Turns out there was nothing wrong with my new memory for the laptop - its just that 32 bit Windows doesn't understand that 4GB of memory can actually exist! They swapped it anyway. But he had a look at the PC while I was in the shop and thinks there's a driver problem somewhere. Without paying for extensive tests the only real option is to re-install Vista and them reload all the updates etc. But it will wipe my hard drive.
So far I've run backup, plus backed up my main files separately - good job we've got a 400GB external hard drive.
Now I'm about to wipe my disc. Wish me luck - I think I need it. Oh, and I may be gone some time.
Saturday, 20 September 2008
Sunday, 14 September 2008
The year of the Diamond Dogs
Jez’s first birthday went really well – I expect some of you have read about it in her blog. If you have I apologise if you see the same pics & video again here. Anyway, Chris took her out in the morning while I cleaned and made dessert (bread & butter pudding). He and Jez arrived back at the same time as Dad and Pat arrived. Dad had bought a bottle of sparkling wine so we toasted Jez and gave her her presents. Here's a bit of video of Jez and her presents...
I’ve also got a few photos. This is Jez and Chris …
And Jez with her Big Mean Kitty (sorry for this first one – I didn’t realise until after I’d taken it!)…
And Jez with her Mad Cow and Hurl a Squirrel (which she is determined to chew)…
And this is just Jez…
I also have quite a nice photo of her I took along the Roman Road yesterday.
Moving on, we actually had a day without rain yesterday! In fact we’re not due any for the next few days!
Today is Pat’s birthday – she’s 88 but definitely doesn’t look it (bearing in mind she was crawling around on the floor with Jez in that video!). She and Dad have gone out for lunch with some friends. I’ve had Jez out over the Heath this morning. We did the new long circuit and she was very well behaved and managed to have a bit of a run around with Elvis (a dog we met earlier in the week and bumped into again today). She wasn’t so well behaved for Chris yesterday though. He took her up the Delph and some people were having a BBQ on the scout field. Wherever Chris took her in the woods, Jez kept running off straight back to the scout field – he said she was a nightmare! She even managed to scrounge some tomato, and she hates tomato!
Anyone know if Ian Rankin is a Bowie fan, btw? I’m reading Resurrection Men (which I think I’ve read before) and there seem to be Bowie references: one character is referred to as Diamond Dog and another Major Tom.
That’s about it I think. I’ve finally arranged to meet Val for an early supper on Thursday. It will be nice to see her again after all this time and to have a good old catch up.
And last but not least, someone nicked my chair a few minutes ago – I think she must have been planning to update her blog – LOL.
I’ve also got a few photos. This is Jez and Chris …
And Jez with her Big Mean Kitty (sorry for this first one – I didn’t realise until after I’d taken it!)…
And Jez with her Mad Cow and Hurl a Squirrel (which she is determined to chew)…
And this is just Jez…
I also have quite a nice photo of her I took along the Roman Road yesterday.
Moving on, we actually had a day without rain yesterday! In fact we’re not due any for the next few days!
Today is Pat’s birthday – she’s 88 but definitely doesn’t look it (bearing in mind she was crawling around on the floor with Jez in that video!). She and Dad have gone out for lunch with some friends. I’ve had Jez out over the Heath this morning. We did the new long circuit and she was very well behaved and managed to have a bit of a run around with Elvis (a dog we met earlier in the week and bumped into again today). She wasn’t so well behaved for Chris yesterday though. He took her up the Delph and some people were having a BBQ on the scout field. Wherever Chris took her in the woods, Jez kept running off straight back to the scout field – he said she was a nightmare! She even managed to scrounge some tomato, and she hates tomato!
Anyone know if Ian Rankin is a Bowie fan, btw? I’m reading Resurrection Men (which I think I’ve read before) and there seem to be Bowie references: one character is referred to as Diamond Dog and another Major Tom.
That’s about it I think. I’ve finally arranged to meet Val for an early supper on Thursday. It will be nice to see her again after all this time and to have a good old catch up.
