Boy has it been a cold easter, north winds howling across deserted town centres, at least down my way, as brave tourists try to keep out of snow one minute, then rain, and the wind the next.

But is it unusual, cold snaps at easter? Certainly not, we’ve just come out of winter, spring has barely begun. the cold winds look set to continue for another week, perhaps for that reason most travellers have stayed at home if they have the choice.

At this time of year some peace and quiet is no bad thing anyway, everybody seems to work too hard these days. One by product of the winds is that satellite dish engineers look to have a lot of work coming their way as punters lose more and more of their TV channels when their dishes are pushed out of alignment.

Of course if this has happened to you, rather than pay an exorbitant amount to have an engineer realign your satellite dish, go to the menu on your satellite receiver, then options then display signal strength and quality. Signal quality is more important than signal strength.

If the quality is down around the 20-30% mark, you’ll be losing TV channels even if your signal strength is up in the 80’s. Loosen the nuts very slightly holding the dish and gently realign the dish yourself until the signal quality is back over 60%. Tighten the nuts and you’re done.