I'm Back!

Technology has been conspiring to keep me down over the past week. My phone line, by which I get my not very reliable broadband, was knocked out completely by a storm ten days ago. The cable broadband company from  whom I ordered at the start of August, decided that there was an Obstruction and they wouldn't be able to finish installation until the end of October. My internet life was not looking good.

The  phone engineer came out quite quickly and checked everything (thank God I did the big clear out of my bedroom in August) but was rather flummoxed by the position of the telegraph post.

If you're having trouble actually spotting a telegraph pole I will give you a clue, that towards the top right hand corner of the photo you can see the telephone wires leading to it. On the unseen side of the pole there is a steep bank leading down to the church and the scout and guide hall.

Now I should explain here, that the front of my street is completely grassed over. As I understand it, before the war, the front street was in use but only on special occasions, such as weddings or funerals when the gate at the top of the street was opened and carriages driven down the cinder covered road. For everyday use, people came down the back, as they still do. During the war, the cinders were cleared away and the road was used for growing vegetables. After the war when this was no longer needed, the road was grassed over. Ten or fifteen years ago, when lots of us in the street  had small children we used this for an annual communal party with bouncy castle and barbecue and putting tired children to bed in the houses behind whilst the adults sat on into the night with cans of beer and glasses of wine. Those children are now aged 16 to 30 and there isn't so much call for bouncy castles or parties where you don’t need a babysitter and the front street is mainly just a quiet green space all the time now.

 However this doesn't alter the fact that it is a quiet green space that a BT engineer cannot drive up to, so all ladders and equipment have to be carried quite a distance. Also to add to the complications the telegraph post was standing in an area of the street that had at some point been illegally fenced off to give the house opposite more garden. 

All reasons why the first engineer shuffled off saying he was going to refer it to the planning department.

I then heard nothing for a week, during which I was having to go up to the library everyday to check my emails and realised how dependent I had become on the internet. To make a recipe I had seen on television for example, I had to go up to the library with pen and paper to write it out longhand. For the first time since Christmas, I bought a copy of the Radio Times to find out what was on television instead of just checking online. I had to remember to switch the television on in the morning as well, so that I could check the weather forecast for the day. And then there were all those idle arguments which normally send us to Wikipedia or Google, ‘Wasn't he in that series with thingy? You know the one in Africa?’ ‘No that was whatshisname’ ‘No, it was him, I'm sure!'

usually do and I started my own novel before deciding as usual that if it was boring me then it wouldn't do much for any other readers.

Then on Tuesday, another engineer was sent out, who was prepared to carry his ladders down the street. We knocked on the door of the road-stealing semi, and they were fine with letting us have access to the telegraph post  (they could hardly be otherwise but you never know).The old lady who lives there said ‘You won’t need me to come and unpadlock the gate will you?’ and we agreed not, although this did add to the engineer’s difficulty and inconvenience as he had to squeeze himself and his gear through an 8 inch gap between gate and hedge. Having sorted the line out at the telegraph post, he then discovered that his ladders weren’t long enough to take the new cable to my bedroom window and had to send a call out for reinforcements.  Finally after four hours, struggling in the warm sun, he had finished and I was connected to the world again. And it seems a much better connection than the old on. I look forward to filling you in over the next few days on what has been happening around here with hens, bees, apples, blackberries, soap, girls and toddlers