Bobby Shrink Wrapped

Oh, what wouldn't I give to see that. Or better, to DO that!

Anyway, it was on last night.

By the way, my computer is still alive, though still DVD-driverless. I'm going to try and find one online, or else phone HP and ask them to send me a link and all necessary instructions. The software goes back as soon as possible, and please, everyone, notify all your contacts about this piece of crap.

Anyway, Python Alert! How can Alex keep looking at the other guy's face when she COULD have an eyeful of...



As for the profile and the lashes - yum!

Then there are the other bits...

...the size 13s...

(Now, you see, if I stuck my chest out at him like this, I'd put the poor man's eye out.)

...the thumbs...

...with the hands attached...

...and the wrists...












...the shoulders and back...

...oh, the hands again...

...hand-to-mouth...

...and of course the old favourite, the crossed arms.

I left out the tongue 'cos the pictures are a bit blurry, and anyway, I think there's enough here to give us all an attack of the vapours.

DO NOT BUY THIS PROGRAMME!

If you see DVDXpressDX2, by ADS Tech on sale, promising to enable you to convert your videos into DVDs on your computer, RUN LIKE HELL OUT OF THE SHOP.

It doesn't tell you system requirements on the box. When you get it home, if you hunt high and low in the accompanying booklets, you will find that it does not mention Windows Vista. When you try to install it on your computer it informs you that the driver will not download. So you go to the website, and they have links (two different sets) to downloads of a Vista driver. First you have to uninstall everything you just spent hours installing.

The download does not to seem to actually appear anywhere on the system after downloading. Nor does it tell you anywhere whether you now install again from the disc. But I tried to anyway, only to discover that I HAVE NO DVD DRIVER ON MY COMPUTER ANY MORE!

Twenty-one hours ago I tried to restore my system from a backup within the computer (can't do it from the backup discs because I DON'T HAVE A DVD DRIVER). Kevin at Sales Support recommends contacting Technical Support. I wonder if he's ever tried to find a way to contact a human being on there? FAQs just led me back to the downloads that wreked it all in the first place.

System Restore is still apparently running, though the screen has been blank since about 10 minutes in. But don't interrupt the restoration, it said.

How long, I wonder, before I weaken and pull the battery to switch the blighter off? And what will I find when I try to switch it back on again?

Sorry, Diane, I didn't mean to trump your techno-woes story, but at least I know you understand my pain and frustration.

Thank goodness for my old machine.

Tether me these...

Hands seem to be a bit of a theme today on the UK VDO blogs. The others hvae opted for that very pointy index finger, but I've gone for the whole appendage.



And just for good measure, some face shots from the same powerful episode.

Thinking About Tomorrow

In the complete absence of any chance anytime soon of finding a way to use my video-to-dvd transfer programme (thanks for the amazingly intricate [ha ha] support from Kevin at ADS Technology) I am forced to fall back on these rather scrumptious slideshows from Season 2.

Bobby in Endgame

Because he reflects my mood.

Many Thanks

Thank you, everyone, for your kind thoughts and good wishes, both on the blog and by email.

Life is so quiet without my little angel. She was at the heart of evey bit of mischief, every fight between the boy parrots.

It will seem strange not having to change into something tatty when I get home, as she was prone to chewing holes in whatever I was wearing as she sat on my shoulder. I could not bring food into the room when she was out of her cage without her landing on my hand for a snack. She would even bite through wrappers in her impatience - usually when chocolate was inside them, a substance poisonous to parrots that I would then have to prise out of her beak.

Last night, a jay landed on the garden arch directly above her grave, and for a silly moment I thought it was collecting her soul. It's been years since I saw a jay in this area.

Rio RIP

Today I took my dear little Rio to be spayed. Her active sex life with her big boyfriend Louis meant that she was going to be eggbound more and more often, and this was a risk to her sweet little life. Her rampant hormones also meant that she plucked herself relentlessly. I was hoping she'd lose that urge after the operation.

