Waiting for Magic

I’m still waiting to be connected to the new fibre optic broadband. 1st April turned out to be joke… Well. Not happening, anyway! Since the website still said nothing different today, I did give it a try; but no success. I thought maybe I needed to change some settings or something … But when I phoned my new internet provider, they said the reason it wasnt’ working yet was that the cable has not yet been connected for this area. They hadn’t got any new date yet either. (They’ve now promised to call me when it should be up and running.) Well – as long as I’m not cut off from the old one, I’ve no reason for serious complaints, I suppose…

Waiting…. (new router)

In the meantime, I’m still adjusting to my new chair.

What’s not included in the Manual is the Complete Home Makeover that a Rolls Royce kind of Chair requires:

‘Exuse me,’ it complains, ‘but this carpet that you have here is really not at all what I was designed for. Who ever heard of a rag rug on an office floor?! I can’t get around on this knobbly old thing without getting stuck half the time! Besides, how long have you had it, anyway?! Looks like it’s been through a lot. I’m almost embarrassed to be seen with it!’

I made a quick calculation and had to admit that after 37 years of service, the blue rug rag was probably due for retirement.

So while my brother was here for Easter, we made a little detour to a carpet store.

 

The Chair was pleased when it was introduced to the new Carpet. ‘Just my shade of red!’ it exclaimed. ‘And so smooth… We´ll get along splendidly, I think.’

And so they did. The next day, in the daylight, they ganged up on me and made hints about the curtains.

‘I’m not saying anything about the brownish red,’ said the Chair. ‘That’s almost the right hue. But the other colours… They may have been all right with the old rag rug perhaps, but with the new carpet… It all gets a bit much, don’t you think?’
‘I absolutely agree,’ said the Carpet. ‘There’s way too much green, and they’re too dark, and the pattern kind of clashes with mine. You want something lighter… Also matching my colours, of course – but not so much as to take over!’

So there was nothing for it but take a walk into town to the department store.

‘Hey,’ the Carpet shouted after me as I left. ‘See if they’ve got any with birds on them!’

Fortunately they did.

The curtains were too long and had to be shortened a bit, but the Chair and the Carpet kept cheering me on while I did the job. When I finally got them up, we were all happy – for a little while. Until the Curtains noticed the ironing board cover…

‘Really!’ said the Curtains. ‘That’s one very dominating ironing board cover, isn’t it? Steals all the attention…’
’But it’s not all that long since I bought it,’ I protested. ‘The old one was all worn out, you wouldn’t have liked that either…’
’But those colours… what were you thinking?’ said the Curtains. ‘Big blobs in weird colours on black?!’
’There wasn’t much to choose from!’ I defended myself. ‘And it almost matched the old curtains…’
’Well, we’re not happy with it!’ said the New Curtains, curling up in extra wrinkles. ‘We really don’t need the competition. You’d better get something more neutral.’

‘All right, all right…’ said I. ‘I’ll see what I can find. Anything else when I’m off to the stores again anyway?’
’Yes,’ said the Chair. ‘Do get another one of those sheepskin pads for me, will you? Surely you want one for the neckrest as well as for the armrests? I can’t believe you didn’t think of it at once. You know by now that when I get cold, you do too…’
’You’ve got a point,’ said I.

 
New ironing board cover in white and grey.

Warming sheep skin pads for the chair.

PS. While in the department store, my cellphone beeped. It was my coffee table calling me from the living room, requesting a new table runner…

Happy Easter

Easter is upon us, and today the sun went into hiding – which I suppose is rather appropriate on Good Friday (which in Swedish, by the way, is called “Long” Friday).

⁴ And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.

⁴⁵ And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.

⁴⁶ And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.

Gospel of Luke, chapter 23

+ + +

My brother is coming for a couple of days and I’ll be busy “off line” at least for tomorrow (Saturday).

Both Good Friday and Easter Monday are official public holidays in Sweden (marked red in the calendar). This year Easter Monday coincides with 1st April. Remains to be seen how that will work out for me, as 1st April is also set as the date for my shift to the new broadband cable, and a new internet provider. I do hope it will not all just turn out to be a Big Joke!

In any case, there will no doubt be a bit of disruption during the actual deconnecting and reconnecting myself and my various appliances. I also bought a new router so that’s another wild card in the game.

Whether I’ll try it on Monday or wait until Tuesday might depend on whether I find myself still connected to the old system on Monday, or not.

