Thanks, yes, everything was still in the stuffsac. B
> On 13 Apr 2014, at 21:25, "Steve Cottrell" <[email protected]> wrote: > > Excellent tale - I presume the other items were near the iPhone? Cash > still in wallet etc? > > The only thing is that the 'Find my phone' function has to be switched > on, I think. > > Glad you found it - but I expect, knowing you, that the satisfaction > came through a result from logical deduction.... > > :-) > > Cot > > > On 13/4/14, Bob W-PDML, discombobulated, unleashed: > >> In three weeks I'm cycling the Sarsen Trail <http:// >> www.wiltshirewildlife.org/sarsen-trail/bike_it> with a friend. I don't >> normally cycle off-road, and my bike is a lightweight tourer, so I >> thought I'd better try it out and perhaps borrow an off-road one if I >> didn't think my audax would stand up to it. >> >> So today I took off the mudguards and rack, fitted some cyclocross >> knobbly tyres and headed up to Oxleas Wood, some ancient woodland about >> 5 miles from where I live. >> >> I put my wallet, iPhone, camera, glasses, bike lock and a book in a >> nylon stuffsac, which I then put into a seat bag. My plan had been to >> reward myself afterwards with a nice cup of tea and a good read in the >> wonderfully badly-kept-secret cafe they have up there, with magnificent >> views east - I believe it's the highest point in London. >> >> It was a dark and stormy night. The woods were dark and deep. No. It was >> a beautiful spring day. My bike looked really cool, the woods were lush >> and green. The forest floor was a cliche of bluebells, so I kept >> stopping to take pictures. It was a bit of a drag fishing the camera out >> of the seatbag each time, so I decided to strap it, in its CCS case, to >> my belt, and went off charging around again. >> >> Half an hour later, I realise I didn't close the seat bag. My favourite >> wallet, my credit cards, driving licence, Oyster card, £75- cash, >> iPhone, glasses, bike lock (£100!) and Marivaux are gone. >> >> Dilemma. Rush home and cancel everything, or try to find it. I spent 3 >> fruitless hours randomly searching the Ice Age undergrowth, like some >> sort of Hansel & Gretel, lost in there. Trees and leaves and sodding >> bluebells all look the same after a while but you soon get to know all >> the empty beer cans, bits of bog roll and pre-loved condoms in the whole >> fucking forest when you're stressed out of your mind. >> >> So I gave up and came home. On the way of course some fuckwit in a car >> decided he was the only fuckwit who should be allowed on the road and we >> ended up in a shouting match which finished in comedy when he said "you >> wouldn't say that if I wasn't in this car", to which I wittily reparteed >> "get out of the fucking car then", and he drove off. Marivaux could have >> learned some things from me. >> >> I cancelled my cards, and was looking on the iPad for a way to disable >> the iPhone when I found this Apple thing called, er, Find my iPhone. >> Hmm. Wonder what that does. So I tried it and it showed that it was >> still in the woods, and let me set it to lost, so hopefully it wouldn't >> let anyone else play with it and find all my dark secret things. I was >> resigned to losing the cash. >> >> Now, I hope someone from Apple gets to read this, because it's a great >> app, but it would be even greater if it told you the coordinates of the >> centre of the circle where your iPhone is, and the radius of the circle. >> >> So, I opened my GPS programme, which is called ExpertGPS and is pretty >> good <http://www.expertgps.com>, and by squinting a bit and finding a >> couple of reference points on the maps, made a stab at a waypoint for >> the lost phone, as well a waypoint for a reference point on the ground >> which marked out a line to follow. I then loaded the waypoints onto my >> GPS, and cycled back to the woods. >> >> It took another hour of searching, but this time methodically, and I > found it. >> >> It felt like a miracle. I made a waypoint on the GPS where I found the >> stuff, and when I got home again compared the actual position with the >> one I'd crudely made based on the Find my iPhone result. They were only >> 17 metres apart, which I think is not bad under the circumstances. >> >> So at the moment I love Apple. >> >> I hate Dell though, because the screen on my laptop seems to have >> failed. Guess I'll have to replace it with a Mac. >> >> Oh, and the bike performed superbly. > > -- > > > Cheers, > Cotty > > > ___/\__ Broadcast, Corporate, > || (O) | Web Video Production > ---------- <www.seeingeye.tv> > _____________________________ > > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.

