5
Feb
2012
My second post has appeared on the DailyMobile website titled Why are wireless Bluetooth over-ear, noise cancelling and in-line microphone headphones so scarce?
Jo and I just got back from a short holiday in Venice, Italy. We had a fabulous time. Venice is so beautiful and surprisingly small and one can easily walk it in a day. We had 3 days and quickly got use to the narrow paths and walk ways through the ancient buildings.
Venice is made up of a 117 islands seperated by the canals and joined by the bridges. The city is a master of engineering. How they built right on the water is just incredible.
We stayed on the Grand Canal in a lovely old hotel that was once a palace.
Almost every church had a square in the front of it with a well. So often we would spotthe well first and then discover the church. These wells were quite special as they were the main source of water back in the day they didn’t have a water pipe system. Even the rich had them in their small gardens.
There are canals everywhere with small bridges crossing them. We saw quite a few gondolas floating gently up the canals, but honestly it was too cold for such a pleasure.
I’ll add the photos we took later this week to our Gallery, in the mean time here are a few photos.
1
Feb
2012
Gosh, January 2012 is already part of history. Time flies when you are having fun. Last month was no exception.
My big news is that I got chosen to be a writer on Daily Mobile, which for me is really awesome as I have always wanted to be a part of a successful mobile site and to be able to contribute in something that I enjoy so much. My first post, entitled “Switching Smartphones – Nokia N900 to Samsung Galaxy S II” was my submission post to determine if I was good enough to join the team and it appeared on their website on the 26th January 2012.
Look out for more posts this February.
26
Jan
2012
I will admit I dabble in a bit of online poker now and again and I am always on the look out for a good deal or a reasonable prize fund and PartyPoker Denmark has one on the go this month.
Start Date: 1 January 2012 pm. 00.00 CET
Ending: 31 January 2012 pm. 23:59 CET
They are putting a quarter of a million Danish kroner on a special mega cash prize draw this month!
All you need to do is make a deposit in January to get a ticket and thus stand a chance to win. To participate in the draw you must do the following:
Prior pm. 23.59 CET on 31 January 2012 you must:
Prior pm. 23.59 CET on 31 January 2012 you must:
I would recommend visiting the PartyPoker Denmark website.
31
Dec
2011
It is that time of the year again when one looks back and reflects on the year that was 2011. I have not blogged as much as I would have liked too, because I have been busy with two new websites mynokian900.com & mysgs2.com, not to mention helping the folks with their website wilkinsonsworld.com. That is not to say the Bowens didn’t get up to mischief this year, far from it and so in one last post for the year I hope to highlight a few memorable occassions.
MyNokiaN900.com
In February I created mynokian900.com website in the hope that I could share my passion for this awesome Smartphone. I spent many hours updating, blogging, reviewing software and applications and the site has been growing ever since with thousands of followers from around the world actively commenting, posting requests and questions regarding the Nokia N900.
Heaver Castle, Kent
In March we visited Hever Castle, which is located in the village of Hever near Edenbridge, Kent, 30 miles south-east of London. It began as a country house, built in the 13th century. From 1462 to 1539 it was the seat of the Boleyn, originally ‘Bullen’, family. If you know your English history then you will know Anne Boleyn, the second queen consort of King Henry VIII of England, spent her early youth there, after her father, Thomas Boleyn had inherited it in 1505. (source Wikipedia).
Jamaica – Our 10 year wedding anniversary
On the 1st of May, we spent our 10 year anniversary in Jamaica at The Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton resort and spa. This was the 3rd time we had been to the Caribbean, having been to the Dominican Republic in 2003 and Mexico in 2008. It was an awesome holiday. The weather was fantastic, the sea was warm. We got to laze around the pools and on the beaches in five star luxury, relaxed at the spa, sailed in the bay, cruised on a catamaran, snorkeled in the crystal clear sea over the coral reef, climbed the famous cascading Dunn’s waterfall. We drove 4×4 buggies into the hills and just relaxed. It was a very fitting way to spend our 10 year annivesary.
Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park
In June we went to the Hard Rock Calling and this year the line up comprised of the Kaiser Chiefs, James, and the Killers. It was a very wet affair as it rained throughout the afternoon and into the evening.
We have completed enough courses in Go Ape to have shares in the company 
Andrew and Keri were in town so we braved the Leeds Castle forest of high wire, zip lines and tree top ladders. It was very enjoyable indeed. Highly recommended if you have a fear of heights.
This was the first year Jo and I had been to Ascot. It was an awesome experience. We mixed it up with the riff raff in the silver ring (thanks James). We had a perfect view of the race course, the Royals in their carriages, the horses and the big dark clouds that rolled in on a number of occassions with little mercy, but it did not dampen the spirits. In fact I think the Pimms and beer went down really well.
Discovering Kent
Jo and I discovered Kent this year partly because I started training for the Camino, which I will come back to. We bought a book on ‘Walking in Kent’ and started walking the foot paths across farms, apple & pear orchards, moors and the Kent Downs. We got to see all sorts of facinating things, but one of the highlights was seeing a Vipera Berus or Adder / Viper. You can read all about it in my previous post.
