Another 8 uploads.

Did I mention my less-than-delight with Microsoft?

I'm blaming the eight uploads that happened on Tuesday for the problems I had with my card reader [I'm fairly sure that there's not a problem with the card reader itself, because it's working again now, and I haven't done anything to it]...

Maybe the three uploads Wednesday helped?

[They didn't obviously make it work!]

With all the "switching it off & switching it back on again" I was doing, I accidentally gave Microsoft another chance to do another eight uploads.

And then last night when I was shutting it down, guess what?

Yup! Eight more uploads!

On the positive side, they haven't managed to wreck the card reader again...

Do I need any more uploads this week than the 27 I've already had?

If I do, I'll let you know!

I got some photographs published!!

Clean Slate Magazine, Winter 2010, issue 78 features two pictures of our kitchen in France!

Or, more precisely, two photos of the hemp-lime insulation in our kitchen to illustrate an article on hemp-lime insulation.

A lady from the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth [ooh, I remember visiting there in the 1970s, probably not too long after it opened to the public!] contacted me via Flickr having found some photos I'd posted there.

I don't think it's a testimony to my wonderful photographic abilities, as she said it had been really difficult to find any photos of hemp-lime insulation, but hey, I'm not proud!

Whilst I understand that people might get paid for having their photographs used for publication, it seemed a reasonable thing to let a worthwhile charity use my images if that helps to encourage people to use better-insulating/less-energy-consuming building materials!

And I got my name in print, and a few more people will have seen photos of our lovely house!

Orient Express

Moving swiftly on from my dreams of being techy enough to build my own computer...

I think I saw the Orient Express on Monday?!

My train, having already been delayed before it left Putney, was held at Clapham Junction for what seemed like ages... [I'd only allowed an hour to do what should be a 35 minute journey! Eventually I was less than five minutes late; so glad I like being early!]

And then a steam train pulled past the other side of the platform!

I was marvelling at how lovely [and how smelly!] it was; truly a thing of beauty.

I've been trying to work out what trip it was likely to be on, and think it must be an Orient Express trip!

Clan Line locomotive [which said it was a Merchant Navy loco] and Pullman carriages including Zena, Minerva, Ione & Vera [I didn't realise they had names, or would have been looking sooner!] have got to equal Orient Express, surely?

It's the second time I've seen it [saw it at Victoria over twenty years ago], and I think I appreciate it even more now having seem most of Michael Portillo's recent railway series on BBC2 and David Suchet getting special treatment on the Orient Express [as well as getting to play Poirot!].

Ahhh!

Thinking about that, I'm calmer & happier; perhaps steam trains are antidotes to being a Microsoft customer?!

I HATE Microsoft

AND their counter-productive updates!

I know I'm not alone [Google "useless Microsoft" and you get over 4 million hits!], but it feels like I've been thrown in an oubliette whenever I get one of their "updates" - usually it results in me no longer being able to use part of my perfectly good laptop and totally unable to find a way of letting them know!

Each time I lose some functionality, that corporation is driving me closer to buying an Apple machine; when I "upgraded" to the dreadful Vista, the main thing that prevented me from heading to Regent Street in the six weeks or so it took David's IT department to make the new machine actually work was the knowledge that we'd just lashed out several hundred pounds to replace the old machine.

I've only traded "up" in home computer twice, and each time the performance has got worse - Vista made me yearn for the Windows 98/2000 version, which in turn had me lamenting getting rid of my 486 [can't tell you what Operating System that was on, but you can guess it was pretty ancient if I tell you it was an upgraded 386!]...

The other thing stopping me crossing over to Apple was having used an LC II at one office where I temped!

Although I do understand Apple Corp has fixed some of their issued since then!

I've spent about six hours trying to get my card reader to work after Microsoft did 8 uploads, and after only three reinstalls/restore earlier versions and a further 11 uploads from Microsoft [that it sadly gives me no option of refusing], the card reader has magically started functioning again!

It makes me so cross that they can't leave anything that works perfectly well alone!

Because I'm old enough to be competent using keystrokes, I get very frustrated that they have removed some of them; now I have to use the mouse to close the computer down [no longer is Ctrl+Alt+Del S an option]; no wonder everything feels so slow!

Word now won't let me highlight a word and type over it, I have to delete it and then replace it, it's just so frustrating.

I've always seen Macs as a fairly trendy thing, and appealing mainly to style-conscious [as opposed to function-requiring] buyers OR those who need graphics packages for their work (or both, of course!), so I've remained pretty immune to any advertising that Apple may do [do they advertise? I can't say I remember any... But then, I am an advertisers nightmare], but I have to say Microsoft are doing a brilliant job of selling me a Macbook!!!

Everybody I've spoken to who has/had Vista hates it [and no, hate is NOT too strong a word], and all the Mac owners try to convert me; perhaps it's time to get with the program?

Bovine adrenal extract

I've been seeing an acupuncturist who has diagnosed me with adrenal fatigue [not a surprise, I have to admit, but surprising that he picked up on it when I'm complaining about a dodgy hip!].

We discussed the best way of treating it, and he suggested bovine adrenal extract; I said I'd try it, but that I can't eat meat because it *ahem* doesn't stay down...

I was happy to give it a go, because what's the worst that can happen? Another spell vomiting over the loo?

I can handle that!

I took a single capsule yesterday and was fine, so this morning the thought of taking the two capsules that comprise a normal dose didn't cause me any misgivings...

What I was NOT expecting was the burning sensation starting on my face that was followed quickly by an impressive rash [the picture really doesn't do justice to the "English tourist after a day on the beach" shade of boiled-lobster that I achieved!], which then travelled down my neck, chest, shoulders, arms and into my fingers. My elbows were pretty impressive, too!

Spoke with Guy, and he says we'll have a re-think, and to take an anti-histamine.

Well, by the time I got back from the pharmacy (which is literally just across the road), the burning sensation was already subsiding and the rash fading so I didn't bother; if it's going to get better on its own, I don't need more drugs in my system.

The sad part is, I am already starting to feel better!

Thinking it over, I might have tipped from intolerant [stomach rejecting meat] to allergic [burning rash]?