It had been far too long since I read anything, so a week ago I made a start on The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. As winner of the Booker Prize I figured it would probably be good. But I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
Not having been reading books for long (well, that’s not true – I’d say more reading for the simple pleasure of it), I didn’t know whether or not I’d enjoy this. It was more out of curiosity for what kind of book wins the Booker Prize. And it turns out it’s the kind of book I really love!
It’s the story of a poor Indian man from a village, recounting his life – from humble beginnings to proprietor of a successful business – in the form a several letter’s to the Chinese Premier. I’m not going to give any of the story away, but it’s told with good humour and is an exceptionally easy read. The only reason it took me a week is because I always seem to be able to find something other than reading to do! I wouldn’t say the story is full of twists, but there is a definite change in the way the narrative flows as we get towards the end of the tale; from something akin to a diary near the beginning, to more of a story towards the end.
As ever, no reviews from me as I haven’t read enough books to compare, but it will definitely be heading to the top of my favourites list.
I’ve been putting it off for a while because I didn’t want the hassle of having to set it all up, but last night I decided I’d install Windows on my Mac using Boot Camp. So I started the process rolling, loaded the program and had it partition the hard drive. The next step is to restart the machine with the Windows disc in the drive so that it can install it to the new partition.
Well, it got to that stage. I had it copy the files to the new area I’d marked out for it just like a normal Windows installation would. Then it restarted, but instead of loading the regular Windows install screens it decided to load the initial loading program again. To cut a long story short, something catastrophic had happened and it wiped the whole drive. Bugger.
Fortunately for me, whenever I use the MacBook at my desk I have it plugged in to an external hard drive to take advantage of Time Machine- the program which makes hourly backups of your hard drive so that you can flick back and recover lost files. In extreme circumstances such as this it can also restore the entire hard drive. And the theory is that so long as it’s always plugged in to the external hard drive your backup will never be more than an hour old. Phew!
After an initial scary moment (I hadn’t created a new partition and my backups disappeared, requiring a reboot before they returned) the process was a doddle. You choose the backup you want to use and where you want to install it, then you sit back and let it work it’s magic. A couple of hours later I had a fully-restored machine and, although Mail had to rebuild itself once I’d reopened it, there were few side effects. Brilliant tool.
I’ve just got to take another look at Boot Camp before considering trying it again.
I took a trip out with a friend yesterday to Salcey Forest with our cameras and a Frisbee. Unfortunately we didn’t get chance to have a play with it, although we did take some good pics. I’ve added them to Flickr and to the Photo Gallery for you good folk to take a look at. Enjoy!
I’m not sure how many people were involved, but I’d like to say thank you to everyone who picked up on my post regarding FoneBank. After I put my referral code online, some kind folk picked up on it and used it. So today I’ve received four cheques from the company, totalling £18. So a great big thanks to everyone who used it! Of course, the code is still available for use and FoneBank is still there if you do want to sell your phone.
Oh, and for those who missed it, my code is RFPt2G.
Cheers!! 
(P.S. I got the referral code with the cheque I received for my phone. So you should get a code of your own once your first cheque arrives.)
I’ve got a rather exciting meeting today. Of course, when I say rather exciting, what I actually mean is horrendously dull. I wasn’t looking forward to it anyway as someone I don’t particularly like is going to be in there. But I’ve checked my emails this morning to discover a five-page spreadsheet we’ll be going through. Five pages of unadulterated drivel. I can see this not being a good day!
Weekend tomorrow though, so I suppose I should be grateful for that. I’ll be off out with a chum to take some photos and I’m quite looking forward to it. Hopefully it won’t rain too heavily! 
