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In the meantime, rewatching The Wire.
excited…
06 Wednesday Aug 2025
Posted in internet, television
Category Archives: internet
down… again
20 Tuesday May 2025
Posted in internet, sevilla, sevilla shutdown, spain
So just a couple of weeks after the gran apagón large swathes of Spain lost their internet connection. The 5G still worked (at least here), but no WiFi. Apparently Movistar/Telefónica had updated blah-blah on their whatever and blam! All shut down. It wasn’t as serious as the apagón but certain emergency services were out of service for a while. About 18 hours after it began things were back to normal. But once again people were left feeling vulnerable, realising how dependent we’ve become on these services. Which clearly can just be removed at any time. Hmmm.
erica
13 Thursday Mar 2025
Posted in friends, internet, sevilla, sherry, social media
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Another virtual encounter. A while back Erica got in touch saying she was a friend of Rogene & Phil, that she was going to be in town in early March, and that she’d love to meet up and invite me out to dinner. So that’s what we did last Sunday and had a delicious time out at Barra Baja. And as I knew she’d be in town until Friday I invited to her join today’s Sherry & Tapas Tasting. There was another couple with us and, as usual, it was a great afternoon. I’m loving these tastings so much, not only because of much-needed income right now, but also because I really feel in my element being a Sherry Educator.
Erica and Rogene (aka Maribel’s Guides) are both contributors on a food & travel forum called Hungry Onion. I only know about it because Rogene has been singing my praises there for years and recommending my tours, for which I am very grateful. And now Erica is talking me up there too. I still find it quite wonderful how things like forums and social media bring us together. I mean, there’s also someone I cherish and who is for me one of those you-can-count-them-on-one-hand trusted friends, and we’ve never met in person (you know who you are, K). Isn’t it fabulous?
new printer 2024
21 Thursday Nov 2024
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I guess I got off easy as my previous printer lasted more than 11 years (!) and apparently the usual lifespan for a home desktop printer is 3-5 years (which clocks with others I’ve had before). Well okay, I say it lasted 11 years, but truth is it’s been printing like crap for ages. What pushed me to look for a new one was that I needed to buy ink again and I saw that, for just 5 euros more, I could get a whole new printer! Not kidding. Also this model takes ink cartridges that cost half of what I used to pay AND it’s Black Friday Week (don’t ask) so it was 30% off. Truth is, I don’t use a printer a lot anymore, but when I need it then I really need it so it’s not a frivolous purchase. Unlike pepper mills, but that’s a whole other story. Stay tuned…
seriously duh
26 Monday Aug 2024
Most of the time I’ve lived here I’ve used Telefonica/Movistar as my phone and internet provider. The few times I’ve jumped ship and fallen for a cheaper offer by another provider has always ended in disappointment. One of the things I like about Movistar is their customer service. So when I suddenly stopped getting regular tv reception (the apps still worked) I got in touch. Well not exactly, at first I kept unplugging, rebooting, etc the little tv modem (there’s also a larger modem for everything else that’s working fine). They have separate remote controls. So there I was thinking that I’d have to get the little modem replaced and then I remembered I could just call them!
Well, I waited fifteen minutes to to talk to a técnico while listening to the most annoying background music ever interspersed with constant reminders that my call was important, etc etc. But I wasn’t going to give up. I just kept the phone on speaker beside me while I worked on other stuff. Then suddenly a human voice!
I explained the problem. No tv reception for over a week, the little modem turns on but then immediately shuts off, everything else is working fine. The very nice (and as it turned out very patient!) lady asked me to do this and that while she checked things on her end. Then she turned my tv on remotely! And there was the regular tv service but I still couldn’t do anything with it, change channels, etc. So she tested a couple of other things and in the end… turned out it was DEAD BATTERIES IN THE REMOTE CONTROL.
This whole time I had her on speaker as I tried everything she suggested, she even waited while I changed the batteries. Still nothing. THEN I remembered I had a fresh packet of batteries and said I would try again. Again she waited. Success! And omg I felt like such an idiot. To her credit when she asked me if there was anything else she could help me with today I didn’t detect even a smidgen of sarcasm in her voice. Then she said I would receive an email asking to rate the “experience” and said it would mean a lot if I could respond. Still waiting for the email and she is going to get the best rating possible.
Now I know why it took 15 minutes to get through to a técnico… it’s because idiots like me are calling in and wasting everybody’s time.
casa azahar 