Wet weather ruins planned tv day.

Today I should be sat infront of the TV fixed with the tension that is 'The Ryder Cup'.

I was so pleased to only be working 3 days a week as it meant Friday's were free and I could see the opening day for once.

And so, at 7.30am we switched on the TV to start to absorb some of the atmosphere. In Worksop it was a dry day but in Wales it had been raining for some time and the players were all decked out in their waterproofs, umbrellas up and towels everywhere as the caddies tried to keep the clubs dry.

By the time the players were on the 1st tee it was obvious that play was going to be tricky. Puddles were everywhere, on the greens, filling the bunkers and even the fairways were starting to look more like rivers.

It's such a shame. Play was suspended after an hour.

About 5 years ago I went to the Celtic Manor for a conference. I didn't get to play the course as there wasn't enough spare time, but I did have a good look around and it really looked a good course. I could see why a match such as the Ryder Cup would go there.

The trip to the Celtic Manor was my 1st introduction to SatNavs - and I had a moody one. I travelled down with a colleague and we stopped at some services where 2 motorways joined. I had also printed directions from the internet which my colleague was following as neither of us knew that area of the country well.

After a coffee we got back into the car and turned the SatNav back on. It told me I needed to rejoin the motorway and take the next left I knew I needed to go right. We were travelling south and then needed to go across to Wales. I ignored the SatNav and turned right. My colleague said I needed to take the next junction off, I knew we were still some 40 miles before we needed to exit the motorway. I ignored my colleague and carried on. After about 20 minutes both the SatNav and my colleague caught up with me and we were all agreed on the directions once again.

That night we decided we would take a taxi down into Newport and find a nice restaurant for dinner. The hotel sorted a taxi for us and we found a really nice place. At the end of the evening we jumped into a taxi and asked to be taken to the Celtic Manor Hotel.

'Where's that then?' asked the taxi driver.

'Where the Ryder Cup is going to be held in 2010' I said. It was a huge hotel complex, he had to know where it was. It was midnight, it was dark and we had no idea.

'No, never heard of it' the driver replied.

I was vaguely aware of which direction we had driven down to Newport but as a passenger, you don't note every road and roundabout. Eventually I remember a series of roundabouts and knew we were close. We circled a few times like a shark sizing up a kill and then I made a decision which exit the driver should take from the roundabout. We drove up a country lane that didn't look familiar and I began to worry when suddenly we saw the hotel lights ahead. we had somehow found the back entrance to the hotel, but at least we had found it.

I assume over the last few years taxi drivers have made it a priority to know how to get to the Celtic Manor, I would imagine business will be brisk for them this weekend, but back then it wasn't on their radar.

And it was only a 10 minute drive.

And so I'm kicking my heels waiting for play to resume. And I can't even pass time by having a lovely long walk with the dogs because we too have torrential rain now, blowing across from Wales!

Time to browse the Kindle store I think.

When was your last pyjama day?

It's not something I do very often but sometimes you just need a pyjama day.

Mine turned out to be on Saturday.

Neil was up and out for golf at some ridiculously early hour and once he's gone I went back to bed, finally emerging to start my day at a much more sensible hour.
I decided I would do my bits and bobs around the house before having a shower and so rather than dressing, I simply donned a large T-shirt dress that I would never venture out of the house wearing or even open the door to a caller.

Normally PJ days and dogs don't go together but on Saturday the pups also seemed disinterested in going out the front door, happy enough to wander about the garden when they would normally be in the entrance hall trying their hardest to show me where their leads are kept.

And so the day progressed.

I pottered about, read my book for a while and then began to tackle the re-arrangement of my books back into some semblance of order so I knew where to find things. (To Do List - item 6).

Before I knew it Neil was home from golf. Now, he's a good hubby, he can spot a PJ day a mile off, and normally before I realise that one has developed and so, having just got back from rising at 5am and walking for 4 hours, he offered to take the pups out for their walk.

I still had no reason to leave our front door.

While sorting out the piles of books I had come across this.

