Mercoledì 13.6.2012
Time flew
today. I spent the early part of the morning trying to find a solution to the
phone not working. Then visitors! Up came Claudio, his wife Giovanna and
Arturo’s wife Emanuela. Arturo had sent them up to see if everything was all right,
seeing he had tried to call various times and found the phone dead. Ironically,
about an hour before they arrived the phone showed signs of life again. And I
had already talked to Arturo. Something is happening with the coverage and
nobody has an idea what the reason could be.
Before they
came I tried something. I remembered somebody telling me some years ago that
there was a spot outside the hut just where the huge stone with the Swiss flag
is where Swisscom worked once in a while if lucky. So I tried it. I wrote an
SMS to Arturo and waited for the small lines at the top right of the phone to
appear (fingers turning almost to ice at 15°), telling me that I was connected.
And it worked, at least shortly and long enough to send off the SMS. Only about
half an hour after I went back inside, I looked at the hut’s phone and saw that
is was working again. And that was not all. My phone (HTC), which was next to
the hut’s phone on the small wooden shelf, all of a sudden went “beep” and I
received an SMS from my friend Ute, written two days ago. Things are all topsy-turvy,
the phone that was supposed to work didn’t any more, and my phone, that wasn’t
supposed to, was. At least well enough to send SMS.
My visitors
were glad to see I was fine and after we had chatted a while, I prepared lunch
for them (minestrone, polenta with cheese in the oven and lentils) while
Claudio split lots of large chunks of wood so it would be easier for me to use
and the women were hunched over the hut phone and theirs too trying out if they
worked or not. And coverage was poor. Sometimes it worked, then it didn’t. And
now, dear readers, it is back to yesterday’s status quo: my visitors have left
and the phone has stopped functioning again. It is “malfunctioning” as to quote
Wallace’s fiancée in “A Close Shave”, what was her name? Gwendoline? Only this
time it is not the Cyber Dog that is out of control, but the hut’s phone. And I
wanted to talk to Arturo and give him my list of groceries and stuff for next
week, my original week as “guardiana”. Everything will be flown up in the helicopter
on Saturday.
The weather
has stabilised, the forecast is good and the washing I hung up two days ago is
finally try. And this is tonight’s view in the other direction, towards Barone
hut, and the path I plan to take in about ten days, if all goes well with my
foot (and weather and so on).
This is
more like a diary than a blog, isn’t it? I reckon most of you have grown bored
and stopped reading. Errr, looking for something exciting to write… oh, yes, I
saw a “…” today, I have no idea what it was exactly (German: Hermelin?), it was
tiny, long and brown and had a white belly and came right up to the door. Seems
to know its way around the place. And, sadly to say, the baby birds have left
without saying good-bye. Chirp.
I have
reservations for tomorrow! Three persons are coming to sleep and eat. Hurray! I
will bake a cake in the morning to celebrate! It was a nice change to have
people around today and I am looking forward to doing some taking-care of more
people tomorrow. Claudio, Giovanna and Emanuela left at about half four, I
cleaned up a bit, found other things to do and here I am again sitting at the
fire:
and
drinking red whine while the Bavona choir is singing for me again. Not much else
to listen to, but I am becoming quite fond of the music.
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