sky confetti

Just before I landed last night Galway threw down some sky confetti to celebrate my return, which was a lovely thought but unnecessary. As we were in our final approach the plane had to pull up as the runway failed its ‘braking test’, and we soared back into the night skies. I admired the lights of Galway and pondered how they were going to help the runway pass its test again. I assumed there was a mighty grind session, or at least grit scattered about. It seemed to work as the plane was able to stop so we could disembark.

Much to my surprise my bag was already waiting for me when I reached the terminal. Alas, it appears that some imbecile decided to bring a bottle of wine or sherry with them in their luggage for it broke and soaked the top half of my suitcase. It smelled like a pub first thing in the morning if you haven’t done the clean-up from the night before. My parents were publicans for a long time so the aroma is too familiar, but not one I enjoy.

I’ve banished the suitcase from the house like some drunken uncle who has spoiled a party. It’s in the shed sleeping it off. I don’t want to turn up with it on my next trip and have people sniff the air as I arrive and make assumptions about my drinking habits.

The picture above is of Minnie’s paw tracks this morning as she gamboled about on the thin layer of snow. Luckily, we’ve haven’t had too much more since, although it will be interesting to see what awaits us tomorrow.

The two blog entries I managed to post while I was in London were done using the WordPress app on my Android phone. It’s fine if you have a bigger screen or perhaps a tablet device, but on my tiny Sony Xperia X10 mini it was fiddly and frustrating to use. It’s just about usable if you’re posting a short piece, but I would not want to depend on it for a long diatribe. I would have to resort to my netbook instead.

I was busy in London during my short visit and I didn’t have great Internet access, so I stuck with using my smart phone exclusively for keeping tabs on email and some social media in a cursory fashion. It’s pretty cool to take a train to London city, fire up Google maps and watch the little icon of yourself float along the route to your destination.

The biggest drawback to this, and blog posting via the phone, is that it is a tremendous drain on the battery, which – since I upgraded my smart phone to Android 2.1 – only lasts half a day with heavy usage. As much as I’ve come to love my smart phone this is a considerable shortcoming. Thank goodness for ES Task Manager, which helps reduce the app-drain.

Mostly, however, I spent my time in London focused on meeting friends I don’t see very often and enjoying their company.