Fri, 02 Aug 2002

author	location
posted 09:38	section Europe2002/Oceania/Australia/Before Leaving ( all photos )

As far as the real plans go ( No photos )
Thought I'd split this away from the mega-tech post so that it could actually be noticed.
We've booked eight nights in a Bed and Breakfast in Beckenham, which is apparently a twenty minute train ride from the "real" part of London - enough to be not in the thick of things all the time. With a bit of luck, Meaghan is going to join us for a few of these days before she heads off to Italy for a month or so.
This should be about all our bank accounts can bear, then we head on a train (also booked) up to Carlisle (North England) to meet with Liz's uncle Peter. That's about all we have planned - and it's more than enough for now. Let's keep ourselves guessing.
Also, I'm going to have to work out how to use a "pound" sign, then a "euro" sign on my laptop.
Back home, the phones are signed over to Mr John-Claude Zadro, who is moving into our little house in Penshurst along with Jane and possibly one other. This is because we move out of it tomorrow! It's gone so fast. We have the lease until Tuesday, but we'll have to get everything out this weekend so we can clean and fix up the place for the inspection on Tuesday.
Still yet to work out how we are going to move the wardrobe and the mattress anywhere - they came in a big truck, and they ain't going back that way...

author	location
posted 09:04	section Europe2002/Oceania/Australia/Before Leaving ( all photos )

All tech-ed up, somewhere to go ( No photos )
Well, we're now surrounded with enough tech gear to break into the pentagon.
Last night, I purchased an Olympus C-720. It's a 3MP Digital Camera, with a big 8x zoom. Haven't had much chance to play with it yet, bit it will certainly do the trick. I picked it up at Harvey Norman Caringbah, which was not as painful as expected, along with lots of accompanying gear. Expect lots of photos from it here as we gallavant around the world.
Also arriving yesterday was my Bluetooth Adapter, which allows my laptop and phone to talk to each other. Not very interesting? Think Liz and I, in the middle of Europe somewhere, in the combi with no sign of Internet connectivity anywhere. Except, that is, on the mobile phone network.
My recently purchased Ericsson T39m mobile phone also has Bluetooth, so it fits the bill perfectly. Bianca the iBook will the be able to talk out through the phone to the big wide world, sending and receiving emails, updating this website, etc.
Already, I can move contacts back and forth while my phone is still in my pocket, which is nice in terms of synchronisation and backup, but the real value will come with GPRS-enabled internet connectivity roaming across Europe. Hurrah for technology!

(customised)