Tag: Holiday

Categories
Miscellaneous

My holiday in America: BlackBerry PlayBook

Since my last post was so disappointing and it’s now been over 3 weeks since I got back from America (it was fewer when I started writing this), it’s about time for the next post. This one is all about my BlackBerry PlayBook.

Personally I use it for light internet browsing and some games as well as some reading on the aeroplane. However my nieces (ages 2,4,5 and 7) loved it. In fact I was amazed at how quickly they picked it up and were finding all the apps they wanted and multi-tasking like pros in a few minutes. Some of the games they needed help with, especially in the later levels, but two of the most used apps were the Scrapbook and the camera. Well, these are the two that have pictures I can stick in this blog.

Scrapbook

Most of these don’t make sense, but I’m sure there might be some sort of story between them. Sorry for putting so many in, clicking them opens the full image. [Keep scrolling down, there’s more stuff below this multitude of images]

Camera

My niece Romilly (6yo) loved the camera the most (maybe the only one who used it), but here are some self portraits:

And some videos… [Warning: dodgy camera work]
Sorry I spent ages trying to embed it without success, they can however be found here

Categories
Miscellaneous

My holiday in America: A Conversation

I got back from a two week trip to the USA yesterday to visit my brother and sister-in-law and children. I intend to (possibly) write a few blog posts about what happened. This first one is kind of a summary.

Since I had just got back and had no food in the house I had to go to my local ASDA supermarket. The checkout people don’t normally say much to me (and vice versa) but Holly just didn’t stop talking (or asking questions). I’m sure she didn’t talk to anyone else as much and the people behind me were probably annoyed. Here’s how the conversation went:

Holly: Hi, Sorry about the wait [There was 1 person ahead of me in the queue]
Me: That’s fine
H: Do you need any help with packing?
Me: I’ll probably be fine
H: You could probably do with some bags though
Me: Would help [Smile]
H: So how was your day? [This is one step beyond any normal customer/checkout girl conversation]
Me: Not bad. First day back after a couple of weeks off
H: That’s always bad, and now you have to do your shopping. Got any plans for this evening?
Me: Nope, just the shopping… and catching up from jetlag
H: Ooh, jetlag. Where did you go to?
Me: America.
H: Ooh, that’s exciting. Whereabouts?
Me: Philadelphia.
H: Ooh, very nice. How long were you there for?
Me: Just two weeks.
H: Did you get the full six weeks holiday?
Me: Er no, just the two weeks.
H: Oh right… That’s £33.
Me: Ok [I put my card in the machine]
H: Would you like cash back?
Me: No thanks
H: What’s your postcode [This was for some sort of ASDA survey]
Me: It’s CF23…
[I enter my pin number]
[Pin number is accepted but nothing is happening. Awkward moment]
[After about 30 seconds:]
H: It doesn’t normally take this long
[More awkwardness]
[After another 15 seconds, my card is finally accepted]
H: That’s great. Have a nice evening.
Me: Thanks, bye

So it didn’t really have a huge amount to do with my holiday, but I liked this story anyway.

Categories
10 Things

5 Things I learnt about Italy

This was meant to be a list of 10 things, unfortunately I could only think of 5 things and its been a week since I got back so I don’t imagine I will come up with any more.

  1. Italians can’t drive. It’s true, they either drive stupidly slowly or ridiculously fast and like to overtake on blind corners on mountain roads. It’s just crazy.
  2. Pizza variety is strange. There is a wide variety of choices, but they are all essentially the same with very small modifications.
  3. Wine is cheaper than beer. A glass of wine comes in at €2 rather than €4.50 for beer.
  4. Nothing happens during siesta time. This is even true for the man who would rather stand outside his office for an hour rather than pressing the gate button to let us off the campsite.
  5. They frown on women drinking beer. The waiter almost refused to accept that Amanda could drink beer.