At last, after over two months of letter letter writing and threats BT have finally picked up on my case and provided me with a telephone service. When the matter finally got into an individual’s hands he couldn’t do enough to sort things and we have agreed an acceptable level of compensation. It means that I now have immediate access to the internet even if it is only dial-up.Oddly I got quite used to having to go to the library when I needed access: It meant that I saved up what I needed to do, drafted e-mails beforehand etc and did it all in one go. When I had broadband at home I would waste hours bouncing about the ether – when I first discovered YouTube I wasn’t getting to bed till two in the morning. 
Modern life presents an interesting corollary to the law that “work expands to fill the time available”. Modern trappings don’t necessarily make life more convenient, they just bring new nuisances to deal with or they relieve you of the obligation to think or plan: Did people run out of money before cash-machines or did they just make sure that they had enough money for the weekend? I vaguely remember that we did manage to live our lives perfectly well before mobile phones: we just planned things before we left the house. Have you sat in a train carriage and listened to other peoples’ calls – there are billions of dollars worth of satellites and trillions of dollars worth of intellectual input invested in carrying a white noise of inconsequential drivel. And I gave up my satellite tv when I realised I was paying extra to watch repeats.So I am not going to bother about getting broadband just yet. If I want to download my emails I will dial up and if I need to download a new driver for my PC’s CD drive, as I suspect I will, or upload more pictures to my website, then I will trot down to the library or a caff with the laptop and do it there and save myself from being tied to an 18 month contract at £25 a month. I thenk you
Congratulations, it’s a boy
After a slightly embarrassing number of attempts I finally passed the HGV test on Thursday and I am now qualified to sit on the M1 for days at a time in a 43 ton articumalated lorry full of calves in two foot square pens. It’s quite scary: now I have a car, a motorcycle and a full HGV licence which is a total investment, at net present value of something in the region of £5,000 in training and fees over the years. So if I lose it I stand to lose a lot more than the average punter.Its been an enjoyable summer what with one thing and another but it is alas, time to get on with life and earn a real living and the rounds of interviews and letter writing has already begun.But first I am taking what might be my last trip of the year. Another Ryanair special to Rome flying very early tomorrow morning. But for a change I am getting the first train to Naples where I am staying for three nights before back to Rome for the last night and early flight home.I’ve never seen Naples and alas there is far too much to see in only two full days and I can’t quite decide what to prioritise. The weather forecast is sun and upper twenties so I think I will pass on the galleries and concentrate on Vesuvius, Herculaneum (Pompeii looks just too big) and some architecture. I’m getting to be an old lag with Rome now and I am already smacking my lips at the thought of the meal I am going to have on Thursday night in my favourite Roman restaurant: “Your-a usual-a seat-a meester Corr?” (Their incomparable seafood risotto and a huge glass of their very dry house white – il Yummo!).
