O Happy Day?

It has become a wee bit tiring this awaiting an inevitable election wipe-out of the Tory party.  Today, just before PMQs, another Try defected to Labour to save her skin or possibly land in the Lords.  To accept someone so unsuitable for Labour office reveals the depth to which Keir has sunk.  This woman, who has stood out loudly objecting to immigrants arriving in Dover, her constituency, and attempted to interfere with the courts while her husband was on trial as a sex-pest, grumbling that the women just could not resist a man so attractive to them, now pretends she is for Labour.  I wonder how the constituency will react? 

I long ago ceased to watch PMQs, Boris's lying ended that for me, and Sunak sinking weekly is not an attractive viewing.  It would be worth having a Labour government majority in England just to end all this nonsense.

I realised just how tired I was today when trying to 'cut & paste' something from one place to another.  Back and forward we went, it worked, did not work, missed a bit, and all the usual flops!  Eventually, after a great many rude words it was finished, and now I see the mistakes.  Too much running around this weekend, not enough sitting around eating, and my tiredness may well have been noticed by those at the edges of town!

Still, I have found a tool to make working with Microsoft easier...

Tech!

 

This is Fishing boats off Leith, possibly 'Zulu's.'

 

My love of technology increases daily.  The 'Dell' is now hesitating to respond to my delicate touch, this means several attempts today to get the blessed thing to actually do what it is there for.  Of course the router is not breaking down this week, it just will not go above a speed of 24.  

So, I glanced at prices for new laptops, just in case, and decided there was no rush.  The ones I consider useful range between £7-£900 and this means they can wait for a bit.  Slowly my mind will work out how little I need such a machine and will soon find me something much cheaper.  

My love of technology was not increased when I attempted to get the mobile working.  Several attempts were required before switching off and starting again.  I will not begin searching out prices for the new ones...

Trump, Tech and Spring!

Once Joe managed to get his aged head in the White House it was hoped the end would come for the fat, orange blob.  However, in spite of insurrection, rape allegations, court decisions and obvious mental health problems, Trump once again heads the count for the Republicans as Presidential candidate.  We think the UK parliament is in a mess?  

How does a man who supports the Russians in Ukraine, use and abuse women so openly, talk like a 14 year old taking his first drugs, and lie so obviously retain this position?  Uncle Joe is no hero and some of his statements are somewhat dubious, but with a choice between a semi dementia man with some decency, and a Nut Job who considers, and probably believes, that the world is there for him and him alone, which would you choose?  Joe would not lead the US into a war, against the Ukraine, Trump might!  Trump, with the monetary understanding of Liz Truss, could demolish the worlds economy in less than her 43 days.  Yet, many US citizens will vote for him!

The west has been morally degraded by the policies of great wealth and false liberalism.  The 'Stonewall' type freedoms have deluded many, the creation of wealth and the removal of that wealth has left many distressed, and Covid did play its part here.  It is interesting how immoral governments and economic distress go together.  The stability built up since 1945 has been gradually eroded.  The west has nothing to hold it together now.   And a return of both Trump and Johnson is on the cards.

Sleep well.

In the real world Spring has produced a lively concoction for the wee beasties.  Buttercups and these white things that I can never recall the name off, these abound round the park.  Yesterday, my body failed to make Kirk, so I wondered across the park enjoying the greenery.  The council cut down the dead daffodils and allow the space to be filled with all this beastie attracting growth.  They do manage it well, and this replaces the areas killed off by front gardens being turned into car parks.  No wonder the number of sparrows is diminishing.  

I love technology, I really do!

I love how technology enables my laptop to manipulate the anti-virus in such a way as it logs itself out, logs itself in, all unasked, and then slows everything down while it contemplates what it is doing.  This, I only understood after uninstalling 'Avast,' and then re-installing the thing this afternoon.  Why did it do this?  Was it attacked by a virus?  Anyway, all is now well, apparently, but every day, and in everyway, we are being driven mad by the technology that was discovered to aid us and make our life easier!   

Laptop Death

I have decided to write a book!  It will be called 'Your Laptop is Trying to Kill You!'  It ought to be a best seller.