This is a box I have had for more than 20 years. It's a Harrod's stationery box and originally contained 40 sheets of paper and 30 envelopes, and no, my memory isn't that good, the label is still on the underside.

I remember it was too pretty a box to throw away when all the paper had been used and it seemed an ideal box to keep letters I received in.

And that's what I did. It seems to cover a time before we kept in touch with friends by e-mail and is full of letters from friends who lived too far away to see regularly. Reading through them again brings so many memories back, some good, some not so good but all of them to be cherished.

By the time I had looked through and read most of the box's contents the day was almost gone and I started to move my thoughts back to the present day. I realised I has spent a couple of hours transported back to the mid-90's. I had been cast back to the days when friends were popping children as if there was a population shortage, where relationships were changing after many years of stability and one friend was battling cancer treatment, a battle she was ultimately to lose. I have a wonderful letter from my Grandma telling me of a ball she had gone to with her neighbour who was a councillor and that they had a 4 course meal which is why, she deduced, the local rates were so high! That she had worn a red dress to give her colour and that she had still been dancing at 1am when the ball ended - and she must have been in her 80's at the time.

I don't live in the past but I do like to visit now and then.

I just wished I'd been dressed for the occasion!

To-do list update

Earlier than expected, I have an update on my to-do list as any more progress on it this week has come to an abrupt halt.

I had a good couple of days and have completed items 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5.

I was making good progress........

and then today I received a phone call............

from the company I had been working at for the last few weeks............

'Is it possible you could work tomorrow and Friday and all next week instead of 3 days?' 'Please?'

They have another exercise they are struggling with and need my expertise - how good is that?

And so, my bookcase is still in disarray, my hair is now under serious threat of my fringe being chopped by me if I want to be able to see (but this isn't for the first time) and the nearest I have got to registering with the doctors is to complete our medical cards ready to take with us and to print the directions from Google Maps!

And my Friday game of golf is postponed yet again!

Hey ho!

A week to catch up on all those little jobs.

I find myself with a week of being unemployed and have just been making my 'to do' list for the week.

1. Cleaning
2. Laundry
3. Grocery shopping
4. Recycling
5. Clothes shopping for work
6. Sort bookcase
7. Register with Doctor
8. Find hairdresser

And if all this is done by Thursday

9. Play golf.

First priority is to get the housework done to keep the rest of the week free for me, and so I am about to start on 3 bathrooms!

Then I will do the shopping and take the recycling that they don't collect from the house and later today we are going clothes shopping as I need to add to my winter wardrobe. At the moment all I have are jeans & jumpers, not exactly appropriate work attire for the roles I am applying for.

Once that is all done it leaves me free to book coffee with friends, find a hairdresser and get my hair cut as it hasn't seen any scissors since June, when I was still in Spain. Finding a new hairdresser is always a daunting task so wish me luck.

I also want to sort out my bookshelves as Neil unpacked all my books so they are all muddled up and I cannot find anything, and I have bought some new ones which need to be allocated an appropriate space.

And the final task on my list is registering with the local Doctors. So a busy week but by Friday I hope to have everything crossed off and have a free day to play golf.

And why am I planning to do it all this week?

Well, I start work again on Monday for another 4 weeks. The company I have just done an assignment for have asked me to go back and do some holiday cover. As my brother said, it's always nice to be asked back!

So, I'm off to tackle the bathrooms. I'll be back at the end of the week to show you how much of my 'to do' list is done.

Have a good week.

Visiting the local farm shop.

One of the things I used to love in Spain was my weekly wander around the local street market. The fresh produce always looked so fresh and tasty and somehow our shops just don't get the same effect with the prepacked produce. Whether it is the produce, the volume of stalls, the obligatory Namibian Pan Pipe group or the atmosphere or a combination of all I'm not sure but wandering around the fresh produce area of Tesco or Sainsbury's doesn't quite have the same effect.

