“All human plans are subject to ruthless revision by Nature, or Fate, or whatever one preferred to call the powers behind the Universe.”
~ Arthur C. Clarke, 2010: Odyssey Two
It’s been a crazy fortnight for me, technology-wise. This time two weeks ago my computer died, and no matter what I did, it took days to get back on my feet with a new, functioning machine.
On Wednesday night we made it home to the farm after our epic trip to Toowoomba and found that the modem had died. So now I had a lovely new computer and no way to connect it to the wider world.
Although we live on the coast, just inland from Byron Bay, in the world of telecommunications we are considered ‘rural remote’. We don’t have a phone line of good enough quality to run ADSL, let alone dial-up. So we rely on a massive aerial and the mobile phone network for our slowish internet service. That’s our only option right now. Or satellite. Which is even slower.
When the modem died I took it in to the Telstra ( communication services provider) shop half an hour’s drive from our home, where it then took ALL DAY for them to work out what to do while I sat there, refusing to leave until they found me a solution. I should now receive a new modem in the post on Monday or Tuesday next week.
In the meantime I had to buy a nifty little prepaid modem, which makes dial-up look fast. I write a five line email, and wait twenty minutes while it sends. But hey, I still have connection! So between now and next week, my blogs won’t look flash unless I send them from a cafe in town.
Now, there’s an idea… 🙂
I shall do my best for you, one cafe at a time!
It’s my birthday tomorrow, and my lovely friend Carly is coming to visit for the weekend. A small group of us (all local farmers) are heading to a tiny local French restaurant tonight, which does a three course meal of fresh seasonal local food for just thirty dollars. The restaurant is way up the other end of our long, winding country road. It always feels like we have stepped back in time to go there. I’ll let you know how it goes. It’s such a treat of a place!
Right now I am going to water in my new vegetable seedlings while this blog post loads, and then we are off to the farmers’ markets for breakfast and some shopping. I’m finally feeling quite good on my new lyme meds, which is wonderful news.
Double hoorah, with cake!
Lots of love, Nicole xx
