27February1996

My dear folks,

With your praises of my regular faxes still warm in my ears last night, I finished a 2 page fax to you & set about printing it. It's possible that my printer has a rich sense of humour or just that technology doesn't give a centavo for family concerns. But my printer was having none of it. It shrieked aloud each time I tried to turn it on and started blinking an alternate "F & c" error code. To me it looked pretty close to an "F & O" message. But there was no way I could interest it in printing the letter. Nor had I brought the manual to explain the printer's problem to me.

This morning I got on to the Canon helpline in Britain where a kind lady looked up the code & said it meant the battery was flat. The battery was meant to print out 200 pages & had only printed 20. So the explanation took me by surprise. But at least I now knew the problem. After labouring away replacing some missing tiles in 7th Heaven's kitchen this morning, we headed to town in the afternoon. First stop was at the bank in Loule to bring our affairs up to date. Next was 15 mins down the road at the Canon dealership in Faro to try to buy an electrical cord/adapter for the printer. (I'd left mine in London.) They had none in stock so they phoned Lisbon..

They could get one down by Thursday, they said. I was grateful but explained why it wouldn't work. I was going home on Saturday. They had identical models to mine on display in the showroom. Wouldn't they consider merely plugging in my printer to one of their electrical cords for an hour? After consulting the manual to ensure that my printer would not blow up in their faces - as they were not used to battery attachments - they agreed. They declined to take payment too. For their troubles they have a bottle of excellent Portuguese sparkling wine & you have a letter. On the way home we stopped at a nursery to obtain some Rose fertiliser & a couple of plants. Our roses are looking a bit anaemic & need some tlc. So do the fruit trees. It's only the weeds that are going bananas & I have it in mind to zap them before my return on Saturday.

Tonight we went to supper with Scottish neighbours, Harry & May, charming people who go to immense trouble to entertain their guests. May had prepared a meal that would have won a Michelin star. And Harry had provided wines to match. They had 2 other guests, fellow Scots who have recently moved out here to open a business. It was a delightful evening, ending - as it often does - with a few songs around the table. They are natural born singers, all of them, and I think our society is poorer that we have allowed recorded music so often to replace the real thing.

We staggered back up the track & the drive, pausing briefly to admire the far-flung lights of the Algarve. Noite was waiting to greet us. The clock has long since chimed the midnight hour. It's close to chiming the 2 a.m. hour in fact. Tomorrow - as in later today - is our day off. We're not sure yet what we are going to do with it but we will enjoy it one way or another. We hope only for good weather. The last few days have started well enough & then gone cloudy before covering the Algarve in showers. We are grateful for the rain but are trying to tell the Lord that we have had all we need for the moment. May he disperse His blessings elsewhere instead. Love you lots. Yesterday's fax follows this. XXXXX