Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

Yesterday I did a very stupid thing. I had been playing one of my favourite computer games, but the exit button refused to close it down when it was time for me to move on to more productive things. To close it, I had to press CTRL+ALT+DELETE.

This is what I thought I did, but as I watched the screen, everything literally turned upside down! Not only couldn’t I believe my eyes, but my heart sank to the floor. What the hell had I done now, and was it even fixable?

I tried pressing the same combination of buttons, but nothing worked. I literally pressed everything sight, trying to goad my brain into some kind of solution, a long forgotten memory of how to extricate oneself from similar predicaments, but ten minutes later, I still had an upside down computer.

Undaunted, and this was another surprise but I digress, I decided to try System Restore. This is a wonderful way to get rid of mistaken downloads and other errors. The computer takes you back to a previous update point, usually the day before, so I thought it was worth a try. Using an upside down cursor was almost impossible, a bit like trying to cut your own hair while looking in a mirror.  After much trial and error, I managed it, although my eyes were crossed at the end.

As I sat and watched the computer doing its work, albeit upside down,  I got really angry with myself . Why was I so stupid?

(don’t all rush to tell me!)

But System Restore didn’t do a thing, everything was still upside down. Frustration arrived and grabbed me by the throat. The feeling of sheer helplessness  was doing nothing at all for my peace of mind. What was I supposed to do now?

Gradually, my mind began to sift through different possibilities. I knew there had to be some of those in my head somewhere. Then I remembered that the last time I screwed up, I used my laptop to google for help. Not that I could remember what that was all about, but at least my brain had supplied me with the relevant facts.

Half an hour later, I had my answer and it was so simple I could have cried. All I had to do was press CTRL+ALT+ and the up arrow and my world turned up the right way! It was as simple as that!