Wednesday 10 January 2007

A Very Bad Start

How quickly another year seems to come around and in my case another year older, another year in debt is extremely apt. After a great New Year's Eve, when even I indulged in a little Karaoke, the following week was marred by misfortune.

I don't really know how, but as I lifted a cup of coffee my hand seemed to go limp and the contents went all over and inside my Sony laptop. It died extremely quickly and all attempts to dry it out and revive it came to nothing. I'd only just returned to work that day after suffering an upset stomach for almost a week ... possibly caused by some form of food poisoning. I do, after all, have a habit of eating things that have been kept in the fridge beyond their sell by dates so I guess it is my own fault. Was Parma Ham the culprit ... or was it the melon?

Getting back to the routine things I needed to do ... even writing this blog ... has been a major effort since Christmas and everything I planned to write over the festive break failed to happen for one reason or another. I loathe Christmas at home ... just Frances and I. It's okay if there are other people around because at least you can get more into the spirit of the occasion. Boxing Day was like that because we went to friends. Judging by the many people who have NOT sent us Christmas cards this season I suspect others are also tired of the commercial abuse of Christmas.

The crunch came yesterday evening. I was returning from the computer recovery place with CDs of the files they'd fortunately managed to salvage from the laptop when I hit a bump in the road and suddenly found that I had no gears in the Passat. I coasted to a lay-by where I waited over two hours in miserable weather for the breakdown vehicle to arrive to tow me. Today I have found out that my clutch more-or-less disintegrated ... cost over £750!

What a fine start to 2007.

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