Bournagain

We had been three weeks and five days without telephone or Internet at home. It is surprising how irritating this has been, and how powerless we are when we are dependent on technology that we use without really understanding how it works.

We took the plunge a while ago and replaced our regular telecom line with a VOIP line, and without realising it at the time we also gave up any right we might have once had to that old fashioned notion we used to call “customer service”. In France, at least, VOIP is where you pay for a service whether or not it is provided, and when something goes wrong, you either figure it out yourself, or go gradually bald as you discover the hard way that there really, truly isn’t a real person somewhere at the end of that infuriating series of recorded messages.

Our provider, a company with the euphemistic name of “Free” (i.e. you are free to part with your money without ever worrying about getting something back for it) has tactfully chosen as their background music, to be enjoyed as you wave goodbye to your 34 cents a minute, a song with the following soothing lyrics “Don’t worry baby, there’s a way that we can work it out.”

Just when we were wondering what to try next, lightning struck very near our house during the night, with a huge thunderclap. We heard an ominous click, and lo and behold, this afternoon we discover that Internet and phone are again working. Could there be any relation between these two events? I don’t know, but we have all been very quick to download a copious backload of emails, in case our connection to the outside world is short-lived.

Anyway, I know you’re not supposed to give excuses for why it’s been ages since you’ve written in your blog, but I think you get the idea.