New Sky!

Day 17

The Sky engineer was due today to replace our ancient Sky box in the bedroom, which had stopped working a few weeks ago. He would then install a new Sky Q box downstairs, and a mini one upstairs, so we were looking forward to that very much! I've missed being able to watch live TV in the bedroom!

He'd been booked to come between 8am and 1pm, and he called at a few minutes after eight o'clock to say he was on his way. We had received an email to say that, with the restrictions in place, he was no longer able to come into the house, and would have to talk us through the installation from outside...

Luckily, today was sunny, dry and calm! I dread to think how he would have fared yesterday! He turned up at just before 8.30am and stressed again that he was not able to come inside. He then asked me to disconnect the Sky+ box from the dish, but I didn't have a clue what he was talking about. Keith had gone to do the shopping but luckily, Sophie was downstairs, so together we managed to sort it out. He gave us the new box through the front window and warned Sophie not to bend the delicate wire going into the back of the box otherwise it wouldn't work. I dread to think what Keith would have done if we'd mucked it up and he wasn't able to watch the football or cricket! He would have killed us!

While Sophie was sorting things out downstairs, I went up and disconnected the old defunct box in the bedroom. I then connected the new box, which didn't need attaching to the long cable going into the phone line, so all that is now redundant! Once the engineer had been out and replaced our dish he connected the Sky Q box downstairs and told me what to do with the mini one in the bedroom. Keith came home just as he was finishing, and was amazed that it had been completed so quickly and easily!

Once the engineer had gone I helped Keith put the shopping away and tidied up. We were delighted with the new box as it has so many more features than the old one, and we can watch Netflix and Amazon Prime downstairs, which is a huge bonus!

The post arrived, and I had a bit of a shock when I opened an American Express statement for my parents. There was a charge on there that I hadn't expected, and also a late payment fee! I hadn't had a statement for a few months, so I called customer services immediately to see if they could help. Although I'm not the cardholder, they were able to put me through to a specialist department who were extremely helpful, and who emailed me a Third Party Mandate form for my Dad to sign. 

Sophie and I went for a walk at lunchtime, but it was cold and windy so not the most pleasant of outings! Back home I filled out the form and then drove to the care home to get it signed by my Dad. I sat outside in the freezing cold wind and waited, but at least I was able to get it sorted and sent off to American Express.

In the evening Sophie and I settled down with a drink and watched Grand Designs from yesterday. Now our old box has gone, a huge amount of recordings have gone with it, but with the Sky Q box we can record up to six programmes at the same time, which should solve a few problems! We also found a host of Apps, including a Taste channel which shows cooking videos! It was a bit like being in the US on holiday and seeing strange TV programmes! Also, anything that is recorded is stored on both boxes so we can watch them upstairs as well, useful if Keith's engrossed in the football downstairs! I only wish we'd switched sooner!