The only thing changing in TT is food prices

In November 2007 (post-elections) I stopped buying and reading newspapers. The daily onslaught of bad news and politics was getting me angry, tense and irritable. If there was a newspaper nearby I would avert my eyes and not even look at the headlines. Driving by the women on the road who sell papers in traffic I would stare straight ahead and ignore the headlines they were holding up for drivers to see. I also stopped looking at news on TV and if it came on the radio while I was listening to it, I would quickly turn the radio off. News on the radio usually begins: "A man was ..." or "A woman was ..." or "Three people were ..." (and something about death). Ignoring the news worked. I became more peaceful within and didn't feel the frustration and anger. Living in TT no longer seemed as hopeless. (Ignorance is bliss). I only had to deal with the road rage and lack of customer service. I found I had more energy to focus on positive things. A lot of energy is wasted being angry about or frustrated with what goes on here.

In the past week, however, I have found myself picking up the papers and glancing at the headlines, quickly scanning what has been written (but not dwelling on it), also scanning a few pages inside (and not dwelling). Nothing has changed. It's all still multiple murders, multiple road deaths, political drama, corruption. The only thing that seems to be changing (daily) is food prices.

Today the front page of the papers announced: chicken prices going up, flour going up (hence all the things that are made of flour), taxi fares for St. Anns and St. James going up. And so on.

Imagine 4 doubles* and a sweet drink now cost $17.

Two pilhourie balls cost $4.

The other day on the way back from the beach, two friends and I stopped off for 3 shark and bakes and two bottles of water. The bill was a whopping $87.

Is there any sign of the Gov't putting things in place for us to grow our own food so we can be self sufficient? Or is it that agricultural land is only good for housing? The other day some friends and I were discussing growing our own food crops and sharing our produce among ourselves.

* While on the topic of doubles ... the other day I took Ilana (French director) to sample doubles by UWI. When I was finished eating mine, I wanted to discard the paper, napkin and bag. I saw no bin anywhere in the vicinity. I asked a man in his late 50's getting into the car next to mine: "Is there a bin around here?"

He looked at me with deadpan seriousness and said: "No, but there's a running drain."

Duncan of Elspeth

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse than Elfin. Yesterday I got a message on the voice mail of my cellular phone ...

Woman's voice: Hello, this is a message for Duncan of Elspeth. I am calling to tell him that the venue has changed for bla bla bla ...

I figure they had Duncan, Elspeth written on the list (for the workshop) ... but I'm not sure how she got "Duncan of Elspeth" from that. Did she think that 'Elspeth' was the name of the company (as someone once did) that Duncan works for?

The woman called back later to ensure that 'Duncan' got the message.

Sigh ...

At least she pronounced Elspeth right.

Just around the corner

Last night when I was coming home from singing lessons (which I started last Thursday), as I approached HiLo, St. Augustine, I noticed there was a lot of traffic on the Main Road for after 8 p.m. Nothing abnormal. There's always traffic now.

A little further ahead I noticed what was causing the traffic: a policeman was standing in the middle of the road diverting cars and making us take the back road detour. I looked beyond him and noticed that the Main Road was eerily empty of cars, but there were crowds of people gathered. "Something must have happened," I thought, envisioning an accident of some kind.

There was a lot of traffic on the normally quiet backroads as all cars were being diverted. As I reached Warren Street, I noticed a lot of cars parked at the road side and people walking to join the crowd on the Main Road. "Hmmm, maybe its a political meeting," I thought.

But the area was dark and quiet. No blaring politicians voices, no loud soca music, no-one wearing political t-shirts. Had I been "Trini to de bone" I would have parked and gotten out to maco. But I was only interested in getting home.

Turns out that ... at 5:55 p.m., right there at the auto place (where you get an under-body and engine wash) 'around the corner', a man and woman were shot. In broad daylight. On the Eastern Main Road. Peak traffic. People returning form work. School children milling around. Busy strip of businesses with customers going in and out.

A black vehicle stops, a man gets out and 'calmly shoots' (seven times) and instantly kills a couple (man and his female co-worker) who were standing, waiting while their company car was being washed.

Calmly shoots. Did anyone get a number plate? What did witnesses do? Any of us could have been passing. The man and his co-worker were connected to the housing development being built 'just around the corner' from home (Santa Margarita).

