Can you survive without your wallet?

The question....Can you survive without your wallet and just have your phone? The thought came about to me when I was fed up carrying a bulky wallet and my phone, I wanted to lighten the load and so the experiment began.

The equipment...

So firstly what phone do I have? I have a Samsung Galaxy S7 running Android Nougat. The first thing I then needed to do was configure Android Pay which was actually very easy, I added my bank card and then proceed afterward to add my "Loyalty Cards" which again was very easy. As with all of us, I had quite a few Loyalty Cards to add (Co-op, Tesco, Holland & Barrett, Game) and the process was very easy to do with just a snap of the camera on the phone Android Pay added the cards (with the exception of Game, I had to add that one manually).
So I said goodbye to my wallet and the experiment began and as an extra precaution, I took with me a bank card, some ID, and an emergency £10. It felt strange at first not having a wallet on me, I was forever padding down my pockets to check if it was there only to remember what I was doing.

The experiment was going well so far, it was lunch time at work and I took a trip down to the Co-op. I grabbed what I wanted and when I got to the checkout presented my phone for the cashier to scan my membership card (Success!), then came the payment bit, I presented my phone to the payment terminal and a picture of my bank card and a green tick appeared on my phone to show the transaction had gone through (Success number two!). It appeared that the experiment was going according to plan but time will tell, the real test was going to be at the weekend when I would be taking a trip to Aberdeen.

Aberdeen....

So firstly I decided to take the train to Aberdeen was going to be just as long as driving but no driving (definitely a bonus!). I went to book my tickets on thetrainline.com and came up to my first hurdle, no digital train tickets...Ah! It had appeared that ScotRail hadn't quite got to implementing that system yet so had no choice but to do it the old-fashioned way and used my bank card to pay for the tickets and picked them up from the train station.

The journey....

The journey to Aberdeen was flawless and needed to catch a bus to my destination, next hurdle buying a bus ticket and appeared that StageCoach hadn't implemented tap and pay yet so had to use the emergency cash. The rest of my trip went without a hitch and decided to have lunch at Debenhams (could guarantee the Gluten Freeness there) so paid for lunch for myself, mum and daughter which all came to less than £30 and paid with my phone, result! The rest of the trip went fine without a problem on the journey home.

The rest of the experiment.....

So paying for small purchases definitely wasn't an issue using the phone, however, there was an issue when paying for the big stuff. I decided to do the weekly shop at Morrisons and the shop went over £30, no tap and pay and no Android Pay, so the bank card came out and had to pay the old fashioned way. However, when it came to paying for fuel at the Morrisons petrol station I kept my limit to £30 and tapped away.

Conclusion

Not having a wallet is possible but you must be prepared for some limitations and conditions and they are:

• Tap and Pay payments are limited to £30
• Using Android Pay will allow you to go over £30
• Android Pay is more secure than using your card as it uses a Virtual Account Number instead of your real one.
• Always make sure you have alternative payment on you, nothing more embarrassing than not being able to pay for something.
• Some banks like Natwest and RBS offer the ability to get emergency cash out of the cash machine without the need of a bank card, but you would need access to their banking app on your phone and an internet connection.
• Transport systems, certainly here in Scotland are behind in using digital tickets or tap and pay.

  HINT: As an additional piece of advice one of the things that helped me do this is have a phone case that allowed me to carry bank cards.

The first:

This case was a clip on case, it allowed the ability to store a couple of cards in the back or some cash. However if you slid the card to far in then getting them back out again was difficult. It also had a slot in it so that you could use one of those cards as a kick stand, though I found this didn't work as well as advertised.

The second case was a leather bound flip case, this had multiple slots for a card and also protected the phone making it look quite stylish.

Both of these cases were found on Amazon.

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog and hearing about the experiment, I am still only carrying my phone with a bank card as emergencies and my trouser pockets never felt lighter.

Take care

Speak soon

David

xxx

  

Family

Family....It is a word that we hear all time and associate it with different things and means all sorts to different people. But what is a family? The Oxford Online English dictionary states that a family is:

"A group consisting of two parents and their children living together as a unit"

But for many of us, this statement would be offensive and for some, a family only consists of one parent for others no parent at all, to be defined this way would not be fair.

A family only consists of blood relatives.... 

Quite often the only family that matters is those we share the same DNA with, the same blood. This would normally be our parents, grandparents, aunts or uncles, brothers or sisters but how far would you take it? Cousins? Second cousins? For people who have been adopted, this would be unfair and leave them isolated and distant. 

Having blood relatives isn't always "sunshine and rainbows" more often than not there are feuds within the family, divisions appear and those "family reunions" end up being closer to World War III than a happy occasion for us all to catch up on. Plus no-one wants to be associated with the one member of the family who hugs that bottle of wine at weddings.

What about adopted families....?  

