The first snows

Well, the snow arrived here as well, although not nearly in such quantities as it is in Brighton I gather. I saw a lovely picture taken by Stephen looking out into his garden and drive. He was looking for his car which was totally hidden under large amounts of snowfall. It is not so bad here, but we had a lot of black ice the other morning, which is a lot more dangerous than snow.

The main event of this week has been Dylan's visit, a result of which we now have WiFi in the village as well. He even brought us a really fancy little gadget which made the new cheapo desktop we bought in Tesco have WiFi reception as well. It goes in the USB port and works like magic. Unfortunately the old desktop could not be joined to the WiFi network as it is so old that its encryption is too old to go with the new gadgetry. And this after Dylan even brought a part that would have given us 4 new USB2 ports, but the encryption question could not be resolved. Never mind, that old machine is now only for some of Roy's old programs and files, plus for using the scanner and colour printer.

The new desktop will also be having a new simple black and white laser printer and scanner of its own, and after that let us hope we will not have to spend any more on computers for a while. I was keeping my fingers crossed that the weather does not turn nasty to stop Dylan coming, but he turned up quite OK around midday. He was here for nearly three hours and finally only charged for that time, not for his travelling, which must have been another 3 hours. The whole thing complete with WiFi router, USB gadget for the desktop, his motorway pass, petrol and his labour charge came to about 130 quid, which is reasonable. Now I can use my netbook in bed without needing the mobile dongle, although the reception is not too brilliant upstairs. It is the 2ft thick walls, which stop the signal. I hope that by putting the router in the window the signal will carry across the yard to the Bunkhouse, although the Kottage is too far and through too many thick walls to work. Well, anybody who wants to use their laptop will have to sit in the Farmhouse kitchen, where the signal is OK. In the summer I can open the window and with the nice long cable can even put the router out in the corridor, so that should be OK.

All we need now is to start the backpackers hostel, as we are ready with all facilities, including WiFi. I can't see it happening before 2012 though, as next summer is already full. The tickets are bought to Canada and Scotland and it looks as if we are teaming up with Philip for the car hire for the orienteering. We are going to camp and the only ticket I am still to buy is the one down back from Edinburgh to Gatwick on the 9th August. I need to know Philip's exact itinerary before I buy that.

Must go now as I am falling off the chair asleep. I was up at 5.30am for some reason, so I should hit the sack now.