Monday 16 March 2009

I Don’t Like Monday’s

I think I need to look up my horoscope for today and find out why it all went so horribly wrong. There must be some retrograde Mercury thing happening to certain unlucky Virgoans as my communication is up the spout – be it verbal or virtual. Of course, this would be the day of Tight Deadline, Must Be Finished Today On Pain of Death. Of course it is.

Wrong Things

  • Up at six to beat Three Mobile Broadband’s usual paddy from 10am onwards
  • The computer system I am uploading to dies from 9 – 11am. This is my prime Internet time, and now it is wasted.
  • Three Mobile Broadband starts crashing every half hour from midday. Cannot upload any of my work
  • Decide to pack up and use free wifi at British Library. This is the nearest reliable source of wifi that has plug sockets available, as my lap top needs plug power
  • Train fare today is £6.50, yesterday it was £4.50. I query why when it is the same journey. Ticket man shrugs and shrugs, and then finally says it is because I am not travelling direct today (as the trains only run direct on weekends) and am using the tube. I was practically purple with rage at this point. My ‘thank you’ was said through gritted teeth.
  • Buy a bottle of fizzy drink that fizzes all over my hand and down my canvas carrier bag
  • Get to British Library and there is not a spare plug anywhere in the building.
  • Share someone’s 4 plug adapter for 10 minutes before I get told off by jobsworth security man as I have moved my table 2 inches to the left and am running a cable across the floor. I get the cable; I don’t get the tiny table movement. Damn the man.
  • Work on battery power. Cannot access job website, password’s not working
  • Manage one section when get new password from tech bloke, and then battery on lap top dies
  • Cruise British Library desperate for a plug socket, trailing power cable
  • Find one, but it means sitting on cold marble floor like a looney
  • Internet falls over half hour later
  • I give up, and decide to go back home
  • Get home and Internet works, for an hour only
  • Make boiled eggs in anger for tea
  • Internet then crashes at 20 minute intervals until 8.30pm

    Right Things

  • Internet occasionally worked
  • Kind man at British Library let me share his 4 plug adapter
  • Found a plug socket of my very own
  • Deadline extended for me until midnight
  • My boiled eggs were done to perfection
  • My mum knows not to talk to me when I am in a snit
  • I read my ‘Bedknob and Broomstick’ book on the tube
  • I finally finished my work by 10pm, so I can crash out in bed

  • 2 comments:

    Rose said...

    not having internet access sucks! I have serious dongle issues at times and have quite literally been driven to tears.
    I actually think the whole country should be wifi ready now as you feel so disabled when you can't get on tinernet.

    Jayne said...

    Yesterday was awful! Truly awful - running around everywhere thinking eeeek, must get online! But today the dongle / sun is shining, so let's see what happens. I think the thing with Three is that their broadband is supposed to be a stop gap when your grown up broadband doesn't work. I am forcing it to be on all the time, that is what is going wrong I reckon. Darn dongle. Anything that is called a 'dongle' doesn't sound like it should work, thinking about it.