Yes, a couple of gripes this week, probably because I’m fed up as it’s been raining and last week I thought Summer had arrived…wrong…I keep waking up and thinking I’ve been transported back to the UK.
So, on with the moaning…you can stop reading now if you like…
We have paid Enel plenty of dosh, to ‘up’ the amount of voltage that can be consumed at the same time (don’t ask me the figures, I really don’t get how they measure Gas and Electricity) BUT it hasn’t made a lot of difference We cannot have the oven, the kettle and the water heater on simultaneously, never mind, the washing machine, vacuum cleaner and iron. It’s part of the charm of living in Italy. So a regular cry of, ‘Don’t put the kettle on, I’m baking a cake!’ or ‘Switch off the washing machine, I want a cup of tea!’ can be heard ringing around the happy home. When we do forget to shout instructions then there is immediate black out (if it’s at night) and one has to negotiate the stairs, find something to stand on and a stick, in order to flick up the switch. Of course, the meter couldn’t possibly be positioned anywhere convenient because that would spoil the fun and be very un-Italian. Even in the daylight it is not amusing, especially if I’m in the middle of creating a literary masterpiece, the moment can be lost forever…well, half an hour anyway.
My second gripe this week is Microsoft Office. In the summer of 2011 I bought a new MacBook computer and I love it. I loved my old MacBook too and although it was getting a bit sluggish in it’s old age (4 years) it was still working so, I donated it to my husband whose own computer had come to a sad end when thrown down in a fit of pique, it missed the soft landing of the armchair and ended up on the floor…dead, it was no more, It had ceased to be – expired and gone to the big Mac in the sky…
When I loaded Office onto my new computer a problem occurred. My husband and I (don’t I sound posh) could not use Word or Entourage or any other office programme at the same time! Even though it said on the box I could have three burns of the CD. Even though both computers are technically mine. Even though… I can’t think of another one but all the same it is the most frustrating thing. We have learned to live with it, we tolerate these little hiccups of life that are sent to try us and concentrate on dealing with the more important things.
What are the more important things? Ah yes, tea, the answer to everything.
‘Switch off the boiler, I need a cuppa!’
actually … so far as I am concerned the weather was the last remaining thing (apart from immediate company of course) keeping me here in some semblance of contentment – now that Italy has turned into Scotland in February I have gotta go! – I hear Da Nang is the new Puerto Banus so if we leave now we’ll get there before the Germans!!!
My way of overcoming problems with electrical blackouts, was to have torches (the sort that you can charge up by squeezing) all over the place in strategical points. Or alternatively put up photovoltaic panels!!!!!