Incidente de antena parabólica.

We've had gale-force winds, or *tramontana, for some time now, which is a pain (literally) as all the yellow pine pollen blasts you in the eyes and covers everything. This afternoon, on switching on the TV, there was no signal, and an outdoor inspection revealed that the satellite dish on the roof was swaying around dangerously. Afraid that it would fall and take the roof with it, the garden shed below and generally be a danger to people and pets, we called out our trusty handyman Toni, who fearlessly climbed onto the roof and discovered that the bracket was rusted (no surprise as every bit of metal outside rusts in the humid atmosphere here) and was indeed likely to fall off if left as it was. The dish was here when we moved in, along with the sat box which came with it, but we only ever used satellite channels for CNN coverage of the disgusting ex-president's antics, the latest Boris bluster, endless coverage of the plague and such like, topics we now avoid in the name of sanity. The only channels I'll miss are the daily Sumo championships from Japan (some impressive moobs there), and the occasional look at shopping channels just to marvel at the presenters' style sense and count how many times an over-madeup middleaged woman or effeminate man can describe some tat as "gawjusss". On that basis it was decided to dispense with the dish rather than try to refix it (not easy in the wind) and just use one of the computers to stream channels to the TV over a VPN. It proved very tricky to remove, even though just clinging on with a half-rusted single bracket, and was incredibly heavy. Toni hung onto it like a windsurfer manipulating an iron sail while we got something to cut through the metal, and some rope to hopefully lower it to the ground afterwards. A very tense half-hour was spent doing this while the wind blew ever stronger. My role was to hold the ladder and of course take pictures, luckily not of a severely injured man lying on the ground under the dish. The only casualty was a broken roof tile. Thanks Toni, you went above and beyond the call of duty.

*The tramontana (from the Latin transmontanus-i, "from beyond the mountain") is a cold and turbulent wind from the northeast or north, which in Spain blows mainly over the archipelago of the Balearic Islands and the northeast of Catalonia.