Life without technology

It’s been a frustrating fortnight. First of all there were the hours I spent, editing and formatting Tainted Tree. By the time I sent it to the printer, I’d played around with lines and line-spaces and bits in italics so much, I’d forgotten whether the story was any good. I hope it is. I have invested a great deal of my time and affection on this book. Only another couple of months before I find out how it’s received.

After I sent it off, I started playing catch-up with all the things I’d left undone. I want to send off some stories to a competition, but I haven’t got around to that yet. And there were some social trips - a lunch out with friends at a French restaurant near Guildford – always beautifully cooked food – always a treat. And a local opera – more of that later. But the dramatic loss of my computer was the matter which occupied my time. A couple of days after I’d sent off the PDF, I booted up. Having already received a confirmation from the printer that he’d received the text of Tainted Tree, I now heard that he’d got the cover design from Janice.

There was something wrong with the antivirus programme; it was showing a cross where there should have been a tick. I fiddled around with it, and finally did a Live Update. To download whatever new stuff was required, I was told to reboot. I did this and found to my horror, a blank screen, with a lonely cursor floating around on it. After trying all manner of things, I couldn’t reinstate Windows and I knew it was serious. I suspected it was a nasty virus, but assumed that the local computer shop would be able to clean it up. We took it in on the following day.

After a couple of days with the professionals, I was told my hard disk was dying. I could have had a new disk, but I thought it was time for an upgrade, so I now have a new computer. It took another three days before I got it, though. In the meantime, the computer company copied my data, and Tainted Tree is safe. But once I started doing office work, I found that M’s work had all reverted back to 2004. I wish I could boast that I back up my stuff every day of the week. The CD drive has long been playing up, and all I can say is that, after a fight with it, I had succeeded in copying data about three or four weeks ago. Retrieving the data from the back-up disk was something of a relief, but it didn’t help with the invoices I typed on 31st January, though. Stupidly, I’d sent them out, but left the printing of my paper copies to do later, and hadn’t got round to them. So the last couple of days, I’ve been ringing companies and asking them to fax back copies of my own invoices. I need the figures for the VAT return, due to be sent off before the end of February. As you can imagine, I need this sort of problem like the proverbial hole in the head.

I’ve also lost my email address book and all my emails. As I had about 2,000 of them, which I was deleting a few at a time, I suppose this is of benefit. In particular, it was as well to let go of the jokes which family members had sent me, and which I couldn’t bear to relinquish. However, losing the address book is frustrating. I was going to send out an advance warning of my launch party, to which my family will be invited. I’m trying to rebuild that, but it’s a slow process.

At last week’s meeting of Guildford Writers, I couldn’t write anything, but Jennifer was away and Irene had a sore throat, and I took the chair, so my presence wasn’t wasted.

Then there was the very enjoyable trip to an opera – The Bohemian Girl. I’d not heard of the composer, whose name I’ve now forgotten again, but I recognised the song, 'I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls'. Someone will remind me, I’m sure. M’s cousin is a fan of the composer and this is the 200th anniversary of his birth - the composer, not M's cousin. Consequently, our cousin arranged for a party of us to go – ten in all – and we had high tea – much recommended - at the Winterton Arms in Chiddingfold beforehand. We much enjoyed it all - the tea and also the opera - the singing, the orchestration and the sets. Coincidentally, Anne’s other half had some connection with this production, which you may have read up on her blog.

Tonight, there’s a meeting of Goldenford and we’ll be discussing the launch of Anne’s novel, Thorn in the Flesh, tomorrow. This is our seventh book and is highly recommended. Read all about it and order your copy from the Goldenford site.