Update: We are mobile!

I think we have everything under control - for my launch into the USA next week.

This is what we have done: )

• Skype for phone calls/video set up on the Notebook,
• New email addresses at GMail, (one personal and one for general emails)
• Special email address for Stories My Nana Tells comes to Notebook outlook.
• Logged email addresses for uploading photos to both Facebook accounts, we use Twitpic for Twitter.
• Have secure webmail to access emails sent to the website
• New passwords and email addresses set up for LinkedIn and Ning.
• Facebook and Twitter are fine (with new passwords)

• Notebook is set up with cordless mouse and WiFi connection
• New card reader installed and used for uploading photos from camera to notebook, to web and blogs.
• Bought a new 16g memory card for the camera
• Have spare camera battery;
• Bought three x 4g flashdrives and an external 500g passport harddrive.
• Have bought a Sany0 Bloggie for taking videos - need a bit of practice on that one!
• Have a converter for US power

What have I forgotten? Please let me know!

This is part of the great adventure of Nana's Walkabout.  Finding new ways to stay in touch, keep up to date and accept the inevitable glitches and surprises that will come out of taking on the challenge.  Who knows what exciting new stories we will have to share in Nana's Blog!

Oh, and by the way, just so that you don't think I am getting away without any problems, one of the two hard drives in the server failed yesterday.  My IT guys will have to sort that out while I am not here. That's down to my Dad, Warren, the electrician installing the new solar power and the IT guys to work out between them.

Preparing to be away for six weeks without my fabulous iPhone.

The idea of setting off on a six week trip around the USA and Canada (without my fabulous iPhone) was initially a terrifying thought.  For the past fifteen months or so, my iPhone was my lifesaver: while I had a frozen shoulder and could only type with one finger at a time, I could tweet - even if I couldn't use a keyboard.  Laid up, unable to walk for several weeks at a time, first with the shoulder and then a hernia, my iPhone saved my sanity.

My beautiful HP notebook was bought as a blogging "option" when I went to Kununurra and Broome - on a whim to see the NT and go whale watching - and until now I really had not put my mind into neutral and started free wheeling into truly "mobile" communications.  I seem to remember wasting about $50.00 in Kununurra on pre-paid internet access that was never used because I did not feel very secure when I was not "tied" to some outlet or plug in the wall.

Once I was back on my feet and really started hitting the keyboard on the PC for Stories My Nana Tells around late September 2010, a horrible ADSL problem surfaced with the physical line and suffice to say it took six months to be fixed and that, in itself was extremely stressful because I had to resort to the TIO to get the problem taken seriously. My access to the net to work online was almost none and had it not been for my iPhone - I would certainly have been out of business!

Now, I am happy to say we have excellent ADSL access and I work Wi-Fi from the notebook in my lounge room most days. With a couple of POP boxes on the notebook, good access to webmail and a dongle - I am one happy camper.  Well, have been.

With the iPhone, notebook, a cordless mouse and the dongle, I have been highly mobile in the past few weeks and didn't even have to panic when the power pack in the PC died last Sunday. The US and Canada have free WiFi all over the place, so I don't expect being able to get on line a problem.  Buying an inexpensive pre-paid SIM card here and there will probably all I need to top up my internet access.  Great for all my web work and browsing.

But - six weeks of travelling without my iPhone looms large. Touring the US and Canada on Nana's WalkaboutYes, for those who want to know,

• it is tethered to Telstra,
• I don't know how to "jailbreak" and
• because the roaming charges are horrendous from the US.

The best advice I have been given so far is to pick up a cheap pre-paid phone while I am there and recycle it when I leave.  So the lovely man in the Telstra shop told me.

I have successfully set up couple of new mailboxes at Google GMail so that I can stay in touch with all my LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Meetups and other contacts and groups while I am overseas for six weeks and after I come home.  I appears that I may be able to access cheap phone calls from Google while in the US and in any event the next step is to install Skype on the notebook, get a nice little mike and use the webcam that sits in front of me all the time I am online with the notebook.  Just means making sure I have got my lipstick on, when I log in!

Having to adopt new technology sometimes pushes your buttons. It can be scary, because it is unknown and moves you right out of your comfort zone. If you never stretch yourself, you never grow.

So, this is part of the great adventure of Nana's Walkabout.  Finding new ways to stay in touch, keep up to date and accept the inevitable glitches and surprises that will come out of taking on the challenge.  Who knows what exciting new stories we will have to share in Nana's Blog!