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| Rachel and me! |
And Murphy's Law being what it is, a few big things that could go wrong before Rachel's arrival, did go wrong!
- Firstly, we're renovating! The painting is finished but the carpet hasn't arrived as hoped to make the room as lovely as I wanted it to be. (Still hasn't arrived but that's another story!) So we moved all the tools and paint cans and brushes out, put up the curtains, rolled out a carpet square and moved a bed in!
- Secondly, on the morning Rachel was to arrive, the power went out!
- One minute everything was working and then next, nothing. And we're on tankwater so no power, no water! Argh! We investigated. The neighbours still had power and we realised all our lights were working so the problem was at our house. The safety switch was tripped and wouldn't re-set. We turned off every appliance in the house - then turned them on, one by one. And finally found the culprit. The dear old electric jug had boiled its last kettleful.
- All I can say is, YAY for safety switches and if you haven't got one, you should seriously think about having one installed.
- And thirdly, and if I might modestly say, most disastrously, I picked Rachel up at the airport. Actually, picking Rachel up was great - it was what came after the pick up that was bad. I got totally, utterly, and comprehensively LOST leaving the airport. It was... bad!
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| Even Google Maps on my phone couldn't help me! |
- I had to 'phone a friend' and luckily, Mr Archer was home and able to be a remote GPS for me.
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| Here we are enjoying our morning cup of Earl Grey tea! |
So has Murphy and his Law of maximum obstacles affected you lately? I'd love to hear! How do you react to challenges? Do you welcome them or do you prefer smooth sailing?
Sharon, it was *so* lovely to visit you! And that morning cup of Earl Grey was so good - it sustained me all the way through my journey that morning. :)
ReplyDeleteThe room was gorgeously set up - I had a fireplace in my very own room! You did a great job of pulling that together. And getting lost? It just made more time to chat on the way home.
Thanks again for having me for the night!
Rachel, it was an absolute pleasure to have you to stay and I'm so glad you enjoyed it too! We're hoping we'll be able to lure you back for a longer stay next time!
Deletemwah!
A fireplace? Who needs carpet when you have a fireplace?Sounds like luxury to me Ms Archer :-)
ReplyDeleteI like smooth sailing. I have a husband for the obstacles ;-)
Also meant to say - its always the electric jug! :-)
DeleteLOL on the carpet vs fireplace argument, Amy! We're quite chuffed with the new wood heater in that end of the house. It was an open fireplace and used to smoke dreadfully so we never used it. The firebox means we can use it for an extra taste of comfort for our visitors from the north!
DeleteAh, check on the electric jug! Well check that first next time! :)
Oh, and I meant to say - smooth sailing for me too please! LOL
DeleteLOL, what an adventure! And I like Rachel's way of looking at it -- more talking time. :-) Also, Amy makes a valid point -- a fireplace will always trump carpet. Oh, and put me in the smooth sailing camp please! Not a fan of rough weather or big seas. ;-)
ReplyDeleteSounds like you ladies had a fab time. Think I need to go and make myself a cup of Earl Grey tea now. :-)
Michelle, I liked Rachel's way of looking at it, too! It meant that I could relax as well and just enjoy the extra time with her - and it was a lot of extra time on the road because we got caught up in the almost-peak traffic.
DeleteLOL, another vote for the fireplace! I can see that's a winner!
enjoy your cup of Earl Grey tea - I have one at my elbow as I type! ;)
Hi Sharon
ReplyDeleteSounds like a lot of fun as well with us if the safety switch goes it is usually the toaster :(
I can't think of everything going wrong like that at the moment but I am sure it has over the years :)
Have Fun
Helen
Hey, Helen, I'll add the toaster to the check first list if we have more safety switch dramas!
DeleteGreat that you can't think of one of those times when lots of things have gone wrong leading up to a big event... though perhaps you've blanked it from you mind because it was so traumatic! ;)
Murphy is totally unwelcome at my place at present. The week before last I needed to reset my laptop to factory settings and I did back up my files however my backup external hard drive decided to fail at the same time so I lost a whole lot of files. Most of the ones that I wanted to keep are possible to recreate and the most crucial ones I'd recently emailed to myself so it's not totally a loss.
ReplyDeleteLOL, Lyn! If only we could tell Murphy and his Laws to take a hike and not darken our door steps!
DeleteOMG I'm having a HUGE ARGH moment thinking about you resetting your laptop and having an external hard drive failure all at the same time! I swear my armpits are sweating and I'm shivering in sympathy! And, um, thinking... when did I last do a back up!!!!!!!
I had that exact thought when Rachel was having her computer issues a few months back. After having the harddrive fail, I'm going to basically do a double backup - one onto my new external harddrive and one to my Google Drive (essentially cloud storage).
DeleteGah! Lyn, you're giving me flashbacks! Hope you do manage to find or recreate the important files. It's a scary thing, isn't it? Hugs for the fright!
