A lovely day

I had a visit yesterday from Elder Son and grandson, whom I hadn't seen, for various reasons, since Christmas time. He has now reached the grand old age of two and three quarters and is a whizz with the cleaning, as you can see from the photo!
So we visited the shop (and much more importantly the toy shop next door), had lunch, played football in the garden and played in the local play area and a great time was had by all.

Phew!

New hard drive installed and we're up and running again. That was a close shave. I had actually not backed up my documents since March (I thought it was only about 6 weeks ago - how time flies!) but all the important stuff is there except for the last unit of my counselling course, although I have it all in hard copy and it's all marked and done with. I used to be a lot more conscientious in backing things up. This is a salutary lesson!
So now, hours being spent reinstalling programmes and, of course, my favourites list!
But of course,we know all about that, don't we!

Calamity!

Yesterday was a bad day. The worst thing possible happened (well, in I.T. terms anyway). My laptop, after logging on and making a few plaintive peeping noises, froze and when I tried to fire it up again, a message appeared telling me that no operating system could be detected.
"Of course there's an operating system - just look will ya!!!" I yelled, but to no avail. The hard drive had breathed its last, given up the ghost and quietly slipped away.
In a panic, I rang Keith.
"Oh dear," he said, in the tones that meant he knew he was going to be in for some ear bashing, weeping and wailing for at least the next twenty four hours.
He ordered a new hard drive, to arrive poste haste today.
He came home from work last night and sniggered at the empty space on the coffee table.
He took out his new mobile phone.
"Did you know I can surf the internet on this?" he asked, unnecessarily.
"You won't be able to when I have thrown it over the back fence into the woods," I said.

Arachnid alert!

We are coming into the spider season again. August and September are the months when I refrain from sitting on the floor, or staying downstairs on my own at night to watch television and I certainly don't walk around barefoot. This is the time when a movement seen from the corner of your eye becomes a gigantic hairy spider charging across the living room looking for its next meal or making a desperate dash for freedom. It's the time when you almost fall downstairs from sheer terror at coming face to face with one of the horrific black creatures half way up just sitting there waiting to strike terror into your heart - you could almost see the smug smirk of satisfaction on its face if you were inclined to hang around! Then there is always the clever one which hangs around on the shower curtain, waiting till you are nicely installed under the jet of water before it shows itself and abandons you to your slippery slide of terror.
But they're getting sneakier and cleverer.
Like the one which hid itself in the laundry basket so that I carried it downstairs in a bundle of washing - I actually had it in my arms! I'm still getting palpitations just thinking about it.
And to add insult to injury, since Keith broke his ankle, he seems to have resigned from spider-killing duty, leaving me to deal with them, alone, unaided, by myself.
I mean - it's not much to ask. What else would you keep a man in the house for???

New car - old radio

I have changed my car. No longer the elderly Audi Estate which was heavy on the juice and had started to burn oil, now I have a petite Peugeot 106 Graduate deisel. It's also fairly elderly but sports distinctive, decorative twirly bits on the sides. This is important. The Audi had CPU Direct Computers Ltd along each side so I was always able to find it quite easily in carparks when I had forgotten just where I had parked, so I am hoping that the twirly bits on the Peugeot will fulfil the same function.
Where I do have a slight problem is with the radio. It's there, loosely attached in its niche but it doesn't work. That's not the problem though, as Keith has another one to replace it which just needs decoding, which he will be able to do, when he gets round to it.
"The radio fell out when I went round a corner today," I remarked to Keith on the phone.
"It fell on my hand," I continued.
"But I can't take it out altogether because the wires are still attached," I persisted.
"Ah, there's something you can do about that," came the response.
I waited, wondering what the 'something' was likely to be. Cut the wires? Stop going round corners?
"Get a piece of card and fold it,"came the instructions.
I braced myself for possible technical instructions to follow.
"Then wedge it down the side of the radio and it won't slip out again," said Keith with the air of a man confident that he had produced the perfect solution.
"Actually, I would rather just have the new one fitted...SOON!"
"Oh, are you sure?" came the hurt tones of a disillusioned man.

Losing weight

CM sent me this observation on married life today. Read on...

Here's a gem to share with your nearest and dearest........
There has been recent talk in the media about scientists pondering on the reason for females getting a little bit 'plumper' once they are married.
Theories thrown around include the fact that they are content, perhaps they are no longer on diets to catch the man of therir dreams and many more.
However, my favourite broadcaster Sir Terry Wogan this week came up with his own theory which I think is fantastic :
When single girls come home they go straight to fridge, see what's there, then go to bed. When married women come home they go straight to bed, see what's there, then go to the fridge ! ! !

Classic ! :-)

What a load of rubbish!

Apparently there are moves afoot to fine householders £110 if they put their rubbish out before the designated day of collection.
What I want to know is how much my refuse collectors will be fined when they empty my recycling box and then deliberately chuck it into next door's garden, as they did the other week!