Kersti's Corner

Handy Hints

My handy hint of the week - you know those corn holder things with the two sharp prongs on them? That's right - like the ones in the picture here... well, my big tip is to NOT stab yourself in the very tip of your pointer finer with one.

Trust me - no, there's no need to try it at home. Yes, I know you prefer to learn things for yourself but honestly, just trust me. It hurts.

And it still hurts a few days later too.

Now, where would you be without me!?!

Small world

How funny... one ofthe new sales reps at work is the sister of the guy who owns the dive of a pub in Arklow that we ended up at a couple of weeks ago.... Ireland is so small!

Follow up on Adobe

OK, it's only fair - have to report on today's attempt to contact customer support at Adobe.

I managed to get a UK based customer care person to pick up within a couple of minutes. My challenge for them - I know that I have a licence for a product, cannot find any CDs, don't remember my customer number or order number, don't know the serial number or even what version of the product it is, can't remember which email address I used on the site. I've move hemisphere and changed my name in the last few years - can they help me find it!

Within 12 minutes I had my serial number, customer number, the registered email address and was downloading a new copy of the product. Another 3 minutes and I had a new customer number - this time based in Europe so it's easier to find, with al my prior details transferred.

Have to say that today I am most impressed with Adobe!

Adobe customer support

Been on the phone for over 20 minutes listening to upbeat music... wonder if a real human will ever answer...

Nope... they never did, I gave up after another 10 mins... why am I not surprised?

To MacOS or Not?

Another thing I've been thinking of lately - changing my laptop from windows to MacOS. I think eventually I will get a Mac, and since the new OS runs on an Intel box, why not?

So - once again the pros and cons, and I'd love to hear what you think...

Cons
- it's not supported by apple
- it's probably not supported by toshiba either
- it would need to be a hacked copy of the OS
- some of my software won't work
- might end up just not working

Pros
- it's pretty
- I can have all those pretty icons
- I can get most of the software I use in MacOS format
- family use macs, so might be able to get them on chat finally
- the hardware is nice, moving to the OS now will make changing when it's time to do so much easier

So, what do you think? Is it worth the risk?

My First Irish Wedding

Last Saturday I went to my first Irish wedding. I was Alan's guest at Dave and Aileen's wedding and it was great fun.

For the Aussies, it's pretty much the same thing as we have, although the ceremony is a lot more religious in nature and thus takes forever - in this case the priest entertained the guests with a song at the end, a bit different! The reception was pretty much teh same deal as well, until it hit the standard Aussie time for people to leave - here they brought out sandwiches and kept the party going for a couple more hours.

When the DJ finally packed up we all assembled in the resident's bar of the hotel for more drinks and more singing, this time by the guests. It was great fun - even when it was decided that it was time for the Aussie to sing a song. Anyone who's ever heard my attempt at singing would know how hideous that is! A little bit of Waltzing Matilda (yep, forgot the words!) and I managed to get through it.

The next day we all had lunch before heading off - I dare say that many of the other guests were preparing for another night of celebrations. It certainly rates as a highlight of an event, so my advice is that if you ever find yourself with an invitation to an Irish wedding, make sure you accept - you're guaranteed a great party!

Dancing Queen

I've finally found a dance class that I can start back in. I've signed up for two 1 hour classes for 6 weeks. Not much and it's only beginners, but it's a great way to get back into it. I've had a lot of trouble finding any kind of ballroom venues or events here, so I'm figuring that I'll sort out some private lessons after this course is complete and see if I can find out where this underground ballroom movement meets...

First night was last night and I was quite surprised to see most of the people who turned up were wearing tracksuits and runners - I mean come on! I wouldn't turn up to learn top play tennis wearing high heels... oh well, guess they were told to wear comfortable shoes...

Killashee House

Had a 2 day off-site in the gorgeous Killashee House just outside of Dublin. It's a gorgeous place, used to be a boarding house apparently. Huge grounds and it was a lovely sunny couple of days so it was great to be away from the office.

They had a number of things there for guests - including a couple of archery targets (I didn't partake - not enough time) and a full health spa... which I did book in to use on Friday morning! Great way to start the day.

And yes, it was a valuable couple of days as far as work goes...

Thought for the day...

Just because all your stuff is in one place doesn't mean you've got your shit together....

How stupid do you think I am???

I got a letter last night from some domain name place. It was posted in singapore and told me that if I didn't pay to renew my domain (www.kersti.com) within two weeks I could lose it. Funny, I KNOW I'm paid for a number of years yet.

It's actually a rather humerous letter, full of emotion and quotes and silly things to prove how legit it is. How stupid do they think I am? I mean, why don't they just send letters to people saying "Hey, if you're completely stupid send us money" - I'm sure it would work just as well.