After over 5 months (!!) of waiting , my DSL account has finally been activated.
It's not as if I live in the pampas- I'm on a major street in Frankfurt about 2 km (as the crow flies) from the DECIX- the main German internet exchange. For some reason (I heard various stories), the former monopolist T-Com was not able to activate a line in a reasonable time.
Anyway, it's here now and after a bit of mucking around with cables, it's up and running. This is the first site I'm visiting.
I think I'm going to like this- the world is so much more responsive! And no more timer to make me nervous while reading things!
G