Earlier yesterday mummy told me that a dead body was found by UWI (also 'around the corner'.) Haven't heard anything more about it.

In Trinidad these days there's an increasing number of very disturbing incidents happening 'just around the corner' ... no matter where you live.

A complete waste of time

This is an extremely miniscule representation of the gridlock madness.

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Yesterday I canceled all the appointments I had in town because of HORRENDOUS traffic. These smart people were paving the road on a weekday of the first week back to school during the prime time drive period when traffic is the worst! So you can imagine the backup. My sister took over an hour to drive what would normally take 3 minutes on a clear day. She turned around, went back home and decided to head out to work just before midday (and still got stuck in traffic). I also tried to head into POS, turned back immediately when I saw the pile-up and put off everything until today.

Today I left at 6 a.m.

I still got traffic, but more like the normal annoyingly slow crawl than the complete standstill of yesterday and the weekend. Got into POS at about 7:30 a.m. Then had to 'waste time' driving around aimlessly, stopping to eat sada roti (just to have something to do), etc etc etc ... because all the places I had to go didn't open until 9:00 or 9:30. I am back home now at 11:27, more than 5 hours since I left home this morning. And within that 5.5 hour period, my time spent actually being productive (apart from briefly reading my French book in traffic) amounts to one hour ... or less!

What a waste of time being stuck on the roads of T & T!

Apparently they are now going to be paving the road at night because too many people were angry about yesterday and the weekend. That is inexcusable madness. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that after dawn on weekday mornings ... or after dawn on any morning ... is not the time to be paving main roads and highways!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This gridlock and this standstill is a daily symbol of where this country will go if it continues on its current path.

i.e. Nowhere.

P is for Police

Remembering this, I laughed when I came across an article in this morning's papers ... about a taxi driver who had 'stopped to urinate on a tree next to a police station', leaving his three male passengers in the car. Little did he know, the three men he had picked up were thieves. I guess they noted that his urinating position was a vulnerable one, since (according to the article), they tried to get his keys and, when he ran, chased him down, took the keys and drove off in the car. So much for urinating on a tree right next to a police station.

The other P is for Police story in the papers this morning was not funny, although the policemen involved clearly thought it was. Is this what they consider to be 'protecting and serving'?

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Gay man taunted by cops gets $28,400 Keino Swamber South Bureau Wednesday, July 4th 2007

A 29-year-old self-confessed homosexual has been awarded $28,400 as compensation for being kept naked at a police station for over three hours while police officers ridiculed him about the size of his penis. Judgment on behalf of the Ste Madeleine man was delivered in the San Fernando High Court yesterday by Justice Shafeyei Shah who ruled that the man's arrest on July 24, 2000 was unlawful. The man said he and his "partner" were walking past the Princes Town Police Station around 4.30 p.m. on July 24, 2000, when two men, who later identified themselves as CID police officers, called out to him and told him to come. "They did not give their names. Upon reaching the station's door, I was told by one of the officers that there is an officer in the station who wanted to see me. "I entered the station and, upon reaching the area of the charge room, another male voice directed me to enter a room located to the side of the charge room." The man said he met a police officer sitting behind a desk and was invited to sit. "I later discovered this officer's name to be Police Constable (Curt) Teesdale. After waiting for approximately 25 minutes, I asked PC Teesdale what he wanted to see me for. He did not answer. I repeated this question about five times. I received no reply." The man said he told Teesdale that he was leaving and attempted to leave but was followed out of the room and arrested. The court heard that the man was led to an area where there were cells and was ordered by Teesdale to remove his clothing in the presence of another officer identified only as "a slim, light-brown officer of East Indian origin dressed in police uniform".

"I attempted to hide my nudity with my hands. I was then told by PC Teesdale to move my hands from in front of me. I removed my hands. They both looked at me and started to laugh very loud.

"They ridiculed me. PC Teesdale then said to me, 'you playing man and that small cuckoo you have' referring to the size of my penis."

The man said he was made to squat while facing the officers and was in full view of anyone passing in the corridor.

"Due to my size, I tire easily. When I became tired, I sat on a cold concrete slab. I remained in the cell from approximately 5.10 p.m. to around 8.30p.m."

The man said he was taken out of the cell and told that he was free to leave. He said he was told by the officers, who were trying to make jokes and small talk, that he was being held for an ID parade.

