Lock-down diaries – Fergy's Rambles.

Lock-down Diaries #16.

Hello as always one and all and welcome to my rambles both physical and verbal and I am not actually sure which takes the most out of me!

First things first and a quick explanation for me regular readers who were probably expecting a piece with lots of technical information about my 2014 trip to Sri Lanka which I had mentioned but I have decided against it for various reasons.

Most of the information is out of date now, especially in the light of the pandemic and there is no way of knowing when travel to that country, or anywhere else, will be possible or what the situation there will be as and when it might be possible again. I thought I would post a Lockdown Diary instead to give you a bit of an update about the site and my current situation, the former of which seems to be doing well and the latter much less so.

Lock-down Diaries #14.

Lock-down diaries # 14.

All together now, “Awwwwwwwwww”, isn’t he lovely?

Hello again one and all and thanks as always for taking the time to drop by my little blog here and, after the horrendously long offering last time, I shall be surprised if anyone can even face another excursion into the deranged world I inhabit. I promise you that I shall try to make this one a lot less wordy and there will be a few images to hopefully brighten up your day in these continuing awful times.

OK, I should probably qualify that last statement a little. If you are a professional photographer or even a gifted amateur like so many of my friends then my efforts with a succession of cheap compact cameras and absolutely zero talent for the medium will probably end up driving you into a fit of depression when you see them but I mean well, honestly. If you wish to have a look, please feel free to dive in by pressing the “read more” button.

Lock-down Diaries #13.

Well, what can I say apart from thank you? Following my last entry when I resumed blogging after my apathetic self-imposed hiatus for three months my stats for viewing figures went through the roof. It seems like I was briefly a (very minor) underground hit in the blogosphere as I believe it is called. Get me with the techspeak. Maybe the very old and fairly battered dog can learn new tricks after all. Honestly, thank you all so very much, it really is appreciated.

Shame it didn’t last long but my enthusiasm for blogging like my enthusiasm for anything at all in the miserable existence I am now leading evaporated as soon as it briefly flared up. If you want to know why I am writing this post now then you know the drill, just click on the read more button below. I’ll even throw you in a description of the stunning vista of the four walls of my living room for nothing!

Lock-down Diaries #10.

Is there anybody going to listen to my story? Frankly, I would not blame you if you didn’t and I cannot believe what started off as a bit if fun at the start of what was just another Chinese virus like swine ‘flu or chicken ‘flu has now run to an entry in double figures in a world that has been irrevocably changed since the back end of last year (Western, not Lunar obviously). Yes, this is Lock-down Diary #10 and that in itself astounds me but what amazes me even more is the fact that people are still reading this stuff.

At this point I’d like to thank everyone that keeps reading this but especially to my new readers in Taiwan and Iraq, yes really. I know it is probably a generational thing and young people today consider this quite normal but for a man born in the 1950’s as I was the fact that people from those distant and hugely interesting countries, both of which I’d love to visit incidentally, would even be looking at my idiocy here is something that takes me aback every time I look at my stats page. A global village the world most certainly is now and if you want to enter my latest little ramble round it, you know the drill, just click the “read more” button below and I’ll see you on “the dark side” as I believe the Star Wars scriptwriters had it.

Continue reading “Lock-down Diaries #10.”

Lock-down Diaries #9.

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends, we’re so glad you could attend, come inside. Come inside one and all for what will be the ninth in this series which started as a bit of a piece of nonsense to pass the time during house arrest and has grown into easily my most popular group of postings notwithstanding the effort I put into my historical travel blogs. They seem to get somewhat swallowed up and disappear because I back-post them and only my close personal friends ever read them. There may be a lesson there somewhere.

As always, it could not be simpler, if you want to jump into my latest little adventure then simply press the “read more” button below and you’ll be most welcome.

Continue reading “Lock-down Diaries #9.”

Lock-down Diaries #8 1/4.

OK, I know it sohuld be 9 1/4 a la Harry Potter and sometime soon there will be a Diary #9 and so almost was a few days ago but technology, the absolute bane of my life, decided to take a hand as it so often does.

Talk about adding insult to (painful and still potentially dangerous) injuries (in the plural), my trusty old laptop which has been a veritable lifeline during the recent crises both personal and global, finally decided to give up the ghost. Not just a little glitch but complete death, something to do with Hard Drive #1 going to meet it’s maker (probably Bill Gates or someone like that) and I was utterly incommunicado on the verge of publishing #9. It would have made this so much cooler, 8 1/4 doesn’t really quite cut the mustard, does it?

