Have you ever had one of those experiences where you’ve been fighting to try to make something technical work, but it won’t? For the past week I have been unable to access Microsoft 365 on my MacBook. That meant no email, no Word docs, no Excel… Basically I could do no work that involved those things, unless I could do it via my phone, which bizarrely (and thankfully) remained unaffected. It’s so strange to have a window repeated pop up to tell you there is no valid subscription for that email address when you know there is, cos it’s working fine on another device!
So last Friday I contacted Microsoft via their ‘chat support’. The person I was communicating with said there was no valid subscription showing up at their end (I explained in various ways how that could not be the case), then said it was a known issue for people who had purchased through the Apple App Store, but would be sorted out very soon and I would be notified by email when it was fixed. His other suggestion was to ring Apple, ask for a refund and re-purchase directly from them. I was reluctant to do that – it’s a family subscription and I didn’t want to risk impacting my lovely wife’s ability to access her files.
Four days later when I still couldn’t get access to my files (other than to look at them), I looked up Apple support. There are three options – online chat, give them your number and they’ll ring you or email. Well the online chat hadn’t solved my issue when I contacted Microsoft so I opted for the phone call. A friendly person asked what the problem was and asked to access my screen, for which I gave permission. Their mouse pointer was big and red so I could very easily see what they were asking me to do. I went through the same process as I have been doing for DAYS to no effect and then they asked me to try clicking on “restore previous purchases”. I was doubtful this would have any effect either as I had tried that myself too, but I was wrong! Some magic must have been woven by the wonderful Apple Support employee (though they claimed it wasn’t when I asked) because it worked!! Word, Excel and Outlook are all now fully available to me again on my MacBook – I am SO relieved.
It made me feel a bit like the pupils must have when I was teaching and their computers were misbehaving; they would ask for help, very frustrated, yet when I came over to talk them through it, all of a sudden the computer did what it was supposed to.
Another bit of magic has been the transformation of Doris’ fleece from raw fleece, to washed fleece, to spun yarn, to knitted fabric. I’ve only done a small swatch so far (using all of the little skein I’d spun) and I can tell that the areas of fabric with less twist in the yarn are much softer as it allows the wool to bloom. It’s not the most evenly spun yarn, but it’s a little swatch that I’m very proud of nonetheless and I’m already thinking about what full-scale projects I will make with it.
The large version of Into the Vortex is coming on and will be finished by the end of the week (yay!). Now that I can use Word again I’ll be able to type up this version of the pattern, get it checked through and tested and then add it to the main pattern file. I posted a pic in yesterday’s subscribers’ newsletter (hurrah for Mailchimp) and also showed them some sneak previews of some new coasters!
Now, since it’s such a beautiful day outside, I think I’m going to take my journal and knitting outside and sit on the patio (under the sunshade) and finish the final part of the shawl.
I hope you get some time this week to stop and rest – and maybe even experience a few things that might just be magic!
Take care and keep knitting, K x
