Heads up

As my computer still isn’t sorted, I am now working off my phone. Which lets me blog okay, but will not let me comment on blogs that require google log-in. Something to do with browser settings. So, some of you may get comments under the anonymous tab, others may not because I cannot comment anonymously. And yes, I do sign with my name. 

Just to let you know.

Lost and (hopefully) found

Yesterday I had to work. Nothing new in that. I do that on occasion. I had to pick up a group to take to a racecourse. Now, when I hear racecourse, I think cars or motorbikes, but here in Northern Ireland it means horses (or possibly dogs). 

Anyway, it was horse racing we were going to see and I wondered whether I would get any look in. Usually I don't, but this time I got the chance to see as I was parked within the course. I took photos, I filmed it and after three races I was a bit bored and headed back to my coach to read. 

Instead of reading though, I decided to phone a friend and me and Yamini spoke for nearly 45 minutes. It was lovely hearing a friendly voice and as we usually e-mail, this was a bit of a novelty for the both of us. 

After that I got back to my reading until it was about 10, at which point I drove to where I would pick my group up, because nature called. I took the keys to the coach, I took my phone and went to answer. 

I got back to the coach and after about five minutes I realised something was missing. My phone!!!! I had left it in the toilet. Well, not in it itself of course, but you know! I ran back, looked inside, but the only thing I saw was a handbag. I asked the bar staff and the bouncers, but no phone had been handed in. 

I went back to the coach, looked in my bag, just in case and I tried phoning my phone with somebody else's phone, but it went straight to voicemail (it will do that after 10pm, just so you know). I ran back to the bar again, asking again, and then leaving my email address just in case.

As I got home last night though, I realised about the voicemail thingy and also realised, I might have more luck during the day time. This morning, I located my Norwegian phone, rang my number and somebody answered! He had to go back to that bar anyway and was willing to drop my phone off. And then I got an email as well, saying they might have located my phone!

Now I just have to go and get it again, so I can get all the other horse racing photos!

You have really won!

As you have read yesterday, I had some problems with Martian ladies, surveys and clairvoyants on my computer.  I am not sure when or where the trouble started, but it was very annoying. I had tried everything I could think of: an adblocker (the same one Yamini suggested), running my virusthingy again and, as I said yesterday, shouting. Nothing worked. 

Thanks however to the superior knowledge of Yamini, I think I have really won this time. I beat the ads! Yamini suggested I might have a little woodworm, mindworm, wee worm problem. Turned out, it wasn't one wee worm. There were over 250 wee worms! Two hundred and fifty! All just crawling around on my computer. 

After installing Yamini's suggestion though, they got dug up and disposed of with a heavy dose of worm extinguisher. No more wee worms crawling around and I can surf as I please again. 

What a joy! Thank you so much Yamini!

You have won!

Well, that's what I keep seeing on my computer. Along with all the ads for Russian and Thai and Chinese and Martian women that keep popping up unwanted. My own fault really. I went to a certain site to order something and ever since all those ads keep coming in. Not on Facebook, not on Blogger, but on most other sites, which is highly annoying. 

I tried getting rid of this malware by cleaning up my computer. Putting in an adblocker. Shouting. None of them work. It's very frustrating and I really don't know what to do now. I am (as I have mentioned before) quite dig-illiterate and know just about enough to keep it going and running somewhat smoothly. 

If anybody has an idea of how to get rid of these pesky ads: PLEASE! I need all the help I can get...

*Sigh*

I don't know whether I ever mentioned it, but I make our company photo book with photos of most of my colleagues. However, the last time it was updated, was more than a year ago! And since then a lot of new people started and a fair few people left. Meaning I had to update it.

I started on the weekend and got to the letter L (I am doing it alphabetically now), before being thoroughly fed up with it. I continued yesterday. But I needed to print the lot as well, so I found the wires to connect to the computer and hey presto: pages came out! Brilliant.

I then wanted to play a game online and then perhaps even write a post. Ehm, no. Nothing. I was not connected to the internet. I checked the modem, which was fine. At which point I was at a loss, since I am quite dig-illiterate and haven't got a clue about most things to do with my computer. So, I turned the whole thing off.

