Showers at the end of the day - the kind one takes in a bathroom - were not as pleasing. For some time the hot water has been just hot enough for me and not hot enough for my wife. I phoned Octavio, the technician who services our solar (water-heating) panels, and asked him to drop by.
Sunday we visited two Christmas fairs. These are held through-out December, generally on a Saturday. Because I'd been caught up with wall-building, we'd missed a couple that Jones would gladly have attended. Now was our chance; one had been organised by the Rotary at Almancil and another at the luxurious Conrad hotel.
The first produced little of interest. I took an instant dislike to the beat-music that boomed out from speakers. Most of the stalls displayed unappealing Christmassy nick-knacks of the made-at-home variety.
The fair at the Conrad hotel was more upmarket and more commercial. A small youth choir provided infinitely preferable music. The stalls were all set up in small alcoves that made it difficult to inspect the goods on display without risking a marketing blurb from the vendors.
I was interested in small cordless bedside lamps until I heard the salesman tell a Portuguese couple that there were selling, that day only, for a reduced price of €100 each.
After lunch I left Barbara to conduct May around the shop while I walked the dogs and then snoozed in the car. May proceeds at a snail's pace, clutching the trolley for support. I can but admire Barbara's patience. An hour and a bit later, the pair of them emerged from the shop behind a load of drinks, chocolates and other goodies, most of them intended by May as gifts.
Monday evening, at Llewellyn's suggestion, I downloaded all the latest Canon printer drivers to see whether they could revive my ailing printer. Then I hooked up the printer for a diagnostic session. It was all to no avail. Finally I googled striking Canon printers. They were legion. It seems that both the print-heads and the purge units are the main cause of the trouble.
Tuesday we went to the bank to ask our account manager to attest to our living condition, a requirement for the continued payment of our UK state pensions. Thence to the Goldra dog sanctuary to get a replacement tax invoice from the girls (who'd made an error in the first one) before joining David and Dagmar for lunch. They were newly returned from a five-week visit to Australia.
In the afternoon I ploughed our fields, which were covered in a green carpet. To my astonishment, as I was turning over the earth, three small dogs came trotting down the field and disappeared into the road. The next moment, they came haring along the road with a local dog in fierce pursuit. They disappeared down into the village somewhere. At the time of writing, they have not reappeared.
Late afternoon Octavio appeared to service the solar panels. We explained the problem with the water. He went up and tested the system. Everything seemed to be in order, he reported. He had to empty and refill the tank. We promised to let him know if the water heated up. It didn't!
Wednesday morning May called. Her electricity had failed ...... yet again! We phoned Fernando, her electrician cum Man Friday. He went around. Her fuse box had tripped, he reported. May hadn't figured out how to reset it in spite of being shown any number of times.
Natasha came to clean and Roslan to paint the ironwork. He paints well, both carefully and fast, with never a drip on the tiles. If only we could communicate. We have to call on Natasha to talk to him.
His native language is Ukrainian. But like most Ukrainians he speaks Russian too. So Natasha speaks to him in Russian and then to me in Portuguese and I to Barbara in English. Seems to work.
When these sprout in a month or two, he will return to graft all kinds of fruit on to the suckers.
We could graft several different fruits on to one tree, he told, or separate fruits on to different trees, as we preferred.
We give our carob crop to Armenio and he returns the favour several times over.
I put a new chain on the chainsaw; it raised a cloud of angry smoke but didn't cut.
Roslan pointed out (literally) that I'd put it on back to front (which isn't difficult).
So I had to take it off and put it on a second time. Then it worked just fine.
Finally, Paulo, the local plumber, arrived to establish why we had no hot water. I followed him up the ladder on to the roof. He checked the system out. Everything seemed to be in order. He concluded that the valve in the mixer he'd installed had jammed.
So he gave it a dozen good whacks with a spanner before asking us to test the water. Jones said it seemed to be heating up. After taking the dogs for a walk, we tried it. Brilliant! We had our first really hot showers in ages. What a pleasure!
Thursday Natasha and Roslan returned. She cleaned. He painted. I ploughed.
Jones planted fava beans in the rows the scarifier had left, and then sprinkled ash across them as a marker.
Finally I cut up the remaining branches. It took an age. When you cut down wild almond trees, you get a lot of foliage.
Friday: We went shopping, looking for discounted dog-biscuits and lots of other stuff. We kept on bumping into Marie and Olly.
When we got home we went to collect the firewood that Roslan and I had cut up. The forecast is for showers on Saturday, threatening both my wall building and access to the field.
We found that our TV encryption had been changed yet again. Happily Joao came through late afternoon with the new code.
Idalecio called to say that three small dogs had arrived at his place and had been camping outside one of his cottages for several days. The were evidently the same three that I'd seen earlier.
Jones took them the chips and other left-over scraps from our meal with neighbours last night at the chicken shack in Salir.
She says the little animals fell upon them.
Anybody want three little dogs?
No comments:
Post a Comment