The Life and Times of Neil

So, if you read my last blog entry, ranting about the high costs of mobile roaming in the UK/EU, you’ll have noticed I’m in Bahrain. I’m still not going to go into the reasons why – they’re still boring! But on the recommendation of a friend, I find myself staying at the Ramee Palace hotel.

Getting here in an area I’ve never visited before was quite painless thanks to the TwatNav(tm); although it does seem to think the hotel is called the “Ramze Palace” – one to watch out for Garmin users. The only downside is that most of the roads it took me down once I turned off the main road were mostly dust tracks between buildings in various states of completion (I did later work out a route that was all paved roads). Thankfully the dust roads weren’t too bad, and it was only the last couple of minutes that were like this. So yes, the area (Juffair) is a bit of a building site. On saying that, I can’t say I noticed much disturbance from the construction, so it’s not too much to be worried about.

The hotel itself is one of the increasing number of “suite” hotels that seem to be increasing in popularity. Essentially, instead of the usual room with a bed, TV, bathroom, etc. you get what is more like a small apartment with a kitchen area, lounge area, bedroom(s) and bathroom(s). It seems some people even have long term lets on some of these suites and use them as a primary residence (mostly the overseas workers I think). What it does mean is you are staying somewhere a little more homely. On the downside, there were no pots or pans in the kitchen, and (as a Brit) worst of all there were no tea and coffee making facilities! Their website is a little quiet on the matter of kitchen equipment, but does state that there is a tea/coffee maker (of course, this could have been some hidden vending machine somewhere!)

The room I was in was a good size with decent furniture: a 3-seat sofa, armchair, coffee table, LCD TV, breakfast bar, electric oven, 4-plate electric hob, microwave, fridge, freezer in the lounge/kitchen area; queen size bed, dressing table, bedside tables, wardrobe, LCD TV and electronic safe in the bedroom. All of which looked well kept and was comfy, apart from the wooden arms on the sofa and armchair if you wanted to lie or lean on them! The bathroom is what you’d expect from a hotel bathroom. Seemed clean enough, and I think my only complaint was the lack of shaver socket.

Sadly, the view from the patio doors (which I couldn’t get to open, hence not a view from the balcony) in the lounge looks directly at the opposite wing of the building. It is best to think of the building as a U shape with the reception and lifts at the bottom of the U, then the 2 uprights are where most of the rooms are. In fact, the best view to be had on my stay was that from the glass lift going up to the room (the lift are on the inside of the U-shape, and overlook the sea). In the middle of the U, somewhat confusingly on the first floor, there is a open-air swimming pool.

Entertainment is easily on-hand with 7 venues within the hotel. My rant was written while in “Dublin”, an Irish-American themed bar/club. I also mentioned a very tasty steak! Well it was. One of the few places that manage to cook a steak how you ask them. I am a medium-rare person (a concept some people don’t understand – they complain by asking if I want it rare OR medium!) and this steak was still nice and red in the very middle, and still very juicy. It’s also worth pointing out that I’d upgraded to the fillet steak as it was happy hours (every day, 1700 to 2100) and all food and drink is 20% off; and it came with a free half bottle of house wine (I had red, it was very drinkable). Live entertainment in the form of a band starts at 2100. Unlike most places in Bahrain, Dublin’s band is of Western origin rather than the Filipino bands most hotels seem to employ. No idea if the band was any good… I left just as they were starting to head upstairs to see what this Belarusian thing was.

