Chromebook.

Google Chromebook.

Working straight out of the box. Check

Stupidly easy to use and set up. Check

Happy with the fact that it only cost me £120 in ebay. Check (no, I paid by card).

It seems odd to 'get used' to the idea of typing on something that rests on your lap again. After a couple of different keyboards used to work in conjunction with the iPad, it does rather take some getting used to, navigating without being able to touch the screen. How used to doing that on something so small and portable I have become. It's weird, because I never find myself trying to touch the screen of my desktop computer. I've never expected to.

The keyboard is taking a bit of getting used to, if anything, it actually feels roomier than the wireless keyboard I have on my iMac. (when placed over this keyboard, the iMac's keyboard area is pretty much the same size). The keys feel more spaced out, and at the moment, I'm feeling like I have to work harder to type, but the more I type the easier it gets.

The unit itself is lightweight. Having a laptop resting heavily on your lap being something that would annoy me in years gone by. I think how heavy laptops have been, how distinctly unportable they were. This is VERY portable.

It's a nice little device for knocking out some pages, and with very few distractions, sure I can load up facebook, sure I can check my emails.. but it does instantly feel easier to just connect with the writing.

'connect with the writing'. Would you like that statement with some sprinkles of added pretension. Haven't quite worked out how to right click or whatever I need to do to select alternative spellings yet. This does mean that currently, it's easier for me to just try different spellings myself than it is to select what may be the right one from a handy list. I'm not too bothered about that, I always considered it lazy that the computer does the spell checking thing for you.

You would have expected that Facebook, be in the dictionary though, (well it is, but it's a noun, so caps initial only please, if you want to avoid the red squiggly line of shame).

As it happens, the 'right click' functionality is served by a two fingered click of the touch-pad area. Fascinating.

So far, I really like it. The whole idea was that I wouldn't be lumbered (if it really can be considered lumbering) with ipad and separate keyboard. When I purchased the iPad I had considered buying an Asus Transformer instead, purely because of the detachable keyboard and the fantastic battery life that gave. I had decided against that for two reasons, the first being, that would require up front cost, money, which at the time I did not have. Two, I anticipated wanting to write scripts certainly with the screen in portrait mode, something I couldn't do with the Asus, but the ipad with a wirelessly connected keyboard could do.

love my Chromebook..

As luck would have it, I'm on standby this week, which means at a moments notice I am called in to the emergency call centre. I think they may be watching me, for just as I was about to settle down to an evening of 'getting know' my Chromebook, put the kettle on, and started making a sandwhich (Ham Salad and Brie), then the phone rings, calling me in.

Tired in body, but not so much in mind, some six hours later I come home, to find two rather bemused cats. Treating them to some midnight (okay, 1am) snacks, and grabbing my Chromebook it's a really easy thing to just pic it up and carry on from where I left off. Everything's saved exactly where it was.

If the machine reckons that at 58% battery left, it has four hours and twenty-nine minutes left - then I think either there's something wrong with their calculation there or Samsung have seriously undersold the batteries on this little beauty.

Summer ?

Summer is finally here. 

By Summer I don't just mean that part of the year that the meteorologists and astrophysicists define as summer, I mean actual Summer. Hot Weather. 

Today, in the flat it reached 29 degrees centigrade. I was hot, the cats were hot. Pretty much from the moment I came home till about ten at night I've left the front door open, the windows as ajar as i dare and the window in Chloe's room open all the way (with the door shut so that the cats can't decide to leap out of the window. 

And it's still 27 and a half degrees. It's really nice, and the sunshine is gorgeous. I've not been out in it a huge amount as it has rather been too hot to enjoy over the weekend. 

Somehow I need to summon the strength and energy and find the time to take Chloe's Violin to the post office. In this heat, and with the times I'm working that means taking it to work with me, and at my lunch break walking into Havant and taking it to the Post Office, and then walking back to work. In the middle of the day. 

You may guess that I'm not really up for that. 

At the weekend Chloe was on a sleepover, and she had agreed previously that we go to the Beacon Barbie (Barbecue). In a moment of pure teenager she decided on the train to mine that she didn't want to go after all. This was after I had been shopping and brought some salad and some sausages and burgers for us to take. (not that they could ever go to waste really). 

This was disappointing, I had really been looking forward to going, but could really understand that having been out in the heat walking around Southsea all day with her friends, the idea of walking to the train station, getting a train, walking to mine, doing some stuff, walking back to the train station and then getting a train to Steve's etc, etc and being surrounded by a load of people who would all be adults would not really hold that great an appeal for her. 

She was quite happy for me to leave her at the flat, and I go without her, but I was not happy with this arrangement. I wanted to spend time with Chloe, having looked forward to seeing her all week, and to bugger off and leave her there on her own, not that she would be bothered at all I am sure seemed to be  rather crazy to me. 

In other news, Andy Murray won the Men's final at Wimbledon. Yay. Was a very exciting match, very energetic. I don't think I could run around a tennis court that much in that heat without collapsing. 

