Geoff Jones » Travel Blogging

iPhone unlock problems

Geoff — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 14:03:44 +0000

I recently had O2 unlock my iPhone prior to me transferring my number to T-mobile. I wanted to test T-Mobiles unlimited internet and texts for a tenner a month.

All went well until….
I’ve now discovered that putting the iPhone into flight mode locks me out of the iPhone totally, insisting that it has to be connected to iTunes to be unlocked as the SIM card has been changed

To make it worse plugging it into iTunes says the iPhone is ‘damaged’ and needs to be taken to an Apple store

I’ve now discovered a work around. To get access to the iPhone menu’s, Remove the SIM card. You can then access the General menu and take it out of Flight mode. Replace the SIM and unlock with iTunes if you have remembered to bring a laptop with iTunes on it.

Oh, and iTunes is total bloatware – installing it on my little Eee with its 4GB drive consumed 500MB of space. Windows XP pro by comparison fits in 3GB.

Another annoyance is, away from home, I cannot do a full iPhone sync. As on any other computer I use it will lose all the music, contacts and applications if I sync.

Now if only I could order that Nexus…..

Orwell to Wimpole circular walk

Geoff — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:02:24 +0000

The A team were back in action today! Rita ably led the Cambridge Rambling Club on its first walk of 2010. A 14mile circular walk starting from Orwell then across the fields to Whaddon, Dyers Green and lunch at Wimpole Hall. In the afternoon we scaled the heights across to Eversden and on down the old Clunch Pit back into Orwell.

Unfortunately the GPS ran out of battery just before lunch so the overall length should be longer than the 13.4miles indicated! (Sally’s GPS said 14.3 miles)

A gorgeous cold and crisp sunny day.

Here are the pictures and trail:-

Orwell to Wimpole circular walk

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Ramble from Shelford to Haslingfield

Geoff — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:41:29 +0000

Todays little walk was with the B team of The Cambridge Rambling Club, ably led by John, we set of from Great Shelford and ventured across to Haslingfield. We did quite a bit of road walking which with the mud and ice was probably just as well. Our lunchtime drink was at the Little Rose in Haslingfiled (no food served at lunch time). Followed by a tea and mince pies at John’s house in Shelford. Sally and I as A group walkers decided to add an extra 4 miles onto the day by walking back to Cambridge – exploring the not completed guided busway and very nearly getting stuck in a car park!

On the way I had an interesting talk with Paul who I discovered was another map geek plus we shared mutual friends from my Cavendish days.

Here is the walk and today’s pictures:-

Shelford – Haslingfileld walk

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Walking winter wonderland

Geoff — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:27:45 +0000

Our friend Ellee has just done a great blog post on The Wonders of Walking.

Tis a pity she wasn’t with us today as Sally and I had a beautiful walk with the Cambridge Rambling Club. The leaders for today should have been Margaret & Larry. However, due to the icy road conditions and because they live in the remote regions of Cambridgeshire where gritter lorries never appear (although it has to be said Cambridge city centre pavements have yet to be gritted!) they couldn’t make the walk.

So Ron & Margaret stepped into the breech and gave 9 of us as a totally stunning walk around Cambridge starting from Cherry Hinton Hall taking in the chalk pits and the old lime kiln and thence through the Addenbrookes industrial complex onto Nine Wells and the start of Hobson’s conduit then along the Cam into the city and a welcome break of hot mince pies and coffee at Henry’s. Then onward across Jesus Green, Midsummer common, Coldhams common and back to Cherry Hinton Hall.

The weather was very cold (well -4ish) with crystal clear skies and beautiful mellow winter sun bringing out the best in the college brick & stonework.

A beautiful satisfying walk in the winter sun and a fitting tribute for a great 2009 walking year. So Ellee’s post is very apt!

Here is the walk and pictures (please excuse the thumbprints on some of the images ) on Everytrail:-

Cambridge in the snow

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Rougham Circular walk

Geoff — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:06:30 +0000

Yesterdays walk with the Cambridge Rambling Club was a good test for our foul weather gear, mine failed abysmally

We 11 started from St Mary’s Church car park at Rougham, in very wet and windy conditions, so it was heads down for the first 9 miles to Bradfield St Clare and a spot of lunch in the shelter of the church porch, followed by a drink at the Fox & Hounds in Bradfield St. George. The afternoon cleared up a little so we started to dry out.

