Blowing in the Winds of Change

Hello Dear MSE Friends, :hello:

Not so good here over the last couple of days. Bug or ME crash or both I honestly can't tell, but I've made a right royal muck up of things. Fever retreated - or Muggins thought it had - but balance was suddenly a real problem. Found m'self envious of a couple of people speeding past us on mobility-scooters as Dear Dog and I wobbled along..
We got lost! Divo Four was away at a weekend housewarming bash, but we both forgot CD had run out of sausages when he stocked up camper-van's fridge before leaving, so she and I set out to find some as the mission of our afternoon walk.
Big mistake. Suburbia is full of streets that look the same when one can't remember names on signposts for more than a few seconds. Checking m' local map later on, I think we wandered nearly a couple of miles along back-roads before eventually coming across an unmistakable landmark; the river. At least there were benches along the tow-path to break up the mile back to base we still had to do (m' fever returned, and alarmingly right eye lost the ability to focus - that's a new one!).
CD collapsed happily into sleep while I spent some time in an exhausted stupor; still no sausages. Spotted the menu of the closest takeaway to PNH on a shelf - brainwave - advantage of being in a city - restaurants deliver! Menu said I could order on-line.. Great (wasn't confident of being able to produce coherent speech at that point). While working through the unfamiliar meal-summoning rigmarole yours truly forgot about sausages again - in fact there were none available from this particular restaurant - but found duck fillets. CD likes a duck (admittedly that was in bygone years, and preferably quacking - still, in a foil tray would be better than being offered yet more McNasties which she'd lost interest in by then). Without a sauce it was actually one of the cheapest options on the menu too - great again.
Took me longer to get through the ordering process than it did for our dinner to arrive - in an electric taxi, which was a surprise (bit of an overkill for transporting a single paper sack? Free delivery to me so hard to see how that's economic for the restaurant).
CD and I shared the duck - plenty for us both, topped up for me with a rather good complimentary salad I'd not ordered so wasn't expecting. Yesterday when he got back starving hungry - trains delayed - Divo Four wolfed down the veg curry dishes & naan I'd actually ordered for m'self but couldn't manage the night before.

Anyway. Yesterday morning Lappy had a fit. Don't think it was m' brain-fog which caused it to zilch every window I tried to open, then produced dozens more of it's own I hadn't asked it to. After that it wouldn't shut down. Forced it to.. Then it wouldn't fire up! ..Terminal decline?
Brain fog + frustration are not good bed-fellows.
DS' kind housemate tried to help but is a fruity-i-thing user so gave up quickly. He did locate a PC W0rld shop close by and open on Sunday though, so after taking precautions - breakfast with full range of supplements and a couple of painkillers then put head under cold shower [me not CD!] - we went for it; checked tatting-down procedures twice against list taped to sun-visor:
Disconnect lekky house end first, righty-tighty shut off gas, loo valve definitely shut, all plugs in [both sinks + shower], windows & roof-light closed and locked, blinds up, glass cooker lid down, fridge engine-power switch on, everything loose put in cupboards or large box on floor, check cupboard doors locked, take CD for a short comfort-break [she will pee on command if she needs one] then secure CD to her 'doggie-seat-belt'.

