That makes sense, now you mention it, Basso - thank you!
I'm not messing about with the settings though - I have a bad track record with Mac computers, and this one belongs to my sister, about with whom you don't mess either ...
... though you MAY be able to get a regular mouse and plug it in to one of the USB ports, which would basically overrule the nasty little pad and probably avoid the issues you've been having with it. This is what I do.
Actually, Piglet, you could just buy a mouse. I use the touch pad, but my Mac has a port for a mouse. (That's a response that thirty years ago I would have found incomprehensible.)
Best of luck with the flat and the job hunts. My job hunt has been singularly dispiriting, and much as it wounds my ego to say this, I suspect that there is some ageism at play. (We are close in vintage.)
Yes, I was poised to return to yoga next week following broken toe saga but, as expected, it is now closed. But I am reintroducing my walking routine gradually and we have lots of gardening to keep us occupied.
Work wise there is little change for me (other than having a face to face tutorial cancelled for tomorrow but I only do two of those a year). But my students are likely to be even more disrupted than most as they work in health care.
I'd get a mouse @Piglet. I can't use tracker pads either. My son bought me a wireless one for my laptop but wired ones, such as I used to use at work are cheap. Shame about the flat, you can't put in a very cheeky offer to cover work that needs doing? but I know the Scottish system is different. We've cancelled our weekend away in a fortnight that was going to include looking at houses ahead of a potential move. That is going to be delayed for a while. @Boogie, I walked to my Tai Chi class yesterday evening. Having just heard Boris, I was assuming it wouldn't be running and I was correct, but I needed some exercise, and it's an hour's round trip of a walk. I guess my lovely writing class won't be happening either, but at least we have a blog to share our work, and if I'm stuck indoors I might actually finish the piece I'm supposed to be doing.
We have a small, but nice south facing patio garden. We should have a guy coming this week to replace a couple of fences, so after that, I will start a clean up and move round. Might well be buying extra plants on-line if I can't get out.
Today I'm off to do my shift in a charity bookshop. I'm not sure if it will be extremely quiet, or full of desperate people stocking up on good reading. I fully expect that to have to close shortly too. I assume my husband will be sent home from work today, I expected it yesterday, but it didn't happen. He wanted to be in, to do stuff he needs his works monitors etc for (he works in television), but that has been cancelled, so I expect him at home for weeks moaning about doing very routine stuff. He's cycled there yesterday and today so hopefully hasn't caught anything from anyone on public transport.
I'm working from home today! There are still a lot of phonecalls and e-mails to be done in preparation for the start of proper distance or e-learning at our institutions, which should be quite soon. In the afternoon, we'll even have have an online training course on e-learning and e-teaching, and I'll certainly suggest more of the same to our head! It's all hands on deck now!
Strangely enough, I actually seem to be enjoying this. I've always been a bit of a computer geek (which is why I started, eons ago, 'Ancient Geek' and its predecessors), and have rather good machines and connections. As I can put it to good use now, not dissimilar to my belovéd good old Open University courses - hi, Heavenlyannie! -, this should be interesting.
Another lovely and sunny, albeit matinally chilly day here, of course with all the eerieness of a near-complete shutdown. But the beauty of approaching spring is just overwhelming, and a positive, continued sign than life goes on.
Sadly, Mousehole is a port (well, harbour) in Cornwall, and Macduff in Scotland has nothing to do with rodents. If only we could merge the two names and locations ...
T'ai Chi class is suspended pro tem - understandable since combined ages on an average turnout total a couple of millennia.
But I expect to get a fair amount of exercise this week clearing out the garden shed.
Local butcher and corner shop seemed adequately stocked when I went out yesterday, and my fish van man delivers tomorrow.
@Piglet , I well remember the joys of the lower end of the Embra property market when I was looking for my first flat. One of my favourites had a bathroom in the shape of a long narrow triangle, with the loo at the point. Given the strong contrast between the bottom half tiling and upper half paint, it must have given using it a particularly vertiginous edge.
Our building works are going ahead: my builder says it keeps him and his crew busy. We may even end up with it being finished early because some of his other clients are muttering about delaying until the virus madness is past.
Most of the SIPs were craned into place yesterday - should have been all but the Building Inspector didn't appear on Friday and then having promised to be here "by 8.30 at the latest" yesterday, didn't arrive till 11am to inspect the supporting structure and groundworks.
