NBN making life simpler?

AM I alone in lamenting the days when if your home phone didn’t work you could ring Telstra and they’d tell you ‘yes, all the phones are out in your area’ or better ‘there’s a frog in the line which has cut all the phones’?

Now I ring to report a problem and am directed overseas. A delightful person answers my call with kindness and sympathy; listens to my problem and then says ‘madam I will transfer you to someone who can help you’. The next person tells me they will help but it will take at least 20 minutes. As I had neither the time nor the patience I have left the sorting out to my partner who has patience, thankfully. Just who thought putting in NBN would make life simpler? It certainly isn’t for me. Frustration abounds as lights flash on the modem mystify me.

I’m only 70. So the future years may see me resorting to smoke signals and trust that someone can read them. Fran Clayton, Woree 1962: President John F Kennedy agrees to lift the American blockade of Cuba, ending the Cuban missile crisis. 1992: Fire sweeps through Queen Elizabeth’s residence at Windsor Castle, causing extensive damage to its ancient fabric (above). 1995: BBC Television broadcasts an interview with Princess Diana, who admits being unfaithful to Prince Charles. 2000: Lawyers for Al Gore and George W Bush battle before the Florida Supreme Court over whether the presidential election recount should be allowed to continue. 2016: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull snags the very last bilateral meeting with US President Barack Obama at APEC in Lima, Peru.