GRRR............& I am SO very lucky

GRRR........................

I have Kaspersky Anti-Virus running on my machine with daily updates and still I managed to pick up a virus!!!!!!!!!! Why am I paying over the odds for broadband which includes anti-virus when the d****d thing doesn't work?

It has been an extremely annoying 4-5 days because this sucker was smart - when I tried to install malwarebytes to get rid of it the evil thing knew and wouldn't let me install the exe file!!!!!! So the forum told me to download it on a clean machine - that would be fine if I had another machine but as the desktop blew up months ago I only have the laptop and it was the one infected. We don't have internet access at work so I was casting about to try and find a solution. Light dawned - I would phone my computer expert friend in NC and ask him. No answer, strange, normally not a problem getting in contact as long as I remember the 5 hour time difference. Anyway, leave a mesage and wait. Phone call next day from my friend Betsy, his wife, he is in hospital!!!!!!!!! Well, I'm glad in a way, according to my Mum, "not good" things always arrive in threes - FIL being 1; uncle being 2 I had been wondering what 3 would be so now I knew and at least this one wasn't terribly serious. It did put me in a jam though - what do I do now?


In desperation I phoned my cousin who knows a little about computers and asked him to email me the file - but NO that would be too clever - wouldn't it? Yahoo won't let you send an exe file by email! But unfortunately the telephone doesn't work the other way round apparently as I sat there like a lemon waiting for the email to come.

So I phoned again and he said he would burn it to disc - Oh please save me from too-smart-for-their-own-good young (just past teenager) men. He decided he knew best and had dowloaded the installation files instead so exactly the same happened - the exe file wouldn't install. So yet another phone call - this time spelling it out in words of one syllable "I just want the b***** exe file"!! We are now in day 3 since I first contacted him! And I ended up going round and standing over him as he burned it to disc to ensure I got the right thing.

Success - the exe file works but hours and hours later I now have 47

YES you read it right

47 infected files!!!!!!!!!!!!!


And of course it took more time to fix but the end is still not here as on reboot it tells me I have "bad image" files!!!!!!!!! Your guess is as good as mine as to what that means. In reality what it means to me is I now have to download Hijackthis, run it (which again takes forever) and fix one line.........................


WORKING COMPUTER - YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But all of this means I am effectively offline for 5 days! Withdrawl symptoms extraordinaire LOL.


To change the subject for the better...........


I AM SO VERY LUCKY.............




I WON Wanda's giveaway ...........



WOO HOO



and then I won one of the runner-up prizes from Aileen too............



DOUBLE WOO HOO


I am SO excited I can't contain myself LOL! Poor postie he'll be lynched when he comes with me impatiently waiting for goodies to arrive! But wait I'll probably have to do as we have more mail strikes expected this week as well :(

I am so lucky to have such good friends online - you will never really know just how much your kindess means.


PS Marilee is also having a giveaway - have a look here

Almost back to normal & look at this stunner

I'm very slowly getting back to normal. Why "very slowly" I hear you ask.........well, within an hour and a half of seeing my uncle in the hospital on the Thursday after I last posted (actually later that very day), I came down with a vicious cold or flu - maybe even the dreaded swine flu for all I know. Whatever, it was it has been (& still is to be truthful) NASTY. The temperature is the worst - just doesn't give up.

DS also got it 2 days after me so just try and picture this - DS hallucinating at 2.30am because his temp was so high (he ALWAYS spikes really high temps when he is ill but I would have thought that by 8 that shold be over by now?!) and me trying to bath him in tepid water when I could barely stand up myself - I nearly crawled into the bath with him LOL. Luckily he didn't get it as badly as me and was pretty much better by Thursday last week. I suppose what hasn't helped me is that I had to go back to work last Wednesday still with a temp feeling like s***.

There is one advantage to it though - as I still have to eat a proper meal 12 days later - I have lost some weight which never comes a miss as I have plenty to loose lol.

Thank you again for all your thoughtfullness throughout this low time - you don't know how much it helps!

I was going to post about lots of giveaways but I seem to have forgotten a few.......I did tell you I still wasn't right! The ones I can remember are Sherry's ongoing supreme generosity which will start again tomorrow.

Aileen's Halloween one here

Krystledawn's blogreader appreciation one here

And lastly but by no means least, you must go and see the talent of this lady, Ginger, here. I have blogged about her before and her creations are simply stunning - you also have a chance to win Noelle at the moment here

Must go for now even though I am sure I've missed someone

Dear All

Please excuse this post as I am sitting here unable to sleep at nearly 3am and I will probably ramble as I am feeling sorry for myself.

Thank you all SO much for all your kind thoughts over Billy's (FIL) death - it really has been appreciated.

