I think we have everything under control – for my launch into the USA next week.

This is what we have done: )

• Skype for phone calls/video set up on the Notebook,
• New email addresses at GMail, (one personal and one for general emails)
• Special email address for Stories My Nana Tells comes to Notebook outlook.
• Logged email addresses for uploading photos to both Facebook accounts, we use Twitpic for Twitter.
• Have secure webmail to access emails sent to the website
• New passwords and email addresses set up for LinkedIn and Ning.
• Facebook and Twitter are fine (with new passwords)

• Notebook is set up with cordless mouse and WiFi connection
• New card reader installed and used for uploading photos from camera to notebook, to web and blogs.
• Bought a new 16g memory card for the camera
• Have spare camera battery;
• Bought three x 4g flashdrives and an external 500g passport harddrive.
• Have bought a Sany0 Bloggie for taking videos – need a bit of practice on that one!
• Have a converter for US power

What have I forgotten? Please let me know!

This is part of the great adventure of Nana’s Walkabout.  Finding new ways to stay in touch, keep up to date and accept the inevitable glitches and surprises that will come out of taking on the challenge.  Who knows what exciting new stories we will have to share in Nana’s Blog!

Oh, and by the way, just so that you don’t think I am getting away without any problems, one of the two hard drives in the server failed yesterday.  My IT guys will have to sort that out while I am not here. That’s down to my Dad, Warren, the electrician installing the new solar power and the IT guys to work out between them.

Preparing to be away for six weeks without my fabulous iPhone.

The idea of setting off on a six week trip around the USA and Canada (without my fabulous iPhone) was initially a terrifying thought.  For the past fifteen months or so, my iPhone was my lifesaver: while I had a frozen shoulder and could only type with one finger at a time, I could tweet – even if I couldn’t use a keyboard.  Laid up, unable to walk for several weeks at a time, first with the shoulder and then a hernia, my iPhone saved my sanity.

My beautiful HP notebook was bought as a blogging “option” when I went to Kununurra and Broome – on a whim to see the NT and go whale watching – and until now I really had not put my mind into neutral and started free wheeling into truly “mobile” communications.  I seem to remember wasting about $50.00 in Kununurra on pre-paid internet access that was never used because I did not feel very secure when I was not “tied” to some outlet or plug in the wall.

Once I was back on my feet and really started hitting the keyboard on the PC for Stories My Nana Tells around late September 2010, a horrible ADSL problem surfaced with the physical line and suffice to say it took six months to be fixed and that, in itself was extremely stressful because I had to resort to the TIO to get the problem taken seriously. My access to the net to work online was almost none and had it not been for my iPhone - I would certainly have been out of business!

Now, I am happy to say we have excellent ADSL access and I work Wi-Fi from the notebook in my lounge room most days. With a couple of POP boxes on the notebook, good access to webmail and a dongle – I am one happy camper.  Well, have been.

With the iPhone, notebook, a cordless mouse and the dongle, I have been highly mobile in the past few weeks and didn’t even have to panic when the power pack in the PC died last Sunday. The US and Canada have free WiFi all over the place, so I don’t expect being able to get on line a problem.  Buying an inexpensive pre-paid SIM card here and there will probably all I need to top up my internet access.  Great for all my web work and browsing.

But – six weeks of travelling without my iPhone looms large. Touring the US and Canada on Nana’s WalkaboutYes, for those who want to know,

• it is tethered to Telstra,
• I don’t know how to “jailbreak” and
• because the roaming charges are horrendous from the US.

The best advice I have been given so far is to pick up a cheap pre-paid phone while I am there and recycle it when I leave.  So the lovely man in the Telstra shop told me.

I have successfully set up couple of new mailboxes at Google GMail so that I can stay in touch with all my LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Meetups and other contacts and groups while I am overseas for six weeks and after I come home.  I appears that I may be able to access cheap phone calls from Google while in the US and in any event the next step is to install Skype on the notebook, get a nice little mike and use the webcam that sits in front of me all the time I am online with the notebook.  Just means making sure I have got my lipstick on, when I log in!

Having to adopt new technology sometimes pushes your buttons. It can be scary, because it is unknown and moves you right out of your comfort zone. If you never stretch yourself, you never grow.

So, this is part of the great adventure of Nana’s Walkabout.  Finding new ways to stay in touch, keep up to date and accept the inevitable glitches and surprises that will come out of taking on the challenge.  Who knows what exciting new stories we will have to share in Nana’s Blog!

Nono (real name William) is 92 – will soon be 93 – and the skin on his legs, in particular, has become fragile over the years. A bump or a knock and the skin tears very easily.  So, now I take him swimming in the ocean once a week to help toughen up the skin, to enjoy his company and to have a swim myself.

