Why do we torment ourselves with technology?

I mean, it's not as if we have "always done it that way". Remember the days when phones were a luxury? I do. I was actually a teen before we got a house phone. Dial one it was, high up on the wall, one had to sit on the pouf beneath it and chat to one's friends.

And as for mobile phones, well, I moved in with Him (14 years ago) before I got my first mobile. Flip phone it was with a huge chunky battery. Great stuff!

We even bought our first computer when Jr Her was a baby.

But now, it seems we are so reliant on technology we panic if we leave our mobile phone at home. As with my counterpart SOL, I have just had trouble with Telstra. We were with Optus, cruising along nicely, until Telstra offered us the chance to save a few dollars.

So, somewhat stupidly, I agreed to swap. Well, first we were railroaded into getting cable. After second thoughts it was decided we should go for ADSL2, because we were worried about the physical aspects of getting cable installed and repercussions from the landlord and because we had just bought a new wireless router because it was unsuitable for the cable installation of a work colleague

So, I cancelled that order, and got us a new one for ADSL. Well, on no less than 3 occasions, I had follow up calls from Telstra advising our cable service was on track. Each time I was forced to phone up Telstra and check it was going to be ADSL. Oh dear, said one, let me get back to you. Yes, it was all okay now for cable, and it wouldn't change the user name and password we had chosen.

As recently as Tuesday last week, I was reassured our ADSL was cruising along to plan and a modem was on it's way out. Then, Friday I got a call from a lady named Cathy, who was at my house to install my cable....????

Turns out we already had it installed at the house, and she was just there to set up our modem. There you go. She also said cable was a far better service. Anyway, I phoned Telstra back, and found out that our cable service request had been cancelled, and a new ADSL service was requested, with a new (but similar email address), but it had only been requested on 6 January and would take 5-10 working days! WHAT!

So, we had been without home Internet since 5 Jan, and were looking at another few days yet. Oh, well. I had already logged onto the wireless router website, changed all the settings to our new email and password. Now I found out that I had the wrong info. Still, plenty of time yet to worry about it.

On Saturday I noticed that the Internet light was showing on the router. So on Sunday I stopped into the office to retrieve the email and password I had jotted on my blotter during my latest conversation with Telstra (and forgotten to take home), and rushed back to put it into the router.

False alarm. We figured that everything was all set up but the account wasn't yet active. About an hour later I walked past my computer and noticed the weather widget I have on my desktop was showing weather. Lo and behold, we had service. On a Sunday no less! So, we are now trying to decide if we are happy with Telstra's speedy service, or confused by their total lack of interdepartmental communication.....