Hope?

Take a deep breath in ... let a deep breath out. Repeat for the rest of your life.

A short while ago I was driving to the art store to get a matte put on the above photo, as someone wants to purchase a print of it. On my way there I took a Curepe back street to avoid a long line of traffic.

On this narrow back street there were cars parked along one side, making it possible for only one car at a time to pass. I'm going to omit all of the frustrating details that occurred before this particular incident. Suffice it to say, the men driving the cars that all came speeding towards me, forcing me to reverse onto a junction (thereby endangering my own life/my car) were all "in the wrong" as the obstruction was on their side. But it is clear that this traffic 'rule' does not exist in sweet T & T.

To cut a long story short, I ended up in the middle of the junction next to a man in a green car who was being very obstinate.

As Mr. Green car forced his way next to me, he looked me straight in my face and shouted at me, his large, black toad-like face dripping with beads of sweat and contorted with distaste: "You is a C*NT?!!!"

The venom with which he hurled this at me was like nothing I had heard before. I looked straight back at him. My body shook in disbelief and rage, but my response was in my calmest voice possible: "Please don't use that language with me!"

He glared at me in a way that made me instantly remember what my parents always tell me (Elspeth, be careful. You know how you like to tell people things on the road when they give you a bad drive. These days they could pull out a gun and shoot you). If he had one, I wouldn't be surprised if he had done it. He looked cold, unfeeling and really pissed off at me.

He sucked his teeth in frustration and shouted at me again: "WHAPPEN?! YUH CYAH DRIVE?!!! YUH HOLIN UP DE TRAFFIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (Meanwhile, he is causing the block-up ...)

By this time I wasn't able to be so calm. "When the obstruction is on your side, YOU have to wait!" (I know. Waste of breath).

The man behind me (who could see I had nowhere to go, but probably thought I was parked up having a pleasant chat with toad-in-green-car) was now shouting at me as well: "Move yuh cyah nah woman!!"

(Is this what they call male bonding?)

I don't know what happened after that. It was a blur. Somehow someone moved and next thing I knew I was driving again. I almost went back home but I kept going, thinking that if I turn back home and don't take this photo to be matted, I just won't feel like getting on the road again to do it later. I was shaking with anger at the way people are on the roads these days. The cumulative effect of other incidents on the way to that junction just made it all worse. The anger, the aggression, the lack of courtesy, the rush to get to God knows where - at the expense of other people's safety! And that man who probably thinks cussing women is what it means to be a man.

By the time I got to the art store, I handed the girl the photo and told her what I wanted. Then, after a short while, I just blurted out my fed-upcy and told her of the incident, accompanied by tears of frustration. I told her that there was a time when I thought the ignorance in Trinidad could change and things could get better, but now I don't think so anymore. It's actually getting worse. She agreed with me.

And the ironic thing is, there I was driving along my merry way with a photo called "HOPE".

Why on God's Red Earth would you want to?

(Canada Chronicles continued ...)

2nd post for the day
1st here

Thousands of miles away ... if I didn't read the TT papers I would be none the wiser. But I happened to check in today to see if there was any coverage of the opening of the Red Earth Festival which Greenlight Network was involved in (with a ceremonial procession of the I DO bride dragging her trail of rubbish behind her).

I clicked online to the Guardian first, saw the headlines emblazoned before me and instantly forgot that I was checking for Greenlight and Red Earth. I sat there bristling in silence, unable to think anything but ... why?

TRINI IN US TERROR PLOT (The Guardian)
PLOT TO BLOW UP JFK: Trinidadian, two Guyanese arrested (The Trinidad Express)
TRINI HELD IN JFK BOMB PLOT (Newsday)

Ten, nine, eight, seven ...

(Canada Chronicles continued ...)

I can't believe today is the 28th of May. Starting from today and counting down, I have ten more days here in Canada. I am technically leaving on the seventh, but because the flight is early in the morning, I have to be in the airport on the night of the sixth.

A few mornings ago, the first thought on my mind as I woke up was: "Thank you, Canada." I lay there feeling happy and very grateful for the whole experience of this trip. It is just a little drop in the ocean of Life, but I must say ... it was simple and full ... and it is the first time I can remember, in a long time, every single day of life having been a fantastic day ... waking up and my first thought being: "Wow, what's ahead?" ... or "Great! X is happening today!" ... or going home at evening/night on the subway with a smile bursting out of nowhere, thinking "Wow, what a great day that was." No matter how simple, something wonderful happened. Maybe it was the way I looked at it. Maybe it was just the way it was. (Or 'both', as someone said).

