Sunday duties today took me out to Llansannor again, the most remote of the places in Cowbridge Benefice which I have to visit. Now that the narrow lanes are rich with growing vegetation, missing a vital sign post was easy and I realised I'd gone wrong somewhere. Relying on my memory of the whereabout of the village and the church which stands outside it in the overall landscape, I kept going until I found another turning that led me down into the hidden valley, right to where I needed to be.
Getting from there to Ystradowen for the second Eucharist of the morning was comparatively easy. I was delighted to see that the White Lion pub next to the church no longer had a 'for sale' sign attached to its inn sign, and there were curtains up in the windows, and a light on. The churchwarden told me that it had been sold to a builder who already owned a pub somewhere else. He was going to carry out the needed renovations which the previous owners had not been able to afford, and re-open as a pub in due course. She was pleased the new owner has decided to re-paint the exterior in its traditional white. I wondered if the present pink colour had received planning permission, given the prominence of the building on a main road. It's good to think that this vital rural social hub will have a new lease of life.
I arrived home earlier than usual, ahead of Clare returning from the farmers' market. After lunch, the rest of the day was devoted to blog updating, looking through the week's photographs and uploading them. (They can be viewed here. Sorry about the excess of train photos - irresistible.).
Up in Ffestiniog, we had a decent Orange signal, which meant I could check emails on my phone, but no BT signal whatsoever. There was no interconnectivity between BT and other mobile service providors. Getting on line in an area where there was a BT signal also proved impossible for reasons I could not fathom. I know the laptop software is up to date and working. With this same wireless dongle I surfed and used Skype from Sta Pola del Este in Spain last October, thanks to an agreement between BT and Spanish Orange services. So why doesn't this arrangement work here? Don't tell me. Excuses are unacceptable. The service BT claims to provide is a national disgrace. Oh sure I could have used the local wireless BT Openzone service, but not without paying. Why should I have to pay when I have a registered BT internet device failing to deliver a service it is meant to provide?
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