At the moment there seems to be little important other than work.

Today I completed a project that I’ve really enjoyed working on and although there maybe an odd tweak here or there, and I’m still waiting to see the final fruits of the stationary from the printers, the main trunk of it is done-dusted.

There is another large project I’m tying the bows on too, and although it won’t be finished until next week, I’m feeling really energised by the progress of work since I managed to get my visa. It’s like I’ve drunk a couple of bottles of Calpol and I’ve been buzzing ever since.

I ordered a polarising filter and rubber lens hood for the new lens this morning. I can’t say the price was exactly as good and it’s annoying to think I have a couple of perfectly good ones lying about, just they are no longer the right diameter fitting for this new kit.

Thinking of other investments, I was both ecstatic and heartbroken to find out the Foo’s are playing V Festival this year. I have no idea if I can make it, but I’m hoping they announce a few more dates. Although I’ve always wanted to do a festival, travelling years have never been good ones due to the uncertainty of the dates.

Sammi is now in Nepal and will be for the next six weeks until I arrive. It’s all getting close now and really want to get South America sorted soon. I think some phone calls and credit card bills are in order.

Frustration might be one word that springs to mind when thinking about how today turned out. Instead of making headway with work as I had intended (with a brief break to pick up my Indian Visa), the whole thing was ‘flip reversed’ to use colloquial ‘street-speak’.

I had hoped a mid-morning excursion into the Jewellery Quarter would mean I could nip in and out (maybe with a small queue) then come back to send off some work to print and get my teeth into some other bundles of work. Unfortunately after my 30 minute drive in, and a another 30 minute wait I finally got to the front of the queue where the lady behind the counter dissappeared with my tombola ticket and came back five minutes later to let me know it hadn’t been done yet. I wasn’t a happy bunny.

After being told to return at 3pm (when the consulate reopens after lunch) I decided a head start was in order, and at 2.30pm got into the queue behind the other 30 people. At 3pm they let us in and we streamed in in crocodile fashion like a rather bloated Chinese dragon, only to discover at this point that the doors had been open the whole time and the queue actually had extended up the stairs to the top floor meaning there were at least another 30 people in the queue ahead of us.

Thankfully sanity came from conversation with the people around and for the next hour and a half we talked about travel, the fantastic experience we were all having and making suggestions about ways to improve the system. And just to assure you that this wasn’t just a load of pallid Britons moaning, the Indians in the queue were just as irritated, including the blokes in front and behind me who had both sent in postal applications then discover their passports had ‘gone missing’.

The system had many faults, but it’s best by far was the lack of complaints procedure. See, not only were there long delays, but also after lunch half the staff go home and then only a solitary window is left open to deal with all visa requests. There were at least 300 people in the queue by the time I left, and with only half an hour left until closing time (and that means the shutter comes down and you have no choice but to go home). That means only 80 would have had their application processed today. There are no other staff on hand to deal with enquiries, take suggestions or advise that you aren’t likely to get served today, which means that you just have to wait and put up with it like everyone else. It’s that that makes the experience complete.

Such was the build up and my genuine fear for just over an hour that I would be back there tomorrow that I felt genuinely ecstatic when the girl passed me back my complete visa with all my names had been spelt right and they’d even taken the time to stick it in the right way.

In truth, the waiting didn’t bother me. Nor did the long queues. Nor did it trouble me the number of journeys. I’ve met some interesting people and had some good conversations, just one thing still really bugs me, and that is that I have lost two full days work. My advice to anyone else self-employed trying to get an Indian visa in Brum – just pay an agency to do it for you.

Yesterday was a bit of a mess. Thursday was alright, but Friday was a little bit chaotic.

Thursday evening was the annual careers convention at OSH, my old school. I get an invite every year to be the representative for web and graphic design, and being a good chance to spread the word, see the staff and other faces again, I try to attend. Unfortunately I decided to walk, and by the time I had arrived I was drenched from head to toe. It took me most of the evening to dry down, but giving out some guidance and getting a chance to speak to a few people I hadn’t seen in a while made it all ok. Definitely thanks required for Ian who fetched me a plate of stealth buffet. Good man.

When I got back home I decided that I was going to bite the visa bullet and just knock it on the head the next morning. I knew this meant an early start, and that it was likely to be a fairly interesting experience. Not wanting to pay £30 for somebody else to do it, or risking a postal application following some nightmare stories and reading the rather foreboding terms and conditions on the application forms, I arrived at the Consulate in the Jewellery Quarter at 7.20am and joined the queue which was already 50 people long.

I had bought a paper thinking this would be the best way to pass the time, but I ended up spending most of the two hours until opening time chatting to the girl next to me in the queue, which ultimately was very worthwhile as she shared her camping chair with me while everyone had to stand. Thankfully the rain held off. Whilst I only live half an hour from the Consulate, Paula (the girl with the chair) had travelled from Liverpool and like me, had made one previous failed attempt earlier in the week. We were both gritted and determined to not be back here again.

