February 2008

THE MOVE

OK, it's over....... The move was undertaken with the use of a hire vehicle a little under the size of a Ford Transit (It was some sort of Peugeot large Minibus thing with the seats taken out) and the assistance of a really fit and strong local Spanish lad (called Ivan), which was fun given that we both spoke our respective foreign languages as bad as each other!
However we overcame the language barriers and managed to communicate quite well if a little like the Chuckle Brothers in pigeon Spanglish – “To me to you” or in Spanish “a usted, a mí” or something like that.

I think we made at least 12 journeys, although I did lose count at some stage, to and from the house and I was fit to drop by the end of the week but apart from a cold I have now I am much recovered thank you. On the other hand Val has had a cold for the best part of a week and a half now and is suffering quite badly although not as bad as I was during my “man flu” in October!!
We are now also completely unpacked but once again I have to quote some statistics to you - Twenty 50 litre sacks of paper have been disposed of via the local authority pick up points where there is a daily collection from the end of the road, no fortnightly collections here maties!!. We have also moved all the landlords furniture into the garage and moved all ours into the house with a bit of a squeeze though. I have no idea where we will hang all our pictures and prints though as we seem to have brought so many with us the place is looking like the archives at the Tate Gallery. I'm sure something will work out though.

On the bright side, the views from the house are spectacular and each day we can watch a lovely sunset, then a beautiful sunrise and some mornings the most eerie of mists comes in off the sea which fills the small valley that runs just below us. We have been able to sit out and have lunch a few times and also in the afternoon with a brandy or two as the sun sets. Mind you its still quite a chilly wind blowing and the house gets quite cold so we have had to buy an extra heater to keep things warm. The downside of this is that if you switch on the kettle the lights all go out or if the overload is too great and I have to traipse down to the main meter at the end of the road and throw the switch to get our supply back. All very primitive really.

I have had many photo opportunities which I will post on the internet once we have the phone and broadband installed..... don't hold your breath though as we have paid but they (Telefonica) have lost our order!! In the meantime I can supply photos on CD's if you are desperate to see my works of art.

There is not much in the way of wild life to be seen here apart from a multitude of song birds and many birds that I have not seen in the UK. We have a couple of cats who come up to visit us but we have declined to feed them as we have no desire to find ourselves running a cat rescue service in Sant Carles. Oh there is also an owl that gives a pathetic single squeak every night and there is a flock of pigeons that cartwheel over us every day.... so there is some wildlife I suppose.
Encountering Spanish bureaucracy again, we went to the town hall last week to re-register and obtain our amended Certificado de Empadronamiento and what a palaver that was. We were ushered into an officials office who grunted at us and took some details then sent me to get copies of existing forms. I asked him where I could do this and he said that I could get them in reception. How wrong could he be as when I asked there I was promptly ushered out and sent to the local tobacconist and charged a Euro for the service. While I was gone he completely ignored Val who was sitting in front of him and peered at something in his desk drawer, she suggested it was a Sudoku puzzle (she is hooked on them herself now). Once he had completed the two minute job it took him to change our details he sent us off saying the certificate would be ready in a week. As we were leaving the offices, closely followed by the official who seemed to have finished work for the day, I noticed that the girl on reception was busy photocopying some papers for a friend of hers who had come to see her..... and today, she charged us 6€ for the new papers!!!

One of our problems at the moment is the poor state of the economy back in the UK with falling interest rates which is affecting our rental here plus the plummeting pound against the euro. When we came here the rate was a comfortable £1 = 1.47€ and now that's way down at 1.33€ - The tourist rate is about 5 or 5 cents below that now too. We are praying for a recovery but don't really expect the pound to get back to it's previous “high” in the short term. Anyway enough of economics what else are we doing...............
But an even bigger problem that is causing a great deal of stress to Val is the lack of a proper bath and a substandard oven in the smaller of the two kitchens we have here. We may have to buy an oven and have it fitted at out own expense – but we shall see. As for me, hose me down in the garden each day and throw me peanuts and I 'll be OK.

COMPUTERS

I had one of those computer moments a few weeks ago which resulted in me spending a small fortune getting my PC repaired (using more Spanglish technospeak too!) and despite this I was still having problems which forced me to send enquiring texts to old contacts in the UK for advice. Then to my dismay when I switched my PC on here after the move it would not boot up at all despite ALL efforts. I was facing a major problem and had no way left to me to sort out the fact that the boot sequence would start then stall at the same place and nothing I did would resolve it. In despair I decided that I would scrap the PC and fit the hard drive in my old machine and just give up – or I'd buy a new laptop. It was at this point that my new computer advisor (Mrs H) said “have you tried looking inside and pushing all the connections to see if that will work”? Well as you can imagine, I grunted a bit at this and said “hmmmm, perhaps, but I don't think that will solve it” Yes, you guessed it I properly seated the cable connection to the hard drive and the PC has been running perfectly ever since. Mrs H is now working at the local PC reseller giving advice over the phone rather like this;Caller : (In Spanish) “My PC wont start” or My PC is playing up”Mrs H: (In English) “Have you opened it up and fiddled with the cables?”Called: (in either language) “No”Mrs H: (In English) “Well do that and I am sure it will work, Goodbye and thank you for calling the Help Desk”

VISITORS

Our extensive list of people who said they would visit during our time here, it was our plan that they would help us retain our sanity, has dwindled from the 10 or so groups ( anything from 2 to four people) to three only!! Perhaps I have been too open about the hardships here and have put people off a bit but we shall see.
There is a small but exclusive (I suppose this means expensive) hotel nearby that was originally owned by Terry Thomas who those of a certain age will remember from many films. His son now owns the hotel which lies well off the beaten track but has perfect views over the hills to the sea and has a well recommended restaurant as well. In fact we thought we may move in there ourselves.

So from the Little House on the Hill....... see you in my March Blog.

PS: STOP PRESS : Spanish TV Advertising!! This one caps them all!!!!!

We have become accustomed to the crazy claims made in advertising on TV here but this one advert we caught this morning capped it all. There is a shopping channel advert that seems to pop up everywhere we are watching on TV it includes several “home gym” devices that are “guaranteed” to make you slimmer, sexier and healthier within days. There is a Mystic Meg type of woman who sells a 500€ charm in silver,or gold and gold AND silver that will cure ALL known illnesses and other medical conditions known to man. ( http://www.directocasa.tv/ )
So this morning sitting down to catch some news headlines and a weather report while we had a cup of tea we caught a random channel (Veo) advertising some sort of mechanical device and after some minutes it suddenly dawned on us what it was they were showing........ wait for it....... 8 o'clock in the morning on a standard channel ..... yes..... guess what.... No? It was a penis extender!!!!!!!!!!!

I thank you and goodbye!!!

(We are waiting to see what else pops up on Spanish TV over the coming weeks while we wait for Satellite TV)