I am not certain that there is room on my hard disk for a proper account of all the activities we have been involved in this week. Happily, you are not in danger. For the dreaded RSI, which has been hovering in the background, has returned haunt to me once again. Thus I am forced once more to dictate my blog; this I find very difficult, because I think with my fingers and not with my mouth, a failing that has prompted a number of unkind comments.
So I may as well make a start. Sunday did not begin well, certainly not for Barbara. She discovered in the fridge a single tiny square of chocolate which, uncharacteristically, she decided to consume. It was probably an old and certainly a cold piece of chocolate for it immediately broke a tooth. This was no ordinary tooth but a crown which came apart, snapping the steel post that anchored it. Generously, I told Barbara that she could have the greater part of the appointment that I had booked with the dentist for the following Tuesday to repair a new crown that I had chipped myself.
Monday brought the first English lesson in three weeks, following interruptions for the secretary's funeral and then for Carnival. I gave Margarida the biggest squeeze I could, wishing that I could bring her husband back. She was still too raw to say more than a few words. I gathered from a colleague that Mousinho had died, not of liver cancer, but of septicemia resulting from it.
My pupils continue to discuss the efforts that English expats are making to obtain UK television coverage, of which more later. After classes we came home to tend the dogs and then went on to another funeral, this time in Alte. It was that of a long-ailing villager, Jose Maria, whose kindly wife had sold us a plot of land adjacent to our house. He was in his 80s, as indeed were many of the mourners - and the rest were not much younger.
On Tuesday, we just had time to give the dogs an early leg-lifter in the park in order to get to the dentist for a nine-thirty appointment. In two minutes the dentist had whipped out my damaged crown, which he gave to the technician to repair. Then it was Barbara's turn. Poor Barbara! The dentist had to drill almost down to her tonsils in order to retrieve the broken spike. It wasn't an easy session. She came away with a temporary crown, with a permanent one to follow next week. A recuperative brandy helped to improve matters.
On Tuesday afternoon I visited neighbors to inspect their Internet-by-satellite system. It offers four times the download speed that I am getting and many times the upload speed, although at a price. It's a system I been thinking about for some time. Tuesday night I put in an order.
On Wednesday Natasha came. We talked about a house that she wants to buy. Our lawyer is offering advice. I told Natasha that I would be seeing the lawyer the following day. That afternoon, I got a call from DHL in Lisbon. They needed more information about the GPS that had been sent to me in error and that I was sending on at the suppliers' request to the rightful recipient in Dubai.
On Thursday I got more calls from DHL. The first was to say that the Internet-by-satellite system equipment had arrived at the DHL office. The other was from Lisbon to say that the GPS intended for me had arrived from Dubai and was stuck in customs. Money and information would be required for customs to release it. I wasn't pleased. This is meant to be the suppliers' problem not mine. I explained the position to DHL and emailed the suppliers. I've not heard anything back from them.
We took May to lunch. Then we visited the DHL office to fetch a large heavy box containing the equipment. I found a technician who said he would install it the following day. He didn't seem to understand my Portuguese very well. This, as I discovered, was because he was Dutch and spoke much better English than Portuguese.
My aim has been to download programs from the BBC's iPlayer site overnight when there is no limit on data. To access the site I need to use a virtual private network to pretend that I'm in Britain. What I discovered this morning was that the download speed drops to a walking pace when it goes through a virtual private network. My downloading was not a success. Llewellyn and I have been discussing solutions. (Are you aware that using a VPN in cafe and restaurant hotspots encrypts your data and protects you from the hackers that now lurk in such places? Thank you Llewellyn for the warning!)
All this installing required the removal of dozens of dusty files and books from the bookshelf holding the various devices. Barbara has heaps of unread garden magazines dating back to her time in London. I have urged her to get rid of them but she finds them companionable even if she doesn't read them - and has declined.
The study looked as if the bomb had hit it. I spent much of the evening tidying things up and dismantling the old TV equipment that sadly is no longer of any use.
Midweek the flies and mosquitoes arrived with the sunshine. For the first time this year we didn't have an evening fire in the stove. Also for the first time I've been walking without a jersey or a jacket. I've hacked back the pups' heavy coats as far as possible, pending the arrival of new blades for the clipper. The flowers and orchids are glorious even if my beans aren't. I hope you've been enjoying them - the flowers!
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