At 9.30am they finally opened the doors. I’m not sure how many people were in the queue now, but after the first 200 tickets were handed out, the rest of the queue were turned away. It was about 9.40am.

We had to wait for our numbers to be called, another hour, but finally we got to the counters handed over our stuff and we’re told to come back at 3pm to collect. At least, that’s what I thought was going to happen. Paula seemed to have no problem, but the guy behind the counter asked where I was from. I told him, and he told me I’d have to pick it up on Monday. I didn’t quite realise how angry I was about this until after we’d left for some food.

So Monday morning I’ll be back at the Indian Consulate picking up my passport and visa. Thankfully I won’t have to queue next time (well not for longer than 15 minutes) but it was only 11.30am and things weren’t going as well as I had hoped.

Things just got worse and after getting home and sorting out a list of things that needed sorting out, I finally sat down to do the day’s work at 2.30pm. Not ideal. Thankfully I was quite productive after this, and despite feeling totally knackered by 9pm, things were wrapped.

I woke up this morning to a few nice surprises. My new lens has arrived (Sigma 18-200mm ) and I’m really happy with it. The focal length is ideal for travelling as it saves carrying multiple lenses, and even if this type of lens isn’t so hot at the long end, it’s better than the limits of the standard lens kit I was using before. I also got two cheques in the post and a couple of other pieces of correspondence that I’ve been waiting on. Saturday is coming good.

As a sidenote, this site will be down for four hours tomorrow for unfortunate but essential server maintenance between 8am and 12 noon.

This is a public service broadcast. If you have a new Macbook and are likely to ask me “Andy, what do I need on my Macbook?” then this might be an ideal read. This is especially relevant to first time mac users.

Being that I am now regularly finding myself being asked by friends about my Essential Selection, I have decided it would be far more sensible to jot it down here so that the links are all in one place.

Some of this stuff is very obvious, some is hardware, some is software, some is more Mac general than just for Macbooks. Use the bits you need.

Parallels

In my opinion Parallels is the best virtualisation software on the market. Alternatives include VMWare Fusion (a free beta, but with no right click support for Macbooks), Crossover (again free, allowing Windows applications to run in OS X directly) and Apple’s BootCamp (a beta likely to be bundled in Leopard, OS X 10.5, but requires a reboot to switch from OS X to Windows). Parallels supports any common version of Windows, however I’ve yet to find a way of installing anything without a bootable CD, so that rules out anything pre-Windows 2000 for me.

Memory

Although this is mixing hardware with software, I think it’s critical to point out the Macbook sees marked performance of virtualisation software with a memory upgrade. My logic is the sooner you buy it, the better value for money it becomes as you will get more use from it. Macbooks support up to 2GB of memory, and I recommend you buy from Orca , who offer a high quality product at a percentage of the cost of Apple’s branded stuff.

Unfortunately your Macbook will have come preloaded with two 256MB sticks (unless you customised at purchase) and these have to be totally replaced. Thankfully you can do the job yourself and it takes only a matter of minutes. The instant power boost is very noticeable and you can now happily run OS X and multiple instances of Windows at the same time with no lag. Everything else starts to act sharpish too.

(Note 1: go for the full upgrade straight out as having to again replace two 512Mb for two 1Gb down the line is going to be much more expensive in the long run).

(Note 2: keep your old memory. Not only is it pretty worthless coming in such small units, but if you ever have problems you should swap it back in to see if your upgrade was causing the issue).

Quicksilver

I’ve never heard anyone say they didn’t like this free little application , and amongst friends we’re pretty sure this is going to be swallowed up by Apple for use in Leopard (doing a ‘ CoverFlow ‘). If you’ve not discovered Spotlight yet (the inbuilt search mechanism in OS X), don’t worry about it, just go and download this instead. Quicksilver is a keyboard based search and task manager that ticks over silently in the background. Alt + Space brings up the small dialogue and from here you can open, close, move, edit, lookup, and execute pretty much anything on the computer. Enabling some of the extra plugins are a must, including:

• Dictionary Actions
• Text Manipulation Actions
• Apple Address Book Module (for searching contact details too)
• Extra Scripts (for shutdown and other shell actions)

You really can’t beat this program. It may take a few days to get used to, but it speeds up productivity no end – and that’s coming from someone who was initially sceptical.

The iSync Plugin For Your Phone

This might not be essential for some people; my W800i used to connect with iSync without a plugin, but my K800i isn’t so keen, so use this free download to remedy that.

There is no excuse not to keep your phone up-to-date with your address book and calendar with Bluetooth being so straight forward, and it provides a quick and easy way of ensuring if you were to lose either one of the pieces of kit, at least you’ll have a backup.

