Wilds of Norfolk
I came out of the gates in a gallop with my “Your House Sitter” site, and set up the structure; designed the logo; and published my first article within a week. But then I hit a wall – in the shape of a dial-up modem. Internet connections in the wilds of Norfolk, are a world away from my LA wi-fi connection.
Oh how I’ve taken my high-speed, always-on connection for granted!
Full Speed Ahead
It’s so easy to buy into the myth that the entire western world is keeping pace with technology, when you’re living in a major metropolis. But in reality, many online surfers still do daily battle with dial-up and slow connections.
This is something to consider when accepting house-sitting assignments off-the-beaten track, and bear in mind, sometimes that track isn’t as remote as you may imagine.
Costa del Slow
My brother and his wife recently moved to Spain – a village between Granada and the Costa del Sol – so hardly the ends of the earth. They’ve been there a month, and are frequent visitors to the local bar, where an intermittent wi-fi connection is available – for the price of a beer and a plate of local tapas. This can start to get expensive, especially if you’re a Facebook addict like my sister-in-law. She used to post ad-lib comments, wall-posts and commentary, continuously throughout the day. This flood of activity has been reduced to a twice-weekly trickle of updates about their new life.
Need for Speed
Being unconnected is not a bad thing, unless you have deliver-ables that are contingent on connectivity. I’m completing an on-line Web Design degree and need to FTP my homework assignments to my school’s server. I also have 3 other blogs I need to maintain. Well, I don’t need to, but I want to.
I want too – but I can’t. So I’m writing these posts off-line, and will publish them once there’s enought juice is the modem to squeeze them into the blogosphere.
I won’t take connectivity for granted again, and when I accept house sitting assignments, I’ll be sure to confirm if there’s a high-speed Wi-Fi option in the local vacinity.