No, I haven't died. Nor have I just decided to keep quiet (like that would ever happen!). This has been a period of enforced non-blogging. I don't like it, I would not recommend it. I do however want to talk about it. So don your best therapist face, let me lean back on my virtual sofa and I'll tell you all about it (and in the words of Niles Crane, "Whereas my brother is a Freudian, I am a Jungian so there'll be no blaming mother today!").

I will instead be blaming BT. More specifically, BT Wholesale who are an odious company in the BT Group. We moved to our new house on the 3rd July and our phone line was activated on the 4th. At that point, my lovely ISP requested that ADSL be activated on the line and were given a date when it would happen. On that date, BTW decided to point out (NOT, please note, when the DSL activation was requested but on the activation date) that there was a conflicting service on the line. Simply finding out what that service was was a feat on the part of the technical manager at the ISP. It turned out that the previous residents' ISP hadn't requested a cease of their DSL. The cease was ordered for a week hence, the 19th. The ISP couldn't request activation until the previous service had been ceased (go figure!) and so, on the 19th, the activation request went in. When BT finally acknowledged that request, they provided an activation date of the 31st(!) The 31st came and went, no DSL. By lunchtime on the 1st (when we were supposed to be heading off to Soul Survivor Cheshire), still no DSL. BTW then informed us that the activation date was the 8th August, when they'd informed the ISP it was the 31st July. Suffice to say, the ISP were livid, as were we and started chasing BTW. As I type this, at Soul Survivor, still no DSL at home. I'm not very confident in the 8th as an activation date either although if it does happen, at least it'll be active when we get home that evening.

BT Wholesale are abusing their monopoly position of providing DSL services on bog-standard telephone wires by getting away with shoddy service, providing conflicting information to people and being singularly unhelpful at every stage of the process. Were there any competition in that sector of the market, they couldn't behave the way they do and get away with it. Short of switching to a cable provider (and buying a whole set of new kit as well as being restricted to their options - I have a static IP and custom DNS configuration from PinkDylan), you're stuck with BTW. Wholly unacceptable.

So, what has happened in the last month? Well, I've started at Bursledon and preached my first sermon there which went okay. It's been a fairly light month as things wound down for summer. The house is coming together thanks to a lot of help from Amanda's parents and their paintbrushes. We've had Caz to visit and my study is just about ready.

We're currently at Soul Survivor Cheshire which is going pretty well although the site is pretty basic - next year the northern event is moving to Stafford.