Unexpected problem & solution

Sunday I was about to post that I had a wonderful fish luncheon with some friends, but, surprise, surprise.... my desktop computer just decided not to cooperate. I was a bit stunned that it wasn't booting, since I had used it that same morning. After a few attempts on my part to cope with the old Windows version I had, I decided that the only solution was to reload the operating system while trying to save all my data, some of which was very important to a ongoing project. Without getting into details, in NY I might have had an alternative, but, here, I had to resort to local technical help to save my data. And it worked beautifully!

Instead of lugging the system to the well known store where I bought it 4 years ago, since it was now out of warranty, I decided to use a small local store, which is located literally underneath my apartment. The technician I met, very fluent in English, expressed confidence that he could accomplish what I needed, and he did it, believe or not, within one day and at a very reasonable price. At 10pm he was still on the phone to inform me that he had saved the data, and that he would provide me with newer versions of MS software by the morning.

What a pleasure now to have a fresh system, to be able to download quickly all the software I prefer to use, and to be online again (most of you probably never missed me anyway!).

And now, here are a couple pictures of the friends with whom I enjoyed some excellent fresh fish on Sunday. After a delightful mixed salad, an appetizing dish of crisply fried mullets (called 'barbun' here), the main course was excellent European sea bass('levrek'in Albanian) served with a large variety of grilled vegetables. It was baked, as it's usually done also in Italy, under a mountain of salt. The restaurant owner very kindly spared us from digging into it, and prepared every plate himself. The meal was accompanied by a wonderful Bordeaux.