Seems my love is up And has left you with no warning

The saga of the laptop ended yesterday at 3:00p.m. just as my step-daughter was going to pick her youngest children up from school UPS called for the laptop and it is now winging it’s way back to HP.

I can’t believe the issues getting this back to them has been. First they tried picking it up from my home address even though I told them I couldn’t get time off work. Then they said they would pick it up from my work place, they refused to take it on the 19th as it wasn’t boxed up but no-one had bothered telling me it had to be in a box. HP emailed me on the 19th to say it was going to be picked up from my step-daughters and for me to send them her email address and phone number, which I did after checking with her it was okay to do that. I arranged to have it picked up on Tuesday from Newcastle as that was the earliest she could manage to get into Newcastle to pick it up from me.

On the 22nd UPS called at my workplace again to pick the laptop up and said they would check for any notes about it being picked up. Possibly calling back into work on the Tuesday, I was going into Newcastle straight after work so that would not have been any problem, I told my step-daughter that there may be no need for her to wait for it be picked up on Friday but I’d let her know if it was picked up from work. When I went down to check at 4:45 it was still in reception as no-one had called to pick it up.

Believe me, as crazy as all this sound it is all true and gave me one hell of a headache which lasted all week until today it had turned into a full blown migraine so I had to take time off work. Anyhoo, it’s all dusted and done now so that should be the last of the amazing broken down laptop.

I was just wondering if anyone saw the news about the Presidents Club meeting in London? I couldn’t believe it would happen in broad daylight in the 21st century. The waitresses were harassed, touched inappropriately and made to feel that they were worthless in front of all these “Gentlemen”. I wouldn’t dream of behaving like that and yet these were all influential men, who helm big multi national corporations and they behave like total dicks when they are in a large group together. There is no longer any excuse to treat anyone the way they were treating the waitresses (there never was but it used to be excused as boys being boys). I hope they all learn the hard way that the law does apply to them and they can no longer behave that way towards women (or anyone else).

Music today is a great classic song by a man I would have liked to have met, sadly no longer with us but his music lives on. Please enjoy the sunrise and cloudburst.

Hey fatty boom boom, sweet sugar dumpling

Hey fatty boom boom let me tell you something.  Music was my first love and it will be my last.  Lyrics can say so much about the way I feel, better than I can express myself sometimes.  I thought I would give you the latest update in the saga of my laptop and also sing out in praise of others.

I was told that the old laptop would be picked up on 12 January and my new laptop would be with me sometime between the 10 and 31 January.  I told them I couldn’t get time off so could they arrange to have it picked up from my step-daughter but let me know that had been done so I could get the laptop to her.  Next thing I know there is a card pushed through my door on 12 January saying they had tried to pick it up from here.  I thought no problem I can change the pick up address and have it picked up on Monday, oh if only it was that easy.  No option but to leave the pick up from here, so I thought let’s email them and let them know I can get it picked up once someone is in after 17:45 on Monday.

Again on Monday they tried to pick up the laptop during the day when no-one was home and no reply to my email.  Also, nothing from HP about the pick up or dropping the new one off.  Details said they would try again on the Tuesday for the last time, a courier had also tried to deliver the new laptop and it had been taken to a newsagent 3 miles away.  I rang for a taxi and went to pick it up before having a drink or anything to eat.  I am so amazed and impressed with my new laptop as it has biometric signin and that makes everything better and more secure.

On the Tuesday I had an email from UPS saying they had tried and would make the last attempt on the Wednesday.  HP emailed and asked if there was another address to pick the laptop up from if it wasn’t picked up the following day.  I replied to them and told them they could pick it up from work and gave them the address and phone number.  When they turned up on the Wednesday, once again it was during the day and no-one was in (no surprise there).  Then on Friday, they turned up but said they couldn’t take it away as it wasn’t in a box.  The courier firm they used last year when it went in for it’s 5th repair brought a box to take it in and brought it back in the same box following the repair.  The new courier company, however, don’t provide a box and won’t pick it up if it isn’t in one.

I had the box the new one came in so I put it in there and wondered if it would be picked up on Monday from work.  I now got the laptop booted up and when I signed into my emails there was one from HP saying they were going to pick it up from my step-daughter on Friday 26 January.  So this week I have to meet my step-daughter and make sure she has the laptop when the courier calls to pick it up and also that it is in a box.

I keep hearing a lot of bulls**t from the current POTUS who, in spite of winning the white house last year, has consistently spread lies, hate and seems to be willing to have the American people in fear of each other and foreigners. The only thing wrong with divisive politics is that it becomes impossible to reunite those divided by mistrust, lies and fears.  We need to show everyone that no matter what the press put forth about them there are places where everyone is welcome unless they come to spread hate. We don’t have to tolerate haters and I don’t see why we should.

If everyone who feels everyone alive today should be treated the same regardless of gender, sexual preference, skin colour, religion or any thing else which makes us unique and different, shouted down the haters we could not only stop them from spreading their hate but could shut them up for good.

Say that you’re the one whose taking me home.

I have read some amazing books in my time but there are a couple of female authors writing love stories for the modern age who I have just discovered and thoroughly enjoyed reading their books.

I started thinking about this and wondered what makes an action tale different from the norm? Lots of action tales have a love interest in them just to try for mass appeal. But that doesn’t make them different. A lot of modern action tales have strong women in the lead role and the love interest is almost an aside.

So why do these tales work where others fail? I think the secret is in the style of the writing. Every author has their own style and tempo so the tale flows (look at Quentin Tarantino and you’ll see stories don’t have to start with the beginning or end at the end). Once the writer decides on the story, creates the characters and starts putting flesh on the bones and blood in the veins things start to happen. I’ve heard some people say that they create the characters but the characters create the story. They just follow where it all leads.

If only it were that easy for me, I’m still struggling with my life story for 1967, I put things down on the page and then I think “was that in 1967? Maybe it was 1969 or later”. Then I stop and think it through, delete what I have written and start again or, if its really late I delete it and go to bed. Of course not having my own computer makes it hard to write anything at all at the moment. Still I’m thinking about it so that’s something I suppose.

Anyway to progress this particular tale, the two women I’ve read recently have taken decidedly different approaches to story telling. One based her tale in the present looking to the future while the other set hers in the future looking at the past. The similarity between them both is not immediately obvious but both tales have strong women who are independent and followed by equally strong male characters. This does make the tales different and it also helps to develop the original story into a saga of 3 or more tales. One of the authors of recent times who has developed strong characters both male and female, of course, is Joanne Rawling, whose Harry Potter series of books took the literary world (and then Hollywood) by storm and made her a household name.

Women are becoming stronger on film, in television series and that is only right. We just need to make sure that there are no discrepancies in the pay for men and women. If you look at Hollywood there is still a big difference between how much women and men are paid for movies. When you think in terms of box office success this makes no sense at all. Why shouldn’t Angelina Jolie be paid as much as Will Smith for a movie? It’s about time that actors were paid less for their skills making them equal in pay, then topped up with a profit share of their movies. That way if an Angelina Jolie movie made a lot at the box office she would be paid in recognition of that.

The video below is from Vevo and doesn’t belong to me.