 so had to wait for the 00:06, which meant I didn't get in at home until 02:00.

But bloody hell. What an experience. People were nodding their heads, or semi-dancing, but IMO, MBV just make a noise to experience. Standing there and letting it wash over me was pleasure enough.

And I've got the added bonus that the new LP and CD are waiting for me at Resident Music, when I can get in to pick them up - so I can listen to the new tracks and fall in love with MBV all over again.

Partitioning a Disk

So this morning I have mostly been trying to repartition my netbook disk drive. It was very frustrating. I had some unallocated, unformatted space next to my C: drive, and as part of my adventures with Linux I had partitioned the Windows C: drive to just 20GB.
But recently the C: drive has been filling up, probably with error reports as I have been trying to stabilise Windows and install Windows 7 Starter Pack 1, unsuccessfully :(
So I used the Disk Management function but was unable to increase the size of the C: drive.
Eventually I downloaded a third party partition manager and reformatted the unallocated space into drive D:, as NTFS. Then I deleted that partition, and then I was able to extend the C: drive up to 231GB.
That sounds quite straightforward, but it took me three and a half hours of looking, googling, trial and error, as well as restarting and scanning disks to complete. At times I was quite frustrated. But I have now resolved it, and I'm happy with the result.

Todd, The Ugliest Kid on Earth

So, have just read Todd, and looking at the cover again i realise i completely missed the kid with the paper bag over his head in the middle of the picture. D'oh!

Posted via email from Rob Thorley's Posterous Site

Amazon and Tax

An argument I've heard recently is that if Amazon paid more tax, prices would have have to go up and we would all end up paying more for our CDs.

This is utter tosh.

Taxes are paid on profits. So let's take a working example and see it through...

Amazon get a CD in at £3.50 cost. They sell it for £5.00. They have a profit of £1.50 on that CD. It's a simplistic example, I grant you.

The interesting thing is what happens after the sale and the profit is earned. It's how Amazon decide to declare that profit. Or, do they pay that £1.50 in 'licence fees' to their U.S. HQ so that it's not registered in the UK?

In a perfect world, Amazon would pay corporation tax on that £1.50, which I believe is about 22%, or 33p. But thanks to the wizardry of the Amazon accounting team, that £1.50 is not declared as £1.50, or it's declared in Luxembourg where corporation tax is 3%, or it's set off against previous 'losses'. So it's about how Amazon declare their profits, not how they price their goods.

If they choose not to indulge in complicated tax affairs, they would pay the 33p for the CD. If they choose to complicate things, they may pay as little as 5p (or even less, who knows?). But that doesn't change the price of the CD to the consumer. The difference is in how Amazon decide to declare the profit. Or do they declare it as profit at all?

So Amazon pay tax on their 'profits'. Any company can follow Inland Revenue guidelines to minimize their 'profits' and so reduce their tax burden.

The issue is that companies like Amazon and Google, who are actually HQed in the U.S. and don't give a rat's piss about the economic welfare of the UK, are aggressively reducing their tax profile. This means that although they transact plentifully in the UK, apparently (according to the Inland Revenue) it's not worth their while.

And we ("the people", or David Cameron, if you want to be specific) claim this is immoral, despite the fact that it is not illegal. DC, the Prime Minister, the person in charge, thinks that "aggressive tax avoidance" is immoral, but is not changing the law to make it illegal.

Well, you work it out. Me, I think that the companies have a declared responsibility to their shareholders, and if they are not committing explicitly illegal acts, they're okay.

It's not nice, or pretty, or moral, but they aren't breaking the law.

If we want to change the situation, we need to change the law.

Posted via email from Rob Thorley's Posterous Site

Blog Email Test

Email Test

#test

Posted via email from Rob Thorley's Posterous Site

Restoring a Kindle Fire (1st Gen)

In case you weren't aware, the first Amazon Kindlle Fires were only sold in the U.S. This annoyed non-U.S. technophiles who liked the look of the devices, and some people outside the U.S. got their hands on them. Their frustration increased when they found out that access to the Amazon Store through the Kindle was limited to those with credit cards with U.S. addresses.