Today I decided that come what may, I was going to fix it! I turned off the modem and turned it back on again. No connection. I got into the connection part of the computer and was about to make a new connection when I read something about cable....

While connecting the printer yesterday, the cable to the modem came out just a millimeter or so. Enough though to cut the connection. I pushed it back in and... Here I am again!

*Sigh*

Oh cripes

Well, I did it. I got myself a brand new computer. A snazzy screen, a new keyboard that kept me looking for about a day for the / sign and a lot more besides. However, to save some money, I decided I would do without the service part and set it all up myself. I am after all digilliterate (meaning I haven´t got a clue about computers), but not stupid. I hope.

So far, so good. I got the thing connected. I managed to hook it up to the internet and even managed to transfer some files (taking it slow there, mainly because the other computer is slow). But, and this is a big but, there is something very annoying with this new computer and I don´t know how to get rid of the very annoying thing. 

Whenever I click on something, a site I don´t want pops up. And when I read my blog just now, several words were in capital letters and would lead me to other sites again. 

HELP!! How do I get rid of that, because it is extremely annoying!! The other thing I still have to figure out: all the interpunction thingies. They are not where they are supposed to be. Now, that might have something to do with the fact that I changed the setting of the keyboard to Dutch, but even then they are not where they are supposed to be. 

However, other than that I am quite pleased with my new computer. Even if it does take up some room on my dining table. It´s a good thing I never eat at the table!

Update: I think I found out about all the unwanted ads. Now about those #$"%&§

Oohing and aahing

For a while now I have been very annoyed with my laptop. It is slow and lately I have had some trouble getting online. I have had this thing for about five/six years now and a lot has been put on. I have tried to clean it on occasion, but I am quite digilliterate. 

The thing that has annoyed me most recently however is office. I have an older version on my laptop and it just doesn't have all the features I would love to have. Especially as I am now writing a book. Yes, the book about my ancestors is taking shape as I write. 30 unedited or 52 edited pages already and getting bigger by the day. And I would love to have a few more options regarding lay-out and all sorts of other things. 

I could of course have gone for an update of my current office program, but my computer is getting fuller by the day as it is. So, the only option (I feel) is getting a new computer. Which means that I have to go shop for one. In the past I would just head over to my local Turk, who knew me and what I used my computer for. He then suggested and I always accepted. 

Unfortunately there is no local Turk here, so I went to an ordinary shop. Where I told them what I wanted and asked how much it would cost. It's not going to be cheap. But the guy who was helping me, told me that in that price everything would be included: the computer itself, the screen, keyboard, unlimited office, service for a year (they will do all the transferring from one to the other) and the safety. 

Well, after an hour yesterday in which it took me ages to copy one paragraph, I have decided to go for it. I will get myself a new computer. As a very early Christmas present. Now, where is that credit card?

PS: no, I won't be getting an apple. They were even more frightfully expensive!

A bit of everything

Not my cat. I wasn't allowed to take her/him home. I sure wanted to though!

I had written a great post on Friday night. About men and wrenches and spirit levels and stuff. I saved the post about four or five times and then published it. Only to find out that only a tiny bit was posted and the rest was lost. Since I couldn't be bothered to write it again, I am sorry to say you all had to do without a piece of absolute brilliance and I know your lives are a little duller right now. 

The weekend passed with me getting the shelves for the bookcase from the store. Now I only need to build said bookcase and finally get my books in order. As opposed to how they are now: higgledy piggledy in a closet. Even my sister commented on it when she was here in November: not like me! Plus I got my computer cleaned a bit. I have had trouble with whatever and decided to transfer a lot of files from the C to the D. And then I found out why the trouble: when I used to listen to Norwegian radio back in the Netherlands, it apparently saved it to my computer. Without me knowing!

I deleted them all and all of a sudden there was a lot of free space again. Wow! Unfortunately when I started the computer up again the next day, several other things had gone as well. Which had me looking everywhere and trying to retrieve them again. Annoying. Luckily though, the computer still works. Even if most of my shopping sites have gone.

I have had a lot of excuses for me not going out and walk for about two weeks now. I had done something silly with my big toe and could hardly walk (for one day). I finished late. Or early. But Sunday I would go out. I would. I would! It rained. And there was a lot of wind. The television was nice as well! I didn't go out. 

