Yet Another Animal Crossing Post

I have continued to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons on my Nintendo Switch ever since I bought it on the Saturday before Easter.

In today's update, I'll share some things I've done over the past day.

The first thing worth mentioning is the fact that, in the village shop, I was able to find a wrestling figure on sale yesterday.

I didn't buy one.

I bought two of them!

As well as the wrestling action figure, I found a bunch of Mexican luchador masks in the island's clothing shop. 

I didn't buy one.

I didn't buy two.

I bought three!

Another thing I did yesterday was set up a campsite. I believe this action will now mean I get to have more visitors to the island. This should result in more habitants.

They did a ceremony to open the campsite this morning. I caught a picture of it. You'll see that I'm wearing my lucha mask and I'm along with all of the other islanders.

As for today, I was gifted a new set of clothes that goes amazingly well with my Mexican wrestler mask.

After finding a locust for Gala (the pig in the picture above), she handed me a mariachi uniform.

Goes well, if I say so myself.

May 4th Will Be With Me

May the Fourth will be with me.

That's because Disney Plus has advertised the fact it will be the day that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will be added to the streaming platform.

When I first heard the news, I didn't think it meant the UK version of Disney Plus. I assumed that, because the movie was released only a fortnight ago, that it would only be available in the United States or other territories.

My guess was wrong. The Disney Plus Twitter account - for the UK - was also sharing this information when I delved further into it.

As I have written many times recently, I haven't seen the ninth installment in the Skywalker Saga. There are a few reasons why I have been holding out on watching it. The main one being I have my eyes focused on purchasing a twenty-seven disc box set with all of the movies in it. I've been hoping the price dips from its current number of £199.99.

Being able to watch the movie on Disney Plus now allows me to extend this wait to buy the collection a little longer.

And if I fail in my hold out - that's fair enough. I'll simply purchase a single copy of the movie and add it to my collection...

Dell Desktop II

My HP desktop PC threw in the towel a few weeks ago, so - ever since then - I had been planning what to do with purchasing a new one.

One route I was thinking of doing was building my own. However, deep down, I felt that it might be too much of a daunting task for me to try to do for my main PC. 

I finally chose another Dell computer.

The last Dell desktop I purchased was THE best PC I've had, so I kind of know what I'm getting.

Delivery was great as well. They said it would arrive within two to three days, but it was on my doorstep ta couple of minutes before 9AM his morning meaning I didn't even have to wait a day.

By the way, don't count me out in regards to bailing on the building a PC idea. I think I might get around to trying that out.

One day.

Lynx Africa Is 25

While browsing Twitter in the early hours of this morning, I came across a promoted tweet from the Lynx deodorant company.

It is celebrating the fact that it has been twenty-five years since its Lynx Africa scent hit the shelves.

The tweet asked people what their first memory of Lynx Africa is.

It should come as no surprise to those who know me well that I actually do remember when Africa first came out.

I can vividly recall wearing it to school for my final year. I especially recall having it on shortly after it was released and asking a South African friend of mine whether he would wear it considering it's named after where he was from.

It was a dumb joke!

Anyway, with the tweet in my memory, I noticed that my nephew had a can of Africa in the bathroom this morning after my shower.

I decided to steal some of it - for old time's sake.

The thing about Africa is it isn't my favourite Lynx scent. It never was. There's a list of discontinued fragrances from the Lynx brand that are, or were - in my opinion - superior to Africa.

I have better first memories of those cans, as well.

First example - Lynx Oriental.

The deodorant and underarm roll-on gift set for the Oriental scent was the first 'adult' toiletry gift I ever received. This would have been a Christmas sometime in the early 1990's.

And then there was Lynx Nevada. I remember that one came out in 1992. My mother bought me a can of that to spray for my Confirmation.

Tempest is another I liked. I don't have a first-time memory of it, but it sure was a go-to scent until that too vanished from shelves never to be seen again.

So, yeah, happy birthday Lynx Africa. You're lucky you lasted as long as you have. I miss your brothers more.

Hunter

WWE is celebrating that it has been twenty-five years since Triple H made his debut with the company, so I thought I'd share a few thoughts about him.

I first came across Paul Levesque when I was a newspaper deliverer. There would be a few wrestling magazines on the shelves, so - naturally - they would be what I read when I was waiting for the van to drop off the batch of papers to the shop on Saturday mornings.

One of the mags had WCW's latest wrestler featured. His name was Terra Ryzing. The moniker stood out.

