RANDOM THOUGHTS AND STUFF

I asked an experienced backpacker friend to give me some tips, which I will now share.

•Take a sink plug. Some hostels don't have one

•Take a padlock because in some hostels daysacs are stored in lockers in the hall

•Take a small LED head torch (recommended by the Oz-Bus too) - invaluable for reading in bed or navigating in a dark room so that you don't disturbe the population

•Roll clothes up for packing. It uses less room

•Don't take a dressing gown. She assured me that no-one wears one. They are bulky to carry and totally unnecessary. This makes me feel very uncomfortable and goes against a lifetime of "covering up" in front of strangers!

•Sleep with passport and money tucked into the pillow

Any more tips from the travelling fraternity would be appreciated.

My next challenge is to arrange the best 'phone/data package for good, cheap coverage in the areas we pass through. My BlackBerry has been set up to receive, repond and delete private/business emails and has the facility to blog and tweet in realtime, which is fun. I find this facility invaluable but I don't want to break the bank. Does anyone agree with me when I say that talking to "communication" companies is one of the most stressful things to do. It must be right up there alongside moving house

Read more: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/retiredandcrazy/1/1294901487/tpod.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter#ixzz1AuQq59nL

TESTING, TESTING, TESTING

In preparation for my BIG TRIP next March I have dug out my Freedom Universal Keyboard. I switch it on and - heypresto - with the help of my trusted IT expert taking good instruction and advice from me, I have a full sized keyboard instead of having to use the diddy keyboard on the BlackBerry.

So that is that problem solved, my next challenge is do I need an IPad? It would be good to be able to Google and read books on the hoof, as it were. I know I can Google on BlackBerry but it's not quite the same without a good sized screen. Or should I make do, Google on BlackBerry and take Davy's EReader with me? Much easier to read books on.

...And then there is the question of how to I charge my batteries? I think that I am leaning towards a Power Money with Solar add on.

Anyway, enough of that, the keyboard is now tested and I'm going for a power nap. My brain hurts.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

DISASTER

Back from the “Grand Tour” to discover that most of my daily and sometimes twice daily blogs did not “post” and I have deleted them from my BlackBerry, maybe to be lost forever. I think that I detected the fleeting shadow of a soft smug smile pass over the face of one the IT guys when I said that! The others just openly laughed at me!!

With fear and trepidation I awaited the outcome of an enquiry. Can they be traced and retrieved? Or is this to live on as another Little Boss legendary right royal mess up? My only hope for conserving some modicum of credibility is that I have proof that my last post was marked “sent” but didn’t “post”. So who’s to bless and who’s to blame.

THE VERDICT HAS NOW BEEN RETURNED and it is that they are probably stuck in cyberspace with my service provider. As one guy put it, this technology is great, when it works. The endeavours to recover the blogs will continue, but in the meantime I will attempt to re-create my spontaneous ramblings, but not today because today, as the song says, “I’m a lonely little petunia in an onion patch, boohoo, boohoo.

The photograph is of two of our wonderful Italian waiters.

OK KEYBOARD, YOU HAVE ONE MORE CHANCE!

After a very frustrating day my IT guru finally uncovered the secrets of the keyboard failure in the form of an email received entitled "resolving connection problems on BlackBerry". First line of text "Please find step by step instructions below for fixing pairing issues with the newer BlackBerrys".

Now forgive me for being innocent, but why wasn't there a health warning on the instruction booklet, "This is the cutest of keyboards but if you try to connect it with one of the newer BlackBerries (which it is, incidentally, specifically designed for) you may have to be committed because they hate each other and their squabbling will drive you mad".

So ... it wasn't me, my grandson, my sister-in-law's grandson, or my IT guru being dumb. It was a compatability fault. The two devices just won't get friendly together and until there is a more permanent fix, which we are assured is in the pipeline, I have to follow a complicated and sometimes varied routine to get the two to kiss and make up.

And while I'm following this complicated routine (which my IT guru describes as "simple" - the only thing simple here my friend is me) I may accidentally turn off the wireless link, which then produces all sorts of other problems!

"My BlackBerry is still not working" from a very angry boss, "sort it out. This department is going to the dogs". Lengthy investigations later "Oh look, the silly moo has pressed the wrong button again". I tell you, this BlackBerry is doing nothing for my street cred. I can usually hide my mess ups, but occasionally they come to light in the most spectacular way. Drat.

Am I ready for the live blogging of my Orient Express expience? I very much doubt it. If there are no blogs from Tuesday onwards take that as a no! Or, alternatively, I may be having such a good time that I won't be assed with all this nonsense!!




Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

BLACKBERRY TO GO

This week I got lost. Not only did I get lost, I got lost three times in one journey and not, I might add, in the outback. I got lost driving through Peterborough the town I like to call a shopping experience. I am very familiar with this town. One time, before I started getting lost, I could have probably driven through it with my eyes shut, in fact I frequently did if my better half was at the wheel. So how the hell did I get lost? Beats me!

I know that I took the right route but it led me to a strange place that I didn’t recognise, so I re-orientated myself until I was not in a strange place, only to wind up in a strange place again, and again.

The problem is that my old grey matter is seizing up and needs reviving BIG TIME. So I bought a BlackBerry email and internet to go thingy. When I confessed what I had done to IT they looked horrified. “NO!” they said with their eyes. With their mouths they smiled and were very polite and supportive. “Yes, we can help you” “No, it’s no problem, no problem at all” whilst thinking “This is the daft old bat that can’t even use a landline let alone an email and internet to go thingy. Heavens above” or some such thoughts. More probably they thought “Bollocks!”

Even the lady on the ‘phone when I bought it didn’t seem very enthusiastic about my chances. “You don’t even know your mobile number and you’re buying a BlackBerry email and internet to go thingy!!!?”

Well today it arrived. And do you know what? They are all right! Bollocks.