Christmas 2012

My goodness this has been an exciting year! I hope you’re strapped comfortably into your seat, because this is going to be a blast! Well, it was while I was living it, so I hope I can do it justice.

The year started, as they will, with the girls off on their usual skiing holiday with their dad. This is a great time for me, because I spend the two weeks throwing stuff out of their rooms. Don’t mention it to them - they’ll get upset. What made THIS year so exciting was that I received a call from Wavell School, saying that they had a place for Lizzy, and she could start on 17th January. She’s had a bee in her bonnet about going there for quite some time now, mostly, I think, because her best friend is in attendance. Warning her that while she could, if necessary, go back to Hawley Place, she MUST give Wavell at least a month before making that decision.

Well, I thought she was happy - she came home the first week, excitedly telling me that she was in the top set for science! I was very excited for her, as she seemed so happy. I loved that she was able to walk back through the park with friends each day, and was always home, with homework finished, before Lottie and I even pulled into the drive! Sadly this didn’t last, and the day after half term (a month, exactly, since she’d started) she told me how unhappy she was, and how much she wanted to go back to Hawley. And so she did. Still, year 8 is pretty much the last opportunity for messing around to this extent.

Just before she decided to go back to Hawley, we booked tickets to go to Disneyworld in Florida! Ian had wanted to take us there, the trip had been in the planning stage since Christmas, and we decided that Easter was the best time to go. Hot, but not ridiculously so. Now THERE was an exhausting trip! We flew out of Heathrow terminal 5 at about mid morning on the first monday of Easter holiday, and after checking into the USA in Chicago, where I saw, but didn’t photograph (because I was convinced we’d ALL be shot), the BEST security guard haircut EVER, we arrived in Orlando at about 1800, local time.

Disneyworld is great fun. You always think it’s going to be for younger children, but actually there’s so much there for ALL age groups... that I’m beginning to sound like an advert! Well, all that aside, we had a really great time. We started, the day after arrival, with a trip to the local outlet mall for some shopping, which was great fun, until the girls decided that jet-lag should start to take its toll only a couple of hours into the trip. We KNEW they weren’t faking it because, well, it’s a SHOPPING trip! Still, I had a great time shopping - it’s not so different from the UK, but I got some really nice t-shirts.

The real fun started the next day with our trip to Seaworld. I’d not been in America since the 80s, and I’d never been to an American theme park. I loved some of the animal displays, but found the shows a bit lame - except Shamu, which I enjoyed immensely. Lottie got some really good shots of the killer whales. I was a bit disappointed that there was no grass on which to sit and eat a picnic - everything was set up to ensure that you have to eat their food in their restaurants. Hmmm! Still, the roller-coasters were brilliant - in fact we went back to Kraken a number of times, before leaving the park, exhausted, after dark!

But that’s not ALL! The next day we went to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The animals were actually brilliant, I loved the safari - mainly because they had elephants!! The rides were also really spectacular - our favourites were a couple of rides in the Dinosaur area (Dinosaur and Primeval Whirl) and Expedition Everest - I can’t remember how many times we revisited those rides! Not only did I love the safari, I really enjoyed the Maharajah’s Jungle Trek - a beautifully themed walk through a “jungle” with masses of wild-life. We didn’t see many of the shows - although we did go along, just before leaving the park, for the last “It’s tough to be a bug” show of the day. 

The next day it was on to Magic Kingdom. Sadly the runaway train ride was out of action, and we faffed around SO much that we didn’t get to Tomorrowland until very late. This was a shame, because I REALLY wanted to spend time in that area. Actually, as it happened, we DID get to Space Mountain, which was quite the most uncomfortable ride! It was a fabulous ride, and the queueing system was typically good, but with no real head support and a bit of a jerky ride, I did stumble off with neck ache. Still, the VIEW in the ride was amazing. I’d go again, in spite of the potential for broken necks! Despite coming late to Tomorrowland, it was my favourite part of the park, although I loved the idiotic Magic Tiki hut thing. Now THERE’S an ear worm! “In the tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki room...” Apart from Tomorrowland, the next best bit was when we were strolling down some street, and a parade went by (and seriously, this happens every 5 minutes or so), and I was squealing with delight because Woody was on one of the floats, so he stopped and blew a kiss!!

