Do you have wifi?

Is it just me, or is there now an innate expectation that most pubs, restaurants, hotels and anywhere else you have to spend a fair amount of time, will have wifi? Even my hairdresser has wifi.

And yet there are still those quaint businesses who are determined not to buy into this new-fangled technology of the twenty-first century. When you ask the owners of such establishments whether they have wifi they almost seem proud of the fact that they don't. However, approach the staff, who are probably asked several times a day, and they are somewhat more contrite at this obvious oversight.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a big fan of being 'on' at all times. By this I mean the inability to ever switch off, be still and be out of touch once in a while. However, this has very little to do with wifi or not to wifi. Wifi is now the ubiquitous medium for us to access our 'stuff' be that newspapers, magazines, books, music, film, ideas and notes. Increasingly, as more of our 'stuff' is stored in fluffy clouds, we will need wifi to access it. Businesses that don't get this will simply be left behind.

I was in the pub today at a 'business-cum-christmas-catch-up' meeting and there was no wifi! I guarantee you we will not be meeting there again, nor would we consider it to be a viable venue for future events, because without wifi it is simply sub par and most definitely behind the curve.

Unless BT Openzone fills in the gap, I predict that businesses that do not get with the programme will simply be left behind. Love it or loathe it, Wifi is going to be more important than having a telephone.

Slow and Steady

It's a bit late but this is just a quick note to say, I did it!

The Great Birmingham Run of course, or the 'Birmingham Half marathon', pre-rebrand. And this year, although it was bigger than better I was slower than ever. At 2.15 I finished in my slowest ever half marathon time, a good 10 mintues slower than last year. The frustrating thing is I'm not really sure why, although I had done far less training than last year so that may have had something to do it.

But when all's said and done, I still finished, in a fairly respectable time, to most people. Just not for me. Once you have set your standards and your goals - a 4.30 NYC marathon next year in case you were wondering - it's quite difficult to accept anything less than progress. I did thoroughly enjoy it, even bumping into an old family friend on the way round. There is nothing better than running round familiar streets, when you are pushing your body to it's limit.

The lesson from this run? Sheryl needs to run faster (first ever third person self-reference, what is that a sign of?) I think I see the first of my 2012 resolutions already - to join a running club!

Finding my own calm

After two weeks of doing nothing on a beach I returned to work as chilled out as I could possibly be. I had left the blackberry at home and forgotten my mobile phone in the car at Gatwick, so all in all I was pretty much uncontactable, apart from via iPad of course. For books, you understand!

This semi-comatose state was great, until I to got back to work. It has taken me two weeks to properly engage brain. On returning to the midst of a flurry of last-minute budget changes and general head-scratching, I felt somewhat distant from it all, and even felt a tad 'left out' of all of the chaos, which I obviously thrive on as well as loathe.

And then there's the economy, which has generally gone from bad to worse to diabolical. It would be easy to feel a sense of uneasiness, anxiety, panic even. Thanks to the genuine r and r I enjoyed whilst away I still have a strong sense of inner calm. Hopefully they effects will longer than the golden tan!

As Good As It Gets

Yes, I am on holiday.

I haven't had a proper holiday for a couple of years now, so this latest break has been carefully planned out to present the maximum opportunity for total destressing, chilling out and doing pretty much nothing. Hence, I decided to swap the running shoes that normally accompany me, for me yoga mat.

Sticking true to my new year's resolutions I strolled through LGW with guitar in hand and had no problems carrying it on to the Virgin flight.  This too was a good omen to the rest of the holiday.

This isn't trip advisor so I'll spare the amateur reviews.  Suffice to say, this latest trip has just gone from 'great' to 'nirvana' when for our second week we now have a free upgrade to the cottage which is closest to the beach - spitting distance in fact.  And so I practiced my Yoga on the beach this morning, with the sounds of the waves lapping the shore.  If this is as good as it gets, I'm happy.

Wired for Sound

OMG! Napster has finally gone apple here in the UK.

