I've just finished migrating from my Palm Centro smartphone (itself a replacement for my Palm Treo 650) to an iPhone. Yeah, so I really wanted to get a Palm Pre, but that meant changing carriers, and generally O2 has worse coverage than Orange around here (*).

(*)6 year old experience!

Anyway, rather than talk about the joys of the iPhone (which are many), its advantages over the Blackberry Bold (my work phone, sadly locked down, sweet keyboard) or Palm Centro (lovely for its time), I though I'd mention 2 hero applications which I have just updated from Palm OS to the iPhone.



The first is Splash ID; at its heart, this is just a password manager, but I've used it on Palm OS for maybe 5 years or so, and it's really good. There are also Mac and PC desktop packages that cross link to it. Very useful if you have a lot of passwords etc. Details here.

The second is Tube London, which comes in two different versions; one which has the traditional Tube Map, and the other which has a geographical map of the centre of London. Both are £2.99. I had this on my Palm, and as an occasional visitor to London found it really useful. I tried the free TfL app, but that doesn't seem to give the most optimum routes. This supports the over the air tube status updates as well, and doesn't need to connected to a network (mobile or wifi) to work. So I upgraded to a souped up version of an old friend. It also has popular locations linked in with details, and you can get the A to Z map to match. Lovely stuff, which has apparently been on an iPhone ad. Details here.

Enjoy.

Jill and Nathan stepping out

It's been a crazy few weeks, and there is no sign of a let up for at least another week. I forgot to mention that we'd had fun at the end of October at the ploughing match, which was like heaven for Nathan. A big collection of vintage tractors in a field just at the edge of Wetherby on a bright autumn morning. Nathan was doing his cool dude routine with his sunglasses on, and didn't know where to look.


Emma Davenport got a lot of attention

I was amusing by the old timers who were watching a young lady ploughing the field, and looking good at it, and making all these comments about how great it was to see a family tradition being carried on. However, it did look a little like they were having a good oggle too.


A tram at Birkenhead

The next weekend, we went to see Jill's parents in Birkenhead. The big expedition here was to a model railway exhibition with Nathan's Grandad, which Nathan seemed to enjoyed. I din't find it that exciting, as some of the displays were fantastically detailed but – in honesty – pretty boring. However, small boys and trains is always a good mix! Once we finsihed at the show, we headed out to the transport museum on a tram. This went via the Woodside Ferry landing (for 'Ferries across the Mersey') which has recently gained a German WW2 U-Boat. Nathan loved the trip, and got quite excited by the museum full of old vehicles and trams too. Great fun, overall.



Last weekend was Firework Night, and Wetherby had it's usual big display on the Ings (the flood plain by the River Wharfe where the old racecourse was). Nathan got all dressed up for the trip out in the cold, finally conceding the week-long battle and wearing his new coat. There was a Thomas the Tank Engine fairground ride at the display, so I'm sure you can guess what he liked most about the trip out. He did seem to like the fireworks though, and it I get a few minutes I may YouTube some of the video.

The Sunday that followed had a 'TomCon', one of our regular gaming get togethers. I was spoiled for choice in games; either Traveller (my favourite of old) run by Graham or Wordplay (the new game which I laid out) in a Cyberpunk setting by Newt Newport. I was more than happy to play either, so held back to let those who were more bothered go first. I ended up in the Cyberpunk game, which was great fun, taking me back to some of my 80s gaming roots. Yet again, Elaine and I ended up with characters who just didn't get on! I also swiped the fantastic slow cook curry recipe from Tom, our host.

This weekend just gone involved an evening out for Jill and I. One of my team at work has recently completed 25 years service and I was hosting at our Long Service Dinner. This was held at Hazlewood Castle, which is a great venue, and we had a great time. The only semi-dubious thing was the Swing singer; he was very good, but it really wasn't quite what I expected, and I'm pretty certain Jill hadn't expected a serenade and a kiss. At least she didn't get "The Lady is a Tramp" dedicated to her, which was what happened to the event organiser! Paula and Mark – Jill's sister and her fiancé – kindly looked after Nathan for us so we could go out and be grown-ups for once.

Lots of other things happening at work, and over the weekends, but this was just a flavour...

Currently feeling: Happy
Currently listening to: Timmy Time
Currently reading: The Dumas Club plus Mouseguard RPG

Well, it's Halloween, and we're off to see Jill's parents to take Nathan out for a trip. That means we'll miss most of the "trick or treat" fun and games, and I'm not certain whether that leaves Nathan missing out on much or not. We weren't going to take him out, but I suspect we'd have dressed him up the the delightful pumpkin outfit that he has got to meet the people at the door. He's certainly got into the spirit of things over the week at Nursery, making pumpkin lanterns and spiders with pipecleaner (remember them?) legs.

I've had a bit of an up and down week, ending up working from home for two days as I was running a temperature and a headache and, looking at my diary, I had virtually no meetings I had to be on site for. I'm glad I did that, as I feel a lot better now, and the last thing I want to do is end up with Bronchitis like I did last time I ignored the warning signs. I also probably got more done workwise staying at home. Getting Nathan to sleep through better has also helped, the results of a combination of socks in bed, plus switching all the lights out except for a nightlight. I should stress that the socks were for Nathan, not me, as we think the way he kicks off his covers at night ends up with cold feet, cold feet lead to waking up, and waking up leads to a bad night for Mummy and Daddy.

Jill was in London for two days with work, leaving Nathan and I home alone, something that went a lot smoother than I anticipated. Unfortunately the little mite managed to fall asleep when waiting to collect Jill from the train, thus missing a chance to go and get excited at "Annie & Clarabel" (train coaches, for all the non-Thomas afficionados). She didn't have a great trip, sleep disturbed by trains and a course that wasn't the most dynamic or effectively run. However, on a plus not she did get to go to the cinema, something we haven't done in months!

The next few weeks are going to be pretty manic, with all sorts of trips and things on for both Jill & I at work. I hate to say it, as it seems to be wishing my life away, but I'll be glad when I hit the end of November, as things should slow down then, just in time for the Christmas rush.

On Thursday night I had quite an exciting rush as I opened up the Scrivener file for "Singularities", the science-fiction setting which I have written as a theme for Wordplay, for the first time in a few months. I modified the file structure in the project so I now have an existing set of folders for the theme version for Wordplay Deluxe, and a new, virgin, set of folders with some placeholders / synopses for the likely chapters of a full, expanded and standalone version. The nicely offset that fact that Royal Mail had generously bent my full release copy of core Wordplay in half in their distribution system. Grrr!

Friday saw everyone else having an early night, so I caught up with a few films I wanted to see, and still managed to be asleep earlier than usual. Next big thing I need to sort is reading Monsters and Other Childish Things (an RPG) before the 8th November so I can give it back to Elaine.

Currently feeling: Positive
Currently listening to: The hum of the NAS
Currently reading: Stop Stealing Sheep & Learn how Type works plus Mouseguard RPG