The fiasco that is our banking industry is something I would normally comment on, but to be honest, enough has already been said in the media and across public forums. My views won't alter anything but I do wonder if all those Occupy protesters, somewhere amongst all the jumbled rhetoric were actually on to something.
I've been without my full set of toys for a few days due to what I'd assumed to be a faulty phone socket. This meant I had to move my ADSL router to another part of the house but in doing so, I had to disconnect it from the network I have running here. This meant I couldn't use any of my desktop computers or servers. I was though able to use a solitary laptop, but the service was very poor and intermittent. I did have a go at repairing the socket myself having been a novice network engineer in the past, but it beat me and I had to succumb to calling on the services of a local engineer. Luckily, he lives local just a few miles down the road and was able to visit yesterday. He diagnosed the fault in no time at all as water ingress which had corroded the junction box and damaged the connections. The whole lot including the extension to my office, upon which I rely so much, had to be replaced. To cut a long story short, it was replaced and I now have brand new sockets ready for fibre and fully functioning connections. Wonderful, and the whole lot for just £40! Of course I gave him an extra £10 which I thought was warranted given he'd been here for three hours and worked through a torrential thunderstorm. A job very well done indeed, and by an 'old school' engineer who takes pride in service and the quality of his work. Certainly a dying breed.
When you are used to things being there and working on demand, it is so difficult to function normally when things break down. I've always considered Broadband to be on a par with water and electricity. I think of it as a service and an important one at that. I know many would not, favouring pen and paper and letters over e-mail. But for a growing number of people, constant unrestricted access to the Internet is now a given.
Last Thursday saw our first A&D group gathering outside of our normal venue. We decided to meet at Ayscoughfee Hall Park in Spalding, a delightful place with five acres of landscaped gardens, lakes and a Grade 1 listed house and museum. It made a very nice change to meet somewhere else and we were extremely fortunate with the weather, remaining dry and sunny for the duration.
From next Thursday, we have a new venue in Spalding which has been provided free of charge. We will meet there each Thursday and at our normal venue on Tuesdays. I'm keen for us to do more outdoors so hopefully, weather permitting, we may be able to vary our venues in the coming months.
I'm sure I've mentioned this before and whilst trying to avoid a sales pitch for Morrison's, I do believe I have finally found my holy grail of beef burgers. Specifically they are 'Butcher's Hand-Made Steak Burgers' at 45p each currently. Add a little fried onion and they are simply wonderful.
We did the family pleasantries earlier and visited my parents. Now my mum simply loves baking and claims to find it therapeutic. We often come away laden with cakes and savouries, and very welcome they are too. Today's offering was quite exceptional and I simply had to take a photo before we cut into it...
And finally, this week I have been mostly eating... strawberries & Kelly's Cornish Ice Cream...
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