Working at home - NOT

I started editing my work around 8 o'clock when husband went out, but I stopped to open the front door to cleaner.

I wrote, but then the phone went, so I talked / listened for a bit. Poor daughter (SD#3) had had an exam where she was expecting to answer 8/12 questions, but found the format had changed and she was expected to answer 3/9. Yeuch! She had a rant.

I wrote, but then the plumber came, (he was expected). No water.

I wrote but then electricity went off. I investigated. Plumber had opened up the switch for the shower pump. Inside was a tangle of rat tail wires, with live touching the switch. Electrician can come on Monday so we still have no shower.

Switched electricity back on and started to make coffee.

I wrote, but then husband came home. He made coffee. I switched on computer to write, but then none of the peripherals came on. Peripheral plug had switched off when the electricity went off. Rebooted.

Cleaner hadn't enough money - sorted that.

I went out to book dental appointment, offer consolations at local jeweller that's just got robbed and buy some cleaning stuff.

I'll try writing this afternoon.

Son's bad day

Son rings up occasionally and we saw him last week for a cup of coffee at the Head of the River, but today he rang to say that he was all right, but someone had tried to burn his college down. This article explains a bit.

Burns Night - Nanna

My Nanna had a Scottish burr that I grew up with and never noticed until on the phone to her - I was 14 by then - phone calls were rare - phone was for my parents, not for me.

"I'll see you tomorrow, then .."

she said with beautifully rolled 'r's.

I remember her teaching me to roll my rs in her kitchen. And she gave me kippers for breakfast, but once porridge with no sugar. I love it now, but then it was "Ugh!" She taught me about Robbie Burns when she wrote in my autograph book:

O wad some power the gift to gie us
To see oursels as others see us!

So tonight - haggis, neeps and mash. Yum! Washed down with a tot of malt whiskey.

Rainy days are here

So the car's broke.

And now we know why our toilets have been flushing with hot water for years - the shower pump's broke and lets hot water in to the cold tank through a varicose vein valve. Fortunately, the plumber investigated in time to realise the pipe had perished, and any day we'd have had a big flood, and now we won't have.

But we'll have another big bill.

That's what savings are for - a rainy day.

Broken car

We went to Oxford yesterday to see a relative, his daughter and his grandson.

Positive things happened:

• We had a lovely chat & I got to know his daughter and to admire his golden headed 18 month old grandson - a potential engineer who was fascinated by our car's tyres
• We met my son and handed over what he'd forgotten to take back after Christmas
• I managed to retrieve my lost handbag from where I'd forgotten it in the Head of the River pub where we had afternoon coffeeWe went to a BCS lecture which turned out to be much more interesting than we'd anticipated
• I managed to retrieve my lost handbag from where I'd forgotten it in the Head of the River pub where we had afternoon coffee

Negative thing happened

Husband's car set its alarm when we parked it and when we came back it refused to open. Eventually three doors would open but not the driver's so he had to clamber over the passenger seat to get to drive it. Anyone who knows our garage space will work out his problems in parking the car in the garage, so he took it to get the central locking fixed. Mechanics looked at everything. And everything - well nearly everything - else is broke too, like brakes. It's going to cost a four figure sum to fix.

Danger

I read OneMinuteWriter blogger. Sometimes I have a go at writing for one minute using her timer. Today's task (yesterday's but it's still night in the States) was to write on the most dangerous thing you've ever done. I wrote:

Danger was gliding.

Dry throat - why was I always thirsty as I waited to launch - parched mouth - into the sky launched on the end of a rope, pulling upwards I can see the white of the clouds, like my eyes, and my heart beat loud.

Now I don't glide. I did it. Done that.

I think I was confusing the danger (statistically low) with fear. Gliding was scary but I wanted to do it. Now I get a bit scared doing tae kwondo, and I come away with more bruises in an evening than I did in a decade of gliding. So I reckon tae kwondo is more dangerous than gliding.

Funny how I can do activities without children - before they came I did gliding and now - twenty years later - now they've gone I do tae kwondo.

Post curry

Husband did a wonderful curry last night. He found the Madhur Jaffrey book circa 1980, all covered with turmeric stains, and did a rogan ghosh, which he pronounced too hot so he did a cucumber raita as well. It was delicious and he served it with whole meal rice, which I love, so I was very happy and very full.

Problems working at home

I'm getting little research work written today, because I don't have a word processor to write with, nor a VPN to access the file from my folder at work. Why?

Because I've got a new motherboard, but also everything from my old hard disk has been wiped, which shouldn't be a problem because I have backups - just a chore. And I need to reinstall software.

1. First find the disks. I scratch head but a walk to the coffee shop & a brownie help me remember where they all are
   
2. Then I have to remember registration code. This could be tricky if, like for Office 2007, they sent the code in an email, which is on the wiped disk so somewhere in back up. Fortunately, I'd copied the code legibly onto the cover.

