Greetings, all

I'm DavidL aged 80. I would have been DaveL but that was 1 character short of the minimum. Oh well!
I've been a very satisfied Lebara customer for four or five years now. I've never had a problem with the Voda network but previously was with PlusNet and it was a struggle to get a signal.
I've been with PlusNet as my ISP since 2004 and been well satisfied but am greatly disappointed that they don't offer VOIP/digital voice, so if I stay with them, I lose my landline. Also, I don't fancy having to change my email address if I move to another ISP, so it's a quandary and at my time of life, I could do with none of them.
So, I hope everyone has good signals and a Happy Christmas with families or friends.

Welcome DavidL, thanks for taking the time to introduce yourself. Great to hear that you're very happy with the Lebara coverage and service. What are your plans for Christmas this year?

Martin Hi Martin. Kind of you to ask. Family is too far away and there's already a houseful planned, so just a quiet Christmas with my dog. He wants sausages for his Christmas dinner. I'm thinking of a quiet Christmas Day run to the seaside so doggo can have a run on the sands, but we'll have to see what the weather does on the day. Are you with family for Christmas?

That sounds fantastic DavidL! I prefer a quiet Christmas myself. I'll be spending the festive season with my partner at home with the cats. They will likely be after the sausages too so we're thinking of cooking some some plain chicken as a treat.

Things have changed somewhat. The church my late wife belonged to have invited me to a Christmas day lunch. I mulled it over as I'm not a member of the church and never will be, however, after much agonising, I decided it would be churlish to refuse such an open-handed, kind and thoughtful offer to a person who'd otherwise be on his own. So I've accepted and will probably slip a donation to them to ease my conscience.
Then a friend who's recently moved from London to a location in north Lincolnshire has invited the dog and me to visit on Boxing day (my late wife's birthday) for a short stay. It's 110 miles each way but the roads should be fairly quiet on 26th.

Now all I need is a new regular weekday dog walker. I've encountered so many shallow, deceitful people so far. People who've made appointments to meet and have not turned up. My dog's nervous of strange adults and afraid of children, but a young lady who wanted to walk him on Sundays has done so and after 3 or 4 walks, they're best friends. He's a big dog, but is gentle, placid and walks beautifully on a lead and she loves him to bits. Other new friends made through their grief at losing a beloved pet have become much loved by my dog after a few days. He's no problem at all and when I walk him (I'm on crutches so don't go far and don't go fast) off-lead, he's very obedient and so easy to handle. His previous walker loved him to bits and said he never caused her a single concern in 9 months, but she decided the distance between our homes was too far and too slow to travel, so she's dropped him with great regret.

I've been with PlusNet for almost 22 years and they've been good but from last June, they were due to hive off their email business to Greenby. They also don't offer VOIP (digital voice) so I had the option of moving to EE and renting my old email address from Greenby

So that's a good rattle, isn't it?

Oh dear, some of my rattle disappeared, so here's what I was saying about PlusNet.
I've been with PlusNet for almost 22 years and they've been good but from last June, they were due to hive off their email business to Greenby. They also don't offer VOIP (digital voice) so I had the option of moving to EE and renting my old email address from Greenby and retaining my landline. Unfortunately, my contract ended and still Greenby haven't taken on the emails so I was faced with EE plus landline but no email or PlusNet plus email but no landline. I chose my own landline number back in the early 80's so didn't want to lose it, but equally, an email address for 22 years wasn't something to throw away. I decided to stay with PlusNet and lose my landline. I'm having to have fibre but my twisted pair was plenty good enough for me. The engineer arrives on Friday. Damn you PlusNet for not offering digital voice. In essence, BT, PlusNet and EE are the same company but of all the ISPs, PlusNet have the best rating for customer service and I can drink to that.
So that's completed my rattle, albeit in two pieces. I wonder why my text was truncated?

Well David, I'm 75 and have just moved to Lebara from EE in the Summer. I have been pleasantly surprised at how good the reception has been with Lebara. I moved primarily because I live in a granny/grandad flat and have no access to either fibre or a land line. I use a Lebara sim in a CPE sim-only router and the 5g connection is as solid as a rock. I was only able to get a poor 4g signal with EE. I am at the Bournemouth University campus housing estate on the borders of Poole, and I travel quite widely locally and there are only a few few spots in the New Forest where my signal drops out using Android Auto. From Plymouth in the West to Shaftesbury/Salisbury in the North to Portsmouth/Southampton in the East I have been pleasantly surprised with the reception I get. There were a few spots on Dartmoor and Bodmin moor where I could get no signals, but that also applies to every other provider. The deals I was able to get via the gogroupie website were fantastic, I am paying under $8 a month for 3 sims, one 100gb data and two 50gb data sims , the 100gb I use in my CPE router and the other 2 in mine and my wife's mobiles. Unbelievable value with EE with whom I was paying nearly £50 a month.
David, the truncated text was probably a fat finger old fogey type thing we get at our venerable years!

