Turning toward the Light!

There is something refreshingly illicit in typing on a computer that is not Apple. As a long time Mac user, I have been faithful to Mac ever since the days when the operating system of Mac was absurdly more friendly than early versions of Window.

But enough is enough. The iPhone 6 was the final fiscal straw which finally convinced me that the only thing that Apple really cares about is the money that the hapless fools who support them have in their pockets.

I have now moved from my iPhone to a Yota phone. I have to admit the Yota phone does seem to be designed with my specifically in mind as it has a double screen with one side of the phone being a sort of low-power using Kindle type screen ideal for reading. I have had to buy another phone as my previous one was stolen (so if you see anyone in Castelldefels who is not me using a double sided phone, then the chances are that they might have a few questions to answer about their ownership!) and we have yet to see another one in our area. With any luck the replacement should arrive tomorrow and I can consign my revived iPhone back to the oblivion it so richly deserves.

I am not stuipd. My Big Mac on which I do most of my work will stay in place. I am used to it and I find it does well, in spite of the fact that such an expensive machine did not have a CD player and writer.

My new machine is a Toshiba Satellite (an early iteration of which I once owned) and has a 2TB memory as I am Old School and like to have my music downloaded from the thousands of CDs that I possess. As you will have worked out, this machine does have a CD player and I will be able to download my eclectic mix of music which ranges from the outré achievements of Pansy Division to the rarefied music of the early Renaissance. I must not forget to upload what has to be the largest collection of music by Carl Nielsen in Castelldefels!

Following Toni's strict instructions I am only uploading 'free' programs, so I now have (and am indeed using) LibreOffice Writer to produce what you are reading. Time will tell if the little refinements that come with Office are things that I might miss. Toni is a harsh observer and will castigate any backsliding into what he perceives as throwing money away into the uncaring hands of commercial software developers!

Meanwhile. The Book continues to dominate my waking thoughts. Not that there is much I can do about it at the moment, as it is out of my hands and at the printers. I am waiting for the finished product to be delivered to me and then I will be able to make its availability on Amazon a reality.

Everyone has a different set of priorities when they come to test out a new computer. Mine rest in the amount and quality of music I get get out of the machine. I have now (somehow) loaded up some of my music via Google Play (if that is what the program is called) though it seems to be (even for my music) a fairly odd selection. So, at the moment I am listening to Finnish Favourites (as you do) and skipping over the obvious Sibelius and going for the more obscure (at least to British ears) composers to keep me happy. And I promise that I will stop using brackets with the reckless abandon that that last section of writing displayed.

At least I have some music to keep me company and I am more than prepared to add music a disc at a time to build up my library. Again. How many times have I loaded discs into various machines! Still, with 2TB this should be the mother of all repositories!

Today we had lunch in the restaurant which is going to be the location of The Celebrations for United Nations Day this year. There seems to be a fairly even split between those people wanting fish and those who want meat. Which I do not find convincing. But, hey, there should be enough for pick and mix, and I can only guess at the chaos that the second course is going to produce. I look forward to it all with ill concealed glee.

The majority of the conversation with the restaurant owner was taken up with how the tables are going to be arranged. I everyone turns up then there should be 24 of us. Which is a healthy number. After the last meal in the cramped circumstances of the upstairs room of the restaurant that used to be Porto's, I have no intention of restricting circulation this time round. It's my birthday and I want to see everyone!

After much scribbling on napkins a plan was devised, though I am not sure that everyone taking part in the discussions was equally aware of the conclusions! Never mind, crisis management is one of the pleasures of indolent planning!

And so, as an insanely happy woodwind section of Finnish music plays through the ear phones of a stolen phone – not stolen by me, you understand, but what I was left by the changing room thieves of Castelldefels, and that only because I had not taken the ear phones with me – I am inclined to stop typing as I feel that I now have a feel for the keyboard of this new machine.

Now for some serious work.

Into the Renaissance I go!