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Oxford, London & the week ahead

If there's one problem I have with England, its that there's too much sky.

I rarely consider myself to be all that Scottish, but after I dozed off just short of the border I found I was surprisingly uncomfortable waking up and not being able to see hills anywhere. I had noted other small changes - the architecture of farmhouses & churches turns quite pointy after Edinburgh, for example, but the expansive horizon was the biggest change.

This weekend was a nice London primer, a whistle-stop tour of the markets and shops that showcased Londons character without too much tourism. Chinatown, piccadilly and the trocadero. All in all, a great intro to set up the week ahead.

Sunday was oxford - the very definition of quaint old English village, with architecture & history, courtesy of my national geographic trained host, with whom I offset the quaint day with a modern night with a giant fast food burrito & the quirkiest Odeon cinema imaginable - where a predictably standard-issue lobby gave way to a maddening labyrinth of corridors & tiny, intimate screens.

Already today I have joined the youth hostel association of the UK & navigated the tube for my first time on the way to the Tate modern.

Travelling by myself is somewhat bewildering. It's odd - I find it harder to plan a day for one than for two. Still, I'm looking forward to the week ahead.

I was at : 63-67 A200, Camberwell, Greater London SE1 3,

This Hostel Life, Part 1

So, my first night in the hostel over and I have to say it was a relatively pleasant experience - while not the chattiest or most sociable of folk, my room-mates seem nice (other than leaving the light on all night - don't know what that was all about, a security precaution perhaps?).

There's certainly a knack to living in hostels.  While some of the things aren't new to me (sleeping in a strange bed under strange linen, brushing my teeth in a public bathroom) I've yet to master the art of showering, towelling and changing in a tiny cubicle without getting any of my clothes wet.  There's a balance between public decency and practicality that has to be found regarding exactly what I wear on my way to and from said shower experience - I went fully dressed both ways today, and my first purchase today was a pair of PJ bottoms for next time.  You'd be amazed how much impact a pair of bulky jeans has when you're strapped for space.

Its a strange feeling being back as a visitor in a city I've lived in for so long.  I honestly don't really know what visitors to this city must do - everything of any interest is so decentralised that its hard to fit anything in if you have an appointments later on.  Thankfully I've had issues to sort out, and a half decent book to read, in between meetings with friends.

Hopefully with people to hang our with during the day from tomorrow, things should be a little more entertaining!

And so it begins ...

Like so many things in my life, I wish I could start this blog with a bang ... but instead, its a slightly uneventful shuffle out of Inverness that begins what will hopefully be the best year of my life so far.  This is mostly down to my inability to exist out here in the country - as beautiful as the sweeping vistas and rolling hills of the highlands are, there's really not a lot to say about them beyond that, and so I'm just aching to get back out into civilisation again.

At the very least, I'd hoped my first blog would be full of pictures, videos and other samples of my new technological toys, but the process of purchasing electronic goods on the Internet has become infinitely more frustrating and difficult since I last had the funds to blow on gadgets and gizmos and things that beep and flash.  Now it'll be next week before any of my stuff arrives in Inverness - where I won't be, because I'll be visiting my wonderful friends back in Dundee!  Here's hoping my Dad hasn't worn any of it out by the time I get back.

One piece of technology that has arrived is my new phone - the Google-Android powered HTC Hero, supplied to me by the lovely (and perhaps a little too trusting) people at Orange.

This little beauty is, basically, now the centre of my existence as I know it.  I'm using it for picking up my emails on the go, sat-nav-ing my way to remote locations (or rather to a point about 50 yards from my intended destination, with a house blocking my view, leaving me wandering for ten minutes like a lost puppy ...), alerting me of upcoming google calendar events (such as the daily 8.30 event of "get your lazy ass out of bed") and keeping track of the many to-do lists I can create within 24 hours ("eat breakfast" "if your head hurts you probably need coffee").


Orange's network coverage of the Highlands is rubbish, though.  I'm so glad I don't actually use it as a phone.

The first thing that should arrive while I'm away is probably the geekiest piece of gadgetry I've ever owned - the M Audio Microtrack II.

This little wonderboy is a sold-state digital audio recorder, with an in-line analog input limiter, 48V phantom power, 1/4" mic jack and SPDIF inputs, capable of storing audio as either WAV or MP3 and transfering it instantly to any PC via high speed USB.

Now, you might be saying to yourself, "Alan, I know you like playing guitar, but isn't that a bit much to pick up such a specialist piece of kit?  You don't gig, you don't even jam, and you don't write songs!  Why might you have to record something awesome in the field at a moment's notice".

Well, you might remember that I've done a couple of live music videos for my mates' bands.  Nothing spectacular, I'll grant you, but still a lot of fun.  Well, with the Microaudio II, all I have to do is sweet-talk the sound engineer (which in most pubs I see bands in is just the most technically adept barman on that night) and let me patch it through the monitor feed, and I'll have a perfect audio recording of the gig as soon as its finished.

Oh wait, whats that you say?  My camera's broken?  I haven't filmed anything in a year because of it?

Well, maybe that's why I've got this bad boy on its way to me: the Panasonic HDC TM-300.  A name fit for a time-travelling cyborg killing machine, less fitting for the most awesome camera I could find.

There's two massive advantages the HDC has over other consumer-level camcorders that led me to single it out.

The first of these is its image sensor - 3 whopping great 1/4" CMOS sensors which, to cut a long story short, will catch more detail and produce less grain in low-light conditions, perfect for shoots in pubs and bars.

The second is that - despite a host of automatic features including auto-focus with facial tracking and advanced optical image stabilising(handy for caffeine junkies looking to shoot from the edge of a mosh pit), this is a manual shooting beast - check out the front of it, just past that red ring.  That's an old-school manual control ring that can be assigned to focus, zoom or aperture speed, giving you complete control.  Which is perfect for me - the kind of camera operator who doesn't really know his arse from his elbow (so needs auto features) but occasionally dreams up ridiculous shots and fancy focus/zoom tricks (so likes the option of manual control).

Of course, all this comes with a big downside: the price.  Lets just say I've never spent this much on the internet in one transaction, and I don't know when I will again.  It was pricey, and now I'm left wondering whether this particular gadget will be accompanying me to New York later in the year ...

So its off to Dundee on Monday, and I'm still excited.  After all, its not just a new phone thats coming with me ...

It might be commercialism, it might be superficial, it might be naught more than a fleeting fancy ... but for all the hundreds I've spent on gadgets and gizmos, I'll be damned if there's a better feeling, after 6 years of retail and 4 of university, than a new pair of shoes and a stack of CDs.

Here's to the future, folks.  It's looking bright for once.