The bunting is up, the cannon are ready for the 21-gun salute, the fireworks are all carefully set out to draw a picture of the books in the sky, the big name celebrities are ready to cut the ribbon…
OK, maybe not. But I am busy getting the last few finishing touches ready for the launch of the new books I mentioned last week, later today.
So it’s a short email this time as I’ve a few things still to do!
But I did want to mention something that’s come up a few times lately – what to do when something won’t work properly on your device – maybe when you tap or click on something and nothing happens or it seems to be taking forever.
So here are the first two things to bear in mind for if that happens to you:
First, make a cup of tea. Honest, I mean it. And I don’t just mean to keep you relaxed. It’s just that the PC, tablet or whatever might well be busily sorting itself out in the background and it just needs a little time to get itself in order.
But it’s so hard to just sit there and wait and not get frustrated and end up tapping or clicking on all sorts of things.
So the solution is to go and make a cup of tea and it might all be sorted by the time you get back.
(I suppose it doesn’t have to be tea – coffee, hot chocolate or bovril would all be fine. Or even a nice dry gin martini if the sun’s over the yard-arm.)
Here’s the second thing to try, if that didn’t work, and your device still isn’t doing anything or at least isn’t doing what it should: try restarting it.
The important thing here is to make sure you do it right. Tapping the on/off button to put it into “sleep” and waking it up again is no good.
So, if you have a Windows 10 PC or laptop, go to the start menu and choose “restart”
If you have an older Windows PC, go to the start menu and choose “Turn off”, then when it’s finished, turn it on again.
If you have a tablet or smartphone, turn it off fully (usually by holding down the on off button, then sliding something on the screen to confirm you did want to turn it off), then when it’s finished turning off, turn it on again.
Often that’ll help – it’s definitely worth knowing in case you find something playing up.
No bunting, no cannon and no ribbon to cut, but watch out at 11am
As I say, at 11am, the new Next Steps on your PC, Laptop, Tablet or Smartphone books will be available to order – and I’ll release the full information about what they cover, who they’re suitable for and so on. (Including the 3 things that have to be true about you for me to recommend them to you.)
Watch out for my email at 11am UK time.