For The Longest Time

This has to be the longest week EVER.

I've just survived - barely - a week without the Internet.

Couldn't access email.

Couldn't surf.

Couldn't do i-banking.

I gave up on Tue and paid $2 at the local library for 30 min of email access.

We switched from Optus to iprimus last Tue and I'd naively thought the transition would happen in no time at all.

But I didn't know I needed an iprimus modem to get online; in my ignorance, I didn't think to ask the customer service folks when I finally managed to get through to a human.

They were very professional and courteous, but the subject of did-I-have-an-iprimus-modem as opposed to did-I-have-my-own-modem (which I do, two in fact) never came up.

So it wasn't till very late, after they'd sent me the welcome CD with the terms of service etc etc, that I made the connection between my broadband-less woe and the missing modem.

But all that's forgotten.

My modem arrived this afternoon. The courier guy had a bemused look when I opened the door; I guess my bedhead and spaced-out expression made it obvious what I'd been doing just before he rang the bell.

I'm never the most tech-inclined person, but today, I persisted in opening up the box, reading and re-reading the instructions, popping in the installation CD, following the online prompts and even - amazing! - troubleshooting by instinct when the green light on the DSL port didn't come on after the one-minute waiting time.

It took 20 mins, but by golly, I've done it, and I'm online AGAIN. So proud of me. :-)