Yesterday, however, I woke up feeling angry and tense. It felt strange because I realised I had not felt anger or frustration in weeks. I mentioned later to my cousin that I was feeling angry and she said: "Is it because you are going back to Trinidad?" (She also told me she had heard me screaming and groaning in my sleep). I realised that anger and frustration (or anger as a result of frustration) are feelings that I experience daily when in Trinidad. Anger and frustration at the unfairness of many things that happen there (or don't). Even when one gets 'numb', as many people are, it doesn't mean those feelings aren't there. (This post is beginning to sound like a replica of this one).

The other day when liming with Kelly, she asked me what I would miss most about TT if I were to leave and live elsewhere (apart from loved ones). I thought for about ten seconds and said: "Nothing." Then I thought again (concerned that I could think of nothing other than loved ones) and said: "I guess I would miss nature and the landscape - trees, mountains, rivers, birds, etc." Then I thought again and realised that I don't have to be away from Trinidad to miss those things. Daily they are being destroyed before us.

Nowhere and nothing is perfect.
We (all) make it what it is.

Paradise

Death (murder, car accidents, on-the-job mishaps, medical foul ups - especially with children and babies), the Government's overspending, rising prices, poor public utilities, political confusion, corruption, judicial chaos, a botched up health system ... the list goes on. I have checked in with the TT online papers twice since being here ... and then a third time, just now.

Nothing has changed.

When I read the story today about the young dentist who was fatally shot by a bandit (who had entered his office and had his receptionist at gunpoint), my stomach churned and I started to feel sick and sad. Looking at the headlines alone, I felt parts of my body (which have been relaxed for the past few weeks) stiffen back up into a kind of subsonscious, defensive stress mode. Back in TT do people realise how tense they are (for whatever reason)? From fear of crime (indoors and outdoors), being stuck in traffic for a large part of your day, rising prices, horrible customer service, lack of utilities (no water, phones not being fixed, etc.), frustration over Patrick Manning and his Government ... etc. When I am in TT I don't feel that I am tense because I am numb and accustomed to the feeling ... but when I go away and that tension dissipates, I feel the change.

One friend, commenting on this, basically said: Spec, It is wonderful to see you out there living and breathing on the streets like real people. Here I feel we fear the streets. Opportunities are limited and people live in fear! Be free while you may.

We should not have to think twice about the simple aspects of living. A lot of valuable energy is wasted this way. E.g. If I want to go peacefully with my drum and play it wherever I want, I should not have to consider the possibility of (at worst) being held up (and my drum stolen), raped, kidnapped and/or killed. Or ... perhaps someone will just come along and start asking questions: "Yuh drumming? What yuh playiiiiing? Why yuh doing daaaaaat? Yuh ent fraid somebody go harrass yuuuuuh? Why yuh ent playing a calypso riddim? Gimme a dullah. Psssssst! Daaaahlin, yuh lookin sweeeeet! Why yuh sittin here by yuhself? Ah could join yuh?" Or ... someone could just as easily come along and join in and start singing and dancing or adding to the rhythm with a bottle and spoon. Any number of things could happen.

I won't go into my range of thoughts on TT right now ... although the thoughts are involuntarily rising because I have to return in a short while. My family and friends will most likely say they missed me and they're glad to have me back. My cat Jasper and the dogs will be glad to see me. Jasper will probably have some dismembered offering waiting for me on my bed.

And then what?

Dis Respect

My response to the second comment on yesterday's post:

Yes, women should respect themselves and not cheaply sell their bodies ... but men also need to respect women. In 'hip hop' slang a woman is referred to as a 'ho' or a 'bitch' (and who knows what else). This is not respect, it's not 'hip' and it's not 'great songwriting'.

You say you find Akon 'a great singer/songwriter' ... whereas TriniGourmet's opinion is that his lyrics and personal sentiments toward women are 'so sickening'. I wouldn't know(having not heard his music) ... but looking at the way he was treating that woman on stage I wouldn't be surprised that TriniGourmet is right.

