Awash With Websites

Image: Global Spec

I did intend on blogging over the weekend but as fate had it I never really got around to it. I awoke on Saturday morning up with a slightly dicky tummy. May have been the copious amounts of Guinness I drank on Friday afternoon, may have been the ‘Full House’ pizza from Domino’s I swallowed in the evening. It may even have been a bug. Think I know what it was, though.

After fixing my dicky tummy I set about doing some house cleaning, starting with the toilet obviously. When I’d finished polishing it to within an inch of its life I realised I wasn’t wearing my wedding ring any longer. It’s been loose on my finger since I shed a load of weight and must have slipped off somewhere.

I searched everywhere. It definitely wasn’t anywhere in the bathroom, but I remembered having to go downstairs to get the cleaning products so I backtracked everywhere I’d been. Nothing. It just wasn’t anywhere, not even down the toilet where I thought it may have slipped while cleaning!

In despair I went into the bedroom to sit down, hold my head and see if I a lie down would help. And there it was, sitting gleaming on the middle of the duvet as if to say, “didn’t you hear me shouting?” The relief was instant. I’d taken it off to keep it safe while I cleaned because it was getting loose. There may be a touch of “senior momentitus” in there somewhere.

I finished my cleaning, put the rabbits out, then settled down to do some work. When I first built and installed a login system and gallery for my photography client, the intention was to work towards proving an online sales system eventually. This is pretty hard going to do yourself but on Saturday I discovered some software that could be used to just do that in an all-in-one package. It’s a full gallery display, purchasing and e-commerce site and it’s very flexible.

I installed it in the afternoon and showed her it. She loved it and gave it the thumbs up.

Sunday (yesterday) after a good sleep, I got up and installed the new software for real. Then, after about four hours of configuring it and adapting it entirely for her site, I put it into ‘Maintenance Mode’ so I could run some initial backups and diagnosis for performance. Only it wouldn’t let me back in as the Administrator. I was locked out!

I tried everything but eventually resigned myself to the fact I would have to reinstall it, which on doing so, wiped everything clean. I had wasted four hours of effort. My rage was undescribable. Tension was everywhere. Stress riddled every pore.

I rebuilt it all again—slightly quicker this time as I was becoming an expert by this stage—and finally got it complete by early evening. It’s now ready to receive new photographs to be uploaded for selling to clients. It looks quite spiffing even if I say so myself.

My role at the The Scruffy Dog Review has changed recently. As well as my regular column (Scotland’s Treasure) and minor editorial duties, I’m now the webmaster for the magazine.

Over the weekend we (the editorial staff) selected a new look for the website and I started work putting it all together. We’re going to re-launch on 1st November so stay tuned.

So, as you can see my entire time this weekend was spent working on clients’ websites. That alone made it a very different kind of weekend but still enjoyable, particularly when Gail dialled the number for the Prince Balti House and ordered an Indian meal for us late on Sunday evening.

There’s nothing quite like a Lamb Madras to celebrate a weekend of hard work!

Here’s something to amuse some of you…