Today, I attempted to download family history info that had been lost some time ago.  I had most of the info in place and was sure of finding what I required once again.  After some faffing about I began to download info onto paper for printing.  Because of the setup I had to first copy and past the info, then paste it onto what they call 'Sticky Notes' as this removes any little boxes and frames the info has been put into.  From there I then paste it onto a 'WORD' or in my case a similar page.  Simple.

Not so.

For a start, right clicking on this machine either does not work, or if it does it then switches off as you use it to cover info or paste info.  This is a constant habit.  As it sometimes requires several attempts before it works things can go wrong.  While copying one piece about 'Margaret' it failed several times, by the time I had copied the details and printed it off I realised I now had two 'Isabell's!' The blasted smug machine had switched back to the previous woman!  

Add to this my confusion caused by one of my beautiful nieces.  She has also been looking into this and managed to place one wife as the daughter of a previous parent.  It took some time before I worked this out.  The unfortunate habit of using similar names in each generation may be romantic to some but it does the head in of those of us today scrawling through hundreds of Margaret's of Isabell's.  As my dad was called Robert, and so were almost all the fathers before him, and others of the same name also used Robert for generations it is quite easy to come to the conclusion those Mad Axe men found in the daily press are not so mad after all.

Of course add to the fun the router.

This is a machine that sits on the desk quietly doing its work.  

Except when it begins to flash!

Green, Orange, still orange, flashing orange with a 'b' and possibly a wi-fi sign, then more orange before Blue appears, before it begins the whole routine once again!   

Mine takes a delight it playing nice until the football begins, then it goes off on one.

When it all works, the swear box is filling up nicely, and the printer is working well, that is when you realise the ink is about to run out.  There is of course plenty of black ink in the cupboard, but no coloured one.  The coloured one runs out.  You glance at the clock, the wee stationer is shut, supermarkets crowded, but if you go there is no suitable ink, and if there is, it is not the one you need.

You pick up the mobile, switch it on, or at least attempt to switch the brute on.  Nothing happens.  You press again and again, yet nothing happens.  You fling the brute down and it switches on.  

You then attempt to count to ten but that is not helping...

Tomorrow I will visit Tesco, I may have to use the self-service machine.

This could mean trouble...

Log in Woes

The success of the Heart of Midlothian in qualifying for the 'Euro Conference League' (No, I had never heard of it either) meant that I now had to spend more money from under the bed by acquiring BTSport.

This was something I did not wish to do as I had enough of boring Euro matches and did not wish to spend cash.  However, to see the team play I must enlist.  

So, through 'Plusnet' I acquired BTSport for £10 a month (until they charge me £17:50 in a few months time) and began to fill in all the requirements.

First mistake was to download the Ap.  

The mistake being I downloaded it onto the phone.  I meant to use the laptop but went ahead in the thought it would be easy to add one there also.  It is not easy, it appears impossible!

However, I went ahead with the application, filled out the details, and wrote them down as clever people do.

Later, I tried to Log in.  

Wrong password.

Password changed.

Wrong password.

Grrrrrr!

Then I realised I had to wait 24 hours before logging in.

Fool!

Today I tried again.

Wrong password!

Eventually, after much teeth grinding and sulking I realised the faults.

This concerned the auto name on the address, they automatically used the wrong one.

This I amended, the password also was amended after logging in to the 'forgotten everything idiot' dept at BT, and after much tears I was able to log in, on the phone.

Now I await the Chelsea game, though I will also watch Celtic being humbled by Real Madrid later, if the phone or my eyes do not pack up! 

This however, will not do my eyes any good.  I must work out how to get the ap into the laptop.

One day all football will be on one channel... 

 

Tuesday Grumbles

It has been an exhausting few days.  Last week I did too much for my unfit, old frame.  Walking about on Sunday did not help.  So I have done nothing of interest again.  It has to be said, that is now my normal existence.  This morning I reached Sainsburys early but found I was tired, very tired.  I struggled back home and drank coffee and ate whatever I could find, irrespective of what it did to the diet.  This took all day to wear off, and is still hanging around yet. 

Actually, I have done other things, mostly on the laptop.  I have managed to upset gays in the USA, Brexiteers in the UK, and my downstairs neighbour, though that was by just existing.  

So, the time has not been wasted then?

