I am now mostly settled back in Nottingham. My worldly goods are out of storage and mostly in place. I am also now connected to the world again — iPhone in my pocket, broadband and (VoIP) home phone. Ah, the joys of a bourgeois lifestyle. The delivery of my household effects was straightforward, and the guys from Pickfords were very pleasant and efficient — helped of course by me not having very much. Getting connected was not quite straightforward.

BT wanted to charge for reconnection (even though there is a BT socket in the house). I only discovered this after having spent more than a week trying to book the connection — their ordering system was down. During the phone call I had to arrange the connection, it was agreed that someone would be in touch if there were to be a reconnection fee. The first I heard about it was when I received a letter saying an engineer would call and that there would be a £130 fee.

I called to cancel the reconnection (this was around the 20th of last month) and made sure that there were no other reconnection bookings for the house. I ended up receiving three letters with (different) reconnection dates. Yesterday, an engineer came (even though yesterday was not, as far as I recall, on any of the letters).

Virgin wasn’t much better, though they were cheaper. I had to wait a week for a Virgin to connect me, even though there was a modem and Virgin service working in the house, which I used to make the online booking. Virgin ended up sending me a new modem, wireless router, cables, and other guff. None of this was needed. I tried to avoid getting this by calling them but was told it was impossible. In these days of environmental and cost consciousness I think this is somewhat irresponsible.

It is nice to have my things again. I’ve missed my coffee grinder and espresso machine — though have to be very careful with the quantity I consume. Its also great to be reacquainted with my (much mocked) box of cables — I know the margins on computer cables and so never, ever, ever throw one away.

There is still a some stuff yet to be sorted and packed before everything is cosy and efficient (for work as much as living), so I’d better finish it off.

Hopefully, something more thoughtful and less domestic next time.