Zurich - Internet Problems

My Old Office - With Internet

Well, I’m back online again. It was a rather strange four days without my own internet access – even in Egypt, I’ve never been without internet for that long, so everything was starting to feel very un-Swiss.

I was on the internet Wednesday evening, I woke up on Thursday and it just wasn’t functioning. I went to work, thinking it would have resolved itself by the time I got back home (that’s what happens in Egypt, after all), but when I got back, the connection was still dead. I had wifi, but no internet (I don’t understand that!).

I will usually avoid using the phone all costs. However, internet access is one thing that I will finally pick up my mobile for and use it. At least the conversation would be in German and not in Arabic or an Egyptian speaking English that I can’t understand due to some fault of my own.

But I also hate helplines. At least they had an English service. After wading through the obligatory menu system and intervening adverts, I sat and waited on the phone for 40 minutes. The muzaak sounded like it was on a tape that was getting worn out. I began to wonder if perhaps their lines were actually closed. I got fed up and hung up. Then after half an hour, I was too itchy about not having any internet, so I phoned up again. I did wonder if they would have more people on the German-speaking helpline, but I stuck with the English one in the end. After half an hour, someone answered the phone. I’d decided to busy myself with playing a game on my tablet in the mean time.

I must have been on the phone with him for 45 minutes (thus explaining the long wait times!), only to find that he couldn’t resolve it. He said he’d send me a dongle. I asked if I could pick it up from the shop (thinking that it would take a long time for it to come through the post because the weekend was fast approaching), but no, it had to be done by post.

I hoped for a miracle, but the next morning, my internet was still non-existent.

It happened to be the day we were moving offices at work, so I should have been working from home. Instead, I ended up going into the office, was asked to go somewhere else when they moved my stuff, and I ended up sitting all alone in one of the meeting rooms. There were only about three people in the whole building.

I got a call on my personal mobile. It was Swisscom; they wanted me to go home to do a few more tests on my connection.

After another long phone call, it was decided again that they couldn’t do anything about it. I now faced a weekend without the internet. That’s my idea of a nightmare.

I decided to see if I could access UK TV via my work internet (no internet also meant no TV). In addition, I was worried about potential urgent personal emails, and I needed my daily fix of reading up on my stocks and shares. I took a bottle of wine with me into the work building to stop it feeling too much as if I were back in the office and I made myself comfortable in the lounge area off the kitchen as another compromise.

It turned out that I couldn’t get to my email because yahoo wanted to confirm who I was via my Egyptian mobile phone, I couldn’t get the TV link to work (it works in Egypt, so that was very strange), although I could get BBC. I read up on my shares, had a glass of wine, and ended up going back home. Egypt was starting to look like the centre of efficiency by comparison to Switzerland.

The next day I took a tram into the nearest shopping centre, lugging my personal laptop with me, so that I could go to Starbucks and check my emails for any urgent matters. It was like I was in some kind of alternate reality. All the trams had been replaced by buses because of construction on my route. The street looked a right mess. And other buses also had the same number as my bus, but were clearly not doing my route. It all looked rather disorganised. Was I really in Switzerland?

I had an hour in Starbucks, stuffed myself full of calories with a cafe latte and a raspberry cheesecake, did my blog, sent off a few emails, and then that was me cold turkey for the weekend. No more internet.

I did get loads done. I finished writing “25 New Year’s Resolutions – for Fish” (I still need photographs and it needs an edit), I did all my ironing, I scrubbed that ceramic hob clean, I bought some plants and potted them out, I pruned the existing plants. I washed, I vacuumed. I worked on my novel “Space Shapes”. I went to the gym.

On Monday morning, I eagerly looked in my mailbox, but no dongle had arrived. I received a text message from Swisscom apologising that they were no further forward.

I went to work and made sure that everyone knew that I had experienced the indignity of having to come in on Friday. I went back home, and, to my astonishment, found that the internet was finally working.

I have no idea what went wrong. I had an email from Denise saying that she had the dongle and would bring it round, so I emailed back to let her know all was fine and that there was no hurry. I’d just cleaned, but I still felt nervous about her seeing the flat! 

And, to be honest, I wanted the luxury of an evening to myself, just me and the internet.