Quick trip to Wales.

‎Well I say a quick trip, certainly wasn't on the way up here, that's for sure!

The weekend started on Friday for me with a trip to Gatwick Enterprise to pick up my 'small premium' car. After much guessing what it would be, having only stipulated auto, I was surprised to be given a VW Passat CC (Bluemotion) MANUAL. In fairness I was asked if I was that bothered but I said no. Big mistake in some respects.

A few months ago I was actually looking at this exact car, but in auto and GT guise. But having driven a manual‎ Bluemotion, I have to say I would take one of these now. Lovely spec inside, ridiculous motorway MPG, smooth, lovely on twisty roads. So that's a plus for sure.

The trip here took some 7 hours due to stupid traffic conditions, and looking at the weather forecast, and what I'm sitting in now, the trip home isn't gonna be much easier.

Arriving at the Travelodge I was dreading first morning back ache from their ridiculous beds, but to my surprise they have teamed up with Sleepeze and replaced all their beds, and I must say, very nice indeed! Might even buy one. There is a little brochure by the bed telling you how to buy one if you enjoyed your sleep. Imagine that, try before you buy, first on the car and now the bed too. Good trip.

The reason for the trip, simple. One year ago today my aunt passed away, ironically some might say, on her sister (my mums) birthday. Mum left us in 2011. So this year on their anniversaries I made some changes to the family plot to make sure they are remembered, and there is somewhere to come to to pay respects to the whole family.

Two little engraved granite cubes with their details on. Small but effective :)

So they are in place now.

I have also travelled about to my favourite locations this weekend with my camera, to do some experimenting with it, and am quite happy with the results.

While talking to Chris, Joan's ex carer, she asked me for some information about tablets (electronic not medical), and showed interest in buying one. I have for a while now been looking for some way of saying thank you to Chris for all she did, so I popped out last night and bought her the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1, which was on her shortlist. She was a little shocked when I dropped it off in a flying visit last night. But no doubt my afternoon will be spent setting it up for her now lol. 

So, I'm sitting on the prom between Rhos and Colwyn Bay now, in heavy rain, strong winds, and hazy skies. Waiting for it to be late enough to pick Chris up to visit the family plot to lay flowers. Thankfully the tide is out, or I would have been washed away by now.

So I better get on, then wrap the day up with what will hopefully be a speedy and trouble free trip back to London.

Will the car have made the whole weekend on a single tank.... time will tell.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the EE network.

EyeEm the app

OK, its been a long time since I blogged anything, and I thought it was about time I did another random, pointless (or almost) blog.
It takes a bit to impress me with apps, I'm a simple guy that likes the full physical keyboard of my Blackberry, the simplicity of simple communication, and as a whole I really don't subscribe to this 'amazing app' mentality of most smartphone users.
I'm writing this on my beloved Blackberry Bold 9900 as typing is a joy on it, and day by day I stare longingly at the BB10 devices of 2013, the N and L series, aka the X10 and Z10. But until then, for apps I use my Samsung Galaxy S2, Android phone.
A few apps here and there manage the final cut and stay on the phone, but 90% get chopped within a week.
Instagram, the amazing image app that everyone was and is so addicted to lasted about a week too. Before the novelty of applying a filter to a picture to in some way make it look cool, retro, hip or funky wore off. Other than the filters it didn't really do much.
However while watching BBC's Click the other day I discovered EyeEm, and my world changed.
Allow me to explain. At surface EyeEm applies filters to pictures, as does Molome, Twitter and a million other apps. But take a second a look deeper at it, and EyeEm is different, very different.
First up, there is no mandatory cropping of pictures, the days of square only images are gone! You camera doesn't take a square pic, so why does Instagram insist on them? Next up there are tags. Woo I hear you say, hardly groundbreaking. BUT.... Careful use of tags teaches EyeEm what sort of things you are interested in. Use tags such as 'skies', 'lights' and 'sunset', and you will find your feed updates with images from other users using the same tag words.
The tags go on to form the key to the whole app, showing you images in your interest area, inspiring you to take more, diversify, or maybe even teaching you a trick. Like a picture or want to know more about how it was taken, that's simple, you can show your feelings by 'liking' the picture or leaving a comment. Start a conversation, make a friend.
If you find yourself admiring a picture, take a look through the gallery of the person who snapped it. Like more, then why not follow the person, and receive their new images in your feed. A little like Twitter in that respect.
From using EyeEm for just two days I have found myself recommending it to everyone, trying to convert people away from Instagram, and most of all I have found my love for photography reignited, and my desire to snap more and more images is once again keen.
On thing I am loving about the users of the app is the number of untouched images. Not everyone applies a filter and frame to their image, some just share raw quality images of amazing things. I prefer not to mess with my images, so its nice to see like minded people. As well as being able to share and feel some appreciation for my pictures.
So if you use an iOS device, or an Android device, go to your respective store now and search for EyeEm. Give it a go, get some tags on your images, and watch your feed populate.
Word of warning, the more tags you use, and the more general phrases, the more images you will receive, so choose carefully :)
Regards

Michael
Sent via Blackberry®