Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 1,746 Threads: 42
Reputation:
15
Location: Malvern, Victoria, Australia
28-02-2023, 10:54 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-03-2023, 09:34 PM by Tony Press.)
(28-02-2023, 02:12 PM)Reckless Rat Wrote: We had the fibre installed at the house yesterday by SFR. 32€ a month and the speed is 90Mb/sec (verified) which is plenty fast enough for what I need. We are making progress down here in the boonies. When we first moved here there was no phone signal at all. Now we get 4G. Internet was 512Kb dial up and copper cable. Then it was upgraded to Broadband at 12Mb/s so the new one is 8 times faster. I will have to make another video and see how quickly it goes to YTube... Really should rename this post 
My National Broadband Network connection is supposed to be fibre using the old Foxtel cable. I didn't realise Foxtel had sold their cable until they told me they were changing to a new system (dish etcetera) so I cancelled saving another A$60 a month. Lots on free to air TV for me 
The NBN connection is very cheap- A$40 per month on an old folks special- do not know how fast etcetera but it does all I want.
I now have redundant copper wire from the old phone land line (saved A$70 a month) and the Foxtel fibre cable which join the old lead and galvanised pipe for the original gas lighting in the roof (I hasten to add a little before my time).
Spending all the savings on antiques 
Joined: May 2018 Posts: 2,955 Threads: 558
Reputation:
20
Location: Peak District, Derbyshire
Car type: 1929 Chummy, 1930 Chummy, 1930 Ulster Replica, 1934 Ruby
Yes, BT wants to go entirely digital and have all phone lines over the net. Hence. if you are in an area with decent reception there is no need to stay with them and pay line rental. I could save around £300 a year by ditching my stream-age copper line and going with an all-in provider. BTW Don't get a "smart" meter: they be able to cut you off in an instant and a friend's experience, one living in a thick-walled house like yours, is that they have endless trouble connecting. To get around this, I understand that a new "Eco-Green- Rural-Area-with-No-Signal Meter-Reader-on-a-Donkey" service will have to be launched. I've just secured the contract to provide the stables, the donkeys, the riding training, the insurance, a re-shoeing service, bum cream for the riders, GPS units for the donkeys (hang on, that won't work) and donkey feed. Get in now before it's too late....
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 2,402 Threads: 33
Reputation:
36
Location: Deepest Frogland 30960
Car type: 1933 RP Standard Saloon
I dont mind a bit of progress, if its useful.
Read "Travels with a donkey in the Cevennes" by Ro ert Louis Stevenson. He passed by here in 1879.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 1,978 Threads: 90
Reputation:
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Location: Ripon
Another good one but you didn't stop for the hitch-hiker, well really...
Having travelled thousands of miles "on my thumb" in the 1960s and '70s I cannot pass one by (unless they look seriously dangerous).
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 3,011 Threads: 168
Reputation:
37
Location: Sherwood Forest
Car type: 1938 Talbot Ten Airline
(01-03-2023, 02:33 AM)Tony Griffiths Wrote: Yes, BT wants to go entirely digital and have all phone lines over the net. Hence. if you are in an area with decent reception there is no need to stay with them and pay line rental. I could save around £300 a year by ditching my stream-age copper line and going with an all-in provider. BTW Don't get a "smart" meter: they be able to cut you off in an instant and a friend's experience, one living in a thick-walled house like yours, is that they have endless trouble connecting. To get around this, I understand that a new "Eco-Green- Rural-Area-with-No-Signal Meter-Reader-on-a-Donkey" service will have to be launched. I've just secured the contract to provide the stables, the donkeys, the riding training, the insurance, a re-shoeing service, bum cream for the riders, GPS units for the donkeys (hang on, that won't work) and donkey feed. Get in now before it's too late....
No need, see this month's Gallery photo
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 2,402 Threads: 33
Reputation:
36
Location: Deepest Frogland 30960
Car type: 1933 RP Standard Saloon
I didn't miss the hitch-hiker, Duncan. I just don't pick them up. It's my philosophy that it's cost me a lot of time, money and effort to be able drive my car (whichever one it is) and I don't see why I should provide a free taxi service for anyone. I appreciate that it might appear a bit snobbish but you have absolutely no idea who it is that you're letting into your personal space and 30 years in Law enforcement taught me to trust no-one. Better for them (and me) for them to keep thumbing. Times have changed dramatically since you and I were at that stage in life and sadly things have got worse not better. I admire those that are probably more generous than myself for giving lifts, but it's not for me. I'm not prepared to expose myself to a potential and unnecessary risk and I don't feel guilty about it.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 1,347 Threads: 241
Reputation:
23
Location: North Herts
Took me back to boyhood when I and mates would hitchhike from our village to and from the nearest town. If we had our thumbs out but not looking behind an old green Volvo would sometimes draw up beside us and our hearts would sink - it was Mr Hyett from the village and if he picked you up you were treated to a lecture on the evils and dangers of hitchhiking...
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 970 Threads: 117
Reputation:
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Location: Melton Mowbray.
In the '60s I used to regularly hitch from uni. in London to home - 120 miles. On one occasion, getting within ten miles from home at 1 o'clock in the morning with no traffic around, I 'phoned home to be told by Dad to get stuffed. Soon after a friend was passing on his motorcycle and upon arriving home I was surprised to see the house lit up. " You're back then " said Mum " where's your father ?" It transpired she'd berated Dad for leaving me stranded and he'd set off in the car to collect me. He returned around an hour later and was not a happy bunny!
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 620 Threads: 7
Reputation:
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Location: queensland
So funny Chris! I was reminded of the time ,in the sixties, when I attended a local dance some 50 miles away in the chummy.
It had a 37 head and was prone to oiling the plugs so I carried a box of clean ones under the seat.
At midnight after the dance I set off home and approached the first steep hill, by now I was running on 3 cylinders and my last clean plugs.
I failed to make it up. Returning to a phone booth, remember them, I called my father for a tow, then set off for home again to meet him on route with the dim lights of the chummy for guidance on the forested country road. Well on the third attempt of the hill I managed to get over so I kept going. Of course I got lost and spent a sleepless night in the chummy whilst my father did a fruitless country search after midnight and was not best pleased.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 3,011 Threads: 168
Reputation:
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Location: Sherwood Forest
Car type: 1938 Talbot Ten Airline
Fifty years ago I suffered an irrepairable burst radiator on the outskirts of Moreton-in-Marsh. I hitched a lift (complete with radiator) the 100 miles home where a substantial bodge was undertaken before my father returned me to the abandoned motor. The Parental Emergency Service was a lifesaver!
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