Bermudababble Week Eighteen
Well, this week has lasted a month.
It had a very promising start – I’ve been exploring and have discovered Horseshoe Bay – where the sand is like flour and the crystal-clear warm water gently shelves… Alright enough of that – who am I Judith Chalmers? In fact for those who have read What Have I Done? It really reminded me of the beach that Simon takes Kate to, where they swim and he calls her a little fish! I sat on the sand and waited to see if they turned up, I had decided not to talk to them, but just to watch them in the sea! And then I remembered they only existed inside my head and left a bit sharpish, didn’t want people to think I’m a nutter!
I caught the bus out to the naval dockyard on the tip of the island and had a good old wander, it’s beautiful and I was in awe of a HUGE cruise ship that had docked there for an hour or so, it was like a floating city! I remembered that the webcam that my family look at in the UK is based there, so I stood on the dock and waved my pink scarf over my head – a bit like Mr Motivator back in the day – jumping and waving, much to the amusement of the 5,000 cruise ship evacuees who actually laughed at me, until I explained that my mum and dad look at the webcam. I then stopped dancing and realised that I am four hours behind the UK and my mum and dad wouldn’t be able to see me ‘LIVE!’ as they were at work. I explained this and they laughed even harder.
The Major and I have discovered a new game, it’s called Human Jukebox and basically involves shouting random bands at each other and you have to sing a song of theirs! It was very funny – he was stumped by Toto – der! And I must admit to having a mental blank on the Clash! We did however, sing loud and proud for over an hour to a whole range of artistes from the Bee Gees to Japan and just about everything in between!
I bought a new Apple notebook thing a few months back and I was absolutely over the moon – I’d never had a new computer and was very proud of it. I treasured it, taking it everywhere in its natty little case, cleaning it and not overloading it etc. I have written my new novel on it and it’s been an absolute joy, particularly as the F and T keys on my old laptop were missing, which proved tricky at times! I closed it down as I have a million times before and in the morning it was giving me an odd error message saying I needed to re-install the operating software, inconvenient, but not disastrous. The Major dropped it off at the Apple shop and received a call mid morning to say the hard drive had failed and NOTHING on it was recoverable.
I actually sat on the floor and sobbed. And in response to the hundreds of people who have asked me ‘Had you backed it up?’ – Yes! Of course I had, everything on it is neatly stored and alphabetised in a very safe place – that’s why I was sobbing! I’m joking of course, no I hadn’t. Idiot me, but it hasn’t made my loss any easier to bear. I say loss and I know that sounds extreme, but that is how I feel. It’s not the ideas and synopsis for new books that I had written on there and have now forgotten, nor the copious character studies that I spent hours penning for use in the future, none of that matters, I have a million stories and characters in my head. I’m not even fussed about the 20,000 words of my next novel gone forever… I’ll just start over. No, here’s the thing. I took 2 photographs of my Nan and I shortly before she died on my phone and loaded them onto my computer, figuring it was the safest place for them and I deleted them from my phone. They have gone forever and I am bereft. 
A few days have passed and I have stopped crying, it’s only stuff, right? So what that I have no laptop for the next 3 weeks? I’ve learned two valuable lessons. 1 – back up your stuff! And 2 – I don’t need photo’s to remind me of my Nan, I carry her voice inside my head and her picture in my mind, always.
Right off to the naval dockyard again – I got me an appointment with a webcam!
“I left the rains down in Africa…”idiot.
Mandy x
©Amanda Prowse – all enquiries PFD ajhughes@pfd.co.uk. +44 (0)20 7344 1084
