Where have I been for the last sixteen days? Oh, I’ve been here, as usual, doing my usual stuff in my usual way. What HASN’T been here has been the Internet. Two weeks ago, it ‘stopped.’ And the reason it stopped was because the farm vehicles around here are driven by young and reckless men (usually with one eye on the road and one eye on their mobile phones) in a wild and inconsiderate manner, and one of them pulled down and broke the cable that delivers the internet chez nous, and it has taken two weeks for Openreach and Shropshire council to organise their respective acts and mend the cable.
They say that you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. And even though I am a child of the Sixties and therefore grew up and functioned perfectly well in the world pre-Internet, the post-Internet world has pushed itself (most rudely, I might add) into my world, forcing me to become reliant on it to some extent. For example, banking, bits of shopping and studying for my diploma which relies on a steady internet connection for Zooming and uploading assignments to the learning platform.
In other words, the past two weeks have been most testing, compounded by the fact that when our internet dies, so does our landline phone. And my mobile phone signal, without internet boost, becomes weak and flimsy and unreliable. Maybe I should stock up on flares (the firework signal type, not the flappy trousers) in order to raise the alarm should something befall me in a house dead of communication. Anyway, we are back and ticking along nicely again, and I am looking forward VERY much to receiving a customer feedback questionnaire from Openreach and our broadband provider, so I can explain just how spectacular was their failure in the customer care and communication department.
Onwards then. Here is the news update:
I had a birthday! I am now 59. I have embarked on my 60th year. I’m not quite sure how this milestone loomed up on me, and to be honest, I can’t quite compute it. But here we are, and I have Plans and Ideas. Heather and I had a Girls’ Day Out Roadtrip to Hay-on-Wye in Herefordshire and it was brilliant! Hay-on-Wye is one of those historic places that has managed to defy being overtaken by generic shops and is full of independent businesses and many, many bookshops and art galleries. It was also market day, a happy bonus. The weather was kind to us, we had a most delicious lunch in the old castle and all was perfect, fine and dandy.
(The day before my birthday I received an email from my private pension provider, reminding me to start filling out the relevant forms so I could receive my lump sum and monthly allowance from this time next year. This is MOST exciting! Free money! But it did make me feel a bit old, too…)
My biopsy results arrived. The problem turned out to be exactly what I thought it was in the first place and, as the letter stated, ‘benign, and therefore harmless.’ The biopsy removed the offending article in its entirety, and, nearly two months post-op, the scar is tiny and faint. I am very grateful and I do see life in different terms now because of the experience.
We are harvesting grapes! In November!! To be honest, I thought the grapes wouldn’t ripen this year because they were so late kicking off in Springtime, but thanks to the mild weather and late bursts of sunshine, there are many grapes and they are jolly good.
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