At 00.00 o’clock on the night from Friday to Saturday, the 1st of December, my internet connection suddenly stopped. I opened the link that had popped up and read the following text from my Internet provider Best: “You have to pay your bill.”

My ISP ‘Best’ knew now mercy. The month I had paid for had ended, and a second later they had switched off my connection. A good beginning to the month. I cursed (during November my Internet connection had faltered several times), but understood that Best was a force I could not beat, especially not at night.

2

The ‘Best’ Queue

The next day I walked to Best, a few block down from my house, and I soon found out that many more people had been disconnected overnight. As I was approaching the office of Best, I saw a line of people.

“Paying for Internet”, I informed to the guy in front of me. “Of course”, I said to myself, before the guy could even answer.

1

Later another guy lined up and asked the woman at the end of the line: “Are you all here for paying your Internet bill?” His surprising tone rose my irritation (what else could they be waiting for?), although I had asked the same question some minutes before. He mumbled something about automatic write off, as is common in Europa, but did not continue our discussion.

I paid my bill for the next month and when I came back, my Internet was working again. I had been gone for two hours.

5

6

On the road my mood improved as I saw a woman feeding pigeons. Pedestrians passed with their head hidden in the collar of their coat.

4