And that was pretty much it. I can't remember ever seeing a Terra Ryzing match on the WCW TV shows I watched.

What I do remember, is - later that year, but most likely in early '95 because I watched WCW PPVs on a few weeks delay as I watched on German TV  - I was watching Starrcade 1994 and Ryzing wrestled Alex Wright.

His name had changed. He was now a french aristocrat named Jean Paul Levesque.

Yet again, that was pretty much it. I didn't see him on WCW again.

1995 hit the spring or summer and there he was on WWF TV doing vignettes as he was about to enter the company. He was still playing an aristocrat, but was an American snob named Hunter Hearst Helmsley.

I kind of liked the character, but it was when he started mixing it with Shawn Michaels (my favourite) as part of Degeneration X in 1997 that I think he found his true calling.

The character has developed - or rather evolved (get it?) - over the years, but was in some big angles and matches in that time.

My personal favourite Triple H moment is when he returned to the company after injuring his quad in a match a year earlier. His music struck inside Madison Square Garden and that place went wild. He looked jacked up to the gills and declared himself as a competitor in the 2002 Royal Rumble.

Added into this story is the subplot that I had backed Trips to win the Rumble months earlier. I took a gamble figuring his return would coincide with the build to WrestleMania XVIII.

It was the first wrestling bet I had ever placed and made £350 profit from it.

Another huge Rumble betting win came in 2016. Once again, it was from a HHH victory. The profit was larger this time, but I still consider the 2002 gamble the best.

No Love For The Colts

So, after what I wrote in yesterday's post concerning the Indianapolis Colts potentially having Jordan Love on their radar for the 2020 NFL Draft, things did not end up going in that direction.

Instead, and in what was the major story coming out of night one, the Green Bay Packers dealt up to secure Love with the twenty-sixth pick.

This now means Love will be in Aaron Rodger's shadow in a similar way that Rodger's was backing up Brett Favre for a few years after the 2005 Draft.

A very interesting move, if I say so myself.

Draft Dreams

The NFL Draft is going to start within the next hour and I will hopefully be fast asleep when Joe Burrow is the first person drafted.

I'll hopefully be further into dream street when the Washington Redskins pick Ohio State's defensive end - Chase Young.

And then...

And then..

I'll take a gamble and say that the Detroit Lions will give the pick to another team in a deal and that team will nab Tua Tagovailoa as their next quarterback.

Speaking of quarterbacks - the Indianapolis Colts MIGHT be looking for one and there are many analysts out there predicting that Utah State's Jordan Love is on the team's radar.

I've bet on Love being drafted by the Colts. We'll see whether it happens or not tonight.

Or - more likely - tomorrow night.

Turnip Troubles Are Over (For Now!)

The Animal Cross: New Horizons turnip trauma - that I wrote about on Tuesday - is over.

For the next few days, anyway.

If you read the post on Tuesday, you'll be aware that there is a part of the game in which a character sells you turnips on a Sunday. It is then the players' job to try and offload the vegetables to a village shop before the following Sunday. Otherwise it's rotten turnips for zilch.

The trick is to sell when the prices per turnip are higher than what you paid for them. You can take a gamble and wait, but it's a risk.

After purchasing over one thousand turnips on Sunday, I made frequent visits to the shop to see what prices they wanted them for. I was offered really low numbers until yesterday afternoon when the first high-end offer, contrasted with the 105 Bells I paid for each turnip on Sunday, was 112 Bells.

Therefore, I was going to make a return of seven Bells for each of my turnips. I thought I'd gamble.

But then I thought I'd check Twitter and noticed someone had a shop offering 435 Bells per turnip. She allowed me to visit her island to offload my turnips. I gave my host a gold nugget for her trouble. I don't really know the game well enough, but hope that was an adequate tip.

It was the first time I had visited an island from another real player, so was cool to be able to do that and take advantage of their hospitality by selling the turnips.

Today will be day thirteen playing the game. It's such a brilliant escape from all the quarantine quagmire we're all in.

Gronk Is Back

Rob Gronkowski is returning to the NFL.

Not as a New England Patriot, though.

The Pats have traded their formerly retired tight end to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in what is the second surprising story of the off-season.

The first also involved the Patriots and Bucs as star quarterback - Tom Brady - jumped from New England to Tampa after becoming a free agent.

Everyone is hyped at the prospect of those two teaming up yet again. What they're failing to realise is Brady will be playing a system other than one devised by Bill Belichick for the first time in his professional career.

