Fixed MacBook

As I've mentioned in an earlier post, my MacBook Air has been playing up for the past few days. I couldn't get the Safari browser to open and eventually the whole laptop seemed to freeze up. I had taken it into the Apple store in Midsummer Place in Milton Keynes and it seemed as if it was solved by one of the staff members, but by the evening of Thursday it was playing up again. To say I was annoyed would be an understatement. As I had to phone to get the appointment and then go in, park the car and then walk into the shopping centre, it didn't please me to have to go through the whole process yet again. I rang after 9.30 this morning, having discovered, when I rang at 9 o'clock, that they didn't open up until gone 9.30. When I eventually got through I was speaking to this lovely lady from Apple Care. I had given the serial number of the machine and she talked me through what was likely to be wrong and it appeared that I didn't have the latest up-date of the operating system. Mojave. I had the earlier version. I had attempted to download the latest update, but each time I attempted it I kept getting a message which told me I didn't have enough space on the machine. This lovely lady showed me how to remove unnecessary files and software to make space which would all0w the upgrade to take place. I found I had loads of podcasts which were taking up a lot of space and then I was able to download version 10.14.4 of MacOS Mojave, which took around 30-45 minutes and once the machine was restarted, everything functioned perfectly and Safari worked as it should, although it now appears in the Dock at the right-hand side, where previously it was at the left. So, all present and correct. I has taught me, if anything else, that it's advisable to keep removing unnecessary files from your computer.

Having dealt with my MacBook, I decided to have a bath this evening. I usually listen to Classic FM when I'm in the bath. Nothing beats a good soak in a really hot bath. Why anyone thinks a shower is a substitute for a proper, old fashioned bath I can't think. Anyway, I'm a classical music fan. But Classic FM spoils things with their awful adverts. I know that it's funded by advertising, but do they have to be so dumb? The worst thing is having a sort of bunch of them running up to the hour, something like 5 minutes of mindless pap. The worst of those for P.P.I. 'Doris from London didn't thin she had P.P.I. . .' Well, Doris, where were you when the brain cells were handed out? Why didn't you think to keep the paperwork? Well, just text '1234' and the words 'Idiot' and you could have the dulcet tones of some person working in an overcrowded call centre bothering you. They can do the search for you, and if you get you money returned, they'll take their vast percentage for doing the work for you. Now they're telling me and all Classic FM's other listeners that you can claim back thousands if you were mis-sold an investment. But, please, if you invest in stocks and shares, they have a habit of going down in value as well as up, so it's your silly fault if you don't make a million from your aunty Dotty's money you got left in her will. Silly you. All these adverts get in th way of the music, which I generally love. In the end I just turn the radio off. In the case of listening in the bath, I connect my iPhone to a bluetooth speaker, using the Classic FM app. It works really well. The speaker came from Sainsbury's and is a Boombar.

Annoying Cold Calls

It's a sunny and bright day. Mid-morning my mobile rang. It's not usual to get a phone call on it, unless it one of those calls to tell me I can claim P.P.I. They can be very insistent and don't intend letting you go, even if you tell them you've never had a loan or whatever to have paid anything of this nature. They hang on like a proverbial terrier with a rat. I have to slam down the receiver to get rid of the caller. Anyway, on this particular occasion it's not one of those sorts of call, but it's a lady wanting to speak to Carol. It's actually Churchill Hospital in Oxford, to say they've been discussing her notes and to make an appointment with a consultant regarding her treatment and radiotherapy. It's made for Friday morning, so we've been looking at car parking and using the 'park and ride' bus service which should make getting to the hospital far easier than going directly to the hospital as the parking there is going to be difficult otherwise.

Thinking of those people who ring me expecting me to say 'yes I had P.P.I.' First of all, I'm keen to know where they got my mobile phone number. And not only that number, but also our landline number. I have registered with the Telephone Preference Service (T.P.S)  which means that we shouldn't get any of these unsolicited telephone calls. So, whey bother to register with the service if our numbers are still being rung for this sort of thing? Just a waste of time bothering with it. I don't give my mobile number out very often. Infact, very few people have it. Which makes this whole 'cold calling' thing so aggravating.

