Z goes shopping and to the iDoctor

I was down to only two summer skirts, one of those is button-through which is always a slight worry, and the other is over 20 years old - I still like it, but it's not quite a must-wear any more.  So I went shopping.  There's a nice clothes shop in the town that I usually use and I ventured in, to be greeted by the proprietor who was quite glad to see me.  A very well-known and liked member of the community died recently and it was his funeral today, and almost everyone was there.  I knew him, but not well and didn't feel I needed to go.

I explained about the skirtlessness - last summer I wore trousers so I could wear my comfy walking shoes without drawing attention to them - and she told me that everything in the shop was reduced in price.  I took almost everything she had in a 10 and went to try them on ... of course, within minutes two customers came in, and the shop has only one changing room.

Anyway, in the end I bought seven skirts and three jackets.  Most at 30% discount and a couple at 60%.  I won't need any more for years, and some of those can go on to the autumn too.  It's quite an incentive not to get any fatter, and I rather need one.  I bit the bullet and weighed myself this morning - I was quite relieved only to have put on 3 pounds since my operation, I did think it was more, but it'll spur me on, I trust, to lose it and more.

I had an appointment at the Apple shop, so arranged to meet the Sage an hour after that at another phone shop.  I explained to the chap what the problem is and he was a bit bemused - the ringtone of the phone didn't work but the alarms and alerts did, the vibrate worked but the text alert didn't and the sound on the apps didn't work but iTunes and Spotify and audio-books worked fine.  Oh, and since Monday email notification didn't work, even when I tried manually, but the internet connection was quite okay and I could get emails that way.  He said it sounded like a range of software problems that you'd expect to find if the phone had been dropped in water, but it hadn't, as I assured him.  I said I'd restored it - twice - and done the other obvious things, so he suggested doing a total restoration - not that he said such a thing, but I sort of took it as the difference between taking a laxative and going for colonic irrigation ... I've never done either myself, but can imagine.  "It'll wipe everything, have you got it backed up?" he asked.  I said I have.  "When was the last time you backed it up?" - evidently taking me for a bit of a blonde.  "Last night, I back it up every day," I said meekly.

Afterwards, I sent an email to myself to make sure that worked, and then we wanted to check the phone. "There's too much metal here, there's no signal," he said.  "I could go outside and you phone me," I suggested.  "I don't have a signal either."  "Er, no, I did mean from a landline" I replied, wondering how blonde I looked today.  Maybe I just looked very old and a bit dim.

Well, in the event, it all worked.  The phone is fine again.  And the whole thing only took half an hour - it is true, by the way, that if they can't fix it at once, they give you a new one.  And they're really helpful - if you ever need to avail yourself of an appointment (which may be simply to learn how to get the best from your phone), book it online and then nobble a staff member to get signed in when you arrive.  Then have a little wander round all the pretty things until it's your turn.  I was approached, unpushily and helpfully, by four members of staff as I probably looked a bit lost; I wasn't, but I know it's my manner.

After that, I went off to meet the Sage.  I'd investigated a bit beforehand, and knew that there was a choice of two mobile companies that have the best signal here, it turned out that one is more expensive so that was good, because the decision was made.  I said we wanted a touchscreen and what I was willing to pay - and we decided - er, the Sage agreed with me - absurdly, if we'd moved from Vodaphone to another company he'd have been able to keep his number but going from pay-as-you-go to a contract with them, he couldn't.  But he was given a choice so he chose a nice number, which pleased me as there were mathematical reasons for doing so.

Oh, and we got talking about apps - it turned out that both the assistants at Crphn Wrhs have iPhones, too.  Which surprised me a bit, as there are some really good other phones out there now and they'll have had a chance to try them all.