And last but not least, someone nicked my chair a few minutes ago – I think she must have been planning to update her blog – LOL.
Thursday, 11 September 2008
We could run when the rain slows
Yesterday was one of those days. Or, come to think about it, perhaps it’s just been one of those weeks. It started with the washing machine. Last week the washing machine decided it didn’t always want to play any more. Or perhaps it was the week before – I can’t quite remember. Anyway, over the week-end it got worse. It worked when it wanted to, which was very infrequently and usually only for a short time. I found myself keep turning it on and off at various parts of the programme, depending on what stage it was at in the washing cycle when it packed up. So over the week-end I pulled it out, checked the hoses and the drain, cleaned the pump, but all to now avail. It was clearly the electronics which had gone wrong. And although it must have been about 10 years old, it was state of the art when I bought it. So on Monday I gave up and ordered a new one.
Of course, the washing machine has packed up in a week when I’ve needed it. The rain has continued and was pretty incessant on Tuesday. Which has meant Chris and I are covered in mud from walking the dog. Not to mention my bed lined which is covered in mud from her insistence on jumping on the beds and re-arranging them when she comes in from a walk, as are my newly cleaned carpets! Anyway, Jez has not been impressed with the weather and has chosen to spend a lot of time sleeping. Although to be fair she will go out for a walk in the rain now.
And we’ve had some nice walks, despite the weather. She has been making new friends. On Tuesday I took her up the Delph in an attempt to shelter from the rain a bit, and we met a local veterinary nurse with her 4 dogs. One was a 10 month old Northern Inuit, but of more interest to Jez was the rescue dog she is fostering: a 7 month old bull terrier/ Labrador cross. They had a great time. But I hope he finds a new home soon. If you want to see him you can go here.
So, back to yesterday. Well firstly I had to get up early as I was given a 7.30-9.30am delivery slot for the new washing machine. In the end it arrived just after 8am. Of course, it wasn’t quite as straightforward as we’d hoped to fit. Firstly it had a moulded plug, which I had to cut off cos the lead has to go through the back of a cupboard. Then it’s only got a cold water inlet (its all they make nowadays), which would have been ok if we could have fully turned off the tap on the old hot water inlet. As it was I had to go and get a blanking plug and Chris spent ages trying to stop it dripping. But after that it was all fine.
Then, just after lunch Chris asked if we had a microphone as he wanted to record something to the PC for the work he’s doing. I told him where it was, but he couldn’t get it to work, so I started to play around with it on my laptop. It would work, but not properly. So next I tried a headset we used to use with some voice recognition software. And that worked fine. Plus I found that the PC has Windows voice recognition on it, so I spent all afternoon playing around with that and teaching it to recognise my voice. Only the laptop started blue-screening on me. By dinner time it was doing it persistently – about every 15 minutes. So last night I started various cleaning / scanning routines. Nothing seemed to work. I was assuming that the voice recognition stuff had messed up Vista. But in the middle of trying to sort it out I spotted that it said I only had 3Gb of RAM, which was funny as I had fitted 4Gb two weeks ago. So I took it out and put it back in again and it still said 3Gb, but at least the laptop didn’t blue-screen quite so frequently. Which helped as I was trying to defragment the disc. Needless to say I was not a happy bunny.
This morning I’ve replaced the new RAM with the old RAM (only 1Gb) and the PC is fine. So it looks like one of the new RAM cards has a fault. Now I’ve got to take it back, which should be fun. Bet they won’t want to change it. I’ve been running defragment all day though, and it’s still not finished.
Tomorrow is Jez’s first birthday. No doubt I’m going over the top, but I need to go and wrap her presents shortly, safe in the knowledge that even if she doesn’t like the presents she’ll have lots of fun with the wrapping paper. And I’ve made a beef casserole for lunch tomorrow (Dad and Pat are coming to lunch), which I can warm up. I’ve made it today as it takes 3-4 hours to cook. Plus I’ve just made a cake for us humans (although no doubt Jez will have some as she loves Victoria Sandwich cake), and some ‘chocolate & choc-chip muffins’ for Jez (which are made from carob rather than chocolate). I’ve also taken her a nice bone out of the freezer. Anyway, I’ll try and take some photos to post, and maybe a bit of video (depending on how she reacts to her presents).