Flip4Mac

Quicktime is great, but you can’t play Windows Media files on there, so get the free version of Flip4Mac which gets over the proprietary movie format problem. Alternatively, if you don’t like Quicktime, VLC pretty much plays everything even if it isn’t much in the way of eye candy.

Colloquy

As an IRC newbie, this is the only app I’ve tried for, but it seems to work fine if you’re into that kinky chatroom stuff.

Remote Desktop Connections

Mac-on-PC, PC-on-Mac. No, this isn’t some geek porn mag, it’s the fantastic way you can use VNC or Microsoft’s Remote Desktop client to access another computer remotely. Although you may already be familiar with this stuff across a single platform, you might not know it’s also possible to do it across different OSs.

iWork

Throw away PowerPoint and start using Keynote for presentations. You will blow away any PC audience with this type of demo and the tools are very simple to pick up. I have less experience with Pages , but I hear very good things. Both applications come with the annually updated, fairly-reasonably priced iWork suite (only fairly-reasonabley priced because they update it annually).

Games

I am a fan of patience when wireless cannot be accessed. For this I recommend Solitaire XL . A little fancier than it’s Window’s counterpart it’s perfect for train journeys and lectures.

If you’re willing to experiment, Ambrosia Software’s Aperion X will stick to you like a heroin habit. Don’t pay for a licence otherwise the the 15 levels limit is removed and you could end up playing until infinity, and that simply won’t pay the bills.

Finally Macdoku is an interesting, free Sudoku generating app. I’ve yet to work out if I actually like it as I’ve not yet managed to complete a single game, and I’m not entirely sure it’s possible. You shouldn’t be wasting your time playing games anyway.

Salling Clicker

A little luxury, Salling Clicker means those with Bluetooth enabled phones can control their iTunes collection using their mobile. Unlike using the provided IR controller Apple give you, Bluetooth means this method works over longer distances and without line-of-sight. A nice addition is that you will magically be able to see the artwork on your phone screen, do direct searches and create playlists on the fly wherever you are in the house.

Honourable Beasts

Adium is free and allows you to run all your favourite messaging protocols at once. For the layman, that means you can run MSN, iChat, Google Talk, Yahoo! and a few others through one applications. Multiple account sign-in (polygamy) is also possible.

CyberDuck is a free FTP application which comes bundled on the install disc, but can also be downloaded. Maybe not the best FTP app out there, but it works.

Netfixer takes full-page screenshots of websites. There are other programs that do this but as I’ve not used them, I can’t comment.

If you’re not content with just screenshots, SiteSucker retrieves an entire site as HTML and with links and images intact. I use this all the time for local copies of dynamic sites to show to clients in case of an emergency. It can be a real lifesaver when the internet fails to work.

Using StuffIt Expander will help you unpack most forms of common archive. OS X copes with some standard ones, but this fills the gaps nicely.

A Couple Of Indispensable Websites

If you want to find free Mac software, I can highly recommend http://www.FreeMacWare.com as this is where much of my free software selection is made from. For software generally, try http://osx.iusethis.com . I subscribe to feeds from both these sites and something good usually turns up every couple of days.

A Couple Of RSS Feeds

If you are the sort of person who doesn’t listen to anyone else’s opinions, blindly argues the case for anything white and shiny and cries when you drop your iPod, then whatever you do don’t visit these sites. You will kill yourself through dehydration, salivating yourself to death from all the silly little rumours about upcoming product launches. Only subscribe to AppleInside or MacRumours if you think you still have a strong enough grip on reality. Little speculation you read on here transpires, but they are good places to go for the latest news on software/firmware updates and product discussions.

Software I’m Not Sure About

While Microsoft Office dominates, I’m not so sure about forking out for a license for my Mac, so I’m currently using OpenOffice . Unfortunately it’s not yet a universal binary, which means it won’t run at full performance on Intel Machines (all Macbooks fall into this category) and you have to run X11 (installed from your Tiger installation disc) everytime you want to use it. They are working on making it native, but it’s not quite baked yet.

If you have bought a Macbook since they started using Intel Core 2 Duo chips, you might or might not be aware that Apple secretly was shipping them out with the next generation wireless cards in them (801.11n draft). Most wireless home and office networks are currently 801.11g (the version before this new one) so you can’t really use it yet, but none the less if you want to ‘enable’ the extra functionality you need to pay £1.25 to download the official update from here . You have to pay for it due to a legal situation regarding selling products with hidden features.

And that’s about it. There is other software I use, but it’s specific or just bundled with OS X anyway. I’ve yet to pick my mac based text editor yet, but I know that TextMate comes highly recommended. If there is anything I’ve missed that is a good shout, drop it in the comments.

