phillsacre.me.uk

So, a few days ago Alex started up a photo challenge, and then Simon followed (don’t believe his blog when it appears to go all the way back to 13th August – he backdated the posts; it was really about a week later than that!)

Aaaanyway, I’m not much of a photographer but I thought this sounded like quite a cool thing to do. I can’t promise to take a photo every single day (I know, I know, that’s not much of a challenge), but I’ll try to take it as seriously as I can given my schedule!

I often walk or drive past somewhere and think “that would have made a really good photo”. Well, hopefully now this will give me an incentive to actually capture those photos!

The first one was taken today at Walton on the Naze. Phil and I went out there for a walk. It was taken on my HTC Wildfire – the camera isn’t brilliant but didn’t come out too badly after a bit of colour correction on the PC. We’ll see how this thing turns out ;)

Well, as I mentioned in my previous post, my HTC Wildfire has now been connected up. I’ve now been online since Wednesday, and I’ve been using the phone quite a lot since then! One of the reasons I wanted the phone to be connected this week was because we were visiting Phil’s parents. Although they do have a computer there, it’s a pretty ancient one and takes quite a while to load! Checking emails or – God forbid – Twitter there is a bit more of a mission.

So, now I’m all connected up, I can check GMail and Twitter as often as I like without having to go through anyone else’s computer! (Although, as the phone does have WiFi I can use a wireless connection if there is one).

Anyway, after having used the phone for a few days, how does it stack up against my old Samsung S5600? Well, first things first – I should say that the Wildfire is a lot more expensive. Even though it’s a “budget” smartphone, it’s still a fully-fledged Smartphone, whereas the Samsung I had was only half-way to a Smartphone. So, it’s not a fair comparison. It won’t come as a surprise to say that the Wildfire is better in pretty much every respect.

Well, that comparison over, I’ll just review the phone in general. First things first, build quality: it feels comfortingly solid in my hands, it doesn’t feel at all plasticy like some other phones I’ve tried. The touch screen is a joy to use, unlike the old Samsung: I think it’s the same type of touchscreen as the iPhone, which is the more expensive and responsive kind. Also, in general the whole package felt professional and good quality. In short, I feel like it’s going to last a while!

The battery life is also not bad. I’ve been using the phone pretty heavily each day for the past three days, and I’ve had to charge the phone up every night. That said, if I didn’t use the phone as heavily I could probably get away with much better battery life. It does speak well of the phone, though, that using it has been such a pleasure! – it’s not like the old Samsung where I could spend ages just trying to do something like, say, looking at Matthew’s blog (seriously, the only reason I had to spend a long time on the phone was because the phone kept on crashing. I’m not painting a good portrait of the old phone here, which is unfair because it’s not really for browsing – but I’m just pointing out the new one is good for that…)

I won’t really review the software because it’s pretty standard Android, with some HTC customisation. There are some minor annoyances but nothing that can’t be overcome or worked around. A lot of it at the moment is to do with my setup of the phone – I’ve got mail coming in twice (once via the Mail application and once via the GMail application), I’ve also got Twitter twice (again via two separate applications) but everything has been easy to use and once I’ve figured out what I want it will be great ;)

I should give particular mention to the calendar app. One thing I really wanted the phone for was to be able to manage my calendar (Google Calendar) from the phone directly. Well, it seems to work fine: the phone synchronises with Google, and seems to cache the info so that even when I’m not in range I can still see the calendar. I’m pretty happy with that.

I could go on, but I won’t (you’ll be pleased to know!) My conclusion, really, is that I love the phone and I think it’s fantastic. Exactly what I want: not over-the-top, but nonetheless good quality and does everything I want it to do. Spot on.

That’s right, I’ve finally been connected and am writing this message from my new phone. If you’re curious, I’m using the wordpress app for Android.

It seems pretty good so far although I wouldn’t like to write a novel on it!

Anyway, I take back some of my previous moaning about mobile networks. Just a little bit. That’s all from me for now…

Just a quick update because we’re currently on holiday! We’re staying with Phil’s parents for a few days. Things we have done in the past few days: visited Roz and Matt in Reading, had a look round Canterbury Cathedral, been to the National Portrait Gallery, had dinner with Alex in Rochester… I could go on.

Anyway, that’s why I haven’t updated recently!

I was hoping to be writing this on my phone, but unfortunately Vodafone still haven’t transferred me across. I think I’m going to have to ring them up and give them an earful, so frustrating! Still, it will be great when it finally works…

I mentioned yesterday that I needed to get a PAC code from Orange in order to migrate my number to Vodafone. Well I haven’t received the PAC code yet (it’s apparently in the post and should arrive tomorrow), but I had great difficulty in finding out just how to contact them in the first place: their website seems to contain a mass of contradictory information, and even when I did manage to get through it still worked!

