More tech support

Victoria Park, February 2021

Back in October last year I volunteered to support Lola II with her training course for community mediators, which involved finding out a lot about mediation, a deep dive into Zoom and much stress about Internet access. Well, for the last two weeks I've been doing the same for another course, with very much the same issues arising. Especially the Internet access.

Last time we were in a room in the ancient Town Hall, the sort of old echoey building where pigeons provided noisy interruptions at the windows and despite all the movable partitions it was almost impossible to avoid background noise. That room is now being used for vaccination and a new venue was needed, so we were installed in a less cavernous modern-ish room in a building associated with a church. Lola II and the other two trainers and I all did Lateral Flow Testing for Covid now that flow testing is available to all, so we all felt able to work without masks.

Our host was very welcoming and accommodated all of our requirements - tables, large TV screen, partitions for noise reduction, access to kettle and water, flexible about keys and getting inside in the morning. There have been a few minor issues - the venue also has lots of other activities going on, some of which involve children. The more major issue was with the Internet access.

The Facilities Manager (who by the way does not believe in vaccination or wearing a mask) told us on Day 1 that there had been an intermittent fault with their broadband, it seemed to be working OK at the moment, but they had logged it with the ISP. On Day 2, with no notice at all to us or to him, an engineer came to try and fix it, but obviously this would cause an interruption to the broadband access. Not a chance, we said, this course is run via Zoom and we can't do without continuous Internet. Although we would be having a 40-minute lunch break...

The engineer was actually prepared to come back at lunchtime and try to fix things within those limitations. Which he did, except that we lost our Internet on one PC a few times over those first two days, and you can imagine the disruption this caused. Lola II and her co-trainer were amazing, as I moved them to a different and unfamiliar computer with no notice and they continued to deliver the course without little hint that mayhem had erupted out of sight of the camera.

We also discovered on Day 3 that we should have cleared the room at the end of Day 2 instead of leaving our gear all plugged in and screens etc filling the room, because of the dance class that was supposed to be taking place that evening. We apologised and promised to do better next time. Day 4 started with the information that the Internet had broken the previous day (while we weren't there) causing the Pastor to be rather cross, so we thought about more backup plans, which included running four PCs through a mobile phone data hotspot, or decamping to Lola II's house.

Despite these dire portents of doom, the critical Days 5 and 6 (when the delegates practise the skills they have learned, followed by their assessments) passed with rock solid broadband. Phew. The only slight problem was when a guy turned up with a music centre ready to blast out Music and Movement for fifty children in the room across the hall. I ran over to ask him to turn it down a bit, and luckily he did.

The main lesson I have learned is not to be so ambitiously busy. I had booked a Sunday vaccination shift, followed by two days at the Diabetes Centre, then three days of tech support for mediation training, then home on Saturday via mum and dad. I had two Zoom meetings that weekend, and Sunday afternoon road-testing the pub garden with two friends (a tough job, but somebody has to step up). Then back to the Diabetes Centre for two days before three more days of tech support, another trip to mum and dad (this one being my fault as I had fixed the problem with dad's incoming email but created a new problem with his outgoing email). Then home, at last, with only one online social event on Sunday and a blissfully empty Bank Holiday Monday.

I was similarly overcommitted in the coming week, when I had rashly signed up for a double shift of vaccinating running from 7.30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday. But it has been cancelled, and I can't say I'm sorry.