Last night it was a bit dark in the house so I decided to turn on a light. The switch looked like this.

So I reached out and did this…

…and the switch looked like this.

The whole process (decision to turn light on > stand up > walk across room > flick switch) took less than ten seconds. It wasn’t very hard at all and it didn’t cost me any money.

Last week I decided to have a different company pipe the intertubes into my house so I got on the phone and ordered it. Deep inside the bowels of a Brunswick red brick building that houses a telephone exchange is a switch that currently looks like this.

Apparently it takes five to seven working day for a technician to get off his or her arse and do this…

…so that the switch looks like this.

Plus it costs $75. First world telecommunications, my arse.

(Mind you, it’s kind of cool blogging from a cafe with free wi-fi, loud, funky music and lattes on call.)