We have a large area of allotments across the road from our house but I have been unable to find whether there is an allotment shop so I was quite pleased to see we have a Farm Shop less than 10 minutes from us. Each time I drive past I remind myself I should stop and have a look to see what the shop is like and today I made a deliberate effort to go and take a look.

From the road it was difficult to assess how big the shop was but once we were inside we were pleasantly surprised. There was a large meat counter with very good looking meat so we treated ourselves to a couple of Rib Eye steaks. The lamb also looked good. I don't often buy lamb but as it looked so good I decided we would treat ourselves to a leg, but as there are only 2 of us I asked for a little leg from a little lamb!

They have a veritable array of deli stuff plus a a fine display of in-season fruit and veg. By the time we had finished I had a trolley full of (hopefully) good quality foods.

http://arrowfarmshop.co.uk/aboutus.html


And now, a few hours later, the Rib Eye steak has been consumed and was really good quality meat. Very tender and lots of flavour. Definitely worth the extra £1 it cost us and definitely means we will be back to the Farm Shop in the not too distant future.

I love finding new places that are as good as you hope they will be.

Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for the Garden Centre a couple of minutes away from the Farm Shop. The entrance looks very impressive but the plants and coffee shop left a lot for improvement. Still, we are not short of good Garden centres with quality coffee shops nearby, so I shan't struggle when I want to buy my rhubarb plant.

Crepes for tea!

Neil loves to cook new dishes and he knows one of my favourites is a stack of American Pancakes with fresh fruit and cream. A few years ago we visited Calgary in winter (and it was nothing to do with skiing - but that's a whole different story) and stayed in a guest house near town. The Lady of the house was away for the weekend and had left us in the very capable hands of her parents. They were a lovely couple and rather than leaving us in the breakfast room, they invited us into the very large kitchen so we could chat while they prepared our breakfast.

A stack of Pancakes with lashings of maple syrup.

Neil got talking about finding a good pancake batter mix and they told us the secret was a mix of flours. Since then we have used their recipe and have good American pancakes frequently.

For a change tonight, Neil decided to have a go at Crepes Suzettes. Completely different to our normal pancakes, crepes are incredibly thin and delicate. We had plenty of fruit in the house as Sainsbury's have started doing a multipack of strawberries, raspberries and blueberries and I'd picked a pack up earlier this week.

We brought some cointreau(ish) drink back from Spain with us which had cost us about 7euros for a litre from a local Bodega near Pulpí and Neil made a tasty sauce to pour over the crepes.

And so tonight, this was on our dinner table.

And they were absolutely delicious - 3 of our 5-a-day and weeks worth of calories!

And that's before we've poured the fresh cream on.

Anything from the back of a van?

So, there we were, just all sat, sitting quietly watching a program we taped last night (on Tiger Woods) when suddenly a van pulled up outside.

Now we don't get uninvited visitors, no-one knows we are here and normally we have to give extremely detailed directions for anyone who is genuinely trying to find us, so to suddenly find a van outside on a Saturday afternoon is quite unsettling.

Neil went out to see who it was while I extricated myself from my very comfy seat, and as I got outside he called over to me. 'Do we need any fruit?'

It was a local local 'man in a van' who had a surplus stock of fruit and was driving around the houses in the Campo to see if he could sell any of it. Having spent a couple of hours walking around our market this morning I knew I didn't need anything as I always get our fresh fruit and veg there BUT I thought I would be polite and see what he had.

And there was the disappointment. He only had Sandia (watermelon) and melocotón (peaches). Admittedly the watermelons were incredibly large, and would have kept a family of 6 going for a month, heaven knows how long it would take Neil and I work our way through one. I normally buy just small portions of watermelon so we don't end up throwing most of them out. I have to admit to not being a great fan of watermelon and gracefully declined buying one.

But I did want to try and be a good neighbour and we could always work our way through a few peaches so I reached over to take a couple and see how ripe they were, and they were really, really ripe. So ripe as to be almost too ripe. I think we would have needed to eat them all today before the were only fit to throw down into the Rambla for the animals to finish.

