My first venture into the world of animation!

Driving through Sarlat in France the other day, it occurred to me just how much technology has changed holidays.

First and foremost, satellite navigation has changed things dramatically.  Part of my preparation for holidays used to be the frantic gathering of maps and then plotting out routes.  Of course if I was going to some new area, this would mean ordering maps for the destination area too.  I would spend hours plotting out the best route to take, frantically jotting down notes to keep by me as I drove.

All that is done away with now.  The first time I took out the maps was the day before we left.  I took no notes and although I brought all my maps with me, I haven’t used them.  I have no need, as if I want to go to a particular spot, I just program the SatNav, and off I go.  Of course there are side benefits too.  If I am running low on petrol, all I need do is ask the SatNav and it will happily list all the nearest petrol stations and how to get to them.  That has been a life saver on more than one occasion and, what’s more, that is something even the best maps can’t do.

The mobile phone has also changed things.  Up to a decade or so ago, if I went on holiday, I was incommunicado for the duration.  No one could contact me, and if I wanted to contact anyone, it meant finding a phone box and making a trunk call.  Now I can instantly text anyone from anywhere.  Apart from that, it makes exploring a town a little easier.  The two of us can separate and go our different ways, and then meet up again after a quick phone call.

The Internet has had a big impact this holiday.  The place where we are staying has high speed wireless access and this has been a tremendous boon.  I have used Google Earth to find the best car parks in a strange town and even found the best areas within that town to visit.  I have used it to find out the opening times of the various shops around.  I have used it as a gazetteer to find out a little more about the places we intend visiting.  Naturally I can use it to keep track of the bank accounts and how the spending is going.  I can even use it to top up my mobile phone.

There is one thing that technology has not replaced though.

I still send postcards!

I sometimes wonder why I started writing this blog.

I never seem to have that much to say, as the life of a retiree is not exactly full of parties and hectic socialising.  In fact, life is quite quiet, and that is the way we like it.

I started it originally as a counterpoint to Head Rambles, as a way of clearing my name and trying to prove my sanity to those who have read the other site.

However, since I started it, posting has been very sporadic.  The big question is – is it worth it?  Is it worth any time and effort, or should I just let it die the peaceful death?

Decisions.

Decisions.

In 2001 when I was thrown out of left RTE, I decided to set up a little business doing web design.

The intention was to run it as a paid hobby, doing little sites for local businesses and the like.

It didn’t work out that way.

For reasons that I still can’t quite understand, the business took off in a big way, and within a year, I had major contracts with Lily O’Brien’s Chocolates to rebuild their small brochure site into a major e-commerce site, and with a subsidiary of O2 to build a major virtual private network linking all mobile phone shops to head office.  There were also numerous smaller sites and the business rapidly got out of hand.

I expanded the business to include hosting simply because it made sense to be able to provide an all in one package and to have complete control over the servers.

In the years since, I have never been short of work.  On the contrary, I frequently found myself juggling contracts to keep all the clients happy.

Over the last couple of years however, the CFS has taken hold, and I have found the design and development side to be more and more of a strain.  As this was supposed to be a hobby, not a chore, I decided to quit that side of the business and to just continue with the hosting.

Over the last couple of months, I have been doing the figures.  I have decided that the income from hosting alone does not warrant the hassle and responsibility of looking after fifty or so websites, and I made the final decision.

I am quitting.

Ending a lucrative business is not a light decision.  I have responsibilities to my clients, and they all have to be taken care of.  I have arranged that in such a way that no one should be inconvenienced in any way, and they will maybe even find life to be a bit cheaper!  From my own perspective, I will have a lot more time to concentrate on enjoying life.  I will have a lot more time for writing, both online and off.

I’ll miss the money though.