Fibre Upgrade Fun

Between 8 am and 1 pm the disembodied voice on the phone stuttered yesterday.  We will be attending at this time.  Twice she called to confirm this.

So, at 6:30 I was up, washed, stale bread fed, and waiting.  

When they say 'Between 8 and 1' they mean 'On the dot of 8 am while you are not dressed yet.'

But I was ready!

Here I am, almost 11:30 and still no sign of them!

The place is clean, the space reserved for work, all is ready and nothing is happening.  I now go through all the 'They have forgotten me' worries,' while somewhere up a telegraph pole a man will soon finish his job and come to me... I think...

Of course I was never worried.  I knew he would come well within the time.

This Asian telecom man had the difficulty of understanding my accent, while i struggled at first with his.

He then had to work out how to do the job without upsetting the landlord or the Grade II people at the council.  This he did well.

This poor man did not just have to climb up the telegraph pole, clamber about on the ladder at the roof and my window, but also had to work under my dead among the dead spiders webs to install a wee box to make things work.  It took him just over an hour to do all this, and very efficiently he was too.  A good man indeed.  Now he is again up the ladder clambering about for the flat round the back where they use the same ISP and are claiming the same 'special price.'

My internet speeds had fallen to 17, instead of 55.  This I blame on the phone line which crackles, supposedly fixed a while ago it was the cause of many a rant!  Today, once I inserted that long password, my speeds reached 150!!!   Good grief I canny write fast enough to keep up with it!  

Now almost all has been returned to normal, the rest of the dead spiders webs I have found underneath can wait for now, I can return to some sort of normality.

I also noticed the Bluebells are looking good in the front.  Good also that they appear to be spreading, maybe many more in years to come.

Awaiting

Yesterday was that sort of a day.  

The wind chilled the bones and the sky remained cloudy. 

Today is totally different, it rained all day long!

I spent time yesterday clicking buttons to amend my Plusnet account to 'Full Fibre.'

This, as you know, gives a much better service - they say.

The thing is, we are all losing our landlines soon, this to make the entire country 'digital' and open to interference from China when war is declared.  So landlines are removed, leaving those, especially old or disabled folks, in trouble, and the rest of us grabbing these 'special prices' to renew now.

These 'special prices' indicate government pushing and benefits accruing to Plusnet and other ISPs, though how I fail to understand.

One important point is informing the landlord.  This I almost took for granted but the reply today reminded me this house is listed 'Grade II.'  This will not affect the people in the flats round the back, but as I am on the front of the house care must be taken.  Tsk!

So, next week work should begin, but as we are now awaiting a response from the council people we may have to postpone this for as while.  

At least they have restored my speeds in the meantime as we wait....

Atkinson Grimshaw - Shipping on the Clyde

Thursday Twaddle

Dismal week so far.  Feeling a bit rough and today was the first time I could attempt some exercise properly.  The past few weeks have jaded me somewhat with the latest bug.  Things get done but slowly and sometimes twice because I forgot to actually do what I intended to do.

There was some time spent on Twitter defending Kate Forbes from the gay and trans lobby.  How dare she believe something and take it into politics just like they do?  How dare she threaten their privileged position within the SNP and stand up in public and state how she would vote against their behaviour?

Tsk!  Such beliefs ought to be kept to yourself, unlike the beliefs of the gay and trans mob who are free to say and do what they like!  

Such fun!

Especially as the Bishops in England are getting deeper into the mire, and that conflict is ongoing.  So, I had enough of this and have attempted to avoid Twitter for a day or two, I was to tired to continue, and have been dwelling in the realms of fantasy instead.  er, I mean searching YouTube for fantasy seascapes, or ships at sea, to give a background far from home.  There are masses of You tubes worth watching, and being on laptop there are no adverts thanks to AdBlock Plus.   The masses of irrelevant ads on the phone amaze me.  Lying in bed last night, searching YouTube for a video on the phone, reminded me of reading the 'Beano' under the covers by torchlight!  No mother came in to complain.

PlusNet did play up again.  The bill came in and I logged on, but it refused my login even though it has not been changed.  I fussed and raged but it made no difference.  I attempted a new password but still nothing gave in.  I left it until today and it logged on straight away!  Why?  I suppose we will never know.  Tech is such an improvement to our stress.

Parcelforce and PlusNet Upsetting the World, well me!

