Huawei Y6

Huawei is an Android phone; specs are here.

I use Android base phones only.  And I have had the opportunity to have many, because I leave them behind and despite having my contact information appear on the lock screen, so far I have never got back any of my phones that I left behind.  Thanks to Android's Device Manager feature, I quickly do a remote erase.  As a result my data has not been compromised so far.

Last time I lost my phone, I decided to buy cheap.  Huawei had the lowest price tag, $150 CAD.  The specs, I have included a link to above, and the customer reviews were OK.  Here is what I (dis)like about this phone.

I dislike the preinstalled apps: on the phone Y6's Calendar, Messenger, Fitness, and Browser.  These use too small of a font with  white back ground and blue borders, not an eye appealing design. The Browser opens with an error, "can't log in", but if you are stubborn like me and you type a URL anyways, it redirects you to the site!  The Calendar is not integrated with MAP so the locations of events appear as text only, and won't open up in any map or GPS like device.  The Messaging stacks up the conversation threads.  Although new messages appear in Messaging APP, after I installed and made Google Hangout  default APP to receive send SMS messages, but the status of message, read/unread, is out of sync.

There are two buttons to adjust the volume.  These are situated next to the power on|off button on the side of the phone.  Unfortunately, these only work when the phone screen is unlocked.  It's poor UI design to require entering the password in order to perform a function, adjusting the volume, that is not a security threat.

The Dialer gives the false impression that you can add new contact during the call.  However, the "Contacts" on the Dialer just takes you to the step by step process of adding information for all fields; note I used this functionality during the call, once done, I had no idea how to close the contact screen, and resorted to the phone "Back" button to go back to the Dialer.

Huawei  Y6  Phone Manager scans phone to provide option to optimize Application and Security optimization.   I tried both automatic and manual optimization neither one provided a clear indication on how it benefits. While NEXUS phone tries to put the phone user in control of customizing for Power and Security, Huawei Y6 takes control over the phone.  Huawei developers think that by nature of calling an APP smart, they can safely assume the APP knows better than the phone owner what's best!!


The traffic manager is useless to me.  My old phone gave me the option of setting and tracking my data usage during the billing period.  This phone only provides a line graph of use at discreet point in time.  My old phone also had the capability of setting quota, and would give a warning when the usage was close to the quota.  Huawei's traffic manager is useless to me!

These preinstalled APPS: Mirror, FM Radio, Flash Light, and lock screen, maybe useful and interesting to use one day.

The battery life ranges between 8 - 10 hours for me, so far.  I try to close all APPs after use.

With 1.1 GHZ CPU, the performance of opening some APPs, e.g. Lumosity, Google Sheets and or Docs, is really slow.

To get the phone screen to react, it requires a knock, as opposed to gentle tap.

Overall, my experience with this phone, has not been the greatest.  It's true you get what you pay for.

The snip from an article related to Huawei's new venture to have its own "Android Alternative" agrees with my observation of slow performance of the existing phones.

Like most smartphone manufacturers, Huawei has designed its own skin, or customized Android look. But that skin is often referred to as an iOS ripoff, and its UI layer is heavy with background processes, which slows the phones' performance.

Upscale Rustic Cuisine

Eating out is one of the pleasures of life. I always read the restaurant reviews with so much interest; coincidentally, most are good. I have yet to see a review that blasts a restaurant. My review of "Upscale Rustic Cuisine" is no exception.

We dined there on a gorgeous, sunny, warm Fall day, early October, the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. We were a bit inconvenienced to dine in a dim, dark restaurant on such a beautiful day, but hey we were there to eat not to sun bath. :)

Our waiter arrived, wearing a big smile, menu in hand. We took a quick glance and couldn't find the typical brunch dishes: omelet, sausage, bacon, and french toast, on the menu. I often accept these sort of situations, like when you are let down because you get something other than what you expect. I think expectations are merely barriers to taking risks, trying out new things. But my company was not too pleased. In any case the waiter was there smiling expectantly at us, so we had to get the ball rolling.

I picked "BENEDICT" OF THE WEEK. The food arrived late, but only to give us time to savor the variety of freshly baked, hot out of the oven breads with handmade butter. There were three different types of breads and scones. Each garnished with garlic and a different herb.

One word of advice if you dine at Upscale Rustic expect to get garlic in all your food and take a pack of gum with you, it comes handy. :)
The main course arrived shortly after the empty bread basked was removed from our table. Describing my "Benedict" as delicious is an understatement. The egg was simply flavor perfect. It was creamy, it was soft, it melted. I couldn't distinguish between egg white or yolk. I had some pulled pork on the side, which was equally yum.
I definitely recommend this restaurant. But, better to go on a rainy, gloomy day to feel cozy in this dark rustic restaurant.

Garlic’s of London - Upscale Rustic
481 Richmond Street
London, ON
N6A 3E4
P- 519-432-4092
F- 519-432-2918
Email: dine@garlicsoflondon.com

Olive Kitteridge

Olive Kitteridge is a novel by Elizabeth Strout. The novel takes place in Crosby, Main, where Olive lives with her husband, Henry, and her son, Christopher and teaches math to 7th Grades. In this town there is one church, one supermarket and a hardware store. Strout takes us through the lives of the Crosby residents through mini-stories. It's the presence of Olive in these stories that gives one the feeling of reading a novel.

Strout says, it is through our most intimate relationship that we are revealed. She does a brilliant job in doing just that in this book. It is through her well crafted relationships that each character is introduced to the reader. She is one of those authors that leaves making the conclusion to the reader. Readers' imagination can go wild, to make the ending of some of the characters. I felt the stories ended with ... rather than a . :)

The characters in this book are more middle aged women, and men. Their quest is to adjust to children moving away, to not having to show up to work everyday, to having to spend time with their significant other who may or may not understand them.

Olive's experience is no different than others. Except for her grand presence. She is physically a big woman; and through her actions, she is present through out the book. She is a wife who never realized her husband's true worth, and genuine love for her a mother who loved her only son dearly a feeling that for valid reasons was not mutual, and a teacher who was feared but respected by her students. Sometimes one needs a jolt to realize all the good things she is surrounded with in her life. And for Olive, unfortunately, it had to be Henry's stroke.

There is a lot to be learned about compromise, kindness and forgiveness through the stories in this book.

It's a great book!