May 24 2010

Friday’s Foxley Favourite

It wasn’t quite the visit I had planned, because I ended up having to go in the afternoon – and we all know what a no-no it is trying to take photographs in the afternoon sun – but I was determined to pay a visit to Foxley Woods before the bluebells disappeared. I did manage some images I like but, even more importantly, it was a glorious few hours and I practically had the woods to myself. I saw only 8 or 9 people over the four hours I was there. Bliss.

Although, I could have done without getting back to the car and discovering that the bottle of water which I’d left behind was now hot enough to make tea!

This is my favourite image from the day, more to come soon.

Posted in Flora, Nature, Photography

by Gill

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May 07 2010

Both A Statue And A Doofus

Can I blame Election worries? No? oh well…

You can upgrade Vista Ultimate to Windows 7, ie use the (cheaper) upgrade version of the OS software. What you can’t do is ‘upgrade’ in the sense of over-writing the existing OS, it has to be a clean install. So why does sodding MS not say that clearly at the begining ofthe process? Why does it say “You cannot upgrade …” and not “You must do a clean install to use the upgrade version” or whatever. Aaaaargh!! I probably should have twigged this from the onscreen message but c’mon M$, spell it our clearly, FFS!

Any good feelings as a result of finding that out have been completely negated by the Election results. I almost (almost!) wish I’d been in work today so that I wouldn’t have stayed up till gone 4.00am getting more and more depressed as more and more results came in. I’m with Ediie Izzard when he says that Britain isn’t broke, but our voting system certainly is. If this election is good for anything, it’s the way it’s highlighted the need for Proportional Representation in a much starker manner than ever before. Although, is it any fairer that a party with (at the time of writing) less than 23% of the vote should be in such a powerful, pivotal position with regard to the next government, any more than it’s fair that with 23% of the vote they’ve only got less than 10% of the seats?

Still, one consolation. At least Jacqui Smith has gone, Byeeee, don’t let the door etc.

Next post: pictures!!

Posted in Current Affairs, Grumping

by Gill

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May 06 2010

Some Days You’re The Pigeon …

.. most days, you’re the statue. Today, I have been the statue. Or should that be ‘statues’?

Blocked drains and bolshy neighbours are always a good start. Especially when this has happened twice before, and every time I have to put in a lot of time and effort to prove that the fault is with his drains and is his responsibility, not mine.

But that pales into insignificance compared to my troubles with technology tonight. Aaaaaargh!

Exhibit 1: my husband’s new-to-him PC running Vista Ultimate which, as I found out the hard way, can’t be upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium. Why in the name of all that is reasonable isn’t that information clear on any sodding site – including Microsoft’s own – which sells the damned thing? So that’s an extra £20 for the full version, plus an extra tenner to get it delivered by 1.00 pm tomorrow, plus the added inconvenience of having to reinstall all the programs (any one want to tell me how he’s already lost the CD for a program he only installed two weeks ago?) Oh, plus the inconvenience of having to send the now-unwanted upgrade back.

Exhibit 2: a new external hard drive which immediately threw a wobbly (thanks Lacie) and without which I can’t ensure that all the data on my own PC is backed up before installing Windows 7. Another setback to the planned timetable.

Exhibit 3: after the hoohah in 1 above, I thought I should run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to see if it told me I couldn’t upgrade from XP Pro 64 bit (on my own PC) either. I will NOT be a happy bunny if it says I can’t. Why can’t I find a definitive answer to that question without having to install and run a piece of software? Why the fuck is the software still running after more than 40 minutes? “This will take a few minutes” it says …. while it churns and churns and churns ….

Exhibit 4: Microsoft packaging …. grrrrr! ‘Im indoors and I have been using Open Office for a while but himself gets far too confuzzled by all the file formats offered and the swapping and fiddling he has to do with work-related documents. So, Office Home and Student will do the job, 3 licenses (perfect, we have 2 PCs, 1 laptop) for a reasonable price, go for it I thought. Then I tried to open the packaging which is ginormous compared to the piddly tiddly DVD it contains, and made of nasty, vicious, hard plastic. My good deed for today has been propping up the share price for Elastoplast.

I could go on … notice how the weather is nice? Notice how I will be stuck indoors swearing at PCs? Notice how even if I wasn’t stuck indoors, my camera is with himself … in Germany.

One does suspect one might be in a fouler than usual mood come Monday. And that’s without thinking of the sheer awfulness of the prospect of Dave Cam-the-sham walking into No: 10.

I need more beer. And ice-cream. Definitely more beer and ice-cream.

Update: Amazon are going to use shitty-link to send the software. Oh joy. And the blasted update thingamajig is still running.

Beer. Ice cream. Beer. Ice cream. Beer.

Posted in Grumping, Humour

by Gill

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