No Choirs
No Citizens Advice ( for me anyway)
No Church
No Children or grandchildren’s visits.
However I need to go out to the Council offices this week to get a form stamped to prove I am still alive in order to continue to receive my tiny French pension. I think I will risk it as I can walk there and our small town will be pretty much deserted.
Total lockdown starts at midday here. I went out one last time this morning to get a bit of shopping and get Captain Pyjamas out of the house. There was not a single bottle of milk left in the supermarket. (Nor any bog roll, but that was obvious...)
I also came home with a lovely bunch of flowers from a poor florist who was giving all his stock away before he has to close. I felt quite sorry for him.
Living alone and supposedly no visits from daughter or neighbour is not a happy prospect. Can't even chat to the Tesco man when he brings my order as he has to leave it on the doorstep. How am I supposed to get everything from the doorstep to my kitchen?? I'm one of the frail elderly who are shut away in the hopes we will die quietly and not take up a scarce NHS bed!
Ordered a lot of books from Amazon before they shut up shop due to no workers fit enough to work there, and will be dusting off my own books before long!
The garden is planned as a nature reserve, its too much for me, and I can't find a gardener!
However, I got through the bombs in the war and will emerge fully fit at the end of all this, if only to spite Boris!!
The garden Nature Reserve is good - the Bees, and other Insects, will love it. Hopefully, you'll be able to get out into the sunshine, and enjoy it as well (whilst taking a break from catching up on reading - I must do the same).
Son-in-law is a vet. That's a business that always suffers when recessions and other financial crises hit, but worse when you can't take your pet for treatment. Older daughter is a psychiatric nurse practitioner who sees a lot of addicts and people in bad circumstances, so hers is now an even riskier occupation. All these things we never imagined until a few days ago! But my 91 year old mother-in-law and tribal matriarch is still going strong and letting it all happen around her. She survived the Great Depression and can handle this. It would be harder without her.
... I got through the bombs in the war and will emerge fully fit at the end of all this, if only to spite Boris!!
Good on you, @Thomasina! At least, unlike Farage and his ilk, you're actually telling the truth about having got through the Blitz - you go, girl!
I had a nice little amble into the village and managed to score the last package of stewing beef in the shop, which is now doing its thing (with veggies and WINE) in the slow-cooker.
The check-out lady told me that the lady in front of me in the queue had bought eight cartons of eggs, which struck me as being rather brainless - it's not as if they keep indefinitely. Maybe she was planning on making a lot of CAKE ...
I had a phone call today from the lady at Into Work, postponing my meeting with her until Things Get Back To Normal, and a message from the minister at St. Magnus wondering what my thoughts are re the memorial service for David. I reckon it's looking decidedly iffy; even though it's unlikely to draw 500 people, it's quite possible that by early April they'll have cancelled ferries and flights.
It wouldn't be the end of the world - I'm sure we'll be able to re-schedule it - but I sort of want to get it (and scattering his ashes) done - it would feel that I'd got another step further, if that makes sense.
Son-in-law is a vet. That's a business that always suffers when recessions and other financial crises hit, but worse when you can't take your pet for treatment.
I went to my Vet yesterday to stock up on my dog's medications for two months. They're going day by day, seeing how long they'll be allowed to be open.
I am concerned that my elderly dog could come down with something and need to see her doctor. Luckily my Vet is a friend from church, and if her office has to close, I imagine she would make a house call in an emergency. I hope it doesn't come to that -- for their sake as well as my dog's.
Yes it does, but surely D. would understand (and sympathise with) the current difficulties.
Let's hope and pray that, although much of life seems to be 'on hold' at the moment, the video will eventually start up again...
@Thomasina , a friend told me today of a Devoted Old Gentleman, aged 101, and still a regular attender at his church. The DOG has survived various National Crises™, WW2 (including time in a PoW camp after Dunkirk...), assorted flu epidemics, Great Ice Winters, Boris Johnson, etc. etc.
I proffered the thought that perhaps the DOG is actually a Troll, and therefore a silicon-based life form, rather than a carbon-based life form, like us Humming Beans. (See Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels for further information).
My friend said, No, he thought not, but he saw my point. They don't seem to make 'em like that any more...
Just to add to the Burden of the Day, I had a phone call from my friendly Coalman T to tell me that his Lorry had died, that he was unable to afford a replacement, and that he'd have to retire (the poor chap sounded quite tearful).
