Underground Blues

I had a traumatic weekend:  Lost my car keys, house keys, mobile phone and ipod (it's only a nano).  Thought I'd been pick pocketted, because they were all in the same pocket.  Was obviously distressed to discover them missing (especially the keys!) at 1.00 in the morning!  I was on my way home from London and started looking for my car keys (car was parked on the street, near the station - free parking on the weekends, but residents only Mon-Fri.)  No car keys.  No house keys!!!  The phone and ipod were secondary.  Anyway, walked home from the station, and had to wake my poor (lovely!) neighbour to get my spare key (SOOOOO sorry, D, if you're reading this!  And, THANK YOU for letting me in!) at 1.30 in the morning.  Thought, well . . . maybe I should ring the phone, on the off chance that they hadn't been stolen, but lost.  So, I dialled my mobile, and *shock* someone answered!  The manager for Charlotte St Blues (http://www.charlottestblues.com - go, if you're in London!) had found them - house keys, car keys, phone and ipod (but, no ipod headphones, for some reason) - and he would put them in the safe for me to collect!  Yeay!!!  Of course, I still didn't have car keys, but at least I knew where they WERE!

Not having keys was a bit challenging for Sunday.  Not only did I have to go to Chelmsford (30 minute drive) for church, but also, my car was in a weekend-only parking area!  So, my lovely neighbour came to my rescue AGAIN and helped me get back to my car and try my 'sudo' spare key.  Turns out, it will open the doors, and release the wheel lock, but it doesn't have an immobiliser chip (anti-theft device), so it won't turn the engine over.  Drat.  Ok, so came home and called the AA (Automotive Association).  They sent a recovery vehicle, and the man was SO nice and helpful.  Seriously made a stressful situation much easier.  He came to my house, gave me a lift BACK to my car, then hooked my car up to the tow-bar, and I steered whilst he towed me home.  Then, he parked the car in my drive!  And, he made total sure that I'd be ok, that if I needed to replace the keys I had a way to do that, or to get the keys back . . . really great.  I totally recommend them as a company!

So, still had the problem of getting to church.  Fortunately, Chelmsford Ward shares a chapel, and they're on the afternoon schedule at the moment.  I've never been so grateful for 2.00 church in my life!  Had a think, who do I know who'd be driving from Colchester to Chelmsford . . . umm . . . no one.  Ok.  What about Ipswich?  (Colchester's about 1/2 way between the two cities)  Ah!  2 of the Stake YW Presidency are in Ipswich (they're sisters.  Like, blood related. ) They're friends.  I can ring them!  And, G and H came to my rescue!  I called them my Damsels in Shining Armour!  They also get a total thumbs up from me.

Right, so what does this all have to do with Underground and Blues?  Well, I had to go back to London today to collect my keys.  And in the Underground there was a fantastic busker.  He was playing this crazy instrament (no idea what it is) and the music he was playing!  Oooh!  WHERE were my bluse friends when I needed them?!?  Cruel and unusual punishmenet to have me find such a fantastic bit of Blues Culture and NO ONE TO SHARE IT WITH!  Asked if I could take his photo, and he said, "Please do!"  He totally made my day!  :D

It Made My Day!

So, totally geeking out here.  I've been using Ubuntu, which is a Linix OS, for about 3 months now.  And yesterday I got to prove to myself, yet again, that it totally rocks.  I needed to strip the audio track off some DVDs that I'm transcribing.  Now, I totally did not know how to do that at the beginning of the day.  But I have friends in high places!  In this case, J, who works at Google.  Yeah.  Google.  Score!  Actually, I started off talking to his wife, Coi, who is no slouch in the tech department.  She got me going, but we ran into a problem, so J came on to sort it out proper.  So, J walked me through the process of stripping the audio file, and it worked!  And I managed to then go back and do the whole thing on my own 7 more times!  Yeay!  That's not the bit that made my day, though.  After walking me through the process, J changed his GChat status to 'omg.  surrounded by hot linux hacker grrls!'  IMMD!