This & That

James Langley Dalton, V.C.

Nigel Utting — 2012-05-03T21:09:34Z

Everyone loves the film Zulu, and Boxing Day wouldn't be the same in its absence. As a record of an historical event, it doesn't stick entirely to the truth, but it's a reasonable approximation.

One of its major failings, however, is its unfair portrayal of Henry Hook as a skiving malingerer - he was nothing of the sort - and of Acting Asst. Commissary James Dalton as something of an effete idiot.

Dalton was nothing of the sort, either. He enlisted in the British Army in 1849 at the age of 17 and retired in 1871 with a Long Service & Good Conduct medal. By 1877 he was in South Africa and subsequently an Acting Assistant Commissary with Chelmsford's expeditionary force which invaded Zululand in January 1879.

It is difficult to see how the defence of Rorke's Drift could have been successfully concluded without Dalton's advice regarding the construction of both the outer perimeter and the the famous 'biscuit box wall' which divided the defended area in two. (These were tin boxes weigh 90lbs, not your average tin of custard creams).

The outer perimeter was intended to be manned by approx 400 men: just over 100 men of B Coy., 24th Regiment of Foot, plus approx 300 men of the 2nd/3rd Natal Native Contingent. When the NNC troops (themselves 'defecting' Zulus) decided that they did not want to take their chances against several thousand of King Cetswayo's Zulu (the treatment of any captured NNC trooper by the Cetswayo's troops would have been short and to the point - literally and metaphorically) they vaulted over the outer wall of mealie bags and disappeared at high speed.

This left just over 100 men to defend an outer perimeter designed for 300 more and, not long into the engagement, the decision was taken to fall back into the smaller area behind the biscuit box wall.
The story of the defence of Rorke's Drift (22-23 January1879) is well known and Dalton's role therein is wholly accepted. He was not named among the recipients of the VC immediately after Rorke's Drift; however, when news of his actions became more widely known - including to Queen Victoria herself - it was decided he should be awarded the Victoria Cross, which he received from General Hugh Clifford VC at a special parade at Fort Napier on 16 January 1880.

Dalton died unexpectedly, aged 53, whilst staying with his old friend, ex-Sgt John Sherwood Williams, at the Grosvenor Hotel, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, during the night of 7/8th January 1887.

I was visiting Port Elizabeth at Easter this year and decided to look up Dalton's grave. Russell Road Roman Catholic Cemetery is easy to find and is on an open sloping area with easy access.

The grave is in pretty good condition - certainly better than most others which have been pushed over and broken. If you visit, watch out for broken glass underfoot, and keep an eye on who's keeping an eye on you - it's not the best of areas.

Russell Road RC cemetery

James Dalton's grave

The old South Africa

Nigel Utting — 2012-04-28T17:16:47Z

When we visited Kalk Bay outside Cape Town in 2009 it was like stepping back into the 1930s, as though it were a film set for an old movie. This month's visit was just as enjoyable although building works have taken away some of the old world atmosphere.

Less pleasantly, a simple encounter whisked me back to the old South Africa. As I walked round a corner I nearly bumped into an elderly Cape Coloured woman walking in the opposite direction. "Sorry, Sir" she said as she stepped back, eyes down.

This wasn't 'Sir' as you might be addressed by a waiter, this was 'Sir' as in 'Baas'. My smile and "No problem" did nothing to lighten the situation. It only lasted a second, but it was not a happy moment for either of us.

iPad in South Africa - first (and second) top-up

Nigel Utting — 2012-04-14T16:12:41Z

After a less than friendly exchange with a shop assistant in France over a 3G top-up last summer, I wondered how it would go here in S.A. I needn't have worried. All they needed was the SIM card's phone number and we were good to go.

They need the number because, rather than giving you a code number to type into your device, they credit the additional data direct to your card. The only slight problem was that I didn't have details of the card's phone number with me, but the lady in the shop put my SIM in her phone, sent a text to the person at the next desk who read back the sender's phone number!

