Just when I thought all of the moving stuff was sorted out, and at least the phone lines were working properly…
On Tuesday morning, my second (Internet) line kept dropping out. Three times in just a few hours; most unusual. Were aliens trying to cut me off from the outside world?
Midday. I picked up the handset plugged into the line to see if any extra-terrestrials were using the line to phone home, and momentarily encountered what seemed to be a human voice on the line. Then nothing. So I looked out the window: sure enough, four Telstra guys with four Telstra vans, working across the street. I went over and asked them if they were affecting my line. They said probably. Great.
2pm – Gave up and started using the primary (voice) line
4pm – Switched back, only to find no dial tone! Look out of window; the Telstra guys were gone. Marvellous.
4:10pm – Looked on bill to find number to ring. It wasn’t there. In fact it said "Fault reporting: Please call our 24 hour helpline", with a gap where it looked like the number should go!
4:20pm – Find the phone number elsewhere and ring Telstra faults. Have a whinge to them about how it was probably their own workmen that cut the line. The lady says she’ll send out a technician, but to have a word with them if they come back.
Wednesday 8:45am – The Telstra guys are back so I go and talk to them. They check their lists and diagrams and mess about with wires. Shortly afterwards, the line is working again.
8:55am – I try to ring Faults back from the voice line to cancel the call out. But I can’t get through; I just get a message saying they cannot connect the call… oh terrific! Is this irony or what? Two attempts and I give up… I have, after all, got better things to do.
4:45pm – The Telstra faults guy visits, only to be told it’s now working. D’oh!
I also managed to lock myself out of the house today. Well, that is, I didn’t do it… but somebody (not naming any names, but I have two house guests who were the last to leave this morning) locked the lock on the front door for which I don’t have a key, and which I subsequently leave unlocked. If it had occurred to me, I would have asked the Telstra guys working across the road to borrow a ladder, but instead I rang Peter, who wasn’t far away, and arrived with his ladder for me to shinny up to an open window, while hoping those eagle-eyed Neighbourhood Watch people I’m always reading about in their newsletters weren’t calling the police.
