Life must be filled up

Praise. The RAC. There's been a problem with my car since Christmas Eve. I had it booked into the garage today but although it started this morning, it wouldn't move. A wonderful woman from the RAC fixed the whole thing and I only had to pay for the parts. Result!

Blame. BT. No broadband for most of the afternoon. 'We are experiencing major difficulties with broadband'. This is the company which boasts in TV ads of the reliability of its service.

Praise. Radio 2. Currently broadcasting The Beatles, Here There & Everywhere which I am *loving*. I also loved the Great British Songbook: the Sixties the other day, which was pure gold.

Just when I might have thought things could not get much worse, they did. BT cut off my broadband connection without any warning or explanation and a week of banging my head against a brick wall began. Every time I phoned these idiots I had to tell the whole story again from the beginning. Every time I phoned they postponed the date at which I would be allowed (gracious, eh) to reapply to have my account reopened. Eventually, after ten lonely, stressful days I was phoned by a human being who seemed to be on my case. She explained that the whole problem was down to a mistake by the first adviser I spoke to, who had been given ‘a jolly good telling off’. You may think that the sack or possibly execution might have been more appropriate; I couldn’t possibly comment. As BT freely admitted that the fault was theirs, they would accelerate the application so that I would get my broadband back before Christmas. Today, as if my magic, everything is back. They can't give me back those twelve days, though.