So, I said in my sweetest Spanish that I didn't want anything and he closed the van door looking a little unimpressed with me. I have a feeling that he won't be making the drive down our track again soon, regardless of whatever crop he has an excess of.

I did think that maybe our neighbour on the hill had sent him down but as I went out with the dogs a few minutes later I saw him up there at their gate so I guess, it is just becoming known locally that there is a house down this track and more importantly to them, there is someone living here.

It would seem the peace and quiet of our rural hide-away just got a little less quiet.

Finally, the sun is back!

After several days of torrential rain, thunder, lightening and cold evenings we finally have the sun back. Everyone is hoping that summer has finally arrived.

Over the next few weeks many of the local villages will be having their annual fiestas and these are much better when held in the warmth of the sun. Eating Paella and drinking beer is not so much fun when done under a large, dripping umbrella, surrounded by muddy fields and having to make a dash for the car which will be hemmed in by a lot of abandoned cars, as is the Spanish way. They will party into the early hours and expect others to do the same so parking is not done with any thought to the fact that someone may want to leave early. If you park close so you don't have far to walk, be prepared to party 'till late.

Tonight, of ALL nights!

We've had lovely, long, hot, sunny days, for ages and ages now. We've had stable internet and phone links via satellite and I cannot remember when we last lost TV signal due to bad weather.

SO WHY TONIGHT? WHY NOW?

England are due to start their World Cup Campaign in less than half an hour and the heavens have opened. It's been pouring down for over an hour and shows no sign of stopping. As yet, we still have the TV signal but it keeps breaking up and then settling again.

We could be in for a long 90 minutes of football.

Mid-June in Spain - who'd have thoought it.

I know Linda-Lou in Mexico will be jealous of our rain, but honestly - couldn't it have held off just another couple of hours?

Summer has landed!

I was only in the UK for 10 days but the change from Spring to Spanish Summer has taken place while I was away.

So, we are back to the days of working before 10am and after 6pm, back to the days where the dogs don't want to walk more than 50 metres without a drink and no more than 100m before turning back.

All the greenery of the fields is rapidly baking brown, the flowers and grasses withering almost as you look at them. This is so reminiscant of our drives through Caifornia. Our first visit was in April, when all the hills were heavy green and the trees full of colour. Our second trip was in September, and I remember we commented on how baked everything looked. When we arrived at our friend's house we mentioned how brown the hillsides were compared to our first vist, and we were quickly corrected, not brown - GOLDEN! California is, after all, the Golden State.

So, our mountains are now golden except for the green leaves and nut husks of the almond trees. This year is strange for the Almond trees. The long, wet winter has not been good for the nuts as a lot of the blossom did not set. Whether this is because the wet weather kept the insects from pollenating them or whether it's because the wet caused the blooms to go mouldy before the nuts had set, I'm not sure but it is sad to see so many trees without any nuts, or only on a few branches. By now each branch should be ladened with nuts. For those reliant on the crop it will be a bad year.

It is also a bad year for the wild mushrooms. Oddly because we didn't get enough rain when it was needed!

And so, it will be interesting to see what does grow this year - I know it certainly isn't going to be my rhubarb. I have now tried 2 sets of seeds, cared for them daily. Neil remembered to water all my little pots while I was away and I have lovely new rose buds on both plants, on one stem I have 5 buds but rhubarb? Nada!

My trip to England was very enjoyable. Instead of the usual mad dash I got time to spend with people. I had time to wander around the shops, not looking for anything in particular but just enjoying the familiarity of them. I took every opportunity for a coffee break so I could indulge in a huge, frothy Cappucino and Blueberry muffin neither of which we can get here locally. Unfortunately, while I was away Neil pulled his back, big style and was in a lot of discomfort and pain. Ridiculously, after all the hard work we have done over the past few months, he pulled it doing nothing more than picking something up of the floor while cleaning up after the dogs. It was difficult being so far awy from him knowing he was having trouble moving about BUT he had a cast iron excuse for the housework not being done for my return.