Of course, the washing machine has packed up in a week when I’ve needed it. The rain has continued and was pretty incessant on Tuesday. Which has meant Chris and I are covered in mud from walking the dog. Not to mention my bed lined which is covered in mud from her insistence on jumping on the beds and re-arranging them when she comes in from a walk, as are my newly cleaned carpets! Anyway, Jez has not been impressed with the weather and has chosen to spend a lot of time sleeping. Although to be fair she will go out for a walk in the rain now.
And we’ve had some nice walks, despite the weather. She has been making new friends. On Tuesday I took her up the Delph in an attempt to shelter from the rain a bit, and we met a local veterinary nurse with her 4 dogs. One was a 10 month old Northern Inuit, but of more interest to Jez was the rescue dog she is fostering: a 7 month old bull terrier/ Labrador cross. They had a great time. But I hope he finds a new home soon. If you want to see him you can go here.
So, back to yesterday. Well firstly I had to get up early as I was given a 7.30-9.30am delivery slot for the new washing machine. In the end it arrived just after 8am. Of course, it wasn’t quite as straightforward as we’d hoped to fit. Firstly it had a moulded plug, which I had to cut off cos the lead has to go through the back of a cupboard. Then it’s only got a cold water inlet (its all they make nowadays), which would have been ok if we could have fully turned off the tap on the old hot water inlet. As it was I had to go and get a blanking plug and Chris spent ages trying to stop it dripping. But after that it was all fine.
Then, just after lunch Chris asked if we had a microphone as he wanted to record something to the PC for the work he’s doing. I told him where it was, but he couldn’t get it to work, so I started to play around with it on my laptop. It would work, but not properly. So next I tried a headset we used to use with some voice recognition software. And that worked fine. Plus I found that the PC has Windows voice recognition on it, so I spent all afternoon playing around with that and teaching it to recognise my voice. Only the laptop started blue-screening on me. By dinner time it was doing it persistently – about every 15 minutes. So last night I started various cleaning / scanning routines. Nothing seemed to work. I was assuming that the voice recognition stuff had messed up Vista. But in the middle of trying to sort it out I spotted that it said I only had 3Gb of RAM, which was funny as I had fitted 4Gb two weeks ago. So I took it out and put it back in again and it still said 3Gb, but at least the laptop didn’t blue-screen quite so frequently. Which helped as I was trying to defragment the disc. Needless to say I was not a happy bunny.
This morning I’ve replaced the new RAM with the old RAM (only 1Gb) and the PC is fine. So it looks like one of the new RAM cards has a fault. Now I’ve got to take it back, which should be fun. Bet they won’t want to change it. I’ve been running defragment all day though, and it’s still not finished.
Tomorrow is Jez’s first birthday. No doubt I’m going over the top, but I need to go and wrap her presents shortly, safe in the knowledge that even if she doesn’t like the presents she’ll have lots of fun with the wrapping paper. And I’ve made a beef casserole for lunch tomorrow (Dad and Pat are coming to lunch), which I can warm up. I’ve made it today as it takes 3-4 hours to cook. Plus I’ve just made a cake for us humans (although no doubt Jez will have some as she loves Victoria Sandwich cake), and some ‘chocolate & choc-chip muffins’ for Jez (which are made from carob rather than chocolate). I’ve also taken her a nice bone out of the freezer. Anyway, I’ll try and take some photos to post, and maybe a bit of video (depending on how she reacts to her presents).
Sunday, 7 September 2008
Something in our skies
Ok – so I get to complain about the weather again. The rain has been pretty persistent for over 36 hours, and many places have had their month’s quota of rain in that time. I’ve been pretty lucky and have managed to get Jez out for her walks in between downpours. But I’m back in my big waterproof walking boots trying to avoid the mud. I don’t stand any chance of avoiding the puddles, however, as they cover the entire width of the path in many places.
