It’s a grey, wet day, not at all inviting for rambles and expeditions. The forecasts say that the temperature is around 9-10°C but it feels a lot colder than that. We set out at about 1 pm and if we made sure we had our bus passes with us, it was only in case there was nothing local open for a bite to eat.

Baron Street

This view of Baron Street will give you some idea of the conditions. We were heading for Chapel Market and, round to the left, Cafe Sizzle, where we hoped to find lunch at a modest cost.

Unfortunately, when we arrived, we found them closed until January 4th. Not that I begrudge them their holiday: they work hard during the year and deserve a few days of rest.

Chapel Market

We walked along Chapel Market with the vague idea of catching a bus along Upper Street to the Workers’ Cafe. The market wasn’t operating – the one stall on the right belongs to the shop beside it. Our Sunday coffee oasis, Mercer’s (on the corner on the left), was also closed.

Terrace was open

When we came to Terrace, the Turkish restaurant and takeaway, and found it open, we did not hesitate but went straight in.

Inside Terrace

The restaurant was not at all busy and we easily found a table. They have an extensive menu covering all the day’s meals from breakfast to dinner. The first job was to see if they had lentil soup: yes, they did!

Soup and other items
Photo by Tigger

They start by bringing you a dish of pickled vegetables and a basket of Turkish bread. We ordered Turkish tea for me and ayran for Tigger.

Ayran in a bottle
Photo by Tigger

The ayran came in a bottle, the first time we have been served with it like that. Fortunately, the tea at least was brewed on the premises.

Bon appétit!
Photo by Tigger

Tigger chose Sigara Boregi and Halloumi (foreground) and I had Falafel with Humus.

When our lunch was finished, we made no bones about but came straight home. We have plenty to entertain us here but we will be ready for more expeditions when the weather improves.

Yesterday, I wrote that I would be going out today to make an important purchase but that will not after all happen.

I have been having trouble with the PC recently. It is sometimes reluctant to start up and may need several attempts to set it going. I thought I had solved the problem but then I noticed something: in the list of external drives connected to the PC, one was missing. Drive H refused to appear despite me unplugging it and plugging it in again and rebooting the computer. Not unreasonably, I decided that after a long life of faithful service, it had finally given up the ghost. I proposed going to PC World on the morrow to buy a new one.

In case you are wondering, the demise of one of my backup drives does not entail any loss of data. I am punctilious about regularly backing up my data. All my important files have at least two backup copies on separate drives. That of course includes drive H which contains backups but is itself also backed up.

Roll forward to yesterday afternoon and a second problem appeared. I use a lot of portable programs, storing them on a USB flash drive. This means that if I go anywhere, I can take the flash drive with me and have all my familiar software accessible on whatever computer I use. The flash drive includes a launcher which can be made to appear at the press of a key. Except that suddenly, it was no longer appearing…

I spent several hours trying all sorts of things and at last, just as I was thinking of giving up, I got everything working again.

One thought sparked another and it occurred to me to try the “failed” external drive again. I was holding it in my hand as I plugged in its power cable and I immediately felt a continuous vibration: the disc was spinning as it should! I tried plugging it into a USB socket and – bingo! – there it was, bright and cheerful in the list of drives!

I tested it carefully, of course, but it is working perfectly and doesn’t need to be replaced. The fault is not in the drive but in the computer. At some point I shall have to have an expert look it over and find out what’s causing the intermittent failures. Or maybe it’s time to invest in a new PC built with the latest technology and operating system. Something to think about…