Anyway, a friend of mine got hold of one, during a trip to the U.S. During an official update, the device appeared to break. It was probably not charged enough, or the update was flawed; I'm not sure. Amazon were running a returns programme, but as he was in the UK and not supposed to have it, he thought he would take a different approach. He knew someone who had rooted the device previously and thought he would do that. 

Unfortunately he 'soft-bricked' it. That is, it would switch on, but would not proceed beyond the power up screen. I read a bit about Kindles and I thought maybe it was stuck in Fastboot mode. I offered to help, and downloaded the Kindle Unbrick Utility (from XDA) on to my netbook and took it in to work. When we plugged the Fire into the netbook, it wasn't recognised as a device - which pointed to a driver problem. So I brought the Fire home and had a play here. 

The first goal was to get the Fire recognised by the netbook - which meant messing about with drivers. I found this site run by Jayce Ooi and followed the instructions there. This involved installing a generic Kindle Fire driver so that the netbook could talk to the Fire, and then the Fire itself installed the correct drivers.

Once that was done, I re-ran the Kindle Unblock Utility and Hey Presto! The 'brick' was revived. 

The Kindle Fire is a nice device, with a good screen and a nice UI linked to the Amazon ecosystem. If I were in the market for a tablet now, it's one I would consider.Unfortunately it don't mean much if you can't actually buy anything from the store...

So, almost as an afterthought I rooted the Fire with the Kindle Fire Utility and installed Google Play. Now, at least, the Fire's owner should be able to access Play Books and other apps from Google Play.

Posted via email from Rob Thorley's Posterous Site

Dutch Tvashar Plumes

I bought an album from Resident Music last week, based purely on their description of it. It has to be said, I was intrigued - Dutch Tvashar Plumes by Lee Gamble.

Having listened to the first couple of tracks, I think I made a good decision; it sounds a bit like Ambient Classics, or at least in that sort of mood. I'm looking forward to listening to the rest of it.

A detail I was really impressed by was the record sleeve. At first glance, it looks like your common or garden plain transparent plastic sleeve. But take it off, and you realise that the album name (the white writing in the photos is actually on the sleeve itself. Genius!

See the full gallery on Posterous

It's little touches like this that make me smile. And yes, I know that makes me a bit of a nerd...

Posted via email from Rob Thorley's Posterous Site

iTunes Frustration

Technology can be frustrating sometimes. I was installing iTunes the other day to upload some songs on to ED's iPod but it just didn't seem to work. When it was connected to the computer, the computer recognised that the iPod had tunes on it but when I detached the iPod Nano from the computer it said it had no music on it. I had installed iTunes on the PC from a CD which came with the iPod Nano- the first generation one . I did try to update it through iTunes itself but the message I kept getting was that the service could not be found. I looked online and I found articles advising that in order to play aac files I would need the iPod software version 1.3 which I knew that the new iPod Nano could not support. So I tried loading other files - wav files, mp3 files, anything I could find. But still no music appeared on the iPod Nano. Then I decided to update iTunes by downloading the latest version from the Internet, from Apple's website itself. That took an absolute age; it was deleting files, restoring files, replacing files, registering files. By now it was about 22:20 - past my bedtime! So I thought I would give it one last try. Once iTunes had installed itself - the latest version of iTunes, that is - I synced the iPod Nano with iTunes and hey presto! the tunes appeared on the iPod Nano. I believe it was because I was trying to use iTunes version 6 to upload songs to a newer machine. Once I installed iTunes version 10, which is the current version, all of a sudden life was very easy indeed. So that's a lesson learnt for me. Always use the latest software when required. And in the process I've learnt more about which files iTunes and my iPod support!

Posted via email from Rob Thorley's Posterous Site