New England: Monday, 27th August 2001

Written by Stephen Baines

Sunday, 26 August 2001

12:50 EST No, you've not read the date wrong. It really is Sunday's report, and it really is Monday. Important lessons have been learnt today, but more of that anon. I got up, had a noisy breakfast after having to use the stairs as the kids had broken the lifts again. I decided I was going out for the day - I had two choices, go to Boston and fight the traffic, or go to Salem and see the witches. I decided on the latter. I was getting to like driving around the place more and more, though I finally had to fill up with petrol, and pulled in realising I didn't know what sort of petrol it took, or which side the filler cap was on, or how to get the cap off... That sorted, off I tootled, and finally arrived in Salem. That's where the problems started, I couldn't find any parking, and there were no signs to tell you where to go. I decided enough was enough, and I'd go somewhere else. Sadly, the lack of signs included a lack of signs to tell you how to leave. There was one sign, I followed it, ended up at a t-junction, and no further signs. This is where the problems really set in, I ended up lost in a one way street system with no option to turn back, and no signs. I got more and more lost, no signs anywhere, and it wasn't the most cellubrious part of town. I didn't feel much like stopping and asking for directions - it didn't look as if I'd get a friendly response. This continued for a couple of hours before I finally found my way out. I was more than a little panicked and more than a little scared. It was the first time on this trip that I'd genuinely been scared. I finally saw a sign for somewhere I knew, opposite direction to the hotel, but at least I knew it, and headed for it, and made my escape back to the hotel. I'd had enough adventure for one day, stopping off only briefly at the local store for some aftersun lotion and some juice. I got back to the hotel, made a few phone calls, downloaded my mail, and prepared to relax. That's when my problems doubled. My computer, hitherto utterly reliable, decided to lunch itself. The only program running at the time was MSN (who I'm having to use over here in the States, which has not been fun) and it fell over big time, the computer went to boot up, and the MBR was no more on the computer... One of the few discs I had with me quite happily told me my data was safe, but the MBR was nowhere to be found, and as I had no boot disc handy to get to a DOS prompt to sort that out I was left with a pile of junk sitting on the desk. Reception couldn't help - all their computers were dumb terminals. I was scuppered. I sat down, watched the telly, read, and ate a rather disappointing meal of pasta with prawns and other seafood - there was far too much garlic in it, making it really quite unpleasant to eat. I went to bed, and slept uncomfortably, the sunburn aching somewhat.