Wednesday 18-10-2006 From the caravan !!!

We understand that the UK is going through a heat wave, with lots of things melting all over the place. Congratulations to you all, enjoy.
Our nights are getting quite cold, so leaping out of bed takes a bit of doing first thing in a morning, however by eleven o’clock it is warm and sunny and in the low twenties. This morning we had rain for ten minutes, just enough to keep the dust down.
Whilst I was pruning the almonds with my chainsaw yesterday I had a phone call to ask if it would be OK to come and fix up the micro wave internet connection (stupid question). The engineers were about ten minutes away from Taberno. We arranged to meet in the Lentisco’s car park, so I stopped desecrating the poor almond trees and drove to meet them. We all arrived back up at site about half an hour later.
After a lot of chin scratching and looking deeply into their lap top, parked on the bonnet of their van, they decided that I would have enough signal strength to warrant them making the effort of putting up the aerial and installing it onto my computer. Once again I had to lend them my tools because they hadn’t brought this spanner or that drill bit. However in the end we have an aerial pitched high on the portacabin roof facing the direction of the sender aerials in Albox. We look like Menwith Hill with out three arials. We have full signal strength and the modem etc is all connected up. They left in rather a hurry which seemed a little funny but promised that Madrid (no less) would have me on line within the hour or perhaps in the morning. You can see where this tale is going can’t you?
Last night, after they had gone ‘the modem could not find the server’. I don’t worry too much and put this down to my impatience. I tried several more times before going to bed last night, all with the same result. At this stage I started to smell a rat and remember that when anyone does anything like this to a computer it always takes about a week to get it up and running properly despite what the optimistic hearty engineers tell you, so they can get home early to watch the football.
We went to Albox this morning and so it was nearly two o’clock when we got back. I switched on the generator and then the computer and would you believe it, it still couldn’t find the ruddy server. If it would only ask me, I actually know where the damned server is.
As you know from now, much phone calling will take place at enormous cost over the next few days and weeks, but come two weeks time we should, perhaps, maybe, might be back on line and in the land of the living once again.
BTW The wood from the almond trees is so heavy and dense that it burns a bit like coal but with a nice smell. I will be saving quite a few choice pieces in case Santa happens to buy me a lathe for Christmas. It’s really beautiful wood and would look well as candle sticks, a bowl or as chair legs
The pictures today are, what else, but the lovely internet aerial perched atop of the port cabin. Well I thought it interesting. Plus a few scalped almond trees. I work on the basis that a good pruning is better than no pruning at all.

PS. Despite all that I've just said above, I have changed the wires around on the modem, from the way that they were left by the engineer last night, and low and behold, I have just uploaded this blog actually from the caravan. More news as it breaks, later.