Magical light at sunset

The video card on my Macbook blew out last Thursday so I've been without communications including no blipping since then.  The screen went black with thin white stripes for a few seconds and then shut down and kept trying to reboot itself.  And that was it.  The hard drive is thankfully intact.  After several hours searching the internet for solutions, and a few discussions with others who know about these things, it seems that the best option is to retire the old laptop and buy another.  This has happened exactly 5 years and 3 days into its life which I understand is a reasonably normal lifespan for a computer.  One can replace the screen at a cost of about a quarter the price of a new one but there is apparently no guarantee that it will last 2 months or 2 years, plus there is also some implication that the motherboard has had it too (these things apparently often occur in tandem).  So it's off to the knackers sans hard drive.  Fortunately, everything is backed up onto an external drive.  I have since revived my almost 10-year old Mac, which I repaired when something similar happened 5 years ago, and which effort, at the time, I thought had been a waste of time and money.  Anyway, it's finally come into its own albeit only for a few weeks while I get sorted out with a new laptop.  Unfortunately, the operating  system is about 5 versions behind the times, and not upgradable, and few programs are compatible - most notably Lightroom.  Hence my lack of blips which will continue for a few weeks until I am able to read the old hard drive and recover my photographs from the past week.  I have also resorted to shooting in non-RAW mode to make editing, in an old and very cumbersome version of Photoshop Elements, much quicker.

Tomorrow night I start my journey on the Trans-Mongolian Railroad, 4 days and 5 nights from Moscow to Ulan Bator.  Hopefully, I can stay technologically intact or all posting going to be post-facto.

And back in 1917, on this day, 21 March (now using the new calendar), the Empress writes, ".. from this moment all in the palace are considered in a state of quarantine, and contact with the outside world is forbidden."