Once again the work day passed in a blur, but I never really did much on my phone during work so this wasn’t a surprise. Jogging home was absolutely horrible though! At least at the gym I have a clock that I can easily look at to keep track of the time (I’m doing the Couch to 5k running program, and need to run/walk at specific intervals). With the c25k app I can just focus on running while voice prompts through the earphones tell me when it’s time to walk or run. Without the iphone, and without a treadmill, running home from the office was difficult at best. I wore my watch and put it on the stopwatch feature, put on my little Telstra mp3 player and set off. The very first interval where I had to change to running I was 30 seconds too late (I forgot to look at my watch). The rest of the run home I spent checking my watch every 30 seconds instead of focusing on my running technique. Very distracting, and I didn’t enjoy it at all.

This evening we went to a friends place for some poker and drinks. Angeline told me about how thrilled she was on getting the new iphone 3gs, and how she hasn’t stopped playing with it since. Props to her for being considerate though, since she didn’t take it out to show me (or torment me). Listening to the two of us discussing it finally convinced Paige that she wants one, and given that her phone contract runs out next month it’s perfect timing for her. She’ll be signing up for a new one as soon as she possibly can. Angeline congratulated me on being strong and giving myself a challenge, while Stu said I was just sadistic (he’s another iphone addict). We all then stirred Mat about not being able to go without poker for a week, which he just gave up and said he couldn’t do it (all this time he had been saying he could, but just “needed to find the right time”). I WIN!!

Purely because my friends are lovely and considerate, the night was a breeze. I was always occupied with poker so if I’d had my iphone I probably wouldn’t have used it anyway, and without their iphones laying around tempting me I had no problems at all. Once again I’m up for another challenge tomorrow though.

Tomorrow night we’re going to watch some friends play netball, another prime iphone opportunity. Normally while they’re playing I would multi-task watching the game while updating twitter. No twitter for me tonight! It feels like I’m disconnected when I go out on the town without tweeting, it’s a very strange sensation (I think it’s confirmed I’m a twitter addict).

I’m on the home straight now though! Only 3 days to go!

**Favourite moment for the day**

Not a “favourite” moment as such, but rather a “notable” one. Almost having a melt down over not having music while jogging!

No related posts.

1. Learn to Surf: I haven’t started this one yet however it’s all planned. My friend Paige and I will be participating in the 2009 Ripcurl’s Girls Learn to Surf Day, where females all over Australia are given the opportunity to attend a surf school for the day to receive free surfing lessons. One of Mat’s workmates is also a surfboard maker and his wife is an artist, so he offered to make us both totally customised boards at a very cheap price. Awesome!

2. Run 2.4km in under 15mins: In progress. I’m following the Couch to 5k running training program, designed for non-runners to gradually increase their amount of running until they can confidently run for 30mins at a time (roughly 5km). If I can do that then I should be able to achieve 2.4km in under 15mins by the end of the year.

3. Enter in the Sydney City to Surf: Completed. I’ve entered, and the race is only 2 weeks and 2 days away! I’m extremely excited; I’ve managed to convince a friend, Julie, to fly to Sydney with me and Jo will also be flying from Darwin to meet us there. Mat will be joining us for the weekend, but while we spend time slogging it out on the bitumen he will be playing the cards at Star City Casino. Hard life isn’t it?

4. Go on a holiday (must include flights): Completed. We flew to America for 2 weeks, and had one hell of a holiday. One of my fondest memories ever, and I’m honoured to have shared it with the ones I love.

5. See a live concert: Completed. This year I saw P!nk play in one of the biggest concerts of the year (I’ve lost track of how many concerts she’s doing in Australia now; at last count it was something like 8 in each state but I’m sure it’s increased). I also got to see loads of live acts at the many festivals I worked at with RaveSafe earlier in the year including Kaiser Chiefs, Nine Inch Nails, Snow Patrol…too many to name. I was so lucky to have that opportunity, and depending on whether I’m in the police service next year I’d love to do it again. I’ve also got tickets to see Green Day perform in Brisbane at the end of this year, and I’m stoked that Mat will be joining me for this one.

6. Go skydiving: Not yet completed. This will be another one for the end of the year. However one of our friends is a pilot who actually flies the plane the skydivers jump out of, so again I’ve been given the opportunity to complete this task at a reduced cost. I’m looking forward to it though, should be fun!

