You can still do it ...

There have been no photos in my life today, other than a daft one of the rain outside, so I'm going back to a remark made in a comment around Christmas to give me my Blip for today ...

But first things first. It's been the most horrid day as regards weather, the increasing wind and rain coming as a particular blow after such a lovely day yesterday. My only outing - and I put on my wellies to do it, rather than soak a pair of shoes on a brief trot - was to the Health Store to buy bread flour; I'd totally run out of white flour and had to make do with oatcakes for lunch. It takes just over five minutes to reach the shop from home, and even in such a short time I was soaked. And the wind was strong enough to make the rain painful on the face as I marched into it. May indeed!

This being the case (I'm thinking of a school Latin textbook - quae cum ita sint ) we decided to devote all to starting preparations for going away. I always find it's the fiddly wee things that take up time (is there enough toothpaste in my toilet bag and what happened to the covers for the tips of the walking poles?) but by the time I desisted my case was down in the hall and more or less full except for the things I'm still needing before we leave. (It's in the hall because I can no longer manage to lug a loaded suitcase down two flights of stairs - I pack my stuff in packing cubes and take them down in bundles).

All this standing and going up and down stairs meant that my Apple watch was busily logging my activity, which is where the first photo of my collage comes in. (It's quite difficult taking photos of something on your own wrist, and the watch face doesn't show everything if you don't wear it!) The coloured rings are my activity goals for the day - red for movement, green for workout, blue for standing; the blue one nags me to ensure that I stand at least once every hour. The wee green man is what I touch to access my workout settings, so I can choose "Pilates" or "Outdoor walk" or whatever and then measure calories, distance, heart rate, pace and so on. The arc hidden under the hands at the moment are the temperature now and the range for the day. 

The second photo shows a couple of notifications that came in as I was taking another photo - they pop up just as they do on the phone, and the watch vibrates briefly to alert me. (I stopped it pinging!) Bottom left is part of the list of apps that I can access, and the last one is a photo I took of my computer screen using the watch as a remote to work the camera on my phone - just for demonstration purposes, you understand ...

Other functions include fascinating apps that tell my blood oxygen levels, heart rate, find my friends, find my phone (very useful, that!) - and if I go out without my phone, the watch complains that it's been left behind, especially helpful the time I left it on the windowsill at the Pilates studio. I also use Siri on my watch, usually setting a timer for cooking or whatever. And I can answer my phone on it, with the person on the other end usually unable to tell the difference, and I can send text messages by voice using Siri.

And now midnight has struck and my rings have all shrunk back to their starting point and another day has begun. And I bet you wish that whoever it was had never suggested that I could tell the eagerly waiting world how I was getting on with my watch...