Boris has managed to cause a railway strike, by not allowing his government to take part in talks, also reducing subsidy payments by half, demanding 2500 job cuts, including ticket sellers, replacing them with computerised online tickets (which many cannot use) and refusing wage increases.  He now blames 'militant unions' for troubling the nation.  

'Train drivers are overpaid' some claim, ignoring the fact that train drivers are not involved in the strike.  The 'Daily Mail' reader is easily led.

Postmen are next, Criminal Barristers, those who defend you that is, are also striking this week, most others are soon to follow.  Nurses, dustmen and a wide variety of people now suffering from the cost of living increase are demanding more.  This government of billionaires and millionaires is ignoring them.

On Sunday we remembered it was 'Fathers Day,' another of those imported US celebrations that did not exist when I was young.  Father's, now almost outlawed by Harriet Harmen and her feminist rabble, are given a token day today, but only if they are 'new fathers,' a term which implies all fathers beforehand were bad.  This of course is rubbish, many were bad, just as many were very good, however, books and magazines, newspapers and TV stories fill with tales of the bad ones. For 40 years Harriet and her harridans have been telling us men are bad, many now accept this as true, and this includes young men.

Fathers are important, we are created male and female, no matter what todays fashionable lies tell us.  One male, one female, married for life, are best for children, male and female.  We are all aware of the many failures, we often read about them.  We never appear to read about failed one parent (usually female) families which fail, we never appear to read about gay marriages which fail, couples living together for a while which fail, we obtain only half a story, and children suffer.

One police Inspector indicated that most young black kids in trouble had no fathers, this was quietly pushed aside, as this was not a popular, though true, observation.  I have known black men who have not looked after their children, but many more who have been very good fathers indeed.  Society hears only what it wishes to hear, not what is best. 

I notice Microsoft have been at it again.  While everything was going along reasonably they have amended this and that, especially the 'Photos' and not informed us as to how to change things again.

This did not take long to work out, however, once again it appears 14 year olds are the ones coming up with ideas.  Why do tech companies amend things so often?  Apart from amending mistakes, keeping out bugs, and finding new ways to make use of your data to enrich themselves, which after all, is what it is all about, why do they do this?  Last night, on the new, cheap, spare laptop, which uses the totally useless Win 11, I struggled with normal everyday things.  Sure, I was a bit tired, but the cursor requires fixing, the layout is poor, and nothing works properly, unless they say so.  Firefox etc, cannot be used unless you leave their 'S' security, whatever that means, and all I know is that they are making even more from my useless data than I am making for myself.  

Anyone got a spare 13 year old who can help here?

This brute does not help either!

The other day I was sorting things out and found a man in Amsterdam talking to me!  That cost text money to fix.  Every time I touch it something disappears or even worse, appears!  Now I find it 'topping up' with £20 three times within a week, whereas before it took weeks to do this.  

I went onto the website, struggled to get on, struggled to find the costs, struggled to find what I had paid, and struggled to understand why I am now paying so much more when it all looks the same?  A few more days research here before I dump GiffGaff and find another.  

Three Things

 

 

First Thing

 

The Conservative Party held a confidence vote in their Prime Minister last night, this he won by 211 viotes to 148.  However, this is a hollow victory, no PM with a third of his party against him can stand. Normal behaviour of decent PMs is for them to resign after such a loss, Boris of course will not do this.  Instead he is appearing as bumptious as always, vowing to continue to 'work for Britain,' or at least for the 23 major donors who have given him and his Party billions over the past few years.  What, we ask, have they got from this?

Boris now remains as a limping PM.  He cannot trust his party ro support him, he cannot call a snap election as he fears the result, he can only contnue hoping something will turn up in his favour.  There is however, little chance of this anytime soon.  

 

 

Second Thing

 

A new laptop arrived yesterday.  A cheap affair but required as a 'spare' as my actual spare is now nine years old and too slow for doing important things such as watching the football without cuttting out every now and again.  

So yesterday, for quite some time, I sat in front of the new one, using Window 11 which I have not used, downloading, inserting passwards, finding them refused, inserting them again and again until I found the correct passwords, and so on all afternoon.  Just after five in the early evening I gave up.  Much is still missing, lots require attention, but the new one works well, so much better than the second hand spare which really looks dated now.  This one also gives a good clear picture without breaking down of the football.  What more can I ask?   Win 11 will take some time to get used to mind.