Actually I can’t remember what order we did the kingdoms, but I LOVED Epcot. That was my favourite of all the Disney Kingdoms. Lottie tells me she loved Hollywood Studios best, and I’ve got to say, Tower of Terror was one of the best rides. Lizzy was ALL over Animal Kingdom, and EVERYONE thought Magic Kingdom was tacky in the extreme! I suppose, technically, it’s ALL tacky. Just rather well done! I know I liked Epcot best because of the feeling of wide, open spaces - and the fact that it is, for America, quite cosmopolitan! I actually really liked the ride up through the middle of the Epcot ball. I gather this has been recently redone, and certainly, getting a voice-over by the delicious Dame Judy Dench made it SO much more fabulous. And Ian was right, they DO have the best fireworks at Epcot. And we ate at an English Fish and Chips shop - although it bore little resemblance to fish and chips in England, but tasted pretty, damn fine!

So for the last two days we did Universal. I’m pleased to say that by the time we got to Universal, our jetlag had calmed down a lot, and apart from a bit of a rest on the grass (yes, insect bites, let’s not talk of this), we stood up well, and had a meal at the Hard Rock Café at the end of the evening! We did Universal Studios first, leaving Islands of Adventure for last. Actually, they were both brilliant. The rides in Islands of Adventure are fantastic, except the water rides. I think we’ll draw a veil over how horrible THAT little section of the trip was! We finished the day with a trip to the Hogwarts Castle ride, which was REALLY well done.

Lottie, who’s been singing for the Farnham Youth Choir, as well as doing a lot within school with the Vocal Group, and the Vocal Performing Group, had a couple of good trips this year. She was invited to go to Paris to sing soon after Easter, and with the Choir, went to compete in the World Choir Games in Cincinnati. I gather they won a gold and a silver! Actually, she’s been performing REALLY well, and did a lovely solo at a recent concert in a Farnham church - I put it on Youtube! I’m looking forward to this Saturday, where she’ll be doing another solo and a duet, I believe. I had to attend the Senior School Carol Concert last night, which is a torture of the most monumental proportions (actually, this applies to ALL school music functions), except for the lovely moment when Lottie performed the first verse of In The Bleak Midwinter without any support or microphone. You can gather from this entire paragraph that I’m seriously proud of my girl. This, of course, is well tempered with the exasperation I feel when she forgets something essential for a performance, and I have to go back and get it. Which is every single time!

Now, I’d not want anyone thinking I’m not equally fond of Lizzy. After the messing round in early spring, she settled back down to work. She did have a bit of catching up to do, but she’s nicely organised, so that wasn’t too much of a problem. In addition to which, her artwork is amazing. I wish I could get her to draw a nice Christmas picture for the letter. I’ll have to shove in some pics from the holidays.

Ooh! Talking of holidays, the camping holiday this year was particularly good. It all started during Champagne Thursday, when my mate Jo said that she couldn’t go to Romania this year. Some problem with some of the people going, so no one was going. So I said why didn’t she come with us. And so she did. It was brilliant!

We decided on a tour this year - via Chartres (to see the Cathedral) and the Massif Central to the Pyrenees and then on to the beach. Chartres Cathedral is quite as spectacular as I was expecting. It’s brilliant - you drive across some very flat plains, and suddenly over a rise, there’s this MONSTROUS cathedral on the horizon. Absolutely amazing!

We stayed the first 3 nights of camping in the Massif Central, at Le Grange Fort, which is a fantastic fort turned into a camping site. It was SO hot, and we kept getting eaten by mosquitoes! However, we did go up the Puy de Dome, although that little trip has become VERY touristy - to the point where you have to take a little train, where you used to be able to drive up. We had a lovely trip, but then moved on to the Pyrenees. Very expensive, the massif!

Unfortunately the Pyrenees were very WET, so we almost longed for the expense/mosquitoes/heat of the massif. We DID get ONE gorgeous morning of glorious sun, which showed the new crew how lovely the mountains can be, but shortly after the sun came out, the clouds came back down, and the rain began again. We also had a WHOLE night of thunderstorms, with Ian and I popping out each time a new one came upon us, in order to keep the tarp from filling with water and pulling all the tents over! In the end, after the 4th storm, we untied it and decided it could flap.

The day we left the mountains, the weather was, once again, gorgeous! Dammit! And then we had an accident on the way down the mountain, when our top-box fell off, so I stamped on the breaks, and Jo drove into me. Oh my goodness was that a mess! The top-box issue was down to some rather old (second hand off ebay) roof rails, and was quite easily solved, since I’ve got a French car! Sadly the damage to the front of Jo’s car was a bit more difficult to disguise! We ended up taping it all together with French gaffer tape, which is actually better than English gaffer tape! But since it’d taken all day to sort out the roof-box issue, and we were all feeling a bit glum, we checked into an hotel for the night, and had a calming McDonalds for supper!

