Goodbye Sky

We were paying c. £80 per month for Sky (satellite) TV, and, with the two Eurosport channels closing, we were left basically replicating access to just the Freeview channels. Tell me about bloated monopolies.

Outraged, we signed up with EE for their TV Pro service, which is Internet delivered. We're also taking the subscription sports channels (TNT Sports) for professional cycling (monuments, week stage races, grand tours) which Clare is particularly attached to (£23 per month in total).

Was this going to be easy to install? The stuff in the box was labelled 'self-install' but I've been bitten before - in fact almost always.

Carefully and methodically I de-wired the Sky box: ethernet cable, HDMI cable, satellite leads, power cable and stashed the ensemble into a heap in the corner: eventually it will all be shipped back to Sky.

Then, equally methodically, I connected the EE-provided ethernet cable, HDMI cable and power cable to the EE TV Box Pro, configured the remote and pushed the box's power button (having already turned the TV on using the Sky remote).

Amazingly, the screen displayed the first setup screen, the 'continue' button tantalisingly lit up. 

Naturally I couldn't affect it in any way: the remote was dead in my hands.

I called customer service.

There followed a comedy of errors. Batteries out and then back in again; the remote woke up. It then proceeded to wrongly pair with our ancient DVD player rather than the EE box. I took the DVD player away entirely - mothballed it - and eventually (batteries out; batteries back in again) the remote began to speak to the set-top box.

Success! I logged off the customer support call; played with the TV Channel Guide.

No BBC channels at all. 

Back to customer service and routed through to technical support: a long and obscure journey through multiple settings screens to reboot the box and reacquire stations. Finally it all seems to work. End the call to customer support.

So this is self-install in March 2025: how do pensioners cope? 

[Full disclosure: I am a pensioner - I mean other pensioners who don't have science degrees and who haven't worked in telecoms for thirty years].

Diary: Rocky Mountain Nurseries

The car went in for its annual service and MOT this morning. We had moved to this garage because we thought they did a better job than our previous choice, although how can you tell?

Like those restaurants which pride themselves on being rude to their customers, the staff here used to be rather surly, resenting conversation with effete customers who (they sensed) wouldn't know which end of the torque wrench to apply to the wheel nuts. But over the last couple of years they've mellowed, developing customer-facing skills. Reception now has a coffee machine, and they smile as they offer the card reader.

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Next was the Rocky Mountain Nurseries, which Clare vaguely thought was off the Old Frome Road somewhere. It looked astonishingly dilapidated as we eventually drew up.

Clare had received a voucher card for £25. She experiences the same frisson of excitement at garden centres as I encounter in bookshops: Rocky Mountain did not disappoint. It's remote, on the Mendip plateau where land is cheap, but the car park was full. A vast expanse of potted plants, ferns and hangar-like polytunnels beckoned: a foraging heaven.

In the end she chose four plants. We staggered under their weight between plots and outbuildings, searching for someone with a cash register. Turned out they didn't take those particular gift cards after all.

Still, one door closes .. .