What annoys me most is that these calls come when you're settled down to do something, like watch a television programme you want to see, or you're about to start a meal or anything. The worst are those 'silent' calls, which means you pick up the phone and nobody answers and you just get . . . silence! What on earth is the point of them? Just a waste of time and effort and really crazy. What one EARTH is the point of them anyway? Has anyone got an idea??

Another Annoying and Totally Pointless Phone call

I have now got a new mobile. We bought a Samsung Galaxy just over a year ago. A smart phone. I have never had one before, always having a fairly basic model, but it seemed a reasonably good idea to 'upgrade' to a mobile which meant you can have 'apps' on it, are able to get onto the internet etc etc. So we got a fairly basic model from Sainsbury's and went with a 'sim' card which you put into the mobile yourself, which is great, it means you can change your provider when you want and aren't tied to one particular company. It is an 02 sim and you have a 'bundle' of minutes and data for £10 a month (I'm not exactly sure what amount of data it has or the number of minutes for 'talking.' It's strange that it's referred to as a telephone, but most people seem to use these devices more for texting, going on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc etc than using the thing to actually speak to someone. But the Samsung Galaxy wasn't up to much, unfortunately. It didn't have nearly enough memory (0r whatever.) to allow you to have a whole selection of downloadable 'apps' on it. When we joined the A.A. a year or two back, after we broke down on the M1 when we came back from visiting Calke Abbey, we found that you could have an insurance policy, through the A.A., which meant, if you broke down you would not only get rescued by the A.A. (which they have always done since time immemorial; what the organisation was set up to do.) but also, with a reasonable monthly payment, you could have your car repaired, free, up to the value of £500. Which seemed reasonable. Considering the cost of car repairs and the fact that we broke down when we were up in Newcastle-On-Tyne around two years ago, when we went to move Daniel from one flat to another when he was at university there. And it was around a week later that we broke down- again- this time, as I mentioned earlier- on the return journey from visiting Calke Abbey. It was somewhat traumatic, to say the least. Standing and waiting to be rescued, within the area where there were roadworks going on. We had a free rescue and were then deposited in a layby just off the  Motorway, somewhere near Daventry, or was it Northampton? We were with Swinton Insurance and had additional breakdown cover with them, so they came and took us the rest of the way home. (All this mentioned in an earlier blog post on here.) What I am attempting to say, in a very long-winded and roundabout way, is, that, with the A.A. you can have an 'app' on your phone, which you use when necessary, if you break down, as it will show the service where you are exactly. No doubt using some sort of G.P.S. technology, which is good, because when you breakdown (which, in around 45 years of driving has only happened i think, perhaps twice.) you never always know exactly where you are, in order to let the rescue service find you.

Taking an age to get to the point of this post, but it's coming up in the next bit. I needed to explain the 'how's and why's of things before I got to the main point. A sort of Ronnie Corbett, monologue-moment. If you don't know what I'm on about, just Google 'Two Ronnies' comedy monologue or something.

So, we decided to upgrade the mobile again, this time with an iPhone. Not the latest, an iPhone 5. It has a good deal more reliable and has a good deal more memory than the Samsung has.

I have removed the sim card from the Samsung and put it in the iPhone. I notice that it's easier to get at the sim card as Apple see fit to make this simpler by having a little drawer at the side of the phone which you gain access to by the use of a little metal device, little more than a glorified paper clip. But if you have to remove the sim card from the Samsung you have to remove the back of the phone and then it's not that easy to find where the sim is. I discovered this by going on Google and finding a handy video on YouTube.

