News Browser outage

Regular readers who wonder why things have been a bit slow during the last few days may like to hear our weak excuses. On the right is the prime reason: a badly installed BT junction box on a rather sturdy pole. Experienced eyes may notice the wires hanging out of the bottom of the box. The whole rather artistic-looking arrangement tends to flap with the winds of Benevenagh and disrupt all web activity in an instant.

The main reason for the outage is invisible of course: mainly British Telecom's peculiar customer service lines in a far away country were everyone assumes that if something goes wrong it is the customer's fault. Add to this BT's snail-like emergency response once they decide that they better look at the problem - and all News Browser activity is bound to crawl to a lengthy halt.

The fact that you've read this article a moment ago, means of course that the fault was finally fixed!

The outcome

It is only fair to record that once the telephone technician arrived, he did a superb job. Broadband speed is up by 50%. Thank you kind sir!

It looks like a finch, it smells like a finch - but is it a finch?

The other day our resident wildlife photographer met this strange-looking customer fluttering along the slopes of Benevenagh. We are not sure exactly what it might be and hope that more enlightened readers may cure our ignorance.

The bird has all the hallmarks of a finch: proper size, round head, split tail and triangular beak are all present and accounted for. The one thing that puzzles us is the blonde appearance of the little fellow.

Help!

The Red Arrows

The Portrush airshow was held at the beginning of this month and as usual, the odd odd-looking plane crossed the local airspace on the way to the show.

Our lucky photographer can offer the rare view on the right: The Red Arrows flying in formation over Benevenagh forest on their way to Portrush - not something one sees every day!