The day after.........

........the morning after the night before.

Or something.

I seem to have lost a day.

Well not lost it exactly, but after the extensive celebrations on Wednesday night I had an extremely long lie-in yesterday and spent the rest of the day in quiet R&R, recuperating from what was a most enjoyable party.

I did think about posting some photos but in the interests of protecting the anonymity of the guilty I have thought better of it.

Small dog also had an excellent time, all dolled up with her best bling collar and revelling in the attention of 25 birthday guests. She was cuddled and cossetted, cooed over and carried around, the better to see the festivities. Eventually she tumbled into bed at about 2am and was also a bit the worse for wear yesterday, having to take more than her usual quota of naps to recharge her batteries.

Still, a good time was had by all, complete with a firework finale after the birthday cake(s).
A big thanks is due to Perfectionist Partner, for organising it all with such panache, and of course to all our friends who came along to help me celebrate my half century.

Small dog has requested that I post no incriminating photos of her on the dance floor, or partying by the chimenea, so instead here's one of her taken yesterday........looking rather pale and wan, wrapped in her blanky.........

Woohoo!!!!

After a dull and rainy start to the day, the sun has just come out for my birthday!!!

Small dog was unceremoniously plucked from her bed early this morning and subjected to a bath which she regarded as an affront. Especially as it wasn't HER birthday!

However she is not one to hold a grudge and she thoughtfully helped me open my presents after breakfast, running off with the ribbons and wrapping paper to decorate her basket.

We have just finished the food preparations for the party this evening and the buffet table looks like it's set for the feeding of the five thousand. We can't even fit a wafer thin mint in the fridge and the freezer is groaning with ice for chilling the party drinks later.

Several surprise visits from friends this morning, bearing flowers and good wishes, and the post has produced a plethora of cards from well-wishers.

Perfectionist partner has popped into town for something involving helium, small dog is having a nap before the festivities and I'm having a pre-party drink to set me up for the evening.

It's not so bad being 50...........

This week............

As the actual day of my birthday fortuitously falls mid-week, on Wednesday, I have declared that this whole 7 days be designated as 'Sandra's birthday week'

To start the week's festivities with a bang, we have decorated the house. Just in case I forget which age I am to be, there are now several hundred 50's hanging in and around the ground floor and outside on the patio, where we have erected a gazebo in case of unclement weather on the night of the party.

Forgetting is a distinct possibility, as to get into the birthday spirit, we have started on the chilled, sparkly, bubbly stuff which comes in a bottle.

No.

Not lemonade.

No by no nonny no.

But I digress.

As we were hanging the decorations, I was listening to today's episode of The Archers and was gobsmacked to learn that it's also Phil and Daniel's birthday on Wednesday.
And to think I call myself a fan!
And not knowing that.
D'uh

I also share my birthday with the most famous playwright on the planet.
William Shakespeare.
Who was remarkably tidy in that he was born on 23rd April 1564 and died on the same day in 1616.
Not a feat I intend to emulate.
Not this year anyway.

Other people born on the same day range from the sublime (Vladimir Nabokov, Prokofiev, Roy Orbison (?!) to the ridiculous (Lee Majors, Shirley Temple and an obscure US president James Buchanan......well have YOU ever heard of him?)

However, the ultimate irony, is that my birthday falls on St. George's Day.
Patron Saint of England.
Which, for a Scot, takes some living down..................

Up and running.............

So new laptop arrived bright and early yesterday morning and after a not entirely unexpectedly frustrating day is finally up and running.

Getting onto the internet proved a seemingly insurmountable obstacle until I discovered a tiny wee button at the front of the machine which switches on the Wi-Fi thingumy inside. Easily overlooked by both myself and the 'helpful' internet connection wizard which suggested just about everything except "look for a tiny wee on/off switch".

Setting up emails etc is always a bit fraught, but went relatively smoothly although getting to grips with the new email programme might take some time.

Setting up wireless networking to the printer was a 4 hour marathon, during which I completely messed up the printer settings on the main office machine and had to uninstall and reinstall the whole thing, which involved scrabbling around on the floor under the desk trying to find the relevant printer port.

However, I am nothing if not tenacious and a mere 10 hours after its arrival I emerged triumphant, if a bit dusty and battle-weary with a fully functioning, internet-connected, printer-ready, shiny new laptop.

