Selenay's Ramblings

I've just pushed the order button on my iPad :-DDD

I've saved well, so I had the money to go rather top of the range: 64GB with 3G.

In addition, I've got a blue Smart Cover, the extra (longer) charging cable and a wireless keyboard. Plus, obviously, AppleCare just in case.

Over on another website, I've ordered a pale blue sleeve to keep it in.

So excited!

It will arrive next week, but Mum is under instructions to keep it hidden until my birthday as it's my present to myself this year.

There may have been some playing with iPads at Best Buy yesterday to confirm which one I wanted :-) And to get a good look at things like the comic app on a nice big screen. And stuff. I'm insanely excited about this :-D

The next eighteen days are going to be torture for everyone around me.

So, er, that new Doctor Who trailer looks rather swish. And exciting. Now I'm impatient :-)

( Cut for moaning about weather )

Anyway, not the weekend we planned and I don't feel very rested (I want to have some sleep!) but I don't feel too bad today and the next weekend is a long one thanks to a provincial holiday. Woo!

The Tour ended over the weekend and was absolutely excellent. Definitely one of the best recent Tours :-)

That means I don't have Tour watching to do this week. My evenings suddenly look very weird and a bit empty. Tonight I may celebrate by spending the entire evening curled up with a book. That will be after Mum and I have had a nice walk on the beach :-)

I sort of quietly hate today because there is a perfect storm of 'stuff' happening at work and I'm feeling a wee bit harassed and overwhelmed. Why do people want answers on things on the one day that the person qualified to give answers is out? And why do I have to make decisions in their place? *whine whine whine*

( Cut for gadget talk )

I really need a vacation. I've tentatively booked a week in October. It's dependent completely on whether my father can resist the temptation to work throughout his visit here (in October) and how much of a miserable bastard he'll be if Mum and I go out to do fun stuff when I ends up working. I'm fully prepared to move it to November if he decides to do his usual because I want to enjoy my vacation, not tread on egg-shells because he's a workaholic who resents us for abandoning him to his work. Bitter? Me? Never!

So, I think that I may be setting up a plan to very, very gradually save towards buying an iPad. Yup, I'm becoming *that* geek. I'm figuring on early next year for the actual purchase, by which time the iPad 3 will be out with whatever nice extras it's going to have. So that gives me around a year to put a little bit aside each month.

It may be sooner if the global BBC iPlayer comes to Canada before the end of the year :-) That, for me, would be the killer app that would have me out buying an iPad immediately. Being able to watch BBC stuff from the comfort of my bed without worrying that my laptop is going to shout at me when I move it and upset the hard-drive? Yup, sounds good to me :-)

Mostly, I'm thinking that I want something with a decent (but not huge) screen that's very portable and will make it easy to keep up with things on the move and watch videos wherever I want. My iPod Touch is fab around the house and on short trips for keeping up with emails, Twitter and Facebook, but it's not practical for longer trips (like, say, two weeks in England next year) and definitely not good enough for some of the streaming video stuff that's now around. It was lovely to fly without my laptop and I've kind of decided that dragging a laptop around airports is just not for me anymore. Not when there are other, lighter options.

So, I'm going to save up for an iPad. I am turning into Gadget Girl.

I've also been thinking about off-site back-up, particularly now that Amazon has launched it's Cloud Drive service. My music is all ripped CDs (that I own), so if I lost the data it would be a pain but not the end of my life. What I really want to have a good back-up location for is my photos and my personal documents. I've thought about DropBox on and off but never quite got around to it. As I use Amazon for so many other things, I may look at testing the Cloud Drive and see what I think.

Today is "plan next week's menu" day. I think that it needs to include many noms. Sunday is going to be a repeat of the stunningly nommy salmon and garlic/rosemary roasted potatoes from last Sunday. I'm thinking that Monday may be chicken wings, possibly baked with a BBQ rub. It's been ages since I last had chicken wings. I may even go wild and do some potato wedges to go with them. Currently, I'm stuck on Saturday. Do I want to treat myself to some form of take-out? If so, what? Or do I want to see what my butcher has that is nom? Or do I want to try a new recipe?

Oh, the dilemma!

I'm leaning towards take-out. Possibly of the sushi variety. Or, if I start Humira on Saturday and I'm feeling achey, it may be pizza.

I am considering investing a wireless Internet radio device. Or at least saving up to invest :-) This is largely so that I can listen to Radio 2 and Radio 4 around the house without needing to set up the laptop.

Can anyone recommend a particular brand/make/device? I want one that can pick up the Listen Again stuff as well as the live stream so that I can listen to the Today show in the mornings and the Radio 4 comedy stuff while I'm cooking supper, but that's my only real restriction. I can see a few models around but it would be nice to have a personal rec if possible.