Dodo rang today and offered me a very good deal on wireless broadband. For various reasons I have been keeping dial-up. Whenever I have looked up wireless broadband there has seemed to be no coverage here. The 3G network  belonging to Optus is covering us now.

One cool thing about the modem. It has a sim card like a phone and if I pull it out of the usb stick it can go in my phone and send texts for $0.25.

The girl from Dodo sat with on the phone for ages and described every detail, answered every question and made sure I knew every angle. I am really paranoid about getting things going wrong. One year I was caught by hidden costs on an internet deal. It sucked up all the grocery money I had for that Christmas and instead of a few little luxuries and a beer I spent two weeks eating instant porridge without milk or sugar and drinking some black tea also without sugar and made from stale tea-bags. I am disabled and that was one nasty Christmas. The Dodo staff seem to know I am paranoid and not only explained every detail but are sending me paperwork to eyeball as well. Can’t complain about that service!

I have been with Dodo for many years. I changed after the Christmas incident actually and have wanted to stay with them since. There were a few problems but always they have dealt with them quickly I also wanted to keep my online identity and have been worried that they would not have a broadband, wireless or otherwise, that I could afford.

This plan is for 24 months, very cheap but very low bandwidth before the cut out (70meg) and then 56k until next month. I am happy to be getting it. All the things I couldn’t do online without broadband I might have a chance at doing….some of them anyway.

There is a 13 day cooling off period and then a very small payment of $24 for the modem delivery. They have given me a free one and a very cheap plan as a loyalty award. Nice, I love that! I will write more about the plan if anything changes but there are a couple of weeks before it is all set up

Tomorrow is my brother’s birthday and I spoke to mum on the phone. She was really distraught and kept crying all the time although it just slipped out in small bursts. I texted my nephew and said I was feeling for he and his brother. I asked him to contact Mum as she was so upset and would be happier if she was able to share the grief.

He will not do that. He hates me and has stopped caring about his Nan so she will be grieving alone. She is going to the beach in the morning to crack a bottle of sparkling bubbly he had left in his things. She will pour some on the sand and some in the sea where she put his ashes