Life on this planet: The Saga of the PC Stick

This time in just two very short days I will be in one of those big white birds on the first leg of my very long trip to the UK. You know you live in the most isolated city on Earth when you travel overseas. There are no direct flights to Europe, there is always a stopover, in my instance in Dubai in the wee small hours of the morning local time, before finally arriving in London early Friday morning local time...... before attempting to navigate the labyrinth that is Heathrow Airport that is so huge that it makes Sydney Airport look like a dusty old outback runway with a few tin sheds serving as terminals!!! There I pick up my rental car for the hour's drive or so to Southampton on the south coast which will be my home base for the next two weeks.

Meanwhile back at the ranch...... been very busy.........

Last week I mentioned about ordering a PC Stick, basically a device that you plug into the TV turning it into a Windows PC with an equivalent power of a high end laptop for a fraction of the price. Sounds like a great deal, so I ordered one, which of course came from the east coast. And a short week later them carrier pigeons finally delivered my Stick, that was last Wednesday.

So I connected my keyboard and mouse to the device and plugged it into my TV. The device automatically began to boot itself, loading up Windows.... so far so good...... until..... Alas!!!!! It refused to talk to my keyboard!!!! The mouse worked fine, but the device wouldn't work without a keyboard. So I tried a 2nd keyboard that I had..... same result!!!! Arrrrrrrgh!!!!!

Back to square one!!!!! I was so annoyed!!!! Just as luck would have it, it seemed I had gotten a faulty device. Well there is a warranty attached to it, but being so close to my trip there is simply no time to deal with it..... will probably have to send it back to the east coast, that is at least a week, then probably months before I either get it back or at least get sent a replacement device.

So I faced up to the possibility of having just my tablet for my trip, and being without a Windows machine for the foreseeable future.

As the saying goes, it is better not to gain at all than it is to gain then lose it!!!! Like you been promised something only for it to fall through at the last minute!!!! Whether it was just that or the universe prodding me, I felt compelled again to look for laptops.

True enough there are cheap laptops around but it is very much a case of you get what you pay for. Cheap laptops are not much bigger than my tablet and nothing much more than glorified electronic pads. A geek like me needs much more, a decent machine with grunt, high speed processor, graphics, basically a multimedia machine - otherwise I might as well just stick with my tablet.

Such machines are expensive. Me being Virgo I do my research, finding a compromise between power and price. But nomatter, whatever machine I would end up being happy with, it is going to be expensive. Oh I had the funds for it aside from that is set aside for my Glastonbury trip, however, the extra funds were set aside towards my 2017 trips.

So it came down to a choice of two trips in 2017, or a laptop and one trip in the latter half of 2017.

I chose the latter...... and so I am now composing this blog on my new laptop.... which of course will be coming with me to Glastonbury.

Next thing my car..... and last week I also had it booked in for a service, new tyres, and replace rear brake light. In this instance I gotten off cheaper than expected, and my car is now roadworthy as well as being given a much overdue service. However as expected, the cooling system needs a massive flush before the summer. Up to now it has been behaving itself, but only because of our endless winter, being the coldest September on record, and October being not much warmer. So when I get back from Glastonbury I will need to get the cooling system dealt with. There's other things that needs to be done but none so urgent. I forget the car is over 12 years old!!!! It doesn't seem that old, it is still in good nick, no rust spots or things falling off, it still looks like a near-new car. But yeah it is having the issues of a 12 year old car, with work needing to be done to it.

Now just basically packing and getting ready for the trip, trying to figure out what I need to bring along while at the same time trying to keep within the airline luggage weight limits, very difficult for a Virgo who thinks he needs everything just in case he regrets leaving some things behind!!!

So just tomorrow, a full day..... then Thursday morning..... I am due at the airport pretty well soon after midday, the flight itself is due to leave at 5pm, landing in Dubai around midnight, and about two hours later, the 2nd leg to London, arriving approx 7:30am local time. Pretty good time to arrive, gives me all day to well get through customs, pick up rental car, drive to Southampton, check into the motel, and get myself set up. The motel has free wi fi, as is pretty well standard these days, most motels have free wi fi. So I will stay in touch, uploading pixs to my Glastonbury site, and also my weird musings posted on the site.

Link to my Glastonbury Trip site where pixs will be uploaded pretty well every day.......

Glastonbury Trip Page

Indeed right now I have pixs uploaded to the page already, pixs of my crystals, wand, figurine, and my pendant for my trip. So well prepared for my energy works and visiting those mystical sites and ET hotspots.

This must be under "Virgo"