E books and Technology!!

Last week I was all set to do a course at the library about E-books online, borrowing from the library.Three years ago that was the main reason that I bought a tablet but found that any books I could assess were very old and nothing that I wanted to read so didnt go on with it. Surely there must be a better/different way to do it. I had booked into the course about a month ago, they hold them every Wednesday but of course that had been a work day for me. I got a phone on the Tuesday, reminding/checking that I would be attending. Yes, yes, i would be there.

Famous last words as on Wednesday, I got out of bed and something was not right with me. I waited a couple of hours and then rang the library to tell them I would not be there as I did not want to be away from my own toilet! I felt fine but not able to go out. Bummer!

Back to the drawing board as I read a lot and I know that I will miss going to the library and picking out my usual six or eight books that I read every two to three weeks.

I can and have down loaded books on to my tablet before but the app had seemed to have disappeared. Apparently it was due to having a couple of big things on there like Face book. Warren took that off so I could load reading books. Great, I trolled through and selected some books, I start with the interesting looking free ones.

Then it asked me for the secret number on the back of my credit card, no problem. Except that earlier in the year we had had to get new ones and my old credit card details were locked in the tablet.

I went through all the settings looking to change it, I asked Warren (def my go to person on tech stuff) he didn't know and said to just keep looking. After an hour of going back and forth, I thought i found it once, it said new cards and I clicked on that to delete it, went back and found the books that I has selected, not an easy task, put in secret number, Barp, Barp, not the correct number, so that didn't work.

It had my credit card number which was xxxed out except the last four digits which of course isn't the ones on the new card. In frustration, I clicked on the number and it took me off to a new screen where I could delete and put in new details. Taddaah, finally. I spent an enjoyable couple of hours then selecting and down loading my reading material for the first few weeks at least and now i know how to do it, i will probably never have to do that again.

Reading Materials

I like to read a LOT! The library is my go to place for books and I frequent the big print books. I can and do read the regular font sized books but most of my reading is done at night and with the big print books are easier to read in bed.

Last weekend when we went to Sydney, I didn't take any books, not even one (I went to the library last Monday and I am already on my fourth novel that I checked out, that's pretty standard for me, one novel in two to three days). As we were only taking carry on and I knew that we would be walking a bit, I didn't want the extra weight or a book taking up space.

I bought a magazine at the airport and as there was no on board entertainment I had read that and done the puzzles by the time we landed. In bed that night I remembered that I had downloaded some books onto my tablet awhile ago. I don't particularly like reading off the tablet but any port in a storm....

Settled down to read and getting into the book and it ended, what the......? Damn, I had downloaded a "free" book but it apparently was only a sample.

Last night I tried to find the book online to buy the rest, I am not very good at finding my way around the Play store probably because I don't do it often. Anyway when I went to the adult books and tapped in fiction, there on the screen was an author that I wasn't familiar with but the front cover which was shown was a picture of Miss Fisher from Miss Fisher Mysteries. I know that series from TV, didn't think that there was novels.

I made sure that it was the whole book and tapped yes, I wanted to buy it for $5. What an interesting read, I am up to chapter ten and have changed my mind about reading from the tablet. This is the first of the books and explains how and why she is in Australia and how she has become an investigator.

Now I know that I don't need to take actual books with me on our big trip as long as I have the tablet and a little bit of power sometimes. Yippee! I had been thinking that I would need to locate second hand book stores.

Manners and kids

So many people complain about "Young children today" have little or no manners. I do find that some kids are not taught manners or respect for others and other people property.

Saturday morning I went to the library and its a little weird as I drive and park and then walk in and take the lift to Ground. I have just walked on the same level but no, apparently I was at Lower Ground and need to go up to Ground, see weird!

Anyway I got my bag of books and went back to the lift, pressed to go down, when I saw the lift go past on its way up with two young girls in it. They looked to be about nine and eleven, both holding books so I assumed that they wanted the library.

A few seconds later the lift came down again, there is only lower ground, ground and first floor, three levels so it doesn't take long to get back. The lift doors opened and the older girl smiled and said to me very politely, "Sorry we missed you, we hit the wrong button". I didn't expect an apology, didn't even think one was necessary but thought it was so nice of her to say so. I thanked her and wished them a good day. The younger said they were off to get new books to read and off they skipped into the library.

Home Alone

Not the movie but this weekend it is a fact for me. Wow, how can I just do things for me? Yesterday I went to the library as I had nothing to read, despite having three full bookcases, I still had nothing to read.  I went shopping for a few odds and ends that I wanted ( I was going to write needed but it was more a want than a need). Attacked the drawers in my bedroom, this has been on my list to do for quite awhile. Interesting what I found, a couple of things that I thought, why is this here and why did I buy that? Could be a bit of out of sight out of mind.

The bedroom is getting crowded and I prefer space so something has to go and that something is the set of drawers.

Meals just for me meant a sandwich for dinner Friday night, last night I made an omelette. A curry is cooking for tonight's meal, back to usual.

The house was so quiet on Friday night that I didn't sleep that well, rather annoying as I had great plans to get so much done. Last night I was used to being on my own and slept well even waking and ready to get out of bed at 6.30am, very unusual for me.

My plan for today is to finish all the things that I started yesterday (I am not that good at finishing things) so complete the bedroom make over, finally unpack everything from the caravan, and I have a couple of sewing projects to complete before my mind goes off on another tangent for another idea.

First though I will make a cup of coffee to take outside and sit and ponder, I do have a new bag of books to read.