Today was the fourth Saturday in a row that we have been down to the Indian Ocean in Perth and we are both loving it.  The change in his skin is remarkable, too.

We have put up a little quiz on Facebook: Tell Us About Swimming With Your Dad Come and have some fun with us!

Is it better to duplicate posts – and delete one or two – or find out later that your important update has slipped between the cracks?

We have known Cheru Jackson for several years now and his blog search engine Alpha Inventions proved very successful in directing traffic to our blog at No Tall Poppies and others.

We are very happy to see Cheru keeping up the good work and improving Alpha Inventions all the time.

Promote Your Site

Some Facebook pages were quickly set up to engage the discussion and the overwhelming view was that it was too late to cancel and in the light of the flood tragedies on the East Coast and the terrible fires south of Perth, the fireworks shows should go ahead. Mostly for reasons of community support and social well being.

Conversations wandered off topic some times, there was lively interaction and it is very clear that being able to communicate openly through Social Media is a good thing.

These are two of my favourite links:

Bob Litchfield’s stream

Bronwyn Clee’s stream

My personal view is this: Let the fireworks go ahead – they help bring people together and celebrate life. Have fundraising buckets at the events. Charge a gold coin for entry. You will raise a lot of money and let people have some enjoyment.It’s too easy to cancel good things, thinking it’s the right thing to do, often out of a subliminal sense of guilt that we shouldn’t be enjoying anything, while others suffer. 

 

Cancelling the fireworks would be counter-productive when the country needs something cheerful and bright to bring it together.

On the Stories My Nana Tells Facebook page, I wrote

Thinking I should write a Nana story about Guy Fawkes night in the country, when we were kids. Spent weeks building bonfires; were allowed to stay up really late; catherine wheels; sparklers; penny bombs and tom thumbs; sky rockets and in the morning we kids would be up at the crack of dawn to trawl all the bonfire sit es for crackers and fireworks missed in the dark. Heaps of fun. Too late to cancel them now.

There were other excellent streams, too, speaking about the need to restore normality; the need for children to have the sense of security of being able to attend an event long planned and anticipated; that most of the money had already been spent and Governments and organisers would have to meet their contractural obligations for the events, whether they took place or not.

Think Mellen Events, A Day On The Green and the concerts – We Play, Rain Or Shine.

Kerry Beake had a great stream too:

So many people are suggesting we skip Australia Day fireworks and give the money to flood victims. It’s normal to want to help and do whatever we can. Perspective can make all the difference in the way we help and helping the best way we can. Sometimes the best way to help is to maintain normality. Children especially need this as a way to cope.

There is no doubt that being connected with Social Media has played a most important role in minimising stress and needless worry during the floods in Queensland and those now rising in Victoria and Tasmania. During the terrible fires south of Perth, Social Media was invaluable.

Being able to use Twitter and Facebook, in particular, provided many families with relief and helped emergency services in ways never previously possible. Official Police and Emergency Facebook Pages communicated critical information that undoubtedly saved many lives.  Twitter, in particular, came of age in Australia as a serious and respected source of news, photos, videos and support.

It’s a great thing – to be able to talk, laugh, cry and reach out a comforting hand in an instant. There have been some fireworks in the discussion streams, too! May it long continue.

My name is Lesley Dewar and I own my own name online: lesleydewar.com. I have also given each of my two sons and their wives their own names as domain names.

For business, I already have No Tall Poppies , which is a social network site and Networking To A Plan which is home to my new book.

Soon, I will have a website at lesleydewar.com which will be like the sun in my Internet universe. Everything else I do online will be connected to that central site.

Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Stories My Nana Tells, Networking To A Plan, Zebulations (my public speaking/workshops website), wordpress blogs (No Tall Poppies), TwitterMoms page -everything I do on line will be linked.

Why would I do this? Because then I can outGoogle Google! To find me, you don’t have to know the name of my blog, my business or my Twitter name. You only have to find my home page.

With some good key words on my own name.com, it’s a great way to have control over a wealth of information about me and my businesses collated in one spot.

So, think about how valuable your name is to you – as your brand – and make sure you take steps to own your brand. YOUR NAME! It could be the greatest gift you ever give your children: their own domain name.

Get Lesley Dewar’s new eBook Networking To A Plan as a gift. Nothing to buy! Nothing to join! Simply click on the book cover

Networking To A Plan

This is just a quick update on my travels around the North West of WA. I arrived in Broome this morning about 6:30 am after an overnight (13 hour) bus trip from Kununurra. The main highway up here is a national disgrace, given that it is the main route from Perth to Darwin. Even in a big Greyhound Bus it was rough and bumpy. In the 4WD,when I went out to the Bungle Bungles last Wednesday, it was a nightmare – and that was before we got off the “highway” and on to the ungraded, unsealed roads into the National Park!

