My New Mouse

I've been struggling with my old one for ages as the cursor kept wandering all over the place. It was optical but not wireless and it made life a little uncomfortable with all the reaching.

After getting well cross with it yesterday I went off to the computer shop and bought this posh jobbie. Would it flippin' work, would it 'eck. I was working up to taking it back but didn't want to appear stupid if it was something simple so I've been festering and moaning all day.

Thankfully, we met up with Bill and Muriel today and they have the same thing. Their son Paul is the whizz kid in their house and after I'd grumped for a little while Muriel got fed up enough to ring him. It just required a little tweaking with the base connect and the mouse connect.

Done and dusted now and I'm happy, optical and wireless. Thank goodness that I didn't go and moan in the shop and thanks to Paul x.

Family History

I spoke to my brother, Ray, the other evening and he happened to mention that Auntie Mavis's daughter had started researching her Family History and wondered how far I'd got.

To be honest I haven't looked at it for a while so I've had to clear out my desk and get my papers into some kind of order. I reckon that we must be second cousins as our grandmothers were sisters..........gets well confusing!

I think that Cheryl must be around eight or nine years younger than I am as I remember holding her when she was a baby. Nice to be in contact and to share. I'm getting the bug again!

The Brain

We were stupid enough to disconnect everything from our television today to give our unit a really good clean and a general tidy. We now have DVD's at one side and Playstation games at the other with video tapes stored in another cupboard. It all looks really good and I wish I'd done it ages ago but I can't seem to get all the electrical stuff to work

Eight years ago, when I worked, I could connect several monitors to several VCR's including editing equipment without batting an eyelid. Now I can't work out how to include the DVD player into the home system. It just shows how retirement can affect the brain.

My plan for tomorrow is to connect the DVD player straight into the TV. Connect the VCR into the second scart on the TV. BBC box into the VCR's second scart and hopefully I'll be cooking on gas.

All in all I wish I'd left it mucky!

A Mushroom

I've felt like one this week as the cord on our shutter broke and I was plunged into darkness. I really enjoy sitting out on the balcony for a couple of hours during the afternoon reading my book but I couldn't get out there. So frustrating!

We went up to Adeje on Wednesday as the big DIY Superstore normally stocks them but as we couldn't find them in their normal place we checked with Information. Even though she could speak English she couldn't understand what we were on about so we left, defeated.

I checked with the firms that do these sort of repairs but they were charging more than an arm and a leg so it was back to the drawing board. Spanish head on I called into the local ironmonger type shop at the end of our road. Brian hung back as he thought I would never explain what I wanted but she understood me perfectly. Even complemented me on my Spanish! I got what I wanted for three Euros and after telling her that I'd toured Adeje she said
'Playa San Juan' where else?!

Good for her and I now have light!

Those Poor Boys

It breaks my heart to watch the news these days. Young lads hardly older than my eldest grand-daughter. Their families having to go through this awful tragedy.

It is now coming close to the death total of the Falklands Conflict which, on reflection, was a short, sharp shock and not this long drawn out suffering. At least the Falklands was a war to help our own folk, not to be stuck in some foreign land without adequate resources.

I keep seeing the placards 'Lest We Forget'. They will, they do.

As for my contribution.
At the going down of the sun,
And in the morning, we will remember them

Messenger

I've been without MSN Messenger for a couple of weeks because it kept coming up with an error message every time I tried to log on.

Paul, a friend of mine, tried his best to sort it out but had to give up in the end. I so hate being beaten and was determined to stay at my computer tonight until it was sorted.

It was all to do with deleting the Windows Live Contacts folder which I did a few days ago without success but I hadn't realised that there were hidden files too. I found the little blighters earlier and within two minutes I had my Messenger back.

Another learning curve and I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself. As it's almost two in the morning I'd better go to bed!

A Rare Night Out

Allison's phone camera doesn't seem to cope too well with night shots but as I didn't take my own camera these are all I've got. I pinched them off Facebook too!!

Terry and Helen have decided that life might be better for them in England. We've been mates since we first came here eight years ago and have had a few laughs along the way. We were chucked out of a bar one night by the Police which is just one of our tales. Not our fault I might add as the barman didn't have a licence to serve beer! Loads of bowling stories too.


Good luck to both. You will be missed xx