20mph city speed limits, people expecting camper-vans to be driven slowly and carefully, and a lack of week-day boy-racers all worked in m' favour. Plus, though I say it m'self; am a bluddy good driver even when the rest of life is falling apart. The trip across town was safe enough because I was concentrating hard, watching for kids running out, etc (none did).
The manager gave CD special dispensation to come into the shop. Never been inside PC W0rld before so had no idea that it operates on Ryan@ir principles.. Gosh - all the laptops seemed so cheap! Progress following the young man allocated to assist me was slowed down by other customers petting CD (as usual).
My parameters proved impossible to satisfy: 1. Nothing produced by an Israeli company (anyone looked at G00gle maps recently? Israel has conspired to obliterate Palestine, which they're also doing in RL. If only their state-sponsored murders got half the exposure given to terrorist atrocities in Europe!). 2. Nothing made in China - partly because of the appalling treatment of workers in electronics factories, ditto in the Chinese-controlled mines producing rare metals in 3rd World countries [for said factories], but mainly because of what China has done and is still doing to Tibet.
Stuffed: Every single laptop we looked at was produced in China!
With hindsight, I should have walked out then. But, flagging and becoming increasingly confused, I allowed the assistant to steer me towards a Dell (some of these are made in Poland). Fine, I'll take it. Oh, none in stock? What's the closest in spec? That one - yes it'll do. In purple, fine. Also out of stock, ok in blue then..
At this point Assistant actually proffered a box. Then indicated the add-ons; an extra £130 for office, anti-virus and something else.
"No thanks, it'll be running Linux."
"In that case there is a £35 charge to prepare it for you"
"Pardon?" He was patient:
"You said you want to use it straight away. We'll prepare it, back up the operating systems and give you a memory-stick."
"As part of the prep you'll put a month's anti-virus trial on it - to give my son time to install Linux?"
"Yes, of course."
"Ok, let's get on with it then.. Where do I pay?" (My head spinning, CD lagging behind because customers from the telly and fridge sections of the shop had discovered her and were queuing for a cuddle by this time).
"You'll have to come back tomorrow to collect it."
"WHAT? I told you, I came here to buy a laptop which I can use today! If you can't supply that you've just lost the sale.."
"Well, we do have a couple that are already prepared.."
"So why did you waste both our time by showing me all these others?"
He pointed at a red machine. "I've got one of these, it's the closest in spec to the one you chose."
What a surprise; £75 more expensive. <sigh>
"All right - forget the external hard-drive I was going to buy then, I'll take the red laptop which is ready to go.."
A sealed box was produced but we had one more leaf from Mike O'Leary's book to negotiate; insurance. Shop Manager looked at my face and magnanimously offered a month free..
CD and I were tripping over each other as we fled back to camper-van. Never have I been so grateful for this van with it's welcoming bed and ability to make tea at any location..

You've probably already guessed what happened after I summoned enough energy to return safely to base and extract the red laptop from it's box: It's a dud.
Not new, been returned twice already by the look of things, and definitely does not work.

Last night Divo Four loaned me his old Dell. On-line DS2 had somehow intuited my distress because unexpectedly he got in touch.. Listened to the sorry tale, asked me to try firing up ol' lappy in safe mode - and then used his prodigious skill to fix it [more-or-less] remotely!

So today DS4 and I are going to have to return the red one and get the money back. At least I paid for it with a CC..

Point of this waffle: To remind me to get PoA updated - current one gives power to DH; not much use because he's 'late' of course - in case this is the beginning of another unrecoverable ME slide.. Can't afford to splash out £££ on palavas like the above.

Spends:
Take-away - £20
Broken red laptop - £408 :mad:

Good morning MSEers, :hello:

CD's vet visit yesterday went very well indeed, certainly much better than expected! It took three of us two attempts to extract half a blood sample, but the vet said she'd got enough for a basic screen so we didn't put CD through the performance a third time.
Vet was surprisingly encouraging; said she thought CD is in great condition considering her age and diagnosis, and CD's reaction when she felt the hair-clippers proved her brain is still sharp and she's got plenty of fight left in her, all of which cheered me up!

On the way back CD whinged unceasingly, so after picking up a new gas bottle I abandoned thoughts of driving out to somewhere salubrious for a walk and just returned to PNH. CD jumped out of the van, stalked imperiously inside the house and lay down on what has already become her favourite rug. She then sulked, refusing to acknowledge me, so I left her there with DS' bemused but enchanted housemate..
Three hours later she was singing at the back gate, ready to forgive me and go for a wander along the river-bank. The tow-path makes a lovely local walk, easy for us both with no trip hazards and plenty of handy benches for resting on.
Spotted an amusing sign: By Order of the River Authority - No horses permitted on the tow-path. Oh, the irony! :rotfl:

Spends:
Vet - £120 (cheaper than expected because CD refused to provide the second sample <sigh>).
Gas bottle - £23.75