Feck All

1.
It was going on for 3:00 am by the time I finished print-ready artwork for the quarterly. I was up again at 8:00, thinking all I had to do was log on to the printer's web-based upload system, select my files, and click the Upload button. Fine in theory, but not in practice. Six attempts with a few test files had the same result each time: unexpected quitting of the Java applet. I tried phoned their pre-press people, trying three different phone numbers, but there was no answer and then a receptionist told me they were all at a meeting and to try again after 10:00. I'd already tried different browsers, but that hadn't helped. Then I wondered if the problem was because I was running OS X Lion on my work machine, so I connected the drive to my MacBook (still running Snow Leopard) and tried that. Still no joy.

Shortly after 10:00 I got a call from a pre-press guy. He told me Lion was a no-go, so to stick with the MacBook, but also to switch Safari to 32-bit. That sounded pretty straight-forward, so I tried it. No go. 'Did you restart the MacBook after switching Safari to 32-bit?' No, I hadn't, so I did that and tried again. Still no joy. So Mr Pre-Press suggested using one of the file transfer sites as an alternative. That worked just fine, they loaded the pages onto their system and by 12:00 I'd given print go-ahead using their web system. It was all so, so frustrating. Bring back the good old days of handing over a CD or DVD, that's what I say!

2.
At the time of my last hormone injection, my GP gave me a letter of referral to the Cardiac Surgical department in the Mater. I'd been a bit concerned about returning symptoms and didn't feel the numerous appointments with the Beaumont cardiologist were getting anywhere, so he suggested changing tack. The surgeon who did the bypass has now retired (well, retired from the Mater, though he's still accepting private patients), so the letter was addressed in general terms rather than to a specific surgeon. With the job out of the way, I phoned the Mater to see where the letter should go to, and opted to deliver it by hand to the place they mentioned. It was all a bit strange, being back in the old haunt, since the cardiac office was just round the corner from the ward I'd waited in for the bypass and been in afterwards for recovery. Indeed, I very nearly chose that same corridor as today's blip (Room 7 in St Cecilia's Ward was a spot I was all too familiar with in June 2009) ...

3.
... but then, on the walk back from the hospital to my bus stop, I passed this restaurant in Talbot Street, spotted this pavement sign outside, and couldn't resist pointing the camera at it. With a slogan like this, who could resist the place? It will certainly stick in my mind, and maybe I'll suggest this place for our next Chew & Chat get-together.

Anyway, with the job put to bed, it's great to be able to catch my breath again. It's always the same way - a feeling of euphoria sets in when the mag goes to print, especially when I've managed to keep to the schedule despite the client's worst efforts.