We are connected to the internet 24/7!
Our lovely rental comes without internet or even a telephone line, which, when we realised, we decided to embrace for the 6 months we are here. 'Not a problem.' I thought... 'It will be great to have a complete break from social media and constant scrolling through Instagram.... I'll love it!'
Cut to being here for 3 days on the trot.... Mr M starting to make comments about me munching through too much data and maybe it would be an idea to put my phone on Aeroplane Mode. I mean really, no one can contact me at all on Aeroplane Mode.. not even an old fashioned telephone call. Not that anyone does call me on my phone. I don't know why I was so worried. I didn't come off Aeroplane Mode to a whole load of missed calls - in fact I didn't have any missed calls at all.
But we did have a bit of an epiphany. It's very similar to something we did when we moved to an old derelict Mill in 2004. The Mill didn't have a TV aerial so we decided to live without a TV for the rest of our lives - ridiculous! Night after wintery night, Mr M and I sat huddled around a laptop and a very feeble fireplace trying to keep warm whilst streaming whatever we could muster. The only people who were disadvantaged were ourselves.
And we were just about to go down the same route here with the internet...why? I realise it's a pretty dire state of affairs to admit that we need the internet, but we do. Firstly, a blog (such as this), is pretty hard work when you have to hand write it when the writing fairy comes and then wait until you can go to the pub or café and type it out and post (for the sharper thinking of you... no.. I don't have Word on my laptop). The writing fairy is also quite an impatient old bat and likes it when I type as thoughts flow quicker. Also, café and pub owners were starting to tire of the two cups of tea for two hours routine.
Secondly, I might have mentioned that I wanted to do an online Interior Design course. The main qualification for which is the ability to actually be online. Mr M also will be able to do bits and bobs for work, which will be hugely helpful. So now we have it!
How have we got this internet so quickly and without a telephone line, I hear you ask...
Starlink.
It was probably last summer, in Hampshire, when we looked up into the sky and saw a train of satellites, equidistant, trailing a blaze across the night sky. It was eerie to watch and I didn't like it at all. It was unsettling. It is Elon Musks' masterplan to make sure internet is accessible to everyone, wherever they are in the world. I didn't like it.....it made me feel uneasy, the same way AI does. A future that is out of control and in the hands of egotistical megalomaniacs. That was until I didn't have internet... then I thought it was absolute genius.
However, the sentiment is still there with regard to useage. My social media presence will be less (apart from advertising this... what a social media whore, I am) and we've decided that we won't use it to stream any films or TV programmes at all. That way, we'll still have the closeness of conversation and reading.
So there, it is. It's twenty past eight in the evening. We've had Starlink online for about 3 hours and I am sitting at the kitchen table typing this and Mr M is streaming some sort of TV programme in the bedroom.
Happy Days!
P.S. As I haven't been able to be online for over a week, I do have a backlog of posts that will follow in quick succession.. bear with. Dip in and out at your leisure.
(P.P.S Debs - you will be mentioned.. promise!)
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