So, a new week this week. Early mornings and late afternoons at work. Split shifts. The finals week of Masterchef Australia 2013. And hopefully a bit more sun and a little less rain. And a few walks inbetween work. 

Moving along

Royal Military Band Johan Willem Friso

If there is one thing that I hate about the internet it's when it's not doing what it's supposed to do. Like ordering tickets to the tattoo (and no Janice, it's not an ink tattoo, it's a music tattoo, a military one at that). I have tried several times now and every time the site just doesn't do anything. I can see the empty unsold seats, I just can't fill any of them! Very annoying. I will have to phone tomorrow. I tried today, but they close at 5pm. 

But, the flights are booked. I will be flying on Friday night, leaving me free to work during the day and fly back again on Saturday night and then I will go to the afternoon show. This leaves the Sunday free to work as well if I choose to. And according to my current rota, the whole weekend should be a work weekend. First the ticket to the show though and then I will see what I can do about the rest. Oh, and a hotel room of course. No sleeping in a box for me! I am no cat!!

Ice

Well, it took some time. Almost two months in fact, but I finally got back online in the privacy of my own home. Me not having any credit rating because I haven't been here long enough turned out to be the main problem. Well, when added to general not doing much about getting internet that is. 

But I now have internet again. Ice cold internet I have to add. Since my provider is called Ice! So, expect some more stories on this blog again soon. Starting from tomorrow I think. Because after all, I am on holiday now!!!

Internet

When I bought my washing machine and my television thingymebob, I also asked about internet. They filled in the form and then all of a sudden I needed some numbers I didn't have. A gardnummer (plot number) and a bruknummer (user number). I had to ask my landlady about those. But as soon as I had them, I could proceed. 

I went back about a week later. With the numbers. They couldn't help me then, but they would email the company and get back to me. Which they did the next day: I had to phone them up myself. Grrrr...

Now, you have to know that even though I speak quite good Norwegian, it is still extremely hard to speak that language on the phone. I just don't get it, I don't follow anything. Very hard. So, it took me some time to get on the phone. Which I finally did two days ago. 

Here's the deal: first they have to see whether or not I can actually have internet at my address and then it will take about 11 working days (basically two weeks) before I am hooked up! More grrrr...

I think I will take my baby into work for a while and hope everything gets sorted asap, so I don't have to use the company computer (like I do now) or the baby. 

Ah well, another moment on the great big learning curve of living in another country...

Treasure

The Cliffs of Moher

I treasure my photos. I have albums of my trips abroad alone or with my sister, I have digital albums of my work trips abroad and ever since I had a fight with my computer and lost (note: don't hit a laptop, he doesn't like it much), I have learned the art of back-up. Because in that famous fight I lost several hundred photos I had taken in Ireland, Italy and smaller trips at home.

Today as I was sifting through my photo negatives (I am scanning them all in again), I found a cd-rom. Since I didn't know what was on it, I stuck it in my computer and a couple of seconds later I watched completely dumbfounded at what came up: Ireland photos, London photos and much much more! I haven't got everything back, but my Irish treasure is back!

Yeehaa!

Yes, it's working again! Yesterday it was supposed to be the modem that was acting up. Today it was the router that was doing the bad things. So, I unplugged the both of them, plugged them both in again and now I'm online again and enjoying the www.

The picture at the top I got from the www yesterday and was the one I wanted to include that one in yesterday's post. Which didn't work. So, I put it in today because I know you were wondering...

My last post

Noooooo! This is not going to be my last post, don't worry, I was just referring to my last post named: What's in a name. Because I was about to look for a name for my new (and might I say brilliant) laptop. But as I was writing my Dutch blog it hit me. Figuratively that is.

As I have a baby laptop (generally called Baby) and my Cyberian prison laptop was big I called that one the big laptop (with me so far?). But this new one is on the giant side. It's certainly bigger than the big laptop and then I figured: Finn! Of Finn McCool fame. He was a giant. He fought other (even bigger) giants and he created the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. And if you don't believe me, just read this post I wrote quite a while back. And since my new laptop is cool as well...

So, from now on, if I refer to Finn, I will talk about my new giant laptop. Just so you know!