DeleteLyn, I have a full system back up on my today list for tonight. I do two back ups as well - an on-site one and an off-site one... I might have to think about a cloud one... but... well, I wonder about security. But you find the Google Drive works well??
DeleteRachel, no wonder you're getting a flashback. I'm having one now for a computer crash from several years ago - I lost all my email contacts. I felt "lost" in a big cyber world that I couldn't access! LOL
Now, I don't know if this works after that dratted Murphy comes calling, but I saw the recommendation on an author loop soon after a computer hard drive fail and losing some recent file updates so I installed an automatic external backup called CrashPlan which does it's thing without any input from me. I get an email with each backup which reminds me that it is doing it's thing and it's that extra step in place for when I forget or in support of Dropbox, which I'm still not sure I have set up correctly. Thought I'd mention given how often computer-fails happen and ALWAYS at the worst time. That damn Murphy!
DeleteThanks for the tip Bronwyn. I'll check that out.
DeleteEeek on losing the email contacts Sharon. Fortunately I've been using Gmail as my main email for several years now so don't have that problem anymore. Additionally I shifted to Google Chrome as my default web browser after the previous time I had PC issues so I didn't have to go through the usual loss of bookmarks that used to be standard. Chrome holds your bookmarks within your Google account.
I hadn't thought about the security aspect of using a cloud based backup - I'd consider Google Drive about as secure as my email. So far I find Google Drive works well for me. I'll see how that goes with time. You can also set files to either be shared (with specific people or publicly) or to be private.
Bron, I must look into CrashPlan... though my inner Luddite has reservations about allowing my computer so much freedom! Having said that, I suspect it sends all sorts of things out that I'm not aware of... (gulp) ;)
DeleteLyn, I do like Google Chrome's way of handling bookmarks. That was the other thing that I found a bit sad after my crash - all those fab websites I'd found on my internet 'travels', all gone. I'll have a look into Google Drive too - would be handy to keep some files there by the sound of it!
DeleteSafety switches are so important, annoying as it is as the time. We had an old kettle that used to set ours off - sneaky thing!
ReplyDeleteDon't know if it's murphys law but I had one of those days yesterday where every small thing that could go wrong would! Right up until I was getting ready to make a nice dinner and all the avocados I'd bought for our guacamole were all brown and gross :(
Ah, Stefanie, another naughty safety-switch tripping kettle!
DeleteOh, ugh on your Murphy's Law day and those brown avocados! They're a very tricky vegetable to buy aren't they! they can look so nice on the outside and awful under the skin. I always buy them when they're very hard now and wrap them in newspaper to "ripen". Which is great as long as you don't need to use them straight away.
Hmm, your post is very timely Sharon. We are moving soon and I must remember to check we have a safety switch on the new house.
ReplyDeleteDespite all the mishaps, sounds like you had a lovely time!!
Good luck with your move, Jen! Yes, yes, do check there's a safety switch! So reassuring to have that switch tripping to alert you to a problem!
DeleteI did have a lovely time with Rachel to visit - and somehow the mishaps have made it all the more memorable!
LOL Bet you were wondering what would happen next, Sharon. Isn't it weird how everything happens at once? But sounds like you both had a great time.
ReplyDeleteSue, I certainly was wondering what might happen next! But it all worked out in the end! :)
DeleteLove this post, Sharon and Rach, and especially the pictures. The one with the tea and pinkies is precious! Also, when I first saw the top picture I had a moment of thinking "when did Sharon get a full-sleeve tattoo?" LOL. Obviously my eyes are not as good as I think they are. :-)
ReplyDeleteI've not been having a Murphy's week exactly, but my Mum has, with me copping the on-flow which has made me feel like I've had a Murphy's week. If that makes sense. TBH I prefer when Murphy strikes directly as I then have my Mr Fixit on site for assistance.
Thanks, Bron! I'm still giggling at my "full sleeve tattoo"! Just a full sleeve! LOL
DeleteAh, it's sometimes harder when that Murphy character spills copious challenges into the path of someone close to you. I hope your mum has a better time of it next week.
Oh, I bet you two had some lovely chats and lovely cups of tea!. Sharon, Old Murphy seems to constantly follow me around. I've had three punctures this year, all when I was about to go on long trips and it hasn't been fun. And ROFL on Sharon's full sleeve tattoo!
ReplyDeleteBarb, Murphy and you and tyres sound like you've got a bit of a thing happening! A flat tyre is no fun at all - especially not when you're all good to go... and then you're not!
DeleteOh, yes, me too ROFL about the full sleeve tattoo! Got to thank Bron again for that - its so delicious! I'm sitting here sniggering all over again!
i am really a big fans of you, awesome work Adopt a dog
ReplyDeleteThanks, Adeel.
DeleteAdded another response further up about PCs and backups.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I meant to say I love the picture of you and Rachel being posh with your tea.
Thanks, Lyn! We had fun setting it up - probably lucky we didn't snort our tea!
Delete