We packed-up our last Air B&B rental for a while & even though we'd taken a car full of stuff over to the new house the previous day, the car was still packed to overflowing!
After unloading into our new home, Rob immediately took some photos of the view outside, then tried to connect to the internet to upload them to Facebook. Strangely, his mobile couldn't find the Movistar modem.
That's because it wasn't there!
Not that it wasn't there wirelessly, but that it wasn't there physically.
It wasn't where we'd left it on top of the old TV. It wasn't in it's box nor in all the drawers & cupboards we searched.
My heart sank.
I swore.
Then I mentally accused my landlady. Well, not Belen (daughter of our actual landlady who we'd taken an immediate liking to), but whichever thieving member of her family had access, or key, to the house. Whoever it was, wouldn't use access the internet for long as I'd be putting a stop on the 4G sim. All they'd be left with was a piece of white plastic only useful for someone with another sim.
I fumed & cursed, left voicemail & Whatsapp messages for Eva at the Estate Agency & texts, voice messages & emails for my landlady. When Belen popped round Sunday evening, she was mortified & had been away for the weekend so hadn't been able to respond earlier. It transpired that it was highly likely that her elderly mother had taken the modem, but unfortunately had since thrown it, or at least couldn't remember whether she'd chucked it, or where she'd put it.
This isn't as odd as it seems as we'd had a conversation with Belen & her mum about the small TV box in the house & not necessarily requiring it as we don't view much TV. Belen's mum took the nice new bright white modem, with it's glowing green light, for the small black TV box, as they were both plugged-in at the side of the TV.
Belen was extremely apologetic & promised to visit the Movistar shop the following day, Monday, & pay for a new modem.
But it wasn't that simple.
Apparently it wasn't possible to buy a replacement modem & Belen had to take out a contract herself in order to obtain one. We'd then have to cancel ours after the minimum one month & she'd transfer her contract to us!
Thank goodness for more-or-less PAYG agreements here in Spain, no signing-up for 18 months or more.
Last time, as soon as our sims were activated, the engineer came out the following day, but not this time. Maybe grumpy engineer didn't fancy negotiating our tight lane again...
However, I needed to work so had camped out at a cafe-bar in Alhaurín el Grande with a secure wifi connection, but by the middle of the week I was cheesed-off. I'd had two busy days moving into & cleaning the house, then wasn't spending any time there or with Rob & the pets. The cafe aircon was nice though 
Belen had been told it would take 2-5 days for connection on the Monday & so Friday was only the 4th day. By the following Monday, not receiving positive news from phone calls to chase, she was back in the Movistar shop. Feeling I'd perhaps outstayed my welcome at Cafe Dani, I moved to the Black Horse for my second week to work.
On Tuesday, Belen turned-up with an engineer, not from Movistar, but from EverBit who supplied her brother's house a short distance away.
Jesus stood at the end of the terrace to take a reading, turning to give thumbs-up. A short while later, we had a shiny white dish fastened to the TV ariel on the roof & I had a new white TD-Link modem 
I'd ordered the fastest speed & capacity, but until Jesus could activate this from his office, I managed an afternoon's work on 10 mbps well enough. On Wednesday, I could work from home, with extensive views & have a dip in the pool - this is what have a portable business & living in the sun was all about!
On Thursday evening however, we lost the net completely & turning the modem off then on again didn't work. Friday morning we still didn't have a connection.
I was wary of calling a Spanish company as I find understanding the language so much more difficult when I'm unable to look at the person & see their face. Therefore, I used my mobile to send an email via 3G. As I was preparing to leave for town once again to work, I received a really lovely reply & apology, in good English, from EverBit. They explained what had caused loss of signal, that they had worked all night to find the source of the problem, before managing to fix it.
When we couldn't get wifi, I'd been concerned that our service wouldn't be reliable & pleased that I'd identified at least two bars in town where I'd be able to work. However this message immediately increased my confidence in EverBit as a provider.
We settled in to our home for the next 7 months & looked forward to our first full summer in Southern Europe.
