Wouldn’t you guys love to play with your computer games with this?

Press on, now!

Sorry for the sporadic postings, we’ve recently moved from New Zealand back to Australia and we had a devil of a time getting broadband.  First we couldn’t get it at all, wouldn’t even take our application, and then it was that we’d get it in November 2011.  Why?  Because there were only 2 free lines from people who’d moved out and they were being saved for future owners.  That’s just how it works.

Mr. Flirty is a geek of the first order and not to have the highest possible connection was driving him nuts.  He called and got a phone company rep in the Philippines who said we couldn’t get broadband at all and had half a paired set of wires for our phone connection.  That’s where it started going bad.  He called the business office and got no joy.  He called the regional office and got no joy.  In an offhand comment to our of our new neighbours, they suggested just talking with a phone techo because they are the ones who really know what’s going on.

So that’s what he did next.  The techo said there were 2 free wires that went straight to the exchange but we couldn’t have a set because they were on hold for 6 months and 1 day.  Mr. Flirty had smoke coming out of his ears that this point.  The techo then did something that’s rare in any industry.  He said he had a buddy that owed him a favor and he’d see what he could do.  In 15 minutes we were connected on one of those 2 wires to the exchange.  We couldn’t access the net because we didn’t have a broadband account.  He called the phone company again and was told that it would take 10-15 working days to get it installed.  He explained that it was already connecting to the exchange and someone just had to flip a switch.  Nope, nothing could be done to make it go any faster.

That’s when he hit on the magic phrase.  “Is there a performance standard that you must meet and can you tell me what that is?”

Well, that person wouldn’t tell him what it was, just said there was nothing she could do.  So he asked for her supervisor and asked the same question.  She gave  him every reason in the book why it took 10-15 working days and he said, ‘If you cannot tell me what the performance standard for connections is, can you pass me on to someone who will?”

She put him on hold for nearly 25 minutes and he waited the whole time.  She came back and still didn’t tell him what the performance standard is for connections but told him we’d be online by the following afternoon.

He spent literally hours and hours on the phone and going to the offices in person to make this happen but *finally* we’re back on and I have a brand new zippy computer so I should get lots more done.  Maybe.

You love chocolates?

With this you’ll even love it even more.

I’m not sure if I told you but we have recently moved to the Sunshine Coast in Australia to a community called Minyama, a suburb of Mooloolaba. It’s a great location, friendly people, lots to see and do and plenty of stores to shop in. I couldn’t be happier here.

Even though I’m happy in Australia, every 4th of July my American roots start to tingle and I miss being a part of the celebration. It’s winter down under but we’re in the northern part of Australia (like living in the South in the US because we’re upside down). Imagine my glee when I heard about an old-fashioned sing-along of American tunes for the 4th of July.

Not knowing we’re we were going — we’ve only lived here a week and a half — we found the hall in Cloundra about 15 minutes from our house. Precisely at 2pm the curtains opened to “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy” and went on to “This Land is Our Land” and other famous American folk songs. I thought I was in heaven! LOL My husband thought I was nuts but then he wasn’t brought up in the USA, was he?

Once the chorale finished, there were different groups and soloists but the sound system failed and the music was so loud that most of the people (including us) left at intermission. When the group sang with no microphone it was wonderful but a big voiced man and woman singing into the microphone had me and heaps of others with their fingers in their ears. Imagine!!

So that’s how I spent my 4th of July. How did you spend yours?