We have decided to go home to Australia in July to see the family. We still have a few points left so do not have to pay an extraordinary fare to travel business class.
Now while Cate can go from Indy to Sydney with United - mine is a bit more tricky. I am using Lufthansa points we accumulated in Europe so I have to go Indy-Chicago-Frankfurt-Bangkok-Sydney and with Lufthansa, Singapore and Thai airlines. All of which I might add are jolly fine airlines in business class.
The Indy to Frankfurt leg is steerage so will be ghastly - but it is worth it to travel to Sydney business class.
I have reached the age where travel is no longer exciting and does not particularly agree with me - especially if I am sitting bolt upright like a Meerkat for 20 hours.
And the reason I am telling you all this is that I am whiling away the time waiting for those brief joyous moments when my Internet works.
I have been trying to book my flight from Indy to Frankfurt for a few hours and whenever I get tantalizingly close to completion my connection clags out.
This is by no means unusual as Internet around here is a fairly haphazard enterprise. There is absolutely no agreement between what is promised and what is delivered.
I am about to change providers. I know this is a serious mistake and a week after I do I will wish I had back the occasional service we have now.
I have scheduled the changeover for the day after we get back from Paris.
This will be a traumatic day punctuated by the installer saying things like ‘gosh, I have never seen anything like this before’ and ‘this is a most unusual situation and I will have to install a brace of woggles to overcome the interference from the cosmic rays which hover your house’.
By the time he leaves I will have Internet with the speed of 100 mbps. This 10 times faster that that which I have now.
This brief period of euphoria will followed by wailing and gnashing of teeth and endless calls to someone who says ‘we value your call etc….’ but never answers.
The AT & T man just left. He told me not to take it personally because all my neighbors had rat shit connections as well and we should all ask for a refund.
They usually have free, fast internet at McDonalds. If you have a laptop, take it there and make your reservations. I couldn't do this as I don't have a laptop and I guess it would look strange to take my IMac in there. Whatever.
ReplyDeleteI got my first Raspberry Pi computer with a camera kit a few days ago, and I think it is going to be a lot of fun, and be very useful. I had already spent several years in business dealing with Unix type systems a long time ago, so Linux isn't a foreign thing. I have already learned how to use my iPad as a remote terminal to access the RPi.
ReplyDeleteWe have three internet services, cable at our house and business, then on our iPhones with Verizon. So we at least have some form of Internet usually 100% of the time. Cable internet has been the best except shortly after we switched, when we first got it and they had it messed up for over a month with the wrong filter, which allowed the cable TV to work, but blocked the Internet. Soon there will be more fiber optic cable service, which will be cool.
I applaud your tenacity. A friend of one said she couldn't understand why people pay exorbitant amounts to travel business class because all she did was sleep (used points). I felt like punching her in the face....
ReplyDeleteMary Anne Rudolph: I can use my AT&T cell phone network for emergencies. It only costs about$100 per kb.
ReplyDeleteesb: It think that is what you have to do - have two services sop that you are always sure of one. I will look up Raspberry Pi.
Sanmdymg G: We never fly business if we have to pay real money. But all I do is sleep to on long or overnight flights.