Misfits Mid-Life Crisis Adventures in East London (Week 2 of Lockdown the Third).

Week 343 Saturday 9^th until Friday 15^th January 2021.

This week would have been dad 92 B’day, gone but never forgotten.

The last seven days has been a week of technical problems.

I take a lot of pictures on my phone, small digital camera and tablet.  People who know me get fed up as I am always stopping to take another pointless picture that no one will ever see.  Every few weeks I dump them off the individual device on to a portable drive.  Towards the end of the most recent “dump” a horrifying message “the file or directory is corrupted and readable” appeared on the screen.  No matter what I did the same message kept being displayed.  Sadly I soon became resigned to the fact that I have lost not only all the recent pictures, but the actual file containing a total of 3000 images.  It’s possible I have watched far too many films, but I am sure that if I had the know how there is a way of recovering pictures from a corrupted file.  Its times like this I wish I knew more about how a computer works.

Working from home since March last year the multiple computer systems I use daily have worked most of the time, there have of course been little hiccups now and then but nothing to really be stressed about.  Tuesday this week was a terrible day, every system played up, nothing worked as it should.  Working in a call centre talking to people on the phone I use the computer to answer their enquiries, without it I can do nothing.  While waiting for a page to buffer, change, connect in some cases logging off and on again I had to waffle and ad-lib as much as possible.  The hold button was over used when I couldn’t think of anything to say, or I just didn’t want to listen to the moaning at the other end.  Watching the birds outside while I struggled with the laptop must have helped keep my blood pressure lower than it might have been.

Knowing how a computer works need to be added to my list of others basic skills such as plumbing, house and car maintenance.  Problems that can cost a fortune could in some cases with a little knowledge be sorted much easier than thought.  These days I suppose the quickest thing to do is a search and watch a video on “How to fix……???”.  Of course the work issues were completely out of my control, I had to wait for I.T to sort things out.

Another technical issue this week happened while driving to a funeral.  About 15 minutes before arriving at the location the Sat-Nav had a fit.  Luckily my friend and I had good old fashioned paper maps and of course our phones.  We made it in time to pay our respects.  But I won’t lie that I really was very stressed towards the end of the drive there.

My under 10 year old niece and nephews probably know more about computers than me.  When were unlocked I should see if one of them can recover my pictures.

And Now For Something Completely Different……

Made a nurse a little emotional while she was taking some of my blood.  I chatted about working from home; she mentioned number of jobs that she had undertaken since March.  She was excited about doing her first vaccinations this week.  Just before I left, I had to thank her for all her hard work, is keeping people safe.

And Finally……

Heard a loud noise early Tuesday afternoon, which I assumed was the noisy children next door.  I later discovered it was a sonic boom caused by military aircraft intercepting a civilian plane.  This was heard all over the east, south east of the UK and as far as Sweden.

 My Mid Life Crisis Conts……

This week I have mainly been watching:  

