The Techno Week that Was.

a) I finally got around to taking my car into a tyre depot to find out why one of the tyres was losing air slowly but consistently. It had a nail in it, and the repair cost me £21. I’m curious to know how a nail lying flat on the ground managed to insert itself perpendicularly into my tyre. I’m wondering whether the fairies at the bottom of my garden are given to antisocial behaviour.

b) My 9-month-old vacuum cleaner sucks. Or rather, it doesn’t; that’s the problem. The people at Vax said they wouldn’t repair or replace it under warranty until I’d bought a new set of filters, since that (they said) was most likely to be the problem. I ordered a set and paid for them, and took pains to make sure they had the right address. They sent them to the wrong address. Fortunately, the local postie knows me well enough and delivered them here anyway. Only they’d sent the wrong filters, so now I have to wait another week for a replacement set while the floors continue to gather little bits of detritus. Brushes don’t work too well on carpets.

c) An engineer came yesterday to fit a new thermostat to my new fridge freezer. The new thermostat doesn’t appear to be working too well. In fact, it doesn’t appear to be working as well as the old one did. And there’s another issue regarding my new fridge freezer which I can’t be bothered to explain, but I intend to pursue the matter on Monday via the Health and Safety Executive. The saga continues.

d) I rang my ISP last night to ask whether they knew of any reason why my internet has been running slowly for the past couple of weeks. The technician got me to do a speed test and told me I was at the top end of the range for a connection by cable.

‘So why is it running slowly?’

‘Don’t know, but it isn’t our fault.’

All in all, a pretty average week. Sorry it wasn’t more interesting.