Wow, that was crazy. It feels like I have been away forever. It has been so long since we chatted and boy I have missed you all. I had a little forced break from social media and most things cyberspace related. You see we signed up for the new NBN Sky Muster thingy – which promises may provide faster internet speeds and just a better online experience in general. Oh god, who am I kidding, I have no idea what the hell it means but I was sure as heck not going to miss out. And of course I didn’t, turns out we were the 6th home to have it installed in.
Our technician arrived last Tuesday to pull out the old service and install the new hardware/satellite dish/modem. Now because it is all so new there was a slight glitch and perhaps a breakdown in communication and it turns out that our old service should not have been removed until our new service was up and running. This was no one in particulars fault, I guess just ironing out the wrinkles really. So come Tuesday we had no internet. Well, we did have our company office internet but that has a whole 2GB of data allowance per month so between us and the school room that would have lasted about 3 days.
I spent the next few days trying to contact Activ8me – 3 days of “You are caller number… 92… the wait time is one… hundred and thirty two minutes, for a call back press 1” – of course I would choose the call back option but I couldn’t very well sit by the phone for the next 3 hours waiting, I had lawns to mow, fish to feed, nails to paint and other outdoor jobs that needed attending to. Actually the lawns keep me busy for pretty much 2 whole days.
Then I remembered I had friends in high places… the email address of a kind man at NBN Co in Sydney so I took it to the top my friends. One little email to my old mate Gavin and bam… they were onto it. No job is too hard. I just sat back and waited. That was Friday afternoon and by lunch time today I was back online. I walked past the router and just happened to notice that the light was no longer flashing… I WAS ONLINE! Bombs away people, I was back in the land of the living.
I don’t think the world ended while I was missing but I do feel like I have missed a lot. I have so much to tell you. We have had Barkly Women’s Day, a week in town for Home Tutor Seminar, Harry has been away on camp for a week at Magnetic Island, I have read listened to way to many books about hiking and now feel I could tackle everest. But that is a whole other story.
Now, Mr Chardy pretends that he isn’t interested in my blog and could care less about readership but lately all I hear him say is “Oh well, that’s it then, you’ve lost your readership” ….. “You haven’t blogged for so long, they will have all left”. Please help me prove him wrong and that you are not just fair weather friends and you are true cyber buddies!!!! Please say hello and show me that you have stuck it out and stayed true to this crazy lady from bum truck nowhere who lives under a rock most of the time.
How have you been anyway? What’s been going down in your part of the world? Have any of my friends started a podcast? Yes – I am looking at you Have a Laugh on Me and Kirsten & Co … tomorrow I will be checking it out. Whats been going down in cyber town folks?
So my friends, hang in there and stay tuned. I am back online!
Great to hear you’re back!
Hi Gai… so good to be back. 🙂
Welcome back Chards, you’re going to love their podcast. It’s like having two of your favorite gals in your office with you.
A x
Hi there Amanda… so good to be back on and see you here waiting! I listened to the poddie this morning, was so excited it was great. Loved listening to them, made me laugh too which is always good. 🙂
You definitely have been missed! The joys of living rural/ remote…! Welcome back 🙂
Hello Amy, thanks so much, lovely to hear from you. It is good to be back and happy to see my lovely cyber buddies here waiting.
Hello Mr Chardy!!! Something like a dodgy internet connection is no match for loyal blog readers. Pleased to hear your internet woes are fixed and hope the new system is up to standard. You certainly deserve (and need) it.
Just you wait until I show him these comments Maggie… that should put him back in his box, ha ha ha. He can go back to reading his political blogs (yawn) …. Thanks for sticking around!!! 🙂
I was going to save this to read in the morning but missed you so much had to read now!
I’m certain everyone will still be here waiting for you xoxox
That is so lovely, thanks so much Kit, so glad you are still sniffing around these outback parts of Cyberspace!! ha ha ha
Oh how I feel your angst Miss Chardy… the BB of Oz blog too has been hanging in limbo. Of course, the ‘chinese whispers’ method of connecting up our Sky Muster had a little to do with my tardy posts lately – but I confess life and renovations have also severely interfered with my blogging flow (and mojo)!!! Glad your mate Gav (we have had discussions in the past, I am not 100% sure I am yet on his Christmas card list) came through. Sad we need to have connections to get our connections though, isn’t it??
😉
Hello there… so have you had your Sky Muster installed? Bloody life gets in the way all the time doesn’t it and then throw reno’s on top – gosh I wouldn’t cope at all.
Woo Hoo!!!
Welcome back to the land of the onliners – your reports from bum truck nowhere have been missed.
I’m not sure if you realised this but your blog IS my breakfast reading … so you can imagine how I felt when the inbox was empty …. please don’t go away again, because I will have to resort to reading something else, like the gossip column …..eiwwwwwwwwww
Oh Mish……… that is so lovely to hear! I will try never to dessert you again!!!! I feel the same as you when I go to download a weekly podcast and there isn’t one there… I feel so empty, ha ha ha ha.
