Tech Stuff

In 2007 we discovered how much fun it is to have a laptop on holiday for blogging and playing with photos. The macbook served us well except for its catastrophic failure to backup photos to DVD (never really fixed). I took to sitting on balconies hoping to pick up free wifi.

In NZ last Xmas we took this tiny toshiba netbook and would play a slideshow of that day's photos in lieu of tele but Tess missed her macbook.This trip we took both laptops (and powerboard) which allows Tess to spend hours on her photos while I compile a succinct report on the day's events. A card reader was a good investment to save camera battery. We have three cameras including the Canon, my Nokia phone and the Panasonic Video camera which takes a nice still too.

Lack of wifi has been frustrating as even photo software works better with a net connection and I expect next trip to find a wifi world. As it is, tonight we will lug our laptops to a nearby pub and sit opposite each other as we enter our separate net worlds. And sip our drinks slowly.

Navigation

Not content with a phone that also serves as a GPS navigator, I have been playing with Nokia Maps in Scotland. The reason is money. Route 66 charge 10-15 euros for every 20 sq mile of the UK which adds up. I bought Bath, Oxford, Leeds and London but baulked at any more. They work well and help in the cities but Tess and her ￡4 road atlas were set for Scotland and The Lakes District,

So I downloaded the trial licence for Nokia's software and their maps of Scotland and England – just one for each place so much cheaper – free in fact for a week. They work well enough although I can't get a voice (crippled for the trial?) and I hope I have prevented it going off all the time for the internet. At Home it would allow for all the fancy things like traffic updates but I am just restricting it here to GPS input which sould be free. In theory.

I have also tracked our various excursions for google earth so we can elive them when we return. All vey exciting.

The Car

A Mercedes C180K SE in Silver (KO08UKS) is probably fairly low tech but I have enjoyed having such a thorough test drive. Today saw perhaps the most wet and twisty of the roads we have travelled and the Benz handled all with plomb – even with Tess at the wheel. She is not impressed with its low rent interior and lack of luxury appointments compared with her BMW but it was not to blame for a 12 mile detour to Ben Lomond we enjoyed while I tried to have rest from the wheel. Nokia was telling her to do a U turn for 6 miles until we came to the dead end. Even this entry model has great engineering – quiet and smooth and sure footed and easy on fuel.

In three weeks we have spent 60 hours touring in the car covering 3200 miles at an average speed of 35 mph (60kmh for the children) and 38mpg.

Postage

I mailed a postcard to school one Friday evening and an email with photo to George an hour later. Considering it might have sat there for the weekend I was impressed that the postcard was in his hands in Penrith by Thursday, less than a week later. Who knows how long it was in the school system! So well done British Post.

Phones

Don't ask me!

I thought I was clever buying a travel sim before leavng Australia but it has proved of limited use. Unexpectedly, Tess's phone seems to be locked by Optus and it only works in mine which is also our Navigator. I activated global roaming as a backup (it costs the earth but at least it does work). The ravel Sim has this weird, I'll hone ou back connection method. I have tried many times to message Tim and Rebecca at work but without success. We even bought another phone – a ￡10 Nokia and can txt and talk to Em to our heart's content but again, overseas calls and texts seem verboten.

I've given up. No one seems to have been desperate to contact us anyway.

Will either throw the new phone into the Aegean on our cruise or leave it with Em.

Sound

After missing music in NZ, we remembered to pack the iTrip this time and listen to 40G of music and audio books stored on an ancient and rarely synced ipod. So much for reliabilty and battery problems! Surprising how often the same songs come up again though. Emma and I fight a little over the music selection. Apart from insisting on playing her own playlists (with modern music) she doesn't like Mr Shuffle which I think is the next best thing to ….

Tess tells me to let her have her way.