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(Monday 15th July)It's been a weekend of phone problems! First was Emily's mobile which she managed to spill shampoo on. Not surprisingly, Carphone Warehouse weren't all that keen to replace it free of charge!
Next, I discovered by chance that my mobile voicemail had been turned off for quite some time (presumably through lack of use). Very annoying, as particularly at Embleton where I can't charge the battery, I rely on the phone picking up messages as I only switch it on about twice a day.
Last, but not least, Broadband started giving us problems and I must have spent the whole of Saturday evening on the phone to AOL's technical department (a freephone number, so I didn't mind). The fault actually lay with BT, who have now sorted it out, but in the process of reconfiguring my old modem, I discovered what a con these ISP CDs are! The AOL broadband software which came with the DIY kit actually does little more than add another location - something I did myself several times on Saturday night in about 2 minutes in expert setup.
(Wednesday 10th July)Well, broadband is successfully installed! I'm impressed by how easy the whole process was .... and now I can sit back and enjoy the benefits of a DSL connection. The next step is upgrading to XP, if I can get some new compatible drivers for the scanner.
Geocities seems to be the only website intent on running as slowly as it used to! How can my site stats take such a long time to display?
(Monday 8th July)I'm still incredibly stiff from Saturday's Chevy Chase .... this morning's swim training was a "recovery" session for me and someone else who'd been competing at the weekend, but I don't think 12 x 100's kick did much for my already sore thighs!
Eagerly awaiting the arrival of broadband - it's on its way, and BT have set up the ADSL line. I hope the installation is as easy as they say it will be.
(Monday 1st July)Having had it pointed out that my "Good Evening/Morning/Afternoon" gave the date as 2001, I've changed the code. Amazing how easy it is to miss something so obvious! It reminds me of a trick sentence where a person is asked to count the number of "f"s. There are actually five, but normally someone will only notice three.
(Saturday 22nd June)An awful lot of javascript to say "Good Evening" and give today's date! Totally shattered tonight - a late night last night celebrating Derek's birthday and a long day today, swimming in a masters gala at Felling Pool. Roll on bedtime!
(Monday, 17th June)Pauline, if you're reading this I've sent you three emails you don't seem to have received! I've just sent another today, to what I'm sure is the correct address (it's what you put on your letter and what I've used in the past). Just for good measure, the last two mails were sent to capitalsfan as well.
And BTW, your bank machine "plastic sleeve" thing is a scam, a hoax! Why don't you smell a rat when you read "pass this on ....."? It's the one thing that removes any doubt.
Why is it there are so many intelligent, educated people who seem prepared to believe something (and often act on it) just because they read it in an email? I remember a guy who runs a joke mailing list warning subscribers to watch out for the AOL virus - if they found a file named "aol.exe" on their computer, they were to delete it immediately! Amazingly, a large number of people did just that.
TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!!!
I've just had a look at the temperature in Newcastle (at the top of the page). It can't be 124 degrees F, 51 degrees celsius! I know today is warm, but this must be some sort of record ......
(Sunday, 16th June)I can't believe I haven't updated this site since 7th June! Apart from being busy, I can't really think of anything to say .... except that tomorrow is my birthday (whoopee!). I need to write another article really, but again I can't think of anything to say and I'm a bit too busy.
I'm getting broadband! Through AOL ..... a DIY installation kit ought to arrive in about 10 days. I'm sure the faster download times and improved connectivity will be worth the small increase in monthly subscription. And while this may may the fault of Geocities, if it stops the puzzling and annoying problem of clicking and clicking then having to wait ages for the computer to respond, I'll be delighted!
(Friday, 7th June)I've looked at the Guestbook for the first time .... interesting!
Peter and Jennie - yes, it does seem voyeuristic, but enjoyable to read the comments! And I always have space in my diary to set aside time to meet, it would be good to get together again. Richard, you really ought to learn how to spell! And annA, I enjoy the mailing list enormously too.
(Thursday, 30th May)I've added a Guestbook to the site, so please all visitors, do sign it! The immediate future looks good .... a week's holiday at Embleton, and the knowledge that I've been shortlisted for a job, topped off with the discovery that a credit card company has upped my credit limit, so no money emergencies for a while at least.
