Blogs: Pandammonia 
The world that revolves around Caity Ross.
Archive for the ‘breaking things’ tag
Garages
Before we moved to where we live now in Cambridge, we lived just outside Cambridge proper. I went to a local garage there because I didn’t want to go to the Peugeot one because they were expensive and not the best. When we moved, I continued to go to that garage, even though it’s a hassle to get there without a car from here.
I have become increasingly dissatisfied with the service of late, with many things having to go back at least twice before they’re fixed. The people are really nice, though, so I haven’t said anything, and I’m also a wuss.
I took Henry to them recently to fix a clunky knocking noise from somewhere down by my feet, and they said it was some wires in the steering column, which they fixed, but they said that there was a deposit around the ignition that shouldn’t be there; I’d need a new ignition switch. Baulking at the cost of that (I didn’t inquire, thinking it would be tonnes of pennies) and the delay in getting one that would work with the immobiliser, I decided not to get one, although it’s been preying on my mind. When I drove away with Henry, I heard the knocking noise again as I pulled away from the roundabout. I was not happy – what had I actually paid them all that money for, exactly?!
That was the last straw. When said garage sent me a reminder about Henry needing a service recently, I decided that was it and I was going to find a new one to go to. I put that off somewhat, until there came a sloshing noise from somewhere down by my feet. That sounded really quite dodgy indeed, even worse than the knocking noise. I still put it off, though. I just didn’t drive anywhere. But this weekend, I’m driving northwards and need Henry to not be at risk of conking out on the A1 because that’s not fun. Time to stop procrastinating.
I got the Yellow Pages out on Monday and found a garage nearby, and booked Henry in for a full service and a repair job. He’s getting a full service because I have lost so much faith in the original garage that I need someone else to see what travesties have been performed under his bonnet.
The man seemed to know what he was talking about, and seemed familiar with Henry-type cars. He explained what was probably causing the knocking noise and the sloshing noise. The latter is the flutes in the inside radiator and not a serious problem; the former is the drive shaft and will not be cheap to fix. Still, it’s gotta be done. Hopefully by Friday; if not, I’ll get a courtesy car.
Courtesy cars are fun. Last time, I got a Korean one with the indicator and windscreen wiper stalks swapped. By the time I’d driven up to the north east and back, I’d almost stopped wiping my windows at roundabouts and indicating when it was raining. When I got Henry back, I went through it all again, with several moments of doubt as to which one was which.
Data retrieval – or not
Yesterday, Colin said that I should try burning an Ubuntu 9.04 CD and putting that in my poor broken desktop and running it without changing the computer, with a view to seeing if I could get anything from the hard disc that way. It seemed worth a try.
When we ran the CD, and Ubuntu loaded (has to run in safe mode, for some reason), the hard disk was visible and the data was all there! Woo hoo! Colin said I should zip up my data and save it onto a USB drive. I did that, using Ubuntu’s native archiving program, but there was an error message about it not being being able to do it right, and the file said it was 20-odd GB, but the USB drive only holds 8 GB. Colin was most suspicious. And it turned out he was right to be: when I put the USB drive into another computer, it turned out everything was not really there like it said it was. So Colin suggested using his spare external hard drive.
I wish he’d thought of using his spare external drive before, because now, when I look at the broken hard disc in Ubuntu, the directories are all still there, but the files are not. I also wish I’d checked the files before I attempted to zip them up to make sure they were actually ok as well as being there.
But what I don’t understand is why zipping them up made them all disappear. Is it that they weren’t actually there in one piece to start with? And why are all the directories ok?
Another tale of lost data woe
The hard disc on the desktop I got at the beginning of the year is totally broke. It’s not visible in the BIOS and it’s not just the CMOS battery because, as the man pointed out, the DVD drive is visible in the BIOS.
He also said I’ve lost all my data. My work is fine – that’s backed up all over the place. As for my photos, well, there’s some on Picasa, a few are on Facebook, I think, but not all of them. All other data is probably just game data. I’m downloading the latest Ubuntu so Colin can see if he can use it to retrieve anything.
Meanwhile, the man is sending me a new hard disc that I have to fit myself. That’s just asking for trouble, surely.
Grumble…updates…grumble
Since I updated Wordpress recently, they’ve done something to the layout and everything. I had it just so, and now they’ve gone and mucked it up, and it doesn’t validate as XHTML anymore. If I check the code without what I just typed, there are still errors, and my book blog doesn’t validate any more, and I haven’t updated that for ages. Furthermore, all my non-blog pages do validate.
Graaargh!
Unpeaceful
A while ago, I showed you a photo of my lovely peace lily in bloom for the first time in six years. I am sorry to break the bad news to you, but that plant is now dead. It is brown and shrivelled and very dead. I am not happy about this and less happy about the fact that it was my own fault for not having watered it sufficiently.
I propagated it some time ago, so all is not lost. That plant is on the kitchen window sill, yellowing.
I was recently reminded about the benefits of watering plants with leftover cold tea out the teapot. Unfortunately, I use teabags. I’ll just have to make my second peace lily a special cup whenever I make myself one, although I’ll have to leave hers to cool before I give it to her and remember about it later, and prevent Colin from pouring it away.
Mmm, tea. Yes, I think I’ll make those cuppas now.
Toilet humour
On Friday night, the Bun Shop chucked us out at 11 – so very old-fashioned – but me, Colin and two other couples were up for more drinks, so we went to that classy establishment that used to be quite a nice old pub, The Fountain. Now, it’s full of loud music and da yoof.
I went to the toilet, where a barmaid was in front of the left hand cubicle mopping the rather watery floor with blue roll. She surlily nodded me into the right-hand cubicle. When I came out, I asked the bar maid what had happened, then I caught sight of what had happened. I started to ask how it had happened instead, but I couldn’t get my head round it at all. I sympathised with the poor girl and left.
"Don’t go to the ladies’," I said to the two girls. I explained to them what had happened. "The toilet in one of the cubicles is on its side," I said. "With a huge crack in the bowl."
Failed
I can now tell you that the recovery disk was not able to restore the system, although it gave it a good whirl. I have no backups anymore due to reformatting the hard disk with them on (the disk’s existence wasn’t being recognised by the restoration program provided by Windows anyway) and so my Windows installation is now, to use a technical term, buggered.
I suppose there’s nothing left to do but reformat this disk and reinstall Windows. Such joyousness. Unless anyone’s got any better ideas. Answers on a postcard to the usual address, please.