We have liftoff!

At last, the internet is back on stream at Bas Etang. But only after 5 visits by the France Telecom engineers. They replaced the 50 metres of overhead cable that stretched from the house to a nearby pole. That reinstated the voice line, after it had been silent for 5 days. The ADSL line still didn't work. But then they went to the Lavausseau exchange, and changed a module there. Voila! It works, at last, after 2 weeks.
Last week I received the new desktop PC from Dell, only 3 days after ordering it from the UK (via Bombay). However, Dell had declined to accept my credit card (after taking down all the details)as I lived in France. They couldn't explain why that was a problem, even though the UK credit card is registered to me at the French address where delivery was to be made. So I had to make a transfer bank to bank, which I swiftly did over the internet. However, Dell then charged the credit card and received the cash in their bank too. I notified them straight away, requesting the £22 fee for the BACS transfer cost as well as the refund. Dell then informed me that they would send the refund together with £165 compensation. You could have knocked me off my perch with a feather!