The good, the sad and the rather wintery!

A week of highs, lows and extremes I guess. You may remember the post  ‘Strada Brutale!’  – the tale of our woes trying to get our road resurfaced. Well after a three month rest, the Comune has got the ball rolling again, or more correctly, the man in a digger. A subsurface layer and a nice white topping of Breccia ( white stone) make our road positively glisten in the sunshine ….. the calming crunch of gravel under tyres replaces the squelch and dribble of liquid mud, how delightful. Note to self: Stone = fit Capo radiator guard!!

Have a look at the nifty before/after picture below … click on the vertical bar and then swipe it left or right to see the two-photograph overlay. If you only see the text … hit ‘refresh’, the pics should magically appear!

[beforeafter][/beforeafter]

Pictures taken in July and December 2011

Then the low …. I recently posted about the virtues of Altberg boots and their refurbishment service. Well as of the 7th December 2011, the service has stopped. I got an email on the 10th … now I’ve got a pair of boots sat in a box fit for nothing but door-stops. I do think a heads-up in advance would have been nice, I could have got them in the system before it closed down. Sad to say, minus-one for customer service on this one Altberg. UPDATE 14/12/11:  Just had a reply to my email to Alberg. An in-depth explanation regarding the withdrawal of the service…. in a nutshell, a service run at a loss and sadly abused by a minority with unrealistic expectations about what a refurbished boot should be. A very sad choice to make, but understandable in the circumstances. Bullying isn’t only rife in the playground it seems – and the new weapon of choice is vilification by social media when their unreasonable demands are challenged. I think the email I’ve just received is the one that should have been sent initially …. a clear concise explanation that as disappointing as it is, I understand. I for one will still be 100% behind Altberg when it comes to the next pair of boots!

Extremes? Well it’s been bloody windy! Yesterday was a taste of weather to come I fear, while today is blissfully sunny and calm. Next week looks like we’re set for a liberal coating of the ex-UK weather currently rumbling across Europe – snow, high wind and plummeting temperatures! What fun. So woolly hats and snow shoes all round … and a nice warm blanket for the Capo!

Well I guess that’s almost the end of 2011, I trust it was a good year, taking your Caponord to some seriously far away places. Winter is traditionally the tinkering-time, so have fun on the spanners and I hope Santa brings you just the right shiny/twiddly bit you need to set your Capo up for 2012.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!