Essential files have all been transferred and are now settling into their spacious new hard drive.
I am hesitantly wandering around Vista, which looks and feels disconcertingly different to XP, but comes with lots of helpful pointers when I get hopelessly lost which is often.

Poor old laptop is looking rather forlorn and I fear it must have the computer equivalent of a shot to the head, as it is both unusable and unsaleable. Even if a replacement graphics card could be found it would be difficult to replace, and most certainly an uneconomic repair, given the age and spec of the machine. So it has been usurped by a younger, slimmer, faster model, which happens to us all in the end. Still it has been a good and trusted friend and I will miss it.

New laptop is still too unfamiliar to be comfortable, although it's trying hard to please, and I'm sure that I will warm to it in time. It needs to be personalised though, so I've put a photo of small dog on the desktop which helps immensely.

So, things are getting back to what passes for normal.

Light at the end of the tunnel..........

The thing about seeing the light at the end of the tunnel is that it might, just possibly, be the headlights of an approaching train!

I have spent many, many hours today, laboriously transferring file after file onto the external hard drive, which fortuitously we bought just last month.

This has been rendered especially difficult by not being able to see anything clearly on the laptop screen, due the absence of a functioning graphics card.

If I say that I've been trying to work at a screen which looks like it's been overlaid with opaque animated tartan, then the more imaginative readers of this blog may have some idea of the scale of the problem.
Not only animated tartan, but randomly colour changing tartan.
It makes me feel quite bilious.

Add to that the necessity of going through my entire email inbox to identify 'really important stuff' and ditch all the rest.
If I say that the contents of my inbox and various folders this morning numbered in excess of 8000 emails, then again, you have some idea of the scale of the problem.
I have systematically weeded out all the dross over the course of the day, becoming more and more cavalier as the hours have passed. If this has taught me anything, it is to be more ruthless with routine cleaning of my inbox and sent folders in future.

At some point tomorrow, between the hours of 9am and 6pm I will take delivery of a new laptop, all virginal and unsullied.
This is a great responsibility and I intend to be scrupulous in what I load into it. Always assuming that it all works and I can get onto the internet etc.

However, conscious of all this 'sturm and drang' for the past 24 hours, I think some light relief might be in order, and since I had to go through hundreds of jpgs today in my clearout, here is just one which I've had saved for ages, and which, despite my angst, made me laugh outright.......

Sleepless night.........

Pounding headache notwithstanding, I spent a sleepless night, worrying about the demise of my laptop.

For those of you not wedded to your computer this might seem a tad excessive, but in my case, the laptop contains EVERYTHING business related, from workshop programmes to costume instructions and patterns for every doll I've ever created.

Not to mention all tax/financial information for the past 5 years.

Not to mention just about everything else in personal terms from finances to holiday planning.

In short, my entire life.

I've managed to back up all the most important stuff, but there are lots of other things, emails for example, which are not so easy to save, file and transfer.

Anyhoo, still awake at stupid o'clock this morning, trying to decide on a course of action till finally I could stand it no longer.

So, at some point tomorrow, a shiny new laptop will arrive by courier.

That's the easy bit.

Then I have to get it set up, install all the programmes I need, connect it to the network, get it connected to the internet, wirelessly connect to printer etc, install all my files and documents AND get to grips with Vista, which I haven't used before.

I can guarantee that not all of the above will go smoothly.

So much for a leisurely run-up to my birthday

Normal service may (or may not) be resumed as soon as possible.

The last straw..............

My laptop has a major problem.

The display adapter (ie graphics card etc) has broke, which means that my screen is unreadable.

So today has been a complete write-off.......... spent ages attempting to identity the problem, trying assorted troubleshooters, downloading drivers then phoning the local laptop doctor who commiserated but said it was an uneconomic repair even if I could manage to get the relevant part for a 5 year old machine, which would be unlikely.

Cue tears of frustration.

And rage.

And more frustration.

Now I have to buy a new laptop, toute de suite, and attempt to transfer everything off the old one.

Which will be interesting as the screen is covered in tiny little dancing specks and bars which continually rain down from top to bottom, making everything look alive and giving me the mother and father of all headaches.

On the plus side, for a fraction of the price I paid for the old one I will get a state of the art machine.
On the minus side, it will take ages to load all the programmes, transfer all the files and that's without the nightmare of getting it networked and trying, probably unsuccessfully, to export all my emails etc.

I now have an excruciatingly pounding headache behind my right eye and I'm going to bed.