Phew!

It's around 15:55 on 30/3/12 and my home Internet connection and PC are working.

Due to the repeated Internet outages my valve-era electrician father today took it upon himself to fix the PC. His solution to the software problem was to install more RAM. This is the IT equivalent of trying to fix the petrol crisis by buying some goldfish. However as I have plenty of RAM lying around upstairs and installing it is simply a matter of plugging object A into slot B I was prepared to indulge him. Unfortunately my father doesn't think me capable of performing this simple task so instead decided to take the machine to a chain store. The last time he did this the in-store experts managed to hit a trip wire in the software that caused the hard drive to literally blow up. As a result we had to buy a whole new machine.

However as you've probably worked out things were OK this time and we've got a working machine packed with lots of expensive new RAM that may or may not connect to the Internet. On the plus side though at least my father used the opportunity to cancel the service contract on his laptop that died about four years ago.