Diary of a frustrated addict

written on Wednesday evening, before my parents even knew I was on Anglesey.

I can't get online tonight. I am now at the guest-house, having driven from Spalding to Anglesey, North Wales. The weather has been lovely today, I drove along the coast cursing all the chances of good photos, ruined because of an inability to stop the car, or because some stupid idiot had packed her camera deep within all those boxes in the back of the car.
There is no wifi signal, even my mobile phone is only just getting a signal, and only on one side of this room, 3 floors above the road. It's at times like this I suffer watching TV. At least I missed the football... bloody Danes!

Thursday, my parents diamond wedding anniversary

Friday, I got the house and mowed my parents lawn, while I was waiting.

I spent the first night in the house, looking in cupboards, sorting, and finally collapsing in a sleeping bag. Its odd to move into a furnished house, a new experience for me, some things are essential and will be kept, whereas others are instant throwaways and car-boot sale items.

Saturday
Another day of cleaning and sorting, my brother also came round and had a play with the PC which has had all its dial up internet access stuff removed. I have tried with my iBook to connect online, but can never maintain a connection. It dials, but won't get a signal strong enough to get access to anything, yet I can get online straight away at my parents place. I am beginning to think there is a fault on the line.

Sunday morning
I actually got net access for a few seconds at some silly time in the morning, but it didn't stay connected for more than a few seconds. In my frustration I phoned up BT, not sure why I bothered at before 8am on a Sunday, but an addict doesn't think straight. I typed in a lot of numbers on my phone keypad to the automated voice at BT and finally was told that the service department was only open Monday to Saturday.
If I scream will anyone hear me if I am not connected at the time?

Today has dawned with thick grey clouds and not a blue sky in sight. It makes me realise that the sun has shone all the time here, I heard figures that Saturday was Anglesey's turn for being the place with the most sunshine in the UK, 14hrs of it too. I need to get out into my new garden and pull a lot of weeds before I return to Spalding on Wednesday. It has been like a Mediterranean paradise until this morning, but I can put up with a grey day now and again. The beauty of this place is getting to me.. just a little.. maybe..

I went shopping, pricing up beds and cookers and went to my nearest university town - Bangor. Even Tescos is in a tent! At least it felt a bit more global than my corner of Anglesey.
A very strange thing happened on Sunday night, I went to bed at 9:30pm. See what not having the net does?

Monday - a day to organise
I awoke feeling ready to tackle anything, maybe a 10hr sleep has some benefits, this was my day for phoning utilities and organising and also visiting my parents when the chiropodist was there.
So I rang the electricity supplier and had all that arranged in minutes, all this before 9am.
At 8:55 I phoned BT, the monopoly who run our British phone system. As I am aware that this phone-line is not what it should be I thought I would have to use the bastards again as an ISP. I couldn't ordered broadband until I had had a phone-line for 48hrs, so it all just seemed easier to return to the idiots, at least I am aware of how it is done, or so I thought...
I pressed buttons, I pressed more buttons as I worked my way through the endless options and finally spoke to "Mike". Mike wanted to see if my line was now working as a fault had been reported on it yesterday. (oops!.. ) "Would I mind holding while he contacted the correct department to find this out?"
I held.. I listened to that bloody tune.. I waited and finally gave up when I saw the call had now taken 30mins.
Back to square one.. phone again... press buttons.. press more buttons.. this time I spoke to Jackie, who did seem to detect the panic in my voice when she too put me on hold... no music this time, just a phone ringing and a recorded "busy" message... after a mere 20 minutes John answered and asked for my account number, I hadn't got one as I wanted a broadband account.. confusion.. after a few more questions.. yes.. I was back on hold...
The steam coming from both my ears seemed to obscure my visibility of the timer on my phone and maybe it was the blood rushing to my eyeballs... but eventually I got to "Tom" who was certainly the joker of the pack. Tom at long last actually took my details, explained a few things and we did the deal. So I now only have a week to wait for broadband.. ain't life quaint here in UK. I will also bet that broadband doesn't work as something other than just a DACS box is wrecking this phone-line. I noticed it was now 10:30 when I finished my phoning of BT.

Anyway, I realised I had to rush to parents, I sprayed Mr Muscle all over my cooker and shot off to the old folks. Panic had hit them, as the stair lift had stopped working and the repair guys couldn't get there for a couple of days. So I spent a few hours running up and down stairs and eating the contents of my parents fridge.

When I got back to my place, the cooker had not dissolved but I did spend a few hours picking more grease off its surfaces.. and finally cooking some food, only to find I had no working can opener.
Its a good job I can be inventive and finally opened a can of sweet-corn with a bread knife and a pair of pliers. But I managed a pasta sauce without the tomatoes, I couldn't face opening a second can..

I have found that I can connect to the net for a few minutes, usually about 4 mins so I will try and paste this to my blog. I am told that Yahoo has now started to show me online when I am not, sorry.. but I am not able to control much round here.