Today I am in full on exam study mode, which is strangely relaxing after the day I had yesterday. You'll never guess what happened? Only the worst nightmare of an online business! NO INTERNET.
The snow killed our connectivity!
When The Programmer phoned Telstra, they delivered the depressing news that we would probably be offline until Sunday because they were, ahem, snowed under with similar issues all over the South Island. This news caused a slight attack of personal chaos. I was trying to avoid <<<<<<< this kind of behaviour:
Needless to say, we are today considering the wisdom of being so dependant on the digital umbilical cord. For sure, I've decided against switching to Xero, which takes all accounting activities into 'the cloud' too. No way, Little Doggy.
Luckily, once the snow started to melt (24 long hours later*), service was abruptly restored: it was probably snow weight on the cable. Reconnected with the world, I fired up the beast and discovered that the customers had gone absolutely crazy ordering product in the 12 hours before the site fizzed out. I'd guess that having your customers snowed in is a great way to boost an online business, assuming no technical problems.
With a big grin, I went into hyperdrive and got all of those orders out by 5pm, just squeezing the RD's into the Postshop by a couple of nanoseconds. At that point I should have headed directly to my upper body workout, but did I? Um... no. I didn't. I think that hoisting many, many boxes of product all by myself counts for something and I called it good on the training.
I poured an organic vino, biffed an organic chicken in the oven and threw together another Gluten-Free, Vegan Coconut Cake, but with a Foodie Friday-ish tweak.
I poured half the mix into the pan, then layered in an entire 100g of Lindt Sea Salt chocolate (this may not be vegan, I forgot to check, sorry), then the rest of the mix. It was a hit. The flour this time was buckwheat, hence the darker colour of the cake.
Then I plonked my exhausted butt down on the couch in front of the fire:
and downloaded some white noise applications to my phone. I'm experimenting with this to help me fall asleep more easily. Does anyone use white noise as a sleeping aid? If so, is there one that you recommend?
Something to think about: When was the last time you had to be without the internet? Was it a big deal, or just one of those things? How dependant are you on internet connectivity in your daily life?
* For those of you that are sharp with maths, I wrote the previous post offline, but didn't post it until net service was restored. Therefore, technically, I should have gone through and changed everything to 'yesterday (I woke up to a white world)' etc, but.. I'm lazy, and I know my readers are sharp enough to figure it out. :D
* For those of you that are sharp with maths, I wrote the previous post offline, but didn't post it until net service was restored. Therefore, technically, I should have gone through and changed everything to 'yesterday (I woke up to a white world)' etc, but.. I'm lazy, and I know my readers are sharp enough to figure it out. :D
Dependant on the internet? Who, me??
ReplyDeleteThis is why we have a wireless internet service as backup. If our ADSL connection or our home network router thingie goes "poof!" we can switch on the wireless modem and we're good. Often a bit slow, depending on traffic in the neighbourhood, but slow internet is better than no internet.
I just put a banana-coconut cake in the oven, but now I'm thinking I should have added a chocolate layer. Hmm, perhaps chocolate sauce?
Now that's a great idea (the wireless back up). I don't think it's available here, or maybe in the new subdivisions? Seriously, I nearly lost my little mind when they said it would be out until 'at least Sunday'. That would have been four days. Waaaay too long for an online business to be down and not lose customer confidence. Still it was nice to chat to so many of them on the phone, for once.
DeleteI mean, nice to chat to the customers. Chatting to Telstra just made me want to eat carbs, lots of carbs.
DeleteMaybe worth exploring the wireless option - someone must be offering the service? Like this one: http://www.wirelessweb.co.nz/
DeleteWireless is huge here, partly because our Telco infrastructure is so inadequate in new areas. They install a limited number of ADSL ports and if there are more houses than that, bad luck. We were extremely lucky to get one and we're too chicken to change ISPs as we might lose our spot in the swap-over. :/
I noticed the site was down, but just assumed it was the snow. I just don't know how I'd cope without internet. I supposed I would have to develop a hobby, or just stare at the walls.
ReplyDeleteI love coconut and I'm so glad it's back in vogue - shredded, dessicated, fresh - it's all nice :) Wonder where we'd be without the net :)
ReplyDeleteWe would not know each other, that's for sure! That's what I appreciate most about it, the ability to find like-minded people, whether or not they exist in your physical environment.
DeleteI did it! I made the coconut cake and it was really, really GOOD. I even went and bought a silicone loaf pan just for the event.
ReplyDeleteYay! And doesn't it disappear fast though..?
DeleteI have a white noise generator on my smartphone called 'White Noise Lite'. It's great, you can mix noises. I like the combination of white noise + train + thunder. It drowns out hubby snoring.
ReplyDeleteI've got that one! It has a problem where the screen won't go to 'sleep' when I'm using it though. So, when I'm running it, I can't sleep because my phone screen is on and lighting up the room.. it's probably a setting I need to tweak.
DeleteWe have used Sleepmaker Rain Free for helping our wee man sleep, worked fine. Don't recall the screen staying on - we used in when we were in the same room while traveling, I quite enjoyed it ;-)
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