Corsets and Coffee

I couldn't resist sharing with you my journey to The Tickety Boo Cupcake Room in Bury St Edmunds. I am afraid en route I was (happily) distracted by the beautiful objects of desire in Terry Fox's window display.

The Cupcake Room was my chosen wi-fi venue for working in town today. The music you hear in the video is the typical soundtrack played in the Cupcake Room, which helps create the wonderful warm and relaxing atmosphere.

I promise my editing techniques will improve with practice, so please bear with me.

ADDENDUM - Have just looked at the video again and am chuckling at "my journey". LOL . The "journey" in the video takes about 30 seconds between Terry Fox and the Cupcake room, ha ha, it hardly seems worthy of the word!

Hooray I'm at it again

This time blogging live from Street Level Cafe on Abbeygate Street. I am actually working so can't be blamed for skiving. It's great to be out and about again and I've just enjoyed a fab toasted tea-cake and a mug of coffee.

Ah...it is a great life. Have a great day everyone.

It's been a while since I've done this...

...but I'm taking a sneaky opportunity to blog live, this time from The Lounge in Hatter St, Bury St Edmunds.

The Chilli Cheese Panini has been ordered and while awaiting its arrival, I'm enjoying the calm environment, which is now decorated with festive purple baubles dangling from the ceiling.

I can't escape the chatter of girls to my right talking about boyfriends and the future of their relationships...Oh I'd love to gossip, but I shouldn't.

The panini has now arrived, so I am now off to indulge.

Blogging Live from Tickety Boo in Bury St Edmunds

Top of the morning t'you. I hope you're feeling tickety boo. I am...especially as I am taking the opportunity to blog live from the Tickety Boo Cupcake Room, in St John's Street. Oh lucky me!

Contrary to popular belief, I am not just indulging in a delicious White Chocolate, Hazlenut and Cranberry Torte, accompanied by a generous cup of latte ....

(I've made the photo of the torte smaller so that the portion doesn't look as large as it really is)

...I am actually working. I've already trekked around our local Waitrose to finish off our family grocery shop (life is hard isn't it) and have just dropped down to one of my favourite haunts to enjoy the refreshments and listen to the fabulous swing music while I get on with working on my website.


However, looking at these cakes, I may not be able to fit back through that door on my way out.

If you are in town this morning, do pop by and say hello and if you happen to have your laptop, connecting to the Internet is again, very easy from this beautiful Hotspot. It's free and you just need the password from the lovely proprietor Alison Snow.

Blogging live from The Fox in Bury St Edmunds

I'm sat with here with Ruby, Grumpyoldwoman and MarkG, blogging live from The Fox Inn, one of my favourite Wi-Fi Hotspots.

Lunch has just arrived, so we will be here for an hour. If you are free, come over and join us. I'll be back with an update very soon.

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(2 hours later) Apologies for such a long break, lunch with Grumpyoldwoman's tales was just hilarious and I laughed so much I couldn't even begin to blog...it is only just now that I have been able to calm down enough to get back online, but it's with regret that I am unable to share those tales with you.

Today's Wi-Fi lunch at The Fox has been great. The location offers easy access, which is free and does not require a password to log on.

For lunch I chose the Tortilla flat bread wrap with the brie and caramelised onion filling, which was delicious.


Followed by a latte and a Sticky Toffee Pudding, it has been a great Wi-Fi session, in a very relaxing environment. What I love about The Fox is their attitude to food. Everything is cooked to order, using local freshly bought produce, which I feel is very important for this kind of service.

On the subject of food, keep a look out for my post about allotments and getting back onto the mission of getting allotments in Moreton Hall. More about that to follow soon. In the meantime, take a look at Ruby's post, which features some mini-reveals of Grumpyoldwoman and MarkG

Some more Wi-Fi fun!

I've got a meeting at an undisclosed Wi-Fi location tomorrow. So be on the look-out for a blog post, with a live review from somewhere in Bury St Edmunds.

Shhh.....

MarkG commented the other day that Starbucks was launching Wi-Fi Friday....which meant for just ONE day, you could log onto their Wi-Fi facilities for FREE!

Well....big news Starbucks, in Bury St Edmunds you can use Wi-Fi in three other town centre venues for free EVERYDAY!!!!!!!

Shucks, I missed Starbucks' FREE offer...because it was yesterday and today is Saturday...Damn, a bit late...or so they think!

Guess where I am blogging FOR FREE from today at 9.02am in Bury St Edmunds....

Starbucks of course...

I guess being an international company....it is still Friday somewhere in the world.

So get in here before lunchtime and see if you too can blag a free Wi-Fi session....

Or...

Continue to support LOCAL businesses in Bury....

....and that way....you don't even have to put up with Blogger suddenly turning into German all over....

