Monday, July 20, 2009

back on line, probably

You will have guessed that there is a happy ending to my internet story.

A fat man in a van came with such a smokers cough that he could hardly climb the step ladder that he asked me to provide. He ummed and ahhed in disgust at the previous engineers work, like one of those hairdressers who tell you that your hair was butchered last cut. He did nothing, but the step ladder scratched the paint work.

Then another nacelle arrived full of men who twiddled things…and then went away.

“Your trouble, Madame, is instability, and the fault is intermittent. The whole telephone line down to the village must be replaced. It will be done by the end of the week. ” (It is about 500 metres long!)

Meanwhile, Porridge was eagerly awaiting suitors by the garden gate. She sat for hours playing Lorelei, gazing wistfully down the hill, waiting for the pheromones to work. Yes, it was that time of the year. However, there isn’t much talent in the neighbourhood.


We decided to ignore the weather, and leave our troubles and her suitors behind and have a weekend in the camping car.

When we arrived at Noirmoutier (salt capital of France), it was so windy that the camping car was mercilessly buffeted during the night. I couldn’t sleep for worrying it was going to be blown over. In retrospect, perhaps we could have chosen a less exposed destination…





We braved the beach, and wondered whether Porridge’s ears would blow off.


The colours were extraordinary, the clouds dramatic, so Mysweet took some photos and we came home early, to warm ourselves up.






And here is the happy ending:

This morning, another man in a van arrived, with his own ladder.

Aha, I thought, a professional.

He was out in the road, testing the box, and, just like all the others, was completely ignorant of the passage of the previous engineers.

He laughed when I told him about changing the cable.“That will never happen”, he grinned. “It would cost too much money. We have followed the anglo saxon model, and we are a private company!”

But then he found a fault in that box, and he fixed it. And just before he left, he wrote down his personal mobile phone number, and name, and said to call him direct if I have any more problems.

We have had internet with no interruption for about three hours now.

Move over Porridge, I am in love…

Damn..it's just gone again.


9 comments:

Zhoen said...

Give 'em a call, then.

Love the photos, so harsh and lovely.

Owen said...

Good luck getting your service back on and "stabilized"... not so long ago they left us for over two weeks with no service, and kept insisting the problem was in our house and we must have defective filters on the phone lines. Finally it turned out to be in their switching station a couple of miles from here... but over two weeks of aggravation to determine that. GO France Telecom !!!

Looks like a lovely trip to Noirmoutier, even if a bit breezy.

Rosie said...

Zhoen, I did give him a call, and he came back DURING HIS LUNCHTIME! do you realise what a great gesture that is for a Frenchman to make? He has identified a bit of cable that was struck by lightning, and replaced it, so here I am again...maybe even for long enough to visit my friends' blogs and see what they are up to at last.
Owen, I think we have a lot of different faults which are very slowly being sorted. I may well disappear again soon...

marja-leena said...

Lovely photos! Once upon a time, the cable to our house had to be replaced because it had been chewed up by the squirrels, can you believe? Good luck, sounds like a good man this time.

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear that you are back online- that is the one thing my husband is concerned about with our trip to Mum's. The last time we were there, she just had broadband installed but it wasn't working. Not that he want to use the internet much, just so we can check on hotels for the few days we will be travelling between being in Brittany and Paris.

Can't wait for our trip though, especially as up to two weeks ago we didn't think we could go due to other things. Noirmoutier looks like a good place to visit and in the area we are thinking of visiting. Yeah! goodbye to 100f heat for 2 wks!

Frances said...

I'm glad Porridge's ears didn't blow off! Hope you're still online!

Dingo said...

Awww, look at the lovely Porridge. Looking at her makes me happy. Reading about your internet problems makes me not so happy -- incompetent technicians must be a universal headache.

Zhoen said...

Huzzah!

Lia said...

Good to see you back up and running.
Porridge does look so pretty there on the beach.
I guess you are much more stable now lol, not so much of a bubbling cauldron, more a simmering pot maybe.