The problem is and it’s not really a problem BUT the amazing Nikki from Styling You and the gorgeous Sonia from Sonia Styling don’t send out daily emails – they only do weekly and on a Friday. So that morning’s reading is well and truly covered, but your adventures on the station is what I look forward to on Monday to Thursday. I know that I sound all OCD and stuff ….. but I like my routine, even if it’s just what I get to read each day!
Well Miss Chardy it would take more then the short comings of some sudo government slash private enterprise of facist bully bastards. blah,blah, blah. To put of this little black duck I tell you. Sorry just a bit over the telcos’ to be honest. Good your not dead yet. Here I was imaging you laying on the floor clambering for the phone after slipping over on some spilt chardy slowly dieing of dehydration. But hey just a telco problem, I should probably stop self medicating. Cheers.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha, laughing out loud here!!!! Now – onto more important isssssssssues….. when in the hell is our favourite outback plumber getting his plumber’s crack out here??? Perhaps you are meeting us at Camooweal???
Unfortunately not. Was planning on it but am running out of time this week. Will be seeing you following. Cheer
Oh bugger! See you soon hopefully.
Hello Miss Chardy,
Please tell the mister I checked everyday to see if you had survived your trip to town. So glad your back on line to tell us of your adventures.
Oh Julie, you trooper! Thanks so much. I sure will tell him, just you wait!!! ha ha ha.
I’ve just signed up for the SkyMesh too so I was very interested to read about your experiences. Here’s hoping they fixed a few more glitches by the time they get to our place otherwise you can expect a nice email from me asking for a certain NBN friend’s contact details 😀 Wishing you much data and a strong signal from now on.
Hi Sarah, we were only the 6th install so hopefully they have it all sorted for you. I think our problem was that we signed up for the education ports for distance ed and that was why there was an issue. Lets hope it all goes well and continues to do so.
Yippeeee! You’re back!! I’ve missed you as I am sure others have too. You will love Kirsten and Em’s podcast. I was rolling… they sure are funny. I am glad your internet problems are fixed…how did we ever do without it?
Hi there Heidi… who are things over there in the middle of the U.S. of A?????? I listened to the Podcast and loved it, they did well. Can’t wait for the next one. 🙂
i know the pain of dodgy internet (it isn’t great in Berlin), welcome back! I’m in Barcelona at the moment for a conference I’m writing about, staring at the sea and looking forward to a drink!
Oh wow, enjoy Cate!!!
Welcome back Miss Chardy. Is the new internet any faster??
Hi Pops. Yes it seems to be much better… not sure how long it will last once it starts getting congested.
We’re still here – alive and clicking on dodgy inner city internet!
Thank god for that! My internet has never been better… wonder how long it will last. Probably still turtle pace compared to towns though. ha ha ha.
Welcome Back
Thanks so much Carmel so great to be back. 🙂
I was literally just thinking yesterday “gee it’s been a while since we heard from Miss Chardy” and here you are! Looking forward to the catch up ☺
Hi Renae…ha ha ha ha…. it was nice to have a forced break but good to be back. 🙂
Hello from Canada. Glad you are back on line. I really enjoy your blog.
Hello there Pat…. so glad you said hello from all the way up and over there. It is good to be back.
Ah, I wondered where you were Dani! I kept checking, eager to read about Barkly Women’s Day. Heading over to do that right now!
We are now on the Sky Muster satellite internet on the farm too. And I’m BITTERLY DISAPPOINTEDLY. Faster downloads means we use up our data faster!! One week of fast internet and then back to 256Mb/s. All the dreams I’d had of doing things online have crumbled into dust. So I continue to drive into town on the gravel road every week day so that I can run my business and my kids can do homeschool. When will we have city/country equity??
Oh I am so hearing you!!!!!! I too used up all of my “peak” data within about one week, so now I am up at 4:45am just to do my blogging and get my internet work done before peak kicks in. Have you signed up to the Education Port yet? I think that might help us. I am going to call today about hooking into that for extra data for the school (50 GB per child up to 3 children). I thought it was just me so I am glad to hear I am not alone. We start our new month (new data) on Saturday, so hanging out for that. Hang in there. 🙂
Good luck with getting the 50Gb for homeschoolers. Neither our education department nor the schools of isolated and distance education (SIDE) in WA could help me there. I’ve got our love federal MP onto it…
I thought it was for all distance ed students Australia?
I think it is meant to be. But how do you get it? I’m not sure that it has been implemented everywhere yet.
Hello girls – please check out the BIRRR group where all your questions are answered!!!! The sad fact is that it depends on state government involvement to make the ed port happen in each state… so Qld DOES do it, but not all states do. Our website is here: http://www.birrraus.com and the FB group (where discussion on Sky Muster and Ed Ports and other essential stuff goes on) is here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BIRRR/
Cheers,
Amanda (one of the admins on BIRRR)
Thanks so much Amanda. I didn’t realise that was the case with the Ed port – gosh we are lucky then.