The week that was

This is the first post on my new MacBook.  I'm in Leek , in Staffordshire, visiting Wenge's family. I watched the Old Firm game in a pub nearby - I'll take 0-0 although we could have won it in the 2nd half - and now I'm sitting at Wenge's mum's house with the MacBook on my lap, hacked into the next door neighbour's unsecured wireless network.

First thoughts on the MacBook...  The hardware, of course, is stunningly beautiful, built from one piece of solid aluminium and with an illuminated keyboard that is a real joy.  The display is sharp and bright, and it's fast. It's just a gorgeous piece of kit.

I haven't got to grips yet with the differences between Mac and Windows.  For example, as I write this browser seems to zoom in and out without me knowing what I'm doing to cause it.  I can't find a delete key, nor any 'home' or 'end' keys, and when you click on a url in the browser window to copy it, it doesn't select the whole thing so you have to manually select it.  And where are the 'page up' and 'page down' keys?  Basically, after the first few hours I haven't a clue how Macs work.  But I'm prepared to believe that I'll love it in a few months, and I have enough friends with Macs that I can go to for help if I need it.

The more serious issue is that the trackpad isn't responding as it should - it sticks sometimes when I move the cursor.  For the money I've spent I want it to work perfectly, so it's definitely a call to Apple Customer Services next week. 

On Wednesday I went to an interview for a Head of eCommerce position at Ann Summers.  For anyone who doesn't know Ann Summers - for example my new Scandinavian follower(s), they provide goods, mainly for women, of a risque nature (assuming you consider Rampant rabbits risque of course).  I've heard good things about them as an employer; the interview went reasonably well, and there is so much wrong with their web presence that it would be a great opportunity to make an impact.  However, two hours each way by bus, tube and train to a warehouse on a dual carriageway in a small town near Redhill isn't my dream job. I'd like to be asked back before I tell them though...

Then on Friday a sadly familiar story at Ministry of Sound, where I'm doing some consultancy. At around 5.00 we got a call from our eCommerce partner to say they'd gone into administration - just a day after trying to sell us a new platform they were building. So, website down, redirects up to an external site to continue selling tickets for the weekend, and my job here looks like it could be bigger than it was supposed to be.  Glass half full.

If you saw my twitter feed earlier in the week, you'd have seen that I tweaked a muscle in my side after football on Saturday.  It was a stupid thing, caused by leaning over awkwardly to lift up my bag.  Since then I've been amazed at how many things can aggravate it - picking up a cold midweek added a couple to the list.  Anyway, here's a list of things that hurt when you pull a muscle in your side:

• Taking a casserole dish out of the cupboard
• Reaching for anything on my right
• Opening the bathroom window (which requires reaching over the bath)
• Getting up from lying on the sofa
• Turning off the bedside lamp
• Coughing
• Sneezing
• Running

Thankfully it seems to be settling down now so I should get back to footie this week.

It's good to see visitor numbers reach an all time high over the last couple of days, and followers increasing to a massive 15 signed up - but remember we're aiming for 25 by the end of the month. Welcome one and all. And finally, congratulations to Ana, who is joining blinkbox as Managing Editor - exciting stuff and well deserved.

Project for this week: watch more of The Wire - it's been a week since I last had a fix...