The screen was already awake and sat at the password input screen and the usually blank field where the password should get typed was itself already filled in. I hit delete, the box fought back. I highlighted all and deleted and as soon as it was empty, the box started to fill up again. This wasn't the start of the day that I was hoping for. Last night I had tracked down a camera store on line that looked like it might be in possession of a second hand Sony 28-70 lens at a reasonable price and it was here that I wanted to get to a take a look. Instead it looked like my plans were about to change again. Perhaps I should have brought it flowers.
It was hard enough to get past the password screen. Every time I tried a letter, an extra one or two more would appear, blanked out in password screen fashion meaning that in order to get past here I would have to pay attention, and count the number of dots along I was before hitting the next key. This is a challenge without coffee. One in I could see that the problem was the "z". Perhaps it was still asleep which is why the "zzz" kept filling in the gaps. I did my best to wake it. I googled the problem, tried a few "solutions". none of which worked. I struggled through booking a room in my next port of call, removing extra zeds from "jazmzesz aitzkzenz" as well as my credit card number which for some reason was now being shown as incorrect. With my solutions limited and with a final throw of the dice, I decided to reinstall the Mojave operating system onto the mac with it's initial 18 minute estimated time soon doubling to nearer an hour.
It didn't help.
After wasting the morning and nearly 3 hours of effort, the macbook was still suffering from visual narcolepsy. I had run out of ideas and patience. This was something I could ill afford to lose. Without the mac I would be unable to process photos, write up blogs and note down my degree findings. I would also be unable to fall asleep to late night youtube clips which should perhaps be higher up on that list of inconveniences.
I looked for solutions on my phone, nearby places that I could take it and get a professional to look it over. I know that there are apple stores here in Bangkok, but unfortunately my budget wasn't going to stretch to that kind of thing, not without persuasion. Instead I found a place just an MRT stop away, about 20 minutes and I would be there. It had glowing reviews on line from those that had used them which gave me a little more faith than just turning up in one of the malls and taking a chance. The company sounded professional too. I mean, who wouldn't want to take their poorly apple to see "Dr MacBook"?
errr...bugger...about turn.
It wasn't the longest trek in the world back to the hotel. The MRT is an air conditioned network that runs underground to various points of the city. The walk on each side of the stations I used was only 5 minutes each way, but still when I got back to the hotel I decided it was time for a costume change. It may have been only 32 degrees but sometimes it's the humidity that bites. At ground level it can get quite intense fairly quickly, they perceived lack of air and the heaviness of it all can occasionally cause someone coming from a single figure climate to perspire a little. I put on a lighter top, chucked the passport back in the bag and got myself back to the Fico reception lady.
With my passport exchanged for a building pass I caught the opulent lift to the 5th floor. Here, down narrow walkways were a number of enclosed, self contained units and I followed the corridor along, scouring the signs above the doors for the one that sported the name of the one that I needed. At the end I got to a wall, physically and mentally and as I turned a young lady from one of the other units asked me if she could help me find what I was looking for. I told her, she politely laughed. I had walked straight past the door with "DR MACBOOK" scrawled upon it in giant, bold coloured letters. Sometimes as a photographer I get into the habit of looking away from where the eyes are naturally led. Sometimes as a person, I feel like an idiot. "Sawadee Krap" I replied, bowing thankfully and a little sheepishly.
Inside the doors I explained to the lady what the problem was that I was having, unsheathing my Macbook from it's case and laying it down on the desk. Something had happened in the last few hours. No matter what I tried the fault didn't occur. boot, reboot, notepad, keystrokes, tap tap tap, nothing. The good Dr had seemingly cured it just by her presence. Before I left she flipped of the "z" key and just cleaned a little inside it, there was nothing obvious that seemed to be a problem. No chuck of food or small mammal came dropping out. Lost for words I apologised and thanked here for her time and left by saying that i still have a feeling that I'm going to be back. Sometimes an intermittent fault are the worst kind of problem. Sometimes you just want someone to conclusively say "that's the problem and this is how we fix it". now however I feel like there is this problem hanging over the computer which may rear up again at any point. It may not have cost me any money at this point, but you just get that feeling that nothing is resolved either so the cost may be deferred, whether that be in monetary value or time when I can ill afford to lose any in a few weeks time.
Outside the building I noticed a couple of shrines that I wanted to get photos of so I pulled one of the cameras from the bag and lined up the with the 90mm to take a shot, adjusting the shutter speed, ISO and aperture as appropriate. Adjusting the aperture as appropriate. ADJUSTING THE AP...oh ffs.
Some days.
It seems that whilst my Macbook had sorted itself, the rear dial on my camera had developed it's own problem, perhaps feeling that it wasn't getting enough attention. I have the camera set up for shutter speed on the front dial, ISO on the back wheel and aperture on the rear dial for full, easy control. by flipping these around it was easy to diagnose that the rear wheel was the problem rather than the aperture on the lens. This was my older camera. It is the one that was mortally injured in the great adventure of 2016 and was been deemed irreparable by Sony itself. I have joked in the past is that it is coming back to Thailand to die and perhaps this process has started, For the time being though I will use that body with my 50mm manual Voigtlander which has the aperture control on the lens itself. If I use a auto lens I will shoot in shutter speed priority and keep an eye on what the camera is doing with regards to the other settings. It's why I brought 2 cameras with me. It's a little bit of contingency planning and whilst you hope that everything gets through the trip unscathed, with me I have learnt that this is pretty rarely the case.
*I woke up in the middle of the night to see the MacBook filling itself in with z's again. I quickly shut the laptop down and put it into it's case and into my backpack. I am suspecting now that perhaps the humidty is causing a problem with the Mac, and prehaps this has also caused a problem with the camera also. It is also possible that this is being compounded by the air conditioning in the room.
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