A nice new fire bit and a half tidied house, but out of sorts thanks to a dodgy mobile internet connection!

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I had a frustratingly disturbing day on Saturday (yesterday) thanks to my mobile internet connection playing up.

I got to the land early enough, around 9.00 a.m. and got straight to work digging myself a new fire pit on the olive terraces, and clearing some of the broom from around the paths nearby.

Satisfied with my morning's work, I got onto the all important tea break, and on getting my phone out I noticed an odd couple of messages:

Screenshot_20210403-201714_Messages.jpg

'Welcome to Portugal' - bla new data allowance reminder, but then the same but 'Welcome to Spain'.... eh?

I am very close to the Spanish border here - maybe 3Ks away, but these messages imply my phone thinks I entered Portugal (from where who knows?) and then Spain, where I still am atm.

My phone didn't pick up a signal at my little kitchen area, but I walked up to the highest point of the land and I had a reasonable connection, but not down by the house, which is still quite high up - damn, it must be on a Spanish network rather than a Portuguese one.

I didn't worry too much about it as I had offline work to do all day - it was just an irritation given that for the last three weeks I've had a very reliable Portuguese mobile connection on the land- and I can manage with 20GB of data a month combined with my unlimited dongle data which doesn't work on the land but is fine in most places.

Anyway, I spent the late morning and afternoon tidying up the house - i couldn't face brash dragging. I got quite a lot done - I filled about 7 rubbish bags and found the floor under all the damp dirt which had accumulated after two years of the roof not being finished and letting in water.

All in all it doesn't look too bad after 3 hours of clearing:

20210404_141317.jpg

That done, I had a bucket sponge bath - the water was tepid thankfully as it had warmed in the 20 degrees PM sunshine, and then I HAD to go try and sort out my mobile connection.

So I drove West to Penamacor thinking it might reset the phone - I stopped off for half an hour where I had a connection and checked in with Hive/ Leo/ Cub/ Discord, and noticed my phone had jumped back an hour in time - it had gone forward thinking I was in Spain! So I'd finished work at what I thought was 17.15, really it was 16.15!

You live and learn.

Anyway, on returning to the land my phone had reset back to Spanish time and networks (at least I knew the ACTUAL time now!).

Arrrgh! I'm writing this on the top corner of my land which is the only spot I can get a connection, which is totally not where I'm set up, feeling like I'm going backwards, having concluded recently that I need one base on the land, and my fire pit where I cook doesn't connect anymore!

Sunday edit....

My phone still thinks I'm in Spain, I'm wondering if it's got something to do with it being a holiday weekend? I dunno - maybe all the Portuguese networks are so busy my English tag on has been de-prioritised, maybe that's wishful thinking, but i have this feeling come the middle of next week normal service will have resumed!

In the meantime I can cope with a 30 minute session once a day at the 'top corner' - it ain't so bad, and if it persists I'm sure I can get a Portuguese mobile deal that works here!

Anyway, it is what it is, and I gtg drag some brush out, my rather unfun PM task for the day!



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7 comments
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A good idea might be a GSM repeater with an YAGI antenna. If you direct that antenna to the next GSM / 4G antenna of your provider, it will generate you a better signal and your phone stays in that network.

Anyway, you deserve a few !BEER

Btw. I had a look to the map and it seems you live in a real green enviroment - looks cool

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Ah OK when I get a better connection I will look into both of those! Thanks for the tips.

It is a beautiful area, and thanks for the !BEER, I certainly do deserve one, you too!

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Being near a border could be a hassle if your phone thinks you are moving around. Easy to take a good connection for granted. Your hut looks decent. Would be cool if you can make it secure and get set up in there.

Been pretty warm here today. Been outside for a lot of it. May get cold again though.

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The house is high up the agenda, brash has to come first though, and of course just 'living' takes a while!

It's still quite cold at nights here, but up to 20 degrees in the middle of day well into early evening!

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