Grannymar

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future’s not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera

So goes the song, and it is fast becoming my daily mantra.

On Friday I was looking forward to some great big hugs! Elly & George were coming North to do an enormous number a few calls and ‘the mammy’ was about fourth on the list. It was to be a short well timed visit. Leave some stuff for me to deal with, sort something for my computer (well there is no point in having two experts in the family if you cannot make use of them!), have something to eat and collect a bag full of items waiting here for them. I will have the opportunity to pester see them in a couple of weeks time when I go south for the Irish Blog Awards.

I like to be prepared when they come, so I spent Thursday hiding the evidence of Toyboys deleting any incriminating evidence from my files tidying up the place. Now tell me can you overwork the internet? I ask because my Internet connection died! Zilch! No Firefox, no Internet Explorer, no emails, No RSS!!! What was I going to do? How would I keep tabs on my Toyboys?

Feeling a little cross about this I closed down and went to bed.

Bright and early on Friday I opened up the computer and the Internet was still on holidays, so I phoned BT my provider. I had to phone as there was no way of reporting it on-line without the internet! Now I looked at the last bill and it gave only one number for reporting faults. I phoned and you know the procedure, 57 varieties of options and finally what I was looking for: If you are reporting a fault with Broadband please phone 0845 XXX XX XXX! WHY, oh why, was that number not printed on the bill? It makes sense surely.

I spoke to a very nice young man who asked about 7000 questions, but forgot to ask what I had for breakfast! Do you think they have deleted that one? I did ask him to suggest to his manager to arrange putting the phone number for Broadband faults on the bill. It might mean his callers being a little less frustrated!

So I had to unplug this, and plug in that, etc, you know the form. Not very successful, he would have to pass it on to the Diagnostic team. “Did I have another number so they could contact me?” the young man asked casually. “Do you mean have I a mobile number?” I said. “Why do you need a mobile number? Please don’t tell me you are going to cut off my land-line! I need it to be able to contact the Toyboys ‘Nee Naws’ Emergency services!

The young man promised they would not cut the phone line but that it might be 12-24 hours before the internet was up and running. Now that was serious! I was out of control! Well there were Steph, Hails and K8 all with the perfect chance to steal MY Toyboys! I needed the spray and I needed distraction.

I went to the kitchen and set about making soup and a dinner for my travellers. I had my soup for lunch and cleared up all the dishes. I returned to the living room about an hour later and the modem was flashing away to itself. I had email! I had Firefox! We were back in action. Ten minutes later the nice young man phoned to tell all was working again. Their was a fault their end - yes he said that! So I thanked him and let him go to the next person in distress.

Now why did I use that word (distress)? I sat down to rest and check on the toyboys read the blogs. Suddenly my body went into shock and I was frozen, it felt like someone had put me in a walk-in freezer! Having no pain I was not worried. I put on the electric blanket and went to bed for an hour or so. I warmed up and the feeling passed. The dinner was sitting in the oven ready to be switched on and Elly could serve it up. No worries, I was fine!

They came, we hugged, we talked and they did the swapping about and we eat. It was wonderful to have them here even for a short visit. Everything was cleared away before they left and I had a call to let me know they were home safely.

So Que Sera, Sera, the moral of the story is live for the moment and let the hours take care of themselves

Toyboys, I’m back, but we will take it slowly.

The clatter of my letterbox is a sound that always pleased me. Today was no different. Yes, the postman had come early and left an A5 sized envelope. Emails are instant but it is still nice to get some letters. The sound of them dropping onto the floor tells me I am still alive.

The lone item today was my Phone/Broadband bill. Old habits die hard and I always go through the bill with a fine tooth comb. Sometimes in the past it was a reminder that it was time to phone a particular person again. With the modern day options that have the free evening and weekend calls, the numbers in ‘free-time’ do not show up.

The bill this morning had a surprise for me. Second item on the list of calls was: 20^th January at 13.46 Somalia, followed by a number.

Yes, I did say Somalia.

I don’t know anyone in Somalia. To my shame I can just about tell it is in Africa, but I am not sure whether it is north, south, east or west. Google maps here I come….

I have never phoned anyone in Somalia in my life and since I live alone who did? I know it was not Elly or my Sin-in-Law as they were at Barcamp South East that day. I know they were there because Elly was giving one of the talks.

There was only one solution for it, so I phoned BT. I followed option 1, followed by 4 and 5. I nice English speaking girl asked how she could help. I told her my trouble and she wondered if I had misdialled. I assured her that that was not the case. She was still sceptical and said she would check back over the past two bills. No sign of Somalia there she said. I knew that, so reluctantly she said she would have it deleted from the bill.

What I still want to know is who used my phone to call Somalia?

Was it you? Go on own up!