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thompson1780
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« Reply #315 on: 13:46:03, 13-03-2007 » |
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I would just like to congratulate Mr Garnett on a series of First Rate Rants. (I expect to see a variety of 2nd to 7th rate rants coming soon)
I am convinced that our IT 'help' desk at work has a message on continuous loop that sys 'Have you tried turning it off and then on again'............
GRRRRRR. Do I look like a muppet?
Tommo
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Made by Thompson & son, at the Violin & c. the West end of St. Paul's Churchyard, LONDON
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Milly Jones
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« Reply #316 on: 13:51:25, 13-03-2007 » |
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All you car-less people must be near to London. If I lived in London I wouldn't have a car either. Tubes, trains, buses, all on tap every few minutes. Bliss. Here it is a case of nothing for an hour then three at once...you know the sort of thing.  A car certainly isn't a status symbol for me at any rate. So long as it gets me from A to B. I swapped my little 2-seater with my elder son for his 4-seater, when they had the baby. It's much more practical for me with shopping, extra children, dog etc. Even taking the dog to a vet would be a problem without a car. They're not within walking distance, taxis only allow guide dogs ...etc. etc. I can see George gently pedalling along on his tricycle with his bicycle clips and his day's crop from the allotment. Lovely! |
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We pass this way but once. This is not a rehearsal!
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Lord Byron
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« Reply #317 on: 13:53:27, 13-03-2007 » |
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Not everyone who has a car is `sad`, LB. For some people, like Milly, it`s an absolute necessity.
I agree. |
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Lord Byron
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« Reply #318 on: 13:54:58, 13-03-2007 » |
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Mary,
I`ve never wanted to drive but I once, due to partner nagging, had a trial driving lesson. My first and last experience behind the wheel. Never again. For those of us who are lucky enough to have decent bus, rail or tube services, I guess we should count our blessings. Having said that, as I trudge into work when I see the Hampstead Yummy Mummies in their wretched Chelsea Tractors with ONE child in, I do think rather dark thoughts.
gotta protect ones genetic investment from car crashes... |
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Tony Watson
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« Reply #319 on: 14:02:39, 13-03-2007 » |
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I spent 40 minutes on the BT helpline trying to get it to work. The signal strength is excellent, I have the last version of Windows XP on a fairly new computer, the Mac continues merrily but they couldn't get the Windows one to work. I know I can always use the Mac but that's not the point! They're going to phone me back this evening and have another go. Grrr, grrr and thrice grrr.
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Mary Chambers
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« Reply #320 on: 14:45:57, 13-03-2007 » |
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All you car-less people must be near to London. If I lived in London I wouldn't have a car either. Tubes, trains, buses, all on tap every few minutes. Bliss. Here it is a case of nothing for an hour then three at once...you know the sort of thing. I live at least 200 miles north of London! My only problem is that I can't get round my beloved East Anglia without a car - so I shamelessly use other people's cars. Transport there used to be much better - I once took the children to stay in a holiday cottage and did everything by public transport, though it was rather a case of "If you miss the bus from Felixstowe, there isn't another until next summer". The Aldeburgh Festival is good though - they never assume you have a car and provide coaches/buses for concerts in Blythburgh, Orford, Snape or other awkward-to-reach places. Taxis here take cats (in baskets)! Don't know about dogs, though. Certainly with young children and animals a car is very useful. Modified to correct a glaring error in punctuation. |
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« Last Edit: 15:20:36, 13-03-2007 by Mary Chambers »
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A
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« Reply #321 on: 14:52:57, 13-03-2007 » |
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All you car-less people must be near to London. If I lived in London I wouldn't have a car either. Tubes, trains, buses, all on tap every few minutes. Bliss.
A car certainly isn't a status symbol for me at any rate. Yes, I live near London now and rarely use the car but to get to my orchestra rehearsal last night without a car would have meant 2 buses there and 2 back... seems silly when it is a 10 minute drive !! So, there is a use for cars even on the outskirts of London! Having a freedom pass makes it marvellous to go on buses, trains undergound etc in London... for nothing!! Almost worth being old  Status symbol? no, what are they again?   A |
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Well, there you are.
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Andy D
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« Reply #322 on: 15:33:17, 13-03-2007 » |
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I don't have a little basket on the front of my bike but what I'm really looking forward to is being one of those nice gentle old boys who pedals slowly back from the allotments with a little wooden box tied on with twine above the back wheel with a leek and a couple of beetroots in it. I've always wanted to be one of those.
