Incommunicado

It seems more like a grand illusion than major progress on a grand design.  

Just when I had decided that some balance was returning to my Life, it seems that Fate, the Universe and all that, decided to deliver me major systems' failure. And how odd - except that it is the nature of coincidence - that when equipment goes wrong, it goes wrong in more ways than one at the same time.

A telephone crackles into its death throes. That's okay. We have another new one tucked away (everything you could ever need is secreted somewhere here). Oh. No. It's dead before it's alive. Aha, what about that trusty old Pert phone sitting lonely in an empty room down at the Skudder House? 

It works there, seducing tea time salesmen with its listed number and then ignoring them. But it won't perform in my kitchen, which is helpful - sort of - because now I know it's not the original phone (well it is, though that's a different matter). But the internet is still working? I don't understand this stuff. I just use it.

I have to stand out on the road to get a signal with my cellphone (that's what comes of living in a Secret Garden). The young man from Telecom wants to give me instructions for an equipment check. I'll lose him if I go inside, but a helpful visitor has already done the check, so what's next? 

A technician. He comes next day - four hours before the appointed time. Good job it's Sunday morning. Nice man; he finds the problem and fixes it. The problem goes back to a water pipe that burst just before Christmas.  No, actually, it goes back to when someone (Elwin, was that you?) damaged the wiring while installing underfloor insulation  Water must have flowed between floor and insulating layer and found entry into damaged wiring, affecting only the telephone signal, not Broadband.

Nice to have the phone line working again...

By Tuesday I have a sneaking suspicion that I am not receiving emails (though I am online). My subscription has been suspended!  A call to the Yahoo help number - it's Telecom really that I talk to - reveals that I have had two notices alerting me to the fact that my account has seen no activity for some time and it will be discontinued unless I respond.

This is where computers need a human brain - to notice that the secondary account operates as a primary account. Only because when I changed email addresses after Elwin died, I wanted to retain access to our old account. Over time I stopped checking it as eventually personal mail stopped coming through on it, and when I bought my new computer I didn't even have a tab open for it any more. Which is why I missed those crucial alerts (I have to say they look just look so many scam alerts). I was offered a new account but that means changing my email address. I was asked for money to set things right. Red rag to a bull, that last one. "Fix it," I demanded, "and ring me back when you have."  They did.

So maybe now I can get on with the rather pressing business of organising the 2013 Lammas Tour of NZ Morris Dancers to England. I can focus my thoughts and allot my time...

If only the sparkly new phone, which worked after the damaged line was fixed on Sunday, hadn't started disconnecting when calls come in. The old phone really is worn out so I can't re-commission that. The new phone was a free gift - a bribe no less - for changing power companies. What do I expect?  Time for more standing on the road with my cellphone, and waiting for a resolution... or maybe I should just install that lonely Pert phone.

Some of you will have noticed that what I have actually been doing with my time is playing around with my camera, and writing inane prose. Just tentatively, I am wondering whether my photo upload facility is back for good. I'll make the most of it while I can.