Those Microsoft Moments

None of us who are on the run can do without our trusty laptop, and we are always looking for a wireless internet connection that we can hook on to.

Everything is so useful-we can do all of our work, keep in touch with our bosses and colleagues (who in my case are in faraway Kiev) and, of course, we can keep in touch with home-at this moment I am just about to tune in to Prime Minister’s Questions on the BBC iPlayer.

But doesn’t it make you sick when it all goes wrong so many miles from home? Here’s a case in point. I arrived late on Monday night here in Tbilisi, booted up the laptop, plugged in the internet and immediately got one of those download requests. My ISP, BTInternet were offering me a new improved Broadband Helpdesk experience at the press of a button. So, 10 minutes later it was all downloaded.

Try the emails first of all-open Outlook Express. I found that I could receive emails but not send them, so half my communications were stuffed. Of course, I could revert to webmail but I also use OE as a filing system of what I receive and what I send, so it’s all a bit difficult.

But hang on! I now have an all-new BT Broadband helpdesk experience! So I went through the process and the software said - guess what - it couldn’t fix it for me and gave me a phone number to ring.

So there I was yesterday afternoon sitting in a hotel room in Tbilisi, ringing a UK 0800 number and talking to Harsh and his colleagues in Bangalore using Skype. God Bless the Technology! But an hour and a half later Harsh and chums found that they couldn’t help me and suggested I buy a new version of Outlook Express. So for the time being I’m making do, before I get home and start to write letters to BT telling them what lousy software engineers they have to send out stuff which produce such glitches.

And then this morning I had another Microsoft moment and one which most of you will empathise with. I had a 1030 taxi booked from my hotel and so I shut down my machine at 1015. “You have software updates” it said on the shutdown screen.

Eleven!

They say a watched pot never boils. Windows chugged along downloading these updates, until 25 minutes later it let me have my computer, and the rest of my life, back. Profuse apologies all round and off to work.