Op

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Fair play to our local vets. They opened at 8am after the Christmas break, the beagle was in their rooms by half past, and by 1pm, she’d been x-rayed and we’d been given some vastly expensive options to get her repaired. We came home, had a quick family discussion, made a decision, rang the vet back, and boom: the beagle is off to Paarl for her op tomorrow morning.

In the meantime, she has been mostly sleeping after her sedation earlier, only raising her head for a biscuit and only drunkenly wandering into the kitchen for a bit of gravy.

Please excuse the dusty floor: the back windows are open for some fresh air, a lot of which has been coming in at a very high speed in Cape Town over the past few days.

But there is clearly a bit more energy returning as the medication wears off, so at least she’ll get a good meal in this evening ahead of the nil by mouth of tomorrow morning.

This should be a routine op, with a couple of days in hospital and a few weeks of rehab. But please hold thumbs for this next installment of Project Colin.

Upgrade

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My laptop is (at least) 8 years old and while it was a very decent laptop 8 years ago, software has moved on since then, and it hasn’t. Thus, it is having a few problems coping. The biggest issue was the heavy demands of Lightroom and Photoshop, which also happen to be the two programs I use most on there. The fancy AI denoise tool is far too much for it, and despite promising me a result in 12 minutes, it invariably failed: “falling over” some way through the process. “Falling over” is the whimsical way that computer people describe it breaking down, the whimsy designed to take your mind off the fact that you can’t actually use the tool because your laptop doesn’t work.

And so, a combination of birthday and Christmas gifts has arrived. An HP Victus laptop with souped up memory and hard drive. I now have more RAMs than a particularly successful sheep farmer, and a super smart, brand new edition graphics card and processor which should see me through (at least) the next 8 years.

Of course, once all set up, there was still the acid test: could it AI denoise a photo on which the old one had failed? It’s clearly a complicated and demanding process, and so I warned the assembled crowd (two people and beagle) that once I clicked the button, it would probably say about 10 minutes, but if it did it in 10 minutes, that was a win.

We all held our breath, and I clicked the button.

9 seconds.

Done.

Nine seconds.

Oh my. This is going to be an absolute game changer for photo editing.

AI DENOISE ALL THE THINGS!

Happy Day

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Whatever you’re doing today, have a nice day.

We’re looking forward to a big lunch with friends and family, and I have potatoes to peel. And infamous Yorkshire puddings to make.

So please, enjoy your day. I plan to enjoy mine.

Today is very busy…

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And it’s not been helped by the poor beagle hurting her leg.

Obviously, the 24hr emergency vet is heaving, given that it’s the only place open for veterinary treatment in the whole of the city.

So this is written from the waiting room floor. We’ve been here an hour already. They’re snowed under.

Would have hoped to have a more positive post today, but fingers crossed we’ll be out of here and happier soon.

Also, there’s just one annoying bloke here who thinks he needs to be attended to before anyone else. Trying all the tricks: he likes the receptionist’s tattoos, he’s chatting to (and delaying) all the vets who are coming out of the consulting rooms, he’s talking loudly on his phone about how long he’s been waiting.
It’s about 40 minutes less than us.

And now he’s wandering around muttering stuff under his breath.

Weird and irritating.

I’ll keep you all updated.

EDIT: Aaaaand… it’s a torn Cranial Cruciate Ligament: possibly done chasing a cat from the garden this morning. Surgery required once the vets are open and working again. A great start to the festive period and the New Year. Eish.

Saturday – the Day of Rest

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I dunno. I was never really that into the Old Testament. But surely any genuinely omnipotent deity would have got all the stuff done ASAP and given Himself the whole weekend off.

I’m not claiming to be either omnipotent or a deity, but I worked hard yesterday and this morning for the opportunity of a quiet afternoon in front of the football before the hectic festive season kicks off again tomorrow.

Sadly, a combination of a very dull West Ham game and a horrific new animated ad constantly in the corner of the Newcastle game have made it a bit frustrating thus far, but I’m thinking that a gammon sandwich (yes, with lashings of English mustard) and a beer in front of Liverpool v Arsenal might make everything better.