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My goal of minimalist tech on my next trip is pretty much history, I’m going to have to embrace tech maximalism (something I regularly excel at anyway). I’d recently decided that yes, I would take my GoPro with me since I’ll be doing some riding in Europe

A recent ride at home reminded me that my current GoPro which is 6 years old (Hero 3 white edition) wasn’t really up to the task any longer. Thus, this arrived in the post today…..

Two weeks out from my next trip to Europe and I’m already thinking about what tech I’ll take with me. I’d imagined / decided that I was going “Tech Minimal” for this trip, well thats what I was thinking until I started to lay out everything I “needed” to take.

I’ve failed at my minimalist goal even before I’ve started……

Back in February I purchased a set of AirPods. At the time I thought they were a terrible product and returned them for a refund. Apple did eventually call me and asked me to try them again, which I did. The second pair were not much better than the first, still dropped music constantly and hung up on conference calls. I booked a second appointment with the Genius Bar and they suggested they would replace my phone, as they suspected that was the issue. So I walked out of the Apple store with a brand new iPhone 6s+

Unfortunately this was only slightly better than with the original phone. I noticed they worked well with my iPad so used them on that for a while and gave up on using them with the phone. I’d also read numerous posts at this time that others were having issues with the 6S phones and AirPods and Apple were supposed to be releasing an update to them at some point in the future. I stopped trying them on the phone till about May

In May (or slightly earlier) there was a firmware update sent out, and magically the AirPods started working without skipping a beat. So I’ve now been using them daily for months with no issues. I must say that now that issue is resolved I love them and they are the best in ear earphones I’ve ever used. They don’t fall out like you would think they would. Normal earbuds fall out all the time, however I suspect the cable connecting them to the music player pulls them out.

I’ve not had any issues with battery life, the case the AirPods live in when not being used charges them, and you can charge this case when the AirPods are in there or not.

So in summary, after quite a bad start, I’m very happy with the AirPods and would recommend them.

Looking over the various pictures I took during the three weeks I was in London, I spent a significant amount of that time on the “Tube”, National Rail, EuroStar, Heathrow Express, Virgin Trains, Paris Metro, Paris PER and GWR. London and Paris have a fantastic rail system.

When I was in London last week and went down to the Imperial War Museum, I got off the tube at Elephant ans Castle. I was wearing the Star Wars hat my daughter bought me from DisneyLand in the USA in April.

As I was walking out gust of wind from a passing train blew it onto the tracks. I probably could have reached it, but as trains were coming in every minute and the lines are electrified, I wasn’t willing to risk my life to get it, regardless of how much I loved the hat.

The TfL staff were excellent, they sweep the tracks daily and told me to come back the next day when It would likely be in the lost property room. Unfortunately when I went back the next day, it wasn’t. TfL even double checked the tracks for me and it wasn’t there.

Anyone know where I can get one without travelling to LA? The online Disney store don’t seem to have them.