catch us out when we are not looking! Just to let us know that he is there
in the wings waiting to take centre stage, his old buddy Mr Frost came out
to announce the oncoming rush of the cold months ahead. The garden looks
nice with a white dusting but the cold bites hard on certain plants not
expecting it yet. The autumn colours are fantastic in and around the
village. We have a fair bit of colour in our and our neighbour's gardens. It
will be sad when the leaves have all dropped and the bare branches are left
waiting for the warmth of spring to bring life again.
Progress, yes we have experience of the word, and forwards for a change
rather than in reverse. We have a phone line, and believe it or not an ADSL
connection, WWW watch out we are coming at speed. Speed of a snail maybe but
we are there. It has taken just the mere 8 weeks to get sorted but finally
the wheels of Telkom dragged themselves into motion and things happened. The
new telephone pole arrived, the hole was dug, the pole put up. The wire run
from top of our drive via our new pole and hung temptingly at our door
waiting for it to be connected up. As usual it always amazes me watching a
hole being dug here. It was no more than 0.5m * 0.5m square and went down a
good 1.25m. Now you try digging that out with a metal pole and a shovel! It
may have taken 3 of them to do it working in shifts, but with pole in,
rubble back filled, it was as sturdy as an Egyptian obelisk, without the
hieroglyphics of course! The next step was to wait a few days for the
technician to come and connect it all up. No, that's not right, the next
step was for me to crawl through our loft to feed the wire in and down into
the house. Telkom do not do that anymore after 'problems' in the past. I
presume 'problems' translates into technicians falling through ceilings!
Anyway I did my bit and a few days later the man from Telkom did his. As
usual all is never as easy as it should be. The technician could not supply
us with a modem for the ADSL, oh. He did have one but said it was a rubbish
model, better we go to the nearest Telkom shop and get a good one. The
nearest Telkom shop being a mere 150km away in Pietermaritzburg!
So off shopping it would be. We are always making a list of items we need
from outside the village so at least it would be a multi-purpose run to the
shops rather than just the unlikely prospect of getting a modem. Our fears
of getting what we needed from Telkom were proven accurate. No modems in
stock, anywhere in SA apparently, well not the one we were hoping to get.
They did however dig out one especially for us from the back office, yep the
same model as the technician had which he would have rather used as a
demonstration of the physics of gravity by dropping it from the top of the
nearest mountain peak! We did protest, but knew that fighting a brick wall
with a stick of wet celery never is a successful battle. The only good news
was that we collected our other freebie in the deal, a 3G USB modem with a
8-ta (Telkom's mobile network) and enough vouchers to pop plenty of data
onto it. Being as disorganised as expected the poor lady helping us only had
vouchers of R10 and R20 value and have to give us R150 worth. So scan each
one in she did, convince the system that each one was free she did, take
nearly 20mins to process all required for the R150 she did. Crazy way of
doing business! Job done, will the modem work back at base, another story!
We have the promise of a phone call from them once they find any decent
modems, holding of breath not a good idea at this point.
We finished our shopping, didn't find much on the list, but made the 300km
round trip worthwhile at least, even if the modem was most likely to be a
nice ornament for us to admire during cold winter nights. As expected back
home with the nice shiny modem wired up. Nowt. Several hours later into the
dark of the night, nowt. Help from the '24 hour' support desk, finished at
21h00, didn't manage to get through to anyone even at 17h00. The following
morning, more playing with cables, some joy, even got an internet connection
at one point but lost it. Help desk now at work but not much help and could
only raise a fault on the line to be checked out. Eventually either by
immense technical skill on my part or as some might harshly put it 'luck' I
got a connection. Quick, don't touch it, don't even look at the modem just
in case it changes its mind! They processed the fault and said all checked
ok, what did they check we will never know as we saw no one. Whether me
getting a connection as they were 'checking the line' and finding it ok were
just a coincidence we shall never know! Anyway, even when horror of horror
the power went off, when it came back on we still managed to keep a
connection. So fingers crossed we are in business now. We shall see in the
long run! So those who feel the need for 'speed' we are back in the land of
Skype, well possibly if we can push the snail hard and convince it to break
into a trot. Our telephone number is available on application!
Now, as for build business, we had a visit from the window people. The chap
thought the marks on the windows were fitting marks, not good enough. He was
independent and dispatched by the boss of the company to make a report on
the state of play, good news from our side, and good that he saw the same
issues we do. Will we see any action on it ever, who knows. We live in hope
but the thought of getting all 11 panes replaced again depresses us! As for
the next phase of build for the garage and the main bedroom / bathroom
suite, we are working with Oliver the builder on the quote etc. and hope if
all goes well things can get started before the end of the month. The main
decision we have taken is to remove several things from the quote to action
ourselves, like finding and supplying all the bathroom fittings as well as
the carpeting of the bedroom. It makes the initial quote smaller and gives
us more control over these sort of items also ensuring that we get what we
want and we know what it cost. Obviously it puts more pressure on us to find
and supply things at the right time, but we want to be a bit more involved
in the build this time making sure that some of the silly issues we had
first time don't crop up again. Time will tell.
It was nice that our house has been a busy place for a different reason over
the last month or so. Three different sets of visitors, Kaz Rich and
Rebecca, then Mike Sally and James, and finally Sue's father Bob. It is nice
having people stay even if accommodation is a bit on the short supply at the
moment. We have a nice comfy bed, but our guests have to make do with an
airbed or cushions on the floor. It is manageable but not ideal, but having
people stay is fun and it is nice for friends and family to see where we
live now. The feedback has been good so far, and Mike Sally and James are
set to return for a long weekend in June. Perhaps we need to up our prices!
James (Sue's 5-year old nephew) just wants to see snow, in June, perhaps. He
demolished our raspberry crop single handed last visit, going to have to be
a berry free diet next time!
Last but not least, mice! Along with our ever energetic mole who seems to be
making new flower borders quicker than we can, we now seem to have many a
three-striped mouse in the garden. Well we assume it is more than one. We
see him / her / them rushing around the garden at great speed heading from
where to where we know not. Whilst moving the compost heap the other day I
found him / her / them in the heap along with a wee little shrew, oh and
several large frogs. It is nice to know that the garden is alive with life
providing they obey one simple rule. STAY OUT OF THE HOUSE!!
