I have to start today by sharing the latest Photoshop brilliance from Humphrey, for those who haven’t have seen the link in the comments on my last post. He asked, in relation to my chicken and mushroom pie, what was with the camel train:
If anyone has any tips for filling in camel footprints on a kitchen work-surface, please let me know!
I saw this and snorted. A call of “What is it?” came from Mick in the other room. I took my phone to show him. He joined me in my laughter, and we both uttered ‘brilliant’ again. Thank you Humphrey!
Mobile Data
For years I have been a Pay-As-You-Go mobile phone user, which has worked out to be cost effective (sometimes as low as £20 per year) by virtue of scant use. Then in September 2019 I was enticed by an offer on a Vodafone contract: 5GB data plus unlimited calls and texts for £6.66/month. It would give an all-in-one solution when away in Bertie (i.e. mobile phone for me, plus mobile internet for use in Bertie).
Part of the calculation in opting for the contract was how much use it would get but those calculations did not, of course, take into account the scenario in which we now find ourselves. Thus I find myself with 9 months through the contract period, having hammered the data allowance for 2.5 months, used it modestly for 1 month and having used it not at all the rest of the time. I suspect it will remain unused until I cancel it at the end of the initial contract period.
There are clearly far worse things that happen at sea, but what bad timing for me to have bought my first mobile contract in over 15 years!
Mobile Data Consumption
Tangentially related to the above, when I took out the contract 5GB of data per month seemed like a huge quantity when a 12GB internet-only Three SIM would previously last for a whole 12 months of use in Bertie. What I discovered in January this year is that when I think “I’ve got loads of data!” my usage increases accordingly. I’d expected it to be enough to download a few TV programmes a month as well as a newspaper each day; in reality I had to rein in what I was doing (travel related stuff and research has to take priority) and change some settings on my phone to stop myself going over my limit, and we never did use it to download a newspaper.
Misbehaving Technology
Whilst on the subject of my phone: last week it decided that it would stop podcasts from playing once my phone’s screen was locked. Podcasts are my entertainment/education of choice when I’m out running, so this was something of a disaster and the annoying thing was that I hadn’t touched any settings.
I duly checked the obvious culprit: the battery optimisation settings (and continued to check them a dozen times a day, just in case I’d overlooked something every other time); I consulted Google (“It’s your battery optimisation settings” was the universal answer); I uninstalled the App and reinstalled it; I established that Audible, BBC Sounds and Music would continue when the screen was locked; I downloaded a different Podcast App (also stopped when screen locked); I Googled some more; I seriously wondered whether crying would help; I dug my old phone out, switched my SIM over and resigned myself to having to take a technological step backwards for the time being. Finally yesterday yet another Google search turned up a post that didn’t directly apply to the operating system I’m running, but it gave me the idea that the problem wasn’t with the podcast App, but with some other App with which the podcast App interacts. I had no idea what that might be, but switched my battery optimisation settings to allow *EVERYTHING* to play in the background. Yay! Success! I did a happy dance.
The Tow Path
Martin commented on my last post about the narrowness of our canal tow-path. The photo in that post showed one of the wider bits on that section of canal; much of it is more like this:
There are better sections of path both to the north and south, but they are also nearer to civilisation and thus are busier (which translates to ‘too busy for current times’).
I saw this and snorted. A call of “What is it?” came from Mick in the other room. I took my phone to show him. He joined me in my laughter, and we both uttered ‘brilliant’ again. Thank you Humphrey!
Mobile Data
For years I have been a Pay-As-You-Go mobile phone user, which has worked out to be cost effective (sometimes as low as £20 per year) by virtue of scant use. Then in September 2019 I was enticed by an offer on a Vodafone contract: 5GB data plus unlimited calls and texts for £6.66/month. It would give an all-in-one solution when away in Bertie (i.e. mobile phone for me, plus mobile internet for use in Bertie).
Part of the calculation in opting for the contract was how much use it would get but those calculations did not, of course, take into account the scenario in which we now find ourselves. Thus I find myself with 9 months through the contract period, having hammered the data allowance for 2.5 months, used it modestly for 1 month and having used it not at all the rest of the time. I suspect it will remain unused until I cancel it at the end of the initial contract period.
There are clearly far worse things that happen at sea, but what bad timing for me to have bought my first mobile contract in over 15 years!
Mobile Data Consumption
Tangentially related to the above, when I took out the contract 5GB of data per month seemed like a huge quantity when a 12GB internet-only Three SIM would previously last for a whole 12 months of use in Bertie. What I discovered in January this year is that when I think “I’ve got loads of data!” my usage increases accordingly. I’d expected it to be enough to download a few TV programmes a month as well as a newspaper each day; in reality I had to rein in what I was doing (travel related stuff and research has to take priority) and change some settings on my phone to stop myself going over my limit, and we never did use it to download a newspaper.
Misbehaving Technology
Whilst on the subject of my phone: last week it decided that it would stop podcasts from playing once my phone’s screen was locked. Podcasts are my entertainment/education of choice when I’m out running, so this was something of a disaster and the annoying thing was that I hadn’t touched any settings.
I duly checked the obvious culprit: the battery optimisation settings (and continued to check them a dozen times a day, just in case I’d overlooked something every other time); I consulted Google (“It’s your battery optimisation settings” was the universal answer); I uninstalled the App and reinstalled it; I established that Audible, BBC Sounds and Music would continue when the screen was locked; I downloaded a different Podcast App (also stopped when screen locked); I Googled some more; I seriously wondered whether crying would help; I dug my old phone out, switched my SIM over and resigned myself to having to take a technological step backwards for the time being. Finally yesterday yet another Google search turned up a post that didn’t directly apply to the operating system I’m running, but it gave me the idea that the problem wasn’t with the podcast App, but with some other App with which the podcast App interacts. I had no idea what that might be, but switched my battery optimisation settings to allow *EVERYTHING* to play in the background. Yay! Success! I did a happy dance.
The Tow Path
Martin commented on my last post about the narrowness of our canal tow-path. The photo in that post showed one of the wider bits on that section of canal; much of it is more like this:
There are better sections of path both to the north and south, but they are also nearer to civilisation and thus are busier (which translates to ‘too busy for current times’).
Where is the oasis?
ReplyDeleteYour phone reorganisation and your intuitive production of different solutions leaves me behind. Perhaps I should re-examine my own package. I currently pay EE £36.95/month for landline and fibre broadband and £23.08 per month for iPhone and iPad us which in combination seems a lot. It may be time to go and haggle with them but I had fibre Broadband installed last October and they are still trying to sort out constant "drop-out" problems.
On our current contract we pay £11.90 per month for home phone and unlimited broadband, although not fibre (which is available, but I'm not willing to pay extra for it when we manage fine with the speed we've got). My intention, at the end of the current contract, was to look into the possibility of ditching the landline/broadband and replacing it with a mobile signal booster and an unlimited mobile phone data SIM. It would work out more expensive per month on the face of it, but we could take the SIM with us when away and continue to use it, thus removing the need for us to buy a separate data solution for the time spent in Bertie.
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