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Sunday December 10, 2006
Just a Lazy Sunday.
Hmm.
Our broadband connection disappeared on Friday - which was awful (what a nerd I am). Had to revert to dialling up, which was more efficient than I remembered. It turned out that the whole cable box had "a critical error" - but unlike the old days when you rented your TV, and the advantage was that if it broke, then day or night someone would bring round a replacement..... they have to send round an "engineer" to tell us what's wrong with it -
Me: "O - can he mend it then?"
Them: "no - it has a critical error"
Me: "would it not be quicker to deliver a new box right now?"
Them: "no - the Engineer has to diagnose what is wrong"
Me: "and I have to wait another 30 minutes in a queue to book the engineer?"
Them: "yes that's right. O wait a minute - you say your broadband is down? I'll book it for you here then. He can't call until Monday".
George spent much of Friday shouting at them - I would say to no avail, in that the "engineer" has not relented and decided to work weekends, but in the face of abuse They seem to offer you money to go away. So he gracefully accepted.
And we were condemned to a weekend without TV. We had to talk to one another.
No - it was alright - just kidding - we didnt have to - we used my (inferior) digibox.
Yesterday, we went into Kingston (no snow though) to do Christmas shopping. This means George is getting desperate. I had a lovely time as I have already completed my essential gift shopping. I managed to cover a huge amount of ground - and buy a ton of stuff - things went so badly for George that I was undisturbed for hours.... I bought myself the Perfect Thing, in Navy Blue, from my Favourite Shop (Wallis), at Half Price. [You will have to wait until Christmas for the photos.] Said Perfect Thing is usually obtained cruising swiftly around Asda on Christmas Eve looking for something appropriate, gaudy, and above all - cheap. I did resist buying a second example of the genre, managing to face the fact that I may have only a limited need for one crocheted evening top in navy, never mind two.
This morning we purchased The Tree. It is currently residing outside until next weekend - so it keeps cheerful until it really has to face the central heating. George spent the rest of the day showing his antique collection of eyebaths to a student, who wanted to photograph it as part of her thesis on "eccentric collections" (!).
I spent the rest of the day reading "Lifeless" by Mark Billingham. This book mentioned the sinister trivia that in 1997 the "Yorkshire Ripper" was stabbed while in Broadmoor by the"Woolworths killer" - the latter having been responsible for a sad and shocking local murder in Teddington in 1994. Reminding me of that event after so many years, strongly reinforced how far the world of the fictional whodunnit is from the poignant sadness of a violent death (even that of a stranger) in real life.
Posted by Christina at 10:13 PM. Category: Oddments and stray thoughts
