Saturday 14 June 2008

Orange wednesday

Ok so maybe underneath it all perhaps I am more blonde than I appear to the outside world or perhaps it is just me who doesn't see it.



As you know back in May I proccured a nice new laptop for myself.......it was around this time perhaps a week or so later that I finally gave in and rang Talk Talk to upgrade my account. I have been with them for about 18 months for my landline but every time they suggested I have my broadband with them for free I obstinately refused to change over to their free service, preferring instead to continue paying £17 per month to Orange for our broadband. Anyway DC has had his laptop for over a year and has never been able to connect to our broadband with his wireless connection yet he can connect it at his friends' homes. So after a long discussion about the difficulties of connecting various computers to our network we decided to change to Talk Talk. I rang them and arranged the transfer. I would get a welcome letter (received but mislaid) then I would receive my modem etc (collected from sorting office on wednesday) the whole process would take around 20 days but the switch over would not cause any interruption to our broadband (as Cake says very important when you have teenagers in the house).



During wednesday afternoon ET told me that the internet connection isn't working. So I spent over an hour on the phone to one of those 'overseas help desk' you know the ones they speak very good English but the accent is difficult to understand and they don't fully understand me either. First we try the technical support who after a protracted discussion and investigations tell me to contact Customer Services as there is a problem with the account. Have I been cut off by BT? UM NOOOOOOOOOOO I am phoning from my landlline!!!

Next its the turn of Customer Services.......'No madam there is nothing wrong with your account, no billing issues your account is live I will transfer you to technical support'

Again a long discussion and line tests are run. Our ADSL status is constantly unvalidated. He will do further line test and ring back in 2 minutes. 30 minutes later I call them again, again we are constantly unvalidated............the line is fine, the account is fine, the server is not recognising our username and password. Engineers will look into this and call me within 24 to 48 hours. So it is now saturday and I ahve heard nothing and it still won't work.

There are only ET and myself in the house as the others have gone to watch cricket. So as it is relatively peaceful I phone Orange technical support. There is a problem with the account the engineer has tried to phone me to tell me. I have had no calls!! I am told to wait 5 minutes while notes are put across to the Customer Services then phone them and tell them to read the notes.
Ten minutes later (just to be sure) I rang Customer Services again I am told it is a technical support issue but after arguing my case I am put on hold for a minute then .........I am put through to an English woman! who first asks if I ahve moved home recently 'no we have been here 11 years' have you changed your phone number 'not for 2 years'. Finally I am told that my Postal Code has been taken off my account and the server cannot recognise me without it. I have to phone my telephone provider to ask them to put the Post Code back.

I phone Talk Talk and explain to the man there that I am in the process of switching to Talk Talk but they have managed to get me cut off from Orange...............'Our records show that you went live with Talk talk broadband on 11th June'

Penny starts to drop......it wasn't the 20th June but 20 days from when I agreed to switch over . So it is all down to me being blonde that we have had no connection for 3 days. So now I have internet on the downstairs PC and on my laptop (still can't connect DC's laptop password problem) and ET has the PS3 back online.

So its a good thing nobody knows how stupid I can be sometimes. If I keep quiet no one will ever know it wasn't Orange that had done something ;-) Perhaps now I ought to ring them one last time to tell them I have left.

On tuesday I was wearing a sleeveless top for work....it was a hot muggy day. BG took one look at me and said she wanted to draw on my arms.........I didn't reply but I figured what had made her say that ,was that over the last few summers I have had a fair few insect bites on my arms. I am terrible if I feel anything on my skin (scab, spot, a lump) anything that prevents my skin from being smooth to the touch I have to pick at it until it goes. this means that I often make it worse. I cannot help it. the only thing that stops me is to have my skin covered by clothes. My bad habit has left a lot of marks on my arms. I have been trying to always wear short sleeves rather than sleeveless, but on tuesday and again on wednesday I found myself wearing sleeveless tops. On wednesday rememebering the dot to dot idea that had come to mind at BG's comment I decided that perhaps I could make the marks less visible by spraying a thin coat of tanning lotion on my arms and chest. It is one that I had bought ages ago and used once or twice last year or was it the year before. I ignored the warning bells in my head that said this won't be a good idea.

I was wearing a white top and my arms looked quite pastey, during the morning I noticed that they were actually getting darker. At one point about 4 1/2 hours after I had applied this tanning lotion I was walking through the warehouse when I noticed that I had become quite orange. I just wanted to hide but oddly no one said anything. when I next went to the Ladies I checked in the mirror.......it looked ok but if I looked at the back of my arms there was a bit I hadn't quite managed to reach so there is a pale strip just where my arm reast against my body.

It is now saturday and nobody has said a word except that when OJ got home from his camping trip he commented that I had gone brown in the two days he had been gone. I confessed to him and DC but no one else knows that I had made myself orange by using a bottle.

Sometimes I wonder if I am a fit person to be let loose, let alone have the responsibilies of bringing up 4 boys.

Other news I finally went to the gym on Thursday for the first time since March......I didn't over do it just spent 30 minutes on the bike. Sent a picture of myself afterwards to Romeo which he loved, saying that I looked 'relaxed and glowing' we continued to text all evening until finally his last text telling me he was shattered and going to sleep woke me from a doze.

4 comments:

Annie Wan said...

laughing at your blonde moments - as long as you don't decide to spray tan the boys you'll all be fine, haha

it's so nice to fall asleep whilst texting - the darling and i used to do that a lot in the early early days or speak on the phone - the only thing i don't miss is my huge phone bill, :)

Lady in red said...

mei strangely my phone bill has gone down since Feb.... I guess that is because I am not phoning or texting other people as much. It was good to fall aslep like that it feels like it has been an absolute age since we have done that. Which reminds me I need to tell O2 to take off the bolt ons as I have not used them te last few months so I am paying more than I need to.

Karen said...

Now I don't feel quite so bad about some of the "senior moments" I have. Thanks for the giggle.

Lady in red said...

gypsy you are very welcome ......I do have plenty of blonde moments even though I have never been trully blonde