I need to reinstall:

• XP so that gives me a browser, IE :(
  
• First Class client, to get the key for Kaspersky that the OU provides
  
• Kaspersky - do my virus checker and firewalls fast
  
• Firefox - get a decent browser
  
• Thunderbird - accounts aren't all working yet though
• Office 2007
  
• OU eTMA handler
• Olympus camera software
• Olympus digital recorder software
• Inspiration
  -great for diagrams and structuring writing
  
• Dragon - one of the drivers for this reorganisation because I wasn't running fast enough and didn't have enough space for its files so couldn't speak my writing onto files
  
• Macromedia, like Dreamweaver
• FTP - perhaps
  
• Java and Netbeans for tutoring OU M256
• Notepad++ for tutoring OU M150 & the M150 data disks
• Skype - for chats and phone calls
  
• VPN for work
• Family Tree Maker
• Winzip perhaps
• Tablet software
• Creative Livecam video perhaps
  

and turn on automatic updates for things like Microsoft service packs.

Then I have to find or recreate

• my email stuff, like address book
  
• templates that I created, like one for my tutorial plans
  
• the data: photos, emails, tax records, family tree files, Dragon voice files (I'll just start again)
  

So if I don't email you, it's because I've mislaid your email address. Please do email me so I can have your address again.

In the meantime, it's taking hours to install Microsoft service packs, so I can't use my computer for research. I'm stuck on this tiny eeePC, with its tiddily keyboard, but at least I'm still electronically in touch, if not yet productive.

Dancing with scarves

Belly dancing this term is with scarves and today's session was great fun, and easier than I thought it was going to be. But I didn't get to jingle my new belt as much as I'd hoped - daughter gave me a beautiful one for Christmas, deep purple with several rows of silver buttons.

Lovely night

A photo of the night sky from the back of our house.

Ada Lovelace day

Ada was a name that daughter's father and I had thought of calling her because I was a programmer, he taught me programming, we enjoyed controlling the computer, and Ada Lovelace was the world's first computer programmer, not a bloke, a woman. A geek as Brussels Girl Geek blogger writes here.

A thousand bloggers have pledged to blog about a woman in technology on March 24th. But who shall we pick? I don't know yet.

Vacuuming the washing machine.

Did you know you can wash feather pillows? But if the material is frayed, then put the pillow in something else first. Discovering my 30 year old pillows could be washed, I got too enthusiastic, and pillows burst in the washing machine, leaving grumpy husband to vacuum the washing machine clear.

So how do you dry a mass of feathers, which if left in clumps go mouldy and smelly? I dry them in our bath room, nice and warm, and turn the feathers over every hour or two. Keep them in open baskets and finally put them in the airing cupboard. But that left me with dry feathers, flying up in the static and the slightest breath and covering the bathroom carpet, so 'twas on a Monday morning that the vacuum cleaner came out again to clear the feathers.

I retain some sewing skills from decades ago. I've bought yards of some cotton material, threaded my sewing machine, remembered how to wind thread onto the lower bobbin, and am now creating something between a duvet bag and an eiderdown. I'm going to put the feathers in the bag and use it on daughter's bed - she was really cold this Christmas holiday.

I'm an accoustic illiterate

It's the end of an era because I'm finally getting rid of late-husband's electrostatic quad speakers. Am I letting him down? Do I say goodbye? Am I just acoustically illiterate? Yes. Thirty years I've tried to appreciate these space hoggers.

When I was trying to sell my old house, one viewer thought they were massive radiators.



I asked one of his university friends if he wanted them, but he never emailed me back. So I went down to the local audio place, that university friend had recommended, Northwood Audio, and asked them. The chap there said they were an acquired taste because of the space they need in front and behind them. I've never been able to give them that space. So I'll put them in the car soon and take them to Northwood.

So if you want them, you'd better tell me quick.

Post Christmas quiet

All is quiet again now. They've all gone back and I shall miss them. I shall miss the philosophical chats with son. We have debated the relative merits of particular approaches to research, and we had a great chat in the pub his last night home.

Daughter went back today. Her step-dad took her. Last night she was the chattiest she'd been for ages, and I really enjoyed her company.

Step-daughter #2 sent a lovely thank you card.

Step-daughter #3 got back to her rented house to find a huge electricity bill, and that her course work was many words too short, so wasn't so cheerful. But between us, I think her parents have helped sort those out a bit.

A ring at the door bell and step-daughter #1 is passing - 5 minute chat and away again. At least we have one child still with us and we have her children to look forward to as well.

Happy home

Nice son lit a fire for us to come home to, yesterday. He told me all the phone messages, the house was all tidy, and daughter was welcoming.

Most stressful day of year

I was looking forward to going back to work until I looked out of the window at the snow and anticipated the roads.

The paper says that today is the most stressful day of the year.

New Year resolution

New Year resolution has to be not to give up.

1. I have to support husband and our two families. I start by refraining from offering my three beautiful step daughters juicy apples and spinning wheels. I have already refrained from hanging a notice in the window:
"Three lovely step daughters
living here with wicked step mother,
need handsome princes to rescue them."


Fortunately two of them have already found their handsome princes, who are really nice young men, even to me, their step-mother-in-law. And step daughter number 3 has turned quite happy over the last year or two.


2. I'm going to carry on avoiding other people kicking me at tae kwondo, while not thumping them too hard. I like the exercise and the laughter, not the thumps. I might move up a kup if I grade and get another belt. That's one of the tenets of tae kwondo - perseverance.
   


3. Then there's the research work, which has its good moments and its bad moments. Never ever give up until the dissertation is handed in, in September 2010.
   


4. And I'll keep writing this. Thank you those people who tell me they read it and even mention it on Christmas cards to us. You are so encouraging. I really appreciate it.