ANOTHER new computer
Last Thursday, it being not only my 70th birthday but also Pension Day, I opened my internet banking to do the usual paying of bills etc. – to see that First FosterSon and FF Daughter-in-Law had deposited a large sum of money. It was labelled “Christmas” by which I understood it to be for both of us, but I thought how clever of them to time it so perfectly to arrive on my birthday morning, not to mention just before the 16th wedding anniversary. Turned out they hadn’t had those events in mind, and didn’t know how long the money would take to arrive anyway; they just thought it was time to send us “a little something”. (Their idea of a little something is our idea of huge.)

New toy
I can haz 15 inchiz! And a sleek and lovely thing it is, giving me the greatest pleasure. I'm referring to a brand new 15-inch MacBook Pro – more thrilling to me right now than anything else you might imagine.Anyone who knows me even slightly knows how I have been whingeing these past 18 months or more about the poor old eMac and the frustrations of being unable to upgrade operating system or browsers. Using the computer online was a constant struggle as the browsers jumped without warning to pages I didn't want to be on, took hours to complete simple operations, and frequently froze and had to be restarted.What is less well-known is that I do a lot of

A new computer!!!
Now at last I can stop whingeing!  As anyone who pays the slightest attention to me knows by now, I have been intensely frustrated by the deteriorating online performance of my poor old eMac.  What is less wellknown is that I do a lot of volunteer work for the local Neighbourhood Centre, most of which work involves computers. Getting it done on either the dysfunctional eMac at home or the Centre's old laptop when I'm working there – a laptop using Windows, a system I'm not at all comfortable with – has been challenging in the extreme. Saving up for a new computer has also been challenging, despite donations from some kind people. I was going for a second-hand, "pre

Disorder
The discovery / realisation of severe mental disorder in a close relative.I'm delicate – perhaps ridiculously – about posting on the subject here, yet want to put links to MySpace blogs on the matter. The outdated browser, all I can put on this old computer, is now so jumpy that I can't stay on a MySpace page long enough to copy the url!For those who are interested enough to go to the trouble, the link in my previous post will get you there. Then you need to click on the link at the bottom of that to the next post, and then the next and the next. They are "Professional Opinion", 22 October; "It Gets Worse", 26 October; and "Views", 27 October.For mate

No More Fatted Calf
Those who recall the traumas of the last visit home of my Youngest (the son formerly known as The Prodigal) may be interested in the final chapter.