OMG I am turning in to my wife!

There’s a strange smell around here; it is most peculiar.

It is lunchtime and I’ve just had breakfast. That’s nothing to do with being lazy – I was up at 6.30 and working from 7.15; instead it is everything to do with being too busy to stop and eat.

Except now I have – stopped, and am eating.

And the television is on, and therein lies the thought behind the post title.

Soph loves to have the television on when we’re sitting on the couch eating, and I suppose I’ve got in to the same habit.

I’m watching this year’s Badminton Horse Trials.

Yes, I know it happened weeks ago, but I can appreciate the skill of the horses and riders in all three phases, without seeing the Event as a real-time competition. Besides, I know a significant number of the competitors.

A mug of tea, a bowl of cereal and a Pringles sandwich, that’s what I’m having for brunch.

And Badminton Horse Trials, obv.

This evening Soph’s going out with Pigeon Girl, so I’ll be doing my own thing for tea, too.

Tom saw the Vet yesterday afternoon; I wanted a professional opinion on some small lumps that have come up on his saddle-patch. The good news is that they’re nothing to worry about, probably just a kind of sweat rash; we have remedial treatment to make them go away.

I’ve just had a phone call from Vodafone.

Because I’ve been on contract with Vodafone for so long, I am now, apparently, a Gold Customer. This means that they’ll give me a new contract for 24 months, upgrade my tariff, knock £10/month off the contract price and will give me… free of charge… a new handset…

OF MY CHOICE!

My brand spanking new Nexus One is being delivered tomorrow.

FREE OF CHARGE!

Woot!

Anyway, because I am a Gold Customer, I can offer one person a discounted PAYG deal; 300 minutes to any network and unlimited texts for £10/month.

I am probably going to offer this to the yard. Just yesterday Hayley was moaning about how expensive the yard PAYG phone is.

I was in the yard office yesterday, trying to come up with a reason for a slow PC. It took a minute to identify the cause and ten minutes to fix, but while I was there I noticed how slow their internet is, so I’ve been digging in to that.

It turns out that their local exchange is not ADSL+ capable. This means that no telephone subscriber in the village – or any neighbouring villages that also connect to the same local exchange – can have broadband.

Isn’t it funny what we take for granted?

I discovered that the office PC at the yard is connected to the world via an ADSL line that delivers 1Mb/s.

The ISP that the yard uses is charging them £17.99/month for a 1Mb/s service, with a 5Mb ‘fair use’ download cap. The ISP throws in free hosting of a very small website.

When you look at the service level and the cost, that’s a pretty shit deal really, isn’t it?

Have I mentioned that I’m getting a brand new Nexus One tomorrow?

Free of charge?