scott

Switching My Apple ID (Finally) to The UK

by

In early June I finally decided to address an annoyance I had since I moved to London. I took my Apple ID I used in the US and ported it over to the UK. The final straw for me was that I wanted to try out Apple Music (again). Since when I tried it out originally and now they decided to play nice with Amazon Echo’s. That was one of the big reasons not to sue the service. Then I remembered I could not use Apple music the way I wanted to if I switched between Apple IDs to download stuff. Previously I have had to switch between my US and UK accounts on my IOS devices. Lots of things I have were tied to what was my US account. I did not want to use it for new stuff since I wanted to be using UK app store. Every time you switch App Stores on IOS I would lose my downloaded music if I was not logged into the store and had my Apple music account tied to it. That was one of the major drivers for switching to Spotify in the first place.

The hold up for me switching was I had subscriptions that according to Apple’s knowledge base I needed to wait to cancel before I could move. I also wasn’t sure what was really going to happen to all my stuff. After using the UK store more I was pretty confident but not 100% the most of what I had would be working fine. I just was not sure what was going to happen to my photos and I cloud when I switched over.

Since the longest subscription I had wasn’t expiring until next February I decided to call Apple and see if there was anything I could do. After speaking to one person I got escalated to someone else. She asked me to just switching countries to see the error I would get. When I called I was planning on just asking some questions and have the conversation be a mainly academic one. I figured it would be information gathering. On some level I was not ready to pull the trigger. Talking to the lady on the phone gave me some confidence so I took a leap of faith and tried to make the switch. There were one or two challenges that she addressed however surprisingly within 30 minutes my account was moved over to the UK app store.

Prior to the move I had to break my family share with M. Setting that back up and confirming everything had moved was pretty straightforward and didn’t take anywhere near as long as I thought it would.

The only hiccup I had was some odd errors on my iPhone related Apple music that didn’t exist on any other device. A day or two later or reboot or two later the issue is fixed. I’m not sure really what resolve the problem.

My iCloud data and photos seem to have seamlessly moved over. I spot checked one or two applications I purchased and they also seem to be working just fine. I haven’t bought media from the Apple store and I do not know how long so I am not that worried about any of that not working. I have long since been buying music from the Amazon MP3 store when I bought music. Now I mainly use spotify or other streaming services. I never really did download many TV shows or movies and what we have was for when the girls were much younger so I’m not worried if some of it’s not available.

I know at some point many months from now there’s going to be some gotcha that I didn’t realize until then. For now I was impressed with how seamless the switch was. Many of the reviews online talked about horrific experiences making the change. I am only assuming that in recent years Apple made it easier to do this.

The next thing I have to address is that I still have another UK Apple ID where I have a subscription. I have one software subscription tied to it. I get a good deal on it having previously bought the app before they went to s subscription model. I am not sure how to transfer that over to my main Apple ID. Of course I’m not sure if it matters that separate other than it being a moderate nuisance.

I also have to set up a new US Apple ID in case there is one or two things that I cannot get in the UK app store. There already is one free app that annoyingly is not available. That’s a minor inconvenience though. All in all one major technical debt issue I had from moving to England is now solved. It only took me 2 1/2 years to have the courage to try it.

Things I learned in England Roundabouts Are Good Not Weird

by

It’s funny how perspective changes when you move to a new location. The roundabout (aka to americans traffic circles) used to be one of these weird anomalies that I never understood. Why in the world did they exist? In the two years I have lived in England I have also spent time driving around Ireland on holiday. I have a newfound respect for the roundabout, a.k.a. the traffic circle.

They can be a bit scary however the fact that you don’t need traffic light is pretty awesome. The bigger the exchange the bigger the circle is. In some remote roads I’ve seen traffic circles basically be this small post in the road, large enough just to have people drive around it. No need for a stop sign. Now that I’m living in Europe I wonder why it’s looked upon so oddly in the United States. I only know of a handful of them in the states yet in theory it makes perfect sense to have a lot of them. I guess I am slowly assimlating.