Well, no sooner had I got the thing up-and-running (not managing to get the passwords for various apps to work, but that's a completely other story.) I had several phone calls during the afternoon. One just rang and rang and I didn't bother to answer because they're usually just for P.P.I. or at least they don't sound too genuine. Telling me my computer needs up-grading and they're from the Microsoft office or something. Which is crazy, as this is a Macintosh and doesn't use Microsoft software. So they are more than likely just a scam, eager to get into my computer and all manner of nasty things. I saw that I had two calls from Liverpool, I don't know from whom, but they didn't ring for long enough to allow me to reach the phone to answer. Crazy, as it takes long enough if I don't have the mobile within arms length in order to pick the thing up before it rang off. But this afternoon I decided to ring back. I got a bit of music, the Minute Waltz, the music they use on the Radio 4 show 'Just A Minute.' I eventually got an answer, and it was about the accident we had a couple of years ago, when we went to Ascott, the National Trust property outside Leighton Buzzard, and when we drove home we bumped the car into a pot-hole which set the alarm off, something to do with keeping the car on track, I don't know how it worked exactly. But these insurance people think I was injured as a passenger, which I wasn't. I think it's just a crafty way to get people to claim thousands of pounds of compensation so that they can get commission out of it. I was not injured and just wish they'd stop ringing about this incident. 

Annoying Phone Calls

I'm sitting at home, either writing or attempting to write, or I'm reading or watching television. The telephone rings. As it is, we don't get many telephone calls. I go to answer it. Sometimes there's nobody on the end of the line. I say 'hello' or 'yes' when I answer, but when it's just nothing, or if it is anything, it's just a strange electrical 'burr' noise or a sort of humming sound. What is the point? If it's a cold call, for P.P.I. (payment protection insurance. They will say you could be owed thousands of pounds. But that's another story.) Or they say that your Windows computer is at risk. It needs up-dating or something. Which is crazy as this is a Macintosh. They will speak in an incoherent foreign accent and say they're from the Microsoft something-or-other. Which I know full well is a lie. It's a scam. I do watch television consumer programmes which often mention such scams. They think you'll hand over your bank details and believe every word they say. I'm not that stupid, thanks all the same.

The other week I got a telephone call telling me I could claim thousands of pounds for an injury I received after our car accident. I tell them I haven't had a car accident. They say we put in an insurance claim for the damage that was done to the car when we ran into a pot-hole almost exactly a year ago. I say that was correct. I just don't like this and ask how on earth they got our details. It must have been passed on to another 'body' who are little more than sort of ambulance-chasers. I wasn't injured in the incident with the pot-hole. It set off an alarm in the car which had something to do with the E.S.P. (Electronic Stability Programme) and we didn't get repaired for a long time because it was going to cost £350 for the excess on the insurance. Anyway, they said to me that I could claim quite a hefty amount, well in excess of £1000. As I was a passenger in the car. I told them I didn't receive any sort of injury. Perhaps it was rather a nasty jolt, but I wasn't hurt in any way. Did I need any sort of treatment? Did I take paracetamol or any other medication for my injury? Up to six weeks or more after the accident? I told them, no, I didn't. I wasn't convinced that this was real, I was concerned that the whole thing was a scam, so they said they'd ring back to confirm this. They continued to attempt to get me to virtually lie so I could claim the compensation I was owed. But I wasn't convinced. I had most definitely had not been injured during the incident (I wouldn't call it an 'accident' as no other vehicle was involved. The car was damaged and we eventually got the thing repaired, which was back in November.) I wouldn't lie to get any sort of compensation as I wasn't injured. So I wound up the conversation and ended the call. I am now more than ever convinced that they wanted me to tell a lie and get the money so that someone got a cut of the insurance claim, possibly a solicitor or other legal institution. If that is really the case, it's disgraceful that there are people 'out there' who are quite happy to let people lie for them just so they can line their own pockets. In the end all it is doing is putting the cost of insurance premiums up quite considerably.

On a slightly different subject, the MacBook Air has decided to open. Why on earth it has been playing silly games with me I have no idea. I think it may be something to do with the battery, but I'm not sure. It does seem to get quite hot as it charges. This means that I can get on with transferring my writing to word processing. I have learnt to keep saving what I've written onto the external hard drive which I have. I'm not going to loose all that work because of some sort of technical glitch.