Friday 8 April 2011

All Change!

I have finally succumbed and bought a new mobile phone. My dear old Nokia used to make calls, take photos and send texts – what more could I want? Okay so I dropped it a few times and once or twice drove off the drive with it on the bonnet and sent it flying across the road.

I used to do that with my purse – I’d put it on the bonnet while I got the kids into the car and I’d be driving merrily along the by-pass when one of them would point it out to me – “Don’t take your eyes off it!” I’d shriek as if they could hold it in place with eye power until I could safely pull over and rescue it.

Occasionally a kindly sharp-eyed neighbour would be waiting for me when I got home, “This flew off your car as you drove off,” he’d say handing my purse back to me.

And yes, I’ve driven home from the shops with a bag of shopping on the roof. Once.

Back to my phone. The rubber bit protecting one of the lights peeled off and there was a large crack in the case which used to catch on my clothes. And sometimes it went silent on me and refused to ring, but I am fond of that old phone. It’s been all over the place with me and it has brought me a lot of happy news.

I dreaded getting a new one. But I love my new phone already. It’s easy to navigate round and best of all, when it beeps for a message, it doesn’t send Tilly into a panic. For some reason when my other phone used to receive a message, she’d leap up, run from the room and hide. In the end I had to have my message alert on the quietest setting possible.

It may be because the beep used to mean I’d have to rush off somewhere to pick someone up and perhaps she associated it with me leaving. Who knows what goes on in that funny little head of hers.

When I get a message on the new one, she doesn’t even bat her eyes.

The phone isn’t the only thing that’s being replaced. My computer has been playing up as you’ve probably gathered from previous moanings!

One of the fans packed in. It was replaced and the replacement was just as ineffective so the broken one was oiled and put back and every morning it has to be opened up and started with the help of a screwdriver – all very technical - like the prop on an old plane.

Then a second broken down fan had to be replaced and a third sounds as if it’s on its last legs. The computer rattles and clanks and at least once a day it has to be restarted because everything freezes.

I am quite fond of it – it was my eldest son’s Alienware computer and has a smart black shiny case and a silver alien head on the door and blue lights shining from within, but I think it has had its day.

So begins the task of finding a replacement.

My first computer was an Amstrad and over the years since then I’ve had several, mostly inherited or that have been cobbled together with bits and pieces.

This will be the first new computer I’ve had for yonks and I want one of those flashy see through ones with lights inside. But what you want and what you get are two different things I’ve found.

I just hope this one lasts until I can get a replacement! It’s not so much the new computer I fear as the new software I’ll be forced to use. But if it all turns out to be as easy as the phone I’ll be quite happy.

At the moment I am very happy - I can put paragraphs in my posts again - yay!

38 comments:

  1. Ohh good luck on the PC hunting! Caroline x p.s sorry to be cheeky here but I do find the blue colour on your blog hard to read - I have to take my glasses off and peer at it with my nose pressed to the screen - not a pretty sight and the DH has just given me a funny look! I'm not sure if I'm the only one. If I am then it's *my* pc! Sorry!

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  2. Thanks Caroline! I'm glad you said - I've been thinking about changing the blog so you've given me a good excuse. Is this better? I think it is!

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  3. Very best of luck with the hunt for a new PC, Teresa, and I'm glad the phone has worked out well for you. I always think I should look forward to new gadgets, but I worry that I won't feel as at home with them as I do with the old, worn-out ones.
    I once drove off with my handbag on the roof of the car, but luckily it was rescued and returned to me intact. The finder was very concerned that I'd mind her rummaging through it to find our address!
    And my mother once drove off from our house all the way home to Dorset, sixty-five miles away, with a pigeon in her car radiator. She'd almost hit it as she left here, but I (mistakenly) assured her it had flown off at the last moment and was completely fine. She cleaned her car the next day and thought she heard a strange noise. And there it was! A bit scared and scorched, but fine. It was a homing pigeon and tagged with all its details. So she kept it in a box in the garage until it was collected by the grateful owner from miles and miles away.

