those, 2-3 days difference really do make February feel short!

So, whilst its not been exactly action packed, a birthday, 2 bike rides, dyeing my hair and shopping for a new computer have certainly filled the latter part of the week! Thanks for all the birthday greetings (and especially the gifts), all most gratefully received and appreciated, extra funds are always a bonus and help keep the wolf from the door so to speak.

Thursday then, the annual 'me' day for myself and Gaby, I opened cards, had breakfast then set off for a ride on a cool but bright morning. It was a slightly roundabout route, across to the Severn then via Portishead and Clevedon to Weston SM for a chip stop. Unlike last time, I found a purveyor of deep fried tubers without silly queues and, when they arrived, the chips were, if not perfect, about the best I've had in the last six months! Then it was time to head back, a flattish route which accumulated a further fifty kilometres for a total @ 115 for the day.

Not the best birthday, nor the worst, I did celebrate with a beer and tried not to dwell on the confinement that has meant no epic birthday celebrations.

Friday was always going to be quieter, a few chores, a bit of a walk and a change of hair colour! Okay, its not bad being blonde but sometimes, well a girl needs a change! Red got the nod, no not auburn or carrot but what was claimed to be poppy. In truth it wasn't quite as primary as I'd thought it would be but its, er, different!

The rest of the day was spent searching for an affordable PC, my budget is low so options are limited but I think I've come up with a suitable package that will allow me to do the stuff I want - more on that shortly.

The forecast for Saturday was bright so I dragged my velocipede out for a 'relaxing' meander northwards. Relaxing? I think I need to define that in my head, it wasn't too bad until the climb through Wotton Under Edge up onto the Cotswolds then a poor choice of route saw some 25% down followed by 20% up which certainly gets the ol' cardio vascular system working! Lunch stop at Sopworth then a fairly direct ride back to Brizzle for 80km and 800m, not long but quite ascent heavy!

Back to the computer stuff. I've mentioned previously that i'll be running a Windows10/MS Office set up, its what I know and am happy using so that's not in question, no its web browsers that are my Achilles atm. My lappy that I'm using all the time has an older IE installation, for some reason I can't upgrade to a supported version so I've also got Firefox running which allows me to just about have function for banking etc. Now the thing is, I find FF to be chunky, slow and less than straightforward (think pre 2K dial up!) so for the new box I'm looking to run something else. I'm not against using a newer IE but what do others think of Chrome or other browsers that are floating about?

Next question - MS Office Home or Office Pro? I can get a single lifetime licence on both but are the extra features of Pro worth having? At first glance it looks worthwhile but do I need Publisher or the presentation programmes, any thoughts? If I get Home now can I install Pro later if I decide I need the extra features? forgive these questions, I am (under the red) blonde after all!

If things go to plan, I should have the 'new' machine mid week, I'm getting a bit giddy, there is so much I have planned that I can't do on the lappy, it just doesn't have the spec for some stuff!

Tomorrow, that's Monday, i'll be starting work on the new Nena tale, the Global crew get to roll out a new tour, this time to Scandinavia, but today, after buying dinner ingredients, i'll be building a new wheel for Foxy - I've had the bits since the summer but I've kept putting the job off - like you do!

But that's later, you want some new Gaby to read right? Well firstly, thank you for buying Book 26 in your droves, I hope you enjoy it and it would be nice to get a review or two once you've read the tome.

For those following the saga at a distance, Avoidance chapter 35, Green Defenders, follows the cycling teens as they start the Queen stage in Spain - hopefully it will be less incident packed than the previous stages!

So that's it for now, I look forward to your feedback on my computing questions and of course comments & kudos are always appreciated on the scribbles.

Tschuss,
Madeline Anafrid