And so! On to the beach! It actually took us about 3 hours from Tarbres to Bordeaux, but then we got stuck in the traffic getting onto the peninsula. Yes, there really IS only the one road out to Cap Ferret! But on the beach at last. And the weather, this year, was lovely! Nice and hot, and everyone burned except me!! I actually WORE the t-shirt on the beach all the time. I tell you, when that t-shirt wears out I’m going to be distraught! Anyway, you ALL know what goes on when I’m at the beach. That’s right - absolutely nothing. And I love it. Total relaxation.

Let me see if I can find some pictures to stick into this thing. I can’t believe it gets longer and longer each year. Honestly, anyone would think I have FUN during the year.

Oh - I forgot some minor news. Ian moved back from Canada to England, and is currently living in a flat within VERY easy walking distance.

And, as usual, this letter is spectacularly late, and it’ll arrive just in time for Christmas NEXT year.

Sorry – hope you had a brilliant one!!

And Airshow – I forgot to mention Airshow! I’m only saying this now because I actually got to GO to the Farnborough Airshow back in July. It was really good, and I took SO many pictures. Let me see if I can find something for you… Nope, apparently it’s a roller coaster picture!

Galaxies of Tablets

So I was reading an article (and I'll link it if I can find it) which was suggesting that soon most people will be giving up their humble PCs in favour of the newer, shinier Tablet. It's so new and shiny I felt the need to capitalise it there, do you see?


We've established that I'm a little bit of a geek, so I've been playing with a tablet for nearly a year, and a Samsung Galaxy SIII for a week and a half now!


Of course I'd previously wanted to have an iPad, but without the inevitable hassle of actually owning an iPad. You know, the derision, the ridicule - that sort of thing. Oh, and the fact that there appear to be no free apps, and that the most popular app one year was the jiggly booby app. I won't lie - that's a brush with which I have no desire to be tarred! Android seemed the logical course, given that, at the time, Windows was SO not a contender in the tablet market, and Palm? Well let's just shimmy on past that little missed opportunity, shall we?


Many tablets were looked at - some more longingly than others, until the day the eeePad dropped onto the front step. Yes, you've guessed it. Our postman will leave expensive stuff on the step, and yet the day he had a parcel not even addressed to my house, he left me a collection card. The Links of London bracelet? In the flower trough on the porch.


I love my pad. I sit in bed and watch movies, read comics (the 10" screen is just perfect for Manga) and I post witty little Twits. Tweets. Whatever. With the SIII, it's even better! I'm no longer tied to wireless networks, and have unlimited 3G. I can roam the countryside, watching YouTube videos in the pastures, posting Twits willy-nilly from anywhere. Well, anywhere with a 3G signal.


The screen is mahoosive and glossy. I expect they could make it better, but I'm not so sure I'd notice if they did. What I'm trying to say, in my ham-fisted way, is that the screen is gorgeous. Gorgeous, I say! And of course, the device is nicely portable, so I could actually USE that shopping list I downloaded for the pad. After all, the tablet is hardly the device you take shopping with you, is it?


And lightweight - did I mention lightweight? Given the size, it's hard to believe it's actually a whole 7g lighter than the iPhone 4s. I know, a barely noticeable difference, but hold both phones, one each in your hands, and suddenly 7g will seem quite a lot. Indeed, one concern was that this phone is a brute and there's NO WAY I'm tucking that puppy unobtrusively into my bra - so how the blazes would I carry it round? Well, that hasn't been a problem - except of course for bra thing.


In fact, it's SO damn useful that there have been days in the last week and a half that I've not actually turned on my computer. Yep - I hear your gasps of disbelief! Who'd-a-thought it? Sian, not turning on her PC as soon as she comes home, to get her fix of the interwebz? Except that I wasn't being denied anything. It's all there on the S3.


With ONE, quite important actually, exception.


Sure, I post those witty little twits, I comment on Facebook posts. I compose little emails to my friends. I can do all this, and relatively quickly too, because I purchased a slide keyboard. "What's that?" you say, "What's a slide keyboard?" As simply as possible, it's an on-screen keyboard on which you slide your finger through the letters which make up the word you want to type. Because of the way it works it requires a degree less accuracy a normal phone on-screen keyboard. If I miss a letter, it'll have a stab at working out which word I really wanted. This doesn't always work out, and sometimes it doesn't have the word in its word-banks. Thus you do get some interesting (but, unlike Apple, not smutty) autocorrections.