I'm peering into the distance.  I work on the basis that the harder I peer, the sooner the 'Parcelforce' man will appear.  This is a similar attitude taken by people standing waiting at bus stops.  As you pass you will notice them staring hard in the direction from which they expect a bus to appear, the harder they look, the sooner the bus will appear, or not as the case may be.  

So I sit here and peer.  

I ought to be fiddling about with the router, though 'fiddling' is to be understood in the terms of 'mass murder,' rather than 'fiddling.'  Once again the brute cut out during the football, five times while Brazil were exhibiting super skill against the Koreans.  My language was not biblical, my attitude not forgiving.

The intention was to call 'PlusNet' this morning but I hesitated until I have tried all the combinations, pulled all the wires, and shot the 'Outreach' engineer.  Unfortunately, or it is fortunate, I have had to await the, as yet unseen, 'Parcelforce' man.  Otherwise I may have been seen hanging around telegraph poles awaiting men in yellow Hi-vis while dangling a variety of weapons sufficient to make the Ukrainians jealous.  As it is the van has yet to appear, my parcel lies awaiting below, and he is rapidly joining the telecoms engineers in my estimation.  This parcel ought to have gone last Tuesday but was refused as they were on strike Wednesday and Thursday.  Insert 'I support the workers,' and 'Grrrrr,' here.  

Having discovered this brute was only giving 20.04, no wonder it is slow, I switched of the router, switched off the laptop, allowed both time to cool down and decide if they wished to work properly or not, then restarted them in due course.  The speed 'leapt up' (this is a misnomer) to 35.63.  Now this is of course better, and may enable watching the football today, however, it ought to be around the 60 mark!  Insert another 'Grrrrrr,' here.

Now I have a life, indeed it could be better but I do have one.  It is also true much of my life is lived through this blessed laptop, therefore when it fails all comes to a halt and I am exposed as trapped on a desert island.  I write a blog on here that few ever read bar those 'spiders' clawing information for Amazon, Google, Facebook and other chancers, but it is fun and an opportunity to shout at the world.  Indeed it was better in times past.  Some have died, some ran away, others drifted off onto Twitter, or family, or even a life themselves.  The rude repartee once enjoyed has lessened considerably over the last few years.  This is a pity.  Of course a great many got bored reading this codswallop, and who can blame them?  I read this and find myself yawning also.  

There is blue sky out there, though the remaining leaves are freezing off the trees.

Rishis Sunak, the temporary PM, is in hiding, Keir, the temporary leader of what was once the Labour Party and is now the red Tories, has decided to attack migrants, not support the striking workers, and probably wants to lead the Tory Party after the next election.  He has all their policies!  What a disgrace, so desperate to become PM he has sold the workers and runs after the Brexit voter.   His Gordon Brown led 'Devolution' amendments have failed miserably in Scotland, as they would.  Not that Keir cares, on the 'Red Wall,' matters to him.  

So the strikers continue to strike, on the railways, the post, the nurses joining them then the doctors and the paramedics.  December under the Tories with only thy right-wing press supporting their corrupt party is a terrible thing.  Of course Boris is behind much of this.  He is stirring rebellion, once Sunak fails at the polls as he must do Boris becomes the one to lead the Conservatives again.  Unless he is in jail of course.  It is time for Sunak to release the 'Russian Report,' and finish Boris.

Technical Hitch

Nothing better than having your routine disturbed at 8 am.  

Sitting seeking enlightenment via coffee and the online newspapers, the bell rang and there stood an 'Outreach' worker come to fix my broken phoneline.  I was not enlightened enough to respond properly at that time.  In he came, faffed about with the box on the wall, informed me of various items I could not comprehend, and then screwed everything back in and headed off to the green box on the corner, once I had mentioned which green box it was. He appeared to have not noticed the one at Tesco.  After two and a half hours of bleeps and flashing light from the router, and a couple of calls from his phone (which does not work well from the green box) he managed to fix all things and brought the internet speed up to 65, it had been as slow as 23, and the phone once again works properly.  Just don't tell my sister, or she will call it!

This palaver meant nothing could be done, so I managed that, and wisely shifted all things for today over to the Thursday 'to do' list.

