Minor Setback

We lost our broadband service for about the last 24 hours. It all started on Saturday when our land line telephone had no dial tone and we could not make outgoing phone calls but we could receive incoming calls. We reported the fault to BT using our mobile phone. What did people do before mobile phones?

Mysteriously, without any contact from BT our land line was fixed.

Yesterday, just after posting to my blog, the broadband went down. Marc rang BT (again) and they said they knew there was a problem due to some works going on in Windsor. They also informed us that it may not be fixed until Thursday this week.

At this point both of us had a meltdown. Marc runs a business from our home and we depend on the broadband for email for the business. Not to mention my blogging/Facebook addiction!

One again, mysteriously, BT arrived at our home this afternoon at 1 pm. Luckily, Marc was here and they were able to isolate the fault to our line which runs from our garage (office) to our home. Even more mysteriously, another BT engineer appeared at 2 pm to fix our home land line (which was no longer broken). Marc sent him away.

When Marc and I bought our first home in Duke Street, we had some REAL problems with BT. They were unable to move our telephone number from my flat and had to install a new line. To make matters worse the telephone pole on our street was a health and safety issue and no engineer would climb it until the pole was replaced. It took over 8 weeks for us to get a working telephone line.

I was pregnant with my first baby. I was scared. Very scared. I couldn't ring my mother or sister. They couldn't ring me. Unless, of course, we used our mobiles which were outrageously expensive (still is for international calls). Daily I rang BT from my mobile and berated them. I would then hang up and cry my eyes out.

At times like these I need to remember to step back from the technology and just imagine life as it was before I had these conveniences. I do believe that life is different now than it was then and some of the support and processes that were in place for people to rely on then are no longer available to us.

For example, I am sure I wouldn't have been living so far away from my family during the birth of my first child if I hadn't had available to me these modern conveniences which make me feel still connected to them despite the miles. Or the fabric of my society would be woven much tighter and I would be able to rely on my neighbours for more support without them thinking I'm a weirdo. OK, they'd probably do that anyway. In fact, they do.

But life without broadband did mean I got all my gardening done outside yesterday! Always a good thing! The back garden looks a bit like the Texas chainsaw massacre took place but everything is cut back and nice and tidy and ready for the onslaught of autumn. Bring it on!

Ultimately, and the best thing is, we are back online. Hope you didn't miss me as much as I missed you!