Bedrock

Archive for the ‘spain’ Category

A quiet Friday, I spent the early part of the day in a very frustrating video conference back to the UK in which anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. My Bluetooth headphones had flat batteries which meant I had to conference using the PC’s speakers – which means every keystroke when responding to emails was heard by all due to the ridiculous way they mount microphones inside laptops. Hangups gets over this by muting the mic when typing – but Skype has no such feature. Meanwhile between broadband issues back in the UK and some equipment issues there, we had to abandon the conference call after a few hours. I can see a meeting coming up when I get back.

The spare afternoon gave me an opportunity however to work on home control – it’s sunny here in Spain but a tad cold right now – as I write this in the early hours, my controller is reporting it’s a mere 2c outside. I doubt it’ll get to more than 12c today though the forecast says blue skies again. I’ve a new controller up and running and the plan is to control more items and put more lights under automatic dusk/dawn control without resorting to bulky timers. I’d also like to get some form or remote access to the heating – always handy to warm they place up before  you get there.

Just returned from a trip to the market in Castillejar, the usual weekend trip to the supermarket and I needed some electrician’s tape and soon -  a quiet night with friends. Right now I’m trying to get my PC to talk to the Samsung S4 by USB – and not having a lot of luck.

There’s a little road that leads up to where our caves are – and at the top of the hill the council have built a new road – unfortunately in the process – their lorries have broken up the road we use every day which was originally paid for by a chap who died some time ago and hence is no longer here to gripe. As my Spanish is still rubbish – if anyone in the area would care to gripe to the council to come fix the road – that would be much appreciated.

I’ve done a temporary fix which might save someone’s tires being blown out but it won’t last – first heavy lorry will put pay to it…

If anyone wants to copy these photos please feel free.

Here’s the new bit who’s construction has caused all the problems..

Here’s the bit further down – the trucks had to come up laden with cement to build this new road… and…

As you can see the left side of the road is totally shot – half way down that actually comes to a point where you can’t help driving over it.

Maureen and I have repaired that small section only – the repair is just too big for someone with a few bags of cement and needs doing properly.

It’s been an eventful couple of days since arriving here for the second time in a month. Young Manuel featured in my last blog item has a home with Peter and Anne which is great. A load of wood arrived yesterday, nice almond from a new supplier, not the crap we got last time which I’m sure was full of mites. Our neighbours helped us bring the wood in and one brought us a chilli yesterday which was really nice of them. This is the first day in a while I’ve not made any arrangements to talk to anyone, email anyone, fly anywhere, have a meeting etc so a relaxing car trip instead to Mt Sagra (That’s the bump right in the middle of the picture at the back).

No great plans other than to drive out to the mountain, have a wander around, take some pictures and relax. Eating could be an issue as the restaurant at the top is apparently closed (thanks to Adrian and Liz for that info).

It’s looking like another nice day, it’s been sunny here now pretty much constantly but it is cooling off so that at night it’s just maybe 10c – but during the day it can reach 20-25c no problem.

The really good thing about this time of year is that while the weather stays nice, many of the flying bugs have given up. Best of both worlds… just not QUITE hot enough to sit outside and BBQ at night but that will return, soon enough.

I’ve loads of stuff to do including writing papers, getting a controller running so I can turn the heating on and off remotely – and much more – but today that will all wait for tomorrow it could rain. VERY unlikely but you never know.

Picture by Peter Scargill, Samsung S4 HDR setting, grabbed with Greenshot and processed with Picasa 3.9

Arrived here in Galera last weekend just for a short trip. Everyone here has been really nice.  We’ve not really done a lot this week but relax and in my case a little work. The weather has been superb for the time of year with the sun out every day though now you can tell the time of year as it’s starting to get chilly at night – maybe down to 10c or so overnight.

The first night we got here (late), friends Karen and Dave were on their last day of their trip and kindly put some tapas together for us so we had a great first night up at their place. Since then we’ve discovered a little kitten I call Manuel who is unique among the many cats out here in that he’s not yet zombified (feral). Most of them have no intention of being friendly – all they want is food. Manuel is the exact opposite and is far more interested in being cuddled. 