7. Go on a tour: Completed via the segway tour with my family in Sausolito in America (one of the highlights of the US trip for me). The video of the tour can be seen in the Day 4 video of our holiday.

8. Photograph a sunrise/sunset: Not yet completed. I haven’t really given this one much of a priority as yet, but ideally I’d like to get down to Mooloolaba beach and take some photos of the sunrise. It’s extremely early in the morning for me though, so it’s probably more realistic that I’ll be photographing a sunset. I have my ideas on what I want, just need to get out there and get the shot now!

9. Have a girls cocktail night: Technically completed, although I want to complete it again. Jo and I got together and had a cocktail night when we were watching a socceroos match, but I’d love to get together with the girls and make it a big one at a hotel one night. We’ll see what happens.

10. See a live sporting match: Done and dusted. I’ve been to a few QLD Roar games (back when they were “QLD” Roar) including seeing the women’s side win the grand final for the 2008/09 season. I also went to an NRL match in Brisbane with Paige. I’m looking forward to seeing some more A-League matches again once the season resumes.

That’s it! 6/10 isn’t bad given it’s only just over the halfway mark. I’ll have to make sure I keep the others in mind though so I’m writing about another successful year!

No related posts.

After I had handed over the phone I started playing with the replacement nokia. While I thought it was a brilliant phone when I had first gotten it (one of the first phones to have inbuilt GPS with maps and turn-by-turn navigation) it just couldn’t compare now. There was no twittering from this phone, no wifi, and no way of easily locating apps to download and install. Of the “apps” that were designed for the phone, 99% of them are games, and dodgy ones at that. I could tell already this phone was purely going to be “just a phone” over the next week.

I decided to get off the computer (which meant no chatting to friends anymore – didn’t have my iphone to use beejive) and read a book. The night passed fairly quickly then, and eventually Mat and I went to bed. Normally in bed I would lay there for a bit and read google reader until I felt tired, would put the iPhone down and fall asleep. This particular night, I laid in bed and twiddled my thumbs until slumber came.

This morning I woke up and didn’t really have time to think about it (although it did feel a bit funny getting the nokia and putting it into my bag instead of the iPhone). It wasn’t until I had dropped Mat off at work and was driving to my own workplace I had thought about picking up some groceries to use for dinner tonight. Which then made me think that I should check my bank balance first. Unless I was interested in using a painful automatic phone system, then checking my account would be impossible. For the second time in less than 24 hours I missed my phone. I decided I would pick up the groceries at the end of the day after I’d had a chance to check the account using the work computer. Inconvenienced moment number 1.

Later in the day I had the radio playing in the background at work when I heard a fantastic song come on. I’d never heard it before and was interested to find out who it was. Without my phone I couldn’t use shazam, and typically the radio dj didn’t say who it was at the conclusion of the song. Inconvenienced moment number 2.

The only time that I truly had a problem about missing my phone today was at the gym. I use an application called c25k (iTunes link) which is designed to train a couch potato to run 5km in only 9 weeks. It’s absolutely fantastic. You start your ipod music on the iphone, then turn on the app. You can listen to your music (with full functions including skipping songs, pausing etc) and will get voice prompts from the c25k on when it’s time to walk or run, warm up or cool down, and when you’ve reached half way. Using this app means that you don’t have to focus on the clock – you can focus on your breathing or technique, or something else altogether. Tonight at the gym I was only equipped with my old ipod classic which meant I had to pay attention to the clock and make sure I was walking/running at the right times. It felt like it almost made it a bit harder, because I was looking at how much time I had left. Towards the end of the workout I found I could use that to my advantage though and started counting down the time remaining rather than thinking “oh god now I have all this time to go”. Still, I definitely felt the loss of the iPhone, and that app in particular. Inconvenienced moment numbers 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the number of times I changed pace during my running training).

I’ve now been without my iPhone for 25 hours and I’m travelling pretty well. I’m not a raving lunatic demanding to get it back (yet), though I daresay that’s because I’ve been able to access the *main* functions all day via a computer – twitter & chatting to friends online. At this stage I expect I will find the rest of the week fairly easy like today (unless a certain sister keeps calling stirring me up about what she’s doing on her phone!!) but the real challenge will be the weekend. That’s when the iPhone comes into it’s prime – when I’m out and about and have lots of time to kill.

