Fibre baby!

I live in a nice area, it's quiet, the houses are decent size, most everyone is retired or has a job (even me) and the last reported crime was in 1984 when Old Man Smith from down the road was caught worrying the sheep on Winchfawr (real word). All in all it doesn't meet the stereotype of Merthyr Tydfil where people are on the sick for 6 years for having a burny fart.

However, what is limited are things like Internet speeds (less than a meg quite a bit of the time), phone signal coverage, access to a cash machine, you know the kind of thing.

Well no more fr one of those things, no I haven't bought an ATM, today my order goes in for Fibre Optic Internet! Last week, my regular forlorn visit to Superfast Cymru's website didn't produce the traditional, "Fibre Not Available" result, so I did it again just to be sure.

No longer will every xbox download take 6 weeks, no longer will I not be able to stream Netflix and YouTube at the same time (2 different people). Imagine the luxury! Imagine all you want as I won't have to.

Booya bitches!

OK, it'll be 2/3 weeks getting installed which will undoubtedly be a torturous wait, but soon, really soon, my little slice of the Tyd will be one step closer to catching up with the world!Having said that, long contract and somewhat pricey are the downsides extra 10 baps on my (well the wife's, but I'l pay the difference) bill for a nice 72mps connection.

Got a feeling it'll be worth it though.

When a luxury becomes a necessity.

I have a fairly cushy life, the majority of people in the UK do (for now, the Torys aren't in full swing yet).

Yes, like with most people, I don't live in a palace, a castle etc but I have running water, more than enough food, a bed, a roof and access to healthcare. There are places on this planet where people would kill for any of them, but I/we take them for granted.

I thought I was quite grounded, until I moved home recently which resulted in a slight fall in my access to things such as TV, Internet, XBOX. These things are almost the definition of luxury, but there were times where not having these things really put my nose out. It was at this point I thought, when did these things become THAT necessary? I even have a dongle, at some expense, so I have a backup internet source (using it now!!), so just incase I'm out of wifi range, my iPhone hasn't got signal, I can still grab my spare laptop (smaller one so more portable) and check twitter http://www.twitter.com/andrewdrisc or post here.

The counter argument is we have worked hard for these luxuries and deserve them, and to be honest it's an argument I'm happy to hide behind!

I wonder whether many people of my generation could last without Sky Sports (maybe people would travel to the grounds to see sport?), without games consoles, without Facebook (which I dislike anyway) without email, IM, etc

To be honest I would probably fail horribly, but honestly I don't even want to try. If that makes me a bad person, I apologise whole heartedly.