 

Third Thing 

 

Essex Police yesterday posted this picture on Twitter with a message concerning flying the flag for 'Pride.'  

The strapline:  *We're monitoring our posts. All hate crime will be reported & investigated* was I considered quite threatening.  

So much so I queried this at the time.  Later, it emerged they had 'hidden' my posts and many, many people were asking why?  Indeed, all day, and into today, many people, from many backgrounds, have posted straight forward questions regarding flying this flag and the threatening strapline.  I found myself with many questions here, were Essex Police becoming 'Thought Police?'  Are they going to ban or hide all posts objecting to this?  Will they knock my door down in the morning?  Are they paid for flying flags?  

I was so annoyed I wrote today to the Chief Constable asking this and other questions.  'Stonewall' and like people, have infiltrated the heart of governments, police, industry and even the NHS and this is not a  society I am willing to live under.  So I wrote to one or two other important persons who might have something to say about this.  At least I hope so, if not I will write again and ensure light has been brought into a situation where a certain minority rule the majority.  This is not acceptable.

 

 

Fungi, Tardis and Sweets

 

So far, it has been the usual confused day for me.  

Last night the laptop would not switch off.  So, after several late night attempts I left it to switch off by itself.  This morning it was still on, the sleep mode had come on, but now it would not connect to the WiFi. 

Troubleshooters were aroused, the yellow ethernet cable advised and once employed this worked well, but the thing was not connected properly.  

Then followed many attempts with troubleshooter and a restart.  Once restarted it now works fine, without ethernet cable filling the desk.  All appears back to normal.

Why?  Why does it do this to me?  There is no reason for this?   Grrrrrrrrr....   

The fungi pictured I found growing on a grassy patch behind the old Registery office.  Now being run as a kindergarden no-one bothers to cut the grass.  I guess Dave could identify these specimens but to me they are just Toadstools.  I agreed with a passing woman that we would not be eating these any time soon.

 

A late afternoon wander around town where the crowds gather for the 'Xmas Lights' being switched on.  Every child in the town was here, far too many people, and a few perplexed dogs.  I pushed, and was pushed about by the crowds, willing to mix it as not long after leaving home an Audi driver came close to hitting me.  I wished I had said more at the time but he kept moving.  Thus Irked, I wandered about.

 

Sweets abound here.  This stall is a regular who offers bags of teeth destroyer.  He remains considerably cheaper than the fancy stalls found today.  Candles, cakes and things I canny afford nor indeed desire.  Many have been before so must have made money, and Xmas arriving will do them some good.

 

Being FREE entry I popped into the museum for a peek.  I have not wandered about there for some time.  The space exhibition looked good, including this Tardis.  I refrained from opening the door as I was not sure where I would end up.  There used to be lots of these around Edinburgh, now almost all that remain have been turned onto coffee stalls!

Saturday Laptop

My spare laptop, the only one with a CD/DVD bit on it is so sIow and driving me mad.  So, having more money than sense I bought a new, cheap, spare one with a DVD/CD bit.  

I have spent HOURS installing everything I can find, including the Microsoft downloads, and then searching vainly for passwords for things I have added.  

It was lunchtime when I started and it is now getting dark!

Going between two laptops and my phone while checking emails, passwords, or whatever, does not increase one's mental wellbeing.  

Also, Microsoft, in their wisdom, insist on sending a security number at one point in the proceedings, this however does not arrive as my phone number is a landline!  That is too outdated for them.  Too late and bothered to insert my mobile number now, another task for tomorrow.

All however appears well so far, and naturally the DVD/Rom/CD is the one thing I have not yet tried!

Too late now, BBC Alba football soon starting.

 

ps. It's raining, and I have just looked out my heavy pullover!  October is here.

 

 

Spotting from Home, or Bored!

 

Bored with rubbish football last night I tried my hand at 'Spotting from Home.'  This is something usually done by those railfans who cannot get out and about these days so instead take pictures from their laptops.  Sitting in bed, bored with Luton Town last night, I picked up my cheap mobile phone and snapped favourite places.  

I decided to do this when watching far off Deshler, Ohio, somewhere in the United States.  Here is one of my favourite views, though usually it is not covered in snow.  The US is under a freak downwards curve of cold air and while Ohio may be used to such scenes further along in Texas, and even New Mexico, they suffered a blanket of thick snow.  A slight dusting they can cope with, several inches brought anguish.  

