Sunset from Hill House, Mount Helen. February 2024

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

A Cautionary Tale

Let us all learn a valuable lesson from this. If you have something that works very or even reasonably well, resist at all costs the urge to upgrade it!

I did not observe this object lesson and spent nearly all of last evening (expensively) on the phone to Orange.

I have my broadband with Orange. Although, when I started out, I had my dial up Internet connection with Freeserve, which transmuted into Wanadoo, from whom I later took my Broadband. Now Wanadoo has been subsumed by Orange. Sadly. Anyway. That’s not the object lesson. As I say, I take my Broadband through Orange and got back from Australia to find that, in our absence, the account had transferred seamlessly to The Sidings and we were merrily online. Excellent.

Oh but I did miss Lindsey and Ian’s wireless connection. I had got quite used to spending leisurely mornings sat warm and cosy in bed, drinking tea and chatting aimlessly by messenger or email to people dotted about all over the world. I wanted wireless in The Sidings, I did. Not that I have very many mornings where I can loll about aimlessly in bed. Nor does my bed need to be cosy, it being pleasantly warm and sunny at present. Nevertheless, I wanted it. So I contacted Orange and they assured me they could make this happen with no effort or inconvenience on my part and for the outlay of a mere £20.

On Monday, the wireless box arrived. With great excitement, I set it up. Nothing. Lights flashing, yes, but no Internet connection, either wirelessly or by cable. Oh well, thought I; the account can’t be live yet. They did say it would take about 10 days.

Yesterday I got an email from them telling me the changes I had asked for had been implemented. With great excitement, I went home to embrace wireless virtuality. Nothing.

I reinstalled the new modem. Nothing.

In desperation, I rang Orange, to be told that my account was indeed active and I should ring the Techie people.

So I did. And after much waiting and listening to dodgy “on hold” music, got hold of a nice and helpful person called Amy. After much faffing about, she decided we should reset the modem. So we did. All was going well – until I accidentally put the phone cable into the Ethernet cable hole. And lost Amy.

Oops!

Rang back. Was put on hold. Waited. And waited. And waited. Got hold of someone whose name I didn’t catch. Her computer crashed. Her computer crashed again. Then she completely vanished. My phone was reduced to a mere dial tone.

Bugger.

Rang back. Andwaitedandwaitedandwaitedandwaitedandwaitedandwaited.

Hung up.

Decided to hang up and have a go at resetting the modem myself. Worked a treat. Instead of one steady light and one manically flashing light I had one steady one and one gently flashing. Excellent. Tried accessing the Internet via the cable. Worked perfectly. Even more excellent. Tried to access it wireless. Nothing.

Bums!

Sighed deeply. Took the bit between my teeth, girded my loins, filled my wine glass for the zillionth time. And rang Orange. Waited a little bit. Got through to someone who reset the wireless connection for me. And IT WORKS!!!!!! We have wireless connectivity at The Sidings. Hoorayyyyyyyyy!!!!!

I think I spent about 3 hours on the phone talking to or waiting to talk to Orange last evening. Drank lots of wine. Didn’t watch much telly. Ate quite well, though. Before the telephone extravaganza I had grilled some chicken fillets. We had them with salad potatoes, lightly cooked peas and broad beans with summer savoury, corn on the cob, grilled mushrooms and a vinaigrette dressing. Was very nice. I do like summer food.

The Builder has completed Phase One of the Digging Project. All conifers deceased. All conifer roots grubbed out. All other relevant trees deceased and partially grubbed out. And the stumps and bits of those whatever they were by the fish pond (the ones that looked a bit like demented yukka plants) have also been properly dug out. The flagstones have been properly laid in the herb garden. It looks fantastic. I might buy some thyme plants to dot about amidst the mint and oregano. And perhaps some more chamomile. He has turned his attention to the larder now.


He reports another healthy harvest of raspberries from the allotment this morning. And two cherries from the sweet cherry tree which has never fruited before. I might make a pot of jam. Raspberry. Not cherry :-P

No comments:

Post a Comment