Except of course I had to wait in.  'Parcelforce,' were delivering my box from Forres today.  It ought to have been yesterday but something went wrong.  I wonder if the 'Trunker' from up north got held up by those attention seeking loons hanging of Motorway gantry's?  Anyway, by almost three he had reached me and soon I was having pie and chips for tea.  Not luxury to some, but fine for me tonight.

What's that...?  Oh!

Tech Troubles

This has been as bright as my day has been today.

Stumbling back across the park from Sainsburys, I went for bread and milk and spent over £14!  How did that happen?  Anyway, attempting to be quiet as the woman downstairs was working from home this week, I found I had to make two phone calls.  This, as you know, is because of my landline fault.

After dozing working most of the morning on watching railway cab rides I decided to act.

So, after lunch and a snooze I got down to business.

I called PayPal after finding details on Twitter.  Details which just took me back to where I started and so after a while I got the phone number and called.

A man's voice, but not a human man, answered!

So began the questions, number, name , account, and the problem is?

After more faffing around and not getting this static voice to understand I gave up!

Steam came from my ears, tears from my eyes, and the woman downstairs took the dog out to get away from my whimpering cries.  Nothing I said made sense to the box ticking voice.  He did however, offer to renew my password, though as I canny log in this will not work, and he did not understand that I could not log in!!!  (enter red angry emoji here)

I sat, glancing at the whisky bottle, too far to reach and too early.

I returned to the mobile.

I contacted PlusNet, re the phone, once again.  This has been held back by my sloth and slight bug that bothers me.  However, well within the 20 minutes, an ADVISOR with a north American accent called.  This human being (take note PayPal) done a quick check, kept me informed, in spite of my obvious stupidity, and passed the deal to the engineers.  It may be my fault will be fixed in 48 hours and if not something will happen to check it out.

What a great ADVISOR he was, and I was keen to inform him of the difference between PlusNet and PayPal here.  Excellent service and hopefully a success.

Now, as darkness creeps towards us, the lightened clouds begin to darken, the wind pretends it is dying down and the branches begin to shiver as leaves flutter downwards, I am almost at peace.  

David Roberts

Log in Woes

The success of the Heart of Midlothian in qualifying for the 'Euro Conference League' (No, I had never heard of it either) meant that I now had to spend more money from under the bed by acquiring BTSport.

This was something I did not wish to do as I had enough of boring Euro matches and did not wish to spend cash.  However, to see the team play I must enlist.  

So, through 'Plusnet' I acquired BTSport for £10 a month (until they charge me £17:50 in a few months time) and began to fill in all the requirements.

First mistake was to download the Ap.  

The mistake being I downloaded it onto the phone.  I meant to use the laptop but went ahead in the thought it would be easy to add one there also.  It is not easy, it appears impossible!

However, I went ahead with the application, filled out the details, and wrote them down as clever people do.

Later, I tried to Log in.  

Wrong password.

Password changed.

Wrong password.

Grrrrrr!

Then I realised I had to wait 24 hours before logging in.

Fool!

Today I tried again.

Wrong password!

Eventually, after much teeth grinding and sulking I realised the faults.

This concerned the auto name on the address, they automatically used the wrong one.

This I amended, the password also was amended after logging in to the 'forgotten everything idiot' dept at BT, and after much tears I was able to log in, on the phone.

Now I await the Chelsea game, though I will also watch Celtic being humbled by Real Madrid later, if the phone or my eyes do not pack up! 

This however, will not do my eyes any good.  I must work out how to get the ap into the laptop.

One day all football will be on one channel... 

 

ISP 2

 

Braving the crowds on market day, especially as the market was having a 'Queen Jubilee' day, I sought out the hesitant salesmen of Gigaclear.  Friendly, helpful but hesitant about whether the new infrastructure would be in place soon.  This is a shame as I need it now.  It may be in a week or two, they claimed, but we are not sure.  Though the rest of the town is ready for this my street in the centre is not, why?  I am 5 minutes from the green box!  There are plenty of potential customers elsewhere but they appeared desperate for a sale.  Hmmm.  "I think," said the boss when he arrived, "I think it may be June 1st." I shook them off as they were licking my shoes and made for home  

I eyed the stalls full of home made spirits at expensive prices, beer, cakes, women's trinkets, fudge, candles, honey and lots of burgers, chilli's and pizza on offer.  I went home to my cheese sandwich.

 

 

Later, I trawled through the Broadband bargains.  