(Saturday, 25th May)I seem to spend a lot of time complaining just now! However, I'm sick of trying to be all things to all people ..... I'm expected to run around after the kids the way I did when they were younger and I wasn't working (or just working part-time). I'm expected to put the same 110% effort into my cleaning job, work every spare hour I can up at Morpeth, be a devoted Elder and a competent Treasurer, keep the housework up to an acceptable standard and then be enthusiastic when my husband suggests a surprise night out with a meal, when all I want to do is play the piano or settle down for an interesting night on the computer.
Then I check my email and find 136 new messages waiting for me - and that's only since yesterday!
(Thursday, 23rd May)You may notice I've now added a cool drop down box on most of my other pages! I'm not sure what purpose it serves, other than to hightlight Harley and John's sites, plus advertise the Google search engine! Remarkably easy to do, I may add to it in future:
(Friday, 17th May)Well, I've said a lot about the pitfalls of email, but now I'm going to state one of its advantages - the anonymity. When you do something incredibly stupid or embarrassing, you don't have to face the person at the other end! I'm not going to enlarge on this - suffice to say it probably served me right for trying to be clever and getting involved in something I should have left well alone! It also totally ruined the point I was trying to make.
(Wednesday, 15th May)I'll never complain about being bored again! I seem to be incredibly time-poor at the moment, with no chance of having a spare couple of hours to do something I really want, like updating my website more frequently than once a fortnight, or playing The Sims. All I seem to do is work, household chores, run kids about in the car, carry out my Elders duties and Golf Club Treasurer duties and swim - and I only manage to swim by getting up at 4.30 am to train. Household chores consist of sorting the washing and changing the occasional bed - cleaning and ironing just don't get done, and people are having to wear creased shirts (because of course nobody else would think of doing any ironing).
Take the last couple of days. Tuesday began with early morning swimming, then work until 5.30 pm. I managed to wade through a ton of email during my lunch break, but that was about all. I went straight to the golf club after work and spent a couple of hours doing jobs there. Finally getting home at 7.30 pm, I made the mistake of having a large gin and tonic, then wondered why some of my zero proofs were out when I set about updating the golf club accounts! The evening was non-existant, as I had another early start this morning and needed to be in bed rather earlier than I eventually ended up.
Today began with the alarm going off at 4.20 am - Derek was getting up for work, and as I had to be up 20 minutes later, it didn't seem worth resetting the alarm. Swimming, then my cleaning job, then what should have been my lunch hour spent in a queue at the bank paying in golf club money, and finally my job at Northumberland County Council in Morpeth. I'm typing this in a hurry, as I'm trying to go swimming again and should have left a few minutes ago.
Roll on the Queen's Jubilee weekend - I need those extra bank holidays!
(Sunday, 28th April)An interesting weekend walking in Leeds - hello Andrew if you found time to look at the site! - and an opportunity to meet a relative I can't remember having previously seen, other than in photos. Trying to find the right part of Leeds proved unexpectedly difficult - I must remember to leave the motorway BEFORE it becomes the MI!
A possible hint on solving the problem of grey error boxes - thank you Carlton! I'll see what happens when I get rid of "text generated by server".
(Tuesday, 23rd April)A quick update from work - it's a pleasure to be using such a speedy connection. I'm having serious thoughts about removing the webring code, just to see if it makes a difference with these debugging messages. Although the virus page produced one as well. Why doesn't the debugger actually do it's debugging stuff when you click yes? Instead of alighting on one particular line of code and leaving you none the wiser?
(Saturday, 20th April)I finally have the anti-virus live links the way I want them - well, almost. I copied the code from John's site, only I hadn't realised he'd added a banner. Poor Sophos webmaster - I've been emailing Sophos - he must be driven nuts by my complaining first the code won't work, then the banner won't work - he must have thought, what banner? Now I've emailed him AGAIN to say it's OK, but I'd like another space in between the banner and the tables ...
If you're wondering what all this is about, visit the virus page.
I'm adding this paragraph as a "filler" so that the links to John and Harley's sites line up (this being the easiest way I could think of doing it).
(Friday, 19th April)Well, quite a lot of change! Another page archived and I hope to set up a live link from Sophos, featuring virus and hoax updates/news. The new page isn't working too well just now - have a look at the code John, see if I'm missing something obvious! Can you get it to work? I may have to contact webmaster@sophos.com for the support they offer.
Also, you can view my second archived page, which contains a link to the first archive weblog.