Not well connected

More than four hours after my telephone line was supposed to be connected, it still isn’t. Here is the chain of events:

Thursday am: Half a day off work for connection. Engineer turns up, leaves saying it will be switched on remotely by the time I get home from work. It isn't. I call back twice that evening but their 'system is down' so I can't get any help.

Friday am: I ring up and they assure me they can get someone round by midday. I go home from work and wait. Nobody turns up. I ring up, they say they'll get somebody round Saturday morning

Saturday am: I get out of bed at 8am to wait. Nobody turns up. I ring up. Oh, sorry, we'll get an engineer to you by half past five. So I am now spending my entire Saturday sitting at home waiting. I don't mind TOO much, as long as somebody turns up and connects me. Nobody turns up. I ring up and they are closed until Monday. I am now in a state of utter fury. I try their 'emergency line' for customers with no service at all, where an answerphone promises an engineer will call me back 'in due course'. I don't get a call back that evening.

Sunday: I try another message on the 'emergency line'. Needless to say, I never hear a peep as a result of these messages.

Monday am: I call, explain my disappointment and exactly what has happened so far. I get a thousand apologies and a promise that the chap has spoken to my local installations manager who has promised an engineer between midday and 1pm for me - and that I will get a call on my mobile if they are running late. I come home from work before midday and wait. Nobody arrives. Three more calls later I am being told the manager himself will come tomorrow morning (I am not even given a timeslot) and it seems to have been hinted that because the network is complicated in my area the engineers basically haven't been able to be bothered to come out for me.

Who is the phone company responsible for this shower of shit? NTL, avoid them if at all possible. Now let me add that not only is there an NTL phone socket in my room, but it was active for the previous occupant until only a day or two before I moved in. There is no physical work required at all.

And on top of all THAT, and this is going to sound like an exaggeration but it isn’t – there is an NTL depot NEXT DOOR TO MY HOUSE with vans going in and out all day long. I am reaching the point of considering standing in front of one of them and refusing to move until a fucking engineer comes to my fucking house. Or chaining myself to their gates.

What I have done now is contact the local paper, and they seem quite interested because of the semi-humorous angle (not that I see anything funny) of me living next door to the company. I’m expecting a call back from a reporter today.

So, ten days after my last proper session of poker and the best I have managed is a quick snatched session last night where I took my laptop round to my brother’s place. I don’t like doing things like that; I like to be alone when I play, so feeling like I am imposing by even being there isn’t exactly ideal.

Partly because of that discomfort and partly because of bankroll pressure (moving in, paying deposit, buying household goods, has all made it a very very difficult month) I just played a series of cheap, cheap heads-up no limit freezeouts. I won eight and lost five (a three-outer and seven-outer being the key lost hands in two of the defeats) and found it quite enjoyable and easy. I can’t remember why I stopped playing these in the past; I expect they proved not profitable enough, but that’s quite hard to believe when people call re-raises all-in on a paired flop with unimproved King-Queen.

I had more to write about, but this business with the phone line has upset and irritated me so much I can’t focus on much else at the moment. Those useless, incompetent, lying bastards have cost me a good three nights of long, enjoyable and probably profitable poker sessions already – something I was looking forward to more than anything else about finally moving out of mum’s house.