:: all done

I finally, finally, finally got the computer going properly. The new one, this is, not the old one. The old one is a husk. It wasn't easy and I learnt a lot, mainly about the benefits of not rushing in with my first idea, or even my second one.

One of these days I'll write up the whole experience, but for now here are some photos:



This is the old computer, in the process of being gutted. I've taken out its hard disk drive and its floppy drive to use in the new machine. I was going to take out one of its CD drives too, but the new computer has an odd design which means it'd be extremely difficult to squeeze it in. Which explains why, in this next picture, the CD drive is balanced on top of the new open case.



It's a smaller case than the old one, so it's more congested. And I needed the CD drive to install the operating system on the old HDD inserted in the new case - oh, it's a loooooong story.

But anyway it's finally done and all I have left to do is reinstalling my software. I started that process today. Everything so lovely and smooth and fast, it's wonderful. It's always like that with a new computer. Mmmmm. It would have been a lot easier and less traumatic to have bought a whizzy laptop - I was sorely tempted - but I need to be financially sensible ahead of the big NZ holiday.

Only 16 sleeps to go! (Seventeen if you count dozing on the plane. Or even 18 if you count crossing the dateline. I think. Maths was never my strong point.)

The other thing I've been busy doing is finding a place for Bertie to stay while I'm away. I had thought of boarding him at the Cat and Dog Home, so I went there to check it out on Monday.

It was awful.

The people are lovely, and they do good work, but there's no way I could leave poor B there for a whole month. The kennel itself was a tiled nook, with the food dishes round the corner. But in one I looked at there was a gutter full of pee between the bedding and the door, and the place was minging. "We hose it out in the mornings," said the chap. It seemed the dogs were only inside at night, the rest of the time they're locked in a bare concrete run with a chain fence. Each one separately.

The real deal-killer, though, was that they don't walk the dogs. At all. The lucky ones - the ones that won't "do their business" in the run - are let out into a grassed area for five minutes. There were two greyhounds there, both wearing their jackets because of the cold.

Bertie was freaked out being back there - it's where he was rescued to - and he was extremely pleased to get back into the car.

I had a browse through the phone book and picked a place pretty much at random, after consulting a map. It's called Barking Mews - it's a cattery as well - and not much more expensive than the dog home. The kennel arrangement is slightly better, in that the run opens off the kennel, so the dogs can be inside or outside. Most important, they're taken for walks. It's in the country, and I noticed a path going off along the property's boundary, so hopefully they'll be good walks. The ad also promised cuddles, so Bertie won't have to rely entirely on his mojo.

I'm not going to talk about work, except to say it's a lovely place full of lovely people and run by even lovelier people. Click here.