This lead me to the “Diva Lounge”. The hotel info book in my room described it as a chill-out lounge with Russian ballet (or Russian-style entertainment in places). This is no longer quite accurate. It is now inhabited by a Belarusian dance troupe. My friend later described it, when I was talking about what I’d been up to, as being about the closest thing to a strip-club in Bahrain. Well it wasn’t quite that bad… No clothing was shed, and the dancers were mostly covered, but it’s still more than I get to see in my usual secret location! And I use the term “dancers” quite loosely. They just seemed to stand on stage and move as if trying to dance, but never really seeming to be 100% sure about things. Admittedly, it had just opened when I arrived, and there were 2 other patrons in. Eventually, the girls start sending notes out to people in the audience on napkins asking what your name is, why you’re there, what you do for a living, etc. You send them notes back (there is a member of staff whose sole job seems to be to ferry these notes back and forth) and eventually they sing a song for you. The main problem is the music is so loud it does become deafening, and I still had a slight ringing in my ears the following morning. Probably a venue that works better when it’s a little busier and there’s more atmosphere for the dancers to work with.

In addition to these 2 venues, there are 2 sports bars, a 24-hour coffee shop that also serves breakfast and has (I think) free Wi-Fi if you buy food or drink, a Bollywood style live entertainment lounge, an Arabic disco, and an Arabic restaurant.  The hotel also has other standard services such as laundry, currency exchange, air con in rooms, and also a gym.

Hard to give prices. Their internet site seems to be the best place to go as that was the cheapest price I could find for them. I paid 35BD per night (plus taxes) for a 1-bedroom suite with double bed on single occupancy. They also have 1-bedroom suites with twin beds, and some 2-bedroom apartments. Prices vary on size and occupancy (e.g. 40BD for a 1-bedroom suite for 2 people).

Overall, not a bad place to stay, once you get over the surrounding building site and the lack of view from anywhere but the lifts. Plenty of entertainment in the hotel, but you are probably looking at a taxi to get to any of the other major hotel entertainment venues. Definitely worth a try if you’re in Bahrain though.

Website: http://www.rameehotels.com/ramee-palace-bahrain.php
Address: Building No. 103 Road No 22. Block no 324

So I find myself in a hotel bar in Bahrain for reasons I won’t go into (mainly because it’s very dull!) My phone has a non-Bahrain SIM in it, (it’s also not a UK SIM) so I am doing a “local” roam (it’s a GCC SIM and Bahrain is another GCC member), so you could liken it to roaming in the EU on an EU SIM. The point I am trying to get to (you must excuse me – I have just had proper alcohol for the first time since January!) is a compareison of how cheap things are outside of the UK and the EU. I have just sent a text message to another mobile in the country my mobile is from, an it has cost me around 10 pence! (Would be less if President Brown wasn’t screwing up the economy!) A 2 minute call, also to a mobile in the country my mobile is from cost me around 20 pence; so about 10 pence a minute. I should also mention that my phone is a pay-as-you-go plan. I’m lucky to get calls that cheaply even within the UK on my UK PAYG phone!

I only mention the GCC/EU comparison because one of the few good things the EU has managed is to lower the cost of EU roaming; but this shows it’s still expensive compared to other parts of the world.

Anyway, I have just had a very tasty, properly cooked steak (of which more in a later post). All I need to do now is decide if I stay where I am, or pop across the courtyard to one of the hotel’s other venues which has some Belarusian thing. Think it threatens ballet, but the women are far from your stereotypical Russian shot-putters (yes, I know Russia isn’t Belarus, but it’s close enough!)

So a quick word tonight on a bottle of what proclaims itself “the strongest Belgian beer”, coming in at a fairly hefty 12%abv.

The beer is bronze in colour with a nose that drifts between malty and slightly floral. On the palatte, the beer is quite sharp with hints of citrus; but there is also a noticable sweetness, particularly after it’s been stood in the glass for a while. The high alcohol content also leads to a certain astringency. The finish is somewhere between bitter and sour and tends to catch in the back of the throat. At first the finish is somewhat muted, but once again becomes more pronounced with exposure to air. Overall, I can’t say I was overly impressed. I felt the beer lacked character; although I would not say the beer was unpleasent.