He was, however, able to put me in touch with another old-established merchant (they had sidings in the railway goods yard opposite the House of My Yoof, 60 years ago!), so they will be delivering from now on.
And - because I asked them nicely, they're charging me the same lower price as I was paying Coalman T, so all is not bleak...
Originally posted by Pigwigeon: I went to my Vet yesterday to stock up on my dog's medications for two months. They're going day by day, seeing how long they'll be allowed to be open.
I had to pick up Metacam for my cat. The vet has set up a system whereby I e-mailed to confirm what time I'd be there, and they had it sitting at the desk ready so that I could be in and out in 2 mins. Plus, they're not accepting cash - contactless only.
Originally posted by Pigwigeon: I went to my Vet yesterday to stock up on my dog's medications for two months. They're going day by day, seeing how long they'll be allowed to be open.
I had to pick up Metacam for my cat. The vet has set up a system whereby I e-mailed to confirm what time I'd be there, and they had it sitting at the desk ready so that I could be in and out in 2 mins. Plus, they're not accepting cash - contactless only.
Mine were talking about ordering and paying by phone and then delivering to cars in their parking lot.
Yes, I remember them (well, not yours of course). It takes you back ... as does this: http://tiny.cc/aiaglz
I've just realised that this was taken at the top of Ludgate Hill in London, right outside the block where the Crusaders' Union Bible Class (now "Urban Saints") had their office for 40 years. I worked as a "temp" in the Bookroom there in the autumn of 1974, mostly making up Christmas parcels.
Yes, I remember them (well, not yours of course). It takes you back ... as does this: http://tiny.cc/aiaglz
I've just realised that this was taken at the top of Ludgate Hill in London, right outside the block where the Crusaders' Union Bible Class (now "Urban Saints") had their office for 40 years. I worked as a "temp" in the Bookroom there in the autumn of 1974, mostly making up Christmas parcels.
I remember those funny little vans, too - our local Goods Yard often had half-a-dozen of them running in and out, and round and round the town.
We had a Baxi grate which had a little air vent at the front to stop that happening. Some neighbours had a whirly thing on the top of their chimneys to create draught - I was slightly envious of them.
We had a Baxi grate which had a little air vent at the front to stop that happening. Some neighbours had a whirly thing on the top of their chimneys to create draught - I was slightly envious of them.
I don't know what the proper name for that whirly thing was, but when I was very young it was always called a granny. I have no idea why. These days you can buy them for attic ventilation and they are pompously called turbine ventilators. I prefer granny.
Am I the only one singing ‘There are bad times just around the corner’ to myself?
MMM
No, you're not. At home son and I have been singing it as we put stuff in order in the kitchen, teaching house-guest in the process. We're now teaching the building crew (one of whom has a lovely voice) BTJATC and other gems from The Master.
ION all the walls and internal roof structure is up Building Inspector due at 8 am so work can start on outer skin and roof; we said we'd have breakfast ready so maybe he'll show up on time.
Those of you unfamiliar with the song, try to find There are Bad Times Just Around the Corner on YouTube: it suits the times to a T and I feel sure will appeal to shipmates.
Here at Casa Nen I am settling in for a day of work from home with Mr Nen and Nenlet2.
It's actually my last day of work before I take a fortnight's leave and then redundancy. It's been a strange final week but we had an emotional farewell event on Monday (most of the team are moving on) and I am quite grateful for the excuse not to see any colleagues today as I don't have the emotional capacity for any more fond farewells.
I am really appreciating having our car back from the garage. We have an ongoing issue with the exhaust system underperforming ever since we had to have the catalytic converter replaced last year when it got nicked. We have a Prius, hence it being desirable to certain kinds of lowlifes who know people who will buy cats for the metal without asking questions. It went in for some tests yesterday regarding possible a warranty claim on the new one so we had a courtesy car. As I haven't had driven a manual since last April, remembering how to use gears was a challenge. I got it back today and then promptly had to remember that our car is an automatic, so no using my left leg!
Little Beaky's family are lock-down in order to protect him.
Meanwhile as of today his cousin (child of my second daughter) is symptomatic so they are all on 14 days isolation. We and third daughter are running errands for them (Thank goodness they moved back here last year!) and I am going to attempt to tutor them over Facetime....
