Internet Outage

I feel like having a tantrum, and sadly I don't have a tiara to go with it.

Our Internet connection inexplicably died yesterday morning, just as I was beginning my standard daily round of blog-reading. It was very strange: One minute it worked, the next it didn't. I shut down my computer and the router, rebooted everything, and nothing seemed to help. Finally I called BT, our Internet provider, and the guy at the call center walked me through some diagnostics that finally revealed we do, indeed, have some kind of network problem. Theoretically BT is fixing it. I'm told it could take 48 hours.

Being disconnected is really not that bad. In fact, in some ways, it's kind of nice -- an enforced Internet vacation. But as is often said, you don't realize how much you depend on the Internet until you don't have it anymore! If there's an upside, it's that we're on a break from school until Wednesday, so for the next few days I won't need a connection to do my job.

Now I'm sitting in a Starbucks a few blocks from our flat, sipping a pumpkin spice latte, listening to Ella Fitzgerald singing "Cheek to Cheek" and being thankful for free coffeehouse wifi.

By the way, here's my beef about call centers in England: Many times, companies and utilities here make you pay to talk to someone at a call center. For example, BT charged me 14 pence per minute to talk to their call center yesterday -- and a good chunk of time I spent on hold waiting to connect to an agent. The same thing happened when I had to call Dave's health insurance company to discuss a claim a few days ago. I think it's fairly outrageous to make me pay to correct a problem caused by someone else, but apparently that's how they do things here.

Last night I went down to Greenwich for a pub outing with Sally and Mike, and the visiting Kim and her friends. It's always great to connect with distant blog pals when they come through town! I also popped into a bookstore and picked up a couple of amusing London photo books by this blogger, and I'm thinking, if he can do it, why can't I? Indeed. Motivational food for thought.

Dave and I are off tonight to see "Looper," the new Bruce Willis flick, and maybe have some Thai food. Tomorrow we plan to check out Brighton, on the southern coast of England. Photos to follow, if and when our Internet connection is restored!