Apple Store

I'm here again. One of my favourite play rooms. Expensive but worth it. Laura's phone, my former hand me down died so I was obliged to get a new phone for myself so I could give her my iphone 6s which is just perfect. It's a major upgrade for her. I know I should give her a new phone of her own but she's not tech savy and only uses the basic features. My phone the 6s is light years ahead of hers and she says she loves it. The only issue was that I can't see the little one so have the iphone plus size . She says the new phone is a like a 'mini computer'.

I now have the Iphone 7s plus. It's syncing with my iwatch. I'll have to get Laura to wipe out her iwatch because it was synced with the last phone which is now recycled. We should have disconnected the iwatches before swiping them. Tech helped here and wiping the phone allowed it to be ready to be synced.

I confess I have all the apple technology. I use it all too. The phone is indispensable for work. I find the watch really good for getting directions and messages while driving but because I have my phone with me I don't really appreciate it otherwise. I absolutely love my Mac Pro laptop computer and use it for work everyday, my encrypted patients backed up on it and my reports being written on it.

Now I have the ipad pro. I had an ipad before and frankly I mostly use it for reading kindle and watching educational movies. I watch netflix with my MacPro and tv. I have the apple tv too but my internet connection isn't that good at my place. Hence I use the Ipad pro rather than the Apple TV. It seems I have to re input the passwords and such each time. No doubt there's a simpler way but it was a hassle. So I use the MacPro to watch Netflix on my tv. It just takes a cable.

I think one of my nephew's got an ealier iphone hand me down and Laura got the one before that. When I got the iwatch they came out with a water proof one a couple of weeks later so a nephew got mine and I got Laura the same watch non water proof. I know I should buy her new iPhone but I got her a new IPad . I get her other stuff new too. Like boots. Laura is more pleased with new boots than new Apple gear.

I wore all my brother's hand me down stuff. I have a lot of second hand stuff in my life. I've of an age where no one is giving me hand me downs. Laura and the nephews say they don't care. I feel a bit selfish. A teeny bit of guilt. But I like the new camera on the iPhone 7.

On my own I would have waited for a later version since there's nothing wrong with the 6s. I've had it a year and love it. But since I had to get the 7s I was pleased to get it because the camera is an improvement. It has a 2x zoom and a portrait mode.The 8 is coming out in the next month or two but I don't know if it really is better for me. I'm happy with the 6 and now the 7.

I'm just typing this blog waiting for the phone to sync with the watch and for downloads to complete. I love to use the high speed Apple Store internet  here and ensure all the critical programs are working before I go.

