Broadband, Philippino help centre and spider duty

Completed the three interconnected blog articles for the Miltoncontact blog, on the visits by Mrs Kabitzch of Von Blythen and the Mrs Regentin-Hassenstein of Der Pommeraner to London last month.

Thence to Mrs Hales-Tooke, the lady whose request for help with her autobiography initiated my entry into  publishing for local authors. We were trying to ascertain the most effective way of continuing our mobile broadband use.

The internet help pages of the provider being singularly unhelpful, we availed ourselves of the telephone assistance. We were guided through the labyrinthine process to achieve our goal by a very helpful lady. She actually resided in the Philippines, which meant that she was working well into her night (around 11pm) whilst we were still in the middle of the afternoon.

What impressed me most was her patience and continued positive nature during what must have been nearly half an hour to achieve our goal. I made a point of thanking her as excellent service is still not as prevalent as it should be.

The onset of Spring has re-awakened the onerous duty of Spider Catching. The past week has seen my being called to action thrice to remove the offending arachnid. Currently, these are not the long legged Tegenaria species that scuttle across the living room floor in a mad dash from one shelter to the next.
The current three offenders (or is it one persistent returnee?) are all of a short legged variety and prefer a nocturnal excursion upon our bedroom ceiling. The closest type that I can identify so far is to assign them as possible Salticidae. Perhaps, I need to retain a specimen for future examination under the microscope.

Arachnophobia, according to Wikipedia, appears to be a gender biased phenomenon, with up to 55% of women affected, in contrast to 18% of men. The strange element of arachnophobia is that it is in disproportionate response to the actual threat by such small creatures and therefore difficult to explain evolutionarily. It may well be a socially conditioned response.

Just seen the pound-euro currency rate at a depressing Euro 1.27 per £1. However, should any client payments in Euros come through, this will be in my favour. Thus, life equilibrates the positives and negatives.