Sunday 14 November 2010

Progress...

Lesley the Letterist just commented on my recipe blog for apple scones - "I have just tried this recipe with our Cornish local 'Sawpit' baking apples, as we were given a wheelbarrow load of them so I am very keen on apple recipes just now! So glad I found your calm thoughtful blogs, I am enjoying them immensely."

What a lovely comment but, of dear, Lesley, if only you knew! Calm is an adjective meaning peaceful, quiet; particularly used of the weather, free from wind or storm, or of the sea, as opposed to rough. At the moment "calm" is the complete antithesis of Scriptor's world at the moment.

Firstly, I am suffering from the dreaded 'computer chaos'. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago my desktop computer died. My beloved brother GB was kind enough to post me his - he now being an Apple fan - and it arrived safe and sound (at what cost to is pocket I dread to think). GB had installed Windows 7 on it and all my peripheral hardware like scanner and printer are so old that they don't have drivers to support them on Windows 7. Neither did my comparatively new external hard drive or a couple of my favourite programmes.

To cap it all my television hardware wouldn't work with it either. For those who are new to this blog I should explain that I only watch TV about once a week. That is, I only sit down in front of the fire and watch the television - usually on a Saturday evening for 'Strictly Come Dancing'. [Sidetracks for a moment to say isn't it about time Anne went!!!] However, I have a little TV screen in the corner of my computer monitor on which I watch Grand Prix, cookery programmes and quizzes. If anything gets exciting I an click on the little screen and it fills the monitor. I can also take still pictures of any particularly good moment. To be without this was a real hardship. Eventually, last weekend, I managed to install it (though it still won't take still pictures). Hooray.

I suspect most of the rest will have to wait for the arrival of Friend-who-loves-Otters at Christmas. He thinks he's coming for a quiet chat and some Christmas nosh. Think again, you are going to be escorted to the study with a mince pie and an apple juice and locked in until everything is working OK!!

In the meantime, I se that I have just adopted my hundredth 'follower' - Savannah. I suspect that many of the earlier ones have dropped by the wayside but even so it's an interesting landmark to reach.


I took to bits my old computer to salvage any bits tha mght come in useful in the future. Imagine my surprise, on taking the cover off, in finding a moth quite happily living inside. I have yet to identify it (I think it's a Brick) but regrettably I can tell immediately it is not Amphipyra tragopoginis which would have been the most appropriate since its English name is the Mouse Moth.



So, if I got the computer up and running last week-end why haven't I been merrily blogging all week? (The two posts you will have seen were pre-scheduled a month ago!). The answer lies in last February's triple by-pass from which I thought I had fully recovered many months ago. It seems that some of the gunge that got into my lungs had not been properly cleared by my system. As a result I have been coughing and spluttering my way through a few £s worth of tissues this week. (Yes, I know, too much information)

As for the weather - that's been 'orrendous this week. The wind was so strong that on Thursday it managed to blow one of our heavy hardwood patio chairs out from under the table and chuck it on its side across the flowerpots. 

And finally, just to ensure the Scriptor ship's waters were anything but calm this week the Inland Revenue sent me a letter. It seems that their computer has been playing up for the last couple of years and has disgorged a wrong PAYE (Pay as you earn) code for my pension. As a result, will I kindly put a cheque for £2,316.60p in the post. You would have thought they might have let me off the .60p since the error was theirs!

So, to Lesley, and all other kind followers of this blog, I send the following message. Hopefully I am back on track, and life will now be calm (at least for a while)!

6 comments:

  1. i have a lovely desktop sitting in the library that is dead to the world. the MAC guys told me it's the screen and that i should just wipe the drive and get a new machine (same price to replace the screen *sigh*)! thankfully, my laptop is holding on, but i do know what you mean about a comfort zone being disrupted! by the by, thank you for the acknowledgment. xox

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  2. I have not been able to comment on your blog for a very long time. I could never get to that page for some reason.
    Poor displaced moth! Wherever is he to go now? Maybe he likes apples??? :)

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  3. Congratulations on having 100 blog followers! My modest 12 have, I fear, mostly dropped off as well and are merely still there for decorative purpose.
    Computer trouble is something I really fear, since I am one of those people who get VERY aggressive when something is wrong with mine. When my husband was still alive, he did all those necessary things like updates and safety copies etc., and made sure our computers were always in top condition. I'm not as knowledgeable as he was in that area, so I largely rely on what he installed in terms of regular maintenance and hope things will keep running smoothly.

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  4. Looking forward to getting stuck into it. Like a good computer mess to sort out!

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  5. Glad to see you are back in Blogland.

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  6. I wish both you and your computer a speedy recovery!

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