Manna from heaven

This neat little box, my friends, is manna from heaven. It is a mini wi-fi hub that works off the 4G network. I’ve been sent it because, for reasons both complicated and ridiculous, BT have not yet managed to connect me to broadband at my new flat. That is despite 14 days of waiting, numerous ‘no shows’ of engineers and three young, handsome, very nice but ultimately hapless Openreach engineers who did show up at various times but were not briefed and did not have either the right information, skills, tools or authority to do what is needed for a proper connection. Thanks to two patient friends fielding phone calls for me (how many times in the last two weeks have I wished I could hear well enough to pick the phone up myself!) and then, blessedly, the granting of a direct email connection to a relatively helpful (though also somewhat short on knowledge and experience) chap on the BT Complaints Line, I’ve eventually been sent this as a stop gap. And it actually works! I’ve so far been making do with my phone to try and access my emails and so on (but too small to read and too weak a signal to be very effective, not to mention my fingers being too big to type on it reliably - and gobbling up data! 😱) 

I’ve now cranked my desktop Mac into life. I’ll swear I heard it mutter ‘Where have you been?’ My phone is a happy bunny with four bars of wi-fi instead of two bars of 4G signal and my iPad… well, that’s demanding that I re-sign into everything and is chiding me because it’s not been synced or backed up for two weeks. But they WORK! Hooray! 

Not only that but I’ve built myself a sit/stand desk today (from a kit) - so not a bad day for someone who is generally rather technically challenged. With my entire small village of friends helping in various ways with practical and moral support, life here is beginning at last to shape up into a more rhythmic and familiar pattern. Bedroom is tidy and restful, all boxes banished; kitchen is fully functional and even has a little space in some of the cupboards for the several boxes of glassware etc that I haven’t yet unpacked. One end of the sitting room looks like a sitting room. (The other looks like a depository, stacked with boxes, mainly books awaiting shelves). I’m in the process of getting quotes to fit a new bathroom. Currently that’s just a place to try and keep clean in, rather than the relaxing sanctuary I am seeking. My office is a work in progress and currently a shoe box holds all the most important notebooks, pens, scissors, sellotape and Letters/Bills That Must Soon Be Dealt With.

Slowly but surely, my new life as an apartment dweller is taking shape. ‘Phase One’ not yet fully completed but I’m much nearer now than I was to a basically organised and calm existence. I feel as though I’m at last getting on to the fun bit, thinking about decor and sussing out how things need to be organised to work well, everything in its place and a place for everything. My best buy so far? A little machine that prints labels. Boxes, jars, everything getting neatly labelled!