I tried ringing up 150, which let me put in my mobile number and ID code, then cut me off. Then I tried ringing up 450 and going through to customer services – they didn’t have the necessary authority to give me a PAC code, but they gave me another 0800 number who could do it. I tried ringing the 0800 number, and it gave me the “this number does not exist” message.

So, all in all, I’ve been none too impressed with Orange’s customer service!

What you actually need to do – at least, as of yesterday – is ring up 450 and select options 2 and then 3. This took me through to someone who was able to generate a PAC code for me at least.

Quite why it was such a mission I don’t know – I know they don’t want people to leave but this is ridiculous! Not being able to get through on 150 was pretty awful – just cutting a call off without explanation is really inexcusable! Especially when it’s a number which is referred to many times on the Orange help pages.

I must admit, I’m not sad to be leaving Orange – they don’t have brilliant signal in our area, and it’s not exactly been a joy and a pleasure to deal with their customer services. I’m sure all mobile operators are just as bad though. In my time I’ve been with BT Cellnet, T-Mobile, O2 (basically BT again), T-Mobile again, Orange and now Vodafone. None of them have been particularly fantastic. I guess that’s just par for the course.

Ah well, onwards and upwards, as they say…

In the past few days, stuff has happened. On Friday night we basically had a night in, which was rather nice! – unusual to have a Friday night in with nothing going on, so we savoured it. Then on Saturday I went up to town to buy a couple of things, including a new mobile phone. Which I haven’t got yet. More on that later.

In the evening, Anne-Marie came round for some dinner and we watched “Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra”, which is fantastic! We’d seen some of it before (on TV they showed a cut down version), but the full version is definitely worth it.

On Sunday we went to church in the morning. My parents also came as they are on holiday, and then afterwards they came back to ours for dinner. After eating we walked up to Hilly Fields, it was a beautiful day for it! So we had a really nice afternoon with them.

After they’d gone we washed up, and then headed round to Anne-Marie and Sarah’s. It was Sarah’s birthday (well, technically the day after her birthday but still), so we had cake :) Phil made a cinnamon and Nutella cake, and Sarah’s Mum had made a chocolate cake. All in all, it was a pretty good evening cake-wise ;) After eating cake we watched the last of the “Sherlock” mini-series. We really enjoyed it – and that ending! Well, if you’re going to finish on a cliff-hanger, that’s the way to do it ;)

I really, really hope they do more. It’s looking quite likely from what I’ve read, but still.

Anyway. Yes, I was going to mention mobile phones. I mentioned last year that I bought a new mobile. It was an Orange Pay-As-You-Go mobile, which I really bought so that I could update my calendar online and also do basic internet stuff. Well, as they say, “if you buy cheap, you buy twice”: it’s a decent phone but it doesn’t really do anything well enough to use it that much. The calendar still doesn’t sync with my PC – I have to use Google’s online version, which basically means… I don’t use it. The online version is OK, but doesn’t really work as a main calendar. Also, the internet browsing is fine for mobile pages (Twitter is pretty good for that), but rubbish at anything else. And the screen is, well, it’s OK, but nothing like as good a sthe iPhone / iPad style screens.

So, I decided to upgrade to a contract phone. Obviously it would have to be an Android phone (it integrates really well with Google’s services, given that it’s developed by Google…) I did like the look of the HTC Desire, it’s a great phone which has been getting a lot of positive press, but in the end decided it was too expensive and I didn’t really need all the features. I went with an HTC Wildfire, which is the model down from the Desire but had a fantastic review on Reg Hardware a couple of weeks ago.

I went into the mobile shop on Saturday to get one, except … I couldn’t. It turns out Vodafone couldn’t issue me with a temporary number – because of the mobile phone number I already have. I have no idea what kind of weird system they’ve got at the moment: (i) Why should my old phone number have anything to do with it? (ii) when I got my previous phone, I didn’t need a temporary number. I just bought the phone, then transferred once I’d got the PAC code from my old provider.

Anyway, they said I’d need to get the PAC code from Orange before I could have the phone. Doh! It’s been a bit of a mission getting the PAC code from Orange (I will post up a brief blog about that soon), but it’s all done now so … hopefully I’ll be able to pick up the phone this weekend.

At the end of the day, having to wait a week for a phone isn’t really a problem, it was just annoying at the time because it was right there in front of me, but I couldn’t have it! There are some days I think I haven’t progressed since being a child (but then, I am a man, so… ;)

I’ve written a review of ‘Rev’, the TV series, which you can find on Crossring.

I thought it was pretty good for the most part, but you’ll have to head over there to read the full thing!

Yes, that’s right! I’m eschewing a weekend type update for a “midweek” update. In which I tell you about what’s been going on, mostly at the weekend, But hey ho, never mind.

The past three week nights we’ve been out for dinner with people from church: on Friday night we went round to James and Tash’s for dinner, and we had a very nice BBQ and spent some time with them. Then on Monday night we went round to Tim and Katie’s for dinner. Tim is our home group leader, and they live not far away from us, so that was also a very pleasant evening. Then, last night, we went round to John and Christine’s, where James and Tash were also having dinner! So that’s been three nights out with people from church – bliss. (Or, perhaps, bless, whichever is more appropriate).

