Phones, fruit trees and furniture

Adam would be proud of us: we bought TWO new phones this week; one for each of us to replace our sick old ones. We've leapt into the modern age with, for the first time, phones that are vaguely up to date so we can wap our 3G videocalls and sync our outlooks by infrared while photographing our SMSs. I'm actually quite pleased finally to have a phone that includes a real camera (sony cybershot) and can sync with my online calendar. Here's the very first picture it took... the inside of my office at Keele. In fact all the pictures in this particular episode of my blog were taken with the phone!


It's been a bit of a techno-buying month, as we also had to replace our sick old TV and now have a bigger, flatter blurrier one. Blurrier? Well, I reckon LCD flatscreens just lack the definition of a good old-fashioned CRT unless you go HD, which our TV is but our signal isn't, so, soft focus is the order of the day. Interestingly your brain adjusts very quickly and it looks great now. Like most things digital etc, they have the potential to be great but aren't always given the signal they need to achieve their potential. Look at most satellite channels for example: signal spread too thin so less definition than analogue. More channels and hidden extras cruising on the same signal, but consequently less signal for the basic picture. Or am I talking rubbish? Very likely. I seem to be doing that a lot lately. I'm still waiting for the results from my brain scan, which might explain whether I am indeed getting stupider, which seems to be the case.

Certainly my joinery and cabinet making skills have not improved. I built a beautiful set of shelves to go with our new TV and a fabulous bird table to let Debbie increase the feeding rate, but they're both a bit rubbish if you look closely... doesn't seem to bother the birds, though. Although, look even closer and you'll see there actually are no birds. Yet. Just you wait. Here, birdie. Here, birdie...

Speaking of birds, we have another sick pigeon in our garage. Whenever anyone we know finds a sick pigeon they give it to Debbie to look after. This one isn't going to get a name because Debbie is scared of getting attached. I call it "Briefly", because Debbie thinks it won't make it so we'll "have a pigeon, briefly". Debbie is calling it "'Tasha". But we're not giving it a name, honest.

We planted a couple of micro dwarf midget fruit trees in the garden today: an apple and a plum. We already have a cherry, so I guess it's now an orchard. I'm trying to sync the plums with the mobile, but the hammer seems blunt. And with Spring gurgling on I really out to get out there and mow that lawn...