where art collides philosoperontap

Just installing a piece of software from Dell. I recently upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8 and the computer won’t work like it used to. For example I have a SIM in it that needs some driver software call Dell Mobile Broadband Manager. This seems to have disappeared during the upgrade. Dell won’t let me search their website before verifying that I am a genuine customer. The software download is so that it can interrogate me to validate that I am allowed to look for the driver on the Dell website. That’s control for you. So much control that I now have the message “We’re sorry, we encountered a problem and were unable to complete the service tag detection. You can either Try Again or Cancel to select another option.”

Huh. I’m on holiday now. It will have to wait until I get back to work. It isn’t the end of the world as a) I’m supposed to be going offline whilst on holiday and b) I have two phones I can tether the laptop to use for internet access during the week hah – laughs in the face of adversity/authority (delete depending on your mood).

It’s early here in the Davies household and rather than lie in bed waiting for the alarm to go off I’ve decided to get up and let the 3^rd law take over. In this case I’m not surfing tinternet I’m writing a bit of the 3^rd Law book which seems to work in just the same way. It would seem that the Third Law permeates other areas of life as we know it. Inneresting. There could be a doctorate in this. Taking it to the extreme it could mean a Nobel Prize. Wow. I didn’t realise when I began all this Third Law stuff that it could be so big! It isn’t yet of course but in might be.

I have around 45 minutes before I get up off the settee and make a pot of tea. This is later than is normal but I did say we are on holiday so I am affording us a little lie in. I’m good like that. Generous. Notice that I didn’t say generous to a fault. That would have been going over the top and is really up to others to say. I don’t want to be remembered for being “that guy who used to go around thinking he was generous to a fault.” What a plonker.

I’m not generous to a fault. Happy to give a tip where a tip is deserved and am often being seen to complement someone on their new hairdo – nice words are not hard to come by and if it makes someone’s day then why not. You will have noticed that I kept that bit gender neutral. I didn’t want to be accused of sexism or “being after something”. I’m sure that it is perfectly possible for a bloke to appreciate a nice comment about his hair just as much a woman.

It is more likely that one would comment about a man’s facial hair rather than the stuff on the top of his head. The former will attract statements such as “that’s a fine brush you’ve grown there Martin” whilst the latter is more likely to be in the vein of “thinning a bit on top I see, I’d shave it all off if it was me”. I can see Martin stroking his moustache, rightly proud, whereas the nameless chap in need of a home shaver will have no choice but to agree in a manly but resigned to his fate manner.

Never been into moustaches myself. They are a bit ticklish and I don’t like the way they pick up bits of food. Yuk. Sometimes when we go camping I give myself the week off shaving. I don’t mind a bit of the rugged look when kipping in a tent. It’s all part of the adventure even though we are probably on an organised campsite and pitched in between two large caravans with satellite TV dishes on top where the inhabitants retire every evening to watch a continuous stream of soaps. Huh (to be accompanied by contemptuous sound effects).

There was one year we went camping with a few other families, one of which had a caravan but where all the others were in tents. One morning the skies opened and about a month’s rain fell in two hours. We all huddled under the awning of one tent. The caravan owner, Alistair, was desperate for us to retreat to the comfort of his caravan but we would have none of it. I still have a video of the morning showing a river of water running off the front of the awning. The rain finished and the campsite having the benefit of the good drainage from a sandy soil soon returned to normal. This was in Jubilee Park in Woodhall Spa. Last year we were there and it also rained. I took another video and posted it to YouTube. All it was was water bouncing off the tent. I also decided to monetise the video but got an automated message from Google, or some oik saying that this was an unsuitable video for monetisation! Some people have no idea, or perhaps they were members of the Caravan Club!

We have been camping since time immemorial, the Davies family that is, not the human race. We all know the human race has been living in tents since the dawn of time, or words to that suitably dramatic effect representing the thousands of years of human evolution in a few short words. The Davies family started camping in a borrowed tent when Tom, our first born, was a baby. It was a small tent but we weren’t the family of six that we now are. Having a small baby on our hands we had finished eating and were ready for bed quite early, eight o clock say. I remember playing my guitar inside the tent trying to get him to sleep. It probably looked odd from the outside seeing the tent all closed up with the sound of a lullaby coming from within.

I like to think that my dulcet tones had the right calming effect on the kids though as they grew I did on occasion have to raise the tone to represent slight crossness. Also I’m not sure I know any lullabys on the guitar though it might have been “Summertime” which was one of my staples for singing the kids to sleep. I have been known to sing myself to sleep at the same time especially having just arrived home jetlagged from an overseas trip.

Poor Anne would look forward to my return from these trips having been looking after the kids on her own all week. The funny thing was that I, who would have spent the whole week wining and dining in posh bars and restaurants would be looking forward to a simple meal of beans and toast whilst Anne, who had spent the week living on beans on toast would be after something a little more upscale. Life huh:)

Teatime…

Go to 3rd Law part 16

3rd law part 18 here