Around the holidays, there was a lot of interference again, apparently as punishment for a web page in which among other things I talk about stuff that has happened to me here in Portsmouth. (Weeks-long punishment also happened around Easter for writing about stuff done from the the day I picked up the keys to my first flat here. I’m supposed to keep my mouth shut, quietly sit in a corner of a back room and knit hats.)

This time, among other things, two of my SIM cards were suddenly asking for a PUK code, including my Dutch SIM card. I later found that I couldn’t access my account online for that card either, when I thought of asking for a replacement.

Some time later, both cards were working fine again and no longer asking for a PUK code.

So, I have some money – 20 euros – in my Dutch bank account right now so I could ask and pay for a replacement card.

First of all, is it necessary? I don’t know. I did transfer one of my English numbers – the one that I use for 2fa – to a new SIM card last year. Because it is something that I can DO.

Second, would they be willing to send the card to the UK?

Third, if so, would it arrive?

Fourth, if so, might it then already have been tampered with? Because of what’s going on here?

Fifth, would it really make a difference? As it would likely still remain just as easy to interfere with it.

This morning, one of my phones said “Angelina stalking ja” in my typing suggestions.

“Angelina stalking yes”

That phone also keeps telling me that Google feels that there is unusual traffic coming from my phone and then asks me to do one of those visual verification exercises with bridges or fire hydrants. (This has happened before in the past few years.)

It also now keeps insisting on downloading the NOS app when I go to the NOS news site, which it didn’t do before, just like LinkedIn currently insists on logging me in and out automatically, via Google, on my computer, which it didn’t used to do before. LinkedIn also insisted on changing the interface language to Dutch, which it also did not used to do before. These three things may merely be quirks, however.

I didn’t try to order the replacement SIM. Every time I do one of these things, either several more problems crop up or the thing that I was trying to solve still has not been solved or gets done again.

(Such as me adding and upgrading locks. No, folks, candy bars don’t walk into my flat all by themselves, CoQ10 bottles don’t empty themselves all by themselves and monitors sitting somewhere safely don’t move themselves around and rearrange themselves while I am out, just to name a few things.)

I didn’t top up my phone balance on that card either. (It’s zero.) Why bother?

But two of my English banks often won’t let me make a payment without demanding verification in their app. Their ways of verification are rather haphazard, which is of course a good thing. But I often can’t access the apps and I currently don’t have a single phone that isn’t compromised. If I allow that situation to continue, I am asking for problems, am I not?

So I have looked at Apple products, but they tend to be far too pricey for me and when they’re not, because used, they tend to be so old that they are no longer supported.

Should I try to get a fixed landline again, then?

But my landline got fucked with too in the past. It told me that I was at death’s door and that my mailbox was full.

I’d better learn to go sit on the patio and yodel or use smoke signals if I want to communicate with anyone, including my banks.

I’ve refused to do that so far. Silly old me, I am far too demanding. “Wanting to be able to use her phone, freely access the internet, use text and e-mail? Who does she think she is?”