(no subject)

Happy Birthday blueberrymoon!!!

I seem to have cracked the problem with the dvd writer. As per suggestions, i uninstalled my Norton products altogether. Am now using AVG for virus control and the windows firewall. Have had several people who are far more technically minded say that was a good combo. Created a restore point before i started, did the removal and installed the Nero stuff and it seems to be ok and i've managed to burn a dvd to backup all my documents, and photos all on the one disk. Have been told about a nifty little utility too that cleans up spyware and crap from your computer and it's called ccleaner. google it and have a look.

Great success in our chat room tonight. (a coronation street chat room where i met dozens and dozens of wonderful friends over the past 9 years). We had a reunion and invited back as many of the old names as we had addresses for and the word spread. Over the evening over 65 people dropped in. So great to see and talk to old friends. We've decided to hold a get together on the first Saturday night (Sunday morning for Down Unders) of each month. We'll see how long that lasts. Over the years people just drift away, get into other things, and out of the habit. The chat room is pretty quiet most of the time now so maybe this will revitalize it a little, at least on weekends. And in case you're shaking your head and thinking how daft and sad is it to chat in a coronation street chat room, we rarely talk about the show! We have all become such good mates over the years that it's mostly like any chat room talking about any topic with a lot of nice people. Once in a long while the subject of the show comes up if there's a particularly controversial storyline or character current. It's the exception, not the rule though anyone new in can always find someone to talk about the show with. We may not talk about it on a regular basis but the majority still watch it.

Anyway, it's past my beddybye time. Car goes back to the rental office tomorrow sometime and i'm back to work on Monday morning. Urgh!

Result

Remember the issue with the hotel owner in Wales who wanted to charge me 60% cancellation? She said she'd get back to me and she has, after i sent another email. Her reply:

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you. I am sorry if the situation has caused you undue stress. I should have made it clear at the point of booking that the cancellation charges would only be waived in the event of snow delaying your flight. However under the circumstances we are prepared to charge a nominal 10% charge for administration, which we hope is acceptable to you.

The final charge is £14 instead of £84. Quite a difference isn't it! Talk about getting it grudgingly though eh? I am sorry that she lost money on our booking and wasn't able to re-rent the room, having already turned away a family for a longer booking. I bet she will be very careful and specific in future. And i shall make sure more of my costs are covered by insurance though, come to think of it, i haven't heard anything from them yet, one way or the other. I would presume that if the travel insurance company was not going to pay out, they would send a letter to the effect. I suppose the holidays have delayed that a bit. I only put in the claim the week before Christmas. If i haven't heard from that this week, i'll call the travel agent to see if she had sent it the day after as she said she would.