When its not a virtual world…

Hello! I may have been a bit absent from the virtual online world but I am still in the real world and I’ve been searching hard for happy moments this last week as my lack of broadband has continued…

I won’t bore you with the details but what was meant to be a seamless upgrade from ordinary low-speed broadband to faster fibre hit a few snags. Let’s just say that EE is my least favourite company on the planet at this point in time.

That old saying, “You don’t know what you’ve got until you lose it” really rang true for me. I live in a small village, so mobile signal is pretty pathetic, so having no broadband meant being cut off from the virtual world. And how I have missed it! Not only has it meant taking some time away from the day job, although a very nice friend who lives just down the road has put up with me installing myself and my laptop on her dining room table for quite a few days, and has kept me supplied with coffee and tea… Thanks @ecinajnacnud (her instagram name). 🙂 You have been a life saver.

But I couldn’t really spend all day and all evening there – so other times I have been limited to either using my iphone on very patchy 3G or tethering it to my laptop to check emails. Blogging has had to go by the wayside as I need a proper connection to load up photos and text and work on the posts.

Apart from spending literally 12 hours (and more)  being passed from one person to another on the EE customer service line (seems against trades’ descriptions to call it a service ha ha), what have I been up to?

Once the issue was sorted out, I still had to wait two weeks for the broadband to become live so I’ve had a sort of enforced holiday. I was getting stressed out at one point but then I decided to go with the flow. I’ve been sewing, crocheting, thinking and had some trips out. Harrogate is about 45 minutes drive away and the shops and town are lovely for an unrushed browse. It also has a fabulous tea shop – the famous Betty’s. And this week was a friend’s birthday so four of us had an afternoon tea in Selby, complete with jammy, creamy scones.

As afternoon teas seem to have featured quite a lot in my break from the virtual world, I’ve also been doing extra walking. The end of February and beginning of March have been very pleasant over here in East Yorkshire. Lots of sunny days like this one – but as you can see from the waves on the canal – very breezy and cold. Fresh is what they call it around here.

But spring is definitely on its way – the stalls on the markets round about are stocked with daffodils that are amazingly cheap – I got these three bunches for £1 in Doncaster when I dropped my son back at the station after a weekend at home from university in Sheffield. They took a couple of days to burst out into full bloom from the slim buds they are when they first arrive home. Fueled by Earl Grey tea and orange juice, I had to resort to paper and pencil to make my to-do list this week… no more syncing iphone, computer and ipad…

These little beauties are the first spring flowers from my own garden. They came out quickly in the evening in the warmth of the fire.

The limited 3G on my phone has let me get on instagram some of the time and I am still really enjoying that. But the extra minutes do stretch into extra hours and I’ve fitted in an awful lot of crafting activities…

This is my new retro granny stash box. I used the same retro granny square motif as I used in my retro granny stash bag and created a double layered crochet ‘skin’ for a cheap Ikea box. I’ve been taking photographs and working on a tutorial and as soon as I get that broadband back, it will be all systems go to start loading it up.

I’ve also been going round in circles. No, not the EE customer services again, this time in crochet. I wanted to perfect circles using different designs and stitches but got a bit carried away with this granny mandala in lovely muted, vintage Easter colours. Its the size of a small tablecloth now and I love how it matches the colours of my sugar eggs. Another naughty treat…

But probably my happiest moment this week was on Sunday when I finally finished a patchwork quilted cushion cover I’ve been making for weeks. Its my first attempt at quilting and my sewing skills are very rusty. I did make loads of mistakes and its certainly not perfect, but I am very pleased that it turned out so well 🙂

Why not pop over to Penny”s blog and see what other bloggers have been up to this week… I love reading about other happy moments and I’m sure you will too.