The second top-up was even easier because I brought details of the phone number with me (it's not printed on the SIM card, before you ask). The initial 500Mb of data was R159 and top-ups of 250Mb were R99 each (£7.86, $12.50)

Quick, easy and painless. Well done, Vodacom.

iPad in South Africa - travelling around

Nigel Utting — 2012-04-06T16:20:50Z

As reported, there was no 3G signal in the Drakensberg, but it reappeared as soon as we got back on the N3 to Durban. That was fortunate because our TomTom GPS (with the latest map update) still thinks that Durban International Airport is at the old location rather than the new King Shaka Airport (44km away, to the north) and a quick check with the iPad confirmed that TomTom was wrong.

Relocating to Port Elizabeth on the Cape, gave us a 4Mb download speed on 3G. The hotel boasted a free initial 100Mb of wifi, but crapped out after about 45minutes and maybe 10Mb of use, asking for payment for further connection. Not impressed, but at least the 3G was available.

Moving on to Plettenberg, Vodacom 3G is giving me just under 4Mb downloads here at the NH Plettenberg Bay Hotel.

Over half my initial 500mb of data is still available, and I only expect to need a single topup for this trip, probably of 250Mb. We'll see how that goes later.

In general, I can't believe how dependent on mobile data I have become. I expect the iPad to be able answer my queries wherever we are. For a bloke who'd never used 3G data until last year, I'm now a 3G junkie!

Is that your BMW, Sister?

Nigel Utting — 2012-04-04T20:16:42Z

Certain categories of South African driver - no names, no pack drill - are a little too keen to flash other drivers on the freeway.

There you are, overtaking the world's longest lorry which is towing the world's longest trailer, and the aforementioned driver starts simultaneously driving up your backside and flashing his headlights. Where the hell does he expect you to go? The appropriate response is a gently-waved middle finger, but you have to be just a little circumspect with the insults in this neck of the woods.

Which leads to a recent journey down the N3 to Durban, during which I was vigourously flashed from behind by a hoodie in a car a lot faster than mine. As I was deciding whether a variable-angle, monodigital gesture was the appropriate response, I noticed that the 'hoodie' was a nun in an X3!

Humility and obedience don't seem to rule out low level road rage hereabouts, so I let her go before she simply drove over the top of me.

iPad in South Africa - Arrival

Nigel Utting — 2012-04-01T10:03:42Z

My plan to ask a friend to buy a PAYG data SIM for the iPad in advance this week's trip to South Africa was stymied by the requirement for the card to be registered in the buyer's name. I suspected that would be the case, but I was just hoping to reduce the time taken to get out of the airport.

In the event there is a Vodacom shop in Johannesburg International Arrivals (and an MTN shop right next door) and, contrary to some of the online comments I have seen, buying an iPad SIM was absolutely no problem.

The SIM cost ZAR105 (£8.50/US$14) and 500Mb of data an additional ZAR159 (£13/US$21). It took about 15 minutes to buy/register/activate, and all I needed was my passport; no details of a local address were taken. The data service hadn't activated by the time I left the shop but I was online when I checked about 20 minutes later; download speed was about 1.7Mbps.

3G was available most of the way down the N3 from Johannesburg, but disappeared when we turned off at Harrismith and drove into the Drakensberg mountains.

My choice of Vodacom over MTN was made for no specific reason, but maybe I made the wrong choice, given that I have a full-deflection MTN signal here at Cathedral Peak! Whether that would have translated into 3G I don't know, but at least I would have had a chance.

That _really_ stings!

Nigel Utting — 2012-03-30T09:23:05Z

For nearly eighteen months, since what didn't seem at the time like a major accident almost severed my left Achilles tendon, pain has been a pretty constant companion, and painkillers have been my best friends. If it hasn’t been the left ankle, it’s been the overloaded right leg or the sciatica from a lumbar spine abused by walking at unnatural angles.

Given my enforced interest in the subject, my attention was recently caught by a comment that ‘you can only feel pain in one place at a time’. Since I seemed to be successfully aching in multiple locations simultaneously, I wasn’t entirely sure that the one-pain-at-a-time concept rang true.

It has been interesting, therefore, to be able to test the hypothesis in recent days. The back-related problem had reached the point where gritting of teeth was no longer an option, and last week I had an epidural. I seem to have been lucky, the injection hit the spot, and both back and sciatic leg are much improved.

