Category: personal

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Coping with flying

I have a fear of flying and have sadly turned down some great opportunities to see the world and meet great people. Eventually I decided that the risks paled in comparison to the regret I would have in later years.

I started off quite enjoying flying, my first flight was in 1996 from Bristol to Ghana (6.5hrs) via Amsterdam (1hr).

After that I did the USA (6hrs) and Canada (7.5hrs). Then I had a shocking flight returning from the Caribbean and decided a white-knuckle ride wasn’t my thing.

so I then turned down some amazing trips (so my family keep reminding me) to visit Portugal, New Zealand (twice) and some other spots.

I can’t pin point why I have this fear as I am a passenger in cars, bikes, trains, buses and all sorts of vehicles quite easily.

My brothers were going to Amsterdam and although I turned it down they booked me a seat anyway…. a short huff (under 1hr) they said with family would ease me back into the travel.

Needless to say I was petrified and drank like a fish as that’s what you’re supposed to right? (more on this later).

After surviving this I got brave and we went to Italy (2.5hrs) where I was just as scared.

I decided to list what I didn’t like and then investigate further – the result of which is now I am still scared but I can tolerate many of the things that trigger my fear. I thought i’d list them in the hope this brings some relief to others:

  • I struggle to sleep days before a flight – acknowledge little can be done but that you aren’t the only one laying awake thinking about it either
  • drown out the sound of other people, put some music on in the waiting room – somebody always has a bad plane story so just drown others out
  • the plane looks odd compared to others – stop looking at the darn thing, just follow the person in front. Do not look at the plane except maybe to glance at the pilot
  • take something to read as you can use this during take-off and it at least gives me a distraction from trying to look out the window
  • That large knock shortly after take-off is the sound of the wheels returning to the carriage – this used to freak me out so much
  • other people annoy me so listen to some music instead or watch a video
  • I accept that I will have highs and lows during the flight – i focus on my breathing and the reason that I am travelling
  • Talk to a pilot – within 1-3 people I bet you’ll know a pilot who will be happy to chat about the bits you hate the most
  • Drinking doesn’t help at all i just need to use the toilet more which involves getting up so i have ditched this method
  • those herbal things are useless

All of the above have helped me in the last 2-3 years cope with flights and these have evolved to allow me to fly to New Zealand, Asia and other part of Europe.

I am still a sweaty, grumpy mess but trust me the other end is worth the hassle. See you in the sky!

 

 

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Rekindling my happy snapping

For the first time in a looong time I have picked up my Canon 350D. I got the camera a few years back after a freelance gig but I was always hung up on the features and we never took to each other.

Maybe this time will be different.

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My portrait by Nigel Goldsmith

A few weeks ago I was complaining about my avatar picture and Nigel Goldsmith, photographer and colleague offered to shoot me.

I wanted some shots that I could use for all my public accounts and conference talks that showed me in a professionally nerdy way and Nigel did a great job. The background is the stairway of the Wills Memorial Building here in lovely Bristol. Several people are shocked I stickered my laptop but it won’t get easily confused at a conference now will  it?

Portrait
Portrait

 

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Making Firefox mine – extensions and such

Whenever I use another computers browser it is always setup in a unique way, and mine is no different.

Though I have opera, chrome and safari I always come back to ye ole faithful Firefire. I like it naturally because I am used to it, and I got used to it due to some handy extensions that I probably use daily. I thought i’d list them as you may also find them of use:

  1. Firebug. THE must have extension if you are in anyway curious about what is under the hood of any website you come across. This beauty lets you select any page element and reveal the coding secrets behind. Better still, you can make changes and see live previews before your very eyes.
  2. ScreenGrab! I collect website screengrabs of sites that catch my eye and for keeping an archive of old designs before I update.
  3. Colorzilla. A really quick way to grab all the colours you find that you just have to have.
  4. Web developer toolbar. The ruler for measuring gaps between elements is worth the download alone.
  5. Open Attribute. The ultra fast way to get Creative Commons license details in the correct format at the click of a button.
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A credit to the profession?

I work in computing and education within a subset called ‘e-learning’. ALT are hoping that their accreditation scheme will help benchmark our little field.

Today i got the word that my recently submitted application for CMALT accreditation was successful.

Everything is over at the CMALT mini-site I produced to showcase the portfolio.

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Staying with a friend of a friend – airbnb

As part of our honeymoon we decided to try the airbnb accommodation service to find at least one of our lodgings for a leg of the trip, in this instance Paris.

After a quick look at tripadvisor and the costs for barely average hotels in Paris we decided we had nowt to lose giving airbnb a shot as we knew we could easily find an expensive hotel if needs required.

With only an iphone and 30 minutes flaky hotel wifi in Geneva I had searched for a bunch of potential apartments and contacted three about staying. 1 got back to me within an hour or so and the others turned me down – so why advertise an apartment that you aren’t trying to rent (excuse was that friends were over).

The apartment that said ‘yes’ was hosted by Boris who was quick, informative and helpful later down the line on the phone! Once he accepted our request I decided getting the app would be helpful to exchange messages.

The app was good except that to see messages you need to be logged in and this is not easy I can tell you when you are traveling multiple countries without accept to 3G and wifi.

Everything went very well and we had access to wifi – the only thing I really ask for in a hotel and that is very rare.

The airbnb experience was good, I would recommend it and we decided staying in a stranger’s apartment felt like staying at the apartment of a friend of a friend.