Then the fun began.
We had been totally aware that with our motorhome we didn't need two pin plug sockets - that was until I realised that this was Britanny Ferries and they only have
two pin sockets.
We had chargers, laptops, tablets but no plug socket in our overnight bag. There was one - in the van.
Could we get some from the staff - yes but they had all been given to other passengers. There was the shop but that wasn't open till later in the day. Why hadn't I recharged the laptop last night.
Not to worry - plenty of time!!
By the time I had got my plug sockets and the laptop recharged (I had to do that first because I had to go to the wifi hotspot with my machine) things had changed.
The sea had stirred itself into action and everybody moving about the boat
looked as if they had been on the bottle.
I located a spot to get onto the internet. WiFi hotspot - well - stopspot would be more like it. I was informed by a helpful passenger who may possibly have been wobbling for more than one reason. 'You'll be lucky mate - I spent 30 - NO maybe 45 minutes getting a text away - you'll be lucky - might as well shout' and off he
waddled nearly pulling the rail of the wall.
In fact he was right. I remember the days when getting a small picture to download on the web was a problem and this was worse. The information shown on the screen by Brittany Ferries warned about the slow connection via oceannet ( or whatever it was called). No mention about that in your adverts BF (letting my feelings show).
It was a hopeless task and my idea about downloading pictures and finding relevant information was getting totally knocked on the head.
Let me tell you how bad it was. My son
sent me a text that I received fine - It was horrifying for me to get it - I am a gunners fan and Arsenal who were playing Paris SG and they were one goal down after 42 seconds of the game starting - WHAT!
I texted back - saying let me know what happens - and that message despached fine.
At half time Tom sent me another text to say 1-0 at half time - and I got that message ok.
After that NOTHING - not a sausage. I knew Tom would have sent one - but I went to bed still totally unaware of what had happened in the second half. Imagine that!!
By the morning the text had arrived and it was 1-1 at full time.
The night had been a rocky bouncing night of stop start night of sleeping.
I decided during that night that I would try to write the Adam Up in the morning. Yes I would write about the saga of trying to write the article - however - things were about to get worse.
Have you ever tried to type away in a moving vehicle. Well a really rocky boat on rough seas makes that a doddle. I would love to be able to show you the activity and
deletes and re writing words. I was saving the text every few seconds before accidently deleting another paragraph - or whatever.
I was using one of those touchpads and life would have been ever so much easier with a mouse - but where was it? - in the
van!
Lots of time left - no problem. Hrrrmmm!
Perhaps I could write the article out and type it once I got ashore!!
No paper - in the van.
Got paper from information desk.
Staggered back to cabin - pen wouldn't write - spare one - you've guessed it - in the van.
I tried to record my voice which typed the words - another try another disaster - too many mistakes which when I wanted to edit the words only gave me the same problems.
So I gave up trying to do it on the ferry - I would do it on Tuesday when I arrived in Burgos which was our first overnight stopping point in Spain. Now this has
got too long to go on any further - enough to say - the internet situation there was worse than the boat.
Babs and I just fell about laughing and went out to a small restaurant.
This morning we drove to a
wonderful place just north of Madrid. Scary thing for me was that it is in the hills and quite remote - the deadline is today - what is the wifi like? I think it is ok - so here I am writing. (writing rather fast so do forgive any grammatical errors)
I now have my worries about this going -
wifi not so good here either. So lets get this away.
The Moral IS:
Take your time when packing your bags and don't forget any journey at all has ups and downs so put in more than you think you will ever need.
