The internet can do that???

iinet, after saying it would take 5 -10 working days to hook me up, are not to be outdone by Telstra..... and on the 4th day, there was net! My comworld is complete :)

Troy, cos 'only boys can use the Kanga', had a ball moving stuff around .. until it became work. The lil machine was worth every cent of its hire money .. the pile of rocks became smaller piles in more appropriate places, the crusher dust got dispensed around the house perimeter and 8 cubic metres of top soil was spread around my lil back yard .. with a bit of help from me and Zoe and Megan, and a board and some rakes. Bear was supervising until we got sick of him barking orders and confined him to the laundry. We also put in a few sleepers for garden edges and naturally I had to go buy a few bushes and flowers :) Gotta have some of the fun part .. some pansies, and marigolds, and a mini lavender.

Tomorrow the zoysia arrives ... I am sole turfer .. I will be there forever except I have to go to work on Thursday to recuperate.

I will put up some piccies when I get the camera back .. especially the OOPS one.

Why don't you give me a call?

Well .. full marks to Telstra!

They ported the phone from Optus on Monday 5 August (and sent me a letter last week telling when they were doing it!) .

I rang yesterday to sort out the 'lines on which house' problem and got an operator (they've all been Aussies for Telstra) who had a brain. He decided the best thing to do was cancel my 7407 number (the old house one) and then change the 2541 (new house, temp line) to 7407. Easy as. No physical unhookings and it would be completed by Friday 7th, he said. Gave me the Seibel reference number (just in case).

Well it was completed before midday today, a day ahead of schedule!

I already put my net application in as, of lunchtime. Let's see if iiNet can do as well.

Much fun to be had this weekend with a skip for all those things we thought we needed all these years but didn't really. And a Kanga! with attachments. The boys have baggsed it already. Looks like I'm in the hayfever brigade, throwing out rubbish.

Ring Ring

I am slowly going mad (madder?) and I am being driven there by telecommunications companies at an ever increasing rate of knots.

The first problem was that the phone box (pit?) out the front had to be upgraded - which took weeks and weeks.

The next problem: move the phone line (and number) from the old house to the new house.
Simple, you think? Apparently not.

Optus: We can't do it. Our systems can't handle two houses (lines) on the same address.
WTF? what if I had two phone lines? or had to replace a line?
Optus: You have to get Telstra to port it back to them; they install a new line to new house then they can move the old number onto the new line (we also can't install new lines) ; then you can re-sign with us.
Can I keep my old plans eg. the internet one cos your new ones suck
Optus: Nope. New plans all round - and more money for less. And it will all take weeks. Months. Possibly years!
Needless to say, the complaint I lodged has not been answered after a month.

Telstra: Can't understand why Optus can't do it. Sure we can do a new line into the house.
and they did - within a week. Told me exactly what I had to do. Port back number, cancel temporary number, move old number onto new line. Easy peasy!

Telstra: Port it back? not a problem!
except it has been a month - and as of this morning, I'm onto my third application cos they keep losing the others or the system cancels them accidently. (They are using Seibel - so does ATO, so I fully understand how this happens)

This is the quick version without the long phone conversations, back and forth, and forth and back. And the cold dark trips up to the old house to check emails, submit assignments or check the answering machine.

I have resorted to a 30 metre extension line (well, 2 x 15 metre with an adaptor) patched into the Starserve, which I hooked up yesterday. It is working well so far; hope it doesn't rain. Or someone trips over it.

I keep asking myself how much I want to keep the phone number I have had for the past 20 years. VOIP is looking good. So are carrier pigeons or smoke signals.

Fox wasn't much better until Troy got a supervisor. We could have had satellite the following day but opted for the few days wait for the cables to be installed. So we are Foxed if not Phoned.

And I thought the dramas finished when the house was finished. *cue maniacal laughter*