We’ve Sprung Forward

Since my last post, we’ve sprung forward in a couple of ways. Firstly, we’ve seen the back of winter, and we’re now officially in spring. Secondly, the clocks have gone forwards an hour, and it’s now getting towards 8 pm before it gets dark.

The days seem mostly brighter overall, and we’ve had a few days where it’s been quite warm, with the temperatures into the low 60s.

The trees are full of blossom, and daffodils spring up along many roadside verges.Journey to Liverpool

Last week, I took a trip north to a Unite national transport combine meeting held in Liverpool. Banga drove up there, and it was a good journey each way, although I felt that the meeting was less than fruitful. It was a long day, leaving home at 5.30 am and not returning until 8.30 pm.

We did a quick pit stop in both directions. In the morning, it was coffee and bacon rolls.

Coming back in the evening, I had a surprisingly good Triple Bacon Cheeseburger at the motorway services in Warwickshire.

 

Shrimp SaladKathy’s birthday was on Saturday, but we couldn’t do much as we worked all day. I volunteered to do a day’s driving as We’re on leave next week, and the extra money always comes in handy on returning to work the week after. Mothers Day MenuWe had a lovely homemade shrimp salad and white wine dinner, which we both enjoyed.

After breakfast, we got ready and headed over to Cole Court for Mother’s Day Lunch on Sunday. It was tasty, with carrot soup to start, followed by Pork Belly and Crême Bruleé to finish.

After leaving there, we swung by Wetherspoons for a couple of pints and some snacks. We got home around 7.30 pm, full!

 

This Past Week

I’ve done a few things since last weekend. On Monday, I started with another call to EE to get our new watches sorted out. The data plan on them wasn’t working. They’re supposed to operate independently of the paired iPhone as they’re cellular.

After we corrected the plans, I thought the watches had been set up yesterday, but their technical department said it could take up to four hours to get the pairing done. Well, after eighteen hours, things still were not working. I called EE Tech support again and got a lady on the phone that doesn’t seem too sure of herself. She got confused with the phone numbers, and I wasn’t hopeful that we’d get the issue resolved.

I was wrong! After 45 minutes on the phone with her (most of which was taken up by the system updating), we got our plans sorted out on both of our phones, and we can now make calls from them as we did with our series five ones.

Bro. IAN MAYIn the afternoon, I met up with Michael Strongman and Roy Woods, and we took the Underground across to Southgate in North London for a Lodge Meeting. We took the Underground because both Roy and Michael felt it would be easier than driving across via the M25 or the North Circular. It was a third, which aren’t seen so often, and it was also the first one that I’ve seen. I got to meet some new brothers, which is always welcome. It was certainly worth the journey across town. We had a great festive board afterwards, too. The next meeting should be in April when we might have a double second. As I’m now an officer, I have to ensure that I’m up to speed with everything beforehand.

On the way home, I got a connection at Hounslow East right away, and I got home around 11.20 pm and went straight off to bed!

Tuesday, after work, was more masonic stuff as we held our regular Tuesday Lodge of Instruction at Cole Court. Another late evening for me! An online meeting took up Wednesday evening with Cranford Action Group. As I’m the chair and I also have Zoom software, that was my job for the evening. McMuffinThursday was another long meeting day at Union District Office for our quarterly Company Bus Conference. I grabbed a quick breakfast at McDonald’s first. Although I wouldn’t say I like their burgers, I don’t mind the sausage and egg muffins. Fullers ESBAfter the meeting finished, I headed to the Queen’s Head for a ber or two. Kathy met me after she finished work and we had something to eat. On Friday, after a day at work, I went straight home. We watched a movie called Castles In The Sky, which starred Eddie Izard cast as Robert Watson-Watt. He was one of the leading inventors of RADAR, which made such a positive contribution to the Battle of Britain in World War Two and continues to do so to the present day. Saturday was a day off, and I spent most of it at the computer, although I did call Sky about the current contract and work out if any decent deals were going forward. I took the plunge and ironed a bunch of my shirts, and put them away.

Sunday BreakfastSunday morning, I woke pretty late (for me), around 7.40 am, and I felt pretty drained. I got up, made some coffee, and went back to bed before getting up and making some breakfast.

After breakfast, I caught up on personal emails and planned the week. Going for a walk in the park was part of the planning for Sunday afternoon, but it depended on getting all the home tasks done first!

So that was a fairly average week, with a couple of non-regular extras thrown in. Some travel is on the horizon this coming week, so we’ll see how that goes!

 

 

 

 

 

Factory Reset

My seven-year-old Mac Mini has been running slower and slower of late. It had got to the point of making me wait just too long. Hanging and freezing is not a way I like to work. I didn’t think there was anything seriously wrong with the hardware (save that it’s rather old and somewhat slower than the new generation of these little boxes).

Anyway, On Saturday morning, I took the plunge. I already have most of my data on an external drive, so I can keep the 1TB fusion drive relatively free for the swapping that this only having 8GB of RAM demands these days. Oh, I remember when 8GB of RAM was the stuff of dreams, and not that long ago either!

I also have another 4GB external drive for Time Machine. On top of that, I use Backblaze for my remote backup solution. All in all, if something did go wrong with this exercise, I would still have the documents, diary entries, photographs and videos that I’ve amassed over the past couple of decades.

I did a final check for anything I might need in the future that was lurking in a corner. I had a few things on the desktop, so I moved them off and rebooted in recovery mode.

So far, so good, as I had not yet deleted anything. Then I started the process, erased the internal drive, and everything was gone. Then I re-installed the OS, in this case, Monterey.

That was relatively quick, but now came the primary choice. Do I individually download and install each program, or do I restore from Time Machine? I wimped out, and I did the latter. I was surprised that it took several hours. That gave me time to get off my butt and do a few overdue tasks around the house!

Eventually, Time Machine did its job, and the system was ready to use. I’ve had to wait several times as I fire up software for the system to verify it, but that’s a one-off. It’s certainly made a difference, and it’s given the old box a new lease of life. Everything is running smoothly again, and I’m not freezing unless I open the windows!

I intend to get one of the new M1 powered Mac Minis later in the year, but this has been a cheap, quick fix for now. It was much less painless than I thought it might be, and I’d certainly recommend it if your old machine is moving like a snail.