The McKenzies' Blog…

Wow, I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve updated my blog.  Since my last update on Dec 15th there’s been loads happening.  Lets see.. we had Christmas, New Years, I’ve been to South Africa with work and now it’s March already.

I’m planning a lot of walking trips for this year, now if only the weather and time are kind to me I will actually be able to complete them.

The longest walk I’m planning is a walk around Lake Windermere, which is 45 miles.  That will be a multi-day trip with camping along the way.  I’m planning for 4 days but expect to complete it in 3 days. No idea when this will be but I’m guessing not until May.

Another walk I’m looking at has been inspired by this site Walkmate.co.uk – The Cheviot and The Big One. While it’s a single day walk, albeit a long one, I’m planning to take it slower and do it over 2 days with one nights wild camping (on the Scotland side of the walk near Windy Gyle.  We’ll see how that one goes.  I’d rather not do that one alone given the remoteness of it all, but then again it would be a nice confidence booster alone too.

Closer to home I’m looking at some walks along the Norfolk coast and even closer to home along the river cam.  One circular walk I’ve planned out is about 20km, it starts in Waterbeach, walking up the one side of the river and returning back the far side.  I’ve also looked at doing an 18km walk starting in Waterbeach ending in Ely then a quick train ride back to Waterbeach back to the car.  Both of these are known to be quite wet and mucky so I will have to wait for some nice dry weather, not interested in getting covered from head to toe in mud

More updates to come, I hope at more frequent rates then I have been for the last 6 months.

It has been quite some time since I have posted a blog entry. There has been no real reason for the absence except I have done nothing noteworthy or gone anywhere. 

Work has been stupid busy the last couple months and I suppose that has caused the lack of time to do anything.

We did have our friend come from the US and stayed with ua while her daughter interviewed at Oxford University. It was great to see them again, its been a few years since they left the UK.

Life is back to normal boring status really. Kids are winding down for the Christmas break at the end of this week and I will be finished work on the 23rd returning on the 4th of Jan in the new year.  Looking forward to the first xmas off in many years. Given I’m the only IT guy I doubt the quiet will last over xmas.

Oh well I will have a blog posting at Christmas, with pics of the day.

Posted from WordPress for Android

Back in September both Lisa and Emma went out for the try outs at The Grafton Centre for Modelsearch UK. Emma didn’t make it through but Lisa did. Then it was back for the second round of try outs in early October and Lisa managed to get through again. That brings us to Oct 23 and the rehearsals for the big show.

The daily show started on the Sunday and ran until Wed Oct 27th.  Lisa has been doing 3 show 4 times a day.  Today was the last day and the last show of the day which was suppose  to start at 6pm but is running late, will be judged by a panel. 

Lisa is very excited about this final show. The winners will get a gift certificate good for any shop in The Grafton Centre plus some professional photo and a chance to sign on with an agency.

1840hrs Lisa has just finished two of the show.in The final.

Final update … Lisa didn’t get selected this year, but she’ll go back next year and try again for sure!

Well, I’ve had my Android phone for just over 1 month now and I can only describe my feelings for the device as “growing stronger each day”.  Which, if you’d been reading my blog a year ago when I got my Nokia N97, is the complete opposite.

The more I use the device, the more I love it.  Sure there are dislikes I have for device…

– its hard for me to get use to the on screen keyboard. I’ve always had physical keyboards so still find myself making loads od mistakes, but getting much better.

– the battery life ia really bad, but then again this really is the power of your average netbook in your pocket. I’ve not actually run it with Wifi, Bluetooth and gas fully disabled for a day to see how it does.

– the final dislike ia nothing to do with device or android but with Samsung and the appalling failure that is the Samsung Kies software, which is required for doing update to the phone firmware. Simply but it doesn’t work for most people, and my experience is no different.

My likes about the device? I think its easier ro simply say… With only the above exceptions, all you can do is love this thing.  It fast, has an amazing screen, awesome graphics, great audio, a phenomenal selection of apps available and simply gets better every day.

If you want to see what I run on my android then CLICK HERE to see.  The list is a live update of the apps I have installed.  If you have an Android and don’t use Appbrain and Fast Web Installer app then you are seriously missing out on what I consider one of the most powerful apps on the Android Platform!!!

I’ve written this post 100% from the device this time using the WordPress app.  No apps were harmed in the production of this posting and I had some green text on my screen so it means its friendly on the environment as well.