MySGS2.com
In August I decided to upgrade my Smartphone from Nokia to the Samsung Galaxy S II. I had experienced Android on my N900 so moving to the SGS2 was easy. It’s a great Smartphone, but sadly this meant I couldn’t continue with myNokiaN900.com website if I was spending all my time on my new device. After a month of using the SGS2 I decided to build a mobile website and so mySGS2.com was born. It is very early days but the site is coming a long nicely.
Amsterdam
In early September James, Paul, Andrew and I spent the weekend in Amsterdam. It was an awesome weekend but what happened in Amsterdam stayed in Amsterdam
The Camino de Burgos
In late September I joined my Mom on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, also known in English as The Way of St James, which are a collection of old pilgrimage routes which cover all of Europe. They all have Santiago de Compostela in north west Spain as their final destination. The main Camino route is the Camino Frances. This part of the Camino de Santiago traditionally starts in St Jean Pied de Port and finishes in Santiago de Compostela about 780km later. For me it ended in Burgos roughly 300km, which was as far as I could go in the 15 days leave I had booked. Far enough I might add. My feet were blistered, my toes unrecognisable.
 Cape Town – Stutterheim
Jo flew to South Africa in October to spend time with her family. Her sister is in Cape Town and her Mom is in Stutterheim, so great distances were travelled. Since I had been in Spain for the greater part of three weeks, it was only fitting that I stay home and look after the cats
It has been another great year, one which we will remember for a very long time.
Next year we have the Olympics in London to look forward too and then the countdown to the 21st of December 2012 – apparently this is when the world will end.
Happy 2012 everyone.
Mike & Jo
It is not often one gets to see the UK’s only venomous snake species out in the wild. Jo and I were walking in the North Downs, in Kent’s Trosley Country Park, when we stumbled upon this little beauty lying in the path, probably waiting for a small mouse or lizard. It didn’t bargain for my boot, and was hissing and striking at it much better.
Fortunately I had my Panasonic Lumix TZ20 available and was able to take a short video and a few photos. I have since looked up the snake and it’s a Vipera Berus or Adder or Viper. Males are grey, whereas females are brown in colour. They all have a distinct “V” or “X” shaped marking on the head. These snakes have vertically slit pupils, dorsal surface and flanks are indented and have zigzag stripes on the back, and the flanks usually have a row of dark oval spots.
The females get to about 75cm in length. This one was roughly 30cm. Check out this website for more detail on this snake.
1
Sep
2011
Bowen got a new smartphone recently and for a change it was not another Nokia. Instead I opted for the Samsung Galaxy S2 because it has a 1.2Ghz dual-core processor, is super thin, weighs in at 116 grams and has a beautiful super AMOLED toughended Gorilla glass screen.
The SGS2 is an incredible device.
The above screenshot shows my current desktop in the middle of flick between screens. I have flashed my ROM and running Gingerbread v2.3.4. The ROM is called Lite’ning ROM v6.1 XXKH3 – Fast as lightning.
I am also running Launcher pro application, which is awesome add it allows horizontal views as well.
This post was created on my SGS2.
I was playing around with my camera settings on my Samsung Galaxy S2. This photo of the local pub came out really well.
16
Jul
2011
I have entered into a competition that is running at the Nokia Sweden website. They are giving the new Meego Nokia N9 to 30 people, but in order to be one of the lucky 30, one has to pitch to Nokia the reasons why they should be given the chance to test pilot the Nokia N9. That is the first part and Nokia Sweden are not making this easy. The second part is for my friends, family, colleagues and website followers to recommend me based on my pitch. Recommendations must be added to the following website:  http://n9pilot.se/deltagare/mike-bowen#. Nokia will pick the person with the best pitch and he most recommendations. Sounds easy!
My pitch is below. Please visit the site and add your comments.
23
Jun
2011
It’s 12 years to the day when Dad passed away. There is not a day that goes by that we don’t think of him.
I have been listening to Queen lately and the song “No one but you (Only the good die young)” always brings a tear to the eye.
A hand above the water
An angel reaching for the sky
Is it raining in Heaven -
Do you want us to cry ?
And everywhere the broken-hearted
On every lonely avenue
No-one could reach them
No-one but you
One by one
Only the Good die young
They’re only flying to close to the sun
And life goes on -
Without you…
Another tricky situation
I get to drowning in the Blues
And I find myself thinking
Well – what would you do ?
Yes! – it was such an operation
Forever paying every due
Hell, you made a sensation
(sensation)
You found a way through – and
(You found a way through)
One by one
Only the Good die young
They’re only flying to close to the sun
We’ll remember -
Forever…
And now the party must be over
I guess we’ll never understand
The sense of your leaving
Was it the way it was planned ?
And so we grace another table
And raise our glasses one more time
There’s a face at the window
And I ain’t never, never saying goodbye…
One by one
Only the Good die young
They’re only flying to close to the sun
Crying for nothing
Crying for no-one
No-one but you
17
Jun
2011
13
Jun
2011
This is really funny. Unfortunately a watermellon was harmed in the making of this video.
![[image]](http://mowser.com/img?url=http%3A%2F%2Ffiles.bf3stats.com%2Fimg%2Fbf3%2Franksmedium%2Fr9.png)
Player
lookatbowen
Progress
K/D ratio
0.33 (177 / 542)
W/L ratio
0.66 (38 / 58)
Accuracy
4.82
Longest headshot
123.24 meters 96000 / 111000 (86.49%)
Dumb Little Man – Tips for Life
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