Indulgence

Carl's attempts at getting me a birthday iPhone didn't work out. The first problem was with the microphone, which left people I called unable to hear me (or hearing me only very faintly). Leaving a message on my own answer phone was the same. That was reason enough to return it, but other problems made things even worse (unable to update the iOS software, and then unable to restore the phone). So I arranged to go over to Carl's place this afternoon to hand it back.

We tried to go for a bite to eat, but both Juggy's Well and No. 64 were closed because of the bank holiday, which surprised us. We tried for alternatives in Sandycove rather than Glasthule, and popped into the Butler's Pantry to get some goodies to have with coffee back in Carl's. I went a bit wild, including this rather luscious bit of pavlova among the loot. Before that we called in to Fitzgerald's, where food was supposed to be served according to the board outside. The board lied, though, and all we could get was a sandwich.

I finished my Glasthule visit with an enjoyable episode of Ballykissangel before heading back home. I ran into the last of the traffic diversions for the Women's Mini Marathon (why does nobody realise that 'marathon' suggests big, and that there can't really be a mini version of it?), so had a pit stop to while away some time and let the traffic calm down. I was back in time to catch live coverage of Steve Jobs's keynote from WWDC in San Francisco (OS X Lion, iOS 5, iCloud -- all as previously announced). It took a good two hours to get through everything, and I can't say I came away all that impressed (and I really do think it's time to stop this proliferation of iThis and iThat).