In days gone by I’d have no problem with dialling in at my parents on a Friday evening, enjoying the free flowing coffee and pampering. In those black-and-white days of 2005 I’d dial in to play some up and coming game called poker and have my dad sat beside me urging me on. Now, I just want to do some work after what seems like a whole October of holidays and late night networking.

I’ve had one of the most energetic, productive and scariest weeks and its pained me so much that the one thing stopping me doing more, is that British Telecom can’t enable my home telephone line. Why? In fact, this same telecommunications company, can’t even answer the phone. I rang BT and after 40 minutes of being on hold I had to concede defeat, which is obviously not in my character, as I don’t give up easily.

I really wouldn’t mind if the automated voice said, “You’re on hold. You’re 24th in the queue.” Instead you get music and something along the lines of, “If you’ve spoke to us previously about how slow we are, please hang up.”

At the time those 40 minutes felt like a lifetime. As a result of not hanging on for a full day and speaking to an operator who may or may not have been able to ease my pain, I am now using dial-up. Dial-up is frustrating but at least I feel I’m being more productive and proactive than waiting for a phone operator to come back from their lunch break.

That said, I am now 50 minutes into my dial-up connection and I’m not convinced I’m going to be able to do any work at all. I think I may just play poker instead.

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