Aidan Williams - High Acuity

The last few weeks have been incredible for myself, my partner and our company. We’ve really upped our game, had some great meetings, taken on a few new clients and our existing ones are extremely ecstatic about the work we’ve produced and how easy we make the whole process for them.

Unfortunately after two weeks of having a mild form of the flu, I contracted the 48 hour vomiting bug that’s been going around London and I’d like to share all of the gory details with you all, so you can truly appreciate your health. I started vomiting rather violently at 4am on Sunday morning and when I say violently, I mean so hard that it was coming up through the back of my nose… beautiful.

After a couple more vomiting sessions and painting the bathroom in the kinds of colours Jackson Pollack would be proud of, I eventually started vomiting blood. I called the National Health Service Direct number and after telling them my symptoms, they told me to get a taxi into the nearest Accident & Emergency hospital.

My girlfriend took me in and soon after taking my details and bringing me into a room, I promptly vomited more blood on the floor, passed out, collapsed and bloodied up my knee.

After taking my blood for tests, re-hydrating me with a litre of fluids from a drip, a couple of injections to stop the vomiting and a 4 hour stay in the hospital I said I would like to rest at home and the doctor seemed okay with that, saying I should take a couple of days off work to get my energy back.

It probably didn’t help that I’ve had a mild form of the flu for the past couple of weeks that hadn’t really taken, so my body’s defenses weren’t at their best.

This is the first time I’ve been ill for any length of time or with an illness of this severity in a good few years. Aside from my work hours, I tend to think of myself as a relatively healthy person.

I don’t mind the whole being ill thang, but what did upset me is that I missed the 32nd birthday party of one of my closets friends. I did make it up to him though.

So… incredible week, but crappy weekend – I guess you have to take the rough with the smooth in this life eh!

Enjoy your health guys!   

My sister and I met up with my brother at his new offices at 30 St Mary Axe (‘The Gerkin’) for an early Christmas lunch last Friday. He has the most incredible view over London from his office on the 31st floor, and despite the fact that the weather was terrible – it was still a great experience. We proceeded to the restaurant on the 40th floor which had more beautiful views over London AND fantastic food, and possibly the best Earl Grey tea blend I’ve ever tasted! (is it wrong to get that excited about great tasting tea? I don’t think so) I will definitely be going to visit my brother more often in the New Year.

If I were to regale you all with the fabulous food that my mum cooked over Christmas, it would provoke longings to embark post haste for my parent’s house, there to eat oneself cheerfully to death and gorge on Christmas delights. Everyone claims that their mother is the best cook in the world, but my mum really is the best cook in the world.

Christmas with my parents in the West Midlands was a haze of frosty mornings, country expeditions, conversations aside a crackling open fireplace, wonderful food and sweets, and a couple of great classic Christmas movies thrown in there for good measure. I cannot have Christmas without watching Scrooged at least once – it’s still timeless and classic and still my favourite Christmas movie of all time… just ahead of Die Hard.

On Boxing Day, my friend John, who I’ve known since I was twelve, and his girlfriend drove us out to Hay On Wye – a small town that’s famous for being filled with pretty much nothing but book shops and cafes. They have an annual famous literary festival where my brother saw Bill Clinton speak a few years ago.

We had a great day out walking in the (freezing cold!) countryside and ended it with a nice meal in a country pub at the Llantony Priory, which is the only building left standing in the ruins of an Augustine monastery that was build in 1180AD.

All in all it was a wonderful break for my girlfriend and I. I haven’t been home all year, so it was great to spend some quality time with my parents.

It’s a beautiful blue-skied sunny autumn day in London and Steve Jobs & the Apple team are at London’s Regent Street Apple store announcing the UK release date of the new iPhone.

Apparently the adverts for the iPhone which they showed at the beginning of the presentation are all rehashed versions of the old US ones with the O2 logo replacing the AT&T one and the Guardian website replacing the New York Times.

It seems everything about the presentation was slightly anti-climactic, although perhaps people got their hopes up a bit too much when they found out that Steve Jobs was coming to give the presentation, in expectation that it would be something even more special – the iPhone is exactly the same as the US one – no 3G and no bigger hard drive – they do have unlimited browsing data plans, but they only start at £35 for the cheapest plan and they’re not strictly ‘unlimited’ - 1.400 page views per day – which doesn’t sound too unreasonable unless you plan on using the iPhone exclusively as your Internet browser, and even then it’s not that bad (according to Google Answers the average Internet users see 100 – 150 pages per day).

In a country where we’ve become pretty accustomed to getting even the newest phones for free, or at the very least below £50 - £100, it’s difficult to weigh out the benefits of buying an iPhone.

I think if I buy one, it will be an extravagance relating to my enjoyment of using Apple products, and I think the vast majority of UK mobile customers will steer clear of the iPhone with it’s £270 price tag and £35 monthly tariff.

So what are the benefits?

Well I’ll be able to sync my iPhone with my 17” Macbook Pro, sharing addresses, phone numbers, calendar appointments, photos, etc – which I already do with my three year old Sony Ericsson K750i.

I’ll be able to surf the web and check email on a full colour screen, with full html email including images – which I can already do with my Sony Ericsson K750i, albeit to a far more limited degree and without the WiFi connection – but if I’m near a WiFi connection, that’s what my laptop is for.

I’ll be able to listen to my music and watch videos - which technically I can also already do on my current phone, albeit in a far less simple manner, on a far smaller screen. I have an iPod for that too, which sort of dwarfs the iPhones 8Gig memory, which will also be taken up by other things such as software.

I have to say, if you think rationally about it and ignore the ‘touch-screen technology’, which is obviously a huge plus for the iPhone, when you compare the actual technological real-life day-to-day advantages of owning an iPhone vs most other modern phones in Europe, it’s not all that mind-blowing or practical. And when you consider that most prospective iPhone users more than likely already own an iPod, that removes that element from the equation - and will also probably be more sensible, since using music and video, and all of the other extras on the iPhone will take away valuable battery life – the iPhone dock will definitely get a lot of use with these phones.

Quite a few prospective UK iPhone owners seem to be upset that it’s taken them this long to get the iPhone here, given that Apple have been so good at simultaneously launching their products internationally in the past. But the iPhone is obviously a-whole-nother kettle of fish, since they’ve had to find and partner with an appropriate provider.

The UK Market has been very good to Apple in terms of iPods and its computers, but I think Apple may get a slight shock from Europe when it comes to the iPhone. We’re not used to paying £270 for a phone and we will weigh-out the pros and cons of an iPhone vs the competition, before buying. Many are already saying they’ll wait for the 2nd generation iPhone and hope that it receives an International launch once all providers are established.

Having said all that though, anyone who knows me remotely, knows how much I love technology, and with undoubtedly the best mobile Internet and mobile email device on the market, you know I’ll more than likely pick one up at some point, especially considering I’ve purposefully not upgraded my old phone while waiting for the iPhone to be released. I’m sure I’ll find many excuses to convince myself to do so in the next two months before its release, but I will also be checking out the competition in the meantime.