Official Bits.

Having been unable to register on the padron at our new place, I went up to Pulpí today to renew our exisiting padron. Neil is buying me a little run around car and we need a current certificate to be able to have the car documents transferred to us. It would have been easier to have it registered to our new place but it's taking too long to sort and I don't want to lose the car.

It's a little, white Citroen Saxo - and I had a little Saxo for the last few months I lived in Sheffield.

Anyway, back on topic.

When we were on our way to Pulpí I remembered it was market day so this would mean one of two things. Either the Town Hall would be busy because everyone had come into town for the market and would sort their official bits out at the same time OR it would be quiet because everyone would assume it would be busy because it was market day.

Fortunately for me, it was the latter. There was no-one at the renewals desk so I was seen straight away, 2 minutes later I was done and I collect the new certificates on Friday, having paid my €1.20 per copy.

Then I needed to renew our road tax. In Spain road tax is not such a strict matter as in the UK. When we bought our car in June last year the road tax ran until end of December, the calendar year. Our Town Hall only issue renewals in April, payable within a fixed number of days at a bank. They stamp the renewal form to prove payment is made and you carry this with you in the car. So effectively you drive around with an out of date road tax and if you get stopped, it's not a problem.

Well, when you buy a new car it can take over 12 months to get into the system and so we missed getting the normal renewal notice in April. It's been waiting for me to go to Pulpí to sort it out and today was the first time I had a need to go so we have effectively been driving with no road tax for 10 months - but it's not a problem - well, I tell you, it was a problem for me everytime we drove past the police stopping cars for a paperwork check - mild panic was certainly present. Fortunately we have not been stopped to test the theory.

I found the office in the Town Hall that deals with Road Tax renewals and explained we didn't get a reminder. He asked for the registration document which I had, and he typed the details into his computer and a couple of minutes later I had my renewal notice. It has a list of the banks you can pay it at and there are 2 immediately opposite the Town Hall and so I went straight across and paid it - €84 for our Kia Sportage - a lot cheaper than in the UK.

I was really pleased how easy it had been, normally such things can take hours, but not today. We had time to call for some paint so that I could start decorating our bedroom.

Just need to remember to go back on Friday - and you watch, I'll be waiting in a long queue just to pick up the papers!