Trivia & Travels with Ruth

A link or two

Wed, 3 Feb 2010 22:22:34 +0200

If you haven’t already done so, check out Ruth’s niece Erin’s blog, Chicken Pudding:
http://chickenpudding.wordpress.com/
Some very cute pictures of Ayşe and some interesting comments on an American/Turkish family.....

I have also slightly updated my blog entry on the crash of my old plane having received some emails that filled in some gaps in the story. Email me if you want more details.

Back to the jeep....

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 20:56:27 +0200

After all the excitement about getting the app published to iTunes (btw - another sale yesterday - we think to Gary, Ruth’s brother-in-law) - it is back to more down-to-earth matters. First up, the Suzuki Samurai Jeep that we have had for 8 months without doing more than replacing a glow plug and fixing a light. It was off to “oto sanayı”, the area of repair shops that exists in every town in Bodrum. In addition to the usual oil, filter, diesel filter and air filter we decided to change the timing belt. A good decision in retrospect as it was cracked at every tooth!! That could have resulted in a destroyed engine top end. The accessory belt was also in bad shape and as can be seen from the photo below there had been some pretty dodgy repair work by a previous owner......

Three Sales Yesterday

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:29:55 +0200

The daily report is out - we managed 19 downloads and 3 purchases yesterday... whoohoo (who downloaded it from the Netherlands?)

It's live!

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:03:06 +0200

As of 3am this morning (Turkey time) our app is for sale on the iTunes App store for you lucky people with iPhones or iPod Touches. No-one has bought it yet but it’s early days.....

Its submitted to Apple

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 17:43:32 +0200

After a crazy last day which was interrupted every hour by having to mop up water from leaks round the windows, the Ephesus guide has finally been submitted to the iTunes App Store. The next stage is it being approved for sale or rejected - hopefully it will be the former and that we will find out soon. After much discussion on Facebook we decided to name the App “Turkey Rocks” since it will mainly be about archaeological sites (Historic Turkey was too long).

Here is the latest status on the App Approval process:

App Progress

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 23:54:31 +0200

The short trip to Izmir on Thursday game me a chance to the GPS features on the iPhone application we are developing (we made a small diversion to Efes). It worked first time which was a bit of a surprise (after 30 minutes of figuring out how to get the iPhone GPS to work without incurring serious roaming charges). This means that iTunes store submission (closely followed by fame and fortune) should only be a couple of weeks away. The picture is I’m afraid a faked screenshot made a few minutes ago in Bodrum as I didn’t remember to record the august occasion of our application’s first outing to it’s target place of use.......

P.S. the blue dot is the GPS location

Foot repair

Sat, 9 Jan 2010 23:50:20 +0200

Ruth is under Doctor Gür’s orders to keep her foot with the damaged toe in hot water for a while each evening. Just to show she is following instructions here is the proof.

Back in Bodrum

Mon, 4 Jan 2010 23:30:49 +0200

Finally enjoying the Bodrum weather where the only ice is where it should be - in a G&T (or a whisky). Thanks to Lutz, we can now make ice in the shape (roughly) of the Titanic and its nemesis, an iceberg; the former of which can just about be seen in this picture.

Cheers

[The thanksgiving trip pictures have been updated]

Wisconsin with bed & bathroom

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:35:05 +0200

We thought Punxsutawney was cold until we got to Wisconsin where we are spending a few days with Nell’s family. The ‘resort’ we are in is ‘Christmas Mountain VIllage’ which doubles as a ski and golf resort. Unfortunately even if I wanted to ski (there are a couple of bunny hills) it would be a colder than usual experience as Delta airlines has lost Ruth and my bags.

One unique aspect to this resort is the interesting bedroom layout with the bath next to the bed - is this a Wisconsin thing?

PS there is almost no cellphone coverage (only one of the five works at all and then barely) and internet access is slower than dialup.

Ruth and her rodent roots

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:52:34 +0200

Ruth (and I) went back to Punxsutawney, her birthplace, on Saturday for her Aunt’s 50th wedding anniversary. This was her first trip back in 15 years and was rewarded by temperatures down to 20ºF (-7ºC). For anyone who hasn’t seen the film, Punxsutawney most famous inhabitant is ‘Phil’ a groundhog who annually awakes from hibernation on February 2nd to forecast the weather.

There are now 33 fiberglass phil’s around the town - this one is beside the groundhog zoo....

We are now back in Atlanta where it is only marginally warmer.