So, my first day back in Spain was spent doing the cleaning, laundery, bathing the dogs (who definitely smelled of dog when I got back) and food shopping to re-stock the cupboards.

And so life returns to normal.

How to keep flies out of your house.....apparently!

Living in the country, in the mountains and in a foreign country is all a learning experience for us. Having come from an English city existence, the Spanish wilderness is a constant wonderment.

But we take it all in, trying to show as little surprise or shock as we can, car eating mice excepted.

And so it should have been no major concern to me when I took big car in for a service earlier this week to find, hanging over the counter where you book cars in, 3 very large, clear, plastic bags full of water.

I pondered these for a few moments but really could not decide why these were there and so I had to find out. In my very best Spanish I asked: 'are these here to punish the people who couldn't pay their bills?'.

'No', laughed the lady behind the counter, 'they are for the flies!'

OK, got me on that one.

'How are they for the flies?' I continued.

'Well, it stops them coming into the office' was the response.

OK. The high level flying flies, maybe - but there was a gap of at least 3 feet between the bottom of the bags and the counter. Surely, any fly with half a mind would just fly lower.

So, I carried on. 'How do they stop the flies coming in?'

'Well, when they fly up to the bags, they see their reflection in the bag, but it's many times bigger so they think there are really big flies inside and so they stay out' she explained.

'Really?'

'Oh yes!'

So, I needn't have spent over €2,000 on all the flyscreens. €1 worth of plastic bags and a bottle of water would have sorted the problem - apparently.

Nice try, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Unwanted visitors.

A couple of nights ago, we had a fabulous clear sky and a million stars twinkling, so I was tempted to sit outside for a while and gaze. People keep telling me how many shooting stars we see up here due to the clarity of the skies because of the absence of any street lights, house lights and any other type of lights, but so far I haven't seen any. Maybe if I sat for a while I would see my first.

As I sat I became aware of a scratching noise close by. I know we have mice living near the house and they don't worry me so I started to listen closely to see whether I could work out where they were.

As my hearing focused in, I realised that the scratching was coming from inside the bonnet of my car! Now, I have a pact with the mice, the same as I do with spiders: I don't have a problem with them PROVIDING they remain outside the house. That ruling stretches to include my car.

I called to Neil to come and listen, just to make sure I was hearing right, and he agreed - the noises were definitely coming from under the bonnet.

I ran over to the car and hammered on the bonnet making enough noise to wake the dead in the hope I would frighten the mice away. As we listened, the scratching stopped but the entire valley was suddenly filled by every dog in the area howling and barking at this sudden noise that had woken them all from their slumbers.

We waited a little longer and still heard no more scratching so I started the car up and moved him away from the front of the house, where there are mouse holes.

The following morning I went down to our local store that sells fertilisers, poisons etc and explained in my best Spanish that I had mice that were eating my car. I expected a response, but not the one I got. 'Claro! Vives en el Campo'. Of course, you live in the Campo.

What I thought to be an unusual event turns out to be perfectly normal and well known by most people, just not us. They are known for nibbling through cables and can lead to some very expensive repairs. He showed me some pale blue tablets and told me I needed to put several under the bonnet in nooks and crannies where they woudln't fall out and the mice would nibble them and, then he stopped talking and simply stroked his finger across his throat signifying my mouse problem would be no more.

Back at the house we did as instructed and also pushed a tablet down each of the mouse holes in the hope that we could combat the attack.

2 days later we took our big car in for a service, only to be told that the mice had been in there too, but so far only nibbled at items of insulation rather than cables or other rather important items. So, having put more blue tablets around the engine we hope we have controlled the situation and will make sure to check the tablets from time to time and replace as necessary.

Whatever next?

Quick update on the 'bang on the head'.

Firstly, thank you to everyone who has shown such concern over my little misfortune with the lump hammer, I am pleased to report the lump hammer is fine and has been back at work today.

