Settling In Back Home

But I still can't hear properly.  We arrived home almost exhausted on Thursday morning so there wasn't any value trying to make any sort of doctor's appointment for my hearing problem at that stage.  If I were to call them on Friday I wouldn't be able to see anyone till Tuesday anyway as Monday is a public holiday.

My scheduled appointment with my ENT guy is for 1pm on Wednesday.  So I feel it is best to wait until then and see the 'expert'.

But it is sure frustrating especially during any conversation.

Watching TV we have always used headphones and I can even now I can hear all I need to hear when wearing those.  I listen to my radio again using earphones and I can hear OK then.  My hearing is good enough to allow me to hear during phone calls.  Problem is if the phone is in another room, I don't always hear it ring!  Roll on Wednesday!

Whilst we were away I had problems with many of my email accounts as I was logging in from Spain or Italy or even Saudi Arabia.  GMail and Yahoo mail saw this as suspicious behaviour and would automatically 'lock' some of these email accounts.  Yahoo wanted to send me a text message to my mobile phone to confirm it was really me trying to log in which wouldn't work as my home mobile phone sim wasn't enabled to work overseas in Spain.

So while in Spain I hastily sorted another alternative system out as I have 95% of my emails forwarded onto to a single email account which I use exclusively on my phone or tablet.  This at least keeps things 'tidy'.

Over the last day or so I have been reverting back to my previous system and doing other catch-up stuff with PC updates etc.

The "Phone Line Tech" arrived as scheduled to review my internet drop out problems first thing Friday morning.  Once he knew exactly what the problem was, he admitted that he did not have the expertise to fix it.  He could ensure the line and all the physical connections were OK but could not help with the 'authentication' problem.  That was a job for a more qualified technician.

Two of the lights on my modem/router are for the my internet connection.  One light (ADSL) shows that I can connect to the internet, the second light (Internet) indicates that I have successfully connected to my internet service provider (ISP).  Usually during a normal 'dropout' the ADSL light goes out and then so too does the Internet light.  In my case, the ADSL light always remained on, it was the Internet light which would go out meaning I had been disconnected from my ISP.

This morning (Saturday) I received a call from my ISP.  They informed me the drop out problem had been referred to a higher level tech and the recoding of my internet connection had taken place.

It is expected that this should 'fix' the problem.  Now we will wait and see!

Trish slept for around 8 or 9 hours last night as her body time clock got back in sync.  I didn't sleep so well but was up early to watch the tennis from Paris and then the cricket from the West Indies.

There is plenty of footy on TV this afternoon.  Trish is getting back into her Arts Centre work again as there is a large Arts Centre Fair on this weekend.

The old car wouldn't start when we got back home.  The battery was flat and needed recharging at a garage.  I was given a replacement battery while the recharge took place overnight.  All is back in place again now and working fine.

After 40º+ in KAUST and also in Dubai, the 5 or 6 degrees overnight at here at home and the 22 max during the day has come as a bit of a shock to the system, a shock we are quickly getting used to!