I do believe it was way back in September last year that napster announced it's iPhone app was coming to the UK. Blogs went crazy, tech magazines went into overdrive - the granddaddy of music downloading was back in the game. OK, so I'm exaggerating slightly but I think you catch my drift.

Unfortunately there was then a pregnant pause, of about 9 months, until the thing finally went live last month. The fanfare seems to have been scaled back so much this time around that I actually heard nothing, nada. I just happened to be telling my sister how I couldn't wait to get rid of my spotify subscription when the napster app finally arrived, and managed to stumble on it. I guess the napster marketing team were scared of another disappointment so muffled the fanfare.

Anyway, no use crying over spilt milk it's here now and that's all that matters. Now people will see how second-rate spotify really is. Napster wins hands down in terms of back catalogue, user interface and functionality. And all this just in time for my latest favourite purchase, my ipad2. Whoop whoop!!!!

Over The Rainbow

There's something about the changeable nature of Spring weather.

This year my mood seems to be as variable as the British weather.  Sunny and bright one minute, downpours the next.  Referring back to my DIY psychoanalysis babble book I am reasonably confident that I know the source of my emotional swing-ometer cum newton's cradle.

Put simply I am frazzled, trying to do way too much.  Add to that the fact there is a new Board at work, which brings the usual tension, politics, navel-gazing and land-grabbing.  But mostly I am missing one person at work who really 'got' me, someone I really clicked with - even if it was, at times, like working for Miranda, aka Anna Wintour's caricature in The Devil Wears Prada.

Anyway, on one particularly crazy busy day, while in my boss's office peddling hard towards the next powerpoint deadline, I suddenly spotted a rainbow, a double rainbow at that.  Lovely, just the thing to take your mind off life, if only for a few seconds.

American Idle Judges

I was intrigued to see how American Idol would fare without Simon’s semi-rehearsed, but nevertheless hilarious one-liners. Or his childish giggling with Randy, to the point of near tears. And how would Steve Tyler’s personality fit in the same studio as Ryan Seacrest’s ego? The will-she, won’t she surrounding J-Lo had not made the small print, let alone the headlines here in the UK so I was fairly indifferent about the obligatory, glamorous eye-candy judge appointment. I was very pleased that there was no Ellen De Generes. Don’t get me wrong she was incredibly witty and obviously a big music fan. But seriously, whoever chose her for last season needs to be fired.
So back onto this season’s panel. They are called judges for a reason. They are there to judge whether the batch of sugary sweet, shaggy-dog stories and downright crazy, are worthy of being given a shot at American Idol. Everyone knows that there is a pre-screening process of sorts, guaranteeing TV gold by putting through the best and the worst to be filmed. This is where the judges earn their kudos. Their job is to find someone who can either sing reasonably well and win the people over with their charisma, or completely blow them away vocally and become a major recording artist. We all know that only a handful of finalists have gone on to become anywhere near Idol status. We also know that becoming a recording artist is about more than just being a good singer. Heck, sometimes the singing is totally irrelevant and it it’s purely about ambition and hard work – Madonna, Spice Girls and, I’m afraid, J-Lo herself - all fit well in that category.

The role of the Judges, therefore, is to see past the everyday mediocrity of wedding singers, cruise ship singers, ‘water for lunch’ singers, as Simon calls them, and find something special. Over the years we have seen the judges argue about seemingly good singers who do or don’t have ‘it’. This is what they are paid to do. Every armchair fan can tell whether or not someone can hold a note. They want to hear what the industry professionals really think. They want to see whether that small town kid who looks like the girl next door, is about to have their lives changed. Simon knows this, hence why he is so tough to please. He also knows that the audience will eventually get bored of mediocre singers, which is why I believe last year’s X Factor attracted so much controversy – google Gamu and Cher Lloyd. It was all about finding something completely different.
So far, Steve Tyler is the best thing on American Idol but looks bored by the end of each day. J-Lo claims to be unable to say no, but is actually very good at sarcastic put-downs. And with the panel so biased towards a bland, idle “yes”, even Randy has joined the love-fest. Lets hope they toughen up by Hollywood.