Post by marsh on Nov 19, 2020 15:02:44 GMT
Hello friends,
I haven't been here for ages, so I thought I'd send a greeting.
I've been having internet problems for weeks, and over the past couple of days have spent ages on the phone with the helpful people at 3 who sold me a new contract to replace the monthly rolling contract I've been on for two years after my last twelve month contract ran out. It's great that as a "valued long-term customer"
they offered me unlimited data (instead of 100gb), a new router (apparently my one wasn't working because it is "out of date"!!!) and at half the cost of what I was paying (£17/month instead of £31) but the connection is still no better than it was when I phoned up for tech advice. In fact it's a lot worse. The new router was switched on yesterday and immediately I lost access to all my e-mail accounts, YouTube, and internet access to any website apart from the top layer of Facebook - that's just spooky, why should Facebook get special treatment? My problem was so severe I had to speak to someone from the "second-line team", because the man on the front-line couldn't cope. Second-line lady told me how to access some deep information on my new router and said "Oh, your internet is slower than it should be". I'll say! It was faster with dial-up. At least in the old days one could watch a page slowly reveal itself a line at a time ... a spinning arrow is far less interesting. Is it irony that the old router was actually working for a couple of hours before 3 switched me over to the new one?
Today it is sunny and I thought I would try finding a new spot for the new router. Halfway up the river bank seems to work at the moment, but when the sun goes in, I shall go back to the boat. Is it safe to run a 240v extension cable up the bank?
In other news, the van is having some work done and an MoT test today. I'm rather hoping it would have been done by now. The longer I wait for the phone call to collect to the van the more expensive it feels like it is getting. It's a bit of a do, because I don't think I've covered more than 500 miles since March. I would normally have done at least ten times that amount.
I'm still in conflict with the local navigation authority. They got their new law passed in Parliament two years ago this month. I was one of a tiny group of the peasantry in the Houses of Parliament for eight days to say why we thought they shouldn't get their way. They are now charging fees before they actually have the legal mechanism in place to do so. They are not allowed to call them licenses yet, but they are going to start coming after me and nearly 500 others in January, so I've just heard today. There so much more to this story, but I shan't bore you with all that on this thread.
As a musician I've spent much of the year unable to perform live. All the gigs in my diary were cancelled back in March and nothing has been reinstated of course. I did organise a local, appropriately distanced outdoor gig the weekend before the new lockdown came into force. It was a joy to play to real people again. The venue owners never really thought of their lovely place as a performance space before, but I'm going to look at doing more work there when this present hiatus subsides.
I hope you are all okay. I'll try and look in a little more regularly internet permitting ... I may not be able to do that if it starts raining!
Love and peace,
marsh
I haven't been here for ages, so I thought I'd send a greeting.
I've been having internet problems for weeks, and over the past couple of days have spent ages on the phone with the helpful people at 3 who sold me a new contract to replace the monthly rolling contract I've been on for two years after my last twelve month contract ran out. It's great that as a "valued long-term customer"
they offered me unlimited data (instead of 100gb), a new router (apparently my one wasn't working because it is "out of date"!!!) and at half the cost of what I was paying (£17/month instead of £31) but the connection is still no better than it was when I phoned up for tech advice. In fact it's a lot worse. The new router was switched on yesterday and immediately I lost access to all my e-mail accounts, YouTube, and internet access to any website apart from the top layer of Facebook - that's just spooky, why should Facebook get special treatment? My problem was so severe I had to speak to someone from the "second-line team", because the man on the front-line couldn't cope. Second-line lady told me how to access some deep information on my new router and said "Oh, your internet is slower than it should be". I'll say! It was faster with dial-up. At least in the old days one could watch a page slowly reveal itself a line at a time ... a spinning arrow is far less interesting. Is it irony that the old router was actually working for a couple of hours before 3 switched me over to the new one?Today it is sunny and I thought I would try finding a new spot for the new router. Halfway up the river bank seems to work at the moment, but when the sun goes in, I shall go back to the boat. Is it safe to run a 240v extension cable up the bank?
In other news, the van is having some work done and an MoT test today. I'm rather hoping it would have been done by now. The longer I wait for the phone call to collect to the van the more expensive it feels like it is getting. It's a bit of a do, because I don't think I've covered more than 500 miles since March. I would normally have done at least ten times that amount.
I'm still in conflict with the local navigation authority. They got their new law passed in Parliament two years ago this month. I was one of a tiny group of the peasantry in the Houses of Parliament for eight days to say why we thought they shouldn't get their way. They are now charging fees before they actually have the legal mechanism in place to do so. They are not allowed to call them licenses yet, but they are going to start coming after me and nearly 500 others in January, so I've just heard today. There so much more to this story, but I shan't bore you with all that on this thread.
As a musician I've spent much of the year unable to perform live. All the gigs in my diary were cancelled back in March and nothing has been reinstated of course. I did organise a local, appropriately distanced outdoor gig the weekend before the new lockdown came into force. It was a joy to play to real people again. The venue owners never really thought of their lovely place as a performance space before, but I'm going to look at doing more work there when this present hiatus subsides.
I hope you are all okay. I'll try and look in a little more regularly internet permitting ... I may not be able to do that if it starts raining!
Love and peace,
marsh
