Yesterday I had to stay in from 1 to 6, waiting for the man from BT to come and upgrade our Internet connection to the new super fast model. When he did arrive he was more boy than man. He seemed to be very competent but he looked about 12. Seriously.
In the morning I’d purchased a wireless doorbell so I could happily work in the garden and still hear when he came to the door. He surprised me by calling on the phone to say when he’d be with me. The phone I would not have heard in the back garden and it was sheer luck that I was walking by the phone when he rang.
The morning in the garden was spent digging a new bed. I say new but actually it is an extension to the existing beds, joining the border by the back door to the hot border by skirting the holly tree. It was hard work but at least the weather was kind – just very windy. I managed about half of it and will finish (hopefully) today. I have a load of bricks arriving on Thursday for the mowing strip so that’s, more or less, my deadline.
Anyway, the BT guy was in and out in half an hour, assuring me everything was up and running and working fine. He told me he loved jobs like mine. He’d had one last week that took five hours. I think maybe he should have taken five hours doing ours!
Still, at first all was fine with the Internet connection. I changed the computers to recognise the new hub and there was a significant increase in speed, even on the PC upstairs which suffers from the lead flashing in the fireplace.
My first problem was apparent at around 6pm when I put the TV on while waiting for Nicktor to arrive – it was our first Nicktor night for ages. The Vision TV box refused to work. I rebooted it but this merely confirmed that it wasn’t going to do anything productive. I considered calling them straight away but with Nicktor due in 15 minutes, I figured I could live without it. The aerial still worked and we only watch DVDs so it wasn’t a major disaster.
But then, this morning, everything went Pete Tong. I picked up the phone to ring mum and dad and had no dial tone. The light on the Internet hub was orange (it should be blue) and the TV still didn’t work. I was effectively cut off from the civilised world.
It’s times like this that I think how lovely it would be living in a cave with a long beard and absolutely no reliance on any technology beyond a stone axe. This feeling never lasts very long because it suddenly occurs to me that I’d also have to give up beer, whisky and Nicktor Nights. And coffee. I then shiver and move on.
Of course, I still had my mobile so I wasn’t really cut off. And then the phone decided to make a come back. I quickly rang mum and dad and we had a lovely chat though I was a little concerned that the phone would suddenly cut out in the middle of a sentence. It didn’t but the Internet light was still orange when I left to go shopping.
Fortunately my Starbucks card means I get free wifi, which is where I typed and entered this post. Thank you, Starbucks.