As for my head, well, I do consider myself to have got off very lightly. After a couple of days rest I have been able to resume fencing duties. Apart from localised pain if I touch the top of my head, which I try not to do, I have no apparent after effects at all. I am still unable to brush my hair properly and I will probably have to deal with a twin crown from now on, but overall I count myself incredibly lucky to have had such little discomfort from what could have been quite a nasty accident.

The real casualty in all of this are my work gloves, they have not recovered from being washed to remove the blood and are, sadly, destined for the bin.

I consider it a small price to pay!

A trip to the cinema.

There are only a few things I miss now we live in the wilds of Spain, but I have to admit, when I see some of the adverts for new films being released, I do get a twinge of sadness that I can not go to the cinema here and understand a film.

Well, that has been remedied. We have joined a new film club that has started on the Rambla de Oria, which is about 45 minutes away from us. Last week we went to watch Sherlock Holmes and tomorrow night we are going to see Avatar.

Obviously the films are being shown as they are released on DVD, and we could buy them ourselves and watch them at home but it was a really great night out and only €2 each.

We knew roughly where the Rambla was as we had been to see a few houses there ourselves, when we were house hunting. Our instructions were to look for a house with a cream boulder next to a green bin, then turn right up the track to a large cortijo on the hill with a huge, tall pine tree at one corner. This is how it has to be when there are no road names (because there are no roads) and houses dotted about the hills. At least we have the benefit of a km marker on the tarmac road to work from.

They have converted a windowless room in their house into a bar area and have put in a large screen and good sound system. The room has a lovely wood fire in one corner and can hold about 20 people, so it's a really good sociable place.

We had a comfort break halfway through the film which gave us a chance to chat with some of the others there and it was a really good night, helped by the fact the Neil and I really enjoyed the film.

So, tomorrow we finally get to see Avatar on a large screen and with full sound effects, but not in 3D.

And I can have a glass of red wine while I'm watching it - can't be bad!

A weekly update

It always surprises me how quickly a week can pass when we don't actually seem to do much.

The sun has gone for now and we are living in a perpetual cloud. Damp and grey and not nice to work outside so the fence is not progressing much. Last night we lost satellite reception for the phone and internet until sometime in the early hours this morning so, the feeling of isolation was total. The clouds filled the valleys all around us and our only sense there were others out there were the distant barks of the dogs on the far hills, calling out to see if others were around. Even the birds and the frogs were quiet. Today is a little better, at least we can see 2 or 3 hills down the valley and the internet and phone are back.

But when we cannot work outside we can get on with inside jobs. I am now the proud owner of IKEA bookcases along one wall of the study and all the books, CD's and DVD's are finally out of the boxes they were packed in almost 2 years ago. This was triggered by the arrival of the Pratchett books from the UK. 56 in total, although there were several duplicates. I had to have somewhere to display these properly so it prompted a trip up to IKEA in Murcia.

Having built the bookcases and put them in place my first task was to sort all the Pratchetts into order - so that when I start to read them I don't skip any. That then led me on to arranging all my paperbacks into alphabetical order. I never know whether it is better to sort them by size or by author but the logical side of my brain says by author as that way, when I am looking for something I can find it easily. Plus, sometimes I like the random pattern this makes.

For the first time in many years I have room for all the old photo albums and it wasn't surprising that a task that should take about an hour ran into a couple of days because it was impossible for me not to start flicking through the old photos. Over the last few years all my photos have been downloaded on to the computer and not printed out and I do think in years to come I am going to miss sitting down among the albums and looking back at these recent years.

Maybe I should put an annual album together, just as a keepsake!

Police Spot Road Check!

There are not many speed cameras in Spain, unlike in the UK, but there is a much higher number of police checks where they flag you down and check your documents and that your car is ok. So far, having been in Spain almost 2 years I have avoided being stopped when I have been driving. We have been stopped once when Neil was driving for a breath test, that was within a week or 2 of moving here and a couple of weeks ago I was in my neighbour’s car with them when were stopped for a paperwork check but today was the first time I have been in my car, on my own and stopped.