As a consequence, however, I was much more aware of pain in the left ankle – not the tendon which seems to have recovered well after surgical repair – but generally around the upper foot, again because of months of poor gait. Simple Ibuprofen has now reduced the pain in the left ankle but I have increased awareness of complaints from the over-stressed opposite knee!

So, from empirical experience, it seems that the idea ‘you can only feel pain in one place at a time’ embodies an element of truth, if not the whole truth. Discomfort in one place masks an ache in another, with a naturally self-organising hierarchy of hurt.

It’s all getting better slowly, but it seems to take a hell of a lot longer at 59 than it did at 29.

Word of the week: desuetude

Nigel Utting — 2012-03-14T18:54:15Z

It's not often I come across a word I haven't encountered before, but here's one: desuetude. It means to be in a state of disuse or inactivity.

I came across it in Peter May's novel 'The Black House', the first of his Isle of Lewis trilogy. It's a good read, with a particularly strong on sense of place.

A central theme of the book is the annual guga hunt, where 2000 gannet chicks are harvested from the island of Sula Sgeir, by men from the community of Ness on the Isle of Lewis, under a specific legal exemption from the 1954 ban on the hunting of seabirds.

Jersey's Stone Age Past

Nigel Utting — 2012-03-12T21:06:03Z

Back in the days when I was regularly writing magazine articles, I had a piece published entitled Jersey's Stone Age Past. The article centred around the outcrops of peat which had appeared in Jersey's St. Ouen's Bay after winter tides had stripped away several feet of sand, and this same peat has reappeared in recent weeks.

'Peat' is actually a misleading term in this context; rather the the moss peat you find in the west of Scotland, the St. Ouen's deposits are really a highly organic, loess-type soil similar to that you would find under an old pine forest.

In addition to the soil, entire root systems and the bases of tree trunks are visible; species include oak, ash, hazel. elm and pine.

In the Mesolithic period, when the peat deposits were laid down, around 10,000 BC, the area which was to become Jersey was a patch of higher ground in a vast marsh of tundra plants and slow moving water, extending westwards from what is now modern Brittany.

Birmingham gun trade (updated)

Nigel Utting — 2012-03-12T18:45:05Z

When I was a child, my mother told me that her grandfathers had worked in two of Birmingham's major industries: the gun and the jewellery trades. By the time I was born, the family had moved away from the Midlands, I felt no link to Birmingham and investigated no further. However, a lifetime's involvement in the shooting sports eventually led to an interest in British shotguns and an urge to find some information on my great-grandfather, William Spendlove.

The British gun trade had two main centres: London and Birmingham. London (and this is a substantial generalisation) produced a lower volume of more expensive, higher quality shotguns, while Birmingham produced a much higher volume of more run-of-the-mill guns (which is not necessarily to suggest low quality) as well as a smaller number of high-quality, 'best' guns.

London (the generalisation continues) typically adopted the factory model, where virtually all the processes to produce a gun were carried out at one location. Birmingham, with a small number of important exceptions, worked on the pre-Industrial Revolution model where a large number of small (often one-man) producers manufactured specific gun components on a piecework basis, which were then assembled by someone else.

The majority of those small producers worked in Birmingham's Gun Quarter in tiny, Dickensian workshops (see photos below) right up to the 1960s. For a fascinating insight into this world, read The Birmingham Gun Trade by David Williams (ISBN 0752432370).

I had entertained hopes that my great-grandfather was a gunsmith, and that his name would be found engraved on a set of quality shotgun barrels; however Nigel Brown's British Gunmakers: Birmingham, Scotland and the Regions lists a more modest: William J. Spendlove, lmkr [implement maker], 1926-1944, 11 (back of) St. Mary's Row, Birmingham.

St. Mary's Row was also the location of W. W. Greener, Birmingham's (at one time, possibly, the world's) largest gunmaker and, since William's workshop was literally next door, I wonder whether he was one of Greener's suppliers?