But nothing comes close to the ability to hack out 35WPM on a proper, old-fashioned keyboard. There's a reason I like the little nobbles on the F and J keys - once you can touch type, you find your index fingers moving inexorably back to those keys, leaving your brain to work on what it was you wanted to say, rather than the fact that you have to SEE every single thing you peck at on the smooth and shiny surface.


I can't imagine how long it would take, and how little hair I'd have at the end, to type this blog into either the pad or the S3.

eBooks on Devices.

I'd forgotten, for quite some time, to install Calibre on my new PC when it arrived last year, so when I was finally reminded of my omission, I got right on with that task. Last week!

I copied my library of ebooks from the old PC (sitting forlornly in the corner pretending to be a server), and started to populate Calibre. I do have quite a hefty ebook library - a quick glance at my Fictionwise bookshelf alone, reveals a total of 197 books! I have a lesser quantity that I've actually scanned, recognised and converted, but I think we're talking maybe half a dozen, if that.

Scanning is a pain, unless you have one of these! Recognition is also a pain, especially in older books, because the quality of print is not always perfect, and for some reason certain letters always seem to be interpreted in the same way - m often comes out as rn. It's especially difficult when the text is printed with serif characters (and let's face it, most old books are), so the results are littered with errors requiring correction. Yeah, scanning your own books in is tricky.

I've often wondered if speech recognition would be a viable option, but I always feel like a bit of a twit saying "Open quotes what's wrong comma close quotes he asked" - you can get Dragon, for example, to type exactly what you're saying, as long as you say it correctly. I've never actually had it type comma when I've asked for a comma, but since I lost my copy of Dragon Dictate quite some time ago, this isn't something I've tried since I discovered ebooks.

But I digress! Of course I do - it's my thing. A bit like those jokes Ronnie Corbett used to tell on The Two Ronnies show. As I child I hated that part of the show, because I wanted a quick joke, and it was always a 5 minute lead up to the joke, by which time my childish attention span had wondered. In retrospect, and having seen some of them since, they were actually rather funny!

Ooops!

On to the main point (which is, I have to say, nothing like as exciting and funny as the lead up would have you believe). I discovered that Calibre has a built in content server. "What?" I hear you say, "What's that?"

Actually, Content Server has got to be one of the more transparent terms across which I've come recently - it's a server which will allow access to content. In this case the content being ebooks.

If I turn on the content server, I can access my Calibre library from any machine on my network, as long as I know the IP address of my main PC. If you type in the address 192.168.1.2:8080 then, assuming your PC has the IP 192.168.1.2 and Calibre's content server is running there, you can get at your Calibre library from any PC/laptop/device/ebook reader which can connect to your network. Any. And it does work, because I tried it from ALL of them!

I tried from the eeePad, and was able to download a book to the device. As it happened, this particular book appears to be formatted without any kind of paragraph formatting (there don't seem to be any carriage returns in the entire book!), but that's an individual book issue.

I even tried on the Kindle I'd borrowed from school (I wanted to see if I was happy with an e-ink device), and because there's a browser, I was able to access the library. At first the Kindle didn't want to download the book, because I'd asked for the ePub version, but Calibre happily converted the book to Mobi format (apparently readable by Kindles), and the Kindle not only downloaded, but I'm already a couple of pages into it!

So in theory, if I were to mess about with port forwarding and all, I could access my library from ANYWHERE in the world, on any device I chose.

I'm strangely excited by this discovery!

Notes from a Plane

Right, sitting on the plane from Orlando to Dallas, and totally unable to get to my rucksack and get a proper blogging device, of which I have many, you understand, because of all the big arse-bags people have put up in the overhead locker. Mine is squeezed in the back behind someone else's bag. Sigh. Still, we are actually lucky on this particular flight, because we have some amazing legroom, being in the first row of cattle class just behind First Class. Had to capitalise that, because they're so posh in there, they get a meal with a glass of wine, and actual metal flatware! This has been a bit of a thing for me, because since arriving in the US, we've succeeded in eating with metal cutlery just twice. Once at the Rainforest Cafe, and the second time at the Hard Rock Cafe after an exhausting day in Universal Studios.

Flatware concerns aside, the real drawback of sitting here is that we DON'T get a meal, and their food does smell pretty good.

Another thing to mention is that the TSA guys at Orlando are quite the nicest US TSA people I've encountered. Not only were they polite, they were actually helpful, which, after my experience at Chicago on the way into the country, was a very pleasant change.

