Well. I’m amazed. I love Linux Ubuntu to bits, but their latest upgrade, to 11.04 (Natty Narwhal or something) is awful. The desktop is different, and ugly, and slow and clunky, although the office suite is better and faster. I tried to put the Gnome desktop back on instead of the new Unity one and then I couldn’t log in. This is after 6 hours of downloading and installing (and that’s on a broadband connection)!

So today I have reinstalled 10.10 and fiddled about endlessly to make the flipping network work (essential because I back up onto two separate hard drives, which are networked!) and couldn’t make Evolution do its thing, so ended up with Thunderbird. Thunderbird is actually wonderful, and once you’ve input your email address it sort of says “ooh, I know, I’ll just check and then I’ll put in all the information you need”. And it worked! then I installed Lightning, because that’s the calendar you have to have if you use Thunderbird (Evolution comes with its own calendar) and last time Lightning wouldn’t fit, but this time it worked wonderfully, and I’ve even managed to import my contacts and appointments! excellent, and very pretty too.

Good old 10.10. Nasty new 11.04. Will wait till they’ve ironed out all the bugs. 11.04 seems to have lost “visual effects” which makes the desktop so pleasant to look at and use. Hmph.

On the positive side, I have been to Castle Nurseries in Studley today, courtesy of my friend Sue, who picked me up, drove me there, pushed the trolley round despite all her wonky bits, then drove us both to Earlswood for a cup of tea (a pot, in fact, which managed 3 cups each and another half cup for Sue – not bad for £2!, then drove me home. I bought a new delphinium, a new hebe, and something else which is currently a secret, but won’t be for long. Further information later . . . .

Tomorrow is osteopath day, and will pop to Woolmans on the way home to get the stuff I couldn’t get today. Wednesday is Foot Guy. Thursday may well be helping hubby do things to scaffolding planks for the fencing (easy stuff for me like painting, heavy stuff for him like sawing them up with his surprise new circular saw).

Cat is currently having a “mad half hour” and running about pretending everything is a potential enemy. She’s not happy when I’m in the study at this time of night (9.15 pm) and not in the lounge with hubby, where she clearly thinks I belong. It’s a sort of herding instinct, which I have seen in ED’s cat JR. So on that note, I will keep her happy and go and sit down.