Ian and I took a jaunt into Norwich yesterday to see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Despite the very early timing (11.50am) the cinema was packed with senior citizens, all roaring with laughter at this excellent film. We followed it with a delicious meal at Bella Italia , then a leisurely bus journey home.
Retirement is very good.
For those of you who prefer to stay at home glued to your computer, here’s the latest Apple Ipad news:
The new Ipad was formerly unveiled in San Francisco last night. This 3rd Generation iPad is running a dual-core processor with quad-core graphics. That means it’s good. Processor speed is a tad slower than some tablets, but the retail price of £390 is kind of reasonable, I suppose (although more than twice as much as the wonderful – to me at any rate – Blackberry Playbook.)
The screen resolution on the new Ipad is brilliant – 2048 x 1536 if you’re into technicalities – and this makes it yet again the highest quality tablet screen on the market and much higher than the resolution to be defined as HD.
Also new to the iPad is a 5-megapixel camera which is pretty darn good and almost the best around when it comes to tablets. It can record video in HD and has a stabilisation feature where a shaky hand won’t lead to shaky videos. Fantastic! Just right for people like me.
A great new feature on the iPad is the microphone, which allows you to dictate rather than type. There’s now a microphone button on the iPad keyboard.
One thing that didn’t change as much as was expected is the size and shape, with an almost identical shape that is just slightly thicker and also a little bit heavier. This makes room for the ever-so-slightly-larger new parts inside the new iPad.
As always, you can expect to find new iPad accessories such as a new iPad case range at GearZap.com, plus a lot of other really good stuff. Take a visit over there and have a look for yourself.
As for me, well, I’m sticking with my lovely Blackberry Playbook. I like the smaller size and it works brilliantly with my Blackberry phone. At the moment, Ipads don’t tempt me. Not too much, anyway.
It is Lent, after all.
If you’re a Christian and you fancy having a go at some writing, check out this annual competition.
It’s for Christian short stories of upto 4,000 words (that’s not nearly as daunting as it sounds) on any theme and in any genre, so long as they have a strong Christian content. So you can write a romance for Valentine’s Day, or a historical drama, or a murder/mystery, or sci-fi – whatever you like, provided you have a Christian message.
The top prize is £150 plus guaranteed publishing, and short-listed titles may be published too. It costs £4.00 to enter, but that’s a fairly low investment should you win, and not too much to lose if your story isn’t chosen.
If you fancy your hand at something longer, the same site is running a Christian romance novel competition, and again, non-winning titles may be published. There is also an open short story competition – in other words, on any theme without necessarily a Christian message – and there’s even a section for young writers.
The closing date for all these competitions is 31st March, so as you’re sitting there this weekend, trying to ignore the snow and keep warm, why not turn your attention to writing a short story? Stories are fantastic vehicles for Christian witness, as the master story-teller himself showed us, and who knows? Writing a successful short story may inspire you to go even further and attempt that novel you always planned to write!
Golf and gadgets, but they don’t necessarily go together. Not in this case, anyway.
I played golf this morning for the first time since Ian’s illness – he’s now well enough to be left to his own devices, I’m happy to say. Only played nine holes, but it was glorious out there in the sunshine. Not the golf you understand, just being out there. Actually, despite the mud, the golf was reasonable enough to inspire me to want to get out there again as soon as possible, and maybe even work up to eighteen holes. And Ian hopes to be back playing again by April, which is even better news.
Then there was a lovely surprise waiting when I got home. A couple of accessories for my wonderful Blackberry Playbook had been delivered. Well, you can’t have these things without accessories, can you? That’s my excuse, anyway.
I’d been wanting a cover, just to protect the Playbook mostly when travelling. One of the big advantages of the Playbook is that it’s small enough to slip into a handbag or pocket, yet still big enough to use easily, so is ideal for taking on holiday. It comes with its own fabric case, but to be honest, that wouldn’t give too much protection against knocks and bangs.
