dale lane

I’ve said before that I don’t like London. I avoid having to work in London wherever possible. But, if I’m honest, I don’t really know the city that well and always tend to go back to the same old places when I am there.

Yesterday changed that a bit. Amy and I went to London for a tour with HiddenCity, and I saw more of it in one day than I’d seen in years.

A HiddenCity trail is basically a treasure hunt delivered by SMS messages. You get a text message with a clue for something to find. Once you’ve worked it out, you reply by SMS. If you’re right, you get the clue for the next step of the hunt.

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I don’t always do New Years Resolutions, but this year I did, coming up with over a dozen things that I wanted to achieve in 2012.

With a couple of days left, it’s time to see how this worked out.

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Step 1: Establish trust
Reassure the person you’ve phoned by saying that you’re calling from Microsoft and that you’re Microsoft Certified

Step 2: Introduce a problem
Make them a little nervous by saying that, as you’re calling from Microsoft, because of the “international routing” you can tell their computer is infected with “malacious” viruses. Explain that you’ve been receiving error reports from “the computer” at this phone number and that it is urgent that you fix it.

Step 3: Panic
Scare the crap out of the person you’ve called by getting the user to navigate to C:\Windows\inf . Explain that “inf” stands for infected, and that these are viruses. Exclaim in horror that, as it has so many files and folders in there, this machine is badly infected.

Step 4: Save the day
Start to sound reassuring by reminding the person that you’re Microsoft certified and can fix it.

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One of my New Year’s resolutions this year was to keep a sort of daily log.

I said that once a day I would make a note of something good that happened that day.

Nothing detailed or lengthy. Just a one-line note.

It could be something good that I did at work. Not the usual day job stuff, but something that I did that was different, impressive or notable.

It could be something that I did at home – something with my family that I was pleased with, or that I enjoyed.

I wasn’t sure how I’d approach it when I started.

“Today wasn’t a waste because I…”? Or… “Today was a good day because I…”? Or… “Today was different because I…”? Or… “Today I made a difference by…”?

But I thought I’d start, and see what happened.

A few months later, and not only am I still doing it, but I’m finding it surprisingly rewarding.

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