The engine in this picture is awaiting the passing of a train heading East which crosses just behind the camera view.  This has not yet arrived so our man just sits there and cogitates.  This is a not unusual sight at this point.  These frieght trains have to be well planned before they leave, a train 150 trucks long takes up a lot of space on the railway!

 

Unlike the engineer, that's 'driver' to you and me, I got fed up waiting so I moved to  Waupaca, Wisconsin, no, I have no idea where that is either, and discovered the foundry there was still working, possibly because this engine had just moved some of the trailers, filled with Coke standing in the background, into the furnace area.  This looks to me like one of those little 'wild west' towns that has little to build on but the foundry.  Quite why this town exists is not made clear but it appears to prosper.  Small town America lies before us here.

 

 

This, somewhat darker than it is in real life, seaside image, makes a change for those who do not appreciate the joys of railways.  Videos, sometimes live, of beaches wordlwide are very relaxing I find.  Here we can enjoy the birds gobbling up wee beasties we cannot see, but they know are there hidden beneath the sand.  There is something relaxing about the sea, the light reflecting of the water, the bird life, the air, all gives a relaxing feel to the mind.  I miss it.  

 

 

I used to see this view, from the side, regularly.  Crossing the Forth Bridge heading home with North Queensferry beneath us (give Gordon Brown a wave as we pass) the two road bridges to the right, and a few ships loading content to or from various refining plants.

In the past the Royal Navy at Rosyth, to the right, had half the fleet stationed here.  Vast numbers of ships, including BattleCruisers, were docked all around the area.  In the 50's when I passed a great many ships were still to be seen and Battleship gray covered the area.  Today these have gone, moved by John Major to who tried unsuccessfully to win a seat in Plymouth, thus leading to the loss of thousands of Fife jobs.  Who said the Union was a good idea?  

 

 

Not everyboby gets to see this view.

 

 

What?  Fed up with railways?  Heartless people!

OK, here are some Black Swans, somewhere in I suppose Australia, swanning about in a quiet, gentle, long video, one I often have on in the background.  Lovely to see and enjoy.  The colour obviously is better in real life.

I do like a lot of the old silent movies, hand cranked in the streets, while modern life, before 1914 that is, moved about for our entertainment.  This looks like France, a train arrives and all make a dash for it, the hopeful passengers, the men jumping off as the train slows, a great number of porters and station staff, and overdressed women, must be ones with money, pushing the men aside to get the best seat.

Fashion, you will note, doth make fools of us all!

 

 

Let Joy Continue...

 Selfie

It was as I watched a train of 150 or so doubled up containers leave the bridge at Fort Madison, Iowa, last night that I realised something was amiss.  My picture was good but as I tried to log on to other places nothing worked.  All had gone down and the trains soon stopped running past the replica Fort Madison.  Internet connection was lost.  Hmm... Tsk!  Thought I, this is unfortunate.

I then attempted to reconnect to the web, nothing worked.  Three Browsers were tried, nothing worked.  What was wrong?  It appears the 'DNS' was not connecting.  The what?  The DNS.  I stared for a while, but this did not help.  

I connected the old laptop, one as slow as a Boris Johnson thought, and discovered this one connected well enough, indeed I then watched the football on it!  My better one would not however work.  

Having interrupted the football to search for an answer, and several were found but all appeared to me to be in a foreign 'Geek' language, so they were put back to bed, and I then joined them there.

This morning, covered in crumbs, I stumbled about in the laptop, prodding this and that and getting nowhere.  Eventually, by chance, I hit the 'Network' troubleshooter.  This found a fault, not the DNS one, and offered a 'Fix.'  

I took it, and it 'fixed!'  

What did it fix? No idea!  But it now works better than ever.

Old laptop put back, slowly, to bed, and I got on with life.

Great stuff, what could possibly go wrong now?  

 

Step forward Royal Mail!

Or at least Chris, the postman!

The books I ordered from Waterstones were due delivery today.  Strange to say they did not come from Waterstones themselves but one via 'Hatchards' and two via 'Foyles' bookshops.   They have been sitting in a London sorting office for a couple of days, rather than being sent on, and were due delivery today.

