Being a public nuisance...

Rochester High Street Forum get back to me on wheelchair access:
" We have worked out a solution to your concerns and would like to discuss this with you. We have a regular meeting on market matters every Thursday at 10:30. Unfortunately our usual venue does not have wheelchair access, so we would welcome a suggestion of a place in Rochester where we could meet up."

*Headdesk*

This Saturday's market was at least as bad as the last one for kerb cuts and footpaths blocked by stalls. So I pointed this out on their FB page, with pointed quote of their promise from last month to keep kerb cuts clear. Not only was there a stall on top of the kerb cut I use, but the one in front of the War Memorial, while admittedly not blocked, had a stall the full width of the pavement on either side, which was rather taking the piss.

They replied saying: "It was accessible, I saw someone take a photo and use that kerb-cut"

My response: "Yes, that was me, recording how unsafe it was" (just marginally less unsafe than going straight off a high kerb)

Anyway, they've now agreed to meet this Thursday, and we've suggested the cafe in the tourist info (one of the few genuinely accessible locations on the High Street). I'm not sure they quite realise what they're getting into in meeting my friend Sue, who'll be there to give the powerchair perspective. She's already an MBE for work on disability access, and she's one of the backroom advisors to Lady Tanni Grey-Thompson on her disability stuff (from the US perspective, it's roughly equivalent to bringing a senior senatorial aide or lobbyist to beat up a small town chamber of commerce).

New computer :)

New desktop computer finally ordered. My old one died a while ago, and I didn't have the cash to replace it until a couple of weeks ago, since when I've been paralysed by choice. Thankfully FB friends managed to narrow down my choice by pointing out the Dell Outlet, which is Dell selling off PCs whose cases have picked up minor dents or scratches during manufacture (and the two friends who've used it confirmed they are minor). Roughly a third off means they're even cheaper than the bespoke builders. I almost went for a £700 machine last week, but it disappeared while I hesitated (it was the same spec they sell at PC World for £1050, so I went to look at one and it was gone by the time I got back).

So I've been checking their listings a couple of times a day. Just to throw me into a last minute dilemma, they added two systems this afternoon that fitted my requirements (and that's two as in one of each only, so no time to hesitate). An XPS 8920 with i5-7400 with 2TB drive and 32Mb SSD for £700 (the configuration on sale in PC World for £1050) or an Alienware R6 with i7-7700 with only a 1TB drive and no SSD for £850. (Both have the same GTX 1060 graphics card). Only other serious difference was a Blueray read/write optical drive in the R6 which I have absolutely no use for (a Blueray writer, seriously!?). The XPS is almost literally the R6 chassis and internals without the glo-faster plastic panels.

I had to go for a walk (okay, a waddle) to think it out. The R6 does have the i7 (and the i7 was first on my wants list - I'm an advocate of buying as powerful a PC as you can afford as that way they retain acceptable performance for longer, my previous machine had the very first i7 and lasted me 8 years), but it falls short on storage, I want at least 2TB, and doesn't have an SSD (okay, 32GB is too small for general use, but it will hold Windows for fast starts). The i7 on its own isn't really worth £150 more (AFAICS price diff vs i5 as components is more like £80-100), and if the i7-7700 price drops, given the arrival of 6-core i7-8s, I may be able to pick one up cheap later. And I was already at £700 on a budget that started out as (an unrealistic) £250 upgrade. If I went for the R6 and upgraded storage, I was looking at nearly £1000.

So I went for the XPS. And if you think all of this is me trying to convince myself I made the right decision, you're damned right! I mentally and physically hate dilemmas! My arm was shaking almost uncontrollably as I went through the buying process. But it absolutely needed doing, I'm 100% certain mixing games and writing on the laptop is why I haven't done as much writing as I'd like this year, and it may even have been affecting my mental health.