Thursday November 24th 2022

Another day of battles with technology as Lois and I try to settle into our new-build home in Malvern - it's proving so hard to get the technology right - you would not BELIEVE !!!!!

Once more today there are some victories and also some setbacks.

Firstly, Lois discovers that the tube that connects the washing-machine with the water system is leaking, so we ask Neil, the estate customer care manager to ask one of the site plumbers to drop by - but nothing has happened by close of play - damn !!!!

Secondly, we find we can't watch Channel 5 on the internet, and there seems no obvious reason why things have changed since yesterday. Lois in particular relies on Channel 5 for its daily feed of sentimental Hallmark Christmas movies in the afternoon.

11:00 Luckily there's one big victory today to set against all the defeats - I discover how to connect two of our phones to our broadband's voice service. We're living on a brand-new estate of new-build houses, and there's no BT available anywhere in the estate. However, the little connecting box that I ordered has been sitting idle in the living-room for nearly 2 weeks, and all my attempts at setting everything up have been foiled. 

I'm about to ring the broadband's helpdesk, when I decide to have one more attempt to work out how it all fits together.

The instructions sent with the little connection box were all wrong, I discover. And somehow, heroically and against all odds, I manage to connect all the boxes with the right connecting leads, and Bob's your uncle!

This victory gives me an enormous fillip, there's no doubt about that - see my quiet sense of satisfaction in the photo below - it's palpable! This breakthrough comes despite the fact that one of the 2 phones concerned was inadvertently left out on the patio in a bucket on the day we moved in (October 31st), and was only discovered after three days of rain had completely submerged the phone in about 6 inches of water.

Incredibly the phone still works!

What a crazy world we live in !!!!!

Look in the corner of the room and see all the boxes 

and the nest of wires that I somehow manage to connect correctly.

My goodness !!!!!

Aren't I wonderful haha !!!!!

For the sake of fairness I have to add that, although the phone works as a phone, I'm suspicious about whether some of the more specialised functions still work. So I decide to order a new pair of Panasonic phones - I'm attracted by the fact that they have a bigger font on the keys on the front, and also by the fact that you can make the volume quite a bit louder than you can on the average phone. 

After all,  neither of us is getting any younger haha!

13:00 Lunchtime, and Lois and I get to recall some of our meals of yesteryear.

It's the last Thursday in November so it's Thanksgiving Day in the States - Lois and I have many happy memories of the three Thanksgivings we enjoyed in the US in the early 1980's.

flashback to our last Thanksgiving Day 1984 in the US: (left to right) our daughter Sarah (7), 

me (38), Lois (38), our daughter Alison (9) and my dear late sister Kathy (36).

Happy days !!!!!