Month: June 2013

Just a brief note

/ Tony / Leave a comment

    Just thought I would mention this. The last post was created in word 2013 and then edited in WordPress. For the past, I don’t know how many years, I have written my blog posts in Microsoft Live Writer. This free piece of software came with Windows Live Essentials, and for the most part has been my ideal blogging software. Recently, however, I have been experiencing problems with some of the software extensions. More specifically the ‘Tag Creator’, which quite often crashes Live Writer and corrupts the draft.

    I have tried other blog writing software, but none of them have lived up to the standard that Live Writer offers. I understand now, the Live Writer is no longer developed\supported by Microsoft, hence the use of Word 2013. I just need to discover how I can add tags within Word, instead of having to post as draft then edit online.

Just another Sunday …

/ Tony / Leave a comment

     Yesterday was different. It was an ‘open day’ at R***’s college and we had been invited, and of course Mrs H said we would. The problem we believed would present itself, would be that R*** would not want to go, and we would have major problems with him. In fact, I was quite prepared to say, if needed, that Mrs H should go, and I would stay behind with R***. Just to prove us both wrong, when Mrs H told him that we were going out, he of course said ‘No out!!’, which we have come to expect, but after that, nothing. He got into the car without any fuss, and only mentioned it again, when we got near the college and he recognised the area.

     One of the things he does at this college, is woodwork, and he has made a couple of bird houses and a bird feeder. I was determined to try and talk to the person he works with, and find out how he is doing. All the reports that have come back, tell us that he has found something that he is good at and enjoys, other than the computer. The trainer/tutor/carer (not really sure as to what we call them) explained that R*** seemed to have a talent for woodwork, and they are able to work together very well. He then called R*** over and got him to show us what he can do. It was quite amazing to watch him sawing away, without any prompting or any fuss or upset at all.

     We were there about two and a half hours (two hours more than I expected) and the only disappointment was that the staff that work with him every day were not there. We have met them before, but we both thought that they would have been there.

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On the work front, there is no more news on the forthcoming review. My line manager is pushing me to do thing that I’m not sure about, with the idea that, I’ll get the next available grade up from the one I’m at now. And it is that which I’m not too sure about! All I want is to ensure that I don’t lose out financially. If another grade comes with a huge amount of extra responsibility, then I have worries. My manager tells me it is a confidence rather than a skills issue and I do agree with her on that. I suppose the extra money would be useful, and so I will just have to wait and see what happens.

Bit of rant and a bit of a moan.

/ Tony / Leave a comment

So it’s Fathers Day!  What does that mean. Well is supposed to compliment Mothers Day, but basically, it’s just another Americanism that seems to have embedded itself into British culture. It you want a history about it see this link. I don’t like these ‘special’ days, that just seem  to be a money spinning scam for card retails both online and offline (funny how we now call shops, “offline” and not shops.) It annoys me how advertisers try to make you feel guilty for not celebrating this and similar days. Well my father died some time back, and as good as they claim to be, I bet even Moonpig.com can’t deliver one of their personalised cards to where he has gone to.

Now for the moan. I have a portable hard drive, that until yesterday, was where I was  keeping my Classic films. I say, until yesterday, because at around 22:45 last night, I decided to move them to my main laptop hard drive. Not such a difficult job and I have an applicaman-pulling-his-hair-out-300x138tion that does just that. Only problem was, that instead of moving them, it deleted them. I spent a good hour or so, searching my hard drive for sign of the files, but alas they were gone. However, I have in my software armoury, a program that will recover files that have been deleted, if it is done quite quickly afterwards. The software is called  Recuva and is part a group of very useful free tools available from a software company called Piriform. All are free for home use, and no serious computer user should be without them. Forgive me if I am sounding like a complete Geek, but sometimes specialised tools are needed and it is useful to have them on board from the start.

It’s been a while….

/ Tony / 2 Comments

     The title of this post says it all really….. it has been a while since my last post. But I’ve not had a lot to say !!! Well not anything that may be described as interesting. Work is still the same … no more news on the review/restructure. Still the usual issues with R***, the youngest. Oh, but wait a minute. I almost forgot ….. S****, the eldest lad has got a new girlfriend. And this time, they are both giving out the ‘hey guys, this is a serious relationship’ signals !!!! No, all joking apart, they’ve been together about a month, that we know about, and they seem very very happy. We have met her parents, even been for a meal together, which was quite a pleasant evening. It is so serious, that the grandmothers have met !!!! Need I say more !!

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     Now, about this blog. I am struggling at time to think of something to write about. I have no specialist knowledge that I can pass on, so it is basically a random record of my life. Now, I’m not sure if that is enough to blog about. For the majority of the time, it follows the same pattern ….

  1. I wake up
  2. I go to work
  3. I come home
  4. I have dinner
  5. We cope with R***
  6. We go to bed
  7. We sleep with one eye and one ear open
  8. Goto item 1.

And that for the main part is it. Exciting what !!

     At this moment in time, I am sat here, with a glass of Brandy, waiting for R*** to settle, and S**** to get in from the pub. I feel absolutely buggered and I’m up at six in the morning to start the whole shebang again. What a life !!!! Tell you what though ….. would not have it any other way !!! (Note to self…. stop bloody moaning then…)