Client-led workshops

The workshops for my Client-led Media module began this afternoon. Unlike last year in my video project module in which I knew most people in the session and the group I entered into consisted of fellow English and Media students, I knew no one in today's workshop and only met the lecturer yesterday afternoon. In these workshops we can plan our videos and edit them there but we can do this anywhere if we choose to do so; the workshops are merely the officially timetabled sessions for this module besides the lectures.

Still, several groups formed from the students in attendance and the group I'm in consists of four women from East Asia and me. At least one of them is from Hong Kong, which makes her the first person I've met who lives there who isn't my uncle or cousin. I've only met three of the four because one wasn't in due to illness but she is a friend of one of the others.

I wasn't sure about this module when I realised that I would not be with my exact coursemates but I'm happy with how it's turned out so far. It should be interesting and productive.

Apple tree and Chinese candy

In my mother's and brother's backyard is an extremely prolific apple tree; it has been producing apples at an incredible rate - to the point where Mum and my brother had too many apples and had to give some away. As such, when I went over to my grandparents' house today to do some gardening and other work for them, I brought with me a huge bag of apples for them. On the bright side, with all these apples we have fresh fruit for the time being!

While I was at my grandparents', however, they had something for me: A bag of Chinese candy. One of my cousins and his girlfriend were recently in Hong Kong and they brought back with them a load of candy from there. They gave a lot of it to my grandparents; however, it was too much for my grandparents and so they gave the excess candy for me to share with Mum and my brother.

Excess apples, excess Chinese candies - what fun!

The 80th

My grandparents here in Nottingham are both turning 80 years old this year; my grandfather reached that milestone earlier in the year and my grandmother will do so later. Rather than hold two separate celebrations, my grandparents instead opted to hold a joint 80 birthday party today.

Besides my grandparents and me, others in attendance consisted of my Nottingham aunt and uncle, plus their children and the boyfriends of two of said children; my East of England aunt and uncle were there with their children and the girlfriend of one of them; finally, my Hong Kong uncle was also present. I arrived at 12:30pm before my Nottingham aunt and uncle returned me to Clifton in the evening.

As a present, I bought my grandparents some chocolate from Hotel Chocalat. I usually buy them some chocolate smiley faces but this time they had some chocolate hearts with a hummingbird and flower pattern on them, so I bought those instead, which they loved.

The Force Awakens

My Nottingham aunt plus my visiting cousin from Hong Kong took me to see the new Star Wars film this evening. I shall write a short review of the movie tomorrow, as I have only just returned from seeing the film after a long day.

My Android versions

Seeing that I have written about Android on four occasions so far (here, here, here and here), I thought it was time to write about which versions of the mobile software I've used since owning smartphones.

My first smartphone, the one I purchased in late 2012, runs on 2.3.6 Gingerbread. The second, which is the one my Hong Kong uncle gave me, uses 4.1.2 Jelly Bean while my current phone features 5.0.1 Lollipop. I have never owned a pre-Gingerbread or Honeycomb (3.0–3.2.6) phone and while I haven't used 4.0–4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich or 4.4–4.4.4 KitKat, my gift phone and current phone were on those versions, respectively.

The next version is currently using the working name of "Android M"; the proper dessert name will most likely be revealed when Google releases it later this year. My phone model was released last year and it is possible that it will receive an update to Android M.

From China, with love

My Hong Kong uncle and cousin living in mainland China, both of whom are in the United Kingdom until next month, came to visit this afternoon. They stayed for over two hours before they returned to Nottinghamshire.

It pleased us that they visited; while my Hong Kong uncle came here within the last two weeks, prior to today, the most recent time my cousin in mainland China came here was for my 21st birthday party back in November 2011.

A visitor from Hong Kong

My Hong Kong uncle came to visit today for a few hours. He is staying over here in the United Kingdom for a few weeks for part of the summer break and he wanted to see my family and me.

Usually I've seen my Hong Kong uncle when other extended relatives are around, so it was a pleasant change for my family and me to chat to him on his own - to hear his thoughts on various subject matters. We cooked lunch for him and had a fully enjoyable meal with him as company.

