2009 — 13 February: Friday
It's a fine thing when a chap nips downstairs for a midnight snack and the network goes walkabout before he's had time to prepare an overnight picture of Christa... This was the one and only time we took dear Mama over with us to Christa's little German village / town / city of Meisenheim. It's so strange to think that Christa and her parents are dead.
My cold, by the way, is reaching that faintly horrid stage where you wish you owned shares in a Kleenex factory. The network connection is still thoroughly broken, so this will have to fester on my local hard drive until daylight. G'night.
Atishoo
Well, when consciousness returned at 06:00 or so my broadband connection was still dead. It's revived at some point in the last 30 minutes or so — it's now 07:51 and a second cuppa will shortly be on the starting block.
Today's news phrase (regarding what could be called the over-cozy relationship between some senior civil servants and lobbyists etc from industry) is the assertion, by our revered leader, that such networking contacts are vital (though why they mostly occur in hospitality tents at big sporting events has always puzzled me). But then I share the avid interest in for example, football, that Nancy Banks-Smith describes here. Still, it's not all bad news out there: I note that Muzak has filed for bankruptcy protection. (Source.)
Use the force, Luke
How much trouble can a world be in, that produces this video projector?
Funnily enough, I've just been reading about the dangers of over-merchandising in last week's book about Garry Trudeau's "Doonesbury" strip. The Star Wars universe just carries on.
Lad who's lunched
In happier, but non-driving, times, I was always pleased when Christa would agree to shop at Hedge End (in Sainsbury's and M&S) and I know she only did so to give me a chance to visit PCWorld and Currys. Mind you, as we walked back towards the car (which was invariably parked at a half-way point) she would always look a bit relieved if I didn't seem to have "gone wild". Well, today en route to my foody shop, I first diverted seven miles down the road so I could half-consider quite a tasty little 60" hi-def plasma screen.1 I cannot pretend this is a toy I need, but contemplating it is a useful diversion while my virus is making life miserable, my finger is (still) making life awkward, and the weather makes walking sub-optimal.
It's 13:49 and my salad is safely onboard. The sky is quite blue. The barometer is very high. And it's nearly the weekend. But where's Christa?! (I know, I know.) Still, the BBC radio "feedback" programme is usually reliable listening.
Surges of non-power
There have been two or three power surges. Each time (of course) they've taken out my broadband modem and network router, not to mention any PC systems running at the time. So I took myself off the air for a while. It's now 21:11 and I'm probably going to call it a day. My cold (or man 'flu) has given me a mild fever which is always a bit of a downer, so I think I'll curl up in front of a DVD and under a reading light, if I can persuade these to stay on of course. Let's hope the kettle will still boot!
About email to me:
I'm moving email server...
For the next 36 hours or so, I may lose some of your emails — we're upheaving a little to get further away from a server that's on a spam blacklist.
Patience, please! Thanks!