Tiscali sent an e-mail to my Tiscali address on 14 May alluding to this - just the one mind you, followed by loads of happy-go-lucky-things–you-can-do-on-broadband type mails – I’d told them they should reach me via my hotmail account.
Of course, they manage to send my bills there and an e-mail this morning, one month into the hacking marathon, to let me know I’d breached my 2GB download limit for the month. It’s just they couldn’t be bothered sending the one vital e-mail, which suggested I’d been hacked, to the address I actually look at. Great.
What makes it even more annoying is that, today, I don’t even have a computer, the hackers are just using the router, which had inadvertently been left switched on after I gave our hardware to Craig on Wednesday for rebuilding. So it stopped at 7:29 this morning when I switched the router off. So I guess those bastards are just going to have to pay for their own access now like the rest of us law-abiding surfers…or find another schmuck like me to use….
And this was all going on in the background while we thought we’d returned the computer to its original pristine state following the balls-up in early May re the great “what’s a firewall again, oh shit” disaster. Just as well there was one final little problem nagging away which we finally decided deserved a complete disk wipe and rebuild…
At lunchtime a package arrives with Ben & Jason's "10 Songs About You" CD. Very tuneful...
Anyway, today we’re off on a short holiday to the Mosel Valley in Germany...here it is...
We are flying from Prestwick (or as Ryan Air refer to it, Glasgow), so first we head to Glasgow and stop off at Byre’s Rd for a quick snack for lunch, a shop (I bought a biography of Miles Davis from FOPP for three squid) and then dinner in a little French restaurant at the end of Ashton Lane.
Then the drive down to Prestwick, which has been made even more quick by the opening of the new M77 Motorway. In the departure lounge I start the Davis book whilst listening to his album “ESP” on the jukebox.
Such is the boredom prevalent in Departure Lounges, I can advise that I saw one man sitting reading the wrapper of a Crunchie which he’d just consumed…
Then, a flight to Alicante’s imminent departure is signalled by the arrival of several people dressed in white tracksuits…
As we take off I realise that, recently, I have become aware that I am afraid of flying. It’s the realisation that, if anything does go wrong, my chances of survival are virtually nil…but I wonder why this has started now after nearly thirty years of air travel..
Despite this I settle in for the two hour flight (in the event a very acceptable 95 minutes) and become lost in the early years of Miles Davis rather privileged life whilst listening now to his “Seven Steps to Heaven” and “Miles In The Sky” albums (I prefer the latter)…
We are in the front row on the right hand side of the plane, opposite the second row on the left hand side. In the front left row a man sits for the entire flight playing what looks like some kind of bagpipe chanter which is plugged into headphones…behind him in the second row, an American woman sits doing needle work…during take off (before being told to cease and desist by the stewardess). I find these two entertaining…
At Hahn Airport (or as Ryan Air refer to it, Frankfurt), we form a team, with Anne waiting at the baggage conveyor belt to collect our bags while I head through the Passport Control and to the Hertz Desk to collect our hire car.
The man there wants my mobile number. Rather than telling him my mobile’s so old it doesn’t even send texts, never mind work abroad, I just say I don’t have one. He takes my home number instead, which I’m sure will come in useful….
A five minute drive and we’re at the hotel – it’s midnight so, rather than driving to the Mosel, we spend the night near the airport. I’ve stayed at this hotel twice before, once with Alan Brodie on our way back from the Documenta Arts Festival in Kassel in August 2002 and once in June 2003 with Anne. So that’s two nights in total, the last over two years ago….pretty weird then that the receptionist recognises me!!
The room is cool, quiet and comfortable and we enjoy a couple of bottles of Bitburger Pils before retiring.
Despite having been up fairly early this morning, I have difficulty in sleeping…
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