January Chatty - Happy New Year!

[OurCreature]

A Happy New Year to all of us, and it's great that Pani has managed to get himself sort of connected back to us!

[eccles]

HNY to everyone from me too.
Nice to see OC has started the new year with a nice shiny new chatty.

[Wildrover]

Nice to see OC has started the new year with a nice shiny new chatty.

...and a negative COVID test

[babs]

Happy New Year to you all from me too and hurrah for the negative COVID tests too! I've managed to evade COVID so far although it is rampant here again so I don't know how long I will escape but I have had all my vacs so fingers crossed.

[Furby]

And Happy new year from Furby.

I have managed to avoid COVID too so far but once I get on trains again no doubt it will get me. I get a runny nose when out in the cold and then it clears up once home for a while in the warm so wasnt covid/flu/even a cold after all. Patience helpfully told us public transport was back to normal so I know I could at least get home on trains even if seemingly have covid so thats good to know. That Scottish mp lost her job for going home but its what we all want when poorly isnt it.

Glad Pani has sort of got internet back again. Its been his life for last 25 years hasnt it so must be a shock to be cut off so long and these days so much more is online its almost impossible to function offline. I am not sure this has been factored into the plans to convert everything from fridges to job centres to transport to banking to shopping to parking etc etc to online or nothing. When internet is down nothing works and nothing can be done.

[Wildrover]

Happy New Year everyone and hope everyone got at least a little fun over the holiday even with our various bugs. We had two days in Brighton and it was great till we wanted to come home on the 30th. There were supposed to be two trains per hour from Brighton to Hitchin; luckily I checked the status whilst having a late breakast at 9-30 a.m. to fiind the only one all day that was not cancelled was at 10:30 so we had the runaround to get packed up, check out and get to the station. Lack of staff was the reason given. Anyway we made it back.

We had a lovely New Years Eve at the local pub with all our friends and MYF's family - MYF even got a dance out of me although it was a very gentle one due to my broken ribs. They really are annoying - I broke them in October falling off a horse in Seville and they'd just got better when I slipped on Christmas Eve and broke them again so it will be February before they're better. The pub supplied a very pleasant free buffet with all the usual suspects which was most welcome and we watched the London fireworks (or The Sadiq Khan Show as it now seems to be known - he really is a ghastly narcissistic little man). We got home around 3 and had a lovely lie-in this morning.

[eccles]

I had four weather warnings on my phone this morning, two for wind, one for rain plus a flood warning. My home has never been flooded due to adverse weather although I've had a dislodged roof tile once or twice. The stiff breeze is mild and was quite invigorating when out walking this morning when the rain finally eased off. The mobile masts are still standing and I have a good signal.

[Panikos]

Happy New Year to you all.

Since HF detectives found the connection between my broadband loss and a car crash I thought I'd post this.

I only just found out for certain this was the cause.

Apparently he drove through the cabinet before taking the corner off the house.

[eccles]

Wow, what a plonker. An awful Christmas present for the occupants.
Well done detective Furby for connecting the two.
Do you have any updates on fixing it?

[Patience]

Furby! You are our top sleuth


Very well done.

[Wildrover]

I'm amazed that a car could cause that much damage - was he driving a Challenger tank?

[Panikos]

Eccles, they are still saying the 16th. The support guy talks as though it will be precisely that day, but I don't see how they would know. It would be an estimate I'm sure. Unfortunately it's not the first time a cabinet has been wrecked and one at least took 5 weeks as they had to dig up cables.

Wildrover, I was surprised that you could wreck a house with a car, but I suppose that was just bricks and mortar. Lots of strength to take weight from above, but hardly any sideways.

The driver hit the jackpot there as in the before picture you can see the electricity/gas meters on the side of the house. Of course it ripped those off too causing a gas leak. Presumably it could have been worse if the power cable had ignited it.

I'm complaining, but the people who live there had the worse Christmas ever.

I don't know if they have released the drivers name, but if he lives locally he may have to move. He hasn't made any friends at all.

[merry]

I'm really fed up of Pani's broadband being off, so goodness knows how bad it is for him.

WR! broken ribs are incredibly painful, you poor chap. Are you better, Patience and OC? any other poorly people?

Juliet and I went to London yesterday to see Matilda the Musical and to meet Tom and his sister Viki who are having a little post-Christmas holiday. Seeing Tom and Viki was wonderful, and the musical was fun, though not up to the recent film version IMO.

[Wildrover]

They are painful especially when I sneeze or cough but I was quite drunk so it was my own stupid fault. About a month to mend judging by previous experience

[OurCreature]

WD to Tom for making his trip to the UK; it's nice his sister came with him.

I had to buy a new charger for my ancient Nokia because a pin had broken off its wall plug. Amazon to the rescue and it arrived yesterday.

We have had a lot of rain this afternoon, so much so that it was starting to puddle by my doorstep which isn't all that common. Still, it was dry this morning so OK for me to collect my repeat prescription.

[Panikos]

Matilda the Musical was quite good, but never seen the stage play. You all seem to be having fun!

Ouch at broken ribs, Wildrover. I've somehow managed to never break any, but no one I know who has ever said it was fun so I'll pass.

OC, I don't know how we managed before Amazon and the like. I remember back when unless a local shop stocked it you'd add it to your next big shopping trip in a week or two and then maybe not find it anywhere.

In other news MY BROADBAND IS BACK!!!!

It just started working without any fuss. No new information from Plusnet, but they haven't actually been much help.

It's a great relief, but had I been sure it would just start up I wouldn't have been rebooting the router 40 times a day since xmas.

[eccles]

That's good news Pani.
If you ever decide to go wireless, let me know.
This is a speedtest from today.

[OurCreature]

Great to have you back properly, Pani!

[Furby]

Oc my ancient Nokia that I keep for password resets broke it's charger pin last year. It's broken one of my sockets too with the pin getting stuck in. I haven't replaced the charger and just swap battery in yet another slightly less ancient Nokia and charge it there. Maybe they have a self destruct sequence at so many years. Must be at least 14 but I think is older than that.

[OurCreature]

I was lucky, Furby - the broken pin didn't stick in the socket because I was able to use the socket with the new charger. I haven't the slightest idea where the broken pin is - I can't find it.