I found two photos of gunmakers' workshops at the rear of 9-11 St. Mary's Row taken in 1960, long after William was dead, but I suspect that very little had changed in the intervening years.

Update March 2012:

I e-mailed the current W. W. Greener company as follows:

My g-grandfather William Spendlove is listed by Nigel Brown as an implement maker working at 10-11 St. Mary's Row, pretty much next door to the W. W. Greener factory. I realise that this is a long shot, but is there any record of William Spendlove having been a supplier to WWG?

I received a reply as follows:

Thank you for your e-mail. I regret that we do not have any records which
might indicate that your great grandfather supplied W W Greener with parts
or implements. Our company was bought by Webleys in 1965 and we bought it
back in 1985. In those twenty years Webleys managed to lose most of the
records, we do have some of the old documents and books but nothing which
relates to suppliers.

Numerous outworkers lived and worked in the surrounding streets in the old gun quarter of Birmingham. W W Greener's older brother Joseph made guns at 8-1/2 St Mary's Row from about 1869 to 1874 and we know he did not supply his brother or vice versa so it is unlikely. The W W Greener factory was one of few which could make everything in house although there were times when parts or certain types of gun were bought in. An example is the 'Farquaharson' falling block rifle for which the action was bought in and then W W Greener finished making the rifle.

Kind regards
Graham N Greener
Director
W W Greener (Sporting Guns) Limited

Photos (c) University of Birmingham

See: Phyllis Nicklin's photos of 1950s-1960s Birmingham

Windows on your Mac - Parallels .v. Bootcamp

Nigel Utting — 2012-02-28T11:45:52Z

As a matter of convenience and just to run a small number of specific Windows programs, I have been dual-booting – or, rather, virtualising – Windows XP under Mac OS X using Parallels. I immediately found that the 1Gb RAM with which my 2007 13” Macbook arrived was wholly inadequate, and increased the RAM to the 2Gb maximum allowed in that model.

Once fired up, Parallels ran Windows XP without any problems, if not at blinding speed, but I found Parallels to be slow to start up, and over time this gradually began to annoy. Since my Windows-in-Mac usage is relatively low, I decided to try genuinely dual-booting Windows on the Mac using OS X’s built-in Bootcamp.

The install process is simple, the slowest part was downloading the necessary drivers, but in the end I just walked away, went out for the afternoon, and when I returned the drivers had downloaded and burned to DVD. Remember that you will need a licensed copy of Windows, complete with registration code.

The only difficulty occurred after installing Windows 7 and before the Mac-specific drivers were installed. At that point, the Mac display became so dark that I could only navigate by keyboard commands input from memory. Once the Mac-specific drivers were onboard, the screen was back to normal brightness.

So, now I have a dual-booting Mac with both OS X and Windows 7 available, what’s the verdict?

Boot time into either OS is quick, and swapping between one and the other is probably faster than firing up Parallels within OS X. When running Windows, the Macbook runs like a fast Windows laptop and the result is quite impressive.

On balance, I think I’ll be sticking with Bootcamp and retiring Parallels.

Postscript: The main Windows program I use on the Mac is Garmin’s Mapsource, which allows me to upload map segments to a Garmin handheld GPS and download map trails. There is a Mac version of the program, but it’s so bad that it’s embarrassing.

I now discover that, having installed Windows 7 under Bootcamp, my version of Mapsource isn’t happy with Windows 7, and I have a feeling that my version of Bootcamp won’t accept Windows XP. Never a dull moment.

None of that changes my opinion, however: if you Windows-in-Mac usage is light, Bootcamp is the way to go.

The Cottage on The Fell

Nigel Utting — 2012-02-12T23:00:57Z

All through my teenage years, I spent the Easter and summer holidays in a tiny cottage near Caldbeck on the edge of the English Lake District National Park; later in life my parents lived there full-time.

Anne Utting, my mother, who was an experienced writer and craftswoman, wrote 61 articles over a period of five years about the pleasure and pitfalls of living in such a tiny, isolated house and the difficulties of 'gardening at altitude'. Other topics covered include the author's weaving and spinning activities.

These articles, published in the UK magazine Cumbria, attracted a substantial readership and were subsequently published as a successful soft back book entitled "The Cottage on The Fell".