The rain has meant that Jez’s first agility class today was cancelled: too miserable for owners and too dangerous for the dogs. So that was a shame. Hopefully we’ll get to go next week.
Talking of Jez her birthday presents arrived yesterday – they look really good, so I hope she’ll like them. They’re from the Doggie Hoots range. I’m pretty certain she will love them though as her Dirty Rotten Kitty, which she was given for Christmas, is still one of her favourite toys. Plus we’ve been invited to a friends wedding (well, civil partnership) in December, so we’re having to look for a dog sitter. Although her trainer had recommended one it turns out one of the women Chris occasionally meets on his walks sits dogs (she’s looking after a great dane at the moment). Jez gets on with her dogs and she’s said she’ll have her. I spoke to her on the phone today and she seems really nice. We’re going to arrange to walk the dogs together one day.
Actually, I spent half an hour on the phone to this woman, who was really interesting. Turns out she set up a charity promoting education to orphans, disadvantaged children and youth in Kenya in 1993. So we spent some time talking about that and about Kenya.
And on the subject of Kenya, I have been busy editing my videos. Well, 2 days worth so far, for 15 minutes of film. When I get it a bit tidier I intend to split it in two and post it on You Tube so you can see it. These particular two days contain lots of elephants and giraffes.
Which leads me into another topic. Chris had a bit of a surprise when he found out that one of the people he’s been working with for a while now is married to Greg Dyke. For those of you who don’t know Greg Dyke was one time Director General of the BBC. He’s now Chair of the British Film Institute.
And the BBC leads me nicely into a programme I watched a couple of weeks ago: Pedigree Dogs Exposed. I don’t know if anyone saw it but it was about the genetic and health problems caused by interbreeding in pedigree dogs in this country. And it was very distressing. For the first time ever I was moved to write to my MP about it. The reason for mentioning it now is that I’ve been reading an editorial in a magazine about it, plus reading the editors blog on the subject. For a nation of so-called dog lovers it really is a disgrace.
A slightly happier was 2 programmes on dogs that we watched was a documentary by Martin Clunes. He was telling us that genetically dogs are 99.8% wolf and as part of the programmes looked at wolf behaviour. Since then Chris has been calling Jez ‘Wolfie’.
What else? Dad came to lunch on Wednesday and we had a nice day. After lunch we took Jez out for a walk. I’ve invited him and Pat over next Friday for Jez’s birthday. Helpfully it’s Pat’s birthday 2 days later, so I can kill two birds with one stone.
I think that’s about it. Better see about getting the dinner. Typical! Now I’ve finished writing Jez has moved her head off my arm and keyboard.
The rain has meant that Jez’s first agility class today was cancelled: too miserable for owners and too dangerous for the dogs. So that was a shame. Hopefully we’ll get to go next week.
Talking of Jez her birthday presents arrived yesterday – they look really good, so I hope she’ll like them. They’re from the Doggie Hoots range. I’m pretty certain she will love them though as her Dirty Rotten Kitty, which she was given for Christmas, is still one of her favourite toys. Plus we’ve been invited to a friends wedding (well, civil partnership) in December, so we’re having to look for a dog sitter. Although her trainer had recommended one it turns out one of the women Chris occasionally meets on his walks sits dogs (she’s looking after a great dane at the moment). Jez gets on with her dogs and she’s said she’ll have her. I spoke to her on the phone today and she seems really nice. We’re going to arrange to walk the dogs together one day.
Actually, I spent half an hour on the phone to this woman, who was really interesting. Turns out she set up a charity promoting education to orphans, disadvantaged children and youth in Kenya in 1993. So we spent some time talking about that and about Kenya.
And on the subject of Kenya, I have been busy editing my videos. Well, 2 days worth so far, for 15 minutes of film. When I get it a bit tidier I intend to split it in two and post it on You Tube so you can see it. These particular two days contain lots of elephants and giraffes.
