It's Alive!
Lugged halfway around the world and back, my elderly laptop, on which almost all of the last five years of blog posts* have been written, has magically sprung back into life. I don't know why, or how. I was about to take a screwdriver to the back of it, haul out its hard drive and copy the whole thing over to my dad's desktop - technically now my desktop - which has been sitting in a corner of my study glowering at me for nigh on eighteen months. Just out of mad hope, I hit the 'on' switch first, and the damned thing worked. I guess it doesn't like Canadian air, although it was quite happy when it went there in 2007.
On the plus side, that's the thick end of a grand I don't have to find right now for a replacement, and it postpones the old Mac/PC debate for a little while longer.** I'm still going to do a full backup though, just in case.
On the Skiing front, I can only say that Whistler was pretty bloody amazing. Clear blue skies and sunshine on Christmas Day, the view from Whistler Peak was awesome (and I use that word advisedly). The snow was good, the weather fine, and the crowds weren't too bad until December 27th. Even then, with a reported 22,000 people on the two mountains, I never had to queue at a lift for more than five minutes. After thirteen days of continuous skiing - the most I've ever done - I still hadn't scratched the surface of what's available. Both the Horse Doctor and I even managed to do the Men's and Women's Olympic runs - soon to be used in anger at the 2010 Winter Games - albeit at a somewhat more leisurely pace than themad bastards heroic Olympic athletes. All in all, heartily recommended for anyone bored of the short runs, rude Frenchmen, drunken Brits and overall pretentiousness of European ski resorts.
*yup, I missed that anniversary. Maybe another blogpost another time.
** not that it's ever a very serious debate. I've been using PCs for twenty years, do I really want to learn a whole new OS just because it looks cool? There are a couple of Mac only programs I'd quite like to use though...
On the plus side, that's the thick end of a grand I don't have to find right now for a replacement, and it postpones the old Mac/PC debate for a little while longer.** I'm still going to do a full backup though, just in case.
On the Skiing front, I can only say that Whistler was pretty bloody amazing. Clear blue skies and sunshine on Christmas Day, the view from Whistler Peak was awesome (and I use that word advisedly). The snow was good, the weather fine, and the crowds weren't too bad until December 27th. Even then, with a reported 22,000 people on the two mountains, I never had to queue at a lift for more than five minutes. After thirteen days of continuous skiing - the most I've ever done - I still hadn't scratched the surface of what's available. Both the Horse Doctor and I even managed to do the Men's and Women's Olympic runs - soon to be used in anger at the 2010 Winter Games - albeit at a somewhat more leisurely pace than the
Inukshuk and Black Tusk - Whistler Peak, Christmas 2009
Now all I've got to do is find a way to pay for it all. Happy New Year to you all.
*yup, I missed that anniversary. Maybe another blogpost another time.
** not that it's ever a very serious debate. I've been using PCs for twenty years, do I really want to learn a whole new OS just because it looks cool? There are a couple of Mac only programs I'd quite like to use though...
Comments