I was on my way to my Spanish class this morning when I saw them at the junction of the country road with the motorway. Very often they are on the slip road coming off the motorway but because a lot of the locals use the minor roads, mainly to avoid police checks every now and again they place themselves on the local roads.

I saw them well in advance and so it was no surprise when they flagged me down. There were 2 Guardia and as one was talking to me the other was giving the car a little look over. I was in Brian as Neil had gone to golf in the big car, and I was fairly comfortable that everything was in order but as this was the first time I had been stopped I was aware there may be something I wasn’t aware of.

Firstly he asked me for my ID and I gave him my drivers licence. Then he asked for the documents for the car and I handed him the little folder where everything is kept, insurance, registration documentation, receipt for road tax (you do not display a tax disc on your screen here, as in the UK however, there is a sticker on the screen confirming when the next MOT is due), the receipt for when I purchased it was in there – lots of bits of paper for him to look at.

He took his time looking through it all, occasionally going behind the car to speak to the other officer and as he checked each document he passed it back to me. At one point he made a comment about how much paperwork there is connected to a car in Spain, but I just replied that there was plenty of paperwork in the UK as well. After he’d gone through everything he simply told me that everything was perfect and that I could continue on my way.

I was surprised I had not felt at all anxious but I was feeling very calm. It was good to know that everything is alright with the documents, I know I will not have to worry about being stopped in the future.

Strangely enough I have often felt nervous about being stopped when I was out driving on my own, but when it finally happened I didn’t feel nervous at all.

When things break.

We have been very fortunate that the majority of things we have bought while in Spain have not gone wrong but occasionally, it is necessary to return things or exchange things and this can be quite an effort.

We did have to take the cement mixer back to have a new motor fitted after only 3 months, which was a fairly easy transaction although it did mean 2 trips to Almeria which was 4 hours travelling in total.

At the beginning of the year, when we finally had a telephone line connected via the satellite, we decided we would treat ourselves to a new phone for the house. We had been using one we brought from the UK and the display didn't work properly and sometimes it was difficult to see who you were actually dialling.

We thought we'd get a really good one with an answer machine and a second cordless handset so that we could have one in the study and another in the lounge, 2 rooms at opposite ends of the house which would hopefully mean we would hear it ring no matter where we were. Also, the cordless one can be taken outside where we hope to spend a lot of our summer hours, if summer ever decides to start this year!

Within a month of buying the phone the cordless unit became faulty. At first we though it was a problem with the rechargeable batteries but after a few days it became obvious it was a little bit more than that. We were outside the 21 days return to store policy so I e-mailed the company to start the process of getting it changed.

This is where living in the middle of no-where becomes a bit of a problem. After a few conversations I finally got them to understand it was not just the batteries that needed changing, we had already tried a second set and had the same problem. They would send a courrier with a replacement cordless phone. I told them they would need to contact me in advance so that I could arrange to meet them and I waited for the call.

In Spain nothing happens immediately, so I waited...... generously, for 2 weeks.

Nothing.

I sent a quick e-mail to see what was happening only to find......

I had to start the whole process again.

To be fair, this time it has all happened much quicker and less than a week after giving them all the details again, I had a call from the courrier to say he had a parcel for me. I rang him back to arrange collection and this afternoon I have collected a complete new phone system, not just a replacement for the faulty bit. Maybe they thought this was easier than to find they had changed one bit and we still had a problem.

Once again, I am so pleased I chose to take time to learn the language to a level where I can sort things like this out by phone. I cannot imagine how people manage that cannot speak a bit of Spanish.

All I need to do now is try and remember how to program the phone numbers in and set the answer machine - after all, the manual is in Spanish - I'm getting very good at translation exercises.

Could this be another bad harvest year?

One of the first things we were told when we moved to take over an almond farm was that last year's crop was poor. They were only paying €0.50 per kilo compared to the previous year of €1.50/kg. There was hope that this year would be better.

The blossom is still in the trees although looking a little past it's best after a couple of frosty nights and a snowfall, but already there is talk that this year almond crop will be a poor one, at least in this area. The almond trees are easy to grow because they don't need irrigation, they take the moisture from the ground, and for that they rely on the winter snows and rainfall. However, we are told that a lot of rain on the blossom is bad.