On top of that, the often-injured Gronk is coming back from a year away from the sport. The rest might have done him good, but also might not have.

We'll see, but I can't help but think this story will not end happily ever after. 

For both players.

Turnip Trouble

As I wrote ten days ago, I have been playing the new Animal Crossing game on the Nintendo Switch.

It's the first time I've played any of the games in the Animal Crossing franchise and I cannot help but feel irked that it has taken me this long to finally play it.

I'm particularly mad at myself for not purchasing it for the Nintendo Wii many years ago, because I was quite close to doing so.

Anyway, the past is the past.

As for the current game. I do not know where to begin. It's fascinating. I've spent hours-upon-hour playing it. It's the longest I've sat behind a video game console since, well, I don't know when.

On April 11th, I wrote that there so many things about the game. The most recent thing I've done is purchased over one thousand turnips.

Yes, turnips.

Every Sunday, a character travels to my island to sell turnips to the villagers. You aren't meant to eat them, though. In this part of the game, you have to buy the turnips from the lady (if you want to, that is!) and then store them.

Then, over the next six days, you have to try and sell them to a shop that purchases them at a fluctuating rate. This must be done before the following Sunday because your stock will start to rot.

I suppose you'll figure out that the gambler in me loves this side game.

And a gamble it currently is.

I have checked the shop three times since purchasing over 1,000 of the vegetables at 105 Bells (the currency) a pop and the prices have not been to my liking. I believe the first offer was 56 Bells per turnip, then - yesterday afternoon - they wanted 51 Bells. This morning's offer was 48 Bells!

Looking through Twitter has been interesting as I've noticed that shops on other people's islands have been offering triple figure numbers.

I still have until Saturday to move them. By Sunday, they'll be rotten and I won't get anything for them.

Does the gambler wait until Saturday night to make his move....?

2 New Scratchcards

I had £10 under the scratchcard I played today, so thought I'd check out the National Lottery website to see if they still produced £10 cards that I could buy when I cash in today's winner.

It doesn't look like they do. However, I found a couple of new £1 scratchies that will be on their way to a shop near me.

I like the look of the first one best.

There are three play areas. There are six coins in each area and, if the coins - in the respective area - adds up to over £1, the player wins the prize. The jackpot is £5,000.

The 'Win £50' scratchcard has three lines. If the player matches two symbols on a row, they win the prize for that line. The top prize for that game is £50 (OBVIOUSLY!).

The Ladder To Potential Failure Still Has Me intrigued

This year's WWE Money in the Bank matches are going to be intriguing.

Usually, the male and female matches to crown a Money in the Bank winner is done in a ladder match with the briefcase held above the ring. The winner is the first person to get to the case and remove it.

This year, with WWE having to change things up due to the Coronavirus outbreak, will film the two matches inside - and on top! - of its headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.

Instead of hanging above a ring, the briefcases - for both matches - will be left on the roof of the office building. The wrestlers have to start out on the ground floor and work their way up to the roof to get the prize.

As I said, it's an intriguing idea. It's making the most out of a bad situation and allows for WWE to film the sequences like an action movie in a similar way to the boneyard match that was done for WrestleMania 36.

With that said, WrestleMania 36 had a falls count anywhere match inside the WWE Performance Center which dragged and I can't help but feel that the Money in the Bank match will be more like Edge .vs. Randy Orton than The Undertaker .vs. AJ Styles.

Still - it's something to watch just to see

The tagline of the match gets two thumbs up from me, though.

The company is plugging the bouts as 'Climbing The Corporate Ladder'.

WWE Money in the Bank is scheduled to air on the WWE Network on May 10th.

More About The Fink

WWE played a nice video tribute to Howard Finkel during last night's episode of Smackdown.

One of the things I took away from it is something I should have really expanded on when I wrote the short post about his passing yesterday.

The announcer was not only the guy who called the stars into the ring for some of the legendary bouts. He was also there to call the winner.

The one example that stood out to me during the tribute was his moment during the 1995 Royal Rumble.

Shawn Michaels had seemingly been thrown over the top rope by the British Bulldog. However, only one of Michaels' feet touched the floor. He held on for a few moments before managing to pull himself back into the ring, eliminate the Bulldog who was celebrating what he thought was a Rumble victory and then snare the W.

It was Finkel's call about Michaels' single foot not hitting the floor that explained everything to the people in the arena and at home shortly before we got the visual evidence with a replay.

As I said, there are many other examples. It's just the one from last night hit it home for me and made me realise even more how important he was to us fans.

