Strangers

Yesterday I went to Battle (the place, not the event) to help a TA (Teaching Assistant) setup his family's new computer. I had already attempted to fix their old one, but it was so far gone that they didn't really have any choice but to buy a new one. So on Saturday afternoon, Di (the wife) bought a new computer and monitor from KC Computers. Both Richard (the TA) and Di confessed to being "computer illiterate" or at least computer illiterate enough that they'd feel a lot better if I sorted their new computer out for them.

There wasn't too much to do; not a big job really. The PC came with Windows XP service pack 3 already installed on it, so I just went through the motions of making sure that they had security, compression, office, and web browsing software on it and setting up accounts for each family member to use.

We got chatting while I was polishing the computer's setup. The couple are very pleasant people and Richard rides a red TDM 850 which, of course, automatically gives us some sort of camaraderie. After talking and talking and finishing the computer and finally letting the family teenagers onto it, we got geared up and the three of us adults* went on a bike ride to Three Oaks via Rye.

There's a really nice biker-friendly pub in Three Oaks (I think it's called "The Three Oaks") and we had lunch there. They paid for my gammon steak in return for me attempting to fix their old PC, advising them on a replacement, and setting up their new PC. We did a lot of chatting and I felt really good about the whole thing. Like I said, really nice people.

I saw Adam and Nick that afternoon for another bike ride. We spent some of the dwindling afternoon daylight at another pub, this one was next to Bodiam Castle.

When I had finally parked my bike up and started walked over to my door, a big four-wheel-drive slowed down as it passed me, a woman wound the window down and yelled "Excuse me! Last Saturday night!? The one night stand!?" before the car drove off into the night. I think I just stood there, non-plussed for a while, before shaking my head and going inside. Obviously the harridan in the Range Rover had mistaken me for someone else (easy to do since it was dark), but I think her intention was to embarrass me... only I was the only person on the street.

I guess that was my Random Encounter for the week.

I met a man today who enrolls people into a course to retrain as an electrician. After a long chat about it I can safely say that if I was going to train as an electrician then I'd go through these New Career Skills people. The problem is that it's a lot of studying at home, weeks away for practical lessons and tests, and six thousand pounds to start training. If I wanted to be an electrician then I would have shook the guy's hand there and then. However, I don't know what I want to do so I said I'd like to talk to someone who is already an electrician and have a fortnight to think about it.

I had a really weird dream last night of visiting someone I haven't seen for years and trying desperately to talk to them, only there was never an appropriate time to do so; so I ended up missing my chance. But then, as long-time readers may know, I don't have dreams that I can call anything but weird.

I took out some drawing paper and did that staring thing at it again for quarter of an hour. Nothing materialized on the page so I had to stuff the torn-out sheet to the back of the drawing pad so as not to lose it. When I turned to the back of the pad, I found a handful of similarly blank pages that screamed mute frustration to me.

*It still doesn't feel right referring to myself as an "adult". Maybe I'm (still) just not used to it.