Bedrock

Archive for the ‘cave renovation’ Category

Lovely. Full moon, it’s 9pm and around 13.5c outside which isn’t stunning but it’s not freezing either… got a nice fire inside (22c) and the worst broadband connection possible! I screwed up TomTom on the iPhone and the only way to reload it is via the PC – which says it’ll be done in another 10 hours!!!!

As you can see on the right, I’ve now got 2 sets of the colour-changer solar lights – what a bargain (B&Q) and they work as well. Everything you see there is solar – sky was pitch black but the picture was a 6-second exposure. Tomorrow Tony the builder turns up to fix the gateposts and I’ll put a final coat of paint to cover up my wires.  I spent the afternoon working on the WIFI – I promised neighbours I’d try to come up with an arrangement that lets them use the connection when I’m not here for a contribution to my monthly bill (which I pay whether I’m here or not) and I’ve now got an extended external aerial and teatime I tested it – it pretty much covers the entire area, outdoors at least, I doubt it’ll penetrate cave walls. That meant fitting a second router internally but I had one lying around and now that’s all fitted up properly and tested.

I notice this fellow (left) appeared in the grassy area just in front of our place – he tethered – I’m guessing the farmer put him there to eat the growth – thankfully he’s not quite close enough to smell!

In the process of doing my wiring I ended up face to face with the horror you see below and right – something of an irradiated cricket – except I’ve never seen a cricket even REMOTELY that size, this fellow was near enough 6 inches long! I say was because he’s now languishing behind the woodpile with a mouthful of wasp killer. Hopefully he’ll have told his pals to keep away before going to meet his maker. Nearly gave me a heart-attack!

So not a bad day’s work altogether, finished off with a nice chat with my pal Jonathan and Maureen – though in both cases the quality was crap thanks to the TomTom download. I need to get shopping tomorrow and finish the vacuuming so I’m ready to to my rounds on Saturday which include a trip around Puebla De Don Fadrique for Kodak moments, shopping along the coast and finally a trip to the airport to pick up Maureen – that sure was a quick week… but then I learned how to do some serious programming in PHP (a language for the non-technical reader) and I’m feeling quite de-stressed which has to be a good thing. Hopefully Maureen  and I can find a suitable gate and post-lights next week and that’ll look really nice.

Well, I could get used to this… with the blinds closed here in the cave I managed to sleep in until at least 9am this morning – which is a rarity for me…  and thanks to turning off the email I didn’t have to worry about keeping up! Quite liberating. There are quite a few beetles about… and by that I mean slow-moving rather large black armoured types. They make a great crunching noise.

I have to say it was COLD first thing – 4C outside but that quickly changed as the sun came up – clear blue skies and by lunchtime it was 18c – QUITE warm enough to sit outside and relax in a t-shirt.

As planned I spent some time reading my PHP manual (computer programming language – I’m determined to master it this time in peace and quiet) and then started off downloading a bunch of TED videos to watch in the absence of decent TV (no Sky card until my wife Maureen comes over next week).  I watched a great TED video about our false ideas about the “third world” – some of which now has lower birth-rate than the west and lower child mortality. China’s progression in the past 30 years has been nothing short of stunning – though I still wouldn’t want to live there.

I sat with my sandwich at lunchtime looking down at the valley and noticing the utter lack of sound or movement – no-one here but me – though I understand that’s not going to last.

I spent part of the afternoon wiring up the solar lighting outside – new sets of colour-changing lights with separate solar cell which are miles better than the stand-alone units who’s solar cells point up (as if the sun is EVER directly overhead unless you’re in a hot desert).

Tonight I went off to Huescar to get some supplies, but not before taking a few HDR pics as the sun went down – this new technique (well, new for me) really does get across the imagery that normal cameras somehow miss. I note the road from Galera to Huescar has been resurfaced – shame they couldn’t have put a little bit of that money into fixing our dirt track road!! 

Now I’m back, log fire is on, it’s warm as toast in here and the solar lighting outside makes the place look like something out of Disney. Thanks to the miracle of Skype I can video-chat to folk all over without cost – which makes all the difference when you’re on your own! The only sad news is that my colleague Steve has apparently had a fall over the weekend and is in hospital back in the UK – if you’re reading this – best wishes.

Not the prettiest sight right now, our new set of gates is in place, I can see a paint job coming on for me very soon. Next stop the new wall and it’s own gate and then some lighting… thank heavens for Pinctura Plastica.