Doing Words

Kthxbai till August

// July 7th, 2008 // 0 Comments // Me

I’ll be turning off the flashing neon sign, drawing the blinds and turning off the fridge at the end of this week. Doing Words will be closed fo’ bidnez from 10 July – 20 August as the family and I take an extended school holiday.

Where are we going? Well, last year we visited the Himachal Pradesh region of northern India, part of the Himalaya ranges to the north west of Nepal. This time we’re going back to Himachal Pradesh and staying in the village of Tabo for a few weeks, enjoying a three-yearly Chakkha festival there, going camping with a busload of schoolkids up around Ki, then off to Leh in Ladakh via some of the highest driveable mountain passes in the world.

Most Aussies head to Nepal when they want to see the Himalayas. Himachal Pradesh is a bit more off the beaten track and yet just as beautiful, maybe more so. There’s a fascinating mix of Tibetan and Indian cultures and you can experience a simple, happy way of life that hasn’t changed much in a few hundred years. Just going off the grid for five weeks has got to be good for me. I’m sure the interweb will still be here when I get back…

If you ever fancy doing something like this yourself, I highly recommend the lovely and knowledgeable people at YakTrak Tours. Here’s some photos from the trip last year (and the complete collection is on Flickr.)

Hello? Are you still there?

// July 18th, 2007 // 0 Comments // Other news

You are? Well, it would be my fault entirely if you weren’t still here. Like the n00biest of bloggers I drifted off to go exploring the Indian side of the Himalayas for three weeks without telling the blogosphere that I was going away, or when I’d be back. More professional bloggers would have been posting ‘daily links’ type posts from internet cafes in tiny mountain villages, but I was having too much fun with a Leica V-Lux, D-Lux, C-Lux and even an M8 (hah! bet you were expecting a ‘B-Lux’ next) while pro bloggers were hunched over crawling analogue interweb connections – sucked in!

I kept an analogue journal of the trip which I’ll transcribe to the blog shortly, and I’m still uploading hundreds of 10mb JPGs to the Flickr account, so stay tuned for my best shots.

While I was gone, some practical jokers tried to set themselves on fire and crash their car into an airport terminal. But it was Glasgow airport, and it takes more than a flaming jeep to do any real damage to anything Glaswegian. You can head-butt my uncle Jim repeatedly until you knock yourself unconscious and he’ll use your limp body to wipe the floor of the pub clean of your blood (he and the rest of my mum’s family are Glaswegian.)

Apple launched the iPhone – the Product I Must Acquire Before I Die From Not Having One but according to Ben and Luke I need to sign up for a three year phone plan with AT&T with a US credit card and a US social security number to get one. And then find a way to get it to work in Australia.

In fact, screw using it as a phone! I need a new iPod urgently, since I accidentally left my Nano in the passenger door storage of the Raja of Shimla’s personal Suzuki Vitara (long story, but there was a taxi strike and our guide managed to persuade them to lend us the Raja’s driver and his 4WD to drive us eight hours to Sarahan…)

If I could use an iPhone just as an iPod, for iPhoto storage, and as an iCal/Addressbook/iSync-driven PIM, that would make me happy enough for the time-being.

In fact, maybe that’s how Apple should address international markets where it has trouble securing an exclusive telco deal – sell an unsubsidized handset as an iPod/iPhoto/PIM device with the phone components disabled until Apple can show potential telco suitors that it can grow local sales without the help of the telco.

Or maybe I’m still crazy from altitude sickness? What do you think?

Hello? Are you still there?

// July 18th, 2007 // 0 Comments // Other news

You are? Well, it would be my fault entirely if you weren’t still here. Like the n00biest of bloggers I drifted off to go exploring the Indian side of the Himalayas for three weeks without telling the blogosphere that I was going away, or when I’d be back. More professional bloggers would have been posting ‘daily links’ type posts from internet cafes in tiny mountain villages, but I was having too much fun with a Leica V-Lux, D-Lux, C-Lux and even an M8 (hah! bet you were expecting a ‘B-Lux’ next) while pro bloggers were hunched over crawling analogue interweb connections – sucked in!

I kept an analogue journal of the trip which I’ll transcribe to the blog shortly, and I’m still uploading hundreds of 10mb JPGs to the Flickr account, so stay tuned for my best shots.

While I was gone, some practical jokers tried to set themselves on fire and crash their car into an airport terminal. But it was Glasgow airport, and it takes more than a flaming jeep to do any real damage to anything Glaswegian. You can head-butt my uncle Jim repeatedly until you knock yourself unconscious and he’ll use your limp body to wipe the floor of the pub clean of your blood (he and the rest of my mum’s family are Glaswegian.)

Apple launched the iPhone – the Product I Must Acquire Before I Die From Not Having One but according to Ben and Luke I need to sign up for a three year phone plan with AT&T with a US credit card and a US social security number to get one. And then find a way to get it to work in Australia.

In fact, screw using it as a phone! I need a new iPod urgently, since I accidentally left my Nano in the passenger door storage of the Raja of Shimla’s personal Suzuki Vitara (long story, but there was a taxi strike and our guide managed to persuade them to lend us the Raja’s driver and his 4WD to drive us eight hours to Sarahan…)

If I could use an iPhone just as an iPod, for iPhoto storage, and as an iCal/Addressbook/iSync-driven PIM, that would make me happy enough for the time-being.

In fact, maybe that’s how Apple should address international markets where it has trouble securing an exclusive telco deal – sell an unsubsidized handset as an iPod/iPhoto/PIM device with the phone components disabled until Apple can show potential telco suitors that it can grow local sales without the help of the telco.

Or maybe I’m still crazy from altitude sickness? What do you think?