The Travelling Man with Good and Geeky Tech

So there I was camping in the French Pyrenees having a good time. The only fly in the ointment was the almost non-availability of Internet. I was paying €3.63 per 100 MB per day and I also had access to some really slow Wi-Fi at the reception of the campsite. The best use I could make of the camping site Internet was to allow the iPhone to download a couple of podcasts while I had a soak in the Jacuzzi. During the day we were walking around mountain lakes with stunning views enjoying the warm October sunshine. During the evening time when we were at the campsite it was too cool when the sun had gone down to hang around waiting for things to download. So there was the need for the jacuzzi and the sauna. The 100 MB was only really any good for basic Internet stuff to keep in contact with Facebook, Twitter and email. I did also use this extra ration of downloadable data for the map directions on the iPhone. It’s handy to have directions shouted out to you by the Maps application when you’re going to somewhere you’re not sure about.

The Travelling Man Part Two

For my next destination I will be lucky enough to have extremely fast Internet where I’m staying. My son lives in a small village in southern Ireland which has the benefit of fibre Internet. I’ll be enjoying getting 66 MB down with that Internet connection. I won’t want to come back home again except for the fact I’ll be missing my wife. There is a new baby in my son’s house and they do tend to cry quite a bit, so maybe four days of baby will be sufficient as well. Great to have a grand-daughter in the family. I can’t wait to meet Indigo.

I’m still at the packing stage at the moment and I’m undecided whether I should also take the Mac keyboard with me. (I probably will take it.) Considering I’ll have a fast Internet I’ll be able to use dictation to my hearts content. When I’m dictating I do prefer it if I’m on my own in a quiet room. I think that other people find it a little annoying to have someone talking to a computer while they’re doing other stuff. I’m probably a little bit self-conscious about talking to the computer and dictating in front of other people as well. The Mac keyboard is quite small and light and fits in the same bag I used to carry the iPad Pro. I don’t really have a need to spend my money buying expensive iPad Pro keyboards. The only extra benefit is there are one or two extra keys specific to using with the iPad. During my trip to the French Pyrenees it worked out very nice to have a keyboard to type, especially due to dictation being completely impossible. There are times I would like to have the new MacBook Pro so I could install Dragon dictation on that. I’d have no need of Internet connections in order to do my usual dictation. Some people buy the Microsoft Surface device to do something similar. If I was to do that the machine will only get used for dictation and nothing else. I am a Apple macOS user through and through and I would find it annoying to have to use Windows. I’d also have to buy another version of Dragon to use on the other operating system.

Aeroplanes And Weight Limits

I’m travelling with a low-cost airline and I’m carrying only one bag with me. In the bag I have to carry a few presents for the new baby. I’ll have to cut down the stuff I can carry for myself. Normally on trips like this I like to take my Sony NEX– 6 and really enjoy my photography with a top class camera. The advantage is I can look through the viewfinder and properly see what I’m taking a picture of. Sometimes with the iPhone camera it’s hard to see on the screen when there are lots of reflections due to harsh sunlight. The pictures I took while I was in France for the last few days were mostly with the iPhone 7. The quality of the images is excellent and sometimes you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between those pictures and the ones from the Sony camera. The other good thing about using the iPhone camera is the photos get uploaded to my iCloud photo library when I’m on Wi-Fi. While I’m at home in Spain I also have those photos uploaded by mobile data due to having a generous amount of data capacity with my mobile provider. I get 20 GB per month and if I’m using 4G it works out really well to have photos pushed directly to the cloud. The other main advantage of using the Sony camera is I have a good telephoto permanently attached. My wide-angle needs are satisfied by using the iPhone and my Go Pro type camera. Something else to stash in the travelling bag.

Why Do We Need To Carry so Much Tech?

I am a big proponent of journalling, keeping a diary. This is part of me being a writer and wanting to always be writing. I often find a good way to get into the swing of getting words out my head and onto a page is to start by making a journal entry. I’ll open up Day One and write about the day as it happened or the day I have in front of me. I don’t write posts to say what it was I had for my breakfast and the basics of what I did. I’d rather write my thoughts about what is going on in the world. This can be with personal happenings around me. I can also be talking about what’s going on in the world. I could be writing about my disappointment regarding the UK leaving the European Union. Maybe I’ll want to mention something I’ve seen them in the news which is related to my dislike of religion. I think it’s disgraceful that the British gymnastics controlling body have suspended an athlete for making comments about Islam. It’s not for such a group of people to decide that blasphemy deserves a punishment of any sort. Why would an all-powerful deity need ridiculous laws like this to be enacted to stop it from getting upset. Just a couple of examples of what I might write about in my Day One journal.

As I’ve already mentioned photography is a big thing for me. So much of the technology I take with me is to facilitate taking pictures and manipulating them. I’m into art photography so I’m always looking for that image which I can work on in applications such as iColorama. The iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil is perfect for such activities.