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  4. Reassuring to know I'm not alone, Joanna!
    Blimey - the pigeon! Amazing it survived!

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  5. I drove off with my baby son's new shoes on the bonnet of the car (we were very hard up at the time). One was retrieved, but not the other. I think I'd have preferred to have lost both.

    And my eldest son drove nearly all the way from Reigate to Kingston one Christmas morning with a plate of ssmoked salmon on the roof of the car. It survived. It seems that driving around with objects on car roofs and bonnets is quite common!

    Good luck with the bew computer, Teresa. I hope it's very easy to understand!

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  6. I hate changing anything electronic as it's such hard work getting used to the new one. Having said that I was forced into a new phone recently and I now love it and don't feel quite such a luddite.

    Good luck with the PC hunt.

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  7. Purse, shoes, handbag, 'phone, any one of those I can understand being on the roof of a car. But a plate of smoked salmon? Frances, you have me intrigued! You'll have to write it up as a short story.

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  8. Jacula, it would be a very short story indeed. Buut here it is anyway:

    Son sets off for family Christmas. Places smoked salmon (temporarily) on roof of car while he straps in wife, kids, parcels, general impedimenta, forgets smoked salmon, gets in and drives off. Voila!

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  9. Get a MAC and it will be easy.

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  10. Oh Frances - the shoes! As for the salmon, your son must be a very smooth driver for it to stay put all that way.

    It is just the business of getting used to it isn't it, Bernadette. Things seem to change at an alarming pace.

    I've seen others driving round with bags of shopping on their cars, Jacula. I wonder what the most interesting thing anyone has seen on a car roof is!

    My friend who has a MAC says the same thing rodgriff - I'm tempted.

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  11. Hi Teresa,
    Hope you get your p.c. problems sorted out. We once put the cups to our flask on the roof, and drove off. We just heard the clatter, and saw them flying off over a hedge, so we left them.

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  12. Ohhhh this is tons better Teresa! Hope you didn't mind me saying...Caroline x ;)

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  13. Thanks Suzy - ah flying cups, makes a change from flying saucers ;-)

    I didn't mind at all, Caroline - thank you for telling me. I prefer this new look x

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  14. Isn't that funny about your dog jumping on your phone and then running off. I wonder if Tilly could pick up a different sound as they hear things out of range of humans don't they?

    Good luck with the computer hunting. There are so many out there to chose from!

    Julie xx

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  15. LOL Hilarious post Teresa! May your bag always stay put on moving vehicles.

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  16. Not the same as leaving something on the bonnet but - my brother-in-law once drove away from his caravan with the TV power lead still attached to the car battery. The TV made it halfway out of the window before the lead snapped.

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  17. I've had such a laugh reading your posts and all the comments, Teresa! Visions of phones, purses, pigeons, babies' shoes, plates of smoked salmon flying off people's cars ... you couldn't make it up! (Well, actually I guess we all could, couldn't we!)

    Have you gone for an all-singing-all-dancing internet-phone this time? I only use my mobile for (mainly) texting and (occasionally) calling, but I have been intrigued by watching the daughters getting on-line on their phones when we're out: quite useful at times. But I'm also nervous of the idea - could I cope?!

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  18. We'd wondered that, Julie - if the phone gave off some kind of high frequency noise she didn't like. Never bothered Indy though - but not a lot bothers him!

    Thanks Lacey. I usually forget to take things with me now which sort of solves one problem but presents me with others!

    That's priceless, Keith - I hope you're going to use that in a story!

    Yes I can use the internet on it, Olivia, but I haven't been on there much - too scared of what it's costing me! I didn't go for a touch screen though - maybe next time!

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  19. We drove several miles with one set of car keys still in the lock of the passenger door. A kind lady flagged us down and told us, saying she was worried we'd go over a bump, the keys would fall out and we'd end up with a huge bill to replace them. People are really very nice sometimes.

