iPhone apps, family guy, iJustine and lumbago

Laid up in my hotel room with a bad back has had its advantages today. Firstly I didn't have to go into the office, secondly I could have lots of long hot baths to ease my poor old back and thirdly I got the chance to catch up on some podcasts, vodcasts, chat to a few people and also get introduced to a great band called "The Script" cheers Clare

I also had the chance, while lying on the floor to play with some of my iPhone apps that I have not had the chance to look at in enough detail. Now iJustine has done this recently so I am blatantly copying her but she has more than a million people follow her blog, I have 1 (and that is me ;-) so I suspect I will get away with this...so here we go my favourite iPhone apps of the moment...

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One nation under CCTV, or another night in London...

You know how it is, I'm sure, you find yourself stupidly in London on a Friday night alone away from friends and family.

After having a challenging day at work and looking forward to meeting my wife and son in Ealing on Saturday morning I had to think through the options of what to do on a lovely warm Friday evening in our capital...

do I

a) Go the cinema (good option but what to see?)
b )Go to a museum and broaden that mind that sooo needs to be broadened
c) Hang out in one of the parks (hmmm, alone I may get arrested or worse)
d) Stay in he hotel room and learn about using the terminal command on OS X (seriously this was an option)
e) Find a nice restaurant and take along a good book and while the evening away (the option I wish I had chosen)
f) Go for cocktails...

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A load of hot air...

Ok here's the thing...I have a tyre on my car that does need replacing.

It is barely legal...I need to drive up to my parents in Northumberland on Thursday so thought I'd better get it replaced...easy yes?

Here is the sequence of events that eventually led to me being legal again:

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The start of any journey...

'The start of any journey for me resembles an algebraical equation: it may or may not work out'...Byron misquoted.

Tuesday 3:15am the alarm goes off and breaks Leo Laport off in his tracks, as I am listening to TWiT on my iphone subconsciously while asleep.

God am I really paid enough for this I wonder as I climb out of bed and begin the morning, or should that be very late night, ablutions.

After a lovely uneventful drive to Bristol, again accompanied by Leo and Friends on Macbreak weekly this time, I arrive feeling fresh at the airport and find a fab parking space right next to the terminal ;-) things are looking up I think as I pull my various things together. Now this involved a fair bit of sorting out as I have all sorts of gadgets that have to be carefully uninstalled from the car and loaded into my various bags. For some reason I also had to retrieve my belt from a suit in a carrier in the boot...I know I can't believe I am writing this rubbish but there is a reason, bear with me.

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Wales, the cottage, the doll and the quick exit

A short weekend break

... in a stunning part of Wales (as shown above). Perfect, just what we all need after lots of traveling with work and a great wind down ready for Jack's first day at school the following week, or so we thought... Sarah has a friend with a cottage in Wales, the perfect solution? So last Saturday we packed the car and set off for what was going to be a four day trip to a small town near Cardigan. Beaches, sandcastles, caves, dragon hunting (of course!) and fish and chips were planned to be the order of the day...bliss! After a long drive to the cottage, and at this point I can recommend a car based DVD system and the Lion King to keep the under 5's under control, we finally arrived!

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