ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz...

Holy bologna, Batman!

Finished unpacking the house last night (during two hours of Windows updates, which I'll get to in a moment...) and the dust got right up my nose. Decided to pop an antihistamine around 11pm as I was headed to bed. 

Forgot those things work like horse tranquilisers on me. Woke up at 1:30 this afternoon!

Now that's time travel.

Also forgot they last for twenty-four hours. Trying to get our of bed was like trying to lift a ten ton truck with my teeth. Slowly coaxed myself back to life with coffee and chocolate.

Had the most incredible epic dream about a former tutor of mine. I won't recount, it'd go on for pages and pages. The brief synopsis is that we ended up walking through the back streets of London, getting mugged by three evil-as-fuck Millwall supporters, I stuffed my phone down my bra and legged it, and we ended up in a twelve-step program for abuse victims, talking about a revolutionary new building material for making steps down the side of waterfalls. 

Also had my first asthma attack in years. Ended up pumped full of antihistamines and steroids. Say what you like about smoking, but I never had asthma problems when I smoked. Not sure what's so great about sharpening all your senses, sometimes you dull them for a reason.

Anyway, yes, one month smoke-free, I think.

Honestly very grateful to be dreaming again. 

It's been a truly stressful couple of days. Everything was going great until my computer decided to update itself to Windows 8.1, wiping out my entire Office suite, all my programs, including PaintShop Pro. Cost me a fortune to put everything right again. On top of which Airtel, one of Rwanda's sucky excuses for an internet provider, put their prices up (no such thing as a competitive open market here - price wars in favour of the customer? Dream on.) from £10 to £13 for 5GB! Ouch.

You need 3GB to download Office. Went round five shops here, all with Airtel above the door. Not one of them sold Airtel. But, in the tradition of local shops in Kigali, you could buy a lot of Jambo tinned sardines. Might try stuffing one of those in my USB hole next time. 

Finally befriended a lovely guy up the road who runs an internet café. Enterprisingly, he also sells airtime and electricity using a little machine. Any time I run out, I can just call him (for airtime or electricity), he'll text me the codes and I can pop in and pay next time I'm passing. Very useful when it's raining, or when I simply can't be bothered to leave the house. 

Interestingly, Kagame's just won an award in France for his service to broadband. I'm going to jump in here and say that the people of Rwanda don't need ever-increasing speed and expense. No one needs super fast broadband for the elite. What Rwanda needs is adequate, affordable internet for all.

If we're truly trying to build an ICT nation here, let's walk and then run. If it's expensive in Kigali, I can only imagine how many people in the rural areas can afford it. Faster technology is a quick money-grab for companies, makes headlines in The New Times, but builds little lasting infrastructure of use to the impoverished (majority) working class.

It's so sad to see this incredible technology that has the power to transform minds and nations, restricted to the rich. Absolutely not in the spirit of Berners-Lee. EDCs following the hype of the West without thinking whether things could be done differently. Better. More egalitarian. The future education of a nation surely comes before the immediate profit of Airtel/MTN/Tigo? If Kagame is a leader in new technological frontiers, he could certainly go one step further and become a pioneer of open access, prompting the self-education of a people. That is, after all, what internet is all about. Access to information, to enlightenment and to personal development.

Who can afford the type of money companies are charging for internet? Why does the cost keep going up? Why does the cost of a basic package not drop when new technology comes on the market? Why do prices appear to be fixed, without healthy consumer-based competition?

And, being honest, who really gives two hoots about broadband when most of the time you can't get water or electricity to stay constant? That was my immediate thought whilst reading the New Times article, in the dark, without a flushing toilet.

Priorities, people. Priorities.

So, I've spent most of the week cursing Microsoft and Airtel in equal measure. Crap bunch of companies.

Finally got everything working again after necessary software purchases, four hours of updates, and enough ire to light up a nuclear power plant.

Been up for about two hours now. Almost time to go back to bed.