Hi Barfly and thanks for your information. I've not heard of using a SIM in a router to access the internet, but then, I'm rather naive about these things. I've no idea how many gigs of browsing I do each month but a fiver's-worth of Lebara is sufficient on my phone. Clearly I don't have your mobility - I've been on crutches for years and am waiting for my GP to find me a donor for a full body transplant LOL!
My wife died just over a year ago due to Alzheimer disease. I looked after her for a long time before she had to go into care. My best friend died a week before her and my beloved old dog who'd been my friend and support for years had to be PTS a month later due to osteosarcoma in the shoulder. My new dog is a pal, asleep near my feet; I couldn't cope without a dog. Family are far away, so it's just the dog and me for Christmas.
Best wishes to you and yours. Have a Happy Christmas and a good 2026. David

Merry Christmas to you too. I guess I have been lucky with my health. Ex-tv engineer, I had a really bad electric shock in 1986 that nearly killed me, but am ok now, apart from the managed type2 diabetes. Heart attack in 2012 in Perth WA., 2 stents but no problems other than creaking bones and dodgy knees going up stairs. Life has been good, 33 years in Perth, self-employed all my life apart from a few jobs, WA State service manager for Pioneer Electronics, then for Radio Rentals. Went back to college at the age of 50, did 3 years full-time networking and computer system administration. Lifelong learning is the key to keeping the mind young.


I hope you don't feel too lonely, I am part of the local Men's Shed movement here in Southbourne, it's a terrific place for men of our age, you get together with guys of a similar life experience and do charitable works for the local community. After spending 33 years in Australia, on returning I found that many of my old mates had moved away or are no longer with us, or just don't want to know us any more. The Men's Shed has helped me make some great new friends without that ostensibly or overtly being the reason for going there. It's a nationwide movement and I'd urge you to contact your local branch, it can have a wonderful effect on your own well-being and self-esteem.
Cheers Tony

Hello again Barfly. Thank you so much for the Mens' Shed information. A search shows a developing one initially dealing with woodwork and gardening. Unfortunately, I'm not much use for anything these days as peripheral neuropathy and diabetes have screwed my hands and feet and I've lost balance. I couldn't dig a garden on crutches and my hands, once used for repairing electronic equipment down to 0402 can no longer make an effective soldering job on a discrete resistor! Fortunately, I can still drive (an automatic) and my dog's good off lead. Shopping's a strain and I tend to buy stuff like quiches, sausage rolls and pies so I can do a quick nuke in the microwave. It saves the struggle of cooking for one's self. My dog's looked after well, though.
Dog and I have been to a doggy Christmas event today. Very enjoyable, old friends and made some new. Good walk for the dog from someone who knew him when he was in kennels and despite sleeping all the way home, he's crashed out on my foot, so it must have been good. I wanted to buy him a jazzy new coat (he has 3 already) but there were none his size. Oh well, we'll have to visit the rescue where they have more in stock.
My wife hated travel, so we never ventured far. Europe, Turkey, Malta just about covers it. We have family in Australia but I'm too flaky to visit them now and would hate to leave my dog behind. There are places I would like to visit - museums etc. but I couldn't leave my dog, so if the dog can't go, I won't LOL!

DavidL
Sorry about your peripheral neuropathy and balance. I gave up doing electronics when a Panasonic projector landed on my workbench with a blown-up power supply. I checked the circuit diagram and ordered the most likely components. When they arrived (in a DL sized envelope sellotaped to a small piece of cardboard) there were 3 black specs I could hardly see some with four minute solder tags only visible with a massive magnifier. No more fault-finding down to component level for me!
Glad you were able to enjoy your doggy event, we're cat people, but lost both ours a few years ago. Not been able to get another pet, we still miss our two enormously. The place is so empty without them.

At our shed we do all sorts, the main continuous activity is the restoration of hand tools. We ask members of the public to donate hand tools and get a steady supply. The members with mobility issues then sit in the garden or when we have inclement weather we use the church where our shed is situated (no attachment to the church per se) where we sit down and sort and clean the tools ready for transport to Sub-Saharan Africa. This is repeated across the UK, from the Channel Is. to Lerwick and beyond, NI and Wales too. Not just the Men's Shed organisation, many other charities also contribute. Each month a 40ft container packed with hand tools sets off for Africa. The £1200 cost for transporting the container is met from charitable donations also from the s**** metal recovered from tools which are beyond restoration.
We have a young chap who has both legs and both hands amputated as a result of sepsis, he is amazing with what he can do with his stumps, he has a young family and his outlook is really positive and he is just an amazing chap a real inspiration and an example to all of us of what can be done no matter the level of handicap. I am sure if you contact the Shed you will receive a warm welcome. Our main object is companionship and mental health maintenance. Here in Bournemouth we have a huge influx of people from other parts of the country and when they get here they have no friends or contacts here, the Men's Shed is a lifeline for them. The ladies seem to make friends so easily, men not so much.