At the moment, life is a bit like a box of chocolates. To be precise, dark chocolates, because they are infinitely nicer than normal chocolate. And if I’m going to be picky (which I am) they are made from Cadbury’s Bournville chocolate, as that’s the best dark chocolate money can buy.

In an effort to over-indulge in this box of chocolates metaphor, I need to explain that not so long ago, life was full of rich treats. The initial choice was easy – the favourite one – the one with strawberry, cherry or lemon in. This represents the initial excitement of travelling, something I will have been doing annually for five years come the summer.

After the first favourite comes the second favourite, but this could be any one of a number of options; it’s not so clear-cut as the first choice. This represents the big headache making decisions about where to go and the sacrifices that have to be made (someone else wants one you want). It’s satisfying, but not as fulfilling as the first chocolate. It leaves you thinking you better dwell on this and not rush onto the third one quite yet; you’ve lost a little enthusiasm with all the injections and the rest (not that you should bother immunising your chocolates, it ruins the flavour).

The third is either another dose of your second favourite (by now the favourites have most certainly disappeared; you’ve committed) or it’s time to taste an unexpected one. You randomly take a swipe at box and a surprise comes out. For instance, today I found a new (old) travelling partner for South America. About a week ago Sammi realised she couldn’t do a second trip anymore, and so I’ve been weighing up my options. James had initially been unavailable, but due to a shift in plans it looks like we’ll be travelling again after all. Number three is surprising but definitely a good discovery, in this case maybe even a summer-saving one.

The order of the next few chocolates are unimportant. They are a real mixed bunch, the good, the not so good, the ones you really don’t want to eat and end up getting left to the last. This rabble of confections can be seen as everything else in life right now. There are some great things going on in work, it’s exciting but busy (some might even say ‘choc-a-block’... I am so, so sorry). There are definitely things in the collection that I don’t want to have to sample at all, but I feel duty bound to as otherwise I’ll feel wasteful. And after all, when you actually try them, it’s never so bad anyway – it’s all still chocolate.

The best thing though is that I’m still not full. When you start feeling sick, that’s not a good point. At the moment I’m still happily working my way through. Ideally there would have been one or two more of my favourites in the box to start with, but that’s the way boxes of chocolates are packed unfortunately.

If I haven’t totally lost you with the metaphor, this is my convoluted way of saying that things are going just great right now. I’m just hoping that I’m not over-indulging, especially as the expiry date isn’t that far away now…

Being that I’m travelling in just over six weeks, I decided that getting my visa sorted is a pretty high priority. The Consulate website is fairly thorough, but you can’t ask those little niggling questions, and all my attempts on the phone have failed to yield a answer, I mean, no one ever picks up. It gave the impression of being a one-person show, not too dissimilar to the Thai Embassy near New Street.

How wrong I was. I arrived at about 11am, and quickly located the rather sparse ground floor of the Consulate. From the outside it’s a small, ex-industrial office and the large empty ground floor gave the impression that even this was too big for the task. I was directed up a small stairwell and at this point was surprised to find myself pushing my way up an ever-thicker channel of people. At the top of the stairs is a short corridor leading up to an airport-style body scanner (which was making a lot of noise as people passed in and out, but no one seems to be bothered). On the other side of the scanner must have been 200 to 300 people bunched outside the four tiny post office windows, and the one man who appeared to be directing the crowds wasn’t having much success in forming the hordes into an orderly queue.

Had he not have been making a beeline for the door as I came in, I wouldn’t have heard him tell me that there were no more visas to be issued today. They’d met their daily quota. I’m quite glad I didn’t have to queue for two hours to find that out.

The closest thing it equates to from memory was a coach station in Malaysia. Chaotic, and exciting. If my departure was less than four weeks away, I would be seriously worried by now, especially at the prospect of having to secure my visa queue number by arriving “between 6.30 and 7.30am” and not mid-morning as I have discovered. Thankfully they run a 4-week postal application. I think I’ll be taking that option.

I don’t think I can be any clearer about my view of Simon Pegg’s latest film; if you haven’t seen the trailer yet, it doesn’t matter – this film is fantastic.

I’m not posting any spoilers here, but if you want to see the thing 100% fresh then I’ll let you pass on this post (until you’ve seen it).

A brief outline of what you can expect is an unimportant plot, a clever subterfuge of popular culture (Pegg’s trademark), an amalgamation of all-action-meets-spoof-horror-meets-comedy and a smorgasbord of some of the best in British comedy.

You also get some fantastic lines, wildly imaginative action sequences and a very decent production quality. I even left the cinema a little out of breath – unusual for a British film. It was the most I’ve laughed out loud in a cinema since I sneezed out my milkshake in the middle of the last Austin Powers film.

Funnily enough, I recommend you buy a ticket to see Hot Fuzz this week.