As if by magic - I'm back online. Just when it was looking like the end of the world - with NTL telling us today that they couldn't connect us because we're not in their area - Eircom realised that this house has a previously unpaid bill on its records which is why the phone is blocked (by them). They lifted it, BT contacted us and told us we were good to go, and so here I am, writing from home for the first time in about two months. I'm delighted, I feel like I've been picked up by a helicopter after 6 weeks of floating around in the sea on the wreckage of my podcasting career - if I can call giving stuff away online a career (arf!)

Anyway, normal service has been resumed. Joy to the world, peace on Earth and drinks all round - the Milky Bars are on me! (Milky Bars aren't a drink, but they're on me nonetheless. Perhaps I should seek medical help?)

Just a quick blog note (I'm writing in a dirty basement Internet cafe and the dirt from the keyboard is getting impacted under my fingernails).

I just wanted to let you know that I should be online at home from Wednesday.

We're going with NTL: apparently they provide a very good Internet, TV and phone deal... that and they're the only option left open to us. Eircom never did connect us. BT can't make Eircom do anything that Eircom don't want to do - and they don't want to help BT, naturally. Meteor's little plug-in broadband couldn't get a decent signal, and so it's NTL cable or nothing. Ridiculous that I can be in the capital of a major European nation and be in this situation, but there you are, that's just the way it is. 

I'll keep you posted on developments. Now I have to get out of this place before my allergies start acting up.

My longest podcast episode ever: Episode 13 of Underwood and Flinch awaits you at the other end of the linked image below (in other words, click the pic to listen).

Eircom came yesterday without telling us they were coming, so no one was home.  BT didn't come this morning either.  They left a message on my wife's mobile last night to say that they didn't have an available engineer. My wife contacted them this morning but the person she needs to speak to is 'unavailable'.  At this stage, I'm past being disappointed. We're now thinking of going with O2 wireless and just forgetting the phone line all together.

This means I won't be able to get a bulletin up this weekend, but I'll work through the weekend to get the whole episode done for Monday. I'll then bring the episode in to work on a disc and upload it from here. So there's a deadline: Monday for Episode 13 - the whole thing.

Here's a preview of what you can expect:

Cynthia and Gerald are hungover and craving blood...y Marys on the terrace at La Reina de Corazones. Meanwhile at Casa Underwood, David and Lydia lock horns and some unpleasant truths are revealed.

Have a good weekend