| When | Mood | Music |
| 2008-04-26 16:47:00 | tired | The Tide Is Turning (After Live Aid) – Roger Waters |
Sorry there’s been a delay in posting this – I’ve been out of the country – but there is good news. On the 15th of April, dad sent me the following text:
Axis have backed down. No severance charge & incorrect charges to be credited to my account.
Huge thanks to folks out there for advice and encouragement.
I’m currently in Worcester, taking a break from working through the following tasks:
| task | status | notes |
|---|---|---|
| Arrive | I’m here from the neck down. | My flight was due to take off at 20:20 last night and fly directly to Birmingham, landing at 21:30. Instead, it took off late, carrying a bunch of pissed-up welsh party-goers. It turns out that the plane that should have taken them from Edinburgh to Cardiff was stuck in Düsseldorf and taking them with us Brum-bound folk was the only way the inebriated ones could be returned to the principality without an air-crew doing more than the legal maximum. I was far from impressed by the steward not asking the merry sheep-shaggers sat next to the over-wing escape doors to move. In fact, she entrusted these goons with the task of operating these emergency doors. Visions of the doors being opened in mid-air ensued.
We landed in Cardiff at just before 10. Further checks and delays prevented us from departing for Birmingham until 11. This flight was blissfully short. However, we sat on the plane for about 15 m inutes until someone could be arsed to find a ladder to let us off and a bus to take us to the arrivals hall. There then followed a hour’s drive to Worcester. Why didn’t I go by train? |
| Meet Sue’s financial advisor | done – ish | This meeting had originally been arranged for Monday 28th. However, the FA was told on Friday morning that he had to go on a course on Monday, so he had to rapidly rearrange his meetings. As a result of this and the late arrival last night, I’ve not been able tot do the research I wanted. Maybe later, when I have a braincell to call my own… |
| Help Sue use her ISA allowance sensibly | not yet | I still need to fully research current cash ISA rates –and what’s likely to happen to these rates.( At the moment, I trust share-based ISAs as far as I can spit the Humber bridge.) So far, the National Savings Direct ISA looks the best bet: just now it pays 5·3% at the moment and is guaranteed to stay above the base rate. It’s also directly backed by the government, a slightly bigger organisation than any UK-only investment company. |
| Sort dad’s Home Hub and BT Total broadband | It’s working. | He won’t change suppliers again! |
| Get Sue’s cheap and cheerful PC laptop to see the Home Hub wireless network via a cheap and nasty USB dongle. | Done | The problem appeared to be that while the the donghle’s software could detect the network, it didn’t believe it was allowed to connect to this network. Repeatedly telling it the network’s details eventually worked. |
| Backup Sue’s laptop | At concept stage | Just seen that 4GB memory sticks cost under £20. Sue has less than 2GB of data on her laptop. I think using a stick to copy her stuff to dad’s PC, when it can enter his <ahem> backup cycle could easily be enough. |
| Sort dad’s back-up system | At concept stage | He has an 80GB external FireWire HD. Half of it contains a snapshot of his data as of my last visit. (I’ve also burnt that to DVD.) The other half was doing a daily back-up thanks to introducing me to SyncToy. But it stopped working. Someone broke the firewire cable’s plug… |
| Loads of comms and personal administrivia | Horribly far behind | I’ve made one phone-call so far. This post is a sort of apology. |
Digital evidence that Bruce might have a life 