I'm off to Pembrokeshire next week so the wheels are in full motion at the moment - by that I mean my wife is being her usual efficient self and I am keeping out of the way. I have learnt over the years that when it comes to packing I am not in the same league and the best contribution I can make is to carry the cases.
So this has left me with some free time to ponder the meaning of life, the universe and everything and I have come up with a startling conclusion. The Tesco iPhone app is really great. Now bare with me on this. One of the problems you always have when you are away is where to do your shopping. Of course you could shop locally but they don't normally stock your favourite brand of balsamic vinegar or the coffee is just not free trade. So you have to find the local supermarket to ensure that you appetites are catered for. This is where the Tesco app comes in.
We are staying about five miles away from a large Tesco. One of the greatest frustrations when shopping at a store you are not familiar is is to find the aforementioned vinegar amongst the aisles. This is where the Tesco app comes in. You simply type in the brand and bingo it shows you exactly where the item is in the new store. Brilliant.
So what has this got to do with grumpiness and the iPad? Well they are all connected if you are to believe string theory or perhaps I have just misunderstand that. Anyway, Grumpiness. It is half term and as usual the newspaper delivery is not on time. I always marvel at the shoddy newspaper delivery that the Americans appear to put up with - surely that cannot be so? here in blighty we expect the newspaper to be delivered to the door or post box not thrown onto the front lawn or whatever is the truth. What is more I expect it to be delivered by time I get up so that I can take in the world affairs over my breakfast. Not this week.
Newspaper delivery is the domain of the school kid - usually about 13 or 14 and male. Normally they will be up for school so delivering the papers is no problem. However, come school holidays they revert to type and don't appear from their pits until 8 or later - about the time I am tucking into my cornflakes - no newspaper. So I have to troll to the corner shop and pick up my own paper. Such are the indignities I have to suffer.
But hope is at hand. I wish I could say this was my idea but it wasn't as I picked it up from a recent Media Guardian podcast. I could read my Times and Sunday Times on the iPad and the money I save could go a long way to pay for the iPad. Great the paper there when I want it. Of course the iPad would be paid for even quicker if I didn't take a subscription at all and just use the newsreader services. I could even pretend it was more environmentally sound, think of the trees I would save - all though this is a spurious argument but makes you feel better.
So perhaps string theory is correct after all. We are all connected by some strange force that permeates through us connecting and binding everything in the universe - or was that Star Wars? Anyway, I have been experimenting with not reading the paper but reading the news on my iPhone and I am amazed to find out I don't appear to need the newspaper after all. May the force be with you. Just remember how much like Darth Vader Steve Jobs is.
Simon Marchini LRPS
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini
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