I should probably note that the bottle I sampled did have a slightly cloudy appearance. I’m not sure if this means the beer is bottle conditioned (the bottle makes no indication if this), it had thorn a chill haze, the glass had some residue in it which reacted with the beer, or it was simply a sub-standard batch that slipped through (the beer was still within its best before date). So my review may not be based on the best specimen. Looks like I need to go back to Belgium for some more!

Given this, my scoring may be a little unfair, but I am going for a 6 out of 10. While a very drinkable beer, I just felt it lacked character and is sold mostly under the claim of being “the strongest Belgian beer”. Of course, if I find a better specimen I may yet change my mind and update thus review and score.

(For those who don’t know the Ministry of Crap Design, or MoCD for short, comes from the stand-up comedy of Ben Elton from many years ago. We all experience it many times through life, I have a blog, the rest is history; except Ben is a lot funnier than me!)

OK, so I’m sat in what is starting to feel like my 3rd home: Amsterdam’s Schipol airport. Been here 90 mins so far thanks to a very early arrival and still have 2 hours until my connecting flight. So armed with an iPod with the Wordbook app but no wi-fi (3 Euros for 15 minutes?!? Schipol is a real rip-off these days from food to duty free to Internet prices!) the mind starts to wander. And as usual one of my moments of inspiration(?) came while sat on the bog (please tell me it’s not just who gets that!) and suffering at the hands of the autoflusher!

The idea is simple. No-one likes going into the cubicle to see the remains of what the person to go in there before you has just done. Some places are worse than others (Eaga men… You know who you are you filthy beasts!) so the autoflusher is a panel mounted on the wall behind you which somehow detects when you leave and then flushes away you doings, saving the next person in the horror of seeing what you left before they have chance to flush it away themselves. All sounds very healthy and hygienic!

However… Experience show that they don’t always work as intended. It seems the slightest movement is enough to set them off, even if it’s just slightly to one side to reach to loo roll dispenser. I swear today I only had to breathe at one point and it tried to flush me away! Now I have 2 issues with this. Firstly, we are all being told to conserve water; yet just think how much water is being wasted by all these false flushes. But more important is that the flush is pretty powerful. This means that every time it flushes with you still sat there, you end up with a wet arse. This requires more loo roll to dry yourself off, which means more moving, leading to another flush leading to a wet arse again, and so on.

Of course, in true MoCD fashion, as soon as I stand up today and move away from the toilet what happens… It fails to flush! Thankfully the earlier false flushes had removed most of what was in there so it wasn’t too bad (of course, there is no manual flush backup).

I should point out that this problem is not unique to Schipol. I think the first time I encountered the autoflusher was at another airport – St Louis International in the USA; and theirs were no better!

So it finally happened… I have bought my first Apple product. Given the amount of travel I am likely to be doing over the next few years (clocked up nearly 9000 miles in August alone, 10000 if you add in associated car journeys) I decided to get myself an MP3, and in the end I opted for the iPod Touch (2nd generation, 32GB: Now superceded by the 3rd Gen, 64GB, the gits!)

Now first impressions are good. It’s shiny, for starters. The interface works quite nicely with fingers, which is new to me having come from the touchscreen world of Windows Mobile smart-phones with a stylus. The UI is clean and straightforward, and integration with iTunes works quite nicely. Sound quality is good, and I’m tempted to saying that since switching from Windows Media Player to iTunes when listening to music on the computer the audio quality from iTunes is much better. The iTunes App Store has software for almost every need you might have. So no complaints so far.

However, as you start to use the device, you start to notice more little “issues” with it. One of the common grips with the iTouch is that to do a major version upgrade the OS you have to pay, whereas on the iPhone (they use the same base OS) the upgrades are free. Minor upgrades don’t cost on either device (at the moment).

