I hate the ghastly little brown things

The clothes dryer exited its warranty in September so naturally popped its clogs less than a month later.

How do they do this?

Anyway the nice man from Electrolux did not charge me for the new motor – just the labor costs and travel time - so the cost was only slightly less than the cost of a new dryer – rather than slightly more. A good result really.

The Jura coffee machine is also out of its warranty and is starting to make expensive sounding noises. It is a real Prima Donna and has already been in for repairs twice under warranty so it will have to do more than make grinding and crunching noises to get any attention from me. I suggest a loud explosion followed by smoke and flame. That should do it. Then will beat it to a pulp with my cricket bat and get a new and quiet machine.

I have a perfectly good Gaggia coffee machine waiting in the basement to take its place on a temporary basis and if it does not pull its weight it can expect to reap the consequences. These are tough times – we have to do more with less. Just you Americans wait until next week and you will see what I mean.

Today I got a notice from Microsoft that my new and free upgrade to Office for the Mac was available so I tried to get it – and failed.

After inputting my 3 Product Codes and jumping through a few hoops I then discovered that I had to send to Microsoft a copy of the original purchase receipt. They will examine this within 5 days and decided whether or not I am eligible.

Now I understand that lots of software is pirated - but I have spent some time thinking about this and the fact that I had to register my software with Microsoft before I could use it. It was genuine then so why are the same numbers now not adequate for an upgrade. They could only be used for genuine software – and could only be used once. It makes no sense to me.

On Monday after a walk in the snow we were sitting in a Restaurant in the tiny little town of Untertal in Styria watching the Snow falling outside. We had some delicious Pumpkin soup and I followed with an Apfelstrudel mit Eis. This came with raisins so I had to pick these out because of my strong aversion to these ghastly little things – but this was a minor irritant and the Strudel was delicious.

So we discussed – as we often do – how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful country and to actually have the means to travel around it – and indeed many other places. We take nothing for granted. We have had some tough times and survived them and thank our lucky stars that we are together and have a nice life.

Of course Cate has to work 18-hour days and travel constantly – but I think it is worth it.  The amount of fun I have certainly outweighs the torment she endures.