What a month!! (and a half)

i thought for my official "first post" (the other two don't count) I'd write about the dramas that have happened during the past month and a half or so which have lead me to conclude that either this laptop is cursed and/or the damn essay which you are about to read about is cursed... soo get comfortable, it's gunna be a long post, but bear with me... there is a moral/take home message at the end of it all....

MID FEBRUARY: i decided i wanted/needed a laptop... a Sony vaio to be precise, mainly because me, my younger brother and sister fight over the PC like cats and dogs. I dropped the topic in conversations with my dad a few times but to no avail. I then thought " i know lets look on eBay you can find cheaper stuff on there" so i did and found a white vaio for £500...

my dad agreed as i was paying for it, I won the bid and was over the moon but alas my joy was short lived, the laptop never arrived and i lost £500.......

OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS: my family avoided the "L" word, but for some reason it didn't affect me as much as i thought it would, i got over it pretty quick, the seller (£$"!%^&*^$£"`¬"£%) would get their comeuppance one way or another and i managed to get some of the money back from paypal, but i was still left without a vaio....

THEN ONE DAY: my dad managed to order one from the supplier they use at work it was £700 and something and came with a "free" navigation thingy for the car, not bad i thought, and my dad decided he would pay for it (mainly because i didn't have enough money!), but i wasn't expecting it to come the next day!!

NEXT DAY: i was roaming about the house having a break from doing 1000 words of a 3000 word essay due in the following week(more about that later) and i was still in my pyjamas, the door bell went and i wasn't going to open it in my pyjamas, i know this sounds so stupid but i looked like a tramp, i thought whoever it was would either come again or leave a "sorry we missed you" card......

i was annoyed when i found out the "sorry i missed you" card was from a delivery service, so i had to wait another few days for my laptop.......

FEW DAYS LATER: i was doing some background reading for my essay and the doorbell rang (i wasn't in my pyjamas) i was ecstatic... my laptop was here, my brand new natura green sony vaio:D:D i was sooo happy i was actually holding it in my hands, i wanted to carry on typing my essay (What evidence is there that seeing a grasping object automatically evokes a grasping action!!??) on the laptop, so i cut and pasted my folder on to a mass storage device to copy it onto my laptop, it said it would take like 9 hours to transfer it all........

ABOUT 9 HOURS LATER: The file had finally transferred and i was opening it up on the laptop ...i opened it and it was empty....i double checked...it was still empty...i found it on the PC..it was empty...my heart fell to the ground... i couldn't believe it a lump was crawling up my throat... my entire life from the past 3 years or so was gone(well it felt like that at the time)...photos, uni work (including my damn essay), random stuff etc etc all gone.... i was gutted, i wanted to burst into tears.. why did i press cut and paste??....but hang on some of the files had transfered...so it seemed hat someone had cancelled the transfer during the 9 hours (come on i didn't sit there for 9 hours) i spent the rest of the evening in a silent sulk and hating the laptop with a passion....

A FEW HOURS LATER: i was watching comic relief and realised how lucky i was to even have a laptop and to even go to uni, most of the kids they showed don't even get to go to school never mind uni, they may never see a laptop in their life.... i was again close to tears but for different reasons... i quietly accepted the fact that my work was gone, i could type the 1000 words of the essay again......

THE FOLLOWING WEEKEND: my dad spent a good few hours on saturday looking for a program which allowed you to retrieve lost data, on sunday i had a go and i finally managed to locate my folder, but the only way i could retrieve it was to save it on floppy(?!!?), first i had to locate one which took long enough then i could only save a few files at a time on it, but i was too happy at finding my stuff to feel miserable about the long winded process needed to retrieve the files ( open the program, save a few files on floppy, close the program, restart computer to go back to windows, save files to mass storage device, start again) anyway the first thing i retrieved was my essay( i wasn't going to start on the 800+ photos!!), despite having the task of transferring all my files in the same manner ahead of me i was extremely grateful and i slept soundly that night.

THE NEXT DAY: due to all the fiddling around on the computer the poor thing had crashed...i felt sorry for it but my sympathy didn't last long... i had 4 days till my essay deadline to write another 2000 words and my laptop didn't have windows office installed on it and i was unable to use the PC....i couldn't believe it..talk about kicking someone when their down.... i was on the verge of breaking down.....

NEXT DAY: my dad managed to sort out the computer being the genius that he is and microsoft office was on my laptop... in between uni i managed to do about 800 more words for my essay, things were beginning to look up.....

THE NEXT DAY: (last day till deadline), i usually have a day off on wednesdays but i had to go uni to help out for this mentoring thing I'm doing, i thought I'd go in early and do some of my essay, i managed another 500 words or so, after helping out i got home at about 4ish i had 2 and a half hours to have a shower and do some of my essay before i went to work, then i realised i had left my USB at uni which had my essay saved on it...... i thought you gotta be kidding me... i couldn't possibly feel any lower.....but i remembered i saved it on my desktop at uni so i could just type up last 600 words or so at home, send it to my uni email, and fit it in with the rest of the essay tomorrow.....Just before going to work i thought i'd check my email, to my relief some guy named Gurv found my USB had a good old nosy on it managed to find my library no. etc and emailed me....ok excellent il go in early tomorrow, pick up USB, finish of essay and hand it in.

DEADLINE DAY (Thursday 21st of March):i woke up at seven, deadline was between 9.30-11.30 am, i got to uni at 9.30, picked up USB from office and settled down do finish of essay, it took me about 45 mins but still had 500 words to spare, but (yes another but) i had no damn printer credits so i had to trudge to the library,top up and then come back to print off,(the library computer are always jam packed), so topped up at library, luckily i found a spare computer so could print it off there. i was proof reading it before printing off and managed to fit in a few hundred more words. I marched back to psychology building to hand it in....10 mins before 11.30.... i was too damn tired to be relieved....knowing my recent luck i just hope that i don't get done for plagiarism.....

Sooo the moral/take home message that you were promised:

• Don't look to those better off you, but to those less well of than you, i saw the laptop and i wanted it, and look how much damn trouble it caused me, but looking to those less well of than yourself is a very humbling experience. After watching comic relief i couldn't believe how lucky we are compared to some people and how much God has blessed us, it made me content with everything i have and appreciate it much more.
• If it doesn't kill you it will make you a damn sight stronger( cliche, i know but it's true!)i'm sure this whole experience has made me mature an extra few years, but i swear there were times when i felt like lobbing the laptop at the nearest wall...but i controlled my anger and came out on the other side a better person (still with my laptop and hopefully a good grade for my essay)

Ok i know that was very cheesy but a little bit of cheese every now and then is good for you :D

P.S. you'll be glad to know i won't be typing such a long post any time in the near future....