5 Days Without Internet
Geeks go mad, more news at eleven.
Friday around noon both Mark and I suddenly lost our net connection, pointing at it being a problem with the connection itself instead of anything to do with an individual computer. (I had a bad network card for my first couple of months here that caused me to DC a lot even when Mark's connection was fine.) After a bit of investigating it turned out that the router was broken, but it being Friday afternoon by then, Sky was in no particular hurry to get us a replacement. We were simply told that we could expect it in the mail some time at the start of next week.
I suppose there is never a good time for that kind of thing to happen, and I certainly could think of worse circumstances under which it could have happened, but it was still annoying. It being the last weekend of half-term, Mark and I had made all kinds of plans for things to do together online, and now we could do exactly... none of them. I suppose we could have tried to come up with alternative plans such as going out (other than buying food from Iceland on Saturday that is) or doing a bit of work around the house, but who wants to make that much effort during their week off? So we spent the weekend sitting at home and feeling a bit lost, constantly catching ourselves thinking about things we wanted to do but which required an internet connection. Mark even dug out a couple of his old gaming CDs, and I started an "endless" game of Civ V, where I kept playing after I had officially won until I achieved total world domination. On the largest map, that took quite a while...
By Monday Mark at least had the excuse of going back to work. Meanwhile I was sorting through plastic bags at home to pass the time. In the evening I had the maddest giggling fit I've had in a while; Mark thought it was hysterical.
Tuesday I was told to keep an ear out for the postman since the landlords were out during the day, just in case he delivered the parcel during that time. I was sitting on pins and needles for hours, feeling that I mustn't get started on anything too noisy or engaging or I might miss that crucial knock. Of course when the postman did come, he just delivered a normal bunch of letters.
Wednesday the weather was nice and I thought I'd do something useful by finally taking the remnants of Mark's old computer to the Leigh recycling centre. It's not terribly far away, but PCs are heavy and there were hills and stairs in the way, so I had put it off. I had previously looked up the opening times and vaguely recalled them being something like what Mark calls "lazy shop opening times" (9-5 or so). I figured going around noon on a weekday would be a safe bet either way. Nope, I managed to pick the one day of the week when they are closed completely, so I had to cart the stupid thing all the way back home again. Oh look, another annoyance that could've been avoided if I'd had internet and had been able to double-check the opening times...
I try to tell myself that I'm being silly and that the internet is non-essential - fifteen years ago I lived just fine without it after all - but in that time it's just become such a convenience that suddenly being without it is akin to having to go down to a well for water instead of using the tap. It's one thing when I go on holiday to Austria and know that I'll be keeping busy with other things, but to just have the cable yanked so to speak when I'm itching to get things done is quite annoying. It got me thinking too: I don't think I've suffered such a long internet outage in a years. There were times where I was limited in my access due to other factors, sure, such as when my PC broke or during the move, but then I could at least still check my mails and stuff by borrowing someone else's PC. BT was always very good in regards to uptime though, so I think the last time I had to go several days without net access due to technical difficulties was probably back when I lived in Austria. Strange to think about...
Anyway, I'm writing this in Notepad while we're still waiting for the router because I'm going completely stir-crazy, but obviously by the time anyone gets to read it our net will be back (or else I couldn't make this post).
In other happy news, the trees on our street are starting to blossom. Spring is coming!
Friday around noon both Mark and I suddenly lost our net connection, pointing at it being a problem with the connection itself instead of anything to do with an individual computer. (I had a bad network card for my first couple of months here that caused me to DC a lot even when Mark's connection was fine.) After a bit of investigating it turned out that the router was broken, but it being Friday afternoon by then, Sky was in no particular hurry to get us a replacement. We were simply told that we could expect it in the mail some time at the start of next week.
I suppose there is never a good time for that kind of thing to happen, and I certainly could think of worse circumstances under which it could have happened, but it was still annoying. It being the last weekend of half-term, Mark and I had made all kinds of plans for things to do together online, and now we could do exactly... none of them. I suppose we could have tried to come up with alternative plans such as going out (other than buying food from Iceland on Saturday that is) or doing a bit of work around the house, but who wants to make that much effort during their week off? So we spent the weekend sitting at home and feeling a bit lost, constantly catching ourselves thinking about things we wanted to do but which required an internet connection. Mark even dug out a couple of his old gaming CDs, and I started an "endless" game of Civ V, where I kept playing after I had officially won until I achieved total world domination. On the largest map, that took quite a while...
By Monday Mark at least had the excuse of going back to work. Meanwhile I was sorting through plastic bags at home to pass the time. In the evening I had the maddest giggling fit I've had in a while; Mark thought it was hysterical.
Tuesday I was told to keep an ear out for the postman since the landlords were out during the day, just in case he delivered the parcel during that time. I was sitting on pins and needles for hours, feeling that I mustn't get started on anything too noisy or engaging or I might miss that crucial knock. Of course when the postman did come, he just delivered a normal bunch of letters.
Wednesday the weather was nice and I thought I'd do something useful by finally taking the remnants of Mark's old computer to the Leigh recycling centre. It's not terribly far away, but PCs are heavy and there were hills and stairs in the way, so I had put it off. I had previously looked up the opening times and vaguely recalled them being something like what Mark calls "lazy shop opening times" (9-5 or so). I figured going around noon on a weekday would be a safe bet either way. Nope, I managed to pick the one day of the week when they are closed completely, so I had to cart the stupid thing all the way back home again. Oh look, another annoyance that could've been avoided if I'd had internet and had been able to double-check the opening times...
I try to tell myself that I'm being silly and that the internet is non-essential - fifteen years ago I lived just fine without it after all - but in that time it's just become such a convenience that suddenly being without it is akin to having to go down to a well for water instead of using the tap. It's one thing when I go on holiday to Austria and know that I'll be keeping busy with other things, but to just have the cable yanked so to speak when I'm itching to get things done is quite annoying. It got me thinking too: I don't think I've suffered such a long internet outage in a years. There were times where I was limited in my access due to other factors, sure, such as when my PC broke or during the move, but then I could at least still check my mails and stuff by borrowing someone else's PC. BT was always very good in regards to uptime though, so I think the last time I had to go several days without net access due to technical difficulties was probably back when I lived in Austria. Strange to think about...
Anyway, I'm writing this in Notepad while we're still waiting for the router because I'm going completely stir-crazy, but obviously by the time anyone gets to read it our net will be back (or else I couldn't make this post).
In other happy news, the trees on our street are starting to blossom. Spring is coming!