Good Call

When I was trying to wind up a phone conversation with David I said, "well, you could be the first to put the phone down..." which was promptly greeted with silence, so I pulled the phone away from my ear and and was about to hang up when I saw he was still on the line. Curious, I resumed speaking, saying something about how I thought he'd hung up. Simultaneously realising we were speaking on cell phones we both fumbled a few seconds for words to express the irony, but it was David who first managed to articulate: "We can't say, "put the phone down" (cos I tried that and I could still hear you), nor can we say "hang up" (cos they have nowhere to hang) they're such archaisms. I think the word we're looking for is "end call" (you know the red phone symbol button?)"

Right on Dubs, the modern way to end a call is to simply hit "end call".

Good computer

I backed up my computer today (for the first time in four years). It took all afternoon. I had no idea what I was doing and I still don't know if I did it right but I hope I won't ever need to find out.

Can not Compute

The format of file .sxw is not supported. The supported file formats are: htm, html, doc, pdf, rtf, txt, wpd. (and what exactly are these anyway? Dialects of a lanuage I do not understand! Translation anyone?)

I guess I should be thankful it tells me the correctly supportable file formats. I guess I have to change it somehow.

Um, so, I never learned all this computery type stuff at school. I just picked it up as I went along, which is why I have huge gaping abysses full of non-connections.

My primary school had one computer (it was in our classroom, but even though I had some coolness by association {we were in the same class together} I was in no way cool enough to touch it). At intermediate the second form classes each had a computer but it was only used as a reward (on the condition that we only used it to play "Wheel of Fortune").

When I was 15ish our family got a pc and I remember encarta'95 quite well. Memorised the encyclopaedia (the interesting bits anyway) maybe that's why I know odd bits and pieces about random things?

Got a hotmail account in my first year at uni. but I hardly ever used it -people just didn't comunicate by email much back then (if we wanted to be sure of getting someone we had to pick up the phone and ring them or leave an answerphone message). I only really got into the internet in my last year at uni doing a research project. And I bought my very own laptop with one of my first pays.

Just on a side note, I remember when I was about ten, thinking what the future would be like and imagining that everyone would have a little pager-like device to write little notes in and be able to communicate with other people and then there would be no more arguments or fights cos people wouldn't get lost and last minute changes of plans could be told to other family members and everyone would understand and not get crossed by accident. And it went without saying that in the future every car would have it's own phone in case you broke down and needed to ring for help..

So everything I know about computers I found out by myself. If I can't figure out how to do something, I just wait til the technology becomes easier to use. And if I can do it, anyone can.

Although I'm always paranoid that one day I'll just delete everything by accident or get a virus or somehow or other damage my computer beyond repair.

These Shoes Were Made For Walking

Time to shed some light on the dimness of my wit. I have new walking shoes, and for some reason thought it would be good to christen them with a three hour walk. Oh why?

Took the day off yesterday -just because I could, annual leave building up and all that. I felt I needed time to recharge and do some beholding. So off I went up to Victoria park, did the H.G.Ell walkway (goes from the Sign of the Takehe to the Sign of the Kiwi).

The wind was whipping a mighty gale through the pines or so it sounded. From there I took the loop tracks round Sugar Loaf Transmitter. Once I rounded the leeward side the wind dropped completely off and all seemed relatively silent despite the roadworks going on in Dyer's Pass.

Now I could fully appreciate the birdsong: the grey warblers were warbling, the skylarks were larking, the yellowhammers were hammering, the bellbirds were tolling, the slivereyes were silvereying nah? Well maybe that's a bit much. But it was lovely. All was harmonious. And yes, I did see all those birds plus: chaffinch, dunnocks and blackbirds. The grey warblers are a favourite of mine, like little mice with wings.

“What if someone's sitting on 'my' seat?” I thought, as I drew nearer to the stone seat with my picnic. But no one was, so I could enjoy the view over the harbour by myself. Just me and my lunch and my book.

As I was coming back down I heard an invasively loud droning like an aeroplane flying just overhead but it didn't recede. Then I looked up and saw the transmitter festooned with all it's dishes and realised it was just the wind. Walked a little further under the cliff and the sound went off, walked back a few meters and it was 'on' again. Sound goes on, sound goes off, sound goes on, sound goes off.

Which reminds me, does anyone know what the thing on top of the hill is? Not the actual transmitter but the huge round concrete thing? I saw it when I went off the path, I didn't go right up close to look and to be honest I probably shouldn't have been there at all. But just curious.

Coming back down, the wind was amazing, I'm sure my hair was actually standing on end (see photos). I had to lean in to it to get anywhere and I would've toppled over had it suddenly stopped. Yeah, it gave me a wind headache but it sure was worth it.

Then I came home and made pizza for tea. A topping finish to a brilliant day. And yes, my feet survived the breaking in of the new shoes without so much as a blister afterall. How nice.