Plan B

The last time I was out in Spain, our nearest neighbour was kind enough to connect me to his internet router. This we achieved by dangling a cable across 3 houses. Fine in summer, but not so clever in winter, as his router was perched on an exterior spiral staircase, 2 floors up.

So our neighbour kindly offered to ask a good friend of his to call by and connect me via their secure system, to his Wifi. We'd decided to take an alternative solution with us, just in case there were problems! Computing wizz pal, arrives, does not speak a word of English, so dialogue is a bit patchy. So he takes my Netbook and is unable to connect me, something to do with the password length.

Never mind, after a suitable length of time, we walk up the street to our neighbours place, stand in the middle of the road, and make like locals by shouting his name! When his head appears, closely followed by his pal's, we shout PLAN B, and hold up a long roll of computer cable.
We now know that PLAN B needs no translation and is immediately understood in Spanish, as connection follows swiftly.

I'm supposed to be decorating, but the weather is just too wonderful to miss, so we take plenty of trips to the beach and seafront to soak up the views.

It was fairly unusual to be able to walk around the Old Town and see much more of the place. No matter how many times we walk over to the Castle there is something we've not seen before.

 

We'd assumed that we were there just between seasons, right up until we saw one of the Tourist Trains go past along the seafront, full. A little while later, another one passed by, also full. The town as usual, has carried on with it's cultural events, and the Notice Board is beside the Tourist Office which is open for business.

The town roundabout on the seafront was remarkably quiet, most unusual!

While at the supermarket I spotted the hugely confident local Geese, one decided to have a go at me. I grew up in the country, and I have yet to be intimidated by a Goose. Still, I have to admire them, strutting their stuff outside a supermarket, just a month before Christmas!

As for the decorating, once I'd started there was a little bit more renovation that I'd been expecting. Scraping and filling holes to be done before any decorating could be started.

Time to retire to a deckchair, with a glass of something decent!

You have to laugh....eventually

Here's two photos of gas meters. The old and dusty one, was in our gas cupboard for almost eight years, quietly adding up our usage, until we received a letter from National Metering telling us it had to go.

Apparently, the meter had a battery which was impossible to replace. I wonder who had that bright idea.
Anyway, a day was booked for the replacement to be fitted, the job was done and the fitter left the shiny new one in the box, fitted.
One slight problem, it made a horrible whistling noise. The sort of noise that goes right through you and starts an instant headache.
Back came the fitter to the house next door, which was making the same horrible noise. Between us, we used up all the meters he had in his van.
He said he's never enountered anything like it, scratched his head, and called his boss, then came back with another batch of meters.

We thought the problem had gone away, but we were wrong. So, I put in a call to the company call centre, who gave me the run around suggesting I should contact my energy supplier who could arrange a new meter...etc..etc. Well, I let National Metering know that they have caused this, and they should fix it, it really has nothing to do with my energy supplier!
I suggest that I should call the press next, and they could send a TV crew to have a listen to the noise that we were enduring.
Amazingly another fitter arrived within an hour, changed the regulator and hey presto, bliss.