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  20. As I don't drive, I can't contribute to the objects on cars topics, but phones and computers, well... My trusty laptop is in laptop hospital, I'm typing on a cheapie bought on Ebay which has a smaller keyboard so my dingers miss ell the wuds, and I bought two new phones, hated them both and am still using my old one which has sticking letters so texting is a nightmare. But I love it, it's tiny enough to stick in a pocket and I don't want internet on my phone, anyway. And it fits my sparkly Tinnger phone case!

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  21. Glad to hear you've made friends with your new mobile, and Tilly likes it too!
    Alienware laptops look so cool, my son would be envious, even if it does sound like it's getting on a bit! Good luck for your next pc purchase!

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  22. Hope your trusty laptop is soon recovered, hydra. I use a laptop (another thing I've inherited) occasionally and I find changing from my PC keyboard to the laptop one causes no end of mistakes!

    Thank you penandpaints. I must do something soon - it has started to throw me out of Word now and that is scary!

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  23. I had a great picture of Tilly reacting to your old phone beep, Teresa! Good luck with your new PC hunting.

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  24. THanks Rosemary. Tilly is a funny little thing - complicated doesn't even begin to describe her. Wouldn't change her for the world though - even when I wake up to find her sitting on my head in the middle of the night because there's a thunderstorm :-)

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  25. We'd just got engaged and one of my Christmas presents was a smart new umbrella. You've guessed it - top of car, never to be seen again!! I've just inherited my husband's computer and it's brilliant. Quiet (the other one rattled all the time),it kept blue screening and dumping, so infuriating if you were in the middle of something. It's well worth the change and it's not been difficult at all to get used to it. I just backed everything up and then transferred it to my 'new' computer. Good luck. Love the new look Blog. It is easier to read. x

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  26. Seems like we've all driven off with something on top of the car. In my case, years ago, it was my little son's favourite teddy - Killarney Bear (green with a shamrock on his tummy).

    Several years later, Killarney Bear turned up on the toys stall at the school fete, and we bought him back for 50p. (Well ok, you and I know it probably wasn't the same bear, but my son believed it was!)

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  27. Aw, Sue isn't that always the way - it would have to be a brand new one - it wouldn't have happened to a tatty old brolly would it!
    I dream of a quiet computer - I'm very almost nearly getting excited at the prospect!
    Glad you like the new look - thanks to Caroline for that :-)

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  28. Now that's what I call a happy ending Womag!

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  29. I am a man of high hopes and low tech myself. I depend on the wisdom of friends to guide me into tech purchases ... and internet research.

    We do get fond of our tech tools. I call my computer Xena! She as feisty at times as that warrior princess, too.

    Thank you for posting my contest on your sidebar. You've been entered into it as well. Great luck with it. Roland

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  30. Me too, Roland - I wouldn't know where to start if I didn't have help.
    It's a pleasure to have your link here!

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  31. Maybe you need some of those monster wheels on your car so you can't reach to put anything on the roof?

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  32. A monster truck, Patsy - now you're talking. I can just see me bouncing off down to Morrisons in one of those!

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  33. I got a new 3G phone a few months back and it is brilliant. I can read and send emails and check friends blogs while I'm standing by my washing machine waiting for the washing to finish, or standing in the kitchen waiting for pots to boil. It gives me more lovely time to write when I actually get to open my laptop!

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  34. That is a very good point, gaelikaa. It's all too easy to be distracted with emails and so on the minute you sit down.
    I've tried commenting on your blog, but can't - probably something to do with my computer being so old and slow (a bit like me really!) - but I just want to say I enjoy your posts!

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  35. I still have my 12-year old mobil. It can make calls, send texts and has 'snake' on it - what more could anyone want? Although, it doesn't like the cold and tends to cut out when the temperature gets below zero.

    XX

    PS Glad it's not just me who drives off with things on the top of the car. xx

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  36. Gosh, sorry - I still have my 12-year-old MOBILE even.

    XX

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  37. OOh mine has snake on too, Suzanne - the old one that is. I haven't checked the games on the new one yet - or more honestly I haven't found them yet :-)

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