Broadband!

The internet connection wasn't scheduled to come on until Thursday but I longingly check the dsl modem every night anyway. Much to my delight after getting home from work tonight I found a green "dsl" light shining! Crazy how happy it made me.

Even better, it seems to be running much faster then the UK average easing my pessimistic expectations. BT (British Telecom) had to run a new cable from outside our flat to the phone exchange in the center of the village. A very big job they told me. I was warned by coworkers that the phone company might try and avoid this using a method that would result in lousy broadband. Instead we have a big new cable running up the utility pole outside and our preliminary line speed is great. Oh boy, we are line 1 on a cable that holds 50!

Other fun things today include our landlord giving us fresh eggs from the chickens out back. Oh were they good! We also found that the biodiesel he is making and selling next door runs in any diesel motor without modification. This turned out to be very interesting since I can fill up right here on the farm saving more then $35 per tankful of fuel. The biodiesel is also non-toxic, runs 60% cleaner then regular diesel and is made from the used oil produced by our local chip shops and pubs. How cool is that? This also explains all of the bright yellow rapeseed fields seen blooming around here in the spring. The rapeseed is used to make the vegetable oil at the start of this whole process. I always wondered why all the pretty yellow fields as they create a newly found allergy for me.

Last but far from least, Holly tells me she had a really good time today venturing out to some of the unknown local trails and enjoying the really good weather (finally). I suspect there will be more on about her adventure soon. :)