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Published: April 12th 2013
Ashford
Waiting for the train Suzy is getting ready for her satelitte dish to be sorted - we hope. Booked in on Friday this week to a guy in Telford who hopefully will sort her out. We are not paying as although the guarantee ran out a few weeks ago we could not and were really not prepared to travel again to Dorset to have it fixed. The company did not want to come up to do it on our drive and they did not want to send us back to RoadPro for the second time in a year. In the end the compromise was made and we are booked in for this week fairly local. We need to empty the van again so that they can get into it to find out why the dish wont come down. Frustrating because it is always the worry when it is up that we will be stuck not able to drive with it flapping like a sail above us. We will be on the door step of Ironbridge so hope to spend the day at Blists Hill Museum. Possibly free as we believe that we may get complimentary tickets from the guy repairing Kathrein. Otherwise we shall have
to pay. The last time I went to Ironbridge Gorge Museum was way back in 1981 when it had first opened. I am sure it will be a lot more commercial than it was then. 30 years is a long time. Perhaps the weather will be kind to us. Summer time has arrived but it is still bitterly cold here with temperatures fairly low and a wind chill factor that makes it feel at least 10 degrees colder. The snow has more or less gone leaving just piles on the sides of the roads and near to the walls in the fields. Known in welsh as esgwrn yr eira - the bones of the snow it seems a perfect description for the remaining piles of snow.
April has come in we have no rain - Sion needs a scarf to keep his neck warm and his best friend Woolly has suggested that we get one knitted for him. He has told his grandma that she has to knit him one and to make sure it is bright coloured as Woolly has one in bright colours. Grandma has capitulated and knitted him a multicoloured red, yellow, blue and green scarf.
Serancourt le Grande
Vivier laux carpes - a lovely campsite with large fishing lakes ACSI It has been a bad week as Sion was also very worried to hear that Woolly had had to come home from his adventures in Europe early.
Our mobile WiFi was delivered last week within a day - excellent service - but we could not use it as we needed some code which would come to us from of all places Italy. We were informed it would take around 48 hours to arrive and we looked forward to play with it and get some kind of idea how it worked. Nothing arrived in 48 hours and then the Bank Holiday came in between . We were told that it was taking a little longer to get the codes sorted out. In the end after almost a week and a half we had to contact our suppliers to gee them on. Eventually the number arrived by text and we were able to try the device out. It wont work on my lap top but is loaded onto our IPad. It seems slow at the moment and it will be interesting to see how it works in Europe. It found 2G here at home although it is capable of locating 3
Besancon
In the municipal camping site ACSI . and even 4G service. The battery is failing on my lap top and orange lights are flashing annoyingly everywhere. I may not even take the lap top with me this time. It seems though that the battery was loose and after taking the laptop battery out and putting it back it now seems OK.
We have ordered a months vignette for Slovenia and the go box thing for Italy. I never remember what to call the thing. All I know is that marital harmony is maintained with the box in Suzy. They will be posted to us from Germany on the 10th so should arrive in good time for our departure. The first 21 days of the go box are free but five days of this are lost in the post. After the 21st day a charge of 1 euro is encurred to cover the cost of the box and continues until it is received back at the company in Germany. A small price to pay to sail through toll booths in Italy.
The nurse at our surgery gave us loads of information,most ofwhich we already knew, about Tick Borne Encephalitis. We are not going for long enough
Near to Sion in Switzerland
Sion trying to get his photo taken by the sign to Sion to warrant spending £120 each on the injections. And our September holiday is likely to be to Spain and Portugal where they are not so common. We are going to resort to not wearing shorts and sandles when we walk in the fields. Socks will have to be tucked into long trousers and meticulous checking for the little bleeders will be necessary. If we had decided to have the injection we would have had to have one this week and a second in two weeks. In two years time another £60 each for booster doses. A bit of a rip off. She suggested that we might want to consider rabies injections but we again decided we shall not be attracting feral dogs and cats . Don't think we shall bother unless we take up full timing in Suzy and that is highly unlikely for the next six months. In the end we bought some heavy duty mozzy spray. Should keep the little blighters off.
Monday the car goes for its cam belt and while there we will go and pick up our euros and order our Kuna from the Camping and Caravan Club. The service is very good and
they usually deliver the next day. The Caxton Card needs topping up. Not sure what the exchange rate is at the moment but it is hard to believe that when we first starting going over to Europe just a few years ago it was 1 euro 44 or thereabouts to the £. Now it is down to 1 euro 15 if you are lucky.
Tuesday and just less than three weeks to the holiday. We checked yesterday on the euros and the kuna. The Post Office was offering an exchange rate of 1.13 to the £. Nat West 1.12 ish CC offered 1.15 so the order was made. We checked up on Suzy's appointment in Telford and were told that we were booked in at 11.00 . We had been told 10 so yet again the poor old right hand does not know what the left is up to. We ordered a toggle SIM card and an unlocked mobile phone. The phone very basic just for use to ring home when we need to. The toggle apparently avoids roaming charges and we can ring home from many European countries for 3p a minute which is excellent value compared with
Lake Maggiore
Camping Parisi - boats around the lake from just down the road our normal EE network. Croatia costs 28p a minute again a considerable saving from EE charges. The ToggleSim card arrived this morning despite us having a few problems ordered it. We tried to order using the IPad and it would not work. After a call to customer service we were told to try on the laptop which we did. Again failure so a second call was made to Customer services who took the order over the phone. What they couldnt do though was add the credit to it so we have to do that once we get the phone . You get a number which is some kind of European one . I do not know nor care too much about the intricacies of the system. All I know is that this expires in a month. Every time you need to use the phone after this you order another new number which seems a touch of a pain. The proof of the pudding as they say will be in the eating. It is possible to pay £5 per year to keep a number but to do this you would need it seems a number for France, one for Germany, one
Lake Maggiore
A view from our front door for Portugal etc etc etc . This seems just as much a pain.
Wednesday and the phone arrived. A nice light red number which fits easily in the pocket, is easy to use with nothing complicated about it. It should do the trick. In fact it is so light it could be easily lost . The code hasnt arrived yet to set it up so we wait and wait and wait. Once that arrives we can set up the credit on it in readiness for going away. The euros and Kuna should have arrived this morning but didnt. They too appear stuck in the system. Funny how as the time creeps upon us the butterflies start to come round.
We will have to see what tomorrow brings.
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