The Fink

After watching Arrow, and writing yesterday's post immediately afterwards, I visited Twitter and was met with the news that another name from my childhood had passed away.

Howard Finkel, who worked for the then WWF during my early years following pro wrestling, died at the age of sixty-nine.

Finkel was the WWF's lead ring announcer during those years. His voice introduced many a superstar to the ring during his career.

You cannot talk about The Fink without mentioning this trivia note: he was the person who came up with the name 'WrestleMania'. The rest - as they say - is history.

The End Of Arrow

I have just finished watching the final episode of Arrow.

What a nice, touching conclusion it was.

A lot of old faces from the series were brought back to say goodbye to Oliver Queen. This included some characters that had died during the programme's run. The explanation for their appearances was that Oliver's sacrifice to save the universe meant that they came back.

That's what my takeaway was, anyway.

The final scenes were something that was set up in the closing parts from last season. Felicity Smoak (Oliver's wife) was brought into the afterlife by The Monitor twenty years after Oliver passed away.

She meets her lover in the place where Oliver first met her - his mother's office in the Queen Consolidated skyscraper.

It was a nice way to end the series.

I'm sure going to miss it. There will be a huge void considering it has been something I've watched religiously since episode one in 2012.

Another Newcastle Takeover Story

In yesterday's post, I wrote about once again reading a news article that suggests the possibility of the television soap - Home and Away - ending due to numerous circumstances like falling ratings.

Today's sport story which caught my attention was another one about Newcastle United being sold.

I do not know how many times I've read that one over the years. 

It truly is a case of 'I'll believe it when I see it' as far as I'm concerned. 

If you were to go back to the start of this very blog. you'll see that I was a supporter of Newcastle. It was my Premier League team when I was a child* because the style of football was fantastic. 

My love for the team died with all the crap that Mike Ashley brought to it once he bought it back in 2007. 

There's no turning back for me now. This is even if a new owner comes in. I'll always carry fond memories of my time supporting the club as a child and into early adulthood, but there is no way I will go back now.

*With local side Cardiff City in the bottom divisions, us kids always had two teams - Cardiff and whichever EPL side we chose to support. It's probably still a thing nowadays, but I'd like to hope that there are many children out there that support Cardiff on its own considering that the team has had spells in the top flight.

Another Home And Away Story In The News

I've just read an article about Home and Away. It's one again a doom and gloom piece that states that the show could be on its last legs due to actors being given twenty percent pay cuts amidst falling ratings.

The main theme of the article, however, points out how the Coronavirus outbreak has affected filming and airings as it was taken off the air for a few weeks in Australia.

Bush fires and real-life family issues were also given as reasons for filming being delayed.

I've already written about how the recent pandemic we find ourselves facing has been taken down to two episodes from five (a week) here in the UK to try and keep a distance between Oz's broadcast times.

The article also hints that the show might end up going two a week down under until things start to get better in the world.

My fingers are crossed that the show doesn't end. In my opinion, it's the best soap ever. Not just in Australia!

Star Wars Is Out Next Week (And I Have Some Thinking To Do)

We're just one week away from the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker being released on physical media and I am in many minds what to do.

I don't know whether to buy it on Blu-ray and add it to the collection I have of the eight other films or to go the whole hog and buy all nine films in a giant boxset.

The boxset I am looking at is in Ultra High Definition and contains over twenty-seven hours of content.

There is a drawback, though. It's £200.

It isn't a case of not having the case to buy it as I have saved up for it ever since I found out about it. It's just now, with less than a week to go, I am wondering whether it's best just to buy the movie and add it to the collection I have been building for years....

I'm sure you'll find out what I do when I do it.

Reese's Easter 2020

As per usual, it was a Reese's Easter for yours truly.

Here's what I was given by my family:

And something I bought for myself a few months ago and have kept it until today:

Unfortunately, there was another Reese's egg that I had set my sights on, but - due to the lockdown from the coronavirus outbreak - my plan to get it was foiled.

It was a Reese's Pieces egg. The egg had bits of the candy-shelled sweet inside the egg. The reason why I couldn't get a hold of one is because they were exclusive to Asda and I found out about them a couple of weeks before everything went crazy and deliveries became as scarce as a dodo egg!

Still, I can't complain. I have more than enough.

I've Been Playing Animal Crossing On The Switch

I've been playing Animal Crossing on the Nintendo Switch for most of the day.

The best way I can describe the game is it's a 'social simulation' in which you live on a desert island and interact with its inhabitants on a daily basis by doing tasks to earn the island's currency.

