Journal Entries
My lucky day
Posted Oct 23, 2006
I often use my Journal to complain about things that are annoying me and getting me down. So, by way of balance, I think I should record the story of how October 23, 2006 went for me.
I woke up and got out of bed with no trouble. This in itself was a significant good thing, because less than two days earlier I'd been suffering such severe muscle spasm in my back that I couldn't walk more than a few steps without stabbing pains that made me gasp. Getting up on Saturday had been a matter of leaning very heavily on bedside furniture and wincing a lot. But two days of rest, keeping warm and taking painkillers seemed to have just about fixed things. 
Then I checked the post and found an envelope from my University. It was the result of my application for financial help from the Access To Learning Fund, a means-tested hardship fund for poverty-stricken full-time students. I'd found making the application a depressing business - just about every detail of my monetary life had been demanded. 12 months ago I had been awarded £500 from the fund, which I thought was the maximum annual grant. However, to my amazement, the letter said that my award for 2006-7 was £1,190.
Which makes all the difference between being able to pay the rent on my flat and having to lie awake at night wondering how on 
I can do so.
I went to do my part-time job in the Uni art gallery. On the way in I bumped into an old friend who I'd been worried about - he'd been off work following a nervous breakdown. He told me he was on the mend and on his way in to work for the first time in months. I told him it was really great to see him again, because it was. 
I got to the gallery. I was surrounded by an exhibition of lovely David Hockney prints and drawings, the sun was shining through the window, and I was in a great mood. I switched on the computer and got to work on an assignment for my creative writing module that had also been worrying me. By the end of the day, I'd written something I really liked, with three days to spare before the deadline. I tried a new place for dinner and had a good meal, then met up with my theatre chums to rehearse the show - 'Grimm's Fairy Tales' 
- that's on at our beloved Theatre In The Mill this weekend. That, too, went very successfully. I went and had a nice 
with the gang in the Students' Union bar, then headed for home. Feeling a little tired, I stopped off for another at a favourite pub of mine - and won £24 on the quiz machine.
Life is often very hard; but just once in a blue 
everything goes right. I just wanted to record this so that the next time I'm feeling despondent, I can see a reminder that good days really do happen sometimes. 
Discuss this Journal entry [8]
Latest reply: Oct 23, 2006
Bitter Orange
Posted Oct 8, 2006
Is anyone who reads this Journal an Orange Broadband subscriber? If so, are you too having major problems with them at present?
My difficulties started 18 days ago, when my home phone line broke down. Naturally, this also knocked out my Internet connection. Three days later, the phone line was restored. However, I found that my Internet connection still didn't work. Whenever I tried to connect, I got Error 0721 - failure to establish a connection with the remote computer. So of course I phoned Orange's Helpdesk... and I've been doing that at regular intervals ever since.
To cut a long and weary story short, I've been told that they've been upgrading their system and that it was just an unfortunate coincidence that they tried to upgrade mine while the line was out of order. But on some of the occasions when I've called, I've got a recorded message saying that Orange know that a lot of their Broadband customers are having problems with their connections, and that their engineers are working 'very hard, right now' to fix it. Sometimes I've actually got through to the Orange call centre (which is in India - one operator mentioned that) and have been told either that the problem will be fixed in the next few days, or that they're waiting for the results of a line test. The latest call today resulted in the promise that they'd have the line test results in the next 48 hours. As I told the operator, I really hope that's true.
I am far too much of a good liberal to start raging and swearing at some poor underpaid soul doing a job I'd hate to do, but frankly that was what I felt like doing today. Instead I simply said, with icy politeness, that I'd had enough of paying for a service I wasn't getting and would be looking for another ISP if I wasn't back online this week.
So here I am in the University computer room again, and what I'd like to know is: is anyone else in hootoo-land currently getting similar disservice from Orange? And, since I was serious about my polite threat - can anyone recommend a good ISP? 
Discuss this Journal entry [7]
Latest reply: Oct 8, 2006
I must look like a creative genius...
Posted Sep 15, 2006
...Because when I do my part-time job as an invigilator in Bradford University's art gallery, hardly a day goes by without someone coming up to my desk and asking if I created all the work on display. It doesn't matter if the artist's name and/or biography is prominently displayed; I even got asked the question when we had an exhibition of photographic prints by the novelist and poet Joolz Denby, and a large picture of Ms. Denby was on view beside the entrance.
Sadly, of course, I always have to own up that someone else did the creating and I'm just minding the shop. But it is nevertheless rather flattering, and I certainly appreciate my good luck in being able to get paid to sit surrounded by beautiful images. At present, until October 13, we have an exhibition of paintings and woodcuts by Richard Wincer, whose paintings on plywood really are very lovely; he brilliantly incorporates the grain and texture of the wood into his images. If you happen to be passing the University on a Monday or a Friday, drop in and say 'hello'; it's often fairly quiet in here (I'm typing this on a computer in the gallery). But if you can't make it, you can still see some of Mr. Wincer's work here: http://www.richardwincer.co.uk/ . 
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Latest reply: Sep 15, 2006
Greetings from Scarborough
Posted Jul 5, 2006
Phew. That was lucky. My folks and I have headed for the North Yorkshire coast in the week when, from what I've read, it seems to have been one of the few parts of Britain not affected by extreme weather of one kind or another, and when there was torrential rain back home in Bradford.
OK, it's been sunny at times 
and foggy at others; we were planning to visit Flamborough Head and its famous 
today, but fog has forced the postponement of that plan. Nevertheless, I have relaxed very happily, seen the local sights, enjoyed the change of scenery and read a really good 
- Danny Wallace's very funny and uplifting 'Yes Man', in which DW adopts a policy of saying 'yes' to almost every offer that comes his way, with some surprising but generally positive and highly entertaining consequences.
If you happen to be heading this way, I particularly recommend a visit to Scarborough Art Gallery, which - until September 24 - houses a brilliant exhibition called 'Fabulous Sound Machines'. Various artists have built elaborate contraptions or room-sized installations that generate sounds in a variety of bizarre ways, and which all visitors are encouraged to 'play'. It's eminently suitable for children, and it certainly appealed to the big kid in me.
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Latest reply: Jul 5, 2006
The Credit Rating of the Beast
Posted Jun 27, 2006
It's not often that a spam message makes me smile, but I was delighted to get one this morning that began: 'Good News; You credit report has came back with a good score of 666.'
Yeah, sounds about right... 
Discuss this Journal entry [13]
Latest reply: Jun 27, 2006
Ormondroyd
Researcher U95721
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