So what about those people out there who have been adopted? Are they part of a family? For some to try and get past that lack of a blood connection is impossible. But why? If you still have that closeness, that "family bond" surely they are as much part of a family unit as those that you share a DNA connection with. But what is an adopted family? For most the answer to this question is obvious, it is most likely a child who has been adopted through a council or independent agency. Although this is the most common method of having an adopted family there are other ways, friends, for example, could become part of your family unit. Perhaps they have no family of their own and the closeness and bond you have with them is so strong that they are part of your family unit and they attend all those occasions important to you such as Christmas and birthdays. You may even include them in other ways such as asking them to be a God-Parent to your child or they may even wish to change their surname to make them feel more part of your family.

What do we look forward to in a family?

Maybe it's that Sunday dinner when everyone is around the table, smiling, laughing and being civil reminding you of the closeness and bond that you have with each other. Or is it knowing that you always have family members that you can rely on at a moment's notice whenever a disaster arrives? And for some it maybe that happy feeling when you return from work or school knowing that you have someone waiting at home for you to embrace.

TV

We are constantly reminded of family through television series or even film and books and often we are reminded that it is pure fiction that you are watching before your very eyes. But that fiction had to come from somewhere. The writers who put that together for your viewing pleasure are real people, with real family values and although some ideals maybe dreams for some of us they give us hope and surely that is as equally as important?

ABC TV Series: "Once Upon a Time"

CBS TV Series: "Blue Bloods"

What if I am alone already? Or my family has fallen apart?

If family is important to you, then fight for it! If it has fallen apart, mend it! If you are alone and you want a family, build one up!

Coming from someone who had it all, only to have lost it I can tell you now you can get it back!

I know this blog post has been different compared to others that I have done and will be the first of a series of thought provoking posts that I will be doing, so please do let me know what you think.

As always take care.

Speak soon

David

xx

References:

"Family - Definition Of Family In English | Oxford Dictionaries". Oxford Dictionaries | English. N.p., 2017. Web. 20 May 2017.

Excalibur has arrived!!!

Hi everyone, that's right Excalibur has arrived! It has been a long time coming I know but the wait has paid off. Excalibur is available on Kindle and in paperback format on Amazon (link below).

To help celebrate/promote the book I have released a new book trailer which is now on my YouTube channel. The trailer was very simple to put together and was done using an online service called PowToon. They provide you with a list of available templates and allow you to tweak them to whatever you wish, you can of course create your own starting from scratch should you have an artistic flare.

So as I have been quite secretive about the book here is a quick synopses of what the story entails.

"UES Excalibur is a modern day science fiction novel based around the Highlands of Scotland. It follows the life of Ethan Harris an everyday normal guy whose life is turned upside down by a ship from the future and with the help of his friend John have to ensure the safety of the human race." 

A link direct to the book is here: https://goo.gl/G5GeVn

I really hope you enjoy reading the book as much as I did writing it, it has been a great journey that only a writer would appreciate. You (as a writer) are deeply involved with each and every character as they go on their adventures, and of course you wish that you were there also. 

The book trailer is below and I of course welcome any and all comments.

Take care

David
xx

Gluten Free....Part Deux!

So following on from my last post on what it was like for myself and my family being Gluten Free I wanted to share with everyone a recipe that I found for a Gluten Free bread loaf for my bread machine.

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/19335/yeasted-corn-bread.aspx

Now although this recipe does not state that it is Gluten Free, if you replace the 480g of bread flour with a Gluten Free alternative such as the Doves Farm Gluten Free bread flour and it will come out perfectly! The Corn Meal will give it a lovely yellow colour and a great sweet taste, you could also replace the sugar with honey for a more natural sweeter taste.

Here is the picture of the loaf that I made using this recipe. As you can see the end of the loaf is missing, we could not wait to try this bread before taking the picture and it tasted great! Even my three-year-old daughter loved it.

The flour that was used with this recipe was the Glutafin multi-purpose flour that my daughter gets on her prescription and this produced a great bread. But you do not have to use Glutafin, Doves Farm will do more than the job, however do not use a Self-Rasing flour I tried it with a self-raising and although it did produce a good loaf of bread the crust was very hard and not as soft as the previous loaf. I will add that the only reason I used a self-raising flour was because it was the only flour I had at the time and couldn't be bothered to get the proper flour (I know I know....terrible!).

So enjoy and please let me know your results.

Thanks and good luck


David

Being Gluten Free

Good morning everyone and hope you are all well. So for the past year now both my daughter and myself have been Gluten Free, this is not by choice, my daughter and I both have medical conditions that mean we can not consume foods with Gluten in it (you may have read my blog while I was on holiday on the Isle of Skye the difficulty of finding good Gluten Free places to it). So I thought it might be wise to write a blog entry on the journey we have had and what advice I might be able to give for new people who are now Gluten Free.

What contains Gluten?