George, I actually tried that one year! I decided to try doing without a motor vehicle, since I live on the outskirts of Birmingham and use public transport quite a lot - but I only lasted about 4 or 5 months. I had to cycle to my allotment (which is 2.5 miles away and uphill) with trays of cabbage plants on the rack at the back and then home again with the panniers full of potatoes and courgettes. It didn't really work! So I gave up and got another car.  |
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George Garnett
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« Reply #323 on: 17:41:54, 13-03-2007 » |
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I spent 40 minutes on the BT helpline trying to get it to work.....They're going to phone me back this evening and have another go. Grrr, grrr and thrice grrr. You and me both, Tony. I hope your second session this evening gets you somewhere. Goodness knows how long I was on the phone to them this morning. The problem seemed insoluble in that we seemed to establish beyond doubt that my pc was doing something logically impossible which the universe had never experienced before. I think I was in danger of deleting the entire World Wide Web with one false key-stroke at one point so we thought it best to stop. I'm being sent another, er, something-patch-ether-biodiversity-truncathon-UDI-sporange by special delivery. I will say though that the chap on the other end of the phone was very patient with me and polite throughout. So well done him. It made it bearable. |
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« Last Edit: 17:50:47, 13-03-2007 by George Garnett »
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George Garnett
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« Reply #324 on: 17:46:01, 13-03-2007 » |
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Tubes......... Bliss. I don't think I'd go quite that far Milly  but I know what you mean  ["Your session timed out while posting. Please try again." That's a new one. I didn't know we had 'sessions'.] |
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« Last Edit: 17:48:37, 13-03-2007 by George Garnett »
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BobbyZ
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« Reply #325 on: 18:49:59, 13-03-2007 » |
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George
You can stipulate how long you want your session to be in your profile. Rather worryingly, there is the facility to select "forever" !
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Dreams, schemes and themes
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trained-pianist
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« Reply #326 on: 19:28:54, 13-03-2007 » |
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It is so good to be on a broad band, worth suffering for. For the most part it is very fast for me, but sometimes it is slow. I want everybody to have a broad band. I thought everyone here has a broadband.
People tell me that laptops are not good and often is something wrong with them and very soon.
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Tony Watson
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« Reply #327 on: 19:42:49, 13-03-2007 » |
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I can happily report that my wireless connection to Windows has been sorted out - at least for now. They phoned me back on my mobile and, because I was able to make a connection using an ethernet cable, someone in India (I presume) was able to get full access to my computer and mess about with all the settings. So I'm not grumpy any more. But I hold my breath each time I switch the computer on and off (I'm not one of those who leaves it on all the time).
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trained-pianist
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« Reply #328 on: 20:44:52, 13-03-2007 » |
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Congratulation, Tony. I hope it will stay this way. Incidentally I keep my computer on all the time. My friend, who is a computer analyst, told me it is better to leave it working. I only turn it off if something gets stuck or it freezes. |
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #329 on: 22:26:43, 13-03-2007 » |
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Another heavenly day...
Taught for two hours this morning (including an hour on the piece above incidentally - and they liked it!) and it was just coming up to about 11:56, when I spy a lecturer at the door tapping her watch. In front of the students.
I was furious - complete overreaction I know - but I felt that I'd been showed up by a member of staff in front of students. When the cathedral bells (which are running a little fast according to GMT at the moment) sounded the hour two minutes later, I was even more annoyed. I was just about to finish the entire course off when I was interrupted...
So that gave me two hours to prepare summative work (which the module leader claimed was unnecessary because the students knew exactly what they had to do - despite the fact that they were emailing him asking what they had to do) and to prepare the seminar where I showed them exactly how to complete the trickier part of said summative (a Schenkerian analysis in Sibelius). (Lunch happened during this joyous interlude).
Gave seminar (couldn't use seminar room because module leader had booked it to talk to ONE student despite the fact that he has his own office - my seminar had been moved from earlier that day because module leader had failed to manage his module correctly and had to extend his session back in time) and then had twenty minutes before meeting with head of department to explain just how annoyed I was with module leader for lack of support this year.
An hour to relax (and finish my lunch) before...
Orchestration marking - 11 scripts of Mendelssohn Song without Words (some of them are still using the wrong clarinets... and we have some very interesting instrumental combinations - strings and tuba for example, p).
Finish at 7 and drive home. Cook dinner. Eat. I'm about to wash up and go to bed because tomorrow I've got to multi-track record myself playing the whole gamelan in order to set an exam question for 1st year exam (because the recording that was supposed to have been made of this track was unaccountably fouled up). I've got two lectures on Thursday which need to be written from scratch (Minimalism and Ferneyhough's In Nomine a 3 respectively) and I'd like to go to the Sage tomorrow night. Friday is largely taken up by meetings, tutorials and rehearsals.
I'M SUPPOSED TO BE WRITING UP MY PhD, PEOPLE!
GIVE ME A BREAK!
WHY DON'T YOU DO YOUR JOBS FOR A CHANGE INSTEAD OF EXPLOITING POSTGRADUATES TO DO IT FOR YOU?
Another heavenly day.
[This note may be edited or removed later on if I decide that any of my colleagues might read it... Or then again I possibly don't care]
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'is this all we can do?' anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965) http://www.myspace.com/itensemble |
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