What ever I write about the game would never do it justice, however. There's far more to it than even I can write or even know at this stage.

I was going to buy the Nintendo Wii version years ago, but decided not to in the end. I made the decision to buy the Switch edition because I won a few bets over the weekend and thought I'd get something to show for those victories.

I'm going into this not really knowing anything about the game other than the little things I've read over the years.

When I was setting the game up, it asked me what I would like my name to be. I chose 'equinoxx'. It then asked me what I'd like to name my island.

There was no other thing I wanted to name it after other than Lian Yu, which is the island Oliver Queen found himself on in Arrow. However, my idea was to name it 'Lian Yu Too' for a laugh. I stumbled upon a problem, though. There was no room for the final O in 'too', so I opted for the less funnier, 'Lian Yu II'.

And I am sure I'm not the only person to name their island that name.

By the way - Lian Yu means 'purgatory' in Mandarin. My island is going to be far from that.

I hope

Expect frequent updates about my thoughts on the game. Especially during this lockdown where a little escape to another island seems like a remedy from this purgatory we find ourselves in!

Another Good Friday

It has become a tradition - an irregular one, but still a tradition - for me to write about how much Good Friday bores me.

This has been the way since I was a child. I just dislike this day a lot.

It was so damn boring.

The opinion has cooled off in recent years, but go back to the future, ask the young version of myself and you'll get the 'it's so boring' response.

There Are Some Dumb People Out There

I've just read the main article on The Sun website. It caused me to wonder why there are so many dumb people out there.

The story is about a Labour mayor who has not only lost her place in the party, but also her job working for a law firm.

All this because, when people were asking to pray for the British Prime Minister - Boris Johnson - who had been placed under intensive care with a fight against Coronavirus, she took to social media to write:

'Sorry, he completely deserves this and he is one of the worst PM's we've ever had'.

It astounds me to consider she thought this was an appropriate thing to write. Sure, you would expect something like this from an Internet troll.

Ghostbusters III Release On Hold

This is a few weeks late, but I've just found out that the much anticipated Ghostbusters III - AKA Ghostbusters: Afterlife - will not make its premiere in cinemas in a few months.

Instead, the movie will now come out in March of 2021.

Gutted, but, when you think about it, we've waited thirty-one years for a proper sequel. What's an extra seven months or so?

The obvious reason is due to the coronavirus pandemic that's sweeping this world. Many films have been delayed because of the outbreak, and this is obviously one of the big names that has fallen foul.

There will be many more film releases put on hold.

The movie was originally scheduled for July 10th. Barring any further unforeseen circumstances, it will hit screens on March 5th.

So, I Did Something Really Stupid (By Accident!) Today

I accidentally called the emergency services this morning.

What happened was this - I had my phone on while I was doing the ironing. As I forgot to bring my headphones downstairs with me, I played the music directly from the phone's speaker and it was in my back pocket.

After doing that, I went to throw the rubbish out so, still with the tunes coming out of right near my ass, I left my home and then threw the bag in the bin and came back in.

It was at this point I realised that maybe the music was on a little too loud, so I put my hand in my back pocket and started to turn the volume button down.

Next thing I heard was a wailing buzzer kind of sound. I knew it was coming from the phone. I just didn't know what it was.

I pulled the phone out my pocket. I don't know what came first, the realisation that I had somehow dialled '112' or the lady's voice saying I was through to emergency services and how she could be of assistance.

'Sorry!' I yelled at her. She asked me whether I had mis-dialled. 'Yes, sorry!' I exclaimed. Then she said something to me about texts or something that I was so far in the shocked zone to realise what she was going on about. I offered one final word before I forced the disconnection.

'Sorry!'

I feel really bad that I made such a screw up like this. Especially considering what's going on here with so many people needing aid.

Since all that happened, I've looked online to see how it could have happened. It looks like the iPhone has an emergency SOS feature on it. You're meant to press and hold the side button and one of the volume buttons at the same time. That's what must have happened. But, that's not all. A slider button would have popped up on my phone (remember it was still in my pocket, so I didn't see it) and - if it isn't activated after a few seconds - a countdown begins and an alert sounds.  That would explain the buzzer sounding off before I was put through.

What a calamity, and like I said, what poor timing for such a foolish mistake.

Post-Mania 36 Post

It wasn't a normal WrestleMania this past weekend, so I thought it wasn't going to be a usual post-Mania blog post.

