My apologies

My neighbours are immigrants from Latvia. They speak
Latvian in the flat, and English outside the flat.
In 3 years the 6 year old son has learned to speak Latvian and English successfully. He is now at school where English is spoken obviously. When the cousins come over for a holiday he can converse with them.

Don't worry about not commenting Balcony. We all have periods when we can't for one reason or another.
I hope however, that you'll be able to get a new computer soon.
I must be honest - I prefer a desktop one myself.

It's all very well (and essential in Britain) to speak English, but I do hope your grand daughter will never loose her Spanish language and accent. It's part of who she is, and also an advantage.
It's good to be multilingual :o)

Hi Balcony
Good luck with getting back in the groove with computers etc. Lately I've taught myself filming little movies, and I've trained myself to regularly save everything externally from my laptop... photos, files, movies... all there on back up.

It will be useful if your grandchildren have knowledge of other languages. I hope your son's wife finds work soon.
Maybe keep a look out for new businesses planning to start up, and try to apply before everyone else !

Yes... strange weather this summer... too much drought, then a week of rain and then very cold for mid summer... better this weekend though. :o)

My hubby uses a desktop, daughter and I use laptops, Sherryl is a legal secretary so flitting to different computer setups is second nature to her, however hubby still struggles on our laptops, his language gets very colourful when he is using one of ours for some reason and I have never mastered his setup, I simply cannot use a mouse, its completely alien to me and I worry in case I do something wrong, mind you because I don't touch it I cannot be accused of anything, I even refuse to clean around all his bits and bobs, its like Spaghetti Junction around his desk, lol.
I've just downloaded Windows 10 so I am having fun at the moment, its not all that different actually, I know for a fact that there were lots on 8.1 that I had never got used to and I was forever losing things, I guess I never will now, lol...I have a stylus for my phone, if my arthritis is playing up I have problems hitting the little squares and end up writing a load of mispelt words, it works on my tablet as well, I most certainly would not want to write a blog on it..
Hope your family find their own home soon and also that your daughter-in-law manages to find a job, we will catch up soon Balcony, thankyou for letting us know you are ok..

Good to hear from you again Balcony. It seems to have been the time for computers to die - Fran's and mine and now yours...I have taken the plunge from PC to laptop but have it on the old desk with a proper keyboard on the keyboard shelf - I can't be doing with fiddling about with a laptop keyboard. I did try having it on my lap but got horribly stiff neck and shoulders. And as for doing without the mouse - a complete no no!

Its sad that your family is having trouble finding both a new home and a job. Lets hope that when both do turn up they will be just what is wanted. It must be so dispiriting to make so many applications with no results. The little girl is at an ideal age to learn English - the brain has a special facility for learning language which sadly disappears at about age 7. Best wishes to all of you.

We had a friend of my son's over this week from Spain. She is Scottish with a Spanish husband. Her little girl aged four is bilingual but it took her mum at about a year to be employable in Spain. Once you are in the country learning the language speeds up tho'.
I am writing this on my ipad using the stylus from my phone. Our main computer gave up the ghost recently too, but we decided on a holiday instead of a new computer......it is on the list. :0)

Thank you all for your encouraging comments! :-)) It's one of the things that make GoY such a great gardening forum! :-))
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I do have my photos backed up but on the 2nd HDD! As the computer won't start up all my photos are still save & sound on the HD but unavailable to this mini-laptop. A great many are stored in the "cloud". I have easy access to them but before I can post any on GoY I have to first download them again! Therefore it's much easier to build up my library of photos again from scratch. Most photos I use on the different forums I post on are some of the most recent I've taken. Only very occasionally do I want an older photo so it's not too much of a problem. Now I back up even more of my photos to the "cloud" so none are lost.

Your daughter in law may be more successful aiming for part time work at a country pub that does meals. It is
unsocial hours, evenings and weekends usually. They have to employ students who tend to be difficult to manage at times, fooling about and excitable. Might prefer an older woman. Not to much talking to do in English, just have to learn the menu, and smile ! Tips are shared with the kitchen staff, and tax free.

Thanks Diane. :-))