SKETCHING HOURS AWAY

A friend suggested that while I was immobilised, I could think about doing some sketching. It is something I have not taken a notion to do for more years than I can remember. I liked the idea and gave it some thought.

Hubby has enough to do  responding to almost my every whim and supervising me when wobbling on the crutches. Before you ask, no, I have not mastered them. Trying to move short distances on the crutches gives the palms of my hands a break from the pressure pain, caused by hopping with a zimmer frame. Notwithstanding my limitations, some strategies for being a bit independent are evolving.

Sketching. First of all I would have to send hubby to find the materials. I am not sure where they are. I remember buying a video about sketching, colouring skills and ideas,  to go with some lovely Keswick pencils, before such things were recorded onto CD's and DVD's.  This would be a great opportunity to get on with watching it, but..........for the moment, we are both having quite a lot of domestic changes to adjust to, without adding layers to them.

Inspiration: why don't I download some arty apps onto my iPad - so I did. There were a couple of free ones that did not appeal, one tried to suck you into cloud storage with Adobe.  There are two apps that I decided upon.  One is free the other I paid a nominal asking price. If I don't get on with either of them, there won't have been a large investment.

Digital art creation on an iPad is strange. It feels like there is less control over the progress of an opus. There is obviously a technique to master. Of course, all these apps are sooooo eeeeasy to understand. I am still working out how to save what I do and find it again. You erase something, you get the outline of the erasure when you apply your correction.  The best I can say so far, ( early days yet) I have the time and space to experiment and hopefully, improve.  Also a couple of hours disappeared while I tried to acquaint myself with digital sketching.  One thing I am really good at is using the eraser. 

LESS THAN TWO DAYS TO TREAT

Well I never!  My imminent hospital visit was all sorted, or so I thought till I received a letter telling me I had the option of going somewhere else.  I do... why?

The appointment offered, the letter explained, with apologies, was thirteen days past the legally required period  for treatment to be given.  The hospital is therefore "required to identify if any other hospital outside the region would be able to treat [me]".... before the date that I was offered.  The letter goes on to say that I may have already received a call from the hospital about this asking whether I would be willing to to be placed under the care of another consultant; (no, I have not received such a call).  Of course,  if I did want to pursue this offer,  it would mean that I would have to travel for treatment and possibly any follow up care.  Receiving timely follow up care has long been a bone of contention for many patients in far flung communities. It would be nice to get it.  As you can tell, this guidance does not worry me in the least.  It might, I suppose, if I lived within, say, twenty or thirty miles of the hospital. 

I am  used to travelling for a regional hospital appointment, a journey of 240 miles, (round trip).  I would not be particularly put out by having to travel farther, if I were to pursue a change of plans.  As I am not going to, it is all academic anyway.  

It is highly unlikely the administration would be able to obtain alternative services for me with so little time to do so, less than TWO DAYS.  By sending me the offer at very short notice to re-arrange my treatment, the hospital may just about have legally covered itself. 

ALWAYS A WAITING GAME

Given that I was told that my package would be with me one to two working days after being shipped, I naturally thought day one would be Wednesday, particularly, as the 'excited' notification, (exclamation marks used in abundance) said that my shipment was on its way, yesterday, Tuesday.  Logically, day two would then  be Thursday.  I rearranged my social activities and 'camped' within ear shot of the front door, heaven forfend I would miss a knock, (delivery service people don't seem to notice the doorbell). I also kept an eye on email notifications, which were constantly advising me that the shipment could not be tracked. 

Late afternoon, I was feeling a bit stir crazy, I checked  emails again. Oh, there was a different message; I'd got a tracking number I could follow; interesting, this was diametrically opposed to the first constant message with no tracking.  I got on the track and discovered my delivery, was booked to be on Monday, next week and any time up till 7pm! The lady I spoke to at the courier's office, said, (thinking she was being comforting I suppose) deliveries are never made earlier than the date given.  They might be a day later, but never earlier

"sigh"

NO....... REALLY?

It's got to be easier and quicker to load things on to the phone while it's plugged in, hasn't it? 

Not so as you would notice.  The time line bar started out at five hours!   There's only one thing to do when you are left gawping at that sort of time span, apart from wishing the bandwidth of the local broadband was a bit broader and niftier; (the polite version of my thoughts.)  A few moments on and the time line bar was reducing by an hour, two hours, then, yay! three hours.  "Come on you can go just a bit more"  It stuck at offering me two hours for the downloads.  It said two hours and it did just exactly what it said it would do. No further willing, wishing, silent cajoling, was going anywhere.  

I checked the progress bar a few times between preparing and cooking the veggies and it seemed to be enjoying itself, stuck on one spot.....two ***@@@*** hours! So I got busy with other things, settled down to relax for the evening and forgot all about it.

Darn it - just getting ready for bed and remembered I had the whole kit and caboodle wired up and the computer  still switched on and busy. At least the time line bar had disappeared, and various things had put themselves in position all by themselves.  Isn't technology magic. 
 Now some of my favourite apps have to be updated, more time... 

BACK TO BLANK

Very recently I was thinking I hadn't got much to say, then two blog thoughts arrived. 

I'm back to blank at the moment and waiting to see what occurs.

TIME HAS CHANGED!

"Hello, good...er...." mumbling and rustling of papers heard in the background; ".....mm".
 "Yes it's still good morning, otherwise I'm running seriously late", I say down the phone.
"Ha, ha, of course it is, good morning....how can I help?".....
"Just checking if you are serving bar lunches in the run up to Christmas".
...."Serving till 2pm".  I hoped his clock was not on Antipodean time.


This bit of repartee reminded me of a notice I saw recently, giving opening hours for a fish and chip take away.
                                             
                                   NEW OPENING HOURS
                                       OPEN ALL DAY
                                             1pm to 7pm

AREN'T COMMUNICATIONS EXERCISING.

"What were you trying to print?" asked the real-time texting I.T. technician. I realised that my original quest for help and details about how I had got to that desperation point had not been read. This was after I had waited ten minutes for a technician to 'show up', had been through switch on and off checks, printer management trials and had printed a test page. All these things I'd done, and more, before I had sought help. "

There's no communication problem to the machine, then"
"I think there is" and I explained again what my technical problem was.

Oh dear, is the written word so difficult to take on board, after all, real time chat suggests that both parties can write/type to be understood. Or do I hope for too much?

"I'll send you an email with other options specific to your difficulty" - coded language for, 'this is too difficult to deal with you're on your own'.

Of course, I can call again if nothing works. There are instructions for re-spooling; then eliminating possible conflicts like you do for allergies.

What fun (Not!)