A few long, long weeks ago I decided that I might as well give this fibre optic broadband a go.  A quick search showed that my service provider offered it in my area so I contacted them to asked for an upgrade.  Within a few days a new router arrived which I set up and waited to be astounded by the new speed of my internet downloading.  I was certainly astounded.  It was zero.  Several weeks and frustrating, utterly unhelpful telephone conversations later, I flounced off from that particular “provider” and ran to the comforting arms of BT.  Well, sort of.  The date they offered me to set up my super dooper router (hey say that out loud, its fun!) left me with a 2 week wait still without internet and thus pictures of cute kittens, celebrity gossip, online shopping, ability to order prescriptions etc. Never mind I thought.  It’ll be worth it.  Gosh was I excited when the day came that according to the email an engineer would install everything – between 9am and 1pm.  I waited.  I called at 3pm and spoke to a young man.  Unfortunately the line was incredibly bad, so apparently was his day if the tuts and sighs were anything to go by and my request for him to call back was ignored.

You should know by now I hate playing the cancer card.  Nine times out of ten it has nothing to do with the situation I’m dealing with so all it achieves is making the person on the other end of the line feel bad or think that I’m pulling a fast one to get preferential treatment, neither of which make me feel good.  However, I get tired quickly these days.  Frustrating, upsetting conversations with incompetent people exhaust me – hey sometimes non-frustrating, perfectly lovely conversations with loved ones exhaust me too – but I had to get a pal to call them back the next day because I simply couldn’t cope with speaking to them anymore.  She did.  Blimey, she can be assertive! Thanks J!!

Long story short (delay was due to fact somebody hadn’t flicked a switch they should have, something by the way my former service provider should have been able to spot immediately rather than keep me on the phone for hours while I checked and rechecked the router which in retrospect was never going to work because I wasn’t connected.) Thanks to a very polite, friendly young man who turned up on time and appreciated a good cup of coffee I now have access to cute kitten photos and everything else that I need for my day to be a little more fun and informative. So I’m back.  Usual Sunday thoughts and ramblings will continue.

PS: One of the last short Twitter conversations I had with a remarkable woman I am proud to have known was about the shortcomings of the particular service provider which is one of the reasons I’m not naming them.  Pond scum is pond scum.  Her memory deserves better.  More about that on Sunday.