Have you ever tried to talk someone through a computer problem down the phone? Always, without fail, there is some difference between your machine and theirs. You're on Explorer 8 they're on 6, you're on Vista, they're on XP; not huge differences but just enough to cause the novice computer user some extra difficulty.
The language is difficult too, phrases like click on, push the orangey coloured button, go to the little icon in the top left hand corner just above the navigation bar etc. make perfect sense as they leave your mouth but totally confuse the recipient.
I've just had one of those conversations; forty minutes of one of those conversations, with a Sapnish friend who is trying to use a blog I set up for her. On top of the differences in machines and the description of things there was the rather larger language void between English and Spanish. I was hunting for word after word - to push a button isn't the same as to push a door and in the confusion of a difficult description and a difficult process I got more and more angry with my language failings.
Never mind - we bought a bottle of mixed Margarita yesterday which I have been spicing up with some tequila that was languishing in our drinks cabinet. Solace at the bottom of a cocktail glass.
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