“Children of Dune”, (S1, ep 1).  “Click”, (09/01/21).  “Crazyhead”, (S1, ep 4 to ep 6).  “Dads Army”, (S1, ep 1).  “Death In Paradise”, (S10, ep 2, TX: 14/01/21).  “Disenchantment”, (S3, ep 1 to ep 6).  “Farscape”, (S3, ep 4 & ep 5).  “Guilt”, (S1, ep 1 to ep 4).  “Hairy Bikers Best Of British”, (S2, ep 10, TX: 12/04/13).  “Junior Bake Off”, (S6 (S2 on C4), ep 1, TX: 11/01/21)(ep 2, TX: 12/01/21)(ep 3, TX: 13/01/21)(ep 4, TX: 14/01/21)(ep 5, TX: 15/01/21).  “Last Women On Earth With Sara Pascoe”, (S1, ep 3, TX: 10/01/21).  “Lexx”, (S2, ep 7).  “Mike Skipper’s Back in Lockdown Quiz”, (FaceBook)(TX: 09/01/21).  “Not Going Out”, (S11, ep 2).  “Star Trek”, (S1, ep 9 to ep 11).  “Sweet Home”, (S1, ep 3 & ep 4).  “The Expanse”, (S5, ep 1 to ep 3).  “The Final Frontier! Testing Several Objects In Space!”, (FaceBook)(TX: 28/12/20).  “The Graham Norton Show (S28, ep 12, TX: 08/01/21)(ep 13, 15/01/21).  “The Great British Sewing Bee”, (S6, ep 6, TX: 27/05/20)(ep 7, TX: 03/06/20)(ep 8, 10/06/20)(ep 9, TX: 17/06/20)(ep 10, TX: 24/06/20).  “The Leg Of The Year: 2020”, (TX: 31/12/20).  “The Pembrokeshire Murders”, (S1, ep 1 to ep 3).  “The Royle Family”, (S1, ep 1 to ep 4).  “The Tomorrow People”, (S2, Story 3: The Doomsday Men, (ep 4, The Shuttlecock, TX: 06/05/74).  “The Vicar Of Dibley: Crimbum Speicals 2004”, (1: Merry Crimbum, TX: 25/12/04)(2: Happy New Year, TX 01/01/05).  “The Vicar Of Dibley: Crimbum Speicals 2006”, (1: The Handsome Stranger, TX: 25/12/06)(2: The Vicar In White, TX: 01/01/07).  “Uncle Vanya”, (2020).  “War Of The Worlds”, (2005).  “Z Nation”, (S2, ep 8 & ep 9).                                       

Gerry Anderson Watched This Week:

“Space 1999”, (S2, ep 4, TX: 25/09/76).

“UFO”, (S1, ep 23, TX: 24/07/71).

This week I have mainly been listening to:  

“A Legitimate Salvage (The Expanse)”, (ep 7, 23/09/19).  “Betamax Video Club”, (ep 5, 16/11/17).  “Coronavirus Global Daily Update”, (BBC World Service) (09/01/21) (10/01/21) (11/01/21) (12/01/21) (13/01/21) (14/01/21)(15/01/21).  “CNN, Coronavirus: Fact Vs Fiction”, (ep 217, 11/01/21)(ep 218, 12/01/21)(ep 219, 13/01/21)(ep 220, 14/01/21)(ep 221, 15/01/21).  “Daddy Look At Me”, (S4, ep 10, 14/01/21).  “Doctor Who”, (TeeVee)”, (S8, ep 12, 09/11/14).  “Game Of Thrones”, (TeeVee)”, (S4, ep 9, 09/06/14).  “Game Of Thrones: Rewind”, (TeeVee)”, (S1, ep 6, 10/09/18).  “Grounded With Louis Theroux”, (BBC Radio 4)(S2, ep 7, 11/01/21).  “I Don’t Believe It’s Not Buddha”, (S1, ep 18, 13/01/21).  “NASA: Houston We Have A  Podcast”, (ep 178, 15/01/21).  “Nick Abbot (Whole Show)”, (09/01/21)(10/01/21)(15/01/21).  “Star Trek Discovery”, (TeeVee)”, (S1, ep 11, 15/01/18) (ep 12, 22/01/18).  “Sue Perkins And Hour Or So With”, (S3, ep 7, 13/01/21).  “Stargate SG-1”, (TeeVee)(29/11/20).  “The All New Agelos And Barry Podcast”, (15/01/21).  “The Audio Guide To Babylon 5”, (S1, ep 7, 10/08/14).  “The Nick Abbot Habit”, (11/01/21).  “The Skewer”, (BBC Radio 4)(S3, ep 1, 13/01/21).  “Toby Hadoke’s Happy Times And Places – “The Ribos Operation”, (7.4, 11/01/21).  “Toby Hadoke’s Happy Times And Places – Indefinable Magic”, (1.3, 15/01/21).  “The Space Boffins Podcast”, (13/01/21).  “What’s Your Problem With Nick Abbot And Carol McGiffin”, (S1, ep 49, 11/01/21).  “Wolf And Owl”, (S1, ep 7, 13/01/21).  “Morrissey”,  “Suede”, “Echobelly”,  “Shed Seven”,  “Yeah Yeah Yeahs”,  “David Bowie”,  “Manic Street Preachers”, “Fun Boy Three”,  “Oasis”,  “Razorlight”,  “Jake Bug”.