Tuesday REALLY was NOT a good day - it started with a phone call at 0750 to say that my uncle (my one remaining immediate relative apart from DH & DS) was being loaded into an ambulance critically ill. That really was the icing on the cake of what was going to be a sh***y day anyway as it was Billy's funeral that afternoon.

I have always found the majority of DH's relatives odd and stand-offish and true to form they didn't break the habits of the last 16 years so I had a truly "great" time at the funeral tea with his aunt looking through me and totally ignoring me to the extent of turning her back on me when I tried to be polite and actually speak to her.
Well I suppose they do say (up here anyway) "There's naught stranger than fauk"!

We went in to the hospital to see my uncle in the evening - that was distressing to say the least. He is having a very hard time breathing and has pneumonia so is having to wear a positive pressure mask to try and superoxygenate him. The mask was distressing him badly as he was truly desperate for a drink but they wouldn't let him take the mask off at all. We didn't stay for more than 15 minutes as it was just to much for all concerned.

He did have a reasonable night and apparently was doing a little better today (well, yesterday now) but that really doesn't stop the worry. My aunt admitted to me today that when he was rushed to hospital he was unconscious and unresponsive and they didn't think he would make it. He certainly isn't out of the woods yet as there is also apparently some concern over his kidneys too.

I think what is bothering me the most is that if he dies just now I really don't know how DS will cope. He was put through things last week that no 8 year old should have to deal with. As we have no family back-up wherever DH & I were he had to be too. He even slept on a fold-out bed across the hall at the hospice. His grandfather's death bothered him but not unduly as Billy was not close even though DS has no other grandparent alive - his other grandchildren mattered more! Why, I have no idea but it was a major problem with me. Because of this he has truly latched onto my uncle (his great-uncle) and he will be absolutely devastated when he goes, particularly if it happens in the near future.

I know I am just being pessimistic but that doesn't stop the worry. Sorry to burden you all with this - just needed to get it all off my chest. Will try to sleep now.

Just a short note to say I probably won't be about very much for the next week to 10 days - my father-in-law finally gave up his struggle at 0755 this morning. Now he's at peace.

How lucky we are.....

Sometimes something happens that makes you realise just how lucky you really are in the scheme of things. That happened to me tonight.

I have been mucking around on the computer brooding, because my DH came home tonight from the hospice after seeing FIL and said that he was doing a bit better today. Forgive me, but I just hoped it was the rally that so many people manage before the end. He is truly suffering now and I get so angry that if our 12 yr old dog (12 today even lol) was suffering like that we would have been able to take the kindest route before it got to this dreadful point. FIL finally accepted that the hospice was the best place for himself only on Wednesday after falling, not eating, going into diabetic crises etc etc etc over and over again and trying to manage by himself with just health visitors for months.

I was wandering around the blogs and from Sarah's blog I meandered onto anothers.

Now we may have, so far this year -

a stuffed washing machine

a knackered fridge/freezer

a broken oven

a blown-up computer

a car that sounds like a diesel when its petrol and will not pass it's MOT in October which will leave us car-less

and no money to replace any of the above

AND a FIL with terminal pancreatic cancer but we are still TRULY blessed and I thank GOD for all that we DO have.

Just have a read of Renee's blog and you will understand................

Loads of Giveaways

There are at least 3 different giveaways on at the moment

1) You'll have to be VERY quick but Ginger at Bearbits in having a 25th anniversary giveaway of the most darling little bear called Peeka Boo - you can see him here

2) Sherry is continuing her Giveaway gala with this weeks prize being her Royal Diadem pattern - I'm going to be very good and not enter this one for two reasons - I have this wonderful pattern and I have already won a skein of thread. Musn't be greedy LOL!



3) And last but not least Aileen is having a Halloween Mystery giveaway which you can find here

WOO HOO!

YAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH SHERRY - I won a skein of Sherry's stunning HDT - now all I've got to do is contain myself until the postie brings it from the USA. Sometimes I think that carrier pigeon would be faster than mail from the US and other times it surprises me - I am participating in the InTatters postcard exchange. I've sent 10 and hopefully will get 10 back - so far I've had 3 back

1) from Barbara (tattabug) in NY, USA (Look at those stunning waterfalls)


2) from Kersti in Dublin, Ireland


3) from Maria (spuriportugal) in Cascais, Portugal (Maria also sent a couple of pages on history about Cascais and the local area!)


Sorry about the quality of the photos but you get the drift!

It is so nice receiving stuff from other countries and seeing what to those that live there are just every day things but to us are "exotic". I can't wait for the rest to arrive.

Next installment will hopefully be about Shirley's shuttle.................watch this space!