Cyber Gremlins.

My computer automatically downloaded some Windows updates this morning, then shut down as it’s supposed to. When I booted up again, it gave me a black screen with a message box which effectively said – I’m paraphrasing, of course – ‘We can’t find Windows. It isn’t available. Go away.’ I had another ‘Oh no, not again’ moment, and called the computer repair people.

One of the minions passed a message through the receptionist to the effect that ‘This is a Very Serious Problem. You’ll have to bring the machine in for repair.’ I arranged to do so tomorrow, awash with trepidation at the prospect of spending a whole evening and early morning without a computer.

I shut the machine down, but then tried booting it again to see what would happen. Voila: it worked perfectly, so I rang the repair place and gave them the good news, the subtext of which was ‘Up yours!’ I didn’t say as much, of course; I was very polite because something might go wrong again and I’ll need them to be as prompt and helpful as possible, won’t I?

Mr Rob at the theatre thinks I should consider getting an exorcist in.