Wish me luck!
Just the other day I found a sheet of paper on which I had written a verse of BTJATC and entertained my guest with it - he said it was very good and had I written it!
Day 2 of social isolation here and I have a mild sore throat and feel crap - I’ve signed in sick. No 2 son (whose cough started yesterday and caused the isolation) just coughs occasionally and he seems not too affected at present. Two of his friends are also off sick with coughs so I don’t fancy the chances of schools staying open beyond this week.
Day #2 of lockdown here. This morning I went out and cleaned our balcony, which hadn't been done all winter. It's a very pleasant sunny day here and there are far worse places to sit out the apocalypse than our 25th floor viewing platform.
Captain Pyjamas was pretty well behaved this morning. Husband en rouge will take him out with his trike later. Taking children for a bit of air outside is allowed but only one of us can go. I'll go out tomorrow.
Comments
I'm not messing about with the settings though - I have a bad track record with Mac computers, and this one belongs to my sister, about with whom you don't mess either ...
Best of luck with the flat and the job hunts. My job hunt has been singularly dispiriting, and much as it wounds my ego to say this, I suspect that there is some ageism at play. (We are close in vintage.)
I’m going to try and set up a daily routine.
I bought a pressure washer and will start today with a Big Garden Tidy Up.
🙂
Work wise there is little change for me (other than having a face to face tutorial cancelled for tomorrow but I only do two of those a year). But my students are likely to be even more disrupted than most as they work in health care.
@Boogie, I walked to my Tai Chi class yesterday evening. Having just heard Boris, I was assuming it wouldn't be running and I was correct, but I needed some exercise, and it's an hour's round trip of a walk. I guess my lovely writing class won't be happening either, but at least we have a blog to share our work, and if I'm stuck indoors I might actually finish the piece I'm supposed to be doing.
We have a small, but nice south facing patio garden. We should have a guy coming this week to replace a couple of fences, so after that, I will start a clean up and move round. Might well be buying extra plants on-line if I can't get out.
Today I'm off to do my shift in a charity bookshop. I'm not sure if it will be extremely quiet, or full of desperate people stocking up on good reading. I fully expect that to have to close shortly too. I assume my husband will be sent home from work today, I expected it yesterday, but it didn't happen. He wanted to be in, to do stuff he needs his works monitors etc for (he works in television), but that has been cancelled, so I expect him at home for weeks moaning about doing very routine stuff. He's cycled there yesterday and today so hopefully hasn't caught anything from anyone on public transport.
Strangely enough, I actually seem to be enjoying this. I've always been a bit of a computer geek (which is why I started, eons ago, 'Ancient Geek' and its predecessors), and have rather good machines and connections. As I can put it to good use now, not dissimilar to my belovéd good old Open University courses - hi, Heavenlyannie!
Another lovely and sunny, albeit matinally chilly day here, of course with all the eerieness of a near-complete shutdown. But the beauty of approaching spring is just overwhelming, and a positive, continued sign than life goes on.
But I expect to get a fair amount of exercise this week clearing out the garden shed.
Local butcher and corner shop seemed adequately stocked when I went out yesterday, and my fish van man delivers tomorrow.
@Piglet , I well remember the joys of the lower end of the Embra property market when I was looking for my first flat. One of my favourites had a bathroom in the shape of a long narrow triangle, with the loo at the point. Given the strong contrast between the bottom half tiling and upper half paint, it must have given using it a particularly vertiginous edge.
Most of the SIPs were craned into place yesterday - should have been all but the Building Inspector didn't appear on Friday and then having promised to be here "by 8.30 at the latest" yesterday, didn't arrive till 11am to inspect the supporting structure and groundworks.
Sorry to hear this, Heavenlyannie! May you all be well and better soon! <votive>
No Choirs
No Citizens Advice ( for me anyway)
No Church
No Children or grandchildren’s visits.
However I need to go out to the Council offices this week to get a form stamped to prove I am still alive in order to continue to receive my tiny French pension. I think I will risk it as I can walk there and our small town will be pretty much deserted.
Total lockdown starts at midday here. I went out one last time this morning to get a bit of shopping and get Captain Pyjamas out of the house. There was not a single bottle of milk left in the supermarket. (Nor any bog roll, but that was obvious...)
I also came home with a lovely bunch of flowers from a poor florist who was giving all his stock away before he has to close. I felt quite sorry for him.