The trip into the Bungle Bungles by 4WD took about 8 hours each way – and half of that on roads that left you feeling like you had spent the time in an old Hoover Twin Tub washing machine – but not feeling as clean! No water for washing from the time we left Kununurra until we got back.

A strong pain killer every 6-8 hours turned out to be my survival routine – but I still had a great time. Up at 4:45am – learned to pitch and pack my own tent; slept under the stars until it got a bit chilly outside and had a self-inflating mattress that blew up to at least half an inch thick. I joined a tour that came from Broome and was going to Darwin – and I have to confess it was a good thing that my own five day 4WD safari was cancelled at the last minute and I booked the two day one in Kununurra. I would never have lasted five days on the track! Believe me!

But I successfully trekked for four to five hours through the chasms, gorges and up to the lookouts – although they started me off first and I was last to arrive back. But I am happy that I managed to do the full tour – even though I was very, very stiff in the shoulders and neck. Especially in the mornings. We all pitched in to help with cooking, washing up – no alcohol unless you had brought your own – and this tour had already done the Gibb River Road – so, for them, the Bungle Bungles was not so bad. Everyone thought that it was hilarious that I hadn’t been camping since my very early teens and now here I was, in the middle of nowhere, digging a hip hole and not a bathroom in sight. When a 4WD turned up after dark at the Camp site and they wondered who it might be, I knew! “That’s my Dad” I said. “He never would stop to pitch camp before it got dark.” Lots of laughter all round. We had a great tour guide, Fiona and I expect to catch up with her here in Broome before I leave on Friday.

Took lots of great photos – from the ground and the air. This Nana could not resist a helicopter flight over the Bungle Bungles and it was awesome. The small aircraft flight the day before from Kununurra was not so good, because we had to go early – 6:00am – because of the heat and there was a lot of haze and glare off Lake Argyle – so, not so good for photos.

Kununurra Tip No 1 – when trekking in the gorges in the Bungle Bungles, do not disturb the eight foot brown snake, lying by the last remaining pool of water, while it waits for the wet to come.

Kununurra Tip No 2 – when camping out in the Bungle Bungles, sleep under the stars outside your tent BEFORE you see any eight foot brown snakes, if you want to sleep well.

Managed to find Cheribun Station on the map – outside of Fitzroy Station. My son Colin came up here when he was fifteen, to be a windmill fixer and cattle drover. Now, he is a surveyor in Canada. Always was one for the great outdoors.
Shame about St Kilda yesterday – I really wanted them to win, but their kicking let them down in the first quarter, in particular. Grand Final nerves, I guess. The beer and the fantastic steak burger at Gulliver’s Tavern almost made up for it. Drinking endless quantities of water- more than I thought possible!

I can also recommend the Kimberley Croc Backpackers as somewhere to rest your bones during your travels. Lovely people; every possible facility in the kitchen (DIY of course) and a good swimming pool. Close walking distance to all the main shops etc in Kununurra and they pick you up and drop you off when you arrive and leave. One of the ladies I met there who had just come in from Toad Busting used to work at the Swan Vet Clinic – so, she knew George and she remembered my dally, Pepper II. It’s a small world, for sure.

It’s a rest day today in Broome – tomorrow I am catching up with some friends from Kununurra and we are going whale watching together tomorrow. Apparently there are hundreds of whales up here at present with their babies. It will be fabulous. In the afternoon, I will be taking in a sunset cruise on an old pearling lugger. My Tuesday 4WD tour up to Cape Leveque was cancelled this morning – vehicle broken down – so I will have to find something else to do. Might see about a pearl farm tour or a mud crab tour! Now that would be fun – going to catch my own dinner. Tonight – just baked beans and a beer at the Backpackers – after A SWIM in their beautiful swimming pool. Cable Beach is about 300 metres away but not sure about the jellyfish yet. Last time I was here, it was recommended that you don’t go in the water.

Yesterday, I was swimming in Lake Argyle – just a few hundred yards from Crocodile Cove and we saw three small freshwater crocs. But no sign of them where we were – in the water, resting on noodles and drinking champagne! What a life!

Quite a difference in accommodation between backpackers. Kununurra: en suite and air conditioning 24 hrs a day. No shared room. Broome: No shared room but toilet and bathroom down the hall and air conditioning comes on at 4:30pm. Maybe next time I’ll stay a bit upmarket in Broome! But staying in a backpackers is always fun! 