Rio did not survive the operation. As I type, Louis is standing guard over her lifeless little body at the bottom of one of the cages they shared. He will be inconsolable. She was his only friend. He hates humans, and my other parrot Henry.

Rio was just a few months old when I got her. She used to fall asleep in my hand. She never lost the habit of hopping on to me if there was any chance of stealing some food. She would preen me and clean out my nails. she was feisty and brave. Despite Louis being several times her size, she was the boss.

Rio was just 8. I had hoped she'd live to 20. Thanks to me, her dear life has been cut short.

Louis and I will miss you sweetheart. We both love you very much.

Goodbye darling.

Anti-Thesis

Because I haven't posted it for a while.





Hallmark had a seizure tonight and showed No Exit without telling anyone - only a matter of a week or two since they showed it the last time. The next three days take us through to the end of Season 4 AGAIN. I know it's better than NO Bobby, but really, they missed out so many episodes in their Season 1-4 run, they have a wealth to choose from without repeating themselves so quickly.

Toys

I love gadgets. I have loads that hide in cupboards because they never worked for me and are afraid I may do them a mischief.

Today I bought a new one that I hope will allow me to digitise my old videos. How pleased you will all be to see and hear me in the operas I managed to get videoed way back when I had a life outside V-blogging. Then there are the cute ones of my cats as kittens. And Henry counting (riveting stuff).

I have also been trying to play with Adobe Premiere Elements again and make a movie with actual clips in it, but it has defied me at every turn, from failing to recognise media, to freezing, to playing videos from my hard drive UPSIDE DOWN! I don't even know how to achieve that if I wanted to!

My little animated toy, Rio, has to go to the vet's to be spayed tomorrow. I must not resent having to get up at 6am during my holidays, given what my poor little bird is going to go through.

Maths Genius

Don't you just hate getting lectures from people who are so ignorant they correct you on things you know far more about than they do?

I went shopping today, and parked in a multi-storey car park attached to the shopping centre (mall) by a pedestrian bridge.

Just as I was about to go back across to leave, I realised I didn't have any change for the ticket machine. I went to the cash desk in the store I was about to leave and asked if they could change a £5 note next time the till (cash register) was open, but everyone seemed to be paying with cards, so the cashier asked someone else (a supervisor?) if they could open a till and change the money for me.

No, she said, because the till would not then balance.

Of course it will, I said, I give you a £5 note, you give me 5 £1 coins, it's still the same amount of money.

No, she explained to the idiot who could not understand the simple principles of mathematics, it knows if you've taken £5 out.

Please don't talk rubbish to me, I replied. You will also have put £5 in, the till doesn't know if a customer has given you one £5 note or 5 £1 coins. Nor does it know if you gave change to a customer as a £5 note or five coins. She suggested getting someone who could explain her logic to this dolt customer.

Don't bother, I said, I'm now an ex-customer of this store. (For UK vixens, it was Debenhams in Bromley, a major store in a major shopping centre.)

Across the way a small one-off store changed my £5 with absolutely no problem, and I was able to get out of the car park without further ado.

I also made note of the fact that the machines in the car park can now give you change from notes...

Great VDO Video!

I strongly encourage you all to visit the very creative Jazzylin's blog and view her Size 13 video of THE scene from Jones.

It's such a hoot!

http://jazzylin.blogspot.com/

Welcome Sarah L.

I hope your entirely appropriate use of your husband's laptop enables you to see this slideshow without the screen steaming up.

It's Season 1 Bobby from The Enemy Within. I'm particularly fixated on the picture of his thigh and knee bulging through his trousers as he squats over the torch's body...

Spring

The promised snow has arrived. Trees have a whole - ooh - centimetre or so of snow on the branches.

The roofs are almost covered in the stuff.

My bird feeders remain in the shelter of a - bush!

This tree was covered in white blossom yesterday. Today it's sprinkled with snow, too.

Have pity, those of you who know what it is like to suffer such extreme weather.