My job has taken me to some exotic and interesting places. Prague, Rome, Boston, Manchester, New York. All excellent places to spend a few days with work. Unfortunately I won’t be adding Bangor in North Wales to the list.
“Hi, This is Mr Angry in room 5, can you tell me how to get onto your wireless internet service?”
“Oh, I’m afraid it’s down at the moment, we’re waiting for someone to fix it.”
This is not good news, I had explicitly told our hotel booker at work to book a place with Internet access as I had work to do and needed to be on line with access to our systems to do it.
“You could try the pizzeria across the way, they have wireless I believe.”
And that is what I did.
“Hello, I was told you had wireless internet access here?”
“Yes, well, normally, but it’s down at the moment.”
“Right. OK, is there anywhere in this town that I can get on-line at this time of night?”
“The University, are you a student?”
I have never been more insulted. I do not look like a student. Even when I was a student I didn’t look like a student, apart from briefly in the second year during my pony-tail and goatee phase.
“No. I am not a student!”
“Right, you won’t be able to use that then. I don’t think there is anywhere else in Bangor where you can get online at 8 O’clock in the evening I’m afraid.”
This is the first time in recent memory that I have been unable to get onto the Internet. It is an isolating feeling. I can now empathise with those people who live in huts in the desert or jungle etc.
Next time someone tells you we are in the middle of an Internet revolution, and that the world is now fully online, tell the fuckers to get their arses to North Wales, so that they can see how the indigenous armish people live.
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15 comments
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Oli · January 23, 2007 at 8:55 am
Should try 3G, get a 3g capable phone, plug it into your laptop and your away. Of course wales may not have this yet, I hear they only just invented the wheel.
marycub · January 23, 2007 at 9:39 am
maybe they should you looked young enough to be a student. It can be a compliment and a curse!
Fussy Bitch · January 23, 2007 at 9:54 am
Wales has a pizzeria now?
They are coming on…
z · January 23, 2007 at 10:10 am
You should have gone along to the university and given it a go. I’m sure there would have been some quiet place you could have found and a student who could have been persuaded with a few tenners to let you online.
mo · January 23, 2007 at 12:05 pm
That was a funny post! The funny thing that made me laugh is you cant get net anywhere after 8pm. Must be a tragic feeling.
Admin comment by Mr Angry · January 23, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Hello everyone! I cannot stay long as I am up a mountain playing with a Frenchman’s Blackberry (that is not a euphemism).
I am glad you are all playing nice.
I have not broken anything yet, so all is well here.
Oli · January 23, 2007 at 1:13 pm
“Hello everyone! I cannot stay long as I am up a mountain playing with a Frenchman’s Blackberry (that is not a euphemism).”
Lies.
Dr J · January 23, 2007 at 2:54 pm
I’m boggled to think you could get wireless access BEFORE 8 o’clock. Presumably Dai-The-’Net clocks off then to go to the pub for his tea isn’t it?
There’s lovely now.
snowbug · January 23, 2007 at 4:05 pm
I shudder at the ‘hut living’ going on in North Wales…
marycub · January 23, 2007 at 4:42 pm
hmm dont think my earlier comment made any sense…
The Girl · January 23, 2007 at 10:57 pm
I’m with Oli: you need a 3G phone. At the very least, you’ll be able to access email with it, enabling you to explain (to work, or whomever) that there will be a delay with whatever it is you needed to do online.
I’ve got a Nokia N80 – it’s a bit of a large phone, but boy, is it speedy online. AND it has Wifi too. I’d be fucked without it – and not in the pleasurable way.
P.S. DON’T get a Blackberry – their speed is snail-pace in comparison with a broadband 3G phone…
P.P.S. Hope you’re having fun away.
Jungle VIP · January 24, 2007 at 11:08 am
I sat in a cate’ in Tarifa Spain the other week where the entire company of….er….young surfy british people…. were playing on line games and generally messing around on the internet…..it was a singularly dispiriting experience given that this lively, interesting place is usually full of chatter and fun. Ban em is what I say !
JVIP
drunk punk · January 24, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Wales is like that. Least the bits I’ve been to which I admit is restricted to Cardiff and for some obscure reason Tredegar. I asked a Cardiff resident if he knew of the nearest internet cafe and he replied “there’s a cafe over the road that does nice fry ups”.
Sam · January 24, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Bangor is bloody cosmopolitan I’ll have you all know. Racists.
I’ve sent emails from the top of Snowdon (in fact I think I blogged as well).
Admin comment by Mr Angry · January 29, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Oli – I will look into the 3G thing I think
marycub – It didn’t sound like a compliment about my youthful looks.
Fussy Bitch – Some of them had pineapple on.
z – I was tempted, but I was tempted more by a pint of Guinness.
mo – Hello. or before 8pm for that fact.
Oli – It was the truth!!
Dr J – I’m not sure you could though, is it?
snowbug – just give the natives a wide berth.
The Girl – Ta, want to stay with Nokia if I can (finally used to the menus). Won’t get a Blackberry unless it is provided by work.
JVIP – young people or Internet people?
drunnk punk – At least mine knw what one was, even if it actually wasn’t one in the end. If you know what I mean.
Sam – Cosmopolitan? As in the ice-cream?