The Story of Our Experience With British Airways

by

In February we took a cruise to the Caribbean. It required us to fly from London to Tampa so we could goto Port Canaveral in Florida to get on the boat. We were meeting up with M’s parents. Since we wanted to go to Tampa and not the more popular nearby Orlando international Airport we had limited flight options. The only direct flight from any London airport to Tampa was British Airways out of Gatwick. Anything else would require us to transfer.

Since we moved to London in all of our personal travel to the states we have flown either Virgin Atlantic or Norwegian Airways. This was our first trip as a family on British Airways. I have flow BA before however I can only recall doing so in Business Class. Before we even got on the plane I had a major issue with using BA. There was no way to book a seat ahead of time in regular economy without spending extra money. If you wanted their low-end tickets you would not be able to pick a seat at all. Their standard economy tickets let you pick seats only when you checked in 24 hours ahead of time. As a family with two relatively small kids that’s not good enough. We need the ability to know we are together when we book our tickets. What good is it to be able to select your seats when you may not have been fast enough on the day to get 4 together.

That limitations not only required us to purchase the standard economy tickets. We also had to pay extra per person to pick her seats when I booked the tickets. Both together added several hundred pounds to the ticket price. Virgin Atlantic had no such restriction. If we bought their standard economy ticket I was able to book a seat. The same goes for Norwegian airlines and they are considered a low-cost carrier. This penny/pence pinching is very annoying. All other things being equal I won’t pick British Airways over Virgin, Delta, Norwegian in the future if I can help it. Business practices do matter people.

If that wasn’t enough their entire online check in process had left a lot to be desired. For both legs of the trip we were required to go to the ticket counter to input additional information. This isn’t the first time we as a family have flown internationally. We’ve never had to do this before however when queried we were told that something about our passports required us to see an agent. I just don’t believe that since we’ve done at least three other roundtrips to the states with no issues. In practice the lines weren’t too bad and on the way home they confirmed my TSA Pre was on my ticket so it worked out. It was simply not a seemless experience. The reason I bring it up is the oddity of because of that glitch we were checked into our flight with no boarding passes. I don’t know if that’s a thing for just British Airways or if airlines are now “checking you in” if you don’t even have a boarding pass. Are you really checked in?

What is funny to me is that the actual inflight service was pretty good. M pointed out the good service also. That does not change that before rhe flight even started I went into it with the negative thought in my head because of the extra cost of the seats. I appreciated the good service in the air. All things equal its not enough for me to choose BA again based on my purchase experience. Since I am not a frequent flyer with them it really doesn’t matter to them anyway! As always it does feel a bit theraputic to write about it though.

Photo shown is not the plane we flew on. That is a 747 I flew on going home from London when living in NY and we flew on something less spectacular that that for this trip.

W Sisters and The Story of Bun-Bun

by

Sometime within the past year and a half I started telling A that when I worked from home on Fridays I had lunch with her stuffed animal Bun-Bun. I don’t really remember why I did it. I thought it was cute so I kept up the narrative. I offered to T that her hamster stuffed animal was hanging out also. She wanted nothing to do with it so it was just Bun-Bun and I for Friday work from home lunch.

When I went to Bangkok last July I wanted to do something fun with the girls while I was away. I asked if I could take on Bun-Bun along with me since she and I were buddies. T at first also agreed to let me take her stuffed hamster (she is named hamster) as well. Then T backed out of it.

A was excited to let me take Bun-Bun. I took pictures throughout my trip of Bun-Bun on the plane, working as well as out and about in Bangkok. A seemed to enjoy it and I actually had fun doing it. The colleague I travelled with got into it as well. He offered to take pictures wherever we went. Flight attendants on different flights took photos for me. My friend even reminded me a few times if I wanted a photo opportunity. Overall it was a very fun experience.

