It was a good day on Friday last.
We found and ordered the new floor tiles for the back room, they should arrive by the end of the coming week. We arranged the transfer of the MEO service to the new house, we did some shopping for more materials and went to the house to tidy up some more in the hope that the kitchen may be installed by the end of the month as promised.
If all these things happen as planned then we should be moved in in a couple of weeks or so.
However, as we were considering packing up for the day, the luck ran out. We were surprised by a strange noise which initially sounded like the house was falling down. We happened to be looking out of the upstairs window over the garden and saw one of the metal poles with the washing line apparently falling over !!
After a moment recovering from the shock and looking around some more we saw a truck with a hydraulic grabber arm that was entangled in the telephone lines just outside the garden. The telegraph pole had been pulled over and was resting on the electric supply to our house. Fortunately, the previous homeowners had wired the washing line post to the telegraph pole, this had prevented the pole from falling down completely - it was suspended by the wire, held in place over a branch of our large cherry tree, but still attached to the bent over metal post in the garden.
The telephone wire and its catenary cable had both snapped, this is the noise that we heard.
The cause? The chap with the truck had been depositing some tree/bush cuttings at the railway station where they have been storing the cuttings for a few months now. He had forgotten to put the grab arm back into its 'home' position before setting off. So now, the telephone lines to many houses in the location are broken, the telegraph pole is broken at ground level (though it was already rotten) and is being supported by a few precarious telephone wires and our electricity supply.
A few neighbours came out to check out the commotion, some people had noticed immediately that the internet was down !! After a brief survey of the situation, the guy made a few 'phone calls to summon help. 
The cable going straight up the centre is our electricity supply. The telephone wires snagged round the grab arm are also holding up the pole. The road is now blocked and the truck was unable to move.
We had a 40 minute delay waiting for his colleagues to turn up, during which time the chap fashioned an additional support for the pole out of rope and a ratchet strap and used our cherry tree as an anchor. Another similar truck arrived, but without the grab arm, and was positioned underneath the leaning pole. The team supported the pole whilst the grab arm was maneuvered out of the wires.
Then we missed our chance for an early exit - he moved his truck into our driveway, trapping the car in there. Using the grab arm, he took hold of the pole and raised it a little to take the weight off the wires. Unfortunately, the telephone wires that were not broken would not allow the electric supply cable to be moved so we were no further into a solution. We were left waiting for the telecoms response team to arrive.
There were mutterings of it being at least an hour for someone to turn up.
The electric cable is no longer supporting the pole but the remaining telephone lines need to be cut to allow the pole to be moved out of the way.
With the post now temporarily secure, the second truck and all but one of its team left for the weekend.
Time was pushing on, we made coffees for the two guys waiting with us and tried out speaking some Portuguese. Finally, the MEO emergency response arrived. After a bit of head scratching a plan was formulated; they would unhook the power line from our house so it would fall to the floor, drop the pole and then cut the remaining telephone wires to get the electric cable past the pole.
All worked according to plan, although after reattaching the power line to the house it now hangs very low across the road - hopefully there will be no high vehicles trying to pass in the next few days.
So, over two hours after our planned exit we managed to get away and the house still has power. Not our preferred end to the week.
As you can imagine, we were over the moon about it. But they just got on and dealt with it, much like I would have done. No bother involving the authorities, just get some mates to fix the immediate issue and leave it at that. I don´t know if we need the ´phone line or not, or whether they will just replace it in the repair process. The entire pole was broken and at least 8 lines were down so it´s a decent job to restore the service to all. Also, I wonder where they will put the new pole, it was through one of our cherry trees but I don´t think it´s practical to reinstate it there.