My quietness has been induced by the sort of cold that turns your brain to the colour and texture of mushy peas.

It hasn’t stopped all sorts of strange things going on in the world around me, and unfortunately I wasn’t hallucinating. First there was the all day power cut, somewhat of a pain because I couldn’t snuggle up on the sofa in front of rubbish daytime TV. The next day, there was a water cut. Fantastic really. Then the phone line was cut while I was talking to someone. No idea what happened, but guessing that someone in the Sentraaaal pulled out the wrong plug, or changed the wrong switch – and not for the first time. So, no home internet, but thanks to a local embassy that has a named and unsecured wireless connection, I could hop online and at least listen to Radio 4.

The piece de la resistance came yesterday morning, when (phone line and internet connection working again) the internet service provider (well, service in its loosest form) sent a notification that we owe money for October and for November. Had, in September, we not paid three months in advance, I would have no quibble, but given that we did, that this was the third time we received the message and that after visiting the branch office we were provided with a paper that said the company owed us money, I was quibbling rather strongly.
So, it was with great delight that this morning I found a Customer Experience Survey in my inbox. Rubbing my hands with glee, I opened it. Check out this cracker:

What method of notification would you prefer? (Rate the below methods of notification according to you preference: 1 is highest, 0 is not applicable)

E-mail 0 1 2 3
SMS 0 1 2 3
Notification Page 0 1 2 3
Other: 0 1 2 3

I’m not altogether sure what 2 and 3 are doing. Probably likely that it goes something like this: Email – 0 not applicable, 1 highest, 2 lower, 3 lowest. Alongside stationary, questionnaires are up there with my favourite things. Badly designed questionnaires are like fingernails down an old chalk blackboard.

Given that this company doesn’t have a complaints department, or anybody who can actually deal with complaints in Customer Services (according to a call centre worker when I asked before), I’m not sure if there’s too much point in filling it out. I will, however, tick some boxes in the hope that (as USAID and similar organisations plan) perhaps something as simple as consumer rights might one day lead to democracy.

Not, of course, that there isn’t a democracy here already.