What's in a name

So. I have a new laptop. No, not a desktop computer, but a laptop. Again. I couldn't see how I would get a complete desktop home, since I only have my bike, so I went for a new laptop again. With a seperate number pad. And a lcd screen. With room for cd's and dvd's. And usb-sticks.

But I think the most important thing today was the fact that even though my external hard drive was fried, it wasn't the hard drive at all. It was the wiring that had burned. So, I will try to put up a lovely photo from my old ehd in a new casing into this post. Here goes nothing!

It worked, it worked! I now have a photo of a baby hippo that I took more than a year ago. I thought it was lost in the deserts of cyberia, but I was lucky! Yippee...

I give up!

I was ripping some music from a cd yesterday and playing it at the same time, when all of a sudden the music became one big whine. The (big) computer had crashed! Of course it had been slow for ages now and I normally use this one, but there are things that I need to do from the other one, since my baby doesn't have a cd-drive.

So, with a virus, a burned out external hard drive and now a crashed computer, I will be going to the computershop next week and get myself a brand spanking new one! One with all the latest updates and things, one with all the portals and gates and what have you that I need, one that doesn't crash on me when I am ripping a cd and playing it at the same time.

PS: I should have known something was wrong, when the music sounded as if from a bad cd. All broken up and scratchy, when the cd's were fine really. The joy of the digital age...

Conspiracy

It must be a conspiracy. It must be! As soon as my debts were cleared and I could start saving for my emigration to Canada, disaster struck: Sophie had cancer. It cost nearly one thousand euros to get her back to health (something I don't begrudge by the way, I chose to have cats and to me that also implies that I choose to look after them. For better or for worse).

Then early last year I got into a fight with my computer. I hit my laptop. My laptop hit back with a complete breakdown, causing lots of photos to be lost and money needing to be spent to get my laptop up and running again.

And this year? So far a holiday for my parents to Iceland(which I don't begrudge, since I have the bestest parental units in the whole wide world), a holiday with my parents and siblings in Paris for which I need pocket money and to top it all off: another breakdown of my computer. This time not really my fault but that awful McAfee virus thingy! It still means that I need to spend money to get it fixed, because my computer is more or less dead on its feet!

Anyway, I am lucky I have a small notebook which I finally got hooked up to the internet as well. I deleted McAfee from it immediately and installed Norton on it instead!

But it must be a conspiracy thought up by all those people who don't want me to leave: force her to spend money on other things and she will never have enough to spend on emigration!

McAfee

Thanks to McAfee I have some severe problems with my regular computer. Hopefully I will be back properly soon!

Cracked!

The cropped version of a view in Verona, taken in 1998.

Well, it took some work. First of all I started copying every single sheet of photos, then cutting the individual photos out and getting even more frustrated than I already was. And then, when I walked around my living room, shifted a small basket, I found it: the programme I needed. I slipped the disc in my computer, downloaded the programme and have been okay ever since!

So, now the hard work of scanning all my photos can start in earnest. Today I scanned in all my photos of when I lived in England, all 200+ of them! Of course that's only half the job done. But, I will get there. It might take me until Christmas, but over the next few weeks I will show you photos of my past. Whether that is what you want, is anybody's guess of course, but it's going to happen!

Photos

I wanted a negative scanner. But on finding out how expensive they were, how slow they were and how often I would use it, I decided I would just scan my photos and be done with it. So far, so good.

I don't want to go scanning for hours and hours and hours on end, so I put up to four photos on my scanner at a time. And it works beautifully. So far, so good.

But then, I have to seperate those photos again. Straighten them out, crop and give them seperate titles. And that's where the problems begin.

Several months ago I bought myself a state-of-the-art photo program. And ever since I got it, I have been annoyed by it. It's big and makes my computer slower. And when I want to use it, I can't because some component or other is missing. Very very very annoying!

I had a nice and easy photo program. I couldn't really do much with it, but it was great for cropping and straightening my photos. Once I installed my nice and new program, I deleted this program. And now I can't find it anymore. The new one isn't working the way I want it to work (like, at all!) and I am getting more and more frustrated.

I'll have a look around the net to see if there is an easy to use program out there for me!