Love or Hate?

A few weeks ago the household greeted with great joy the announcement that Kodak had bought out a new version of their Easyshare Software and invited users to download from their website.
With baited breath the invitation was taken up. The download proceeded without a hitch and the installation onto the computed began. Everything seemed to be going well until suddenly and without warning the computer switched itself off and then on and then off and then on............!
What does one do in a situation like this? Switch off at the mains!
Are you readers gripped with tension?

A call to the friendly IT expert was made and the instructions to restart the computer in "Safe Mode and perform a restore" were carried out...... computer back to normal.

An e-mail was sent to Kodak for help and a reply several days later provided a telephone number to be rung and assistance to solve the problem would be available.
A telephone call was made only to be told that a technician would be in contact. No call received after several days and another e-mail sent with instructions to "telephone me after 4pm".
Sods law they try to contact me on the one afternoon I am out.
Another e-mail is sent and the reply received asked for information already provided in the original e-mail.
The expression "the air was blue" now enters the arena.

A call to the friendly IT expert was made and the offer of a copy of the software on disc was gratefully accepted. True to form the said disc arrived the following day and was loaded onto the computer with baited breath.
Guess what? The same thing happened as with the download from the Kodak website.
Still with me?

Let's send another e-mail to Kodak.
Attempt to sign on to AOL and the connection fails and the programme freezes. Try again and the same thing happens. Try again.............................

So what do we have now?

No Kodak Easyshare software, therefore no access to my pictures and no access to AOL.

A call to the friendly IT expert was made and a call out arranged.
Result, a few ££'s down, AOL is back up and running but still no Kodak software.
"Go for broke and try installing again", he says. "Also download from the Google website a free software called PICASA which will offer the same as Kodak apart from downloading pictures from the camera via the docking station but you overcome that problem by removing the card from the camera and plugging it into the computer".

PICASA has been downloaded, looks as good as Kodak. I still have not plucked up the courage to try and download Kodak again, perhaps I will in a period of mad bravado.

Do you love computers or hate them? Love or hate, love or hate......................................................?

The slide continues.

After a brilliant start to the season, for the second consecutive match, Verwood failed to score any points. Their away match at West Moors proved to be a case of "Lady Luck" not providing the breaks rather than a case of playing badly. With three away matches, the next on Sunday against Alderholt and one home match at the end of the season, Verwood must start winning again to avoid the humiliation of finishing bottom of Division 5 for the second year running. They still have matches in hand over their nearest rivals but this means nothing if they cannot earn points.

The Maldives

On Wednesday morning we arrived home from our two week holiday in the Maldives with our dear friends Jackie & Cliff.

Meedhupparu Island Resort where we stayed has not changed much since our visit this time last year. The tranquility and ambiance still remains the same. The food is still excellent and there is so much choice. The Resort staff are still as friendly.

They are carrying out work on one tip of the island to repair damage to the beach caused by errosion. They have constructed a stone wall

several metres from the edge of the damage and are in the slow process of filling in with sand behind the wall to reconstruct the beach. Experts have told them that nature during the monsoon months will do the final filling in when the tides will bring sand over the retaining wall and the beach will be reconstructed.

The coral reef surrounding the island is recovering from the storm damage in such a short space of time.

Each day after breakfast we walked to the end of one of the two jetties to watch the fish under the crystal clear water. One of the fish we were lucky to see was the giant Napoleon Wrasse.

At night this same area of water was lit up by bright lights on the jetty and two of the Island staff would come down with a big drum of fish waste to feed the abundance of fish. On several nights this attracted a school of Jack Tuna and on a couple of nights a giant Eagle Ray.

Snorkeling off the beach in fairly shallow water was one of our daily activities. The colour and the diversity of species was amazing. From "Nemo" to species of Ray. On one stretch of beach in shallow water we saw baby Reef Sharks swimming up and down. On the day before we left Cliff and I were lucky to see Dolphins leaping out of the water just on the edge of the deep part of the reef about 12 metres from the shoreline.

Because this was a repeat visit to the Resort, on both Saturday nights we were there we all got invited to a thank you cocktail party to meet the General Manager and some of his management staff.

The highlight of last week for the management was a visit from The Maldivian President who has his own waterside bungalow on the Island.

The biggest highlight of the week was Yvonne - Mum - Mermaid, swimming and snorkeling without the aid of a safety line!