But if you do decide to upgrade, be warned… When I first got my iTouch it came with version 2.x of the OS. Given some of the new bits they’ve unlocked with version 3 I decided to part with the 5.99GBP to upgrade. Thankfully, this all went smoothly and I got my new OS with a minimum of fuss all ready for my August leave from work. After I got back to <foreign place> I was informed there was an update from 3.0 to 3.1.1 so I decided to go ahead and get the upgrade done. Now the upgrade file is pretty big; nearly 300MB. Where I currently live/work is a Muslim country, and so we’re deep into Ramadan. For some reason, the internet has suddenly started working a lot slower than normal, and I often find my connection drops out – the joys of using a 3G mobile dongle for internet. Normally, these drops would be a minor irritation. Thankfully, 9am in a morning seems to be a fairly reliable time to grab some internet, so did the upgrade first thing. Download didn’t take too long, so all looked good. So plug in the iTouch and the upgrade starts.

The first thing that iTunes does is to verify the upgrade file with Apple. Wise idea on the face of it to ensure the file hasn’t got corrupted in transit. However, as it does this the attached iTouch Windows drivers are updated and the device is put into upgrade mode. You may not think this would be a problem, except my internet chose this moment to drop out for a minute or 2. Sadly, this meant that iTunes was unable to verify the upgrade file. Now you would hope that in this situation you’d either get a chance to retry, or to press on anyway and hope that the download is good. Not Apple! I got an error message which only gave me an acknowledgement button. Pressing this took me back to iTunes with the iTouch still sat in upgrade mode. What do you do now? There’s no obvious menu option to restart the upgrade, the iTouch is unresponsive to any button presses to try and turn it off, the Apple website and iTunes help give no answers on what to do. Oh f**k… I now have a very shiny, but very expensive, paperweight!

Eventually, some other web forums gave the hint of disconnecting the iTouch and holding in the power and home buttons to force the device to power off.  Turning it back on leaves you at the first screen you ever see on the iTouch: the one where it asks you to connect it to a computer with iTunes. Doing this thankfully launches a recovery mode which restores the iTouch to the default settings, thankfully installing the new OS in the process. I was then able to recover the settings from the backups that iTunes does when it Syncs the device, followed by a lengthy process of reinstalling all your apps and then copying all your music, videos, etc from the computer back onto the iTouch.

So thanks to some very poor error handling from Apple, what should have been a 10 minute process probably took closer to 2 hours. Surely it can’t be that hard to add a routine that allows the user to try and re-verify the download, or at least hold off from doing the Windows driver update and putting the iTouch into upgrade mode until the download has been verified??? If you are going to do an upgrade of the OS on one of these devices, it may be worth giving the Download Only option a try and work out how to do the actual upgrade later when your internet is being more reliable!

The other major issue I have with Apple is what seems to be a “we know best”/nanny-state attitude. When shipped, the 2nd generation iTouch came with a bluetooth chip inside, but under version 2 of the OS this chip was unavailable. One of the upgrades in version 3 is the activation of the bluetooth chip.

However, it seems Apple have decided to make this available only for pairing with bluetooth headsets. From what I hear, Apple’s opinion is that bluetooth is insecure and dangerous. To be honest, I don’t really care. I rarely have bluetooth turned on anyway. And if you think it’s that dangerous, surely a better option would be to make the user aware of this when they attempt to enable it so it’s their decision, and their own fault if they do something stupid. (I could rant here about how we’re too nice to idiots these days and how we should be encouraging Darwinism, not holding it back with laws and legal decisions supporting a lack of common sense, but I’ll save that for another day!) But what this means is that I am unable to do things that would be useful like copy my contacts and calendar from my Windows Mobile smart-phone, or pair up my bluetooth GPS receiver for the location service (this would have been really useful when I was trying to find a friend’s house in the UK and managed to get confused by the street doing a loop from the main road!)  I can only hope that Apple see the light, or crumble to user pressure (I’m not the only one harbouring these grudges); but can anyone think of a time that Apple have done either of these things?

Well, we can live in hope. After all, the iTouch itself is a great little device; it would just be nice if Apple would start putting a little usability before “Oooh, pretty!” and the prevention of the natural process of Darwinism.