Vancouver BC to Seattle to New York City to Moscow

It was a bit of a gruelling flight stretched over a day and 2 nights. .  First Vancouver Seattle then overnight  Seattle to New York City.
Some idiot left his iPhone charging in the Seattle Airport Lounge.  (Alternatively, a devious unconscious will go to any length to get the latest iPhone.)
Arriving in New York at 7 am, not having to fly out to Moscow until the afternoon, I took the A train to Manhatten.  What a thoroughly different city Manhatten is in daytime. Just people going about their business, not at all the ‘party central’ of night Manhatten. I found the 5th Avenue Apple store and bought the latest iPhone 5S. Thanks to iCloud back up I was able to download contacts and apps including the Kindle with Moscow and Russia Lonely Planets.
With time to spare I caught a taxi back to the JFK and linked up with my friend Barrett who’d  just flown in from Alaska.
Now a 9 hour Delta flight from NYC to Moscow.  Captain Phillips was an awesome movie. Tom Hanks is an amazing actor.  Lone Survivor was a terrific Afghanistan war film of a platoon caught outside the wire and the morality of beyond Geneva conventions.  A lot of stiff messages and a large dose of reality.  I also liked the new tv series Turn. The Tom Clancy Ryan movie was fast paced intrigue and adventure,  with some excellent filming in Moscow. I’ve really enjoy world travel  if only for recognizing all the places I’ve been. in movies and on tv.
I drank lots of water which helped with flying. I take an extra Vitamin water along these days.    Still the trips  a bit of blur.   The pilots flew fine and the  Delta staff were great .   Still I felt like I’d done a couple of nights of obstetrics call when  I staggered off the plane into Russian Customs.
Given all the issues of visa,  concerns right now with international relations,  and fears from past cold war days, I was happy that my contact with Russian officialdom was anticlimactic.    Barrett's dual citizenship put  her ahead of me. She waited,  then we both headed off to the washrooms.  I shaved.  I didn’t ask what she did.
A guy offered us a taxi into the city ranging in price from 300 to 3000 roubles.  The lonely planet recommended 1500.  We took the bus instead changing to the superb Moscow subway where they joined up. The Moscow Subway stations with their tile and art are exquisite..  In NYC the train had been faster transport than taxi because of traffic jams.  Here in Moscow the traffic wasn’t much better.  I love rapid transport trains and subways.
People dressed alike in Russia and America. There were stunning women and handsome men in both places.  I don’t tend to look at the poor and ugly. They’re there too. I have this thing about ‘cookie cutters’ and see recurrent ’types’ wherever I travel.   I liked the high fashion in NYC and Moscow.  There seemed more wealth in the subways of NYC and wider ethnic variation.  I didn’t understand a word in Russian and couldn’t read the signs in the Russian alphabet.  Barett speaks and reads Russian. I enjoy having a translator.
I remembered renting a car in Greece and realizing I couldn’t read any of the road signs.  It had been exciting ‘winging it’.   Everywhere people helped me then. The same was true in NYC and here in Russia.  Barrett asked directions from strangers. Everyone was so helpful. Travelling around the world I find the vast majority of people are really decent. It’s so easy to overlook this especially when fear gets the upper hand.
Eventually we found our way to the apartment she’d  rented on line. Homey, not fancy but more than adequate. Secure building, clean, pleasant rooms.  The owner was there with her ‘little girl’. The little girl practiced her English on me. I had no Russian to practice on her.  It seems that despite reading up on the language all that’s remained is ’spaceba’, thank you.  The little girl, 3 or 4 ,knew all the parts of the body in English and all the furniture in the room.
The apartment is  a block from Red Square.  People rent their apartments to tourists just as people rented their lawns to motorcyclists at Sturges Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota where I rode my Harley last summer.  
After we got the apartment keys Barrett had us hiking all over Moscow.  I love the exercise I get being a tourist.  We  bought our Russian Sim Cards for our cell phones.I like my new iPhone even more now that it’s actually a phone.
I’ve been using the iPhone to take pictures of the place I’m at and the surroundings so when I get lost I can show people pictures of where I want to go. This worked really well in Azerbaijan last November.  One picture is worth a thousands words especially when you don’t speak the language.
Barrett’s other mission was to get us train tickets to St. Petersberg and Lenins home.  She accomplished these though I wasn’t allowed in the building. The dress code didn’t allow men in sandals.  A big business complex.  I and Jesus waited outside while suited hooved men and women in very pretty sandals came and went.
After Barrett got the tickets,  we went grocery shopping in a deli. I love seeing the variety of groceries the world over.   Barret's mostly  a vegan and likes eating in suite.  I’d personally been eyeing the KFC’s and MacDonalds and thinking of ordering pizza.  Instead  I bought Russian bread, cheese and Riga sardines. Nothing like hanging with healthy eaters to help steer one clear of fast food.  Gilbert, my dog, is a good influence with exercise but I think he may be the best person to follow when it comes to a health human diet. He does have some particularly peculiar tastes.
A ‘gypsy taxi’ brought back to apartment but first took us by the Kremlin.  For a couple hundred roubles Russians are happy to ‘taxi’ folk along their way.  The Lonely Planet says don’t get in if there is more than just a driver. and not late at night outside bars. Apparently this is  especially true if you are an attractive drunk foreign woman alone.   We had excellent results with just getting from a to b.  Being older has it’s benefits.    I don’t worry at all about sexual assault travelling at my age, not that I’d complain.  Now people want to 'strip me' for wholly different purposes.
Back at the apartment I literally crashed.   Barrett woke me on her way out for an evening with friends at a night club.  I was invited but, really, a glorious nap versus clubbing, with the techno music urban young people like, I chose the nap.
Now I’m awake. I’m planning on going a walk to nearby  Red Square.  Lonely Planet says it’s lovely lit up at night.  Apparently the ‘red’ was a ‘mistranslation’ as it was originally called ‘Beautiful Square’.
Other than that more people look slavic, the distinction about Moscow, other than the alphabet and foreign language, the onion and cross church architecture and the huge ‘Soviet’ and even pre soviet era complexes is in the atmosphere. The atmosphere of a place is what makes it so distinct.  There’s a unique ‘buzz’ here. There’s industry and  a robustness.  More smokers. People appear very busy just like in NYC.  I like that big city buzz. And lots of young people. So full of possibility.
Right now I feel great with a nap and a cup of instant coffee.  A shower and change of clothing will make things even better. Then a walk in Red Square taking night photographs.  I’d especially love to see St. Basils.  I love celebration of the highest ideals of man the world over.   My life is blessed.  My nephew Graeme is probably doing something similar right now in Poland. My brother is always photographing too.  We are a photographic family. Historians. Travellers  Dad  loved cameras especially early movie cameras and Mom always loved to travel.   It’s in the process more than the content.