Wheat

Varieties and derivatives of wheat such as:

• wheatberries
• durum
• emmer
• semolina
• spelt
• farina
• farro
• graham
• KAMUT® khorasan wheat
• einkorn wheat

Rye

Barley

Triticale

Malt in various forms including: malted barley flour, malted milk or milkshakes, malt extract, malt syrup, malt flavoring, malt vinegar

Brewer’s Yeast

Wheat Starch

(Source: celiac.org)

If you see any product containing any of the above ingredients....avoid them!

Bread

First off the big one, BREAD! It is true that for the most part Gluten Free bread does taste like cardboard, the best option here is to toast it, obviously ensuring that the toaster has never been used for anything else other than Gluten Free bread. One handy thing I have found if you are keen on having a sandwich but don't want that cardboard taste is to purchase "toasty bags" these can be found in any good supermarket and will allow to have a "toasty sandwich" plus can be handy to have if the toaster is used for non Gluten Free bread as well.

Make your own? 

The obvious alternative is to make your own bread, now I have found this to be both a rewarding and frustrating endeavor and involves a lot of trial and error. The best bread by mile is a corn meal loaf, corn meal is naturally Gluten Free and tastes great, bad side of this is the loaf is rather small and as it is so tasty doesn't last long! Corn meal again can be purchased from any good supermarket or online, in addition to "Doves Farm" are the company I would recommend for both Gluten Free flours and recipes when it comes to making your own loaf of bread with recipes from both the company and online review. Remember Gluten Free bread will go stale a lot quicker, so your toaster is your friend!

Pasta

Gluten Free pasta has been the best out of most products, it tastes just as good as "normal" pasta and can make good meals in bulk. It is slightly more expensive than the other pasta but not by much and I haven't found a brand any better than another one and have found it to be less starchy then the other kind of pasta but that might just be me.

Cereal      

Purchasing Gluten Free cereal is again a trial and error exercise and unfortunately can be quite a bit more expensive than the other kind. The best supermarket (if you are reading this in the UK) is probably Tesco as they have a vast range of Gluten Free cereals available and are ever expanding their range while keeping the price reasonable. Personally, I have found Gluten Free Cornflakes to be a bit of a no go but again that is personal preference more than anything else, you can get really good Gluten Free Granola but again you can also make this yourself if you feel inclined.

Sweet Stuff

Now as rule of thumb chocolate is Gluten Free but be mindful of additional ingredients that might not make it so.

BIG PIECE OF ADVICE! "CHECK EVERY PRODUCT!"

Even if you think the product shouldn't contain any Gluten in it there is a good chance that it just might. Anyway back to the good stuff, as I was saying most plain chocolates will be Gluten Free but they may have been handled in a factory that does contain Gluten, now from a personal stand point I stay clear of these products because I would rather this then become ill. Every supermarket will have their own selection of Gluten Free sweet products and Tesco even supply Gluten Free doughnuts (in the freezer section).

Going Out

The best advice I can give you here is "don't be afraid to ask" every restaurant/cafe should have a policy when it comes to allergies and the person serving you is obliged to go ask the kitchen staff what you can safely eat. Most good restaurants have a good selection of Gluten Free options available but certainly one of the best places by far has to be Debenhams Cafe (in the UK) who bent over backwards for myself and my daughter when it came to our Gluten Free dietary needs. But as with everything else it is trial and error, you will get to know yourself which places you want to eat at, which places helped you the most and which places you will never go to again.

Well I hope this was of some help and as always if you have any questions please feel free to ask.

Speak soon

David
xx

Happy New Year

So Happy New Year and welcome to 2017 everyone, I hope that you all had a great Christmas and New Year break and are ready to brace yourself for what 2017 has to offer you. Some of you may have noticed that I haven't uploaded a blog entry for a while and that has been mainly due to concentrating on completing my latest book and I can now confidently say that my book "UES Excalibur" is complete and now undergoing the proof read.

Completing Excalibur has been one of my great accomplishments of 2016 and I hope that getting it published will be an accomplishment of 2017, it has taken me many a long night and a great deal of effort to put this together for you all to read and I hope when it finally gets published that you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Now for Christmas I received many a great gift as I am hoping you all did, but one of the most useful presents that I received was a copy of "Writers' & Artists' Yearbook 2016" which contains many great tips for new and existing writers from how to get started and  how to approach an agent or publisher. It is certainly a book I will be using when I am going through the process in getting the book published, I spent many an hour on new years day going through it and marking useful contacts and sections that I will need.

Now of course with New Year comes new years' resolutions and certainly my resolution to ensure that my blog stays a lot more up to date than I certainly have been doing so  hopefully you can look forward to a lot more entries to come. I would of course be interested in hearing your new years resolutions and the type of things you are looking forward to in 2017, mine are the new Star Trek series which is premiering on Netflix in May and the many new comic book movies that are coming out throughout the year.

Take care everyone and speak soon.

David

xx

Twitter - @dai_harrison83

Email - dai.harrison@hotmail.co.uk