WHAT"S WRONG WITH THE PHONE?

 I tried to ring Steven, but couldn't get through, although he was expecting me to ring.

That's a concern!

I hope nothing has happened to him, and that he hasn't fallen from a tree, or hit a kangaroo on the road!.

My brain works slowly until I decide to ring Steven's mobile with my mobile.

This time I get through, and he asks: "Why are you using your mobile phone?" and I reply: ..."Because your home phone isn't working".

"What makes you think that?"... he asks.

I reply..."I tried to ring you, and I couldn't get through". ..."There was no dial tone".    

"Its your phone that isn't working" ...he replies

"What makes you think that?". I ask.

Steven replies: ..."If there isn't a dial tone on your phone your phone isn't working.

He adds:... "You should ring your phone company straight away to let them know your phone isn't working." ...  "The number is in the phone book."

"I haven't got a phone book".

"Then you'll find the number on your latest phone bill."...."Or look on the internet, for "Service Difficulties and Faults".

"I'll do that later", I say..."I may as well continue talking now on my mobile phone".

"Will it cost you a lot?", ...he asks.

"No,"....."I get $450 worth of credit a month and I've hardly used my mobile phone lately".

So we continue our conversation, and when its over I go downstairs and tell my daughter: ... 

"The home phone isn't working." 

"Can I have the latest phone bill please, to find the number to ring?"

My daughter, who is busy, replies ...."I've filed it away and it would take too long to find right now".



So I rushed upstairs and took it on myself to ring the phone company right away.

The phone isn't even in my name, but that didn't seem to matter, after I looked up Service Difficulties and Faults on the internet, and told the technician my daughter's name.

That technician didn't communicate very well, so I wasn't all that upset when I was cut off.

I got a competent lady when I rang again, and soon I was down on 
my knees under my desk, trying to disconnect the phone from the power point in the narrow space behind the desk drawers.

It was hard for me to get down there, and see what I was doing, and keep my glasses on, while holding my mobile phone and talking to the technician, all at the same time.

When I was asked to get down under my desk again, to reconnect the phone, but with the internet disconnected this time, it was too much for me.

Which of the long tangled cords was from the phone, and which was from the internet?

I lost my phone somewhere, after my two year old grand daughter came into the room, and climbed onto me, while I was down on the floor, squeezed up in the tight place under my desk.

Eventually I found my phone, and got away from under my grand daughter, and then I had to try to get up, after explaining to the technician that I was going to get my daughter.

My daughter wasn't pleased about this, because she had just got out of the shower, and she wasn't dressed yet.

She took over as soon as she could, and I had to try to keep my grand daughter away from her mother. 

When all that could be done about the phone at this stage had been done, and it still didn't work, my daughter said that she was cross.

She had important emails to send that night and now her internet wasn't working.

Fortunately she remembered that she had an internet dongle to use.

Also, she hadn't liked being told by the technician that it would cost $170 for a technician to come to find the fault.

A few days later I was preparing my room in case a technician came to look inside for the fault.

I had removed the drawers fro my desk, and moved the paintings that had been resting on my desk.

I was about to move my desk away from the wall to allow easier access to the power point and phone input, when I was rung on my mobile phone to see if the home phone still wasn't working.

I said that it wasn't.

I was told that a technician had come to check the phone line out in the street, and that he hadn't found any problem there.

A technician would now ring to make an appointment to come inside.

I passed this information on to my daughter. 

She asked me ..."Did you check downstairs before you rang the phone company in the first place? 

"No",.. I confessed.

"Well", my daughter replied ..."I could remember one day seeing that little Issa had plugged the downstairs intercom into the downstairs phone outlet.


Remember how Issa used to plug the old fax machine he found in the street, into the phone outlet downstairs, and it used to affect my internet.

My daughter continued: .... "I've just looked downstairs and found that the intercom was again plugged into the phone outlet".

"Now that I've unplugged the intercom the phone is working again".

"I hope we won't be charged $170".

I rang the phone company to tell them that the phone problem had resolved itself.

Later a lady rang to tell me that they would give my daughter credit for the days we were without the phone and without the internet.