Which leads me into another topic. Chris had a bit of a surprise when he found out that one of the people he’s been working with for a while now is married to Greg Dyke. For those of you who don’t know Greg Dyke was one time Director General of the BBC. He’s now Chair of the British Film Institute.
And the BBC leads me nicely into a programme I watched a couple of weeks ago: Pedigree Dogs Exposed. I don’t know if anyone saw it but it was about the genetic and health problems caused by interbreeding in pedigree dogs in this country. And it was very distressing. For the first time ever I was moved to write to my MP about it. The reason for mentioning it now is that I’ve been reading an editorial in a magazine about it, plus reading the editors blog on the subject. For a nation of so-called dog lovers it really is a disgrace.
A slightly happier was 2 programmes on dogs that we watched was a documentary by Martin Clunes. He was telling us that genetically dogs are 99.8% wolf and as part of the programmes looked at wolf behaviour. Since then Chris has been calling Jez ‘Wolfie’.
What else? Dad came to lunch on Wednesday and we had a nice day. After lunch we took Jez out for a walk. I’ve invited him and Pat over next Friday for Jez’s birthday. Helpfully it’s Pat’s birthday 2 days later, so I can kill two birds with one stone.
I think that’s about it. Better see about getting the dinner. Typical! Now I’ve finished writing Jez has moved her head off my arm and keyboard.
It might as well rain until September
I’m trying to resist the temptation to say ‘September already’ but I feel I can be forgiven since September normally heralds the arrival of Autumn, and over here in the UK we are still waiting for our summer. We did have some sun at some point – back in June I think. It even lasted for a couple of weeks. But that was pretty much our lot. And if you think I’m exaggerating, then perhaps the Met. Office pronouncement that this August the UK only had 105.5 hours of sun compared to the average for August of 165 hours may go some way to convincing you. That’s the lowest since records began, which I think was in 1929.
Oddly enough 1929 is one year before the Hyde Park Lido was built in London’s Hyde Park (where else). This followed hot on the heels of the discovery that you get Vitamin D from exposure to sunlight in 1922, so helping rid the UK of rickets. And if you wonder where these little gems of information are coming from, it’s an article in the BBC online magazine. The best bit of the article for me though is reference to ‘The sun-bathing riots’ in North-west London, also in 1930. Apparently regular walkers got upset when they found sunbathers strewn around the Welsh Harp reservoir, and a riot ensued! Oh, and here’s one for Monica (and anyone else who is feeling a bit down): sunlight entering the retina produces serotonin. So get out there in that sunshine – if, that is, you are lucky to find some.
Back on the subject of the Met. Office, they tell us that we are likely to have a mild autumn with lower than average rainfall. Given the usual accuracy of their weather forecasts that means I’m digging out my thermal underwear and the galoshes. That’s what I think of their normal forecasts – well for this area at least. Every day I check out the BBC local forecast, and virtually every day it’s wrong. Take today for example: it said Heavy Showers. To be fair we had rain overnight, but for around 90% of the day so far we’ve experienced that elusive phenomenon known as ‘the sun’. I’m not sure that nature is in agreement with the Met. Office either, as the bracken is starting to die back (which seems a bit early to me), and there seems to be more fungi than normal about at this time of year. It is still fairly warm at around 18C/64F though.
As for me, well I’ve continued with my mission to clean my carpets. I’ve also finally started to try and edit my video from Kenya, although there is an awful lot of it. In between times I took Jez to see my Dad, as Pat had gone off to France to stay with her son for a week. This is Jez on a Heath near Dad’s.
Pat is now home from France, but on Sunday went up to Hull for a few days, so Dad is coming to lunch tomorrow. Oh, and last night I finally managed to order Jez some birthday presents. She will be 1 year old on 12th September (or thereabouts). Talking of Jez, she’s just come and laid her head in my lap, which is making it very difficult to type. She hasn’t done that since she was a young puppy. But we went for a longer than usual walk this morning, so she’s tired.
