Categories
Life event

Catching Up

It’s now the 7th 19th 21st January, which means it’s the perfect time to blog about Christmas.

Because it’s been so long since Christmas, and because I have more exciting things I want to blog about I’m going to keep this short.

Highlights included seeing my youngest niece again (and of course my sister, brother-in-law, brother, mum and dad), doing a secret Santa present giving (rather than the usual one for each person) and just generally not being in work.


Unfortunately I didn’t have long at my parents house because the adventures continue elsewhere…

Categories
Pondering

Back in the olden days

Over 4 years ago, I wrote a blog post speculating what people did before they had mobile phones. Well, this week I’ve been finding out…

On Sunday evening, my phone had an argument with the floor and it came out of the fight looking like this:
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(Don’t worry, the floor came out undamaged.)

I’ve been without a mobile phone for 5 days now whilst it’s off being fixed, and here are the things I would normally have done using my phone:

Phone calls/text messages This is obviously the main one. I’m not a prolific caller/texter but it is a problem when I can’t. Alternative: None (excluding using the phone at work)

Emails Although I can still read emails on my laptop, I have to go get them, rather than have them delivered to me. Alternative: Computer

Social networking Again, it can be done on a laptop, but not as convenient or accessible on the move. Alternative: Computer

Mapping It’s much easier to find a location when you check where you are and where you’re trying to get to. Not as big a problem in central London but it is more annoying in the suburbs. Alternative: Planning ahead and reading directions/signs (where available)

Bus/train times I often use my phone to tell me when the next bus is due to arrive at a bus stop or to let me know if there is any disruption on the trains. Alternative: Waiting around for ages at the bus stop/station

Alarm clock This was the hardest one to find a substitute for as I couldn’t think of anything that would do this, and obviously I need to be up in time for work. Eventually I remembered my fitbit one has built in alarm functionality. Alternative: My fitbit

Random searching/thoughts Those random thoughts/questions that just pop into your head that you have to look up or you’ll forget them. Probably not the most essential of missing items. Alternative: None

Shopping list I often make notes on my phone of what I need to buy when I head to the supermarket. Alternative: Pen and paper

Weather Do I need to take a raincoat to work or not? Alternative: Paying attention to the weather section on TV

Games I like to play Sudoku on my phone before bed. Just one of those things I like to do. Alternative: None (without buying a puzzle book)

I’m sure there are lots of other things I use my phone for, but ironically without my phone I’m unable to check. Most of the activities do have alternatives, but it is more the convenience of accessing things when I need to that is the most annoying factor, and the thing I miss most. Hopefully it’ll be back soon.

Have I missed anything? I’ve definitely not included taking photos, but mainly because I don’t often do that on my phone.

Categories
Out and about

Poppies

Like most people in London (and possibly the UK), I made a visit this week to the Tower of London to see the poppies (properly known as ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red‘.

Untitled_Panorama1

I had seen photos of it already, but it was quite surprising just how many poppies there actually were (just under 888,246 in fact) and how much space they took up. It reminds of just how many lives we owe our freedom to.

Categories
Life event Out and about

Number 9

This weekend I got to meet my latest niece. Annabel is just two months old and is my 9th nibling*.

* Nibling: A collective term for one’s nieces and nephews [Source: Urban Dictionary]

It’s always really fun to meet new babies and to see them growing up, so thanks sis.

Next up, I need to meet niblings 5 to 8 (and catch up with 1 to 4).

Categories
Miscellaneous

Mebbies aye, Mebbies naw

Since today is Scottish independence referendum day, I thought I’d conduct some voting of my own.

A couple of months ago, I decided to see what it would be like to grow a beard. Here’s the current status:
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Should I keep the beard?

View Results

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Leave a comment with any additional thoughts. Should it be longer? Shorter? Get rid of it all together?

Categories
Out and about

Everything is Awesome!

Everything is awesome
Everything is cool when you’re part of a team
Everything is awesome, when we’re living our dream
– LEGO Movie

Last week, I went on holiday to Kintyre in Scotland with my “team” from university. As it’s much quicker to just stick a load of pictures in a blog post rather than writing anything, here you go:
[Note: Not all photos taken by me]

Categories
Out and about

Wild Dolphins!

Last weekend I visited my brother in Aberdeen. The city has currently been taken over by wild dolphins as part of a charity event.

Over the 3 days we saw 28 different dolphins (out of 50). There was a special app for keeping track of found dolphins although we didn’t discover this until the second day so the first three dolphins weren’t officially counted. Here’s our progress within the app:
Wild Dolphins app scoreboard

My favourite was probably Spiderdolphin, mainly because it wasn’t there and was obviously off fighting crime (and not being repaired like claimed). I also like The Great Wave at Aberdeen as it looks like it’s about to jump straight back into the North Sea.

Here’s one photo of each of the dolphins we saw:

Categories
Out and about

Lights Out

Yesterday evening, to remember the start of the First World War, many buildings were turning off their lights as part of “Lights Out“.

Here are some of the better photos I took whilst out in central London.
Note: If I had a tripod and/or knew what I was doing I’m sure these photos would have come out better. And sorry, the photos seem to load quite slowly. And if any don’t load, just hit refresh and hopefully they’ll show.

Update: Apparently the beam of light is part of a new art work [Link]

Categories
Pondering

Working on Saturdays

For the last few months, I’ve spent my Saturdays in the office due to high workloads. Now we’re in August, the workload has reduced, so no more working on Saturdays.

Since I’ve had today free, I thought I would detail some of the pros and cons of working on Saturdays. Some of them are interlinked, and some of them are just as easily put on either side of the list.
[table id=6 /]

In low quantities, I don’t mind working on Saturdays but it’s nice to have longer weekends again. What should I do with them? Suggestions please, or otherwise I’ll just keep blogging about not doing stuff.

Categories
Life event

Fixed

It’s not very exciting, but after four months of having a leaking toilet, the plumber has finally fixed the leak. It’s been over 24 hours now, so hopefully it’s definitely sorted, unlike the last time he came…

And here’s a picture of my toilet to prove it (and because all good posts have pictures)
IMG_20140730_192206