Motorcycling Spokane to Bute, Montana

I got in at 11 pm and had to get up at 2 am to catch a taxi at 3 to be at the airport for 4 am to depart to Seattle at 6 am.  It was a short stop over in Seattle. I arrived in Spokane where Mr. Lawless was waiting with his taxi. Great morning drive to Lone Wolf Harley Davidson Dealers. The guys there had solved my ABS brake problem finding the old code to set it right.  By 10:30 am I was on the highway.  Terrific service.
I brought more tunes.  This time I had all the iPod music but in addition I'd collected a bunch of cd's from home.  Barrelling along the highway at 70 mph is made even better with just the right cruising music.  Steve Bell was still a hit with me after I found out how I enjoyed his music riding into Spokane. This time I also played Third Day, my favourite Christian Rock band, Steppenwolf of course, with the Born to be Wild Theme song.  I loved hearing them at Sturges North.  I listened to Guess Who as well this stretch. Some of the time I turn off the stereo or listen to the FM or AM radio when I'm near a town.
The ride from Spokane was first through Idaho hills where the pine smells were so rich. There'd been fog and chill in Seatle so I was glad to be in the heat and sun that started in Spokane. It got really dry when I got a little ways into Montana.  By Missoula it was grass plains.  Real cattle country.
I passed Blackfoot and Little Blackfoot Rivers. The rest areas had great history plaques about the engineering that went into the building of the first major roads in the mid 1800's.  Lots of Silver in the hills.  I got to an elevation near 5000 feet at one point before getting on to Montana plains and rolling hills. I could see the cowboys and Indians riding through these valleys for sure. Enjoyed seeing paint horses and remembering the great western novels about Paint Horses.
I stripped at the last rest stop and climbed into the river. It wasn't deep enough to swim but I could lie on my belly and back and get a thorough cooling dunking. It was especially refreshing on my face and head.  I'd been watching all these people along swimming in this river's swimming holes  and was finally able to join in.  Reminded me of swimming in the prairies as a kid.
I stopped at Missoula Grizzly Harley Davidson.
I had to nap at one rest area, my eyes were so gritty. Then when I pulled into Bute I met Guy outside the Alano Club.  I left my bike there and he drove me up to an outdoor grill where I had the best new yorker steak .  I'd not eaten all day and had been seeing a lot of Black Angus cattle that were whetting my appetite. I just loved that steak.  Then we were at a meeting and everyone was so friendly. Thanks to Guy I found this Best Western.

He's a Harley Rider, was helping at the Evil Kneevil Show last week in Bute. I saw the posters still up as I came into town. He'd been at the Association of Injured Motorcyclists.  A real caring and loving guy who does a lot of service helping with the church and disabled people.  Plays a Marten too.  Couldn't get over the books we'd read in common.  He'd not read Spirituality of Imperfection so I was pleased to turn him on to that. We'd both enjoyed Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander. I was reading that still on the plane to Spokane.  What an incredible story.
Now I'm just 'rendering' the Gopro movie I made wearing the thing on my helmut for a bit before Missoula.  Now I'm at the Butte Plaza Inn Best Western and knowing I'm going to enjoy a good night sleep. I washed my underwear and socks and hung them up.  I'll actually get a breakfast in the morning.  Must remember to wake. I'm planning on driving to Livingston on the I90 then turning right to head south through Yellowstone. I have a desire to see a geyser again. I've gone through Yellowstone several times but it's always been sensational.  Though I remember the traffic was tediously slow.  I loved seeing the wildlife.

Apple Store, Pacific Centre Mall, Vancouver

I'm at the Pacific Centre Apple Store in downtown Vancouver. They've been very helpful as usual. I had this ipad problem. Suddenly the music would come on. As I have gospel music downloaded on the pad. My favourite is Third Day. It was a rather spiritual experience at first. I wondered if there was some message involved. Then Gordon Lightfoot, Eric Burdon and the Animals and Dianna Krall started coming out of the pad at awkward times. I consider all the musical genius on my ipad truly spiritual but some of the Old Blind Dog songs are a tad risque. So I came here and was told to reset to factory settings after backing up to Icloud. So far it's pretty good. No sounds of Joni Mitchell or Selah coming on without me touching the device. Who would have thought that such a simple solution would be the answer. I'd thought of chucking the thing against the wall and guess that wouldn't have been nearly as wise as following the directions I've just done from the bright young blue shirted Apple assistant here. Go figure!





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