I’m hoping someone here will find a home for him before the cold weather or the nasty habits of the other cats kicks in. If you’re in the area and you see him – please think about taking him on – really friendly little fellow.

Other than popping in to see friends, the usual trips to Huescar and surrounding area but generally just relaxing this time – there are a couple of repairs to do around the place but they will wait. I have a bunch of meetings I really have to attend in the next few days but depending on the weather and flights I could be back again any time – outside of school holidays the flights can be dirt cheap.

Yes, it IS raining – first time since we got here and probably the last. In general – it’s been around 36c mid-day most days – absolutely LOVELY in other words…  if you want to keep up with us while we’re in Spain – meanwhile we have friends looking after the house and I have my CATCAM to keep an eye on the kitties.

Last night we went down in search of friends in Galera as is common on Thursdays and we met one couple (Len and Christine) on our way down who saved us the trip to the Galera Hotel – no-one there!! So we stopped at one of the bars in town and it didn’t take too long for others to find us – a great night chatting and drinking.

This morning we headed off to Puebla De Don Fadrique – a nice little town with a decent Friday market, with our neighbours – had a great time – stopped for churos and coffee. Came back to the cave this afternoon and I’ve been working since.

Well, I’ll clarify that I did SOME work, video-conferencing into the FSB in Blackpool but the latter part of the afternoon I’ve cracked some long-term issues with using temperature monitoring chips in my home control setup  – so all in all it’s been a good day.

I even made a break from my normal aversion to going anywhere near a church to take a look inside and take a couple of pictures – a crowd were in there doing their thing at the time.

Tonight we’re off for pizzas in Huescar (the Pizza Cave) with neighbours, tomorrow we’re meeting our Spanish neighbours and Sunday there’s another market… THEN we get to go to Gibraltar. Meanwhile enjoy the pictures all taken in Fadrique today. Click on any pic to see a larger version.

After another late night Tuesday night in which we were down in the village until 1am, I had had an early start Wednesday – a Skype technical meeting with Blackpool. That out of the way, we went off down to Galera for some essentials – you know, food, grease, sockets….

Maureen then headed off to the hot tub while I took apart an old power supply to extract one of those lead-acid batteries to try out solar charging which I have to say went well, but after I while the battery warmed up and I was worried about overdoing the charge and so ordered a controller from the UK which I expect will turn up in a week or so.

That will allow me to leave lights running including the new false window, on the battery until the voltage drops at which point they’ll turn off – but NOT frying the battery in the process.  Finally got the security cameras working again and in the process managed to clean the lenses – amazing what a difference that makes.

I had a bit more work to do in the afternoon (someone had discovered that a map we use in the FSB has West Yorkshire in the wrong place, now fixed) but then the urge to sleep took over (a combination of the night before and 3,000ft in the mountains) and that was the end of that afternoon.

Early evening and friends turned up somewhat unexpectedly so we sat for an hour or so chatting at the Pergola before they headed off just in time for some new guys (well new to us) to come walking down the hill and we stuck up a conversation there which went well into twilight!  By then it was too late to start anything and so Maureen went off to bed while I decided to ruin my day by messing with the WIFI.

Well, it wasn’t deliberate but as often is the case, the router decided it was not playing ball so I spent ages messing with settings before being able to clear off to bed to watch “Prometheus” – I think for the third time – saw it originally in the cinema  – amazing movie –  I think Ridley Scott’s best work so far.

Got up at 7am this morning, some unfinished coding to do which took no more than half an hour, Maureen went off for an early morning walk and then we headed off to the Huescar market for Churros and coffee. 27c outside so a bit cooler than recently but very nice non-the-less.

There was really nothing new at the market… and far fewer than the normal number of Brits we talk to so here we are back at the cave at lunchtime – I have some wiring to do before we head off to the village tonight.

Sometime in the next few days – I need to stop my office wall from snowing!