Our new walk is still over the Heath, but we’ve been going on a different part, up towards Broadstone where there’s a viewpoint. I took some photos a couple of days ago…
It’s good because she is off the lead all the time, although I have to keep my eye open for horse riders. I felt it wasn’t long enough, so today I combined it with part of our normal walk to create a nice route with took about 95 minutes.
Jez starts agility on Saturday. I’m not sure whether she’ll like it, but I hope so. I’m more worried about the amount of running I’ll have to do though, as she’ll be on the lead. Anyway, I’ll let you know how it goes.
Oh – I forgot earlier. I just wanted to say a Happy Birthday to B’net. It’s been interesting in the B’net thread seeing who’s been around all that time.
And talking of fungi, as I was earlier, I took some photos of a lovely bracket fungus that’s growing on a dying oak tree at the end of our drive.
Oddly enough 1929 is one year before the Hyde Park Lido was built in London’s Hyde Park (where else). This followed hot on the heels of the discovery that you get Vitamin D from exposure to sunlight in 1922, so helping rid the UK of rickets. And if you wonder where these little gems of information are coming from, it’s an article in the BBC online magazine. The best bit of the article for me though is reference to ‘The sun-bathing riots’ in North-west London, also in 1930. Apparently regular walkers got upset when they found sunbathers strewn around the Welsh Harp reservoir, and a riot ensued! Oh, and here’s one for Monica (and anyone else who is feeling a bit down): sunlight entering the retina produces serotonin. So get out there in that sunshine – if, that is, you are lucky to find some.
Back on the subject of the Met. Office, they tell us that we are likely to have a mild autumn with lower than average rainfall. Given the usual accuracy of their weather forecasts that means I’m digging out my thermal underwear and the galoshes. That’s what I think of their normal forecasts – well for this area at least. Every day I check out the BBC local forecast, and virtually every day it’s wrong. Take today for example: it said Heavy Showers. To be fair we had rain overnight, but for around 90% of the day so far we’ve experienced that elusive phenomenon known as ‘the sun’. I’m not sure that nature is in agreement with the Met. Office either, as the bracken is starting to die back (which seems a bit early to me), and there seems to be more fungi than normal about at this time of year. It is still fairly warm at around 18C/64F though.
As for me, well I’ve continued with my mission to clean my carpets. I’ve also finally started to try and edit my video from Kenya, although there is an awful lot of it. In between times I took Jez to see my Dad, as Pat had gone off to France to stay with her son for a week. This is Jez on a Heath near Dad’s.
Pat is now home from France, but on Sunday went up to Hull for a few days, so Dad is coming to lunch tomorrow. Oh, and last night I finally managed to order Jez some birthday presents. She will be 1 year old on 12th September (or thereabouts). Talking of Jez, she’s just come and laid her head in my lap, which is making it very difficult to type. She hasn’t done that since she was a young puppy. But we went for a longer than usual walk this morning, so she’s tired.
Our new walk is still over the Heath, but we’ve been going on a different part, up towards Broadstone where there’s a viewpoint. I took some photos a couple of days ago…
It’s good because she is off the lead all the time, although I have to keep my eye open for horse riders. I felt it wasn’t long enough, so today I combined it with part of our normal walk to create a nice route with took about 95 minutes.
Jez starts agility on Saturday. I’m not sure whether she’ll like it, but I hope so. I’m more worried about the amount of running I’ll have to do though, as she’ll be on the lead. Anyway, I’ll let you know how it goes.
Oh – I forgot earlier. I just wanted to say a Happy Birthday to B’net. It’s been interesting in the B’net thread seeing who’s been around all that time.
And talking of fungi, as I was earlier, I took some photos of a lovely bracket fungus that’s growing on a dying oak tree at the end of our drive.
Let me just say...
This blog is a continuation of a blog I have kept for nearly 4 years now, so please excuse me referring back to previous comments.
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