There was a time where our family was two- wifey and me*, and we didn’t really need a calendar to keep track of what we were up to, I’d just do what I was told. This changed when the boy came along and changed further when Fifi popped into the world. Play dates, social events, classes, this, that and the other, meant something more formal was needed and we got a calendar. Soon though, when wifey began training as a childminder and I started doing out of work activities. Then we briefly went down to one car. Suddenly a calendar on the wall in the kitchen was insufficient.
Fortunately being a bloke, I opted for a technological solution that got to indulge my love of gadgets. We’re all connected in this life, whether it’s computers at home or work, iPhones, Android phones, iPads or tablets, we never seem to go anywhere without some form of gadgetry. So it seemed to me the sensible approach was to try and synchronise some form of online calendar that both me and wifey have access to.
Since I’m a bit of a Google fanboy, and I figured it would be easier sharing a calendar from a relatively “open” ecosystem like Android, I decided to set up and share a Google Calendar. After an enormous amount of tinkering, it’s now available via my Outlook calendar at work, on my Motorola Atrix phone, my Android tablet, wifey’s iPhone and her iPad Mini that we got from Carphone Warehouse.
Now I can see when I need to be somewhere without having to either remember to look at the calendar in the morning or phoning up the lady wife to check. We can both add appointments as and when they appear and since neither of us are ever out and about without our mobile phones (in case the school calls or some other disaster happens), we always know what each other is up to.
And I get my technology fix. Which is nice!
* this is grammatically correct; if you drop the “wifey and” from the sentence, you’ll see it is, so don’t read it and think, “Hah! He should have said wifey and I.”