Apparently there is wifi on the flight, but apart from finding the name of the access point, I've been unsuccessful in connecting. I know it's going to cost me money, but how cool would it be to be blogging at 32000 feet? Yeah - very cool! I'll let you know how that works out for me!

Hmmm. While I can buy 15 minutes for $1.95, it seems a whole load of hassle, because I have to create an account. I'll wait until we get to ground level, and I'll mail it from there. Sorry about the lack of cool!

Well, given that we're not going to be landing for another 40 minutes, I might as well tell you about some of the more exciting bits of the holiday.

Epcot - I don't know why, but I LOVE Epcot! For me it was the best Disney park. I don't know if I enjoyed the World Pavillions or the rides more. Despite my "Top Ten Orlando" book telling me that the Spaceship Earth ride was rather dated, I think, maybe, they they are rather dated! I gather the ride's been updated recently, and it was a spectacular, continuous loop telling a story of communication. Not only that, it was narrated by the deliciously dulcet-voiced Dame Judy Dench! It wasn't a rollercoaster by any means, but it was a beautifully set story, illustrated with delightful vignettes, as we spiralled up inside the iconic Epcot golf-ball. That was much more satisfying than expected.

My favourite ride, overall, was the "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey" ride at Universal's Islands of Adventure! To get to the ride, you queue through the castle, the rooms in which are faithfully recreated from the castle in the movies.

Oh, before I continue, allow me to share with you that our Pilot just thanked us "for flying American Airlines as we fly across the greatest country on God's green earth!" I'll stop chuckling soon!

Back to the Harry Potter ride. As you wind through the castle, the strands of a story are woven, including moving paintings, Harry, Ron and Hermione appearing from beneath the cloak of invisibility and various other devices. And then you're strapped into a sort of church pew on a simulator for the ride, which includes both projections and animatronics, and is completely awesome! Oh, I forgot to mention that you have to wear 3-d glasses.

It uses the same technology as the Spiderman ride, which, I gather, took a long time and a LOT of money to develop. Still, I suppose having spent so much to develop it, you might as well get some mileage out of it.

Coming into land now. More later!

Seaworld and Animal Kingdom

We had to write off our first full day in Florida, as neither myself or the girls slept at all well that night, and thus in the morning were completely unable to function beyond a trip to the outlet mall - and even that was a bit of a bust, because we'd managed barely two hours before we all had to go home and rest.

In order to try to help with the time adjustment, we rudely chivvied the girls up after scant 1 hour of sleep, and forced them to have fun with us in Downtown Disney, where I experienced my first Rainforest Cafe. I'm sorry to say I was slightly less than overwhelmed, leaving me, probably, just about whelmed. They messed up our order, and left our main course sitting, drying out, while they worked out what else we wanted, so by the time the dish arrived, the ribs and steak were dry and tough.

And so on to our first actual theme park: Seaworld.
You can probably imagine the sort of park I was expecting, can't you? Loads of tanks of fish swimming around, with little helpful labels telling us a fair bit about the fish, and incidentally, some rides thrown in to keep the kids amused. Well, the latter was certainly true, although I disliked Manta because the position you're in for the ride is rather uncomfortable, leaving you craning your neck to see where you're going all the way through. I'm rather pleased it wasn't just me who didn't like it, as Lottie deemed it "Meh", while Lizzy and Ian felt pretty much the same as I did. So we raced over to Krakken, another water-themed ride. Which was EXCELLENT! This was a very exciting ride, a bit like Colossus back in Thorpe Park, but without the neck jerking as you go round. And since we'd deposited our goodies in a locker for the duration of the ride (for which we had to pay two shiny, American quarters), we thought we might as well leave them there while we queued for the Atlantis ride, which is a log flume. And a very good one, if I may say!

And those are the rides at Seaworld. Back to the education part.

Having covered the education part, let's get on to the shows. These were good, but rather over-produced, and a bit cheesy, although I really enjoyed Shamu and Shamu Rocks (yes, we stayed for the evening show). We went to see the Sealion and Otter show, where neither of the sealions were in the mood for performing, although the show was funny. Actually, I'm not sure the unwillingness to perform didn't actually enhance the show somewhat!

OK - that was mean. There IS a small educational element going on in the park, but it's VERY much overshadowed by a creeping commercialism which is rather frustrating. This conversation, between a woman and a park worker did actually happen, leaving me wishing there was actually MORE educational content in the park.The park worker was showing a Hawaiian Goose...

