No Ringie-Dingies...

Well, darlings, you may have noticed that things are moving rather more slowly even than usual here at the Café. Profound apologies, but blame the phone company.

You see, here in out little Sultanate-on-Sea, we are firmly in the hands of the Eastern cousins of that fabled tyrant, Miss Ernestine Tomlin ("We're the Phone Company: we don't care, we don't have to"). Sometime in the last two days, the little blinking lights on our Mysterious Internet Device went quiet, and the familiar hum of the dial tone faded away.

So now we're waiting, huddled in the corner, for a serviceman to call. Repeated phone calls (thank God for mobiles) in a range of languages have evinced nothing but increasingly hollow assertions that "You're on the list, sir" (not to mention one highly annoying "You're on the list, madam". I mean really!).

In the meantime, it's catch as catch can. While I'll be doing what I can, courtesy of the kindness (and wireless) of strangers and the occasional coffee bar, perhaps you could consider this an opportunity to catch up on the Archives, or go hang out with TJB or Donna or any other of the marvelous hosts over there in the right-hand column, or perhaps even chat with your loved ones. Read a good book. I'll be back...