Time Goes By, So Slowly

Indeed, time does goes by so slowly, when waiting on BT, or any other British telco. After a mammoth 6.5 week ordeal, I finally have broadband internet at home.

The saga started when I called BT in the last week of September, to connect the phone service. The earliest they could send a technician out was 2.5 weeks later on 10 October. I decided to go with UK Online for broadband services, because of their £14.99 deal for unlimited 2MB ADSL. I couldn't sign up with UK Online until after BT connected the line, and then I was advised I'd have to wait another two weeks. That was a lie. As the two week limit rapidly approached, and not having heard from UK Online, I decided to call them for a status update. It seems my order was rejected by BT on the grounds that UK Online don't own the equipment at the exchange, whatever that means. So my rejected order sat in a "rejected order" queue, where it was ignored until my call ten days later. I enquired with the UK Online operator what would have happened if I hadn't called. The poor lass isn't too bright, but at least she is honest, for she replied, "I don't know."

UK Online said it might take three weeks from the date of my phone call to connect the broadband service. It actually took ten days, but in the intervening time my phone line mysteriously went on the blink. Cue BT, enter stage left, who disconnected my phone service due to an earth on the line. In a perfect world, BT would contact me to let me know what they did. In England, I have to ring BT to find that out for myself. The fault caused my phone line to periodically ring the 112 emergency service. As serious as it sounds, I like to think of this as a good thing, a preventative measure on my phone's part, because the fiasco was rapidly sending my stress levels through the roof, on their way to grand mal. BT flagged the call for priority, but that means nothing to the socialists who work there. Despite my repeated calls to BT, forcing me to endure the faceless bastardry of call-centres from Sheffield to Glasgow, it still took ten days to resolve the matter, with a BT technician in my bedroom. The technician isolated the problem to the bedroom's unused extension socket, rising damp being the culprit. The icing on the cake was the BT technician's parting salvo, delivered with grace and aplomb, that I will be £120 charged for the repair, as it was caused by internal wiring.

It's wonderful being connected to the world once again. One of the first things I downloaded is the video for Madonna's Hung Up, which I am in love with. As previously blogged, I love the remixes, but thought the single a little lacking. The video clip is amazing, and makes the song a stand-out, surely to go to number one. The "time goes by" mantra is so catchy. Did anyone else pick up on the little lyrical reference to Madonna's turn as Evita?

The video reminds me of Spinning Around, with Madonna's Kylie-esque hotpants, and some similarly synchronised dance moves. Watching it over and over (and over), it seems the intent was to present an especially youthful Madonna. Soft-focus lensed, Botoxed, and jaw-droppingly fit, she looks great, especially when dancing like someone half her age. The 80s dance studio sequence is cute, and you've gotta love her spinning towards camera at the song's start. But it's the clip's end that has me mesmerised, reminiscient of Vogue's climax, with Madonna's frenetic explosion on a Dance Dance Revolution video game machine.

According to two net-based sources (1, 2), the clip was filmed (mostly) in London, on location at Elephant & Castle, the Jubilee Line on the Underground, and at Redcross Way in Southwark/Borough where Madonna struts her stuff under the railway viaducts near the Bridget Jones and Lock Stock locations. The Gherkin appears in the background of an early shot where the kids are stretching on a residential tower's rooftop.

Last weekend my cousin Diana was in town for a few days. We had lunch in Chinatown, and then went to Portobello Road market. I remember, as a child, reading that Paddington Bear shopped here. As an adult, I was most impressed by a bakery on the hill that specialises in the most delicious fairy cakes, only £1.75 each, and no larger than normal! The market's goods were also pretty impressive, and worth a trip out there.

This afternoon I am off to Brussels for the weekend, via the Eurostar. Yay!