Womain: Why are they in danger of being extinct? Is it because of the volcano?
Park Worker: No, it's because of humans.
Woman: What? Are they eating them?
Park Worker (with no small exasperation): It's the pollution!

The promised (still on the internet, you understand) Penguin Encounter didn't happen, although a whole area of park was given up to a "coming soon" development called Antarctica. Which is nice - if you happen to be coming back in July :(

Seaworld was OK. Not brilliant, although Krakken was a great ride. The park was let down by the number of missed opportunities for education.


Day 2 - Disney's Animal Kingdom!

Staying on Disney property does have its moments. One of which is access to the bus system to take you from your hotel to each park. You can get a bus pretty much every 20 minutes, and during your ride you're fed information about the park you're about to visit. And so it was that I found out about their latest ride at Animal Kingdom, Expedition Everest!

I know all the blurb is going to go on about an "exciting, runaway train ride through the peaks of the Himalayas", but actually they'd be pretty much correct! It starts off pretty sedately, and since you're not completely strapped in, you know there are no loop the loops, so assumptions are made about how fast you're going to be going. The ride is brilliant, as you start out up a small incline, and round a fairly low-level spiral, before heading up a much higher incline, through the temple of the Yeti! Expecting a fairly standard ride as you whoosh downwards, it's a surprise to find that your rail tracks have been bent out of shape, and there are some very large claw marks in the "snow" by the side of the track... The train, having paused for long enough for you to make out these things, starts rolling backwards, quicker and quicker, until it goes inside the mountain, where, again, you pause...

A silhouette of a yeti tearing up the tracks is shown, accompanied by some jolting in the train (and roaring, before you plunge downwards, out of the mountain (and have your picture taken, screaming like a girl), and finish the ride partly in the dark of the mountain, partly in the blazing sunlight.

After that, the Kali River Rapids seems quite tame by comparison. Which it is, if you're one of the lucky ones who end up mildly damp at the end of the ride.

We took a walk through the Maharajah's temple, a beautifully "ruined" temple housing tigers, fruit bats and other Asian wildlife. The temple ruins were beautifully done, and looked really realistic.

A little lunch in the Yak and Yeti restaurant sustained us for the next part of the adventure, into Africa.

The next ride wasn't a white knuckle affair, but a savannah safari, in a large jeep. This was really interesting, as there were many creatures roaming, including giraffes, elephants and a small herd of wildebeest. We even saw the top of a lion's head!

Over to Dinoland, where we discovered two very fun rides, although neither of them was in any way white-knuckle. The first, with a wait time of barely 10 minutes, was called Dinosaur, a ride telling how a (slightly) mad scientist wants to send us back in time (in a time travelling jeep) to the Cretaceous period and bring back an Iguanadon. The ride is part on a moving platform, but it does travel round a cunningly set up circuit, stopping to identify dinosaurs en route, all the while spinning the yarn of the mad scientist trying to make sure we get out before the meteor which destroyed 90% of life on earth hits. This ride is REALLY fun, with enough sudden dinosaurs to make you jump, and rather good story thrown in, too!

At this point we discovered one of the silliest rides in Disney, the Primeval Whirl, reminding me of nothing so much as a VERY old fashioned roller-coaster I remember doing at a park in Sydney. And I only mention it because it's also one of the most fun rides we did!

I'll move onto Magic Kingdom and Epcot as soon as I can...

The Adventure Begins

It was a pleasure to fly out of Heathrow Terminal 5 for the start of our holiday.

We arrived in VERY good time, due to my mate Paul worrying that there’d be loads of traffic, but actually, about 20 minutes after we left the house, we arrived at Heathrow and started trying to check in. To my annoyance, 2 minutes after leaving the house, the strap of my my chosen (read “large”) handbag snapped like a tightrope wire, leaving me with a largely useless bag. However, airports are nothing if not opportunities to spend money, and so I was able to find a very nice replacement scant minutes after we’d checked in our bags.

And so we decided we’d get through security as quickly as possible, and pressing on, collecting our clear, plastic pouches into which we could slip the toothpaste, handcream and other liquids we’d insisted we couldn’t do without. Our trepidation grew as we were funnelled into the main security area. Expecting every moment to be stopped and shot (I know, we’re still in London at this point), we carefully placed everything into little trays, and watching our belongings disappear into the bowels of the scanning machine, stepped towards the metal detector...