Wish me luck!

Happy Easter, Everyone!

Booking Through Thursday: Rating

(Easter gets 5 chickens!)

Deb at Booking Through Thursday asks:
Movies have a rating system to help guide the consumer weed out adult/violent/inappropriate knds of films. Video games do, too. Do you think BOOKS should have a ratings system?

Not wholly familiar with the American film rating system, I had to look it up… Follow the link if you feel you need to as well! In Sweden it’s either children allowed, age 7, 11 or 15+ for movies shown in public movie theatres; and usually recommended the same way for DVDs. Censorship of films for adults (over 15 years) was abolished in 2011.

I think age recommendations for children’s books can be helpful; and I appreciate a blurb that gives an idea about what kind of book it is. (Online I also appreciate the possibility to check out the first chapter before buying.) I don’t think I’ve ever thought about a rating system for books beyond that, so I suppose I never missed one.

Sitting Comfortably

I think I promised someone a picture of my new ‘office’ chair when it arrived… Here it is now!

Not sure I got round to blogging about it at the time, but about two months ago I was told I had to return a chair I’d had on loan for twelve (!)  years – because of a change in regulations. (What diagnoses entitle you to what technical aids etc.) I might have been offered to buy the old chair, but considering how long I’d had it and that it would soon be in need of repairs, I decided to buy a new one. Especially since I had been thinking for a while of getting one with a higher back and neckrest anyway. So I just asked (and was granted) to keep the old chair for an extra month to have time to get a new one.

About three weeks ago I went to an office furniture showroom on the outskirts of town (had to take a taxi because the place is not easily accessible without a car) and tried out a good ‘professional’ chair and ordered it in the fabric of my choice. I was told I might have to wait 4-5 weeks, so I hadn’t expected to get it before Easter. It was a nice surprise when I got the phone call today to inform me it had arrived and that they could deliver it to me today.

The chair is flexible in almost every possible way and in spite of demonstrations it might take me a while to figure out my own optimum comfort settings… What I’m already appreciating though is the possibility to lean back and rest my neck when not actively writing or using the mouse. I might even fall asleep in this chair …

Book Review: The Camera Fiend

Some time ago, Librarian posted a review of a book My Lord Duke by E.W. Hornung (1866-1921) – an author perhaps better known for his stories about a ‘gentleman thief’ by name of Raffles. At least that was the only ones in the bibliography that rang a little bell with me. I was also interested to learn that Hornung was brother-in-law to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

I went to browse titles by this author free for Kindle, and came across The Camera Fiend (from 1911). 

There’s just no getting away from those early 20th century cameras and photographers lately!!

This photo was used as prompt for Sepia Saturday this week.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/5890411469/

They also seem to turn up in every other book I read:
The House of Arden. The Secret Keeper. The Year After.

The intriguing thing about The Camera Fiend (besides the title) was that there was no introduction to it on Amazon (just a paragraph about the author) and not a single review. The only way to find out was to read.

So I did (this weekend). A little hesitant through the first chapter or two, not really having any clue at all what kind of book it was supposed to be. My first guess was to place it in the genre of humour, but soon the story started taking unexpected twists and turns, and that rather fast. Actually a lot of the charm lies in the surprise elements, and not knowing where it may be going next… So I don’t want to give away too much. But the further I read the more the plot thickened and I found it harder and harder to put the book down. (Today I just kept reading, except for a cold windy walk to the supermarket, and lunch.)

The main character is an asthmatic young man (the word teenager was not yet invented) by name of Tony “Pocket” Upton, on leave from boarding school for a couple of days to go into London to see a specialist doctor about his asthma medication. His intention to stay the night with friends does not turn out quite as planned… and trouble escalates in ways he’d never been able to imagine. Let it be enough to say that the story also involves a suspicious death or two, a professor interested in photography and spiritualism, a young girl, and a private investigator with assistant.

It was an entertaining read, and I think I’ll try more titles by this author.

Quotes:

You cannot sit up half your nights with asthma and be an average boy.

Pocket was not one of nature’s heroes, but he had an overwhelming desire to behave like one.

That is the worst of your conscientious ass; he takes his decision like a man; he means to stick to it like a sportsman; but he cannot help wondering whether he has decided for the best, and what would have happened if he had decided otherwise, and what the world will say about him as it is.

“I think that Dr [---] has the strangest power of any human being I ever heard of; he can make you do anything he likes, whether you like it yourself or not.”