I'm back! Sort of......

Mobile broadband (data) pack

I am still without broadband from my usual provider (BT), but I now have a wee mobile "dongle" from EE which provides 4G mobile broadband access (for a price, but a price worth paying!).

It's a bit of a saga because the local exchange in Stromness was being upgraded, and a local engineer warned "the bosses" that if they did that they would cut access for various people on Graesmay, but ahead they went and yes two of us are without broadband from BT, and another neighbour without broadband from another supplier.  Lots of calls and complaints logged and the intervention of our MSP, Liam McCarthur, and it seems that we might get something sorted this week.  We will get paid compensation but that's not much help when you NEED to access broadband, like I do, for work. Fortunately my mobile phone has acted as a "hotspot" to provide internet access over the mobile phone network so I continued to work.  But every time I got a text or phone message I lost the connection.  Anyway I've now bought this very sweet mobile hotspot (above) for data access only so I'm quite happy with that and am back online. Whoo hoo!

There was also a lightning strike to various telecoms equipment a week or so ago and to be fair lots of people across Orkney are without either phone, broadband, or both.  Had I lost the connection due to lightning I wouldn't have been quite as grumpy as I am now, when it was due to no one listening to local engineers resulting in the outages.

Anyway rant over. Meanwhile I've been taking photos, and we've had another island party so there is some catching up to do with my blog!  I'll start posting things over the next few days.

Today's photos are as a result of me playing with some photo software.  I rather like the "distressed" vintage style (I used DistressedFX on my Apple iPhone).  I love the old buildings around the island and often thing of the stories the stones could tell of the folk who lived in them. So here are a few just for fun.

This is the old croft of Moan

Old buildings at Sandside

I posted this a few weeks ago but had a go using photo software and I like the way the light changes and focuses on the old winch more.

And another one at the coral beach in Sandside with the old buildings and old binder....

Back with more photos soon!