And that was it. Lottie suffered a quick pat down, which had to be done in front of me, we didn’t have to remove our shoes, and our stuff was returned without question or investigation. In addition to which the security people were, to a person, helpful and informative, which was a completely different story from those in the US. But I race ahead where baby steps are needed.

After security, we stopped for breakfast, and spying a Wagamama, decided to have breakfast there – apparently that’s the only branch of the chain which serves breakfast.

The flight was not quite 8 hours long, and I had a massive dilemma. I SO wanted to watch some of the movies available on board, but I found myself unable to sleep through movies I hadn’t watched before, and I wanted to sleep so that I wouldn’t feel too jet-lagged on arrival in the US. I suspect I couldn’t sleep through previously unwatched movies because I didn’t actually want to miss anything, a suspicion confirmed when I managed to sleep quite successfully through much of “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows!”

And so we arrived in Chicago. And this is where security really kicked in. I do wonder just who they think they’re actually deterring. There’s the immigration paper you have to fill in on arrival, asking such questions as, “Do you have any seeds you are importing into the United States of America?” and many others. The sort of questions to which you have to answer “No”, or risk not being able to come into the country. Except that you’d have to be some kind of simpleton to answer “Yes” to any of the questions, because it’s very clear that such an answer would result in expulsion from the country. Do they really believe that anyone actually doing these things will answer Yes? I’m pretty convinced that most terrorists are substantially cleverer than that. Really, correct me if I’m wrong!

I was, initially, delighted by the security officer dealing with our line, as he was SUCH a spectacular stereotype. He was a slightly portly gentleman of a certain age, with what has to be, no question, THE best brush cut hair do I’ve ever seen!! Unfortunately this delight soured as people were delayed beyond what seemed reasonable, and people who’s English was somewhat less than perfect were treated to hand gestures – which may not have been a problem had the people in question been looking at our security guard at the time. The turnaround time of two hours had seemed rather generous, until one realised that we had to go through this, pick up the bags, recheck them and make it across the airport to another terminal to board our onward flight. We ended up running, gasping, onto the next flight.

This flight wasn’t anything like as nice as the trip over from the UK, but the stewards were just as lovely, and were able to provide me with a fair facsimile of a cup of tea for the flight!

We were delighted to arrive at Orlando airport and before we’d managed to find baggage claim, were collected ourselves!

The adventure continues as soon as I can...

eBooks as Presents.

I'm not a rich person. I'm not on the breadline, you understand, but one finds oneself becoming habitually cautious with money, and any holiday NOT a cheapo camping trip to France is regarded with suspicion because it could be expensive.


My boyfriend, however, is not badly off. Obviously this is GREAT, as long as I don't mind being labelled a gold-digger, so most of the time I try to pay my way as best I can.


However, it becomes a problem when trying to buy presents. Like my father, my boyfriend is well enough off to be able to buy pretty much what he fancies, although he might balk at a Ferrari. From my point of view, this means that choosing presents is a serious challenge, resulting in a pair of slippers one year, and a leather shooting licence holder the next. And with the best will in the world these are mega-boring presents!


So this year, in time for his birthday, I decided that since he'd spoken of the Kindle client on his Android device, I would go to Amazon.co.uk and choose a good book. I'd have had an actual book delivered, except that I gather the postal service in Canada can be a bit slow. Definitely a good case for an e-book or two. Since I can't afford to spend a expensively, I need to spend imaginatively!


I'd noticed that some of the kids in school have started to read George RR Martin's book, A Game of Thrones. I suspect this may have something to do with the recent HBO series, but whatever the reason, I decided this was the book, and so I bimbled over to Amazon, and found the book. Yes, it's available as an ebook, and it's not that expensive, either - bonus! Unfortunately the Buy as Gift button has disappeared. I was sure that I remembered, from last year when trying to buy my brother a magazine subscription for his Kindle, that one could buy a book as a gift, but not a magazine sub. While I'd found this odd at the time, I bought him a gift certificate instead, telling him what I'd thought I might get for him. OK - I know you can buy ebooks as gifts in the US, so I pottered over to the US site - yes! There it is! 


Except that I get the message "We're sorry, we could not complete your gift purchase because your Kindle account is registered to Amazon.co.uk. Only Kindle accounts registered to Amazon.com are currently eligible to purchase Kindle Book gifts." when I try to add the ebook to my order!


All answers provided by Amazon staff go along the lines of "Buy a gift certificate - then they can choose exactly what they like!"


Right - I'll just go and buy my rich boyfriend a cheepass £5 gift certificate so he can go ahead and choose a book he wants. Yeah, right. So much for using my imagination and coming up with a REALLY nice present.