In your opinion, he is 'not to be blamed' ... but from my perspective he disrespected that woman ... whether or not she was up there for 'a slice of the cake' (the spotlight) as you suggest ... or whether she was up there because she really felt she would win a trip to Africa ... whether or not she was a 'fool'.

Deceiving the women (whether as a 'joke' or not) by conning them into coming up on stage to win a trip was the first bit of disrespect. Their choosing to go up on stage to wine is their choice ... and, sadly, in a land where wining is proudly considered 'we culture' no matter how sluttish it looks, they most likely thought nothing of going up to 'represent'.

There are people who are saying (and will say) that the girl 'looked for it' by going up. As a friend of mine said, that is like saying a woman 'looked' for rape because of what she was wearing or where she was walking. The same friend also pointed out that Machel and other local soca artistes also invite women to wine on stage but (as vulgar as they may come across at times) we have never seen them fling a woman around the stage like a sack.

Is it that once a male 'superstar' is heterosexual, it's okay, normal and expected (perhaps even encouraged) for him to do whatever he wants on stage, no matter how sexually graphic and disrespectful, and 'get away' with it? Meanwhile, Elton John quietly coming to play his piano and sing his songs is raked over the coals.

Elton vs Akon

The Editor:

Where were all the pastors and their vociferous supporters when 'Prince' Akon conned those women into wining on stage (so they could win a trip to 'Africa') and filmed the entire scenario for the world to see on YouTube? Can we now expect a large paid advertisement from Pastor Cuffie ranting and raving against the fact that this 'international superstar' (not knighted, but 'royal') viciously wiped the stage floor and the speakers with the defenseless body of the young woman who had 'won' the first stage of the wining competition?

My sister sent me the link to that YouTube video. It is disgusting and degrading, to say the least. To think that this 'superstar' is allowed to come here and freely film this piece of 'entertainment' which looks like a violent rape being committed in time to music. He treats the young woman like a lifeless ragdoll, flinging her body around the stage, onto speakers and all over the floor with clearly no regard whatsoever for anything about her as a human being. Meanwhile, the crowd is heard laughing and cheering him on. (After all, wining and laughing at things that are not funny are part of 'we culture'). Perhaps those who were cheering were pleased to have an international superstar 'wining' to a soca beat and promoting 'we culture' over the internet, where it will get millions of hits and draw people to Trinidad, increasing tourist traffic for our new five-star hotels.

In the News ... 'The lifestyle'

This week's Sunday Scribblings topic is 'In the News'
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So ... what else is in the local news these days other than death (murders or motor-related), World Cup cricket, politicians/corruption, things about the oil/gas sector, smelters, public protests ...?

Every day (as of late) in the local papers, someone (article writer or Letter-to-the-Editor writer) offers yet another opinion on the latest and most inane of sagas: the Tobago pastors who are adamant that Elton John should not perform at the Tobago Jazz Festival since he is gay ... and, as there are locals who 'may not be sure of their sexuality', his presence could influence said islanders to adopt his lifestyle.

I haven't heard any of the radio talk shows and call-in responses. The public responses I've seen in the papers vary, but even those that attempt to sound 'accepting' and 'welcoming' of 'Sir Elton' are, in my opinion, still judgmental, with a tone of superiority (subtle, obvious, unwitting or otherwise).

There are:
(i) those who agree with the pastors and who start preaching in their letters-to-the-Editor against 'the lifestyle', sometimes quoting the Bible
(ii) those who say that Elton should by all means come and play as he is a great performer who has been kighted by the Queen ... etc. ... and just when you think they're not judging anyone, they end off with something cliche like 'hate the sin and not the sinner. God will deal with him when it is time."
(iii) those who admit that once upon a time they were homophobic ... until they made friends with a gay person/gay people and realised that 'they are nice people after all!'
(iv) those who ask 'what are the pastors carrying on about Elton for when HIV/AIDs, incest, child molestation and male beach-boy prostitution with tourists are all rampant in Tobago?'
(v) those who say that Jesus would not have been getting on the way the pastors are getting on because he walked with prostitutes and sinners and accepted them
(vi) those who say something to the effect that we need to value our gay people because they are our artists, our musicians, our actors and actresses, etc. ... and 'even' our doctors, lawyers and politicians (even?)

And so on.

So ridiculous.

