Wednesday 23 April 2014

Finding my way

Two weeks ago, the new computer arrived. It's sitting on my desk, purring happily away, looking very, very smart and new.

It's quick; it does a lot of stuff and I'm still finding my way around it. What used to be automatic now needs a great deal of thinking about. I know that in a few weeks time I'll wonder what the problems were, but just at the moment I'm feeling a like a clumsy fingered dinosaur who's been catapulted into the 21st century.

And like  any true dinosaur I wish that my lovely smart new machine had come equipped with that old fashioned thing, a handbook!


Friday 4 April 2014

With a little help from my friends

Facebook is wonderful! Writers get a lot of advice about not wasting time on social media but as far as I'm concerned Facebook really has been brilliant these past couple of weeks.

A few days ago, my screen turned pink. Pleasant enough and quite workable. Then things began to deteriorate. Jaundice set in. What had been white, then rose coloured, became bilious yellow. Hardly daring to even say it out loud, for we all know how our electronic devices can intuit every thought and fear, I posted my problem on Facebook.

Immediately help was at hand. Jem Shaw suggested I made sure the cable was plugged in tightly. I did and everything went back to normal, putting to rest my terrors about having to buy a new screen. OK I still have to wriggle the cable occasionally so the screen stays white rather than blush, but now I know what to do it's no longer a problem.

Jem wasn't the only person to come up with this solution, so thanks to everyone else who posted their advice.

Special thanks too to my cousin in Canada, Jan Wolanczyk. Whenever I don't know how to post a link to some forum I belong to, he's there for me and once again problem within minutes.

On a more serious note, when Mike was in hospital having his gall bladder removed the good wishes and support from my Facebook friends really made a difference. Coming home to an empty house and finding so many people had posted their love and concern, lifted those dark hours.