You know what? I'm not a bad person. I want to be able to purchase e-content. I adore that my LoveFilm subscription allows me to stream movies. I hate that it's not all the movies, but the choice isn't so bad, and at least it's increasing daily. I love that I can buy MP3 albums from various places, and I do so! I'm a regular purchaser from Fictionwise, and they don't care where I put my content. In fact, had Fictionwise had the book in question, I'd have bought it from there, and found a way to deliver it to the birthday boy. As it happens, in the end I had to sign up for an account on a site called hive.co.uk, and bought the book in epub format. The site sent me confirmation emails with download links which I promptly forwarded to the birthday boy, who was able to download the books to his device.


Here's the deal, though, Amazon. You're going to have to fix this present giving thing. I can't be the only person (and going by the fact that the aforementioned answer is in the FAQ, or Frequently Asked Questions, I'm not) who wants to buy eContent as a gift. Sure, if you've got the money, a gift certificate is a brilliant way to go. This is about on the same level as our grandmothers giving us M&S clothes back in the day. Remember we'd just take them straight back to the store, get our money back and promptly spend it all on sweets or junk magazines?


And it's not just eBooks, you know. What about buying an MP3 album for someone? A game? A movie?

Books and eBooks

There are many reasons I love eBooks. One of the biggest of those is that during my recent move, I didn't lose a single one of them. Neither did they end up stored in a damp shed, curling up at the edges. Nope, they stayed firmly on my device, and as anyone who knows me well will be aware, the first things set up in any new home are computers, internet and gadgets. Without these the house is not a home.

The recent addition to the devices, an eeePad (not an iPad, dear me no!) running Android, has access to a slew of applications (free and otherwise), and so within the first week or two I found Android versions of a few of my favourite apps, including one for FBReader, an ebook reader I rather like. I won't go into the other apps I bought, except to recommend Cut The Rope!

But one afternoon, sitting and drinking tea with my mum, she mentioned to me a book I might enjoy, Broadmoor Revealed, an historic account of the famous mental hospital. Since Broadmoor is rather close (you can hear the alarm tests from where we live, every Monday morning), I did, indeed, think it a book worth my time, and on finding that it was free, I hastened to download the Kindle reader app, and then the book itself. The book arrived in double quick time - after all, it's delivered wirelessly, I don't have to wait for the post, and I set about reading it.

And then I got thinking - I wonder what other books may be available for free. Which is a slippery slope if ever there was one! I was hooked. I went through their Top 100 free books, many of which I already own, being such items as Sherlock Holmes books, or Jane Austen books. But there were enough modern ones to keep me interested. More were downloaded.

At which point it all starts to turn pearshaped.

I started to look at the other books. You know, the ones which aren't free. Let's just say that it's waaaay too easy to purchase books now. One click, and it's in my library. ONE CLICK!!!

Now we come to the dilemma.

I want to purchase a book about the VLE I'm testing (that's Virtual Learning Environment), and the paper copy is priced at £24, while the Kindle version is priced at £14! That's a pretty big discount. But if I buy the book, it's attached solely to my device. I can't leave it with the school when I go.

And the question of the day - should I buy it and expense it, knowing I'll be keeping it if I ever leave? After all, I'll be saving them £10, and anyway, it'll be obsolete before long, won't it?

Toddlers and Sharks

I glanced across a copy of The Times this morning, idly turning the pages as I perused, looking for juicy tidbits of information. And so it was that I stumbled upon the article entitled, "Nanny state makes a meal of child food advice with 80-page guide."

I'd link to the page, but it's one of the articles requiring signing up and paying for the online copy, which I have yet to do, but suffice it to say that the article gently rebukes the apparent u-turn performed by David Cameron for his stance on "The Nanny State". Apparently the 80-page guide even goes into the correct size of plastic plates from which you should feed your toddler, and provides an actual-size diagram of said plate, along with pictures of the perfect plate. As if this isn't risible enough, the sentence "The guide also reminds us not to feed shark to toddlers" has to be the icing and cherry on top of this delicious cake!

After all, I doubt there's a mum in Britain who hasn't pondered, as she decides what to feed her hungry family, on the suitability of shark meat for the evening meal.

"Honey," I can imagine her calling. "What would you like for supper? There's beans on toast, spaghetti bolognaise, or shark terriyaki."

Either that, or it's a typo, and was meant to read, "The guide also reminds us not to feed toddlers to sharks."