One way and another, this has been quite a week. The first - decidedly unwelcome - development was to return from our morning walk on Saturday to find that my tractor was no longer parked where I'd left it beside my wall builders. It was 20 metres away with water squirting from the valve of the right rear tyre. (Tractor tyres are filled with water to lend the vehicle greater weight!)
Slavic explained that he and Andre had heard the hissing and - sensibly - thought it wise to move the tractor to level ground while the tyre was still inflated. Leaving them to carry on working, I shot into Benafim to get a new valve. But this failed to stop the flow. So we jacked the tractor up, drained the tyre, got the wheel off and propped it up - pending rescue.
Rescue arrived on Monday in the shape of Paulo from Auto Salir. But his high-sided van wasn't nimble enough to ascend our steep, damp driveway. To get the wheel down to the van I sought assistance from Joachim, a tractor-owning neighbour. Joachim arrived promptly but sans tractor; it was loaded with firewood, he said. So the three of us manhandled the heavy wheel down the driveway to the van.
PAULO RE-ATTACHING THE WHEEL
Late the same afternoon Paulo returned with the tyre reinflated, this time in his own 4x4 pickup. The problem had not been with the valve, he explained, but with the punctured tube. This the garage had patched and refilled with water. It weighed a ton. Even so, Paulo managed to haul it off the pickup and wheel it across to the tractor where he bolted it back on. I was very pleased to have my tractor back. There are few things more useless than a three-wheeled tractor.
HOOP DAFFODILS
About the same time Jones reported her phone missing. She last recalled using it after returning from our p.m. dog walk. Dusk was falling. With the aid of a torch, she retraced first her route up to the telef (where she likes to toast the sunset) and then down to the waifs - while I intermittently rang the phone. No luck!
THE ROUGH INDICATION OF WHERE THE PHONE LAY - BLUE DOT
I then tried locating it via Google's Android Device Manager. This informed me that the phone was lying within 7 metres of Espargal Road - which it indicated with a vague dot on a map. However, the map showed every road in the village as Espargal Road. It wasn't helpful!
PALE BLUEBELLS
Suspicion fell on Mello who had twice before stolen Jones phones (she stands on her hind legs to hook them off tables) and rendered them useless. We checked her favourite spots. In fact much of Tuesday was spent in searching. Jones was depressed at the thought of losing another mobile and anxious to find it.
THE FIND FOR THE CAMERA
The following afternoon, Llewellyn - learning of the loss - suggested that I return to the Google software and press the RING button that would cause the phone to ring for a full five minutes. It was towards the end of those five minutes that Jones heard the faint tinkle of the phone near the bottom of the drive. She found it in a clump of greenery where she'd pulled out a couple of weeds.
LITTLE WONDER WE HADN'T BEEN ABLE TO SPOT IT EARLIER
Meanwhile, Llewellyn messaged us to say that we should look for the phone where the cement drive met the tarred road - exactly where we'd found it moments earlier. He had logged into Google as Barbara, found the rough location of the phone (as I had) and then switched to Google Earth view which was much more precise.
THE GOOGLE EARTH PICTURE SHOWING THE SPOT - COURTESY LLEWELLYN
The moral of the story for owners of Android phones (as opposed to Apple, Windows etc) is set LOCATION to ON and to register with Google. The software also allows the (logged in) owner remotely to lock a phone or delete its data. I should add that it's useful to have a tech-smart relative.
Before I leave Llewellyn, let me add that we are rapidly approaching the end of Foyle's War, a TV series that he introduced us to - sending us boxes of DVDs. We soon became addicted and acquired the rest of the series. For those unfamiliar with it, Foyle's War hinges on the investigations of a policeman during WWII and the years thereafter. But that tells you nothing about its lure.
Reverting to the tractor mishap - it represented the second puncture of the weekend. A wheelbarrow tyre that had been fixed just last month deflated again. I took it back to Helio who runs a buzzbike and garden machinery repair shop in Benafim - a dark cavern so chockablock with buzzbikes and dripping with spare parts that he is forced to work almost on the pavement. He repaired the tube again after extracting a tiny needle of steel that had embedded itself in the tyre.
MAY IN HAPPIER TIMES
Changing tack once again - we visited May on Monday, really to say goodbye. We had learned that she was going rapidly downhill with a second dose of pneumonia and had declined further food or treatment. We held her hands for a few minutes. She was too weak to speak - ready to join her Harry whom she missed so dearly.
Her Scottish nephew, Kenneth, flew in on Tuesday night and hurried directly to her bedside. He phoned us a little later to say that he had managed to spend 15 minutes with his semi-conscious aunt, clasping her hand and reminding her of good times together. Then she gave a sigh and died. The staff said she had waited for him to come and so it seems. RIP May. We met up with Kenneth on Wednesday as he now deals with the bureaucracy entailed on deaths and funerals.
SCREENSHOT OF THE TAP SITE
Early in the year as it is, we have been turning our thoughts to a holiday this coming October when our house sitters will be down again. I mention this because I was trying to compare easyJet's prices to Madeira with those of TAP. EasyJet proved easy enough. But each time I logged into TAP and entered tentative flight details, its site accused me of being a robot and blocked further access. This happened for several days. I reported the problem to TAP who say that they are investigating.
LEG-LIFTERS IN THE PARK ON A WET MORNING
Equally frustrating have been my attempts to report a noisy phone line to Telecoms whose helpline inevitably entails a long wait. I eventually got through and, after plugging and unplugging the phone and filter as instructed by the assistant, was informed that the fault lay not with the line but the phone. So I disconnected the phone and bought another. No improvement! This time I tried reporting the fault late at night and got through straight away (having navigated the inevitable menu). In fairness to Telecoms the fault was fixed the following morning. It turned out to be at the exchange in Benafim.
THE ORPHANS CLAIMING THE BEST SPOT BESIDE THE FIRE
Friday we are taking Maria and her little dog, Lucky, to Loule for Lucky's third and final vaccine shot. Lunch with Ken follows - and perhaps a couple of rock runs in the afternoon.
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