Anniemay has a bright idea

This is probably going to be my last post about our fibre broadband issues.  I’m getting bored with it and you may be too.  But Anniemay had a ‘light bulb moment’ so I think I should record it.

A few weeks ago, when we first signed up for fibre broadband with BT - and before they cancelled the deal - they sent us a BT hub.  It arrived a couple of days ago.  As it’s still over a week before we’re meant to get an EE hub, she says “why don’t we connect the BT hub to the EE fibre.  Just to try it?”

I’m not sure.  Technically it’s not ours - but she points out the small print about ‘cooling off periods’ and ‘returns of equipment’.  But it’s more than than; I’m getting tired of modern technology.

I had to replace the SIM card in my phone - as I took it out of its case, the phone shot out of my hand like a slippery eel on a very, very hot day.  It took ages for these old hands to insert the new one.

I’m not a complete Luddite nor technically incompetent.  Many years ago - in the days when mobile phones had buttons and not touch screens - I built a digital home recording studio to record the band’s early CDs.  To improve the sound quality, I added vocal amplifiers and compressors.  Their brand name was Joe Meek - a touch of recording nostalgia which took me back to the 60s.  I learned to record and mix the various tracks with the help of the internet.  It seemed a much friendlier - or rather - less threatening place, than it is now.

I’m scratching my beard while Anniemay is opening the package.  I’m a reluctant accomplice - like the child standing outside a neighbour’s fence watching out for the polis, while she’s up a tree, scrumping apples.

To put my mind at rest, she phones EE and speaks to a ‘guide’.  She explains that we’ve been cut off and are piggy-backing on a neighbour’s network.  He’s moving out at the end of the week and we’ll be cut off again.  If this were a face-to-face conversation she’d probably be fluttering her eyes as well.

He eventually gives a “you can try it, I suppose..” sort of response.  Half an hour later, I’ve connected it up and whoo-hoo! - we’re back in business. 

As well as our usual internet and phone activities, we can now stream and watch catch-up TV.  Those documentaries on train journeys and canal building, that had I recorded in case of internet emergencies, will have to sit on the DVD recorder for a bit longer.

The only thing not working is Mrs Mop, our robot-vacuum cleaner.  She’s sitting on her docking-station under the sofa, sulking.  Perhaps like me, she’s a reluctant accomplice, waiting for permission from the EE engineer, when he eventually turns up with the EE hub.  If he does.

ps.  In case you're wondering, the three 'yellow' blobs are the fibre working and the 'blue-ish' colour on the hub indicates that is working too.