creamed-coconut.org

Quite a lot has been happening recently. Last Friday on the way home from work, I was walking with my Mum past the pub/restaurant near our house (we both travelled on the same bus together) and we were deep in conversation, when suddenly I heard a voice call out “Victoria!” The voice called again, and then I realised it sounded like my Dad’s voice. I thought to myself, “It can’t be!” (My Dad, Stepmum and family have lived in Thailand since April last year). But I turned round, and there stood my Dad! I was so surprised to see him. He said he decided to come back for a couple of weeks to visit all his family and friends. I went home briefly to put my bag and work-stuff away, and then I met my Dad in the pub. He was with my Aunt and Uncle, with whom he is currently staying. We had a couple of drinks and talked about what has been happening since we last saw him earlier this year. I’ve arranged to meet him tomorrow afternoon for a meal.

There’s been a couple of things which have been annoying me lately, but they’re relatively minor. A couple of weeks ago, one of the girls in my department found a new job in another department. I wasn’t particularly close to her, as we both worked on different projects, but she always seemed a cheerful, friendly person, so naturally I was sad that she had decided to move on. On the evening of her final day, she arranged some leaving drinks in a local pub. I went along, but sadly not many people from the department turned up. On her last day she also brought in some cakes, which she’d made herself. And they were really nice cakes too – especially the chocolate cake with icing and swirlies on the top and buttercream in the middle (yes, I know it’s not very healthy!) At the end of her final week, I sent her a message wishing her good luck in her new job and that I hope we will be able to keep in touch. I also asked her how she was getting on in her new job so far, and where she’d learnt the recipes for her cakes, as I really liked them. Sadly, I haven’t heard anything from her. I’m not devastated about her not replying to my email, because we were never really close anyway, but I was hoping that maybe I would be able to get to know her better and that one day we could become friends. But I’m still hopeful that one day she will write to me, maybe once she has had more time to settle into her new job. Maybe she is very busy at the moment and hasn’t had time to keep in touch with people.

Another thing – I remembered this week that my Flickr Pro account is due for renewal some time in October, and when I logged in there was a message saying my account expires on the 25th of October. So on the 24th, I clicked the link to renew my account. I filled in the renewal form and keyed in my debit card number. But when I tried to submit the form, an error message appeared, saying “Please input your credit card number”. I was really confused and thought to myself, “But I have!” I tried again but it still wouldn’t work. I thought there might have been a problem with my internet security settings. But then I had a closer look, and I discovered that Yahoo (owner of Flickr) now only accepts payment by credit card, and not by debit card. It appeared that Yahoo had moved to its own payment system called Yahoo Wallet, and had stopped using Paypal. That explained why I could pay last year but not this year.
I looked at the Flickr forum, and a lot of people were complaining about this, as it meant they could no longer continue being a Pro member if they didn’t have a credit card. I only have a debit card, so the way things stand, there is no way I can continue my membership. I thought this was very silly, as they could lose a lot of customers. But luckily it seems that Yahoo have now realised they have made a mistake, and they will soon allow people to pay using Paypal again. I posted in the forum explaining my situation (as had hundreds of others) and it now turns out that the Flickr staff have still let me keep my Pro account, because I agreed to pay the subscription fee as soon as Paypal becomes available again, and I’m grateful they’ve allowed that.

Another annoying thing is that over the past week or so, Firefox and Opera have completely stopped working on my computer, even though Internet Explorer works fine. I always get an “unable to connect” error, regardless of what website I attempt to visit. I have no idea why this is happening, as I have checked my firewall (Norton Internet Security) and it is set to allow the browsers access to the internet) and I’ve checked the browser settings too. Firefox always used to work on my computer, in fact it was originally set as the default browser. Anyone got any ideas on why this might be happening?

Not a huge amount has happened over the last few weeks. Last Sunday I went with Mum and Terry to Gooderstone Water Gardens and Nature Trail, which is about an hour’s drive away from home. As always I took some photos and you can see them at my Flickr page. It was the first time I’d ever been there, and I didn’t even know the gardens existed until I read about them in the listings section of the local newspaper. I really liked it though, and I’m glad I went.
They had a lovely tearoom too, which sold some really nice chocolate cake! It was one of
the best chocolate cakes I’ve ever tasted (second only to the chocolate cake I had at a
tearoom in the Peak District last year). I still make my own cakes every couple of weeks or
so at the weekends. I recently bought my own bakery cookbook so I can learn how to cook
more cakes and bread etc.

With regards to work-related events, I took the exam for the first module of my CII
Certificate in insurance course in late September, and I received my results last week. I
achieved a score of 96% which I’m really pleased with. I’ve still got another 2 modules to
go. At work I’ve been continuing to learn the Microsoft Reporting Services software. Two
of my co-workers have been teaching me more about how to use it (although I already learnt
quite a bit from a book about it) and my first report should be completed soon.