I know Chris, I worked with him long enough, ageing as the days pass, arrives around 1:30 each day.  I was here, I was sitting happily awaiting the prizes, I even had the door open to hear, and the bell is close by.

Around 1:35 an email arrived claiming no one was in.

Strapping my Claymore to my side I went downstairs and checked.  Two red cards awaited, one for me, one for next door.  

No bell had rung, Chris had gone and was nowhere in sight.

Grrrrrr!

This is the result of the Virus.  Chris, at his age, is very wary of the virus and has clearly decided not to ring the bell in case he catches it, instead he, like others, taps on the door thus meaning no-one inside can hear him.  He then wastes time scribbling the cards and chucking them through the door when he could be wasting time chatting.  He has not considered that other postmen, couriers etc, may 'tap' the door rather than use the bell thus endangering themselves from one another.  

He may get words next week when he is back on.

My books will be delayed until Friday, not counting sorting office incompetence, no way I can walk down there, and the old boy on Friday will ring the bell. 

Tsh!

WORD, Politics, Stress

 

Laptops keep you busy. Once you have worked out the ins and outs you then have to work out the programmes you place upon it. WORD has been bothering me. Microsoft have updated this one, the system I used before was simple enough and worked well, so naturally now all goes via the ‘One Drive’ and is no longer what I was happily used to. So, a search for an alternative began.I tried ‘Apache Open Office,’ an ‘Open Source’ system I used years ago which is good but I could not get the text to remain as I wished. Also ‘Free Office’ from ‘SoftMaker’ which did not word wrap the page and had no spellchecker, which in my ignorance I require. There are others, each with good and bad points, like WORD itself, and for the moment I am using ‘Libre’ which spellchecks, look at all the red bits, and the page is better. This also does not require the entire Browser and is therefore more suitable for me keeping pages on the Desktop, ready for use. This appeals to me at the moment so I am left wondering what will go wrong next.

The laptop works fine but gave Beeps when switching on. 3 beeps, four times, was worrying. I followed the lead and yesterday ran the Diagnostic. This ran from 7:30 to 8:30, offered me more test that ‘May take 30 minutes,’ and so I ran them. 3 and a bit hours later the machine told me all was well, nothing to worry about, all tests were passed.

As I switched on today I got 5 beeps! 

That can be fixed tomorrow. 

I also had to move everything to allow the plumber in. The handyman, John, working on the empty flat below, told me he was coming even though they had not warned me. So, all was moved to give him space. 

When he arrived he was wanted the flat next door. 

However, moving things indicated it was time to make use of the expensive Meile vacuum and move the dust thickening the carpets. 

So ends another day of excitement in this house.

 

I keep reading of people breaking down under ‘Lock Down’ and find myself unsurprised. Those who have no person to discuss things with must be under a real strain. I would think lonely old women, unable to get to coffee mornings and the like may be the most likely to suffer, bar those with real mental stress.

My own stress will be great tonight as no football can be found. Having watched it hourly since Friday I may have overdosed. So many games, most forgettable, and I can no longer remember who played who. With changes of shirts to avoid clashing it is not always possible to recognise who is who and which team is which these days. Consider also, ‘old’ and ‘veteran’ players are in their mid thirties! Possibly this is why the co-commentator spent last nights game, who was playing again? Calling almost every player ‘youngster.’ I could not decide if he was condescending or jealous. He was certainly irritation. I have just remembered, it was Iceland and Belgium. All the Icelanders names ended in ‘...sson’ and considering what the Belgians under thon King of theirs did to the ‘Belgian Congo’ in days past it was surprising to see so many players of African decent lining up for what is without a shadow of doubt the best team in the world just now.

In other news Donald Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize! How do you spell ‘Gasp!’

No gasp is required when you hear a government minister informing the House the government will ‘Break the Law!’ No gasp either when Boris tries to kill devolution by stealth. Fascism is with us once again. No press scrutiny, no investigation anywhere except by the small ‘Bylines’ operation, and a crowd of lackey MPs who vote with the government, even against policies that were intended to prevent another tower block catching fire.  The local world is heading for a fall, don't say I did not warn you...

'Dell Boy' and Meat!

