Normal Service is Resumed

A series of problems have conspired to keep me from writing the blog for almost two weeks. The first was lack of internet access courtesy of AOL, but more of that later. We had a very stressful few days before we finally got back online, but then I was ill. I don't know exactly what was wrong, no doubt the doctor would say it was a 'virus' but whatever it was I felt absolutely dreadful and I spent several days in bed. I am feeling better but I hope nobody else gets it because it really wiped me out.

On a Thursday morning two weeks ago our internet connection failed at about 8am. It seemed that no internet signal was reaching the router but our telephone was working perfectly, so I wondered if there was a problem with our cables. I popped out to buy new cables but when I tried them there was still no signal, I even tried a different router but still there was nothing. I got the line checked and there was nothing wrong with the line, so there was no alternative we had to ring AOL. Robbie rang them first, but he had to give up on the call after half an hour because the man would not deviate from his script and was no help whatsoever. I hate having to talk to call centres in foreign countries at the best of times, but AOL have taken poor service to an all time low. 


Anyway after over two hours of being passed from one unhelpful person to the next totally useless person I was reduced to tears of frustration. Not one of them spoke good enough English to understand me and I had extreme difficulty understanding them. To make matters worse they kept putting me on hold and playing dreadful music down the phone. My blood pressure must have been off the scale! They couldn't solve my problem, they didn't even seem to care about it. At one point they told Robbie that they could not check our internet signal because their equipment was broken and they had no idea when it would be working again! I told them that I had suffered enough and I wanted to leave AOL - NOW!! They treated me with total contempt and disconnected my call, but after calling back and queueing for an eternity they finally gave us the mac code needed to transfer to another provider.


We now have a better and faster internet service at less than half the price charged by AOL and as an added bonus  their call centre staff speak and understand English! So normal service has been resumed and I will be able to bring the blog up to date.

Tired

As you can see this was written yesterday, but the internet connection is so slow here that I have only just managed to upload it.

I can't believe it is Thursday already and I can't believe how tired we both feel, It must be the sea air or something. Neither of us were up very early this morning, but we were not in a hurry to go anywhere so it didn't matter.

I washed a few bits and bobs before we went out. When we are at home laundry is just a chore, but here washing (by hand) is a pleasure because it is so easy to get things dry. There is just a footpath between the back garden and the beach so there is always enough breeze to dry the washing.

We enjoyed an afternoon in North Walsham, it is not far from Walcott and we know it well, but we still enjoy having a look around whenever we are in Norfolk. It is just nice to relax and be able to spend unhurried time together. Later while we were pottering around Robbie came up with his quote of the week. He was choosing a bottle of salad cream, an I was marveling at how difficult he made it. First there was the debate abot glass bottle or plastic bottle, then it was a matter of the shape of the bottle, then he prefers the design of the lable of one brand over another. As far as I could see there was no consideration about price or taste, so I just picked up the light version of the brand he had chosen and headed off with the trolley. I didn't get far, he had a fit because the lable was the wrong colour and I had to swap it to the colour he was comfortable with. He said "the trouble is you don't understand me" but I think from his point of view the trouble is that I understand him far to well at times - it doesn't always make life comfortable for him! He may be hard work at times but he is worth the effort - usually!

Laura and her friend came this afternoon, they are only staying until tomorrow, but it is lovely to see them. They went into Cromer this evening.