Younger daughter is off to a fancy dress party where the theme is the number 3 or zero - obviously a 30th birthday celebration - and for 3 friends.
With nothing better to do as still home and waiting for the virus to run its course I set about thinking about things in my life in threes:
3 children
3 favourite films - Gigi, High Society, Star Wars Episode 4
3 current favourite living authors - Anne Tyler, Richard Russo, Margaret Atwood
3 books at the side of the bed - by Richard Ford, Alexander McCall Smith and Ceri Radford
3 lots of knitting on the go - all log cabin blankets
3 top drinks - decaffeinated tea, elderflower presse, badoit rouge
3 countries I visit most often - France, Canada, US
3 best boxed sets - The Wire, Treme, House
3 cheesy films I love - Love Actually, Batteries not included, Sweet Home Alabama
3 cities I have lived in - Manchester, Chester, Nottingham
3 best ways with smoked haddock - kedgeree, au gratin, poached with asparagus
3 of my desert island discs - God only knows - Beach Boys, Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen, Always on my mind - Pet shop boys
3 versions of Always on my mind on my iPod - by the Pet shop boys, Elvis and Willie Nelson
3 girls' names I didn't give my children but might have done - Harriet, Jemima, Rebecca
3 favourite bakes - Hummingbird bakery chocolate brownies and carrot cake, my own gingerbread
3 things I can see - a log burning in the fire, fairy lights on the mantlepiece, a photo of my children.
Monday 29 October 2012
Friday 26 October 2012
Life without broadband
A virus keeps me home and laid low for a few days. Some of my favourite things are just beyond me - drinking tea makes me feel sick and my hands are shaking too much to be able to knit. Dozing whilst watching daytime TV seems the only option as broadband is down!!
I had been lying on the sofa with the iPad - occasionally checking e mails and playing my turn on scrabble with my cousin, Debbie but otherwise just half watching whatever was on the TV and falling asleep at regular intervals when the mail just wouldn't load. I turned the iPad off and on and that didn't work so, an hour or so later, when I felt up to it, I went to turn the cable modem off and on - and that didn't work either. The trip into the other room exhausted me so I dozed a little more and tried the same things again - still nothing. Some six hours later I felt able to telephone the service provider and we concluded that the right lights were not flashing and an engineer would need to call - not the following day but the next. An immediate sense of panic sets in when I am offline and it took me a little while to remember that I had 3G on 2 devices and would be able to get my e mails and browse the web - only in miniature. Perhaps I could actually spend a day offline especially as getting out of bed had taken so much effort that I had had to lie down for an hour and just going into the kitchen to get a drink seemed to set my heart racing at an alarming rate. There was the radio and the TV for my news fix. My concentration span was woefully low and nothing was going to be achieved until I began to feel a little better so what was wrong with a day with no www.
The trouble is that it has become part of life. I started to watch the TV but then wanted to look something up - no broadband Google - so it had to be Google on the iPhone - I fell at the first hurdle. Then I just had to check the mail. Most of the day went by, slowly, until the evening and a new TV series to watch - which I really wanted to learn more about and so more Google research - but only up to a point, the screen being far too small for my eyesight late at night between coughs and moans about my aching limbs.
I survived the day and the engineer duly arrived. The repair turned into major replacement and broadband is now back and working well. The virus lingers and, although I have managed a couple of rows, knitting is still difficult. Daytime TV is now becoming monotonous so thank goodness for the return of the iPad and the laptop. I can, despair, again, as to the reason why, when I send a mail, it comes up with another name as sender; wonder why I never seem to be able to beat Debbie at scrabble; wonder why I am playing a silly children's game with a daughter; rekindle my addiction to Ravelry; try yet again to find that elusive pattern for socks that a) I can follow and b) I want to knit.
I realise that having access to a high speed link to the internet is an important part of my life. My list of potential new properties on Rightmove does include a number of country cottages which, to this point I had thought of as a compromise - not within walking distance of a shop nor on a bus route. Maybe I need to look again a my list of criteria and decide again on what compromises I am prepared to make. Perhaps this past couple of days has been a good thing after all - another learning experience which may help in the determination of future plans.
I had been lying on the sofa with the iPad - occasionally checking e mails and playing my turn on scrabble with my cousin, Debbie but otherwise just half watching whatever was on the TV and falling asleep at regular intervals when the mail just wouldn't load. I turned the iPad off and on and that didn't work so, an hour or so later, when I felt up to it, I went to turn the cable modem off and on - and that didn't work either. The trip into the other room exhausted me so I dozed a little more and tried the same things again - still nothing. Some six hours later I felt able to telephone the service provider and we concluded that the right lights were not flashing and an engineer would need to call - not the following day but the next. An immediate sense of panic sets in when I am offline and it took me a little while to remember that I had 3G on 2 devices and would be able to get my e mails and browse the web - only in miniature. Perhaps I could actually spend a day offline especially as getting out of bed had taken so much effort that I had had to lie down for an hour and just going into the kitchen to get a drink seemed to set my heart racing at an alarming rate. There was the radio and the TV for my news fix. My concentration span was woefully low and nothing was going to be achieved until I began to feel a little better so what was wrong with a day with no www.
The trouble is that it has become part of life. I started to watch the TV but then wanted to look something up - no broadband Google - so it had to be Google on the iPhone - I fell at the first hurdle. Then I just had to check the mail. Most of the day went by, slowly, until the evening and a new TV series to watch - which I really wanted to learn more about and so more Google research - but only up to a point, the screen being far too small for my eyesight late at night between coughs and moans about my aching limbs.
I survived the day and the engineer duly arrived. The repair turned into major replacement and broadband is now back and working well. The virus lingers and, although I have managed a couple of rows, knitting is still difficult. Daytime TV is now becoming monotonous so thank goodness for the return of the iPad and the laptop. I can, despair, again, as to the reason why, when I send a mail, it comes up with another name as sender; wonder why I never seem to be able to beat Debbie at scrabble; wonder why I am playing a silly children's game with a daughter; rekindle my addiction to Ravelry; try yet again to find that elusive pattern for socks that a) I can follow and b) I want to knit.
I realise that having access to a high speed link to the internet is an important part of my life. My list of potential new properties on Rightmove does include a number of country cottages which, to this point I had thought of as a compromise - not within walking distance of a shop nor on a bus route. Maybe I need to look again a my list of criteria and decide again on what compromises I am prepared to make. Perhaps this past couple of days has been a good thing after all - another learning experience which may help in the determination of future plans.
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