I was looking around at the ultra-portable PC market when I stumbled across a special offer on the iGo Stowaway Ultra-Slim Bluetooth Keyboard. This is a wireless keyboard that can connect to my Orange SPV M600 by bluetooth. As my phone comes with Windows Mobile 5 and has the mobile office stuff, I saw great opportunity for writing longer emails and little documents too. I ordered it from Expansys and due to the recent Industrial Action at the Royal Mail, it took a few days to arrive.

Once paired up with my phone it worked ok, but I had a few problems with the latest drivers. You can install the drivers direct to the device by browsing to the thinkoutside site, but these didn’t work. I got errors in a couple of places. The install would start up, the progress bar would go along 5 blocks and then would bomb out with the error “Stowaway XT Setup – Install Failed” and bang. This I cured by checking the install log in the volatile subdirectory, and then manually deleting the stowaway files from the windows directory. I really do not like deleting files that way as you can totally mangle windows by playing around with dlls. Once I got the driver to install I then had a problem on restart – i.e. the driver would not initialise on the device with “The Keyboard driver (“StowawayXT.dll”) is not responding. please reinstall”. Any attempt to reinstall gave the above problem.

I eventually fixed it by going back in versions from the current version. Searching around the internet I found a support posting on one of the Expansys forums that pointed back to previous drivers which appear to be a version before the latest. Having cleared out the stowaway files from the windows directory, the driver loaded in ok.

I’m not superstitious or believe in fate, but when I got back to the gym (eventually) this morning I didn’t quite realise how many weeks it had been since I was last at Leith Victoria. My progress card’s last entry was the 19th of September, almost immediately after my “I’ve been going to the gym post”.

I don’t think it is Murphy’s or Sod’s law that declares that publicity about anything improves the liklihood of screw up, but shortly after that post I got a cold, it hit my chest, and a few weeks of coughing later I’m just back to the gym this morning.

And of course I was fine, didn’t die or collapse or anything, and I can still see, type and do the other stuff I need to do at work.

Next thing is to get the old R1100RS out for a wee run and get out of my nice comfy air conditioned car.

Out today for another observed drive, which went well again. Some points to work on are similar to habits on the bike, improve planning, slow down approach to hazards etc. Some things are specific to the car, like remembering to use the left hand mirror enough, and positioning in to the left for right handers. For some reason I have more of a habit of apexing corners in the car, perhaps a habit borne of the Passat SE’s softer suspension.

This post is as much for me as it is for you lot, but if you read these posts you may already have that suspicion about many of my posts.

With a switch in my working arrangements back to our offices in Leith, I restarted a regular habit of mine and started going to Leith Victoria every other morning. My plan has been to go three times a week before work, and didn’t post here until I was regular. I started in June and I’ve pretty much managed to keep going. I used to go swimming, but decided their gym would be better for me to get fitter and lose weight. Leith Victoria have a nice wee gym with machines from Life Fitness.

I did the induction session with Tony the gym supervisor, and due to my blood pressure and body fat percentages I’ve been doing solely “cardio” machine work. I’ve got my workout progress card with my programmes to pick, and do 15 minutes on the stationary cycle, 15 minutes on the cross-trainer torture thing, and 15 minutes + 3 minutes cooldown on the treadmill. The programmes all have various themes which I think are interval based, the resistance goes up and down through the 15 minutes.

Had my follow up visit on Wednesday 12th September 2007, and unfortunately I’ve lost the original numbers for body fat etc, but if memory serves me correctly I’ve dropped about 3/4%. The stats for my visit where 198cm tall, 134.Kg weight, 31.2% body fat. Lots of distance to go, but progress none the less.

So confirmed scientifically – I’m tall and fat, but if you make a big deal about it I will sit on you 😛

I’ve now got my new programme, which is tougher, and now adds a bit of rowing machine into the mix too. I’ve been through the new programme a couple of times and managed through ok, even if it is harder.

I’ve been watching the story about this unfolding on the web. First there was a report of a helicopter crashing near Colin McRae’s house in Lanark, then reports of a helicopter registered to him crashing, then confirmation that Colin McRae, his 5 year old son Johnny, Johnny’s 6 year old pal Ben Porcelli and Colin’s pal Graeme Duncan had all been killed in a crash at 16:05 yesterday (Saturday 16th September 2007). It happened while I was having a wind-buffetted ride home from the Scottish IAM Motorcycle Forum in Perth.

Rallying has always been a big tradition in Scotland, going back to Jim Clark and beyond, and in my lifetime Jimmy McCrae was in his peak in my early teens, then Colin McCrae started up. The RAC Rally, as it was called back then, was one of the big motorsport events that was televised consistently. And I watched while I was in hospital for two weeks during Rally time.

My sympathies go out to the families.

It is a reminder that as drivers, pilots, riders, sometimes things go wrong and it is not only us but our passengers that are effected. BUT!- Whatever you do, don’t hide at home and wrap yourselves in cotton wool, weigh the risks, and act responsibly.