My camera died on the way up here in the plane and I bought a new one at Retravision in Kununurra. Excellent service. Everyone in Kununurra (except the ladies in the photo shop at the Chemists) was very friendly, helpful and welcoming. I think those two ladies were just “touristed” out at the end of the season. Bought a lovely little Panasonic – have taken loads of photos and will upload some to the bog when I work out how to do it on this new netbook computer that I have been lugging around with me! The Telstra network is a bit on and off, up here.

Kununurra Tip No 3 – always, always carry a spare, charged battery for the camera. Mine takes about 200 on one battery charge – nowhere near enough for a two day camping tour in the Bungle Bungles with a helicopter flight thrown in! Once the red light flashes, you have about 12-15 shots left – without zoom.

Kununurra Tip No 4 – wear long trousers and boots before you go trekking off in the spinnifex taking photos of termite mounds. The leaves are very sharp and the tips break off at skin level if you are unlucky. 

Also had to buy a camping pillow and blanket and some warm sleeping gear (got that at the Salvation army op shop) – was very useful on the bus trip too. That was only a two painkiller trip – and it amazing where you can sleep when you have too. 

I am planning to come back next year for the Great Toad Muster and the Kununurra Rodeo – I’ll spend a week out in the bush helping to catch cane toads and then come into Kununurra for the AFL grand final and the Rodeo which is on the same night. I might then bus up to Darwin and tour down to Kakadu and Katherine and maybe come home via Alice Springs and the Ghan. Sounds like a plan!

Anyhow, that’s a year way and in the meantime I have lots of other things to keep me busy.

BTW – the taxi driver that brought me in from the bus says that most of the locals are opposed to the site of the new gas hub because of the whaling nursery here and asked that we continue to lobby The Premier Mr Barnett for an alternative site which is more environmentally friendly.

The gas project will go ahead – but the site for the gas hub urgently needs to be revised. When I told her that 12,000 people visited my blog to view the story on the Dolphin slaughter at Taiji and the sister city relationship with Broome, she thanked me for helping get the story told, even though it had a big impact on their festival. She said that the locals are prepared for eco-action in the same way as they were against the damming of the Franklin River in Tasmania –so, maybe this time next year you will find me chained to a bulldozer instead of hunting toads. The whale nursery up here needs all the protection it can get and if the State Government doesn’t do it, then the Feds must.

Ciao for now. Off for a swim!

Next challenge: to find an extra five nights accommodation in Kununurra, find something exciting to do and enjoy both ends of the adventure.

Next challenge: set up remote broadband with new computer so that I had contact with the outside world.

Next challenge: buy a new camera to replace the one that died on the plane on the way up to Kununurra.

So far, everything is working out fine. Tomorrow (Tuesday) I am flying over the Bungle Bungles – flight brought forward from 9:00am to 6:00am because of the heat and air turbulance. Being picked up at 5:30am.

Should get some great pictures on the new camera that I bought today in Kununurra. It’s charged and ready to go! During the day, I will probably spend some time in the pool! It is very hot up here,

Wednesday and Thursday, I am going on a 4WD safari for two days and a night, into the Bungle Bungles, the gorges and might be able to get a helicopter trip while I am there. Had to go shopping for a torch, camping pillow, some trackie dacks and a top to sleep in (apparently it gets chilly out there) and a rug in lieu of a sleeping bag. However, I will get a blow up mattress to sleep on, so I don’t have to worry about digging a hip hole.

Friday is organized with a day tour on Lake Argyle including a spectacular sunset – so I am really looking forward to that.

After the AFL Grand Final on Saturday (Go St Kilda!) it’s on the Greyhound bus and off to Broome for a spot of whale watching and then home. Watched the WAFL Grand Final yesterday too, but not so interesting for me, since Swan Districts didn’t play this year. South Fremantle are something else.

Last night, had an excellent dinner at the local tavern across the road from the Kimberley Croc Backpackers where I am staying and after dinner listened to some laid back reggae and the drummer playing a didgeroo that he made himself from a piece of timber he got in Kakadu. Very cool guy. Very cool night.

Can highly recommend Kimberley Croc Backpackers! Great fun, very friendly and well appointed. Next year will probably come back for the Great Toad Buster Safari and spend a few nights out in the bush, busting toads. Couple of cute little geckos in my room, too.

Will upload some photos tomorrow, if I have got my internet stuff right. Really hope to get that helicopter ride in, too. Last challenge is to interpret the notes I scribbled on the plane with an eyebrow pencil – when my pen ran out.