So armed with a less than ideal signal and Skype BETA (handles multiple video locations), GotoMeeting and my various documents ready to go for a meeting that started at 10am UK time, we started on time – to echos… no matter what we did, we got feedback and echoing.. we scrapped Skype and used Gotomeeting on it’s own with mics on mute until requested.. and so it was we managed several hours of meeting in 3 countries. I’ve a suspicion the problems were down to one site not set up properly but hey… still something new we’d not done before!

The weather picked up and so I decided the answer to the WIFI issue was to re-site the one router so it is line of site for upstairs AND downstairs – a mere matter of 8 metres of network cable and a small cupboard to mount the lot at the bottom of the stairs. 5pm, off we went to Huescar – and returned empty-handed. The electrical shop was closed and not one of the furniture shops we looked at had such a thing as a small cabinet. If we’d had a B&Q I’d have wrapped things up in one store.

So, as is often the case, it’s a trip to Granada (namely Carrefour and Brico-Depot) to sort out the bits we need. I’m hoping the weather is going to be nice for the drive and perhaps we’ll take in a bus tour.

If you’ve an iPhone incidentally you can now read these blogs in a special theme for the iPhone – just punch in the normal web address and you’ll get a special version of the blog.

Turns out that builder’s electricity is good for 2 years – and it’s 2 years! Hard to believe they could not get proper electricity installed in that length of time – my patience is starting to wear thin on this one – I don’t fancy the summer holidays with a generator!

Update! Electricity is back on and has stayed on for some time now. I have no doubt it’s still sub-standard, sometimes dropping below 200 volts which breaks appliances and shortens the life of electronic lamps – we’re already onto our second Jacussi heater, we’ve had to replace the timer on the dishwasher – but it turns out it was the heating element. Bulbs have gone.. the builder has a lot to answer for. If you’re living there and reading this – have YOU had appliance issues yet?

Despite all that I’m looking forward to getting over there and getting some HEAT!

It appears that there have been some developments (though not all good) on the electricity front and we’re getting a visit later on (apparently) to learn more! Those of you reading this who have caves up here might like to enquire later!  Voltage yesterday was near 200v as against a pitiful 170v the day before but it’s still not “real” mains and the heaters are acting accordingly.

I’ll give you an example – today we went off shopping to Granada. As usual, shoppers in front of us using credit cards were asked for identification (they don’t seem to use chip and pin here) but for once we were paying cash – at Carrefour and MediaMarkt.  It may be we’ve always used credit cards in the past or just not taken too much notice, but not only did the operator at MediaMarkt open up the goods we were purchasing (presumably to ensure we could not claim that bits were missing – not that they’d know the difference on anything really technical) but EVERY Euro note we gave them was checked through a machine.

This is either the height of paranoia or they have some SERIOUS fraud issues – I can’t remember the last time in the UK I saw anyone run notes through a scanner. Apart from the time wasted while this process occurs it does not exactly give you confidence in the people around you in the shop – the assumption being we’re all a bunch of crooks!!??

Another issue I’m becoming aware of is that no-one seems to know how to mix concrete – and if they do they’re not letting on – all around us we see severe winter damage despite the weather here CERTAINLY being no-where near the disastrous weather we had in the UK this year. Concrete simply falling apart because of ice getting into it!

On electricity – well, there’s a fight we’re just starting. Voltages in our area as low as 170 volts not only causes heaters to run at less than 50% efficiency it also damages motors which stall due to insufficient power and damages electronic lighting already blighted by the unfortunate fact that retailers here seem to buy in the cheapest Chinese junk they can get their hands on. I plan on next visit to bring in plenty of electrical equipment from the UK where at least we have some standards! Meanwhile we’re planning to take on whoever is necessary to get something remotely like normal electricity. Anyone local reading this – please note we need your input.

More on this later and you can’t get away from the fact that it was WARM this afternoon while back in the UK no doubt folks are freezing…