All bright and shiny, all marvellous, and all more or less the same, bar BT's which looked expensive.  Tired and weary straining my little mind at the comparisons,  I logged back into PlusNet and agreed the easy way to renew once again.  I am not happy, I feel I am missing out of higher speeds.  

However, on the other hand I am just extremely privileged to be able to use such a system as a laptop.  Another famine is sweeping Africa and I whine about speeds on laptops!  I need to sort my attitudes here.  There are also folks suffering in the UK, suffering from Hunger!  In the UK!  Before Brexit the 6th richest nation on earth!  With over 2000 Food Banks already in action, and more required, I find I am buying things which I once regarded as luxuries during the days of unemployment.  I buy luxuries, many struggle to buy needful.  I have been there, I understand how easy it is to find yourself with large bills and no money.  Yet I still grumble I want more!

I am worse than Boris Johnson! 

 

 

Talking of whom I note he has found a way to avoid being caught out according to the Ministerial Code!  He has amended it to suit himself!  Brilliant!

If you did not realise the UK is a under his Fascist Coup then you had better start  believing it!  The press are his, he bought them just to make sure, the BBC is his,  he placed his own men in charge, and he is limiting the courts, Parliament, and anyone who speaks against him.

Yet the Conservative Party still support him, the MP's bow to him, and it is they who will lose out come a general election, he himself will land on his feet, or at least someone else's feet.

 

ISP Time Again

So, in a few days time the ISP runs out.  The choice now is to renew with these chancers 'Plusnet,' or find a new ISP.  As always things have changed since last time.  Now we know that 'Fibre,' is just between the telegraph pole and the house.  'Full Fibre,' we now know comes all the way from that wee green box to the house, thus not using BT's copper wires and enabling superfast speeds, improving from 50 to 600!  I want this!  However, this means the landline phone is dead.  The local Superfast does not mention Wi-Fi except as an add-on, why?  

And as far as I can see half the town has this superspeed but not the centre of town!  

A quick check of other ISP prices reveals the same deliberately confused pricing schemes as always.  Each one increases you price faster than it increases your speeds.  In the end it may be easier to remain with 'Plusnet' as it saves bother, though the speed on offer appear slower than before.  I may have to phone and threaten to leave to see what I can get from them.  

The 'Superfast' mob will probably have a display at the market tomorrow so I will drag myself around there are be lied to Boris style by their man.  If they have not installed the 'Fast Fibre' they have had it.  I have no time to wait and I will have to use the common folks.  Tsk!

Fun Friday

Having got fed up with BT constantly upping the price for things I have changed over to Plusnet, halved the cost, lost BTSport, and hopefully still have a decent service.  Speed this morning is slightly slower, 43 instead of 50, by 1:30 it was up to 57 which is very good for this area.
Fiddling with the wires, removing the old BT cables now covered with a thick layer of dust, scrambling on the floor choking on dust changing plugs in unreachable places, then struggling to start the thing as filters were added that were not required.  All in all it took half an hour before I woke up and worked out how to get it going.  Now I am conscious I need to get the hoover out and get under the desk once again...

You will be aware of the fuss over this.  At Mansion House while the Chancellor was spouting half truths this woman decided to make a protest regarding climate change.  Mark Field, a large Tory MP grabbed her and chucked her out.
A fuss has ensued!
Loud yells from women concerning 'dangerous precedent' and anguish from opposition spokesmen.
Much space filled by the chattering media.
I have no sympathy.
There is a time to protest, the one in Hong Kong is an example, but disturbing speeches and blocking streets as has been attempted recently annoying folks going about their life, is not the way to do it.
Climate change is here and requires action, this is not the way to do it.  This is more attention seeking than protest.  I winder if she would protest for the homeless or the local foodbank?  I wonder indeed.
Of course had it been a man thrown out no fuss would be seen, no comment on TV, no bleeding hearts from 'spokeswomen,' no papers sold and TV and radio time filled.  Women sell papers.

      
Twice this week I have had to work!  Not just Tuesday morning, which was busy again, but Thursday afternoon also.  This I was told was a quiet day, it wasn't!  People came in!  On top of this we had climbed the castle on Monday, I had to iron all my shirts on Wednesday and clean the house and do other important jobs at home.  It has been one of those weeks where I have been constantly busy.  I am not used to this.  

This could soon be your next Prime Minister.

Think about that!