Phone resurrection

Back in early 2014, my Hong Kong uncle gave me his phone, a Samsung Galaxy S III. I gave my phone at the time, a Samsung Galaxy Ace II, to my mother. When my mother received a better phone, she returned the Ace II to me. Here is the Ace II:

I am using the Ace II again but not as a phone: I am using it as a media player; rather than continuing to use my current phone for music, I'd prefer to place a storage card back into this device and use it instead for my headphones/earbuds instead. Unfortunately, a used Ace II isn't worth much now so it's better that I keep it. Also, the Ace II is not affected by any headphone jack bugs.

In my opinion, this is a good way to re-use an obsolete device!

Return to Nottingham February 2015

I am back in Nottingham. My East of England uncle and Hong Kong uncle picked me up from Northamptonshire to return me to here. It has been a productive week but I look forward to returning to college on Monday.

This is a phone-submitted post.

The scarf

My Hong Kong uncle bought me a scarf during his recent visit. The primary reason he bought it for me was because my grandmother wanted me to wear it on the bus to help protect me from additional colds; however, I have also been wearing it for the way scarves are intended: to warm me.

Prior to the last few weeks, I had never really worn a scarf. I found them annoying and inconvenient and thus, never bothered to wear them. My opinion towards scarves has since changed: my dark navy blue scarf, which matches my usual black attire, suits me and it's extremely comfortable. In fact, since I put it on this afternoon I've only taken it off for short periods.

In short: I like my scarf.

"Bye!" the phone silently exclaimed

For Christmas 2011, my grandfather received a Samsung Galaxy S II; back then, this device and the original Galaxy Note were the leading smartphones. Being a follower of technology and gadgets, my grandfather was delighted with the gift and he gave his old phones to me and my brother.

Recently, that phone arrived at its end. My grandfather went to turn it on one day and it refused to activate. Naturally, he was upset, as he was quite fond of the phone and it performed everything he expected of it. He was going to have it repaired but my East of England uncle and Hong Kong uncle both convinced him to purchase a new phone rather than spend £100+ on repairing his old one.

My grandfather's new phone is a Sony Xperia Z3. While he would have preferred to have kept his old phone, he is beyond satisfied with the Z3. His only problem at the moment is that he is searching for a decent protective case for it but I doubt that will be an issue for long.

Uncles

My East of England uncle is staying here for the week. This follows my Hong Kong uncle visiting here and staying for a week. So why this second visit?

My East of England uncle will be travelling abroad in a couple of months' time. He is self-employed and is up here on a test run to see if he will be able to help his customers from a distance. So far, his test has been fruitful; at least it has as far as I know, anyway.

This is the first time I've shared a house for a week with one of my uncles only to have another visit the week after.

Everyone now returned

None of my relatives who were visiting are present here anymore. My Hong Kong uncle left in the late afternoon on New Year's Day and he should be back in China now. The house has felt different now that he's away again...colder...quieter. I'm back to being the only member of the family living with my grandparents.

College begins on the 7th of January. I'm looking forward to attending college again; my only gripe is that the new term doesn't start on Monday the 5th. Monday is a teacher training day, hence why there will be no classes then.

New Year 2015

As I implied last night, I spent New Year's Eve at home. What separated it from previous ends and beginnings of years is that my Hong Kong uncle was present; I don't recall ever spending the start of a year with him. I should also note that neither my parents nor my brother were with me, so it's the first New Year's Eve and New Year I've experienced without them.

When the New Year began, my uncle, grandfather and I watched the fireworks that were taking place in London at the London Eye; after that, my uncle went to bed while my grandfather and I watched a musical performance from Queen, who are currently fronted by Adam Lambert. Both the fireworks and the concert were worth watching, even via television.

Happy New Year! Let's have an amazing 2015!

Everyone returned (nearly)

Nearly all of my visiting relatives have returned home now; the sole relative still here is my Hong Kong uncle. He will leave on New Year's Day and be back at his home on the 3rd of January. I'm glad he'll be present for a short spell longer because it means there's another person around during my break from college.

