Never take your computer to the Mac1 at the ANU

I haven't posted for a week, but honestly, it's not my fault ... it's those idiots at the computer shop. You know how I said I needed to upgrade the operating system, and that I could do it myself, but it seemed a bit high risk, so I'd take it into the shop and they could do it, so at least then I wouldn't accidentally delete everything? Well guess what, I took it in and they ACCIDENTALLY DELETED EVERYTHING.

So all my photos and documents are gone, but that's not too bad because I manually transfer everything really important onto the iMac, and that's backed up automatically. And my email is all web based, so I still have  that. It's just those endless little bits of software (Skype, the photo book stuff, the Citrix I use for work, the e-reader software) and of course Microsoft Office (amazingly, I still have the CD, so that was reasonably easy to re-install) that I now have to spend hours putting back on. And all my saved passwords are gone, my browsing history is gone, the several hundred photos of quilts that I'd saved just to look at are gone, my Sims are all dead, my music is gone and the hundreds of pirated movies I got off a friend in Kiribati are gone...

The shop (Mac 1 at the ANU, if you ever feel like getting your computer fixed in Canberra, go somewhere else) were a little bit apologetic but mostly defensive, which I always think is a bad move in a case like this. Your only real hope is complete grovelling; I don't care how many hours you spent trying to recover it, or how this never happens, or that there was probably something wrong with their hard drive.

And really, really, really don't try and charge me any money. I read the disclaimer before I signed it, and I know that means I probably can't sue you for damaging my property, but there is no way in god's green earth that I am going to pay you for wrecking my laptop and causing me six to eight hours of unnecessary work re-establishing everything. Honestly, I was so gobsmacked when he asked me to pay that I just said "I don't think so!" and walked out of the shop (I already had my laptop in my bag, I thought our interaction was over). If I'd been prepared I would have given them a good blasting about Australian consumer protections and major defects in services ... which would have been much more fun (for me) but they caught me on the hop. They have all my contacts so if they want to chase me up they can, and then I can take them to fair trading and (hopefully!) small claims court (I have my doubts about that disclaimer and I reckon I could probably get a bit out of them).

The main problem? I have lost the last three steps of Roll Roll Cotton Boll. I didn't quite finish it and before Bonnie took the instructions down for her book I carefully saved them, because I am going to finish it one day, honestly...