Friday 22nd January 2021

Which will forever be known as the day of the great internet blackout.

We have lived here in St Maggies since 2009, and after a horrible experience with BT when we moved in, we have been with Sky ever since. Back when we lived in Dover, we had cable, with the fastest internet we ever had. We got used to catch up on demand. Jools liked Ugly Betty, so she used to save a few episodes up and binge watch them, which I believe is quite the thing.

I don't think we appreciated that the video for this came via the internet, we thought it was part of the TV. Anyway, we moved here, back in the day before we had fibre, and the download speeds were barely a megabyte/sec on good days, and less than half that in the evening and weekends. So, when we moved here, logged onto C4 player thing, and slected the latest episode, and nothing happened.

We had come so used to lightning fast downloads, that we never gave it a thought.

In the end I did a download speed search, and was shocked. So, that was that. For years, it took and age to upload shots to Flickr, and at busy times we couldn't even stream audio.

One day a man in a van came to the box at the end of the street, and suddenly download speeds went to near 40mb/s, a world of downloads, video on demand hoved into view.

Not only that, we get used to the internet, we surf the net, we download video, listen or watch podcasts, check the weather and on and on and on. And Sky had never failed.

Until Friday.

Anyway, Friday. I live in hope that one day will bring clarity with my future at work. But this day wasn't it.

Being a Friday, and it being day #1 of Jools' 3 day weekend, so with some persuasion from me, the alarm was switched off and we could lay in until seven or later, if we wanted, or if our brain allowed us. As it was, we were up and abaout at ten to six, I was first up, so had cat-feeding duties then making the first coffees.

Jools gets ready, then heads to Tesco for some hunter/gathering action, then goes to Whitfield for some yoga with Jen, meaning I was left at home, and I decided it was high time I tackled some of the open issues remaining from last year. I have been busy you know!

So, once I start work, I gather information, take screenshots and send granades via e mail to those guilty parties.

That takes an hour or so, then when they respond I can close activites.

And there are calls to make and take, trying to comfort each other in these uncertain times. My friend in Warrington lives half a mile from the river, but it is in full flood, and if there is more rain, she might have to leave home. As it is, many houses are under water already, having been built on flood plains. The clues in the name, guys.

At half ten, Jools comes back home, I help her put the shopping away, make her a brew and breakfast.

We now have food to last us the whole week. Again.

We have lunch, then it is a matter of waiting until it was time to close for the day.

I close the laptop, pack it away, so that Jools and I can go out for a walk, as it is a fine, sunny winter afternoon.

Yes, it was muddy, and we got a little bit muddy, but we amble across the fields, admiring the long shadows and warm colours of the landscape, hedgerows and trees.

In the paddock on the far side, stables have been bult, and two black horses are very much at home. One is full size, the other a small Shetland. The original little and large. I take their picture.

Through the mud to Collingwood, then down to the pig's copse at Fleet House. Jools in her new wellie boots says she is going to go down past the farm, me in my unsuitable trainers can't follow, so I part, me walking back up Collingwood past the two new houses before cutting down to our street and home.

It was cool, but the views sensational, as were the colours, but cloud had begun to cover the sky, whispy at first, but soon blocking the weak sun out, shadows and colours faded.

I wait for Jools to come back, and with the time of half three, rather than have a brew then, we would wait for Jools to arrive at four.

Inbetween us going on the walk and coming back, the internet failed. I found out when I came back and tried to check on the weather.

No sites worked, so I checked and rebooted the modem, checked the cables and connects.

No fault found.

I sat down to ponder the problem, when there was a text message on my new work phone: Sky broadband was down, but they were working hard to fix it.

So, they said.

Every hour or so, I would get a new message saying the internet was still down, but they were working on it.

Jen arrived, and as she is on Sky, her internet was down too.

We stare at the orange light on our modem, knowing we just had to wait. But the evening was all about eating and playing cards.

Once we had drunk our brews, I start to make dinner; pasta carbanara, which I can rustle up in half an hour. I also had made a stuffed focaccia to go with it.

So, at five I add the egg yolks to the cooked pasta and mix up, and its all done.

We have fizz.

COVID is wearing, I mean we would be doing this anyway, but the fact we can't do much else, no travel, no pubs, no eating out, means we miss it even more. At least we have each other.

We clear up, and we sit down to play, whilst listening to a double CD of power pop anthems, a loosely defined genre, and so the music is a mix, but pretty good.

And the end of the evening, I win the three pots with one flourish, laying the nine, ten, jack and queen of hearts. Game over. Jen leaves for home, the sleet shower had stopped, the night was blacker than black, and freezing cold.