Time has now moved on, and "The Cottage on The Fell" has been released via Amazon as a colour-illustrated, Kindle e-book.

Take a look. Download the sample pages and maybe buy a copy!

(Don't have a Kindle reader? Download Amazon's free Kindle reader software for Mac, PC, iPod/Pad/Phone or Android).

Nifty little Miroku 20-bore

Nigel Utting — 2012-01-03T20:29:48Z

The bulk of modern shotgun shooting is conducted with 12-bore over/unders, and a typical 12-bore over/under is my own Japanese-made Miroku MK70.

For people of a certain generation, the phrase 'Japanese-made' has not always been a recommendation; however, Miroku have been making firearms since 1893 and currently manufacture Browning shotguns and Winchester rifles as well as highly-regarded shotguns under their own name.

Miroku MK70 O/U

It is an accepted fact in the gun trade that the name engraved on the barrel may not identify the actual maker (this includes 'best' English gunmakers who happily had their 3rd and 4th grade shotguns manufactured for them by makers with good but less illustrious names, leaving their own workers to concentrate on the expensive stuff).

In the 1970s and thereabouts, Miroku made side-by-side shotguns for a number of American distributors (e.g. Charles Daly and Montgomery Ward) in both 12- and 20-bore, as well as selling the same models under their own name.

I have a strong attraction to small-bore side-by-sides, and my eye was caught recently by an advert for a Miroku-badged, 20-bore side-by-side at an affordable price (no-one in the UK associates Miroku with side-by-sides, only over/unders). After negotiations which saw shipping and some barrel work wrapped into the asking price, all I had to do was fulfil the legal requirements and wait.

Miroku M500

Double-barrelled shotguns need some means of joining the barrels at the breech; traditionally, on high quality guns, this been by means of integral extensions at the bottom rear of each barrel ('chopper lumps') which are brazed together. Around a hundred years ago an alternative system ('monobloc') was devised where a single breech block with two chambers is press-fitted and soldered to barrels manufactured separately from the breech block.

Both systems work well, neither has serious failings, but chopper lumps are generally seen as superior. Amazingly, on what appears to be a very straightforward, relatively inexpensive shotgun, this little beauty has chopper lump barrels!

The Miroku M500 is a boxlock, non-ejector ("BLNE") weighing in at 6lb 6¼oz (2.915kg). Not particularly light but, for that reason, it is very comfortable to shoot with typical 20-bore 28gm loads.

The gun has seen only moderate use; there is some wear to the bluing and some light marks on the lefthand side of the woodwork (the side on which it was habitually laid down on a rough surface?).

The bores, however, are mint and I had the original half & full chokes opened up to quarter & half (good enough for me to straight a couple of stands at the monthly 100-bird).

Top lever & tang-mounted auto-safety

A plethora of Japanese and British proof marks

Choked quarter & half

Not as cheap to feed as a 12!

Still making mistakes....

Nigel Utting — 2011-12-03T15:53:12Z

I used to work with a lawyer who liked to say 'Too soon we grow old, too late we grow smart'. All too true.

Since moving away from film, I have always used Canon digital SLRs, starting with an EOS D30, followed by a 10D and a 20D and a small selection of Canon L series lenses. If you use L series lenses you will know the problem: buy one and you are hooked, the image quality is unbelievable.

I started off with a 17-40mm, followed by a 200mm f/2.8 (not sure why I bought a fixed length prime, but the results were worth the non-zoom restriction), a 70-200mm f/4 and, finally, a 24-105mm. The downside was that this kit is heavy and I got tired of carrying it around; at the end of 2010, I decided that it was time to go for something lighter, and I sold the Canon gear.

Canon 5D and 24-104mm f/4 L

In the time since I bought the lenses, prices had risen to the extent that I was selling used lenses for more than I had originally paid for them! Buyers were nearly biting my hand off, so I could clearly have asked for more. In the event, the cash from the Canon kit bought me another shotgun to add to the collection, with enough left over for a replacement camera.

