A spoke in the wheel dammit

Okay, no use burying the lead as we journalists say: we've had a hiccup. A big, bloody, annoying hiccup. Not an end of the world one but our summer plans have had to be dumped and it's a big, fat disappointment.
We had booked a van to drive to Puglia on July 18, taking three days to venture down through France and along the Adriatic coast of Italy with the dog and carrying the trullo treasures I have foraged in markets and charity shops over the past ten months or so. And while we knew not everything would be ready at the other end, we were so looking forward to this summer holiday working and living the (ex) pile of stones.
So, what's the problem you ask?
Well, a pretty fundamental one: electricity. (And water because it has to be pumped from the old stone cistern).
Mimmo the Magician, our builder has delivered on time, month after month and as late as our last visit a fortnight ago reassured us that he would be handing the keys over to a liveable trullo by the 20th of July. I pushed and pushed him to be conservative as I prefer worst case scenarios and then happiness and relief if they do not eventuate than empty Polly Anna style assurances which end up dashing hope.
Sure, there'd still be lots of landscaping, testing, tweaking to do but he said he was sure we could move some stuff in and really begin to test our bat-shit-crazy project in practice, work on the garden, soak up the sunshine, gorge on our figs and wake to bird song and bees buzzing.

(The Australian sound I miss most is the roar of cicadas at dusk and I have literally been aching to hear them again and to re-live that sensation of interminable blue above and nature, not cars, helicopters and planes waking you in the morning.)
To date, the workers have been on site using a generator for electricity but so much of the work involved old fashioned, manual, artisanal skills and the need was relatively minimal. The heavy lifting was done by petrol powered tractors/earth movers.
And what it has all come down to is power. We haven't been able to connect yet - and we don't know when it will happen.

You can see in the pictures that there is a hideous electrical pole hard up against the house which has been there for decades and this was disconnected early on in the project after the (state-owned) energy company, ENEL, agreed it should be removed as it was too close to the house and a new system would be put in to service the newly restored property. But in recent months, despite myriad phone calls and visits to the ENEL office, no technician arrived. Mimmo understandably began to get increasingly anxious, visiting the local office weekly.

The reality is that ENEL is not known for quick response or efficient bureaucratic systems and sure enough, it turns out that at some point in the past four months, ENEL sent a letter stating that the application for a new electricity box had been stopped and a letter sent to the previous owner to state this. Long story short, the letter simply wasn't followed up - and we are now at square one, having to re-commence the process on the cusp of summer.
Anyone who knows Italy (or France for that matter) knows that August is a lost cause: everything shuts down, nobody is at work, state owned bureaucracies seem to get slower than their usual glacial pace.

So, we are looking at a minimum 40 day wait - and frankly, I suspect that is probably optimistic. No water, no power, no way to test the infrastructure already in - nor to secure and alarm what has to be put in the house. Basically, if we are lucky, it might be September - but the school year starts then and with the husband due in Australia for the launch of his new book, Puglia will be impossible.
Yes, I'm sorely disappointed. Yes, I am gnashing my teeth and cursing ENEL with a passion. (I'm pretty peeved at the loss of deposits (a van for a month ain't to be sneezed at) not to mention a tired teen and no real way of getting out of the city for a breather.
I guess, in the scheme of problems, it is bloody well nothing. We have our health and delayed gratification is character building. (yeah, I know, these are all such First World Problems).
But I think it's a bastard of a thing to happen so close to the finish line....so bear with me as I moan. And I promise after this, rant's over!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR