No blogging or emails for a month
I’m going to take November off. For some time now I’ve been having tiresome problems with my hands and fingers — nothing that wouldn’t quickly be put right by becoming ten years younger, but failing that remedy, increasingly uncomfortable. Arthritis, inflammations and ganglions all contribute, and some of these may or may not respond to a month of injections, icing, physiotherapy and anti-inflammatory unguents of varying kinds.
In addition to these palliatives I have decided to take a month off from the computer keyboard, to give the fingers and wrists a rest. I’ll read my emails once a day, but not reply to them. No more emails from me, no more blog posts or responses to your and others’ comments, until December at the earliest. If you urgently need a reply from me on some immediate issue, let me know by email, text or telephone and I’ll use Skype either to telephone you back or, ideally, to Skype you (loud bangs and unprotected ears during my national service in the army half a century ago pretty much prevent me from hearing anything useful on my ordinary telephone now). My Skype name is bbarder, but I shan’t be online much for the next month apart from reading emails and occasionally Skyping.
No doubt many of you will welcome a rest from my messages and posts as much as I’m looking forward to a chance to read some of the books long awaiting my attention on the bookshelves and in my Kindle.
I hope to be back in time to wish you a happy Christmas. Meanwhile, as they say over the loudspeakers, thank you for your attention. And please don’t respond to this with messages of sympathy: I’ll take those as read, and anyway it’s not that bad!
All the best
Brian
Brian,
Not a message of sympathy but merely best wishes. I’ve missed your assertions on how the country is being (mis-)managed and I look forward to your challenges when you might be ready to post them.
Regards,
John
DITTO!
Brian
Have you tried speech recognition software, such as Dragon Naturally Speaking?
Kevin
p.s. was with you in the HC in Canberra in the early 90s
Brian writes: Thank you for this, Kevin: how nice to hear from you! I’ve had lots of kind messages suggesting speech recognition software, and I gather that Dragon N S is the current market leader. I’ll certainly give it a go if my hands and fingers get worse, although as I’ve been thinking through my fingers on a keyboard for well over half a century (I used to type my essays at school on an old portable manual Imperial type-writer!), and I haven’t dictated so much as a sentence since I left Canberra on retirement nearly 20 years ago, it won’t be easy for this old dog to learn, or re-learn, new tricks! But I much appreciate the suggestion. And now the creaking fingers return to their 1-month holiday.
Brian are you the mystery Brian B? if so this explains the in depth commentary on finance.
Brian writes: Thank you for this. Which ‘mystery Brian B’ did you have in mind? And which ‘commentary on finance’? Or is your message actually another moderately ingenious spam? Just in case it is, I’m deleting your website address from your comment. If your message is genuine, please send me a message from the contact box on my website and I’ll be glad to reinstate it. But I’m not holding my breath. If it is spam, you are not welcome here. But then if it is spam, you won’t ever read this.