Music. So when was the last time you listened to a whole CD?

I was thinking the other day how in recent years the way we listen to music has changed. My thoughts were prompted when I realised its been more than 2 1/2 years since I've listened to a CD. Thinking about it, the only CD player I now have that works is in my car.


So what has changed for me? I was a fairly early adopter of MP3 players. Over six years ago I bought a Creative Zen Touch MP3 player, the idea of being able to carry my entire CD collection around in my pocket appealed to me.

It was at this point I stopped listening to whole albums and started to play my music on the random shuffle setting. I love listening to music like this because tracks get thrown out from the darkest corner of my music collection, and sometimes these long forgotten tracks are absolute gems.


MY zen MP3 player lasted over three years, but when I converted from PC to Mac at home I discovered my trustee MP3 player wouldn't connect to my mac and there was no mac compatible software for the device. 


So sadly my zen touch was retired and I converted to my iPod classic.

I love my iPod and via iTunes I have over 4400 tracks. I think my music consumption has changed, I tend to buy one or two tracks off albums now but via digital music stores I can access tracks from bands I loved as a teenager, guilty pleasures like A Flock of Seagulls, Visage, Gary Numan and Ultravox. My 80's music collection was mostly on cassette and it great to be able to rediscover how good (and naff) some of this music was.

I hope you don't think me as a philistine for on listening to my iPod on shuffle but as I said I love it when I get to hear a track I haven't heard in ages. Two recent favourites thrown out recently were Broken Land by the Adventures and From the Stars by White Lies.

Some Apps for iPad that are cool!

Here are a few apps for iPad that I'd like to recommend.


First up there is Flipboard, this works on iPad and iPhone. Imagine looking at your social media feed from Twitter and Facebook and getting them displayed to you as a magazine. You can also get clips of articles from your favourite magazines such as Wired or Golf Digest to name but two, there are many more to subscribe to but these are a couple I'd choose.

Next up I would recommend a couple of eReader apps, iBooks and Kindle. I have both on my iPad. Personally I think that I prefer Kindle but both are good. I don't mind reading on an iPad ( I know some prefer to read a real book) but its great for holidays, you can take loads of books without exceeding your baggage allowance. By the way these aren't mine :-)

The Kindle APP

iBook APP

Finally, I love Evernote, this allows me to clip and store content and sharing it across all my devices. My mac, iPad and iPhone. This maybe photographs, emails web clips, even voice clips. There are free and paid versions of Evernote. There is a monthly allowance for data you can share and you organise the uploaded files via your Mac or PC.

A Walk Near Haytor

I felt  the need on the weekend to get out and get some fresh air.


I drove up to Dartmoor and went for a walk around Haytor. It was really pleasant but the weather was a bit cooler and more overcast than in Exeter.But the exercise was good and it was great getting out in the open air for an hour or two.


Anyway here are a few photographs.

Movie Recommendations.

I've taken the opportunity to catch up on some films this week, two in the cinema and one on Blu Ray.


My cinema choices are:


Sherlock Holmes: The Game of Shadows.

My second cinema visit is The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. This is brilliant but be warned it is graphic and it lives up to its 18 certificate.

Finally on Blu Ray I caught up with Inception. I saw this in the cinema last year and it was brilliant. It lives up to a second viewing and it looks stunning in Blu Ray.

A walk along Dawlish Warren

Yesterday, Barney the dog came to visit. I decided to take him out for an early walk, so we took a long walk along the sand dunes and the nature reserve at Dawlish Warren.


The weather forecast was a bit dodgy, high winds were due and a storm was brewing.


We went for a walk along the sand dunes and I managed to get these photographs.


I think they show the calm before the storm arrived.

Winter Whitening!

How would you like a brighter, whiter smile? 


The Spicer Road Dental Practice has an amazing offer on tooth whitening this December. 


We are offering tooth whitening at the amazing price of £260, a seasonal reduction of £100 on our usual price!


Interested?


Contact or reception team for an appointment and a brighter smile could be yours! Our telephone number is 01392 272408.

The retirement of a Welsh Great

Saturday marked the final game of Shane Williams' illustrious rugby career. Fittingly, his last game was in Cardiff, and with the final move of the game he scored his final try.