Everyone here

Well, everyone who is supposed to be staying for Christmas is now here; my Hong Kong uncle and East of England relatives arrived over the course of the day. The only other people who are coming are my parents, brother and other Nottingham relatives but they're all visiting on Christmas Day, rather than spending any nights here.

As for me...I won't go into the realm of broken record, assuming I haven't reached that point already. Today is the best I've felt since my cold began so I am more optimistic about how I'll feel on Christmas Day.

Everyone arrives

Tomorrow, other relatives will start arriving here at my grantparents' house. The first will be my Hong Kong uncle, who will likely be staying until the end of the year. After him will be East of England relatives, although they're spread out across the country and it's not known in what order they will appear.

The only negative factors that are still looming over this Christmas are my health and my grandmother's. She is in the last stages of her cold and I'm still battling mine; granted, I feel better than I did a few days ago but I'm still burning through tissues and my voice has yet to recover (the fact I've almost lost my voice is a new one for me; that just hasn't happened before). On the bright side, I am sleeping again and a robust rest tonight might be enough to eliminate the remaining worst of my cold.

I'm hoping that we're both past the infectious stages, too; I can't see me and my grandmother being popular if we spread our diseases to everyone else!

New earbuds

Two days ago, I wrote that my earbuds decided to call it quits while I was on my way to London. I also wrote that I was initially concerned that it was my phone's headphone jack that had failed, as the jack has this strange bug, which causes headphones to play in mono or not at all depending on the position of the plug inside the socket.

My new earbuds were delivered this morning. They worked, which was what I expected, but to my astonishment, they also worked properly no matter at what angle the earbud plug was positioned inside my phone's headphone jack. To my knowledge, this is the only pair of headphones that doesn't have to be positioned in a certain way inside my phone's jack; when my Hong Kong uncle gave me the phone, he mentioned that the only bug with it was its jack, and that all headphone and earbud sets he'd tried with it had been affected by the bug.

I have no idea why this set is immune to it. It could be because it's a brand new pair, but I am sure that my uncle said that he'd also tried new headphones and earbuds in the phone, to no avail. Whatever the reason, I am pleased; this is one of those small bonuses that make life a little bit nicer. I now no longer have to worry about the sound dropping out whenever I accidentally knock my phone while listening to music through earbuds!

Nottingham day visit July 2014

We went to Nottingham today to visit my grandparents and to see my Hong Kong uncle. My uncle is over here for a few weeks before he returns to Hong Kong.

We went for a lengthy walk in the afternoon; I took a few pictures, some of which I'll post tomorrow. I might even post an experimental picture or two, assuming I think they fit in the post.

Women and big phones

In a few written and video reviews for large phones that I've read/watched, some reviewers have said that larger devices (usually those with a 4.5 inch screen or bigger) are unsuitable for women due to women having smaller hands than men. While my father, my Hong Kong uncle (he has a Sony Xperia Z Ultra, which is huge!) and I all have phones with a 4.8 inch screen or bigger, in my personal observations, I've noticed far more women with big phones than men with said devices.

Both here in Northamptonshire and in Nottingham, for example, the only people I've seen carry phones from the Galaxy Note series, known as "phablets", have been women; I think I might have seen one man with one, but I wasn't (and am still not) sure. For all the other large phones that are available, I've observed far more women than men carrying them. It should be noted that many women carry bags, so big phones can be stored in those when the need arises. By contrast, men usually only have pockets; a large phone in a jeans pocket would make walking uncomfortable.

Again, these are my observations only; what I've noticed to be true in Northamptonshire and Nottingham might not be the same elsewhere, but regardless, I think the belief that women can't handle large phones is nothing more than sexist nonsense. Phone size comes down to personal preference, not gender: my East of England uncle and my grandfather - who are obviously men - have both stated that large phones are too big for them, and neither of them has small hands. At the same time, one of my female cousins has said that she loves big phones.