The donkeys

We woke this morning to find the canal iced over.  Whilst it was warm under the duvet Jan suffered slightly when she was “nudged” from the bed.  I hung around in the warm bed waiting for a cup of tea and digestive biscuit.  Lucky I didn’t hold my breath!

We now appear to be having email correspondence with three separate representatives from the mobile phone provider.  They all have Indian continent names (am I communicating with Bombay?) and each is providing a slightly different explanation to a problem I don’t have.  There are two things they all agree about. 

1. Our SIM card has been deactivated and the number reallocated.
2. None of them have answered my actual query about our inability to login to their website.

I could see if I kept feeding caviar to the donkeys I was going to continue to get s!*$.  I’ve no desire to keep mucking out the stables so a change in approach was necessary.

Today I made a trip back to the store in Reading where I purchased the SIM card on 20 December last year.  This is getting to be an expensive £5 SIM card!  Before leaving I once again removed the SIM card from the communications module and inserted it into the spare phone.  We then tested the card to reconfirm it is active (it was).

The bus was 25 minutes late and I was half frozen by the time it arrived.  I don’t know why it was so late given they run every 30 minutes.  Anyway I arrived at the shop in time to join the queue. Eventually those before me (and after me!) were served.  Perhaps I shouldn’t have given a brief synopsis of the situation when I arrived! Eventually poor Jeremy was ordered to handle my problem.  He confirmed the SIM card was active and I was then able to explain my query was about accessing their website.  Jeremy volunteered the information that their website had been “down” on the weekend during the time I had been attempting to create an account.  I suggested to him my account had perhaps been corrupted by this system failure.  And that’s what had happened!  So the account has been deleted and we’ve been advised to recreate it in three days.  I’m optimistic the problem may be solved.

Back at the boat Jan had cooked both a peach sponge pudding and our financials.  I’ll eat the former but leave the latter to the family financial controller.  She has also been onto the internet and purchased a kettle with the right diameter base to fit on top of the Refleks stove hotplate. 

By the time I made it back to Waiouru there was the delicious smell of fresh baking in the air.  I’ve almost finished the walnut and date loaf.  It’s been a challenge trying to eat all of it before the mould gets in on the action <burp…>.  Now Jan tells me she will be baking lemon drizzle cake using the lemons she purchased in “Smelly Alley” whilst we were in Reading on Monday.  I need to do more walking!