What I usually do is write a post immediately after watching the event. I couldn't be bothered this year. Well, not right afterwards, anyway.

The highlight of the two weekend shows was possibly the boneyard match which saw The Undertaker and AJ Styles fight on location in the middle of the night.

I call it a highlight because it generated the most reactions. Most good, some negative.

It was an intriguing idea and they pulled it off. It was kind of like watching a fight scene in a movie. Or rather a movie that was a thirty minute fight.

There was a lot of bad, but I feel I have to overlook it considering the circumstances everybody found themselves in.

Virtual Racing

In yesterday's post, I mentioned that I was planning to watch the virtual Grand National.

Well - I did just that.

It was intriguing to see the race being run by computer graphics as if it were a legit race. 

I thought it was a good idea. Especially for those who like to have a gamble on the big race each year. It gave them something to do.

As far as I'm aware, all the bookmaking companies plan to give any profits from the race to the NHS. 

They have a few pounds from me. I had a few bets and ended up in the red. 

The winner was Potters Corner.

WrestleMania Is Tonight (And Tomorrow Night)

It's WrestleMania tonight.

And tomorrow night.

I still cannot get my head around the idea that this year's event is still going ahead albeit in an empty gymnasium (okay, the WWE Performance Center but it is a gym!) and over two nights.

It doesn't feel like a WrestleMania day for me. I'm usually looking forward to the show but it's hard to feel hyped with everything that's going on in the world.

Knowing that the show has already been recorded - and not live - is another thing that gives me little enthusiasm.

I'll tell you what I am more interested in right now and that's the virtual Grand National that is taking place later on today.

Because this year's real race has been called off due to the coronavirus outbreak, they're doing a computer-generated version.

An insane, yet brilliant, idea. If I say so myself, of course.

Tiger Roll - the horse that would have going for three in the real National today, if it was being run - is a 5/1 favourite at the betting website I looked at this morning.

Compassion Fatigue

I caught the most recent episode of Arrow yesterday.

It was the fourth part of the Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover which aired in the USA earlier this year and was the episode which seemingly killed off Oliver Queen AKA The Green Arrow.

When I first found out that Arrow was ending after eight seasons, I was gutted. It is a programme that I have watched religiously since it landed over here. I felt that I would be sad to see Oliver Queen's demise once it happened.

I didn't feel sorry to see him pass away. The reason why I think has to be attributed to everything that's going on in the real world. 

That's the only good reason I can think of because I was sure that I would feel remorse when the day came.

Another factor could be due to the fact that there are still two more episodes of Arrow to tie up loose ends. 

There's also one more part of Crisis On Infinite Earths to go. 

Maybe my subconscious is holding out hope that there's somewhat of a swerve and this will end with the hero walking off into the sunset..

Fool

I was an April Fool by my own hand yesterday.

To cut a long story short, I had entered the room with my Internet modem in and left to head back to the room I had my laptop.

When I got back to the computer, I noticed that my WiFi was out, so I went back into the room with the modem to see if the lights were on.

The light on the box is usually white, but this time it was green.

'Uh oh.' I thought.

I waited a short while, but nothing changed. I then decided to take the plug out of the socket to reboot the modem.

Once that was done, the white light was back and it was getting ready to start only to stop and go dead.

I phoned my Internet Service Provider but was told - by the automated messenger - that I would have up to an hour wait for help.

I couldn't do that, so logged onto my ISP's website from my mobile phone to try and get it to check the status of the Internet in my area and then run a diagnosis on the box.

The result: my box wasn't switched on.

I knew that!

Or did I?

After deciding to give it one more go, I pulled the plug out again. This time, I decided the wires were a bit tangled so pulled the wire out of the back of the modem and realised that the wire from the modem to the power brick had parted. I pushed it back in and I had the Internet back up and running within ten minutes.

What I suppose happened is the door had knocked it loose to start the problem and then, as I was messing around, it slipped out completely meaning there was no power at all entering the device.

Imagine how stupid I would have looked if I did get an engineer here to look at the broken modem?!

No Joke

Usually, on April 1st, I would leaf through the newspaper or visit websites to read stories with the intention of finding out if they're April Fools items or not.

It's ALWAYS a fun thing to do, but 2020 - as I am sure you know yourself - seems like the wrong time to do it.

I've looked through a couple of news sites this morning. If there is anything out there, it's lost in countless stories about the Coronavirus outbreak.

Just another thing that has gone away for the time being.  

Unless they are there and I'm being a - if you pardon the pun - fool, that is.