Bedrock

Looking back over these posts and realising what a wonderful time we had this summer gone. Back in Blighty there is absolutely nothing positive I can say, the country’s leader is an apologist waste of space deluded in thinking that Europe actually gives a shit what he has to say, the opposition leader is a losing, bag-biting communist, the weather in the North is atrocious with people losing their homes due to floods and businesses being finished off due to losing their livelihood, something we COULD have prepared for but didn’t…  and all I can think of is “yes and what contribution to sorting this is coming from the many, many countries we help (India for example) or those who’s refugees we’re taking in… zilch – absolutely zilch.

We should immediately cut off ALL foreign aid, cut off ALL charitable work overseas and start looking after the innocent victims of climate change AT HOME. But we’re not and insurance companies as always are biding their time at home in comfort as others suffer – and that is annoying the hell out of me. At least when I’m in Spain I don’t understand a word of the news on TV and I can just live in la la land and pretend all is ok (while conveniently enjoying the sunshine). THe only good thing I can think of is that this week we’re apparently going to move up to 80Mbit broadband.

We’ve made lots of friends in Spain and some of them we visit when we’re back in Blighty which I’m really looking forward to. We’ve had some great experiences and I can’t wait to get back there in April and start all over again (well, perhaps not the fights with the shipping companies but all the rest of it). I keep tabs on the weather over there thanks to some technology I’ve left in place and I’ll grant you – in Galera it’s not a lot warmer than it is here – but it is also a lot less wet.

Some good news, my waterproof Pebble watch which famously failed miserably as Maureen and I were enjoying swimming in salt-water along the southern coast of Spain was, as you might have read, replaced by the company. Well, time rolls on and I noticed the new one has a slight fault – only tiny – there’s a little air bubble in one corner – as if the laminated glass/plastic finish was separating – nothing to write home about but I wrote off to Pebble and lo – a replacement watch is once again on the way.  Ok, they didn’t get it right, the technology didn’t work as advertised but you just CAN’T fault the customer service – in a week or so I should be starting again from scratch with a hopefully improved Pebble. These guys are great.

Meanwhile the work I did in Spain on my summer “sabbatical” had proven worthwhile – I developed some home control software and hardware and tested it in just about the worst electrical environment you can imagine – Spanish rural electricity and line-of-sight WIFI which while nice, fails at the mere hint of a storm – and by the end of it, my ever evolving kit and software survived and recovered (thanks to a lot of help from a growing online community of people determined to help). I’ve brought that knowledge home and my current work is controlling the heating here in freezing cold England and soon will control just about everything else electrical and up to now it is proving to be bullet-proof.

Maureen is getting into the local gym which is conveniently in line of sight of our house, we still have SO much work to do, compounded by a chimney leak which we hope to get fixed this week and heating issues unrelated to my kit but related to so-called electricians and other workmen who could not give a shit. We’re discovering ALL sorts of issues with the house and slowly solving them one by one. Meanwhile I’ve had great success with the technology blog at http://tech.scargill.net and on a regular basis I’m getting sample technology from companies in the hope of a decent review (which I don’t do – I review as I see something – not as the companies would necessarily like me to see their kit). The other day I had 1,700 genuine visitors that one day and I’m rapidly heading toward 3,000 followers on my Facebook tech page – a goal I thought was impossible a mere year ago.  I want to dramatically increase all of that in the coming months.

Meanwhile we’re about to consider letting the cats do outside before they drive themselves, and us, around the bend with their “extra beans” caused no doubt by confinement.

And with that I’m giving up for the night – have a nice weekend.

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