Aaaaanyway. Apart from being out to dinner several times, on Saturday we spent a fair amount of the day preparing for the arrival of Peter, Martina and Albert – our friends from Germany. They arrived late afternoon / early evening kind of time. Albert is now 17 months old and he’s quite lively – he’s at the age where buttons are fascinating, and it was quite a challenge watching out that he didn’t (a) harm himself; (b) wreck the place! Still both Albert and our stuff managed to survive.

On Sunday we went to Fordham in the morning, to both services, and then came back for lunch. In the afternoon we had a few people from church round who wanted to catch up with Peter and Martina (Peter was formerly the apprentice at Fordham). After dinner, Sarah came round and we all watched “Sherlock” together.

I didn’t think this week’s episode was quite as good as last week’s but it was still very good and we really enjoyed it. I really hope they make some more episodes, it’s just been so enjoyable it would be a real shame if they never made any more!

I feel like most of my life I’ve spent catching up. When I was growing up, a lot of popular culture seemed to pass me by. I was quite content just to mess around with a computer, or go out and play football, without really getting into films, TV, music, that kind of thing. I used to be really into kids books before I was a teenager (mainly Enid Blyton…) but when I’d grown out of those books I never really started reading anything else to replace it.

On top of all that, when I finally did get into music (I bought my first CD aged 15), it was mainly dance music. I would sometimes listen to the radio – I have fond memories of listening to the radio while revising in the summer, the radio made it somewhat bearable! – but my tastes were actually pretty narrow and so I didn’t really like the same kind of music that everyone else liked.

As a result of all this, a lot of “firsts” happened at uni for me:

• I first saw Star Wars (the original trilogy, not that there are any other Star Wars films of course… ;) in my first year at uni;
• I caught up with a whole load of pop music I never listened to the first time round – at cheesy tunes, to start with, quite a few of the songs I didn’t really know! (although at the time I was too scared too admit it… fortunately they played the same ones a lot, so after a few weeks I knew them pretty well!)
• I first listened to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (the whole radio series) in my second year at uni, and then read the books the following year.

Anyway, I feel like I missed out on a lot when I was growing up – not really through any fault of my own, but these things just passed me by – but these days I feel like I’ve pretty much caught up. There are still “classic” films I need to see and so on, but I’m getting there.

All that said, there is still one thing which has been niggling at me like a sore thumb (yes, I know I’m kind of mixing my metaphors there…) It’s something which virtually every single one of my friends (and I do mean that literally) is into. I’ve never read any Terry Pratchett.

There were people who were into Terry Pratchett at school, but I just never got round to reading any of his books. Then I had friends who liked his books at uni, but – again – I just never read them. It’s something I’ve kind of been putting off for a long time, and there were a lot of other things to catch up on, so it’s just lingered there without me really thinking about it.

Anyway, I finished my reading list recently (amazingly enough), and I decided to start reading some Terry Pratchett: the prevarication will continue no longer! Phil has got three of the Pratchett books, and I am currently working my way through “Lords and Ladies”. It’s not the ideal place to start because it’s in the middle of a series, but I’m enjoying it so far!

He seems to have a brilliant sense of humour – just right for me to appreciate: quite witty, understated, very English! – and very tongue in cheek. In short, I’m enjoying it so far!

So long may the journey continue. I’m hoping to eventually read all of the Discworld books, although that will take some time. Still, good things come to those who… read Terry Pratchett books. If they enjoy them.

It’s been a busy old couple of months! I think of the past two months, we’ve had one weekend where we weren’t out on the Saturday doing something. This Saturday was the last ‘big’ date we had in the diary: we travelled up to Northampton for a family birthday party (Phil’s family). Anyway, it was a nice day, I feel like I’m gradually beginning to get to know Phil’s family after seeing them a few times now! And our journey to and from the party was pretty good.

Anyway, apart from that, not much else to say. Went to St Andrews on Greenstead on Sunday morning and I now have a few dates booked in to go and observe (did I mention my observation placement last time? No? Well, I might have to do a separate blog post about that at some point). In the afternoon we went to a leaving picnic for Laura and James, the apprentices at church. They will be very much missed at church, not just because of what they do (which is a lot) but because they’ve been such good friends to many of us.

Anyway, in the evening we went to Sunday@6, and then afterwards wandered round to see Sarah and watch “Sherlock”. Sherlock was amazing – very clever, very funny, and somehow managed to update the Sherlock Holmes story while at the same time staying true to the original characters. (Not that I’ve read or watched any Sherlock Holmes stories in a while, but from what I remember they seemed to do pretty well).

And the story seemed very Conan Doyle like as well, at least the last half-hour or so. All in all, I’m really looking forward to next week’s episode! ;)