Techno Rave

[Griffin NoName]

For all of you who have had to suffer my trials and tribulations with windows 2000 and also Norton, you will be relieved to hear I will in future be raving about other stuff instead.

Having got my laptop completely ready for Christmas, and pleased with my new fan and motherboard, I discovered the hard disc drive had developed a fault. It's possible it was not unconnected with it having been opened up for the new parts.

I had to have a new hard drive so I took the opportunity of ditching W2K and Norton for ever.

It couldn't have happened at a worse time as I needed to rest this week. It's been hellish re-installing everything, getting all the right software for XP, etc. I still haven't re-installed everything I need but it is all functioning as far as all the bits I attach to it and the basic functionality of surfing the web.

I installed Kaspersky as the a-v and it seems great. The only awful bit was when I had more or less finished installing all the new drivers and Kaspersky suddenly reported a worm in the browser. It makes an awful noise and it was all very scary and after hours of installation I felt like ditching technology for good.

Luckily I have my other machine so I was able to check the issue - the Kaspersky forum is good and others were raving about it and then it turned out it was all a false alarm and within an hour they had released an update to stop the a-v software giving a false positive.

Although it has been a nightmare, I do have a brand new double-the-size of-the-old-one free disc on the warranty which runs out in jan, and they tossed in a new keyboard and some CD software as well. So altogether I have been lucky.

The final straw was my car broke at the same time so I had to go backwards and forwards to the garage for repairs - undrivable - instead of resting in bed. It looked like it was the engine and I was all ready to face needing a new engine. It turned out just to be the bit of the exhaust which makes sounds like the engine has fallen apart. Huge bill but not as huge.

I am totally shattered. I am much too tired for Christmas. I am scared by how much effort just keeping life afloat has been. I've cleaned out the freezer and I'm living on takeaways as I haven't the strength to shop and I can't face the rubbish home delivery delivers.  I do have some pots of brandy butter left but I am too tired to face them.

On top of all that, the people next door have been hammering every morning when I am normally sleeping. Not even earplugs have worked.

[Sibling Chatty]

Heh, I read Techno Rave, and I immediately thought of a warehouse with loud music and people dancing to Electronica-kinda music and drinking lots of Red Bull and all that silly stuff...

I wish you had a British version of Dan. I just hold up my hands and go HELP ME, and this nice man fixes things...all kinds of things. (We've spent the afternoon watching old episodes of "Are You Being served?" because I am in a rotten mood. Hard to be grumpy with AYBS on.)

[Griffin NoName]

The last few days feel as if I have been in a warehouse with loud music and people dancing to Electronica-kinda music and drinking lots of Red Bull and all that silly stuff...

I do have a few semi-Dan type friends but they are not nearby. They are great in emergencies but chronic debilitating illness is not an emergency. There are people who have offered nearer but I don't know them so well and hesitate. In any case re the techno bit I help all of them......

My son came through for me this week. He changed the fire alarm battery !! And just for being nice to him, he also brought me a box of Black Magic

(takes even lmore effort than Milk Tray):

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