Thursday 30 September 2010

Mobile Phones

I suspect the Google crawler will love this one.

So I, like everyone else these days, make extensive use of my mobile phone. I use the word phone sparingly, as it's actually more like a pocket computer. Well it is for me anyway. I use my phone for mobile data, accessing facebook, my email (work and personal), then for text messaging, and then for actually making phonecalls. My phone gives me at-a-glance notification of the weather, how many messages I have and what my friends are up to (via facebook).

Now I have used the same type of phone for several years. None of this fancy data stuff is very new to me, but since I have been using my phone I've been frustrated by how annoying it is to operate. I've spent money on third party applications for it that supposedly make things easier, but these are not perfect either.

After several years of honing, I have my phone set up to do most of what I want, and were it not for the fact that the phone is frustratingly unresponsive and often crashes, I would be perfectly happy with this setup.

Why is this a problem, you may ask?

Well, due to the frustrating crashes, I am always on the lookout to replace it with something better. Therein lies the problem. Nobody (yet) makes a phone that seems to meet my requirements (which come from the setup I have on my existing phone).

I've tried Android, (HTC Hero and HTC Desire) but it's lacking in widgets that do the same thing as the widgets I have on my existing phone, and unless I hack it to FroYo 2.2 I can't get direct push hotmail on it.
I've tried iPhone 4, but it has no widgets at all, and no way to customise the main screen to show me anything at a glance other than the number of messages in my inbox. It's also too big to fit in my pocket and costs £600. £600 can buy a lot of burritos.
I've tried the Nokia E72, which would be a fantastic phone were it not crippled by Nokia's insistence on using their own applications for everything (which are basically fudged together for a terrible user experience).

So what's this magical yet frustrating phone platform I can't escape from you may ask? Well it's Windows Mobile 6.5. And what's more annoying is it looks like Windows Mobile 7 is going to be lacking in features too, meaning my phone is on its last legs as soon there will be nothing available that meets my requirements. Great :(

Tuesday 28 September 2010

Hello? Anybody there?

Does anyone ever read this?

I suspect not.

Monday 27 September 2010

Rain

I was in Berlin again this weekend. Now don't get me wrong, Berlin has some really trendy areas and all, but the last 2 times I've been there it's rained pretty much non-stop the whole time. This seems to coincide with it being almost exclusively my German friends who make fun of England for our rain. At least London is still colourful in the rain. We have red bricks, red buses, black cabs, yellow ambulances, silver police cars. Berlin has beige taxis. I don't even remember seeing a bus. They must be rain coloured, or maybe off-white, like the police cars. And all the buildings are grey. Lovely.

So anyway, why was I in Berlin? Well I was supposed to do an inline skating marathon, but it rained so I didn't. Instead I watched people skate in the rain, then went to the after-party and woke up the next morning feeling like I'd raced 2 marathons :)

Oh and in a nice twist of events, the friendly chap in the Omega boutique at Ka De We fixed my watch for free. This restores karma after my previous visit to Berlin resulted in my watch being broken when I crashed into a tree while skating in the wet.

The last 3 times I've travelled anywhere, I've always been really happy to return to London :)

Monday 20 September 2010

Geneva

So I was in Geneva over the weekend.

The hills are definitely not alive with the sound of music, nor anything else for that matter.
It's very quiet there, and everything is closed on Sundays. Even the local gangsta rappers are afraid to pump up the volume on the stereo in their convertible as they cruise down the street.

There was a nice pizzeria though... Except it turns out it's a chain of pizzerias. http://www.molino.ch/ - so far the only thing worth visiting in Geneva :)

Thursday 16 September 2010

Burrito Fail II

Humbug!

I took the tube to work this morning. For some reason despite loving the Boris Bike system I really didn't feel like riding one this morning. I think it has to do with exhausted legs from wearing my speed skates on the LondonSkate last night, as I didn't feel like skating either. Plus there were no bikes, which made that decision easier.

So I picked up the City AM paper to read on the tube, and there it was on the first page. Free Burritos! Turn to page 23. I naturally turned to page 23 to find Tortilla are opening their 5th branch at Leadenhall Market today, and to celebrate Mexican Independence day they are giving away a free burrito to the first 200 customers.

Why is this a Burrito fail? Well, because I don't work anywhere near Leadenhall Market!

I declare today to be Pizza Thursday. I shall be dining Italian style at Adagio instead. So there :p

Wednesday 15 September 2010

Burrito Fail

I have become a bit of a burrito connosieur of late. For some reason there are a lot of burrito places opening up around London.

This is a good thing.

Today however, we went back to El Burrito and it fell short of our expectations. My burrito suffered a catastrophic tortilla containment failure and I had to abandon my attempt to finish eating it.

What does all of this mean, you may ask? Well, a burrito is a delicate meal. It contains several ingredients all wrapped in a tortilla. If the tortilla fails, it all spills out and generally creates a mess everywhere. This is what burrito connosieurs call a critical mess.

So anyway, of the burrito places I have tried so far, this is my ranking:

1. Daddy Donkey. This is the daddy of burritos. Shame there's nowhere to sit.
2. Benito's Hat. Benito and his hat previously held equal second place with El Burrito, however with the recent failure, it now has a secure second place.
3. Chipotle. Chipotle is great. They assemble burritos with clinical precision, and the taste is great every time. The big issue I have with them is that they charge £1.40 for guacamole. £1.40!! It should be illegal to charge so much!
4. Chilango.
5. Tortilla. You have to get Tortilla at the right time. If it's quiet the meat can be dry.
6. Mexicala
6. El Burrito (dropped down from equal 2nd place).
8. Mas Burritos. This place is too tight with their fillings, and their burritos suffer from bad construction problems.
9. 1910 Mexican Kitchen. This place is too posh to be a real burrito place, and they wrap the burritos with the foil inside out. They don't taste particularly great either.

You may be wondering why Burrito Bros, Taqueria or Burro Burrito don't feature in this list. The reason is that I haven't tried them yet. Burrito Bros is in the wrong place. Taqueria is even further away, and although Burro Burrito is next door to my flat, the place is never open!! Grrrr! :)

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