Let the Internet era begin

For a so-called civilized (civilised?) country, it sure is hard to get Internet here. Allow me to avail you with the tale of attempting to get Internet at 21 Queens Court. Let me take you back to a time, a time 10 days ago...

We're sitting in our rental agent's office, attempting to turn on our phone line. Our phone line, like everything else in Britain, is owned by BT, who is like God, only slower. It probably would have taken BT about 4 billion years to make Earth, instead of the week or so it took God. While on the phone with the friendly BT person (I say friendly because he had a British accent, which clearly makes anyone friendly), he alerts me that, because I am American, my credit card is worthless to BT. Something about the Revolution and the War of 1812 and Capital One. I think.

Luckily, our jolly landlord, who is in love with me (we're pretty sure) was there and he ever so graciously allowed us to use his debit card to pay the initial fee for the phone line. That got turned on in a day (speed like this has never been seen by BT), and we began the second stage of our quest - actually getting Internet.

The basic Internet here is provided by BT (of course). However, you have to sign a 12 month contract and they charge you some insane amount to turn it on. Somehow Greg found an actual alternative to BT - this service called Be which lets you cancel your account provided you give them 3 months notice. We attempted to sign up for that once our phone line got turned on and got told (dramatic music plays) that BT has not told them our phone line is on yet. Not to mention that I am calling them from my BT phone! Zzzzz...

2 days later, we finally get them to start the Internet turning on process. 7 days later? Actual Internet! Life is good.