"Getting to Hartlepool"

I must begin this week's narrative where last week's left off, deciding what to reinstall on my computer and what to ignore.  By Friday evening, I'd made all the necessary decisions and was looking forward to life getting back to normal.  My technological environment had other plans, however.  On Saturday morning when I pressed the 'on' button, even less happened than on the first day of chaos ... absolutely nothing.

I felt really blessed that there had been - amongst all that now fruitless recovery and re-installation - an opportunity to print out not only the prayers I had drafted for Sunday's service, but a cinema ticket for Saturday night and some other paperwork that I wouldn't now be able to download.  I'd also had the foresight to place an order for a new computer, partly as a stand-by lest this one should finally expire, as now it had, and partly using the circumstance as an excuse to get a smaller machine that would be easier to take with me to meetings and so on.

The new 'toy' was delivered on Monday afternoon.  Before then came a period of silence.  It's all very well teasing modern youth about being unable to live without their mobile phones ... the same is true for silver surfers!  I was very glad that, only last month, I'd been prompted to take the long deferred step of upgrading my mobile phone.  That became my only, and very effective, link with e-mails and social media - and, indeed, the internet! - in ways that would have been completely beyond the capability of the instrument it succeeded.

Having gone through the re-installation exercise only days before, I now - like Wenceslas' servant - had footsteps in which to tread, a necessary facility which made the second pass all the more simple, hindered as it was only by the constant interruption to allow for countless updates.  These were made necessary by the reason, I concluded, that this high-spec. machine was going so cheaply, viz. it had a version of Windows that was shortly to be without support.  Despite the assurances that the updates would carry on in the background so I could continue with my work, I found that, when the work consisted of installing programs, this wasn't the case and I think the whole update sequence had to restart at least twice!

Eventually, it was done, and I could look back and reflect on the overall experience.  The whole business was made more difficult because my 'system', such as it is, has grown 'like Topsy', with some data adhering to Microsoft's recommended programs, and others equally dependent on what Mr Google has to offer, that is compatible with the mobile phone, and yet more stuff that is esoteric and totally independent.  The same is true, I suspect, of many mid-level businesses - such as some for whom I have worked in the past - where only someone who has worked there through all the technological changes has a really overall view of what routine is dependent on what others.

While not strictly related, one story that came to mind is worth the re-telling here.  The PA to the MD of one of my employers was known to be very efficient, and in many ways was the go-to person I've just described.  She did have one annoying failing, however.  It would be wrong to call it a fault (I hope there is a difference between 'fault' and 'failing'!), because in many situations it would be a blessing.  If she encountered a difficulty, she would readily confess her need and turn to others for help, but would begin her plea by outlining the nature of the wall that was blocking her path.

I was so often the receiver of these pleas that I coined a phrase that explained in a nutshell, I thought, the nature of her 'failing'.  She was "trying to get to Hartlepool by going to Ipswich".  We all lost track of the time we lost trying to help her with her immediate difficulties with a problem encountered as, knowing the office systems inside out, she retraced steps with which she was familiar.  Had we known from the beginning what it was she actually sought to achieve, we often would have been able to suggest a completely different, but simpler, way to achieve the desired result.

That's just the sort of story I should remember this weekend, as I join a band of others to explore half a dozen rings of church bells in Warwickshire.  I must remain focused on the ultimate destination, rather than the traffic jam just ahead.  In some ways, it could be like being at work again!