Day: 18 December 2007

iPod Touch

iPhone and iPod Touch side-by-side

On Saturday I got the chance to check out the Apple iPod Touch at my friend D’s house in Edinburgh, and I have to say that overall I was impressed.

D really wanted me to see if I could connect it to his wireless broadband connection and with no manual, or recent experience of the Apple-style OS after a couple of attempts and about ten minutes fiddling about I managed to do it. Safari was up and running and happily browsing the world wide web, and the built-in YouTube application was particularly impressive. As was the “pinch” method for zooming into page content.

One of the things that took me longest to work out — and D had to show me this — was the hardware button beneath the screen which is used to go back. I just didn’t find this intuitive, I kept looking for an onscreen option to return to the previous screen.

Compared with the Windows Mobile 6 I found the iPod Touch interface to be a much slicker and responsive experience. I’d now quite like to try the iPhone just to compare it.

Carol services

Vestments hanging in my office
My clerical shirt and vestments hanging in my office.

This evening I’m preaching at the Alumni Carol Service at St Salvator’s Chapel, University of St Andrews, starting at 18:30. So my clerical shirt and vestments are currently hanging up in the office.

I would have hung them all behind the door but unfortunately I’m too tall for the coat hook and my cassock was dragging on the floor. That’s what white boards are for, though, I guess.

This will be my second carol service this year. I conducted (most of) the carol service at St Mary’s, Newport-on-Tay on Sunday evening. I say “most of” because I had it in my diary as starting at 18:30, while the rest of the congregation had 18.00 in theirs. I missed only two carols and a couple of readings.

When I got home I checked my emails to see what time they’d given me. It turns out that was the problem: they hadn’t given me a time, just said “early evening” and I’d guessed 18:30 based on previous experience of early evening services.

This evening’s service is definitely starting at 18:30. Besides, it’s just across the quad from my office. Literally a hop, skip and a genuflect away.

Prayers please that my sermon goes well and that God speaks through me (but not in a weird, Hollywood style!).

Update: Oh for goodness sake! It turns out that the carol service begins at 19:00, not 18:30!! I was told 18:30 … can no one tell me the correct time that I’m supposed to turn up to these things?! 😉