Over and out....21st CM

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ADDENDUM...I spotted a certain celebrity going into the loo at Starbucks, immediately after I blogged this post....

More about that another time. In the meantime, I am open to guesses....here's one clue...he was short with grey hair.

Wireless in Bury St Edmunds

Blogging Live from....SoBar

So, here I am as promised... blogging live from one of Bury St Edmund's newest Wi-Fi Hotspots, the SoBar Cafe on the corner of Hatter Street and Langton Place.

For the uninitiated, Wi-Fi is the technology which enables mobile devices such as laptops to remotely log onto the Internet. In the UK, there has been a steady increase of venues offering Wi-Fi access to customers.

These venues have become popularly known as Hotspots and are becoming widespread in towns and cities. In fact, the city of Norwich, only an hour's drive from Bury, has become a pioneer of the technology by providing free Wi-Fi access to wireless users through 200 antennae that have been installed across the city. It has become known as a giant Hotspot, which sadly has led to a Wi-Fi health scare, while experts research the risks associated with the use of the technology on such grand scale.

However, here in Bury St Edmunds, Wi-Fi Hotspots are emerging on a much smaller scale, but all the same, these relatively new facilities are indicative of the wider picture.

Accessing the Internet in SoBar this morning was free and painless, even for a non-techy. The router was already available and once my laptop had been booted-up, I was shown a list of networks I could select. After selecting the SoBar network, it connected within seconds with no password required.

So, here I am, sat enjoying a latte in the comfort of a cafe-bar rather than sat at my desk at home. The recent extension to include cafe facilities is a welcome addition to Bury St Edmunds, helping to create the cafe culture which so many residents would like to see in Bury.

There is the opportunity to sit outside, but with the rain pouring down I am not tempted today. Instead, on a day like today, the comfortable sofa with the gentle music playing in the background is a far more attractive option.

I like this space. It is an interesting venue, with unique furniture that I love.


I also like the fact that they serve lunch, offering a healthy menu of jacket potatoes and sandwiches. It is reassuringly inexpensive rather than a member of "rip-off Britain", with a jacket potato starting at £2.00 plus 75p for a filling.


So...guess where I will be staying for the next hour or so!

And what about next week...We are lucky to have a fine choice of venues in Bury, so I will be able to take my pick from one of these (which also offer free access)....

So remember where you saw this first and if you have a Wi-Fi laptop and a free spirit, why not come and join in...!

Can I HACK IT?

I have recently received reports from readers stating that the right-hand column isn't showing correctly in Internet Explorer!

Apologies for this. I am currently researching ways of hacking the code so that it displays okay in Internet Explorer version 6 or lower. I hope to find a solution soon.

However, tests have shown that the columns appear okay when using the excellent Mozilla Firefox browser, which can be downloaded from here. I have also tried it in Internet Explorer version 7, which can be downloaded from here.

In the meantime, while I am looking for a fix...I am continuing my adventures in geek world.

Keep an eye out for tomorrow's post where I will be researching the Wi-Fi hotspots of Bury St Edmunds and attempt a live blogging session from one of the locations. I hope you will accept my invitation of a lunch-time visit to see my review.

The Perfect House-Wi-Fi-Wife

Excuse me while I indulge. I am now in IT heaven having recently been blessed with a new Wi-Fi enabled laptop (oops sorry - notebook) and am sat on the sofa with my new piece of kit! It takes me back to the days when I used to work for a living, you know the 24/7 salaried kind of work.

One of my last jobs was as a research manager for a London based consultancy back in 2000, where my role included keeping abreast of technological developments and trends. I remember researching forecasts in mobile PC usage and the development of Wi-Fi hotspots.

Little did I know then that seven years later I would be indulging in the novelty of sending emails from an indoor play centre in Sudbury, which offers Wi-Fi access. Just in case you're wondering, 21st C Dad was also there too, supervising the children while I played with my new toy like an excited kid at Christmas. It did strike me as bizarre that this particular establishment was advertising "With our Wi-Fi access, you can work while the kids happily play" alongside other signs that suggest "Children must always be supervised". Thank goodness 21st C Dad was there or I might have been a bit confused"

Anyway, I am now looking forward to discovering the Wi-Fi hotspots in Bury St Edmunds. I can now see a new career ahead of me. Move over Nigella Lawson and make room for the Wi-Fi Goddess. Anthea Turner, you may be the Perfect Housewife, but make way for the Perfect House-Wi-Fi-Wife.

So, where will I go...? You might just see me blogging in Tickety Boo, or even The Lounge. There's the opportunity to relax at the Fox Inn or drop in for a daytime coffee in SoBar, not to mention the range of other places that can be found around the town.

So it's a case of have notebook...will travel...Just watch out for the live blogging posts that may just appear over the next week as I indulge in the novelty of my new technology. Please bear with me...normal service will be resumed soon.