It’s been a whlie since I posted an article on the N95, and thats not to say it’s falled out of favor, or I’m bored of it.  To tell you the truth, this truly amazing piece of portable technology, continues to enlighten me, and still I’m finding new things out every day.  A couple of months ago, in my previous post, I mentioned Nokia Sports Tracker, which at the time, was a buggy, horrible example of beta software.

That’s all changed though, Sports Tracker is now a powerful, bug-free (at least from what I’ve seen), exercise accompanyment which is a damn load of fun to use at the same time.  Broken down, it:

• use GPS to map speed/distance travelled on a map;
• allows you to set routes for commonly travelled paths, and records times for previous workouts so you can beat previous routes;
• includes a Step counter to approximate work done and energy consumed;
• updates progress, and live workout status online, updating the users profile (ala Facebook).

Nokia Sports Tracker Online

I’ve now completed the 3.5 mile walk from the office to Waterloo Station 10 times, and got my time down to 24 minutes, though I’m sure this could be a lot better if I wasn’t walking through peak hour traffic to get there.  And best of all, the GPS/live part still works jammed in my pocket.

A quick one, and not the best title I know.  But there’s been a noticeable increase of late in police numbers onthe streets around the office, and in tube/train stations on the way home.  Over the last fortnight, I’ve noticed at various times during the week there being at least 20 or 30 (and possibly many more on platforms and other lines) police officers putting in a presence at both Green Park station, Waterloo and Twickenham stations.

One of the guys at work was stopped randomly was searched (padded down, emptied bags, etc) under the terrorist act (can’t say No, basically), in Green Park station on the way home the other night, nothing came of it, of course.  And completely unrelated, but the police have closed off a lane outside the office and are searching cars too.  Though that’s probably licensing, more than anything.

A completely unrelated sign I spotted whilst on my way to the rugby on the weekend

It really makes me wonder though, since I’ve been here (especially since attempted car bombings in June* last year) there’s been an on/off police presence, which in a weird way I find oddly reassuring.  But it begs the question, “Why the sudden spikes in activity, and then nothing for a few days?”. Are these really just random, routine acts in a way that could make the public feel safer and feel like the government/metro police are doing something?  Or is there something more sinister going on?

I’m no conspiracy theorist, but suspicious one inside me notices an alarming difference between one police/security officer whom you may see at a stationi entrance or patrolling the street, and literally an army of officers stopping/searching/charging people as they go about they’re daily commute.

I still can’t help but think these stop and searches could be better conducted in the problem areas, not the terrorism problem, but the problem that is still gripping London, and thats youth gang stabbings and warfare.  I’d have to guess and say you’d be far more likely to find a butterfly knife on a dodgy looking youth in Brixton, than anything of Terrorist nature in the bag of an otherwise innocent Software developer in Mayfair.  Priorities!

But, in the end, we’ve just got to forget about it and get on with the task of getting home, god knows I’m not going to walk the whole distance.

I remember a few months ago, I thought to myself, it’s nice to have everything in a rythym (spelling?!).  The money was coming in, and more was being saved than I’d managed to the previous 24 years of my life, I was embarking on some exciting new work prospects, and I was writing on this page over twice a week.

What the hell happened?

Falling into a rythym, out of rythym

As I said, for a period (probably a lot shorter than I actually remember), I felt like I was getting things done, and working towards some goals.  The last 2 months has shattered this, and I’ve now managed to fall into a new rythym or being completely out of the previous beat I was following.  I shouldn’t blame myself too much, there’s been a lot of time consuming, money draining things going:

• the Wedding (enough said),
• the quasi HoneyMoon,
• the 3 different visits of different groups of family and friends, spanning now over the past 6 weeks; and
• the 4 holidays (of various lengths coming up to Paris, Southern England and of course Russia)

With all the interruptions, I’ve managed to lose a fantastic work oppurtunity (don’t ask, big project, stake in company, yada, yada….), eat and drink (badly) constantly and quite frankly waste a metric f$#kload of money.  And with things not paid for, such as the holidays I mentioned above, I can’t see any easy way out of immediate debt.

Planning…

So here I am, preaching to Google crawl bot (possibly this posts only audience, given its less than exciting nature), and getting my thoughts down on paper (we’ll call it, the interscroll), to come to a quick as possible solution to the problem.

I’ve spent the last hour updating the C&S Income/Expenditure budget (yet another thing, I’ve lost track of), and whilst things ain’t as glum as I thought they might be, it seems something has to give:

• stop on the spot purchases (easy, I’ll stop scouring internet shops in downtime at work)
• cut back on drinking/going out (should be fine, now that the visitors have moved on)
• borrow more money (read debt) from the bank, not a good idea.  The way things are going at the moment, I’m probably one of their favourite small-time customers.
• cut back on one of the holidays (kind of hard as it was booked months in advance (not with our money, at the time).

I find myself in the money pickle again, something I’m no stranger to.  I’m comfortable enough that I know I can be clear and mostly debt free again by say… September, but its the now that I can’t handle.

Completely off topic, but the book I’m reading at the moment, Tripwire (my 6th novel since April!), starts with a CEO of a faltering U.S electronics business going to a loan shark for a large loan.  In borrowing 1.1 million dollars, he falls into the trap of paying back a high interest rate, and giving a rather large proportion of his fledgling companies shares to the shark who sells them all instantly for nothing causing the banks to freak and dump his enourmous loans off on a large mortgage recovery operation (ftonted in the Cayman islands, by the loan shark himself).  This has nothing to do with my situation at all, but geez, show’s what debt and stupidity can do in times of desperation.

Recoupling on the rail to success….

I’ve got a 7 point plan to rectify this little situation of mine, firstly:

• enjoy the holiday to Russia, no point in stressing about that
• get all debts on the way to be being repaid by September 2008, this includes costs for the wedding, the previous personal loan, and credit card debt
• write at least two posts a week to HD911, content is the key
• continue reading novels, but branch out into some different authors, 4 books by one author (Lee Child) and 2 by another (Harlen Coben) is proving a little too much
• continue good things at the office
• get off my ass and get this work started and flowing again; and
• and keep exercising as much as possible, the 15 mile week (counted 4 trips from the office to Waterloo station (3.5miles) and smaller trips between work and Trafalgar Square) was a step in the right direction.

Let’s do this thing…. Yea!