Yes I know it I am a geek. I love my technology. I use it all the time. Lets take a look at how technology is and isn’t working for me on this trip. WiFi on the plane. Emirates has WiFi on all their A380s and most of their 777s. It was available on both our 777s. I didn’t use it. Emirates were at pains to explain the limitations of the service. It is not an Emirates limitation. It is the physics of 300+ users all sharing a single satellite link. So I passed and used their in flight entertainment package. I remember chatting with people in the air using their airline WiFi. It is an good service within its limits. I loved chatting in real time while describing what I could see on Flight Radar 24. I am a big Fan of Flight Radar 24. BTW. It was great to lob into my first hotel and receive an email with screen shot of my flight. I saw me racing a Qatar flight to the US across the emptiness of Turkey. I did look down over the expanse of Turkey as we flew across. I love to wonder if I was looking down on some Turkish mountainous treasure at the time of that screen shot. WiFi in the Hotel. I could not do this kind of publishing without my hotel WiFi. Free WiFi was a basic criteria in choosing hotels. At the Holiday Inn Express in Stirling and Inverness it was great. No log in details needed. No nothing actually. Not even a password. Just open a browser and go. It just works and works well. Now further south in Penrith. Hmmm. I am not sure if I will even be able to publish this writing. Internet is here and free. But it is hopeless. I am assured that today is a minor aberration and it is usually wonderful. Hmmm Geek update… hack hack… hit and crash. Made it work. Ohhh my… can't believe the difference. Perhaps there are blocks at their equipment to keep me out… Ha ha no more! Cue evil grin! Phones I have always been a fan of the Vodaphone travel experience. I have written about it often. It is still the best from all I can see. My sister is using Vodaphone. For just $5 extra per day of use she gets to access all her usual quota of service. Can’t fault it to date. I am with Telstra. For me it is $10 per day of use. A day defined on Sydney time. While I get unlimited text and phone for that day, I get very little data. There are many extras I could add on to make it work but it is not close to the Vodaphone experience. GPS Since Julie has lots of data with her Vodaphone plan we are using Siri as GPS for all we do. To date she has been great. Not as good as a dedicated GPS I must say. But I suspect that is just because of Satellite speed when under cover. Under cover of trees, of clouds, of rain. You know, like Scotland all the time. Occasionally Siri has been late to warn us of a turn. With so many complex roundabouts that can be a problem. We have had to go around again on a few occasions. This lets Siri catch up and we are back on track. I think a dedicated GPS would be better but Siri has been fine to date. More technology thought yet to come. | Pretty hotel in Aviemore south of Inverness. Aviemore main street Penrith main street Penrith central square |