Well Susan is not scary at all, quickly taking in my limited ability, moulding the training session around my baby-steps desires. She understands that the fact I do something only twice a year means I have to be retrained each time - some people in my house are not so sympathetic.
Meanwhile, Susan says new versions of Windows (in the vague recesses of my mind, I recall getting Windows 7 about a year ago - it wasn't a red letter day for me) come with all these new tools and a lot of non-tech-savvy types don't actually use all the bells and whistles.
Susan, bless her, enjoys revealing the joys of these to clients. She starts me off with a crowd pleaser, which I've been using every day since. Go to the start menu as you enter your desktop, and there is a box you can write in at the bottom, which on my computer, says "search programs and files". Usually when I go on my computer I am looking to work on an article from the day before. So rather than ploughing through my folders, I just put in a keyword in this box. If I were trying to access this article, for instance I would put in IT - and all my documents/articles that had IT in the title would pop up. I'm delirious - this is a real time-saver for me. Instant gratification.
Next we have a wee play on my desktop - I have now got a giant flax plant as my screensaver, which gives me a lift every time I see it. For those interested, you go into the middle of your desktop, do a right mouse-click and go to personalise - you get a whole load of options. Oh the powers of the right mouse-click.
Susan does some housework on my computer - her fingers are obviously itching when she sees my documents library goes back to 2008 and beyond.
She gets me involved in sorting documents into year files, which involves a lot of left-clicking and dragging, I now have document folders for 2008, 2009 and 2010. Woo hoo!
The IT coach casts an eye over my emails. I know she is wincing inside. She shows me how to "yellow star" important emails that I want to go back to. Tagging is good too. Oh I feel so in control.
This is better than going to the hairdressers. Nearly.
Next week:
As an asthmatic, friends have suggested that I go and see Glenn White, a registered Buteyko Institute practitioner who runs the Buteyko Breathing Clinic in Auckland.
