Thursday 19 February 2015

Computers - who'ld have them?

After fighting long and hard against entering the computerised world, I embraced it and now wonder how I ever managed without it.   The same goes for entry into blogland, where I now count my almost daily 'chats' to blog friends as an essential part of my life.

But as soon as I leave my comfort zone I realise how very little I really know about computers.

This morning an expected e mail arrived from B.B., giving the venue, time and menu for a meal we are having with a group of friends in a fortnight.   Luckily I immediately wrote down the menu on a piece of paper so that the farmer  could scrutinise it at lunch time and tell me his choices.   Then I clicked on 'move to folder', opened a new folder and intended to save both the e mail and the menu into that folder.  Instead it disappeared into thin air, never to be seen again.   I have searched everywhere but there is no sign of any of it.   We have chosen our meals, now I have to find another method of getting those choices to the chap organising the get together. (I don't have his e mail address without the e mail).

Similarly, the hub on my broadband has been playing naughty tricks for several weeks.   Some mornings the broadband light is not its usual blue and I can't get onto broadband.   On the advice of my daughter-in-law (after I had waited an hour in the middle of the day in a queue) I rang this morning at eight o'clock to request a new hub.

I got through immediately and the very pleasant lady listened to my request.. Sadly, I found her accent very hard to decipher and equally sadly she found my deafness hard to cope with.   Between us we bumbled through and got there in the end - a new hub will arrive on Monday or Tuesday.  At the end of our conversation she said, "Thank you so much for your patience with me".   And I could only reply "and thank you for your patience with my deafness too."
I am pretty sure that this meant that both of us started off today feeling good about ourselves.   Politness and a pleasant attitude costs nothing.   

Oh would that all the present problems in the world could be solved so easily.

14 comments:

jinxxxygirl said...

Some days are just like that aren't they? Makes you wonder if you should have just stayed in bed. lol I'm not sure where your email went but i'll bet its there somewhere because even if you deleted it by accident it would still be there...... I wish i knew more about computers to tell you how to find it. :) Hugs~deb

Frances said...

Perhaps your missing email has flown into some sort of Cloud?

I also value patience, and try to practice it myself...particularly when i feel I am about to enter into the land of impatience. Can be tough to hold back!

Best wishes.

John Going Gently said...

The Indian call centre workers are wonderfully polite
But sometimes the nuances of communication with the regional accents of the UK , dies make troubleshooting problems difficult xx

Heather said...

I have deleted emails by accident, and it is so annoying. I know how to do various things on my laptop but don't really understand much about it's workings.
Good manners and patience make life so much more easy and pleasant for everyone.

MorningAJ said...

Get someone to show you where the 'undo' button is on various programs. (It often looks like a backwards bent arrow) It can get you out of trouble sometimes.

Rachel Phillips said...

Put in a word, an unusual word that was in the email, in the Search box at the top of your mail page and click enter. If the email is still around it will find it. It could still be in Trash if you accidentally deleted it too.

Did the friendly lady in Mumbai also ask you to unscrew the socket off the wall? They usually do.

Good luck/
.

Elizabeth said...

You can retrieve most things that have vanished by going into
'Deleted' - or at least I can on Hotmail...
not sure how your email server works.
Good idea from Rachel suggesting choosing a word that you can recall from the email - maybe the name of the restaurant?

I feel so bad for the call center workers - endlessly being on the other end of people who have problems of some sort - some of whom must be grumpy and borderline grumpy-tearful with computer and washing machine woes!
But they were glad you were nice to them!
Tomorrow morning it will be 4'F minus who knows what C....
Claudia has daffoldils in London....daffa- what? nary a snowdrop here.....

Twiggy said...

I agree whenever I speak to Indian call centre the staff are charming. Goodness knows how they decipher our many and varied accents. I'd check your deleted emails or trash for your email. Unless you have set up your trash to empty automatically it might still be there.
Twiggy

Gwil W said...

It's like driving a car. You basically point it and go. The average Joe doesn't need to know about vorsprungdurchtechnik or cylinder head gaskets. Same with computers.

Cro Magnon said...

A few months ago I was having trouble with my connection and my provider sent a man round. He found a tiny loose wire in some small box, and now it's fine. There are so many such tiny things that can go wrong.

John "By Stargoose And Hanglands" said...

I hope that daily chats with foreign call centres don't become an essential part of daily life too.

Em Parkinson said...

Infuriating! Like biros perhaps?

Mac n' Janet said...

Oh my computer, I could not live without it. I was in education and came to computers fairly early, back in the 80's. I don't always know what I'm doing, but I just keep pushing on.
I use it for everything!!!

Hildred said...

How nice when we get old enough and wise enough and kind enough to make allowances for other people's difficulties. Makes life much more pleasant.