Anyway, this is just to (hopefully) let my trusty little band of followers know that I am still around, still breathing and still utterly baffled by thechnology! I was in urgent need of something and so bought myself a little 14″ laptop thingy which seems light and will be good for travelling. The next trick is to learn how to use it. I am not joking.

There won’t be any images with this, it is literally just a telegram (anyone remember those) to state that “rumours of my death have been exaggerated” to quote from the very witty Mark Twain. I am in the midst of trying to download dinobytes (I just made that up, it is a unit of computer memory as used by old dinosaurs like me and means lots and lots) which I think I managed to save to a big, bulky external drive thingy before the last laptop croaked. Getting it all back seems a lot more difficult!

I would be remiss if I did not thank those of my readers / friends who have enquired after my health. Special thanks to Elizabetha, my pretty little ballerina, for her very concerned e-mail which was much appreciated.

I am now going to try to publish this and if that actually works I shall head out and look for a large fogbank somewhere to try and shovel, followed perhaps by a short spell of plaiting sawdust! I really am not hopeful but who knows?

If this does work and if I can actually recover the lengthy Diary entry I was in the process of preparing, it will be with all you lovely people in the next 24 hours. No promises.

If you want to see if I can master new technology to the extent of reviving my blog, then stay tuned and spread the word.

Lock-down Diaries #8.

Hello once again my wonderful, faithful and remarkably ever-increasing little band of followers. I am beginning to feel a bit like Robin Hood and his Merry Men, and Women obviously. Fergysrambles is most definitely an “equal opportunity employer”although I am afraid I don’t pay very well. All are welcome and it appears the offer has been taken up on a scale I had not really contemplated before.

If you want to know about it and what I have been up to since the last entry, you know the drill by now, simply press the “read more” button below and I’ll bore you rigid once again.

I do hope that this entry will be published a lot quicker than the last one which was delayed due to “circumstances beyond my control” as the saying is.
Continue reading “Lock-down Diaries #8.”

Lock-down Diaries #7

Good day to all my lovely readers and welcome to Lock-down Diary #7 which is going to begin with a rant, you may or may not be glad to know.

I was feeling productive on the back of eventually posting Diary #6 a few days ago and cracked on with #7. I worked for almost four hours non-stop and was making good progress with the story I wanted to tell you but of course it was never going to be that simple.

The culprit this time was that damned Windows and there is indeed a special inner circle of Hell reserved specifically for all involved with that evil outfit. Once again it forced me to have an upgrade I neither needed nor wanted. When I had done the Almighty Windows bidding the only difference I could see was that they were trying to extract more personal information from me and / or sell me some premium service that, like their upgrade, I neither needed nor wanted. I loathe them.

What had they done in return for my abject submission to their will? Lost my four hours of hard work. Completely vanished. Great job, no doubt it is a penalty they imposed on me for not doing their bidding completely and for having a mind of my own.

Rant over but it explains in part why an entry I promised some of you in private correspondence was going to happen last Monday (BST) is unlikely to happen before Saturday evening.

Once I get it done all over again, you can have a look as always by pressing the “read more” button.
Continue reading “Lock-down Diaries #7”

Lock-down Diaries #6.

Hello again to all my lovely readers and welcome to anyone who may have stumbled here by accident, I hope it won’t prove to be too harrowing an experience for you. I see that I have 70 followers now and that is certainly not something I was expecting when I rather rashly took the decision a couple of years ago to buy a domain name and start my own website. I really do the stupidest things sometimes but I must admit I do rather enjoy it.

On then to Lockdown Diaries #6 in a series that has the potential to run as long as the Archers (look them up if you are not British) and it seems to be getting no better despite the positive noises being made by the authorities. Nothing has changed and until some pharmaceutical company becomes even more obscenely rich by creating a vaccine which is widely administered, nothing will change. After that it will mutate and we’ll start all over again. Welcome to the 21st century (and you are welcome to it!).
There is a good reason why there has been such a hiatus since the last episode here, so if you want to know what it is, please click the “read more” button.
Continue reading “Lock-down Diaries #6.”

Lock-down Daries #4.

Roll up, roll up, come one, come all and view what is absolutely not the greatest show on Earth. I know that because I put it together!

If you are one of my regular and very slowly increasing band of readers I thank you as always, you must be a complete glutton for punishment. If you have happened upon this page by some other means, you must have done something pretty bad in a previous life, mustn’t you? Fate guiding your hand to this page, out of the billions on the internet, is just karma’s way of biting you on the bum!

Either way, if you want to see what is contained in my cornucopia of completely asinine ramblings this time, please press the “read more” button below and we’ll see where the road leads us today, Tuesday, 26th May, 2020.
Continue reading “Lock-down Daries #4.”