Until then, I think I’ll manage. Just.

**Favourite moments from today**

Picking up the nokia to call a friend with Mat saying “where are you taking my phone” only to realise it’s technically mine at the moment. Then looking sheepish for it.

Waiting for a friend to arrive home, and Mat whipping out the iPhone to call them before putting it away while looking at me with a VERY smug look on his face (not sure if that was to stir me about the iPhone or the fact that he was proud he’d worked out how to use it all by himself).

No related posts.

Ever since I announced the challenge I’ve had people tell me I’m nuts, that I’ll fail, and why the heck would I want to do such a thing. It’s simple really – I love to prove I can do things. I love making lists, and getting them all done. I love someone saying I can’t do something, and proving I can. That’s partially the reason behind my annual “things to do” lists (new year “tasks” rather than resolutions), and my crazy “give up chocolate for one month and be really stupid by doing it during the Easter period” task.

I don’t expect it to be easy. In fact, I expect that I will be whinging & bitching for most of the week about it, and there’s quite the possibility I could cry like a baby when my phone is returned. But It will be an interesting experiment to see just how much my life has changed since getting the iPhone, and seeing how truly dependent I am on it. For those who don’t have an iPhone (or blackberry or android phones) they just don’t understand why this challenge is such a big deal. I don’t know whether a week without my iPhone will cause a decrease in the quality of life I lead or whether it will be totally refreshing. I might come out on the other end and see that the iPhone truly is just another gadget that I want, not need.

I know there’s a few particular apps that I will missing in particular:

1. The calendar – I have a goldfish memory, plain and simple. Without the calendar I’m going to have to write myself paper reminders (the calendar on the nokia isn’t even worth contemplating) and stick them in my bag. It’s the old skool method my mum uses. I’ve already checked the week ahead and made sure there’s no appointments I’ll be forgetting about during the challenge.
2. Twitter – one of the best features about twitter is having it on your phone, and being able to use the GPS functionality to see what’s going on around you, not to mention be able to tweet things as they come to mind. Given I will be working 5 out of the 7 days of the challenge, I will still have twitter at my disposal via a computer, but it’s really not the same. When I’m out and about and have 5 minutes to spare, what am I going to do instead of reading everyone’s tweets?
3. Beejive – this is a combination of time wasting as well as laziness. I have a few friends that I constantly keep in touch with via instant messenger, and having the ability to use it on my phone means that if I’m at home I don’t have to sit at the computer to chat with them. I can sit on the couch and use my iPhone. That’s the laziness part. The time wasting is in conjuction with twitter. When I’m standing around somewhere and have 5 minutes to kill, I can’t log in online and hope there’s someone to chat to. I’ll have to *shudder* find something non-iPhone related to do!
4. ShapeUp – I’m currently trying to watch what I eat and lose weight. Part of that is doing the ol’ calorie counting, which is where ShapeUp comes in. Open the app, type in the food I just ate, it adds the calories and I see how much I have remaining for the day. I can also put in my exercise and see how it offsets my calories I’ve consumed. Not having the app with me for a week means that I’m going to have to keep a notepad with me, and consult a weight watchers points guide. There’s no way I could work out calories based on the nutritional panels on food by myself. Missing this app is really going to hurt
5. C25K - this app is used in conjunction with the “Couch to 5k” running program. The app basically counts down the time remaining in the work out, and tells you when to warm up, run, walk or cool down. Makes it only one hundred times easier for me, since I can focus on the work out and not the clock. Also going to be greatly annoying missing this app.
6. Safari – before I fall asleep I usually spend about 15 – 20mins using safari to browse my google reader feeds. I expect for this week I’ll go to bed and twiddle my thumbs on what to do. Perhaps I’ll have to pay some attention to Mat instead *shock horror*

Of course there are other smaller reasons I’ll miss it – not being able to google search on the fly, not playing some games when sitting around bored etc. Missing the majority of the apps above  means a  lifestyle change for which I have to anticipate for the changes and ensure I’m prepared in advance.

I haven’t even started the challenge yet, and already I’m amazed by just how much the iPhone has truly changed my life. I hope this week goes fast.

No related posts.