A Year of Broken Things

This has started-off as the year of broken things: nothing too serious, nothing that can’t be repaired, but nevertheless frustrating.

Number 1 the internet – well perhaps not the whole internet, just my access to it. It started being intermittent over Christmas and stopped completely on 6th of Jan. Oh the problems of the bad weather – the engineers were all backed up and no one was available for a whole week! As it is one of the modern commandments that thou should be patient (that way you get less buggy software), I settled down to wait. The visit of the engineer coincided with more snow and it took more time getting his van away than fixing my problem. He just reset the modem said it was OK but didn’t do a lot. The internet only worked again for a few hours. Then nothing. Anther call, another wait for an engineer: but this time only for three days. The new engineer took one look at my modem, declared it knackered, replaced it and now everything is fine.

So I can continue blogging again.

Number 2 the car. This was all my own fault, and is if I haven’t demonstrated my own stupidity to myself often enough, this was a little reminder for the new year. A simple trip to Watford but unfortunately there was a big smash-up on the motorway. When I realised we would be stuck for some time I turned the engine off but forgot I had the headlights on (it was a gloomy grey day). The battery drained and I was unable to restart the engine, so I had to push the car to the hard shoulder and wait for assistance. Unfortunately the traffic was so badly backed-up they closed access to the motorway so the breakdown van could not get on for some time and after that could only crawl towards me. As a result it took 4 very cold hours to be rescued.

Number 3 me. I am sitting here with a sore throat, blocked-up nose, painful head, coughing as I type. Around my chair is a pool of self-pity (the true symptom of man-flu) as I realise that my running schedule is in danger of crumbling away, even though I know I will soon be mended

So 2010 has stated with a little moral reminder: things fall apart but eventually they can be fixed. I am going to take this to heart and make the mantra for the rest of year: “patience, patience, patience”.