With us all being home now due to the lockdown the other day A asked when I was going to do lunch with Bun-Bun. Today in the morning she showed up in my home office and brought Bun-Bun to me saying she wanted to hang out. I had to utilise the opportunity to get a picture of. I am barn having a cold brew with me.

Now I need to think of other stuff to do with my buddy Bun-Bun.

My MacBook Pro Repair

by

Even before the lockdown in March I was working from home a lot. It was cold, i was sick on and off in the early winter, etc. That meant that my MacBook Pro was almost always plugged into my desk monitor. One day a few weeks ago I unplugged reboot it and do something on the native keyboard and not use the bluetooth one I usually do. When i did i noticed that the lid did not close all the way correctly. The bottom bulged out a bit as well and did not sit flush with the table. I had a bad feeling something was wrong with the battery.

Once lockdown was lifted enough i wanted to bring the laptop into the Apple store. problem was all appointments seemed to be booked up. After days of trying i saw an appointment open up for mid week on the week i was on holiday. Turns out i was right and the battery likely had an issue. Luckily work had apple care on it with support left for over a year. I hopefully get it back within a week. To Apple’s credit I got a call/email 6 days later saying the computer was ready. I wasn’t able to get out of work early so I picked it up the next morning. Exactly a week after I dropped it off.

I am thankful that I setup a Windows 10 machine at home that I was playing around with. I was able to use it for the 2 work days that the MacBook was out at repair.

W Sisters Story T on Operational Security

by

T has on a few occasions mentioned passwords to me. She wanted me to guess the password to open her journal that she has that she draws in. We get the girls little notebooks that they doodle in. When they fill it up we get another one. They got ones in Italy and they would sit and draw paintings at museums. They were getting full by the time we went to Ireland last May and got them new ones there. I have also picked up one or two that have little locks on them.  They both requested them and even spent their own money to get them.

T has a notebook that does not have a lock on it. The other day she asked me to guess her password. I tried a few times and couldn’t. I was getting a little annoyed with her since she kept insisting i guess. I had no context to go on so guessing was going nowhere. Then I realised she did not want me to not just pull a password out of thin air. She had written about 30 or so odd lines in her notebook. Each started with a letter and then had other charicters and maybe a letter or two throw in.  The page she showed me is this posts picture.  It looked like she made her own sheet of passwords. She asked me to guess what one was hers to open the book. I guessed the password that started with the letter T. She smiled and said i was correct.

It wasnt the first time she talked passwords.  It was the most recent and also the most involved effort put in by her.  I find it very funny that she is in some odd way she is already thinking about operational security!  That and she really liked the spy “job” at Kidzania both times she went.

W Sisters Short On I Missed a Concert

by

I went out for a bike ride the other day and the girls were inside playing. I came back less than 40 minutes later and our back garden was re-arranged like this. No one will tell me what sort of concert or event I missed. Apparently something was on though.

W Sisters Short and Going to The Toilet Before Leaving The House

by

Note this story was written well before social distancing.  When we could go visit friends…

Today I was trying to get the girls out of the house so they can go to a birthday party. The part was only a few doors down the street at a friends house. As is typical I wanted them to go to the toilet before they left the house.

When I asked A to go she said “there is a toilet a x-friends house. anf I know where it is” at that point I really didn’t know what else to say. It was a perfectly normal retort, and a little bit funny to me. I wanted her to go before we left however the logic was pretty infallible that I had to just leave it.

Note on the photo.  It is not a toilet sign, however it was a really funny graphic in the shower in iceland.  It was the closest thing i had to work with as a picture for this.

Sad Fishing

by

I know fishing is a big problem. I got this text today. It is like they are not even trying. The URL isn’t even a true paypal URL. They did not eve spell multiple correctly.

All kidding aside I assume people still fall victim of this. Simple rule, do not click on links in email unless are epxecting it. Even then never let your guard down.