T-Mobile and Slovak Electricity

Many thanks for the typically terrible customer un-friendly service Slovak Telecom (T-Mobile)  and Slovak Electricity (S.S.E) have provided us over the last few days.
It unfortunately is pretty normal to have to bite your lip whilst talking to these cretins who have no knowledge on how to deal with a customer. 
When we had no internet working for a day or so in Havran, we took the internet box and laptop to a different location and as expected it worked. We go back home and it doesn't work. We visit our local T-Mobile shop to explain our situation. They follow procedure and ask to take the internet box from us to check if it needs repairing, even suggesting if it has been damaged.. We say the box works and that there is a problem with the signal. They say there is no reported problem with the signal in our area. We say we are reporting a problem with the signal in the area. They say that they can take the box away to check if it is working properly. We say just plug it in to find out. They were unsure whether to do this at first but finally relented. They see it works, good we think. They say that they can't help. We say thank you for your customer service. We get home and find the internet now working. Magic we say!
Slovak Electricity switch off our electric and all the surrounding area for today, tomorrow, and Saturday and maybe Monday too from 8am-6pm for essential maintenance. Great we say, nobody knew anything about this. Not true when Jana rings, it's written on their website! Most of our neighbours don't even have the internet.. Now we know we must not only check our email, facebook pages, etc everyday but also the S.S.E website, just in case they are about to switch our electric off. 6.05pm and still no electric switched on, Jana calls to ask why not. They say they have to switch it back on gradually. We ask why do they say electric off until 6pm then? They say it take's time. Ok then, we wait. 6.20pm and still no electric. We ring again. Same answer, in fact we can hear someone in the background feeding the answers to our increasingly angered customer service operator. We ask if we can complain to some department, but there is no one to complain to by phone, only by writing. Fortunately at 6.44pm we have our electrics back on, just before we were to ring again. We can blow the candlelights out and wait for another day of the same. 
We might mock the customer service in this country but it is never afraid to provide examples of how bad it can still be here.  

Fuel gathering

I am being stared at, it wasn't my idea to paint the front door such a vibrant blue colour! 
Now that winter has drawn closer with the arrival of frosty white mornings and a steady flow of fallen leaf arrival for the composting area, wood has very much been the focus of our attention of the last couple of weeks. Even my excuse of a slightly sprained wrist which either came about from some manly task around the house or more likely I slept on it badly has not stopped the sweat and pain of pulling, cutting, slicing and stacking the timber for the essential warmth needed over oncoming months. This year has certainly been more difficult with our allocated space stuck in the ravine, not helped by the assisting mouthy neighbour who still won't take no for an answer. 
Two days ago we witnessed wood that had been stacked by another being stolen onto a trailer and racing off into the distance before we could gather evidence on a low Mb mobile phone camera. An evil smell of revenge enters my head if they lay a finger on our wood.

I know what I did last Autumn

It's been a while.. Whilst the calendar may say five or so weeks since the last entry on here, it feels like five minutes with the annual array of jobs that September brings.
Kittens taking their first steps across manure 'grouted' tiles covering half the kitchen floor. It is a new experience for all to have a near finished floor.
With the sunflower heads drooping in the fields knowing their season is nearly over, it is quite sad to wave the summer goodbye. It also signals the return of the wood cutting. Two days so far spent in a ravine, our unfortunate allocated location for this year given to us from the local foresters. The recent arrival of rain has led to a landslide of footprints and dragged tree trunk markings, digging and eroding what little is left behind. Not that it stops our neighbour and his ancient green tractor pulling all he can reach with his broken chains, he likes nothing to distract what he wants to do.
Two years ago I had never chainsawed, and until now I have never chainsawed fallen trees at head height right angles left behind by previous woodsmen.

136

The blistering weather is taking a short break with the return of clapping thunder and a night of strobe effect lightening. Tiling has also halted for a few days at a count of 136 laid with the return of guests arriving. When we see how many tiles there are still stacked outside the front door and then continuing with a full palette in our storage room, we know that this might be a huge task to finish before snow falls.
But try as we will, we must keep going and what with the garden sufficiency too. This week we took our last potatoes from last years crop into our indoor sack ready for consumption and started unearthing this years supply. Pumpkins have also re-appeared in the cellar, much as we like them hopefully not as many as last year please..
Last night's and today's expecting rainfall has given the ground some much needed damp relief. It also allows us to try out our UFO shaped umbrella cover over the tipi poles. Whilst it was a struggle to raise it to reach over, we know over time it will become much easier to do (I hear laughing from Jana when I read this out..!). But the cover hasn't flown off yet and it has kept dry inside and that's what is most important. 

Havran: The heat is on

Havran: The heat is on: The summer sun beating down everyday is making for the current unpleasant and excessive heat.  My only place for solitude is to start lay...

The heat is on

The summer sun beating down everyday is making for the current unpleasant and excessive heat. 
My only place for solitude is to start laying down near to a thousand floor tiles in the bathroom and kitchen. 
After a couple of sessions there are now 42 carefully placed terracotta squares squashed down in Havrans special cob mud mixture base. 
Having been reluctantly putting off this humongous task for an excessive amount of time (no such thing as a small job at this cottage..), there is now a dash to have the job completed before the summer disappears. With the way the hot stifling days are it seems a very long time away. 
Certainly the hot weather has given nature something to think about. A collection of unfortunate stiff insects is mounting up, crispy tinder dry grass has given up to grow anymore, and the crusty ground is becoming to appear like one large broken egg shell. 
Our dogs, panting like a couple of steaming locomotives, are happy to sleep the days through for relief.
And the plum season has finally arrived in full. Falling like stones, and in abundance as normal, the heat is certainly on.



  

Sun cream

Another day at the office!
After watching the beetroot coloured faces returning home from Havrans' own wild swimming hideaway it has crossed our minds whether sun cream is ever bought in this country.
When it comes to pain my morning had been pretty spectacular too. 
It started with a vicious attack by a bramble bush which left blood dripping and a thorn piercing the back of my ear without noticing it until lunchtime. The secateurs though had the revenging last laugh.
Next were the nettles. Wearing in-appropiate gloves with conveniently placed holes on the fingers, regular stinging pursued whilst making a new batch of natural fertilizer feed for the vegetables. Intensive scratching followed.
Over ripened pears have been falling quickly from our two old trees lining the track outside the cottage. Bruised and battered, they make an excellent addition to the compost. As I picked up this content I heard the regular ruffling of a new pear falling through the leaves, too late to take cover as I softened its landing with my head. There was still time to be stung by a wasp enjoying the inside juices of one of the fruits.
And it is not a good idea to wear gummy slippers and use a pick axe to excavate hard dry ground. Nothing needs explaining as to why I had a sore toe. 
Consequently I decided it was time to leave before any further injury. Sun cream packed, as I was already red-faced from all the other previous events of the day.