I've perhaps foolishly offered to do some editing for Steve. This will be my chance I guess to put my money where my mouth is, instead of just moaning about how other people edit stuff. 

Priceless

Need to get my clean on.

Saturday. Last two days before I return to work from my holiday.

I've had Chloe to stay most of the week, but she went home Thursday. She is, however staying tonight. I know that might sound strange and maybe even make little or no sense, but hey. That's life.

Just sitting on the sofa, having some breakfast of fake Shreddies (with demerara on top of course), cup of coffee and glass of orange juice. Trying to fight off Twilight, who seems to want to come and shred my left elbow in an effort to get me to stroke her.

No TV. Nice and peaceful, just the sound of the washing machine rumbling away in the background, the clickety clack of the keys on the iMac's keyboard that I'm using to write this on my ipad.

Okay, the reason the TV isn't on may have something to do with the BT Vision box stopping working since I have now cancelled the package and moved my telephone and broadband to someone else. There's been a few hiccups with the router or the broadband dropping out a couple of times, and I'm also keeping an eye on how fast the service is. I wanted to save money, but I don't want to do that at the expense of the broadband connection making my online life hell. When I say hell, I may be being a tad over dramatic. After all, it's not like it's the end of the world if I have to wait three milliseconds for a web page to load instead of one, is it ?

Scroll down one the page has finished loading then. I am currently looking around for a set-top box to replace the BT Vision box thingy, and have asked myself, how important is the ability to record TV these days ? Almost everything is on catchup TV, or available on Netflix or Love Film. This leads me in the direction of a 'smart' set-top box. One that will allow me to connect to the internet and to use on demand functions from 4od, BBC, ITV etc. It gets to the point where I could spend anything between about £30 (for a plain freeview box) to about £300, (for a freeview HD recorder with smart functions).

Starts to look like its worth buying a new TV with those features built in. All of these things I would rather not be buying at the moment. I don't want to be putting more large purchases on my credit card(s), and I'm not convinced that I actually spend that much time in front of the TV anyway.

So I spend hundreds of pounds buying something that I only use occasionally ? I think I'd rather spend the money on a Dyson.

what could possibly require such padding ? 

The light bulb in the en-suite gave out several weeks ago, and in a fit of efficiency, having waited said number of weeks to do anything about it, I ordered the special bulb off the internet on Wednesday (or Thursday, it's not important). Anyhoo. It arrived yesterday.

bubble-wrap supplies for next 300 years............. 

An anonymous brown box, surrounded with industrial sized bubble-wrap. Inside, was.. well, the light bulb and.. more bubble-wrap. I now had a replacement light bulb, and enough bubble-wrap to recreate at least three of the monsters from Tom Baker's era of Dr Who.

Despite my moaning above about not spending money I don't have, I have been on a mini spending spree lately, but I consider the light bulb a necessity rather than a luxury. I have also bought some new toys for the cats to play with, and those I will show when they arrive, no doubt with their truck load of bubble-wrap or polystyrene.

I have done little editing of my nanowrimo book whilst I've been off. I think I did some on the first day of the previous week I'd had off (I had the week before Easter off, went back to work one week and then off again). I need to be more disciplined.

There are too many distractions.

Another that I have also recently taken steps to limit is Facebook. I have actually gone so far as to remove the app from my ipad (I'm annoyed I can't actually remove it from my phone. Seems it's a default app or something). I have found that I'm not now wasting time endlessly looking through the comments of comments or inane minutia of other people's boring lives. I have gotten just so fed up with some of the bigoted short sighted rubbish that some people put on there. I want to argue with them, or correct them, but lets face it. You can't argue with stupid.

I am getting annoyed with my mobile phone too. It's just so slow, and doesn't seem that responsive anymore. This may of course have one of two causes, that either as it's getting older and more full of apps (even though I don't download any), it's overworked processor and limited storage capacity are getting stuck in the mud. Or it may be that it simply has never really recovered from being dropped in the washing up that time.

Being a bit-geek, I am already considering two courses of action here. I know that my contract does not expire until August / November, sometime, but after checking on Three's website I can upgrade in July at no extra cost, or I can upgrade early and pay a fee. Anyway, the two courses of action ? Well, I am looking at the new Blackberry's coming out, the ones with keyboards (don't even get me started on the point of a blackberry without a freaking keyboard), or something older, that isn't a smart phone at all. A candybar phone that just maybe takes pictures, does text and phone calls. That's it. Since I've got my ipad, and I do take it lots of places with me (reminds me I must show the new case I bought for it, that matches the one for my kindle paperwhite), and this means that I don't use the phone that much anymore for internetting. I may have previously trawled through facebook etc, but I just don't like working from it that much, compared to how easy to use and responsive the ipad is.

Do I get really rebellious, and get rid of my mobile phone altogether ? People would think I've gone mad.

Bird catching

Let it snow let is snow let is snow...