Ordered a lot of books from Amazon before they shut up shop due to no workers fit enough to work there, and will be dusting off my own books before long!
The garden is planned as a nature reserve, its too much for me, and I can't find a gardener!
However, I got through the bombs in the war and will emerge fully fit at the end of all this, if only to spite Boris!!
I had a nice little amble into the village and managed to score the last package of stewing beef in the shop, which is now doing its thing (with veggies and WINE) in the slow-cooker.
The check-out lady told me that the lady in front of me in the queue had bought eight cartons of eggs, which struck me as being rather brainless - it's not as if they keep indefinitely. Maybe she was planning on making a lot of CAKE ...
I had a phone call today from the lady at Into Work, postponing my meeting with her until Things Get Back To Normal, and a message from the minister at St. Magnus wondering what my thoughts are re the memorial service for David. I reckon it's looking decidedly iffy; even though it's unlikely to draw 500 people, it's quite possible that by early April they'll have cancelled ferries and flights.
It wouldn't be the end of the world - I'm sure we'll be able to re-schedule it - but I sort of want to get it (and scattering his ashes) done - it would feel that I'd got another step further, if that makes sense.
I am concerned that my elderly dog could come down with something and need to see her doctor. Luckily my Vet is a friend from church, and if her office has to close, I imagine she would make a house call in an emergency. I hope it doesn't come to that -- for their sake as well as my dog's.
Let's hope and pray that, although much of life seems to be 'on hold' at the moment, the video will eventually start up again...
@Thomasina , a friend told me today of a Devoted Old Gentleman, aged 101, and still a regular attender at his church. The DOG has survived various National Crises™, WW2 (including time in a PoW camp after Dunkirk...), assorted flu epidemics, Great Ice Winters, Boris Johnson, etc. etc.
I proffered the thought that perhaps the DOG is actually a Troll, and therefore a silicon-based life form, rather than a carbon-based life form, like us Humming Beans. (See Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels for further information).
My friend said, No, he thought not, but he saw my point. They don't seem to make 'em like that any more...
He was, however, able to put me in touch with another old-established merchant (they had sidings in the railway goods yard opposite the House of My Yoof, 60 years ago!), so they will be delivering from now on.
And - because I asked them nicely, they're charging me the same lower price as I was paying Coalman T, so all is not bleak...
I went to my Vet yesterday to stock up on my dog's medications for two months. They're going day by day, seeing how long they'll be allowed to be open.
I had to pick up Metacam for my cat. The vet has set up a system whereby I e-mailed to confirm what time I'd be there, and they had it sitting at the desk ready so that I could be in and out in 2 mins. Plus, they're not accepting cash - contactless only.
Mine were talking about ordering and paying by phone and then delivering to cars in their parking lot.
MMM
I remember those funny little vans, too - our local Goods Yard often had half-a-dozen of them running in and out, and round and round the town.
Probably not, but if you hum it, we'll follow...
And the endless coughing...
I don't know what the proper name for that whirly thing was, but when I was very young it was always called a granny. I have no idea why. These days you can buy them for attic ventilation and they are pompously called turbine ventilators. I prefer granny.
No, you're not. At home son and I have been singing it as we put stuff in order in the kitchen, teaching house-guest in the process. We're now teaching the building crew (one of whom has a lovely voice) BTJATC and other gems from The Master.
ION all the walls and internal roof structure is up
Those of you unfamiliar with the song, try to find There are Bad Times Just Around the Corner on YouTube: it suits the times to a T and I feel sure will appeal to shipmates.
It's actually my last day of work before I take a fortnight's leave and then redundancy. It's been a strange final week but we had an emotional farewell event on Monday (most of the team are moving on) and I am quite grateful for the excuse not to see any colleagues today as I don't have the emotional capacity for any more fond farewells.
I think making SOUP would be a good plan.
Meanwhile as of today his cousin (child of my second daughter) is symptomatic so they are all on 14 days isolation. We and third daughter are running errands for them (Thank goodness they moved back here last year!) and I am going to attempt to tutor them over Facetime....
Wish me luck!
Captain Pyjamas was pretty well behaved this morning. Husband en rouge will take him out with his trike later. Taking children for a bit of air outside is allowed but only one of us can go. I'll go out tomorrow.
Hooray, hooray, hooray, misery’s on its way....!
MMM