I didn't end up getting to bed until about 5am.

The alarm went off about 10.30am for me to get up to go up to my mate's place. Not going to happen.

I sent him an sms telling him I would be there about midday, and I went back to sleep for a bit, the extra 45 minutes will have to help.

I got up about 11.15am, and had a shower, just as I got out of the shower, at about 11.35am, the phone rang. I answered it, it was my mate, "where are you? at home?" "yes, I sent you an sms telling you I would be there about midday". "Oh", "So I'll see you then".

I got dressed, had some breakfast, checked my spam, and I left about 11.50am.

I got there about 12.15, the traffic was shocking.

My mate's wife was planning on getting on my bike (since they don't all fit in the car), so go around to the barbeque, but instead one of the relatives who is over went.

He jumped on, and I waited out on the street for the others, and then I followed them around to my mate's mate's place, where the barbeque was.

No great issue in getting there.

My mate had to take a pc back to someone who lived around the corner, so I went with him to do that.

We got around there, plugged the pc all back in, and he showed them how to use the new things.

He was telling them about the virus scanner, and that they have to keep it updating, and how the firewall will keep popping up asking if they want to do things. I could see the people getting a bit glazed over, having no idea what he was telling them.

I basically explained that when the firewall pops up, if it's an outgoing connection alert, then you can accept it (not entirely true, it could be adware trying to download banners, or send the data it's collected), but if it's an incoming connection, then it should be denied (again, not entirely true, but you don't want these people ringing you up every 5 minutes saying "it's popped up saying this, what do I do?" etc).

They seemed to understand that.

My mate went on to explain how to use adaware, again, they seemed to get a bit glazed over, but I just left that one. I don't want to seem condescending or contradictory.

We went through the list of items that run automatically on the machine, seeing if there was anything that could be taken out. There were a bunch of itmes to do with the printer, which had been removed, and we decided to test that the printer worked without them running (since a lot of these crappy usb printers don't actually do anything, and software running on the pc is the printer, and if you disable it from the startup, then the printer won't work).

We tried to do a test print, nothing happened.

They calimed it was because there was no cartridges in the printer, but I would have expected to see an error message, not just have the machine sit there doing nothing.

I opened the printer, to see if it would power on, and move the recepticles out to enable loading new cartridges, but it did nothing.

I looked at the printer, asked if it was turned on, tried unplugging the power cord from the back of it, and back in again, then I noticed a power button on the front, not lit up.

I pressed it. held it, all sorts of things, but it just wouldn't do anything.

I checked that the transformer was plugged into the wall properly, yep.

My mate climbed down behind the desk to check the transformer (it sits in the middle of the power cord, rather than having a big ugly brick that stops you from using the point next to it). It was cold.

Hmm, he checked the cord between the transformer and the wall, it wasn't in properly, pushed it in, and the printer came on.

Not able to print, and no error messages, but I didn't really care, I was sick of being here at this point.

They seemed happy to get their machine back, so we started to leave.

They asked for a card, my mate said he had one in the car, went out to get one, and realised he didn't have any with him.

He came back, and they said they had his number.

They paid him, more than he asked for (but mainly because he asks for so little).

We got back in the car, and headed back to the place where the barbeque was.

On the way, I suggested that my mate type up a couple of instruction pages to give people when he returns their machine, telling them how to use the firewall, run adaware, update and run the virus scanner etc, because these people just don't pay attention, and then they either call up complaining they don't know what ther are supposed to do, or they just don't do it, and their machine ends up full of virii and spyware again.

We got back to the barbeque, went out the back where my mate's mate was cooking some meat.

We stood around the barby talking for a bit, I had a beer.

We cooked up everything, taking about 45 minutes, and then served it all up.

We sat and ate, after about an hour, most of the people went inside, because it was getting a little bit cold outside, the wind was blowing, and it had become a bit overcast, with rain clouds.

My mate's mate suggested I move my bike inside his gates, and close them, because there are some feral kids around, great, you couldn't have told me that when I got here nearly 2 hours ago. I moved my bike in. I didn't see any feral kids around however.

My mate's mate's wife played the organ, and her husband sang some songs for a while, I wasn't too entertained by it, but the Chinese visitors seemed to enjoy it.

It started sprinkling a bit, and I wanted to get back before it really started raining (I also wanted to see if I could get to the hairdresser before they closed today), so I motioned to leave.

I grabbed the helmets and stuff, and my mate told the guy I brought over (well, got his wife to tell the guy, since he only knows about 3 english words), that we were going back before it started raining.

My mate gave me his garage door opener, so we could get in once we got back.

I went out, backed my bike out, and he jumped on.

I noticed the feral kids on push bikes down the road, I was too busy looking at them, I didn't think about what I was doing, and I ended up going around the corner on the wrong side of the road, and wondered why a guy in a big truck was coming straight at me, and then I realised I was on the wrong side of the road, oops.

I headed back towards my mate's place, but I couldn't remember the way, I didn't pay enough attention on the way over, I thought I came to the turn I had to make, but I must have gone past it, not recognising it from the different angle/approach.

I came to another turn, which I thought was the correct one, but as soon as I turned there, I realised it was not.

I didn't matter however, because there was a main road at the end of the one I had just turned on to, so I was sure I could find a way back.

It was starting to rain now.

I got on the main road, and after a short while I was the bowling club we had gone past on the way over there, so I knew where I was at that point.

I rode back to my mate's place, the guy I took over there and back jumped off and went inside (I opened the door with my mate's garage door opener).

A few seconds later my mate turned up in the car with the rest of them.

Either he was going a bit quicker than I, or I wasted a fair bit of time with the wrong turn.

It was raining a fair bit now.

We went inside.

I went in with my mate, he wanted to go over the prices of the machines he quoted to build for one of the seniors clubs recently, I made a few changes to the parts, and it worked out a bit cheaper.

He started sending an email to the wholesaler, to get the parts sorted out so he could pick them up, I lost my patience about halfway through, and I finished it off. It was painful watching him using a spreadsheet (which he did before composing the email, using up my patience), instead of just dragging the cell contents around, and deleting lines he ddn't want, he'd cut and paste everything, using the edit menu. ugh.

We had a what for a minute, working out when I could build the machines for him (since he doesn't want to mount the motherboards in the cases), and what I would charge to do it. I said I didn't know when I could do it now (I had planned to do it on Tuesday night), since I may be staying down in Sydney on Tuesday night, depending on the arrangements I make with my mate (who's Mum died), when I go and see him tomorrow night.

It was now about 4.15pm, oh well, I've missed the hairdresser.

I was cold and damp, and tired.

I decided to come home, so I left at that point.

On the way home, I realised I had nothing for dinner. I went to the supermarket.

I was going to buy some of the crappy single pizzas I've been getting, but they've been discontinued (have been for a few weeks), and there was only one left, and the box was open. Screw that, so I had to get some more expensive ones.

I bought a box of chocolates for Mum, I think they jack the price up for mother's day, oh well, it's a choice between spending a few dollars more than usual, or putting up with months of whinging.

I came home, and then just bummed around for the rest of the night.

I watched tv, ate my food, and then went to bed about 11.30pm