After reading around, I chose the Panasonic Lumix GF1 with the 14-42mm and 14-140mm lenses. In terms of image quality the results were great, but - and it's a big but - the issue is the rear-mounted viewfinder screen.

External rear screens are fine except when the sun is directly ahead, directly behind or 90 degrees off to one side. Under those circumstances, the sun shines either directly into your eye or reflects off the screen making viewfinding impossible. 'Transitions'-type lenses which darken automatically in sunlight also render the rear screen unusable. Add to that the fact that I wear bifocals and, to see the screen in focus, I have to tip my head uncomfortably far back

On the basis that the slip-on electronic viewfinder would be an improvement, I bought one (£140). The lack of resolution - not bad in itself, but poor in comparison with a genuine optical viewfinder - and the delay in reverting to the through-the-lens view after a photo was taken, convinced me that rear screen/external electronic viewfinder cameras are simply not for me.

The GF1 was sold on for a good price (I'm good at selling cameras!) and replaced by a Lumix G1, with SLR-type eye level viewfinder, so that I could continue to make use of the Panasonic lenses. Better, but not the answer.

Well it's taken me 12 months, but it's been a learning - or do I mean, confirmatory? - experience.
The answer is remarkably simple: if you want to take decent pictures you need a decent camera, and for me that's a genuine SLR with an optical viewfinder.

I've just been offered a Canon 5D at a great price and I'm back on the trail of some L series lenses, starting with a 24-105. I think I just heard a little voice say: 'Welcome home!'

Google Translate - you have so much to answer for!

Nigel Utting — 2011-12-01T20:47:22Z

French: fine
Spanish: fine
English: clearly the output of Google Translate!

Parking notice at Pont d'Espagne, above Cauterets, in the Pyrenees.

Staying in a hotel in Lourdes, we noticed that the multilingual menu included 'Hurried trout'.

Ignoring the obvious fast food reference, we checked the French version and discovered that our fast fish was in fact truite pressé, something like a fish terrine.

Chatting with the owner at the front desk he cheerfully admitted that he had blindly trusted Googe Translate, and was as amused as us at the image of hurried trout.

He was amused; madame, however, was not.

Pyrenean sunshine, minus the goats

Nigel Utting — 2011-11-17T12:19:32Z

Three years ago (in fact, exactly three years ago, to the day) we signed the papers to sell our French house and set off to enjoy the rest of the day by driving over Col du Tourmalet and going for a walk above La Mongie. On the way back to the car, we 'acquired' a herd of goats which decided that we looked like their new owners.

This year, we found ourselves above La Mongie on the same path on another beautiful October day. We had decided to chance a week in the Pyrenees in late autumn, and although the wind was cooler this time, the sunshine was just as bright and our gamble paid off handsomely.

There was a light dusting of snow on the very tops, and way, way across the valley I could just make out, through binoculars, a party of climbers making their way along a narrow, snow-covered crête. That would have been me many years ago, and I felt a small twinge of jealousy.

The télécabines up from La Mongie to the Pic du Midi observatory were not running or it would have been a perfect day to go up - the views would have been fantastic. The webcam at the observatory is the only one I check every day, without fail.

One fish or two?

Nigel Utting — 2011-08-29T22:09:43Z

Driving down a French motorway I saw the word bois on the side of a lorry. 'Bois' meaning both wood (the substance) and wood (as in forest) retains the same spelling in the latter context both in the singular and the plural.

This set me thinking (you have to think about something on a 600km drive). We also have a selection of words in English which retain the same spelling both in the singular and the plural, e.g. sheep, deer, salmon, and the occasional word with an optional plural, e.g. fish/fishes.

Here we come across another point of interest: why are there so many names of fishes which have the same singular/plural? Salmon, as mentioned, cod ('cods' has a totally different connotation), haddock, mackerel, snipe, plaice, turbot, the list goes on.

Where land animals are concerned we have sheep and deer, as mentioned, but I can only immediately otherwise think of elk.

If you can think of others, let me now via the Comments facility.

OK, I've had the first suggestion via the Comments: grouse (thanks Fi).

That's set me thinking again. We say pigeon/pigeons, but wigeon (a duck, and it rhymes with pigeon) is wigeon in the singular and the plural.

