Hello world!

We arrived home after our weekend working in London to find that we still  had no internet. We had been told, promised and assured that it would be connected on 13th February. It was not. On Tuesday to spoke to a Customer Options Manager at BT who asked for 48 hours to look into the problem and to get it sorted out. Thursday, she said, we should have internet. We told her we had had enough and that we wanted to cancel our contract. 48 hours she asked for. We waited. We also began to explore the option of signing up with the local community internet provider. Thursday came, Thursday went. We had an answerphone message to say that internet wouldn't be switched on, she was very sorry, but it would be next Tuesday. We didn't get back to her. We made an appointment for a site survey to find out if we would be able to get Reeth Rural Radio.
We popped out this morning to run some errands. We came home to find a new blue light on our home hub. Internet? Surely not! But yes, connection! It took some believing. We checked on our phones,we checked on our computers. We are indeed connected! Hello world!
Being without internet has been irritating and time-comsuming and expensive in drinks in pubs using free wi-fi. E-mails have built up in my in-box, chatty messages to friends have been too fussy to send, blog posts have been unwritten, Spanish pronunciation has been guess-work and little admin jobs have assumed enormous proportions. But the children have played together more imaginatively, books have been read and work has stayed outside the house. A number of peopls have asked us if we really do want the internet back in our home. I do, without a doubt, but I have enjoyed aspects of the wi-fi free life. Before tide sweeps back in, it is time to review what has been good about our enforced break and to build firm boundaries to preserve the space we have found.

Boiler

My head is spinning. The plumber came to move our gas bottles from the front of the house to the back, and cheerily let us know that we had used almost all the gas. All four bottles. £300 worth of gas. Since December! We knew bottled gas was expensive and the house difficult to heat, but we weren't quite expecting that!
He switched that boiler off to reconnect it to the new pipes. He switched it back on. Nothing happened. Nothing at all. So, next week, we are having a new boiler fitted. It's quite cold in the house right now!
Hopefully the new boiler will be more efficient and we'll use less gas. Hopefully.
In the mean time, we have had the most beautiful sand-stone hearth laid in our living room, ready for our new log-burner. The idea being that this beautiful feature will heat not only the lounge but the bedroom above and cut down on our need for heating, which is good considering the cost of the gas.
The sandstone slab was probably "dressed" two hundred years ago, and laid down in the local hills I-don't-know-how-many million years ago.
It puts our life into context, something to ponder as I will be sitting, toasty warm, on my sofa in a couple of weeks. For now though, it's an extra jumper!

Working

Not the broadband (latest ETA is next Tuesday, and I got a £50 bill from BT today!), me. I am on my first two-day visit down south to do 12 hours of teaching and head home. We are tweaking things a little and have bought a new car, just a 3-door Citroen, which works out around the same price as the trains but so much more flexible, and are finding our feet with the on/off pattern. Lack of Internet continues to more than frustrate me but we are making do and I was pleased to see that I had almost achieved my goal of 12 posts in January despite the technical obstacles. I achieved nearly all my goals (having changed the baking to 12 x in the year which seemed a whole load more realistic , especially with a son who loves to cook) but I didn't make the Breastfeeding one. I suspect that this too has its roots in wi-fi absence but we shall see ...

And still no Internet ...

We are, finally, on the 'phone! But there is a problem at the exchange, an engineer has been reassigned and we are assured of Internet connection by 3rd February. My frustration is enormous; I love my iPhone but it is not easy to blog on its tiny screen and I've just paid nearly £4 for two of the children to have a drink and crisps in the pub so I can use the free wi-fi.
Still, I have been out running on Brownsey Moor and seen my footprints in the desolate and untouched snow, days after it fell. I have been caving with the children and our new friend ( head of local mountain rescue so I was in safe hands) and seen our footprints in the silty mud 60feet underground. Opportunities we are grasping and loving!

Another life

I have been so looking forward to blogging but I only get 30 minutes on the library computer and I have 10 left and still got some financial stuff to do!

I have so much to say about our amazing poetry tea yesterday. We set off on foot up the hill-side and along the barf (a wide, flat stretch of grazing land) to arrive at our friend's house which he has rebuilt from derelict, powered by gas lamps,  a solar panel and a small wind turbine. We had fresh raisin bread, apple cake, pancakes and a long and happy afternoon of laughter, anecdotes, poetry and good food.

Our host is a man of the kind of wisdom born from a life of many experiences and I have been left with much to ponder regarding goals, schedules, savings and time..

BT are due on Monday! Hopefully we will have a phone and maybe even internet at home!!

Peace?

And it's still so busy! I am being forced to look long and hard at my choices and my reactions to figure out why, right now, life feels more, not less, busy that it ever did in South West London.
Is it really to do with BT failing to connect us last week? It does feel that every 'phone call becomes an issue as I have to walk down the road and stand in the snow to get a connection. Simple jobs like a quick transfer of money build up until I find the time to sit, as I am doing now, in a pub with free wi-fi, and then I rattle through the list watching the minutes slip away. On the other hand, no doubt I get those jobs done more quickly and I am not distracted by the computer at home.
Is it really to do with the snow? It did feel last week that the snow made everything harder, not least planning my first trip back south with the children to do my first weekend of private tuition. It was particularly important that I fulfilled these commitments to demonstrate that this ideas of living in the Dales and working in Sunbury was achievable. It was. Despite the snow all week and the car breaking down twice in one journey! But the snow does make it all so beautiful, the whole Dale a smooth white and fresh, untouched drifts to jump in three days after it first fell and the children free to head out of the back of the house and play on the hill-side and build a snowman taller than they are!
Is it really to do with it all still being so new? We have had the electrician round three times, the builder, the plumber and the chimney-sweep. Expensive decisions need to be made about installing showers, stoves and moving gas bottles. We are still getting used to heating the house, finding things in their new homes and remembering to feed the chickens.  However, we have a beautitiful home in a breath-taking location and my morning run from my front door is in an area of out-standing natural beauty.
Is it me? Too easily distracted, too high expectations, just too stressy? I am reminded that I take myself with me wherever I go and that weeding out the busy-ness and stress starts inside with some tough choices about what really mattter, what I ultimately choose to put first. And I will continue with my journey towards and stiller, quieter, more peaceful life.

No BT

We still have no communication! No-one arrived last Wednesday and we have been told that they won't  come until mid-February! Shocking service!

We're all well and good though: successful first trip back to London, despite the weather, and now home and enjoying the beautiful snow.  Three chickens are enjoying freedom from a battery farm in our "garth" (a walled enclosure) and the children are enjoying dance and football and are about to start drama (one each). All good!