The issue may die down after the Jazz Festival ... or not. Maybe this is only the beginning. At the end of the day, the real issue has nothing to do with 'Sir Elton'.

Mr Elspeth Duncan

I don't think Elspeth (a mere two-syllable name) - is difficult to pronounce or spell. Also, it sounds quite close to Elizabeth, so even if it wasn't my name and I'd never heard of it, I would assume that it was a female name.

Once I got correspondence concerning my BWee Miles (containing my new card). The envelope was addressed to Mr. Elspeth Duncan (in addition to which Elspeth was spelt wrong on the card - Ellsbeth). I contacted BWee to inform them of the right spelling and gender.

Then recently I got correspondence from Caribbean Airlines with a new card (supposedly with the corrections). This time the name on the card was spelled correctly, but it stated 'Mr. Elspeth Duncan'. I called and told them yet again ... and the woman said a new card will be sent in the mail with the correct thing. I wonder what it will say this time.

I have a client based in England. In one e-mail his secretary addressed me as 'Dear Mr Elspeth Duncan'. I wrote her back and told her it's 'Ms' not 'Mr'. The client (not the secretary) wrote back apologising profusely. But obviously he didn't say anything to his secretary because she sent me an e-mail yesterday beginning "Dear Mr. Duncan".

For some strange reason many Trinbagonians seem challenged by 'Elspeth' - spelling, gender, pronunciation - unless they've come across it somewhere before. E.g. A woman I met the other day at the silent retreat excitedly pronounced my name correctly the first time I said it (i.e. when the silent part was all over and we were talking). "Ohhhh! Elllspeth!!! I've read books with that name in it when I was younger!"

Resurrection, please!

A short while ago I was upstairs talking to a friend (on my cellular phone, since my landline is still dead) when I heard the heavy drone of a truck pulling into the driveway. I looked out of the window and lo and behold, it was a TSTT repair van! My heart leapt. I hung up and raced downstairs, ran out to them and said to the driver: "I could hug you! You know how long I have been waiting on TSTT to come?!!" He looked surprised at how happy I seemed, but that was honestly my first reaction. Rather than anger and fed-upcy, I was really overjoyed and relieved to see them. At last I could see the light at the end of the tunnel of frustration and inconvenience.

One of the men got out and checked 'the box' outside the house. I kept checking the phone as he did so and it remained dead. As the technician came back to the van and got in, I asked him where he was going.

"To check the line down the road."

I asked him what was wrong with the line.

"We don't know. We'll check the line down the road."

I asked him if he was coming back.

"No. We will call in."

They stayed by the 'line down the road' about five minutes before driving off. I walked down the road in time to see them heading down the road, out of sight.

My phone is still dead.

Maybe for Easter it will resurrect.

Customer service in T & T is non-existent

Yesterday a friend talked to me non-stop for over half an hour on her experiences with the horrendous customer service she had been experiencing lately in particular: laziness, apathy, rudeness, not-knowing-anything-about-the-product, etc. I listened knowingly.

On my end ... TSTT better get their act together and come and fix my phone this week. Every day since last week (or late the week before) I called them at least twice a day to be told each time that 'a technician had been assigned since Monday.'

On Thursday (day before the public holiday) I called in the morning from my cellular phone, while stuck in traffic, and was told by the young man who answered that the problem was 'a cable' and no technician had to come to my home to fix it ... that they could fix it externally ... in fact they were working on it ... but he couldn't tell me when it would be fixedd.

I called them again when I got home in the afternoon (upon realising my phone was still dead)and was told by the woman who answered that 'a technician had been assigned since Monday'. I asked her about the cable thing and she had no idea what I was talking about. I asked her to put me through to her manager and the phone 'cut off'.

I called back and asked for the supervisor of the repairs department. When I told her all of the above, she checked my documents and came back to the phone sounding surprised, saying that no technician had ever been assigned to me and the cable story is not true. So are these TSTT people making up things to get their 'valued customers' off the phone?

I told the supervisor that I feel like a hostage of TSTT, with no other choice but to WAIT until they see it fit to come and fix my line! (She said she would follow it up personally for me this coming week).

It is frustrating and highly inconvenient. If TSTT had competition they would be banging on the door to come and fix my line, calling me up immediately afterwards to find out if everything was okay, if there was anything else they can do for me and stumbling over themselves to give me rebates or at least a month off of paying my phonebill.