Keep the suggestions coming.

iPad in France - signal availability

Nigel Utting — 2011-08-10T17:54:00Z

If 3G is available you will see one of 3 status reports at the top left of your iPad screen:

SFR 3G
SFR E
SFR o

Representing 3G service, Edge service (not so good) or no data availability (self-explanatory!)

Our trip has so far stretched from the eastern Pyrenees, up through the Auvergne to the Loire. 3G has been widely available, perhaps surprisingly so, dropping to Edge occasionally, then dropping out completely on occasion.

I'm sitting in an outdoor bar in Blois as I write, with 2-3 bars of 3G signal. With 3 bars I can access the iTunes store, with 2 bars I can't.

Driving up to Blois from Clermont Ferrand on the autoroute, 3G was patchy, regularly dropping out where SFR's signal was replaced by that of another provider (to whose 3G service I was not subscribed).

On returning home I re-installed my 'home' 3G SIM but received no service. Unlike the first time I installed the SIM, my telco's APN setting was not automatically picked up. As soon as I entered this manually, 3G was immediately available.

This trip to France has been my first experience of 'Internet accessibility everywhere' via 3G and I like it! There's no going back now! Further trips abroad will add to my collection of 'local' 3G SIM cards.

iPad in France - how much credit do I have left?

Nigel Utting — 2011-08-07T20:12:36Z

Ok, the 500Mb top-up has been added and we have been using 3G on and off for 2 days as well as hotel/cafe wifi. How much credit do I have left?

I have an online business meeting mid-week (holiday notwithstanding) and I need to be sure that, absent wifi, I will have enough 3G credit to see me through 1-2 hours of a Webex presentation.

Using the SFR online help facility, it appears that I need to access the Consulter mon info conso.

At this stage you should have created yourself a user account on the SFR website (www.sfr.fr) and associated your 3G number with that account.

The Consulter mon info conso is available at: https://gcppinf.sfr.fr/infoconso/026_loginInfoConso.do

If this link doesn't work for you, search for Consulter mon info conso on SFR.

iPad in France - the first top-up

Nigel Utting — 2011-08-06T20:22:14Z

After the initial 3 days of 3G access expired (they were included in the cost of the SIM) it was time to buy additional time online.

There was a time when the only place that might not accept a non-French credit/debit card was a French petrol station, but that time is long past; foreign credit/debit cards are accepted everywhere in France as long as they are of the 'chip & pin' variety (which may give holders of US cards a problem).

Sadly, SFR is the new French petrol station; my attempts to buy additional time online on the SFR website were always met with a 'there has been an error' message as soon as I tried to pay with a UK debit card and the message, amusingly, continued by saying that 'the error would be defined later'.

OK, so off to the SFR website (using a local bar's free wifi) to look for an SFR shop in Aurillac. At least 50% of French bars and 90% of French hotels now offer free wifi, just ask for 'le code pour le wifi' and you're away.

SFR top-ups come in two flavours: time-based and volume-of-data-based. Disappointingly, the assistant in the SFR shop said that they only had time-based top-ups available (not what I wanted).

When I pointed out that this was an SFR shop, for crying out loud, and I couldn't understand why the entire range of top-ups wasn't available, as per the printout from their website which I was waving in frustration, I was treated to the full Gallic shrug.

OK, I said, I'll go to Orange and see what they can do for me.

Amazing! Mention the competition and, all of a sudden, a 500Mb volume-based top-up was available from SFR.

After handing over 25 Euros I was given a piece of paper with a 10-digit top-up code. Since my existing credit had run out and I had no 3G Internet access I was slightly concerned as to how I would process the top-up. In the event, on the iPad you go to Settings, Cellular Data, SIM Applications, Solde/Recharge, Rchgt Coupon, Par Texto.

You are then presented with an input screen entitled Code Coupon? where you enter the 10-digit top-up code and hit Send. A few seconds later a message pops up on the screen saying that your top-up is in progress. Switch off cellular data in Settings. Switch back on again and you are in business. The top-up has been applied.

The hardest part was persuading SFR that they could sell me one of their own top-ups!!