December 11, 2014 (3)

I'm having technology problems at the moment. When I switched my phone back on when we arrived in a Melbourne after the cruise, it wouldn't connect to Telstra.  No amount of re-setting or pushing of buttons made any difference. I've had the 'phone for nearly 5 years so maybe it's time for a change.  More of that later.

Also, my e-reader has given up the ghost.  I purchased it on October 21st last year and it died on November 21st, just one month out of warranty.  I'm not impressed because it wasn't a cheapie but, luckily, I have a backup Kobo which I bought earlier this year when I forgot to pack the original one before a cruise.

The phone is a more interesting proposition.  I'm now conditioned to use a smartphone but a new iphone is hugely expensive.  I don't want another contract so I've had to fall back on a Nokia Lumia.  It's a nice phone and works on the Windows system.  The mad thing is that comes complete with a group of imaginary friends all listed in the contacts menu and all with a realistic profile.  The eerie thing is that they send me messages reminding me about meetings and I keep being notified that I had a missed call from Zak or Chelsea. I can't seem to get rid of them.  Marilyn's starting to ask who is this Chelsea who keeps trying to contact me.  It's clearly designed for those poor souls who have no social life but I haven't got to that stage yet.

On my Kobo, I'm reading Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari a fantastic explanation of the evolution of man.