Trains and Boats and Planes

Shockingly long time since last blog - apologies to those of you who have gone purple with bated breath! Returned yesterday from a very short summer visit to Jura. Frustratingly so, because there was so much that we wanted to achieve and failed to. Intention was to fix the '3Bs' - Boat, Broadband and Boiler. We succeeded on the Boiler (or at least the lovely plumber from Islay did) so had heating again by the end of the week. And an unblocked chimney. To see two men skipping up the crow step gables three storeys up was quite something. Found a pterodactyl nest blocking the chimney, making the boiler go out. Looked big enough for a pterodactyl anyway! Failed on the Broadband (apparently you have to capture a BT engineer and hold him to ransom until the office in India agree to send him(?!) and then they twiggle some wires and hey presto. Ha! I say again HA! We need broadband so that James can work up there and therefore be there more. But until we are there more we cannot capture Broadband Bill. Talk about Catch 22. Perhaps we should tame the pterodactyl? Dial up also beastly slow (ironically I think because so many people have got broadband now, the dial up line has slowed to a crawl) Could paint pictures faster than can download 'em. The Boat is the biggest worry 'cos the steering has seized completely. We have had to leave it with Colin to lift the engine off and free the bar. No use from the boat this year. Mega Chiz. Although we did canoe to Cow Pat bay on a blazing day. The photos are positively tropical (and will be posted, I promise, I just need to do the next post from the lap top where most of the photos live) Enough for now; must get back in the blog habit. Has been a very weird year, largely unbloggable.