The BlackBerry PlayBook case delivered this morning is much more substantial, with a leather appearance but a rigid design to protect the Playbook against accidents. For me, the drawback of this type of envelope case is that you have to physically remove the Playbook from the case in order to use it. I would prefer a design I can just flip open, so that I can use the Playbook from within the case. That said though, this case is good and strong, ideal for travelling and would be perfect for an Apple ipad too. And it comes at a reasonable price, thank goodness.
But that’s not all. The other gadget is brilliant. Although the Playbook has speakers which are perfectly good enough for Ian and me as we have a small room, it did occur to me that for a larger space, external speakers would be a good idea, speakers, moreover, which are small enough to be portable.
Rejoice with me, for I am now the proud owner of the neatest, cleverest little speaker sytem I have ever seen. The Pocket Boom fits into the palm of my tiny hand (and yes, my hands are abnormally tiny – I can never get gloves to fit).
You connect the Pocket Boom to your Playbook, flip off the lid from the device and pull out a long lead with a small, circular, sticky pad on the end. You stick the pad onto any covenient surface – empty bottle, cardboard box, coffee mug, whatever – and that object is immediately transformed into a high quality speaker. Isn’t that clever? Something to do with vibrations, if you’re into all that technical stuff. It runs on two AA batteries, or you can attach it to your computer with a USB connection.
It’s a tad tricky to prise the jack from the device in order to connect it to the Playbook, even for tiny fingers! But if I can manage it, anyone can. The gadget gives a terrific sound, and I can’t wait to go on holiday (and thus into a larger room) to hear my music. To my mind, the only disadvantage is that it comes with a couple of extra leads and a few spare sticky pads, but nowhere to keep them. Now I need another gadget – a little bag to house the lot. Still, for £20, my new speaker system is excellent value for money, and I’m delighted.
Golf, a Playbook case and amazing speakers – life can’t be bad!
Yesterday I made marmalade and attended Dunston Hall Ladies’ Golf Club AGM, not necessarily in that order. It was good. The AGM, that is. Actually the marmalade was pretty good too, in that it set and is now safely stashed away in the cupboard. It’s an ancient recipe, handed down from my mother and her mother before her, and probably from way back when the English first started using Seville oranges. Don’t know when that was, may (or may not) relate to the Spanish Armada. Definitely historical marmalade though, and no, that doesn’t describe the taste. I hope.
Amyway, back to the AGM. Not usually my favourite event – in fact I normally avoid AGMs at all costs – but I haven’t been near the golf club since the summer due to Ian’s illness, so it seemed like a good opportunity to pick up the threads once again.
It was great to meet old friends there, and especially great when I discovered that I can play winter golf for free as long as I rejoin the club in January. What’s more, if both Ian and I rejoin, I get free passes for the Leisure Centre (Ian’s not the least bit interested, but I like to swim when I can, which is seldom.) A deal not to be missed, so we’re down to the club tomorrow to seal the deal, and I’m playing on Thursday for the first time in six months.
Life is gradually returning to normal, and I picked up some work from a neighbouring priest who needs cover for several Sundays between now and Easter. Rather nice to be able to work when you want to.
I like retirement.
Yes, that’s a first for me. I’m just back from taking the Holy Communion service at Hemblington this morning, and preached from my new Blackberry Playbook. It was a bit scary as I’m not yet totally confident it won’t freeze at the worst possible moment (it hasn’t frozen since I had it, but with computers that’s no guarantee), or run out of battery (I charged it up fully last night, just in case), or refuse to go on at all (again, it’s never done that).
It was Paul, our rector, who suggested I might want to use the tablet in church. Until then, it hadn’t occurred to me, but when I thought about it, I was hooked. Saves all that paper, and I can easily transfer documents from my laptop to the tablet.
So there I was, preaching from the Playbook, which is A5 size and can be used in either portrait or landscape mode. All went well until I inadvertently touched something (don’t know what) that brought the keyboard onto the screen, thus obscuring some of the text I was trying to read. It was a slightly panicky moment, but I managed to get rid of the keyboard without too much trouble.
I shall now use the PLaybook in church for all the services I take. It’s given me wonderful justification for buying it in the first place, for now I can claim it’s not just play. I need it for work as well!