ALMOST THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN...

I know.  I know. I have been gone weeks!  I am sorry.  I did not forget you, I promise.  But OMG have I had problems!!!!   Remember I said the laptop needed repairing because the cursor kept doing a tango across the page regardless of what word I was writing?  Well I found this kindly PC Doctor in Croydon who admitted the laptop for a couple of nights, performed miracles and then called to say I could pick the little darling up.  And I did.  And he only charged £45!  AND the repair is guaranteed for three months; so I came home a happy bunny, reunited with my baby aka my creative partner.  A couple of nights later, Steve and I went online and ordered two tickets for next year's tour of Jeff Wayne's WAR OF THE WORLDS (brilliant show; you simply must go and see it) and I was so relieved to be able to go online and do it having been laptop-less for a while.  Then the next night I went back and tried to go online - hey-up - no connection.  I figured this was perhaps a belated reaction to being disconnected for a few days so duly rang BT - who we have our landline with - who ran a few checks and told me I needed to ring our broadband provider - Sky.  So I did.  Sky ran a few checks.  They said it was a BT fault, so I rang BT again.  They insisted it was a Sky fault - and that was pretty much how it went for the next five days.  Finally I spoke to the lovely Leanne at Sky.  She did wonders, taking up arms (metaphjorically speaking)on my behalf against BT who finally agreed there was a fault which was down to them, which they rectified in one five minute twirl of an engineers's screwdriver.  Leanne then was finally able to run all checks and tests and lo and behold, we were back in business!  But ten whole days had gone by where we were laptop-less again!  Anyway - all's well that end's well as Shakespeare said and here I am.  Back in the driving seat and ready to rock and roll.

So how are your Christmas preps going?  We took five of our six grandchildren to see a lovely Christmas show at Fairfield Halls last Saturday where they all got to meet Santa, and I have spent every evening the last two weeks wrapping presents, and our tree is up and sparkling beautifully, so I think we are almost there.  Oh - and the Great Study Swap is done.  It is amazing to have some space  in which to work again.  I have got some BIG plans for next year which I will tell you all about next time.  Oh yes - and I am going to try and get onto this blog at least every two to three days so I will see you again soon ...