 

This morning DPD, a proper courier service delivered to me, as one of his 132 drops, and that before he starts collecting, this 'refurbished' laptop.  So far, this appears faster than my struggling old one, less crumb filled than my bust other one, and almost all has been added that is requred.  Indeed some things have arrived I did not know I still possessed.  One problem was the Microsoft licence sticker was missing from the bottom.  However, a short phone call and the young lad at the other end fixed this via something called 'Team Viewer,' which I had never heard off.  This allowed him to do all that was required fromhis end, quicker and more correct in the end.  

Costing only £239 I did not expect much, however, the service was as required, the laptop is much cleaner than Grade 2 normally is, and my phone call was quick and easy but I pay for it!  Almost next day delivery, the adaptor arrived but the laptop took two more days.  It all appears professional and efficient. If this old thing lasts me one year I will be happy, and all looks OK so far.

 

 

The empty fridge reminded me that meat was required.  So I trotted off to Tesco but passing the butcher, the only real one left in town, I noticed he had several varieties of 'specials' on the go.  So I went in, spent just over £40 on a bag of meat that will last at least a month if not longer.  The freezer is now stuffed full of sausages, chicken, spiced meats and no vegan will be near me for a while!  

 

I have done little but glance at the news today, I noted fake £20 notes are going around, these are the type used in TV and films, they look real bar from little things like the word 'POOND' on the reverse, which some folks in Aberdeen might not notice.  The biggest brothel in Europe is closing because of the Corono Virus, I am not sure why, 'Sickly Come Dancing' returns soon and an exciting horde of people I have never heard off will be participating, are you pleased?  'Bread and Circus's' for the masses I say.  Trump stands accused (There's phrase you often hear) of calling dead US soldiers 'Losers,' amongst other things, that could affect his vote more than police brutality.  A married teacher is accused of having it off with a 15 year old pupil.  Where were such teachers when I was at school?  And there are people confused, say the English press, and it is all English owned, people are confused because Scotland says one thing re quarantine and virus, England another.  Why confused?  Follow Scots lead, you will find it is the safer option.        

Clear as Mud

So I answered the problem of 'how to get photos from my phone to the laptop' by obtaining a suitable USB cable.  Considering I have a box full of cables and every one was the wrong size, USB 'C' apparently is required, all mine were different, possibly used for laptops, computers and radios rather than phones!  Any how I got one today delivered by 'Hermes' the worst of all courier services.  Not only did it arrive as promised (they promised to deliver between 11 - 1 after I had gone out just before 11) they actually did deliver before one O'clock.  I saw the man push the packet through the letterbox, take the obligatory photo as they do these days and depart as I was crossing the park.  Jolly good show 'Hermes.'  Since Lock Down 'Hermes' has employed many more drivers.  Their system was poor before, the worst of all, yet it appears to me they have white van men all over the place at the moment.  There were two here today, one doing large packets and this one with the small stuff.  I wonder if it will last?

So, now I have a cable to connect the phone to the laptop, I connect, it bleeps, it registers, and then nothing!  Naturally I try all things before looking for help in the instructions.  Here, as you see, helpfully the instructions are written in Mandarin, or is it Cantonese! 
Jolly good show!
Now I believe this the chinky folk trying 'soft power' in the way the US has been doing it for years, completely ignoring the people of this land and expecting us to understand what they are talking about.  I mean, Cartoons like 'Peanuts,' or 'Garfield, 'Marvel Comics, those dreadful US comedies with canned laughter and no humour, the movies and all else is dumped upon us and we are expected to know what they are talking about.  Naturally in reverse this gets nowhere!  With the exception of one small house in Georgia where a young woman lives with her own translator.  
Possibly the Beijing Emperor hopes to do similar with his export power?  I see a problem here.  While the normal citizen can translate US speak into some form of human dialogue ( you see, we used to call that 'talk') translating Chinese characters into some form of English is unlikely for 99% of the people.  Possibly they have heard the Geordie's cry 'Huawei the lads' and got the wrong idea?  
Anyway, after some struggle I found the spot to change things and discovered that I can indeed load the laptop with bad pictures taken on my feeble phone camera.  However, I am peeved that I cannot uplift to the phone from the laptop!  There has to be a way to do this, I will discover it, even though it may take a while, in Mandarin!