From Rougham Walk

Very disappointing for me in that the left boot of my brand new Scarpa ZG65 XCR boots sprang a leak. So it’s back to Open Air with them today! My RAB Bergen jacket (QWA-05-RDB) was as useless as ever with little streams inside the arms and the pockets filling with water. It’s time has now come – I will return it to RAB. A quick survey of the other 10 people in our party showed the Karrimor & Berghaus as highly effective, the Paramo did OK too but they are really heavy to lug around on extended walks.

Here is the walk and photographs:-

Rougham circular walk

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Update 021109 – Open Air agree boots are faulty , should have new pair by Friday

Travel blogging in Cambridge

Geoff — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:12:49 +0000

Today’s travel blog is a ramble with the Cambridge Rambling Club. We did a 14mile figure of 8 centered in Newport, Essex.

It was an warm autumn day, exactly 3 years since I met Sally on the fateful Nar Valley walk. The colours on the trees were truly splendid, especially when the sun came out and even the overcast skies gave a feeling of the dark winter nights which are about to descend on us. Much talk about log fires and stoves.

I was very surprised to hear Vera’s amazing news that her husband, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, had just won the Nobel prize for Chemistry, here in Cambridge, and that they are about to visit the King and Queen of Sweden in Stockholm to collect the award and also will meet Barack Obama. An interesting aside for all those that want to curb immigration etc is that he was born in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India emigrated to the USA and now lives in England, in fact he has only been at Trinity College, Cambridge for about 18months, who no doubt will collect all the kudos.

An excellent day out maybe we can get Murray Newlands to start walking and compliment his blogging skills!

Here is today’s outing on Everytrail:-

Newport, Essex, UK circular walk

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Walking in Les Gets

Geoff — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:22:53 +0000

Here is today’s little 11 mile walk around Les Gets where my apartment is. We walked around the main skiing area of the Chavannes with a steep climb upto Tete du Vuargne above the Ranfoilly lift at 1825metres.
Interestingly there is a major project of adding more snow cannons underway on the Nanchetts runs and on the Chavannes.
The new Everytrail is quite smart but it needs better Twitter integration. Here is the walk and pictures.

Les Gets circular walk Ranfoilly

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Stiles and Gates on Offa’s Dyke

Geoff — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:10:51 +0000

Finally managed to correctly geotag all the 744 images I took of the stiles and gates on The Offa’s Dyke Walk, A few stiles are missing from near Prestatyn (before the idea came to me) and some gates in the early stages are also missing, when I was undecided as to whether they should be included,. Overall stiles are becoming an endangered species due to Health and Safety issues etc.

Here is the slide show, from North to South:-

The video is here:-

Movies

Offa’s Dyke 1 week into the walk

Geoff — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:44:37 +0000

Exactly one week ago I set of walking Offa’s Dyke on the English / Welsh border. I’ve been blessed with good weather so today I find myself in Hay on Wye with 139 miles walked, according my GPS and another 50.5 to do according to the Harvey Map I’m using.

The scenery is magnificent heavily wooded lush valleys interspersed with moorlands. To keep me amused I’ve been photographing every stile and gate on the trip some 700 or so I guess. When i get in front of my iMac i’m hoping to make them into a 2 minute video to play on YouTube.

In the meantime all the photographs cn be found on my Picasa account:-
Monday 14th September Prestatyn to Bodfan
Tuesday 15th September Bodfan to Llandegla
Wednesday 16th September Llandegla to Pentre
Thursday 17th September Pentre to LLanymynech
Friday 18th September LLanymynech to Montgomery
Saturday 19th September Montgomery to Knighton
Sunday 20th September Knighton to Newchurch
Monday 21st September Newchurch to Hay on Wye

Appalling upload speeds here so will update links later.

Only one big grumble on the trip nd that is O2s appalling coverage of the area, I ld love to see the iPhone sales statistics broken down by postcode – their must be huge b lack holes in the country!

Offas Dyke Path

Geoff — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:26:39 +0000

Today finds me waking up in Cloud Hill, a late 60s architect designed house, lots of plywood beams and clean open spaces.

I’ve now walked 76km of the 282km path and had my leg over 100 stiles. So far from Prestatyn it’s been very hilly but today’s walk from south of Llangollen to Four Crosses looks slightly easier

Managed to lose the neoprene surround from the GPS yesterday so now have to operate it with a cotton bud!

Time for brekkie now….