apple

A EUO Day

I’m sure I don’t need to tell anyone how useful Ipads can be: Not only do I use mine as my communication aid, but also to browse the web, check my email and keep in touch with my PAs when I’m out and about. I also often use it to draft blog entries, ready to put online when I get home. The problem is, that all uses quite a bit of battery power, so it is fairly essential that my Ipad is put on charge every night. When it isn’t, it can be rather problematic.

Today, for instance, I was out on my usual trundle when I noticed my Ipad hadn’t been charged. I’d got as far as Lewisham when I noticed it was down to 52%. Now, that wasn’t catastrophic, and no reason to abandon my outing and return home, but I knew it would limit me. Today would have to be an Essential Utterances Only (EUO) day: in order to preserve my Ipad battery, I would need to talk to people only when I really had to. There would be no chatting to strangers or telling street preachers to shut up. Otherwise, if I got into an emergency and needed to ask for help or give people instructions but my battery had died, I would be totally stuck.

It’s rather strange when you think about it: this situation effectively rendered me dumb or voiceless. I had to go all day trying to avoid talking to people, just because my Ipad hadn’t been charged. In a way it put a barrier up between me and the rest of society. If I met someone new I would be unable to introduce myself and tell them who I am or what I do. If I bumped into someone I knew I wouldn’t be able to update them with my news. In the end it wasn’t that much of a problem; yet I find it odd to reflect upon how such seemingly insignificant things can have such large social and psychological consequences.

Infernal Imac Updates

Yesterday was a long, difficult, bitch of a day which I’d frankly rather just forget. It started on Tuesday evening when my Imac suggested I install an update to my IOS. I did so, and it seemed to go perfectly well so I thought nothing of it. The problem is, I idiotically forgot to note down the verification code, so yesterday morning when I came to turn my computer back on it wouldn’t let me into my system. My brilliant new PA Artur and I tried and tried, but no matter what we did the wretched machine wouldn’t cooperate.

In desperation, at around eleven I decided to go up to the Apple shop in Stratford to ask for help. Long story short, they agreed to get a technician to ring Artur at three to advise him on how to fix my computer. It was a long wait, but when they rang it quickly emerged that there was nothing they could do without the code I had neglected to note. When the call ended I was beginning to get really frustrated – without my computer I can’t really do anything.

I think Artur could see this, so he very kindly agreed to go with me back up to the Apple shop, carrying my Imac. By that time it was starting to get dark, but I was fast losing my patience. The tube was getting crowded so it took about an hour to get back up there. Another long story short, when we got to the shop we were told to wait about half an hour before we could be seen.

What followed was long and exasperating, but ultimately it emerged that my Imac would need to be wiped and rebooted if I was ever going to be able to use it again. At one point I had to text my mum to get her to send proof of purchase for my computer. We got back here at about nine last night, tired and irritable and dying for some beer. I had a computer to set back up, but that could wait for the morning: luckily my documents etc were safe on my Icloud, so I don’t seem to have lost much work. I had made a stupid mistake which it had taken an entire day to put right. I suppose I’m lucky that I got back to normal so quickly, but that is certainly the last time I update my IOS, or do so without taking a note of the zarking verification code.