The nut sets at the base of the flower and if there is too much rain the base of the flower gets too damp and goes mouldy before the nut sets. This is the concern for this year's crop.

We were never going to make a fortune from our crop but if predictions are correct we won't even earn enough to pay to have the fields ploughed, something that is necessary to break up the soil and allow the rain and snow falls of next winter to get into the ground and feed the trees rather than it running straight off into the Rambla, to run away as pretty, but useless, babbling brooks.

Having checked a few of our trees I cannot see that we have a problem with mouldy, rotting flower bases, but only time will tell.

The realities of farming and the direct impact of the weather have never felt so relevant. We may not rely on the income from the almonds to eat, as some farmers do, but we still don't want to see a poor crop.

Our new gadget.

Bad weather in Spain has consequences not normally experienced in the UK. It doesn't have to be extreme weather - just a heavy downpour, high winds or even heavy cloud which is low enough to cover us. As well as the direct effect of the weather, a lot of rain or a howling gal, the main indirect effect is thay we can lose our TV signal, and the bad weather doesn't even have to be over us, it can be anywhere between us and the UK, and we don't regain the signal until the weather passes. The other indirect effect is loss of power. This happens more often with heavy rain or snow and normally there will be a series of very short power cuts but can often last several hours.



It was always our intention to buy a generator as a back up power supply and with this in mind Neil and the electrician had installed a socket in the utility room where we could simply plug the generator in to run the lights and sockets in the house if we had a power cut for any length of time. This would make sure that we didn't have to worry about the freezers defrosting (we have 2, one in the kitchen and a second in the utility for when we are snowed in), so that we have heating through the winter and also lights for night time power cuts and of course, power to the sockets also means we continue to have the phone, internet and TV.



Neil had calculated that we needed a 3kw genny and we started to look around for one just last week. There is the usual concerns about where to buy them. We could get them cheaper from the UK than in Spain but that raises issues over the warranty, should anything go wrong. We can buy them from the internet in Spain but again, should anything go wrong it is more difficult to get it sorted dealing with companies over the phone. I know this from personal experience as I am still trying to get the phone we bought replaced because the slave handset doesn't work. This has been going on for 6 weeks and we still haven't got the replacement.



We then managed to find one in a local hardware store that fitted the bill and the budget, so after a couple of days thinking about it, last Thursday we finally decided to bite the bullet and buy it. The owner of the store asked us to call back the following day so that he had time to test that it worked ok and we finally went back on Saturday to collect it.



One of the things I still find amazing here is that they never seem to want to take your money. Having called at the store he told us we needed to drive to the other side of the Poligono to his warehouse where he had been testing it. I expected we would have to pay before we collected it - but no, they wouldn't take my money until after we had checked that it worked ok. After loading it into the back of the car we drove back to the shop so we could pay for it but it did make me wonder whether such a system would work in the UK without having to leave proof of your name, address, phone number and car details.

Anyway, genny paid for we called at the petrol station for a can of petrol and brought it home. Neil sorted it out with a cable and plug and started it up and it chugged away nicely. As our electric supply is from the little casita on the hill, about 400m over muddy, hilly terrain, we decided we would try plugging it into the house on Sunday morning so that if it tripped the fuse we could walk up to the casita to reset it in daylight.

Of course, Sunday morning dawned and we completely forgot to test the genny into the house supply...........

until 3.30pm..............

when the power went off and didn't come back on!

There was nothing to lose. We turned off the main fuse and all the individual fuses to the lights, sockets, cooker, hot tub and went and plugged in genny. Then we fired her up and turned on the fuse to the lights. In excited anticipation we turned on the hall light switch.........

and there was light.

We turned on the fuse to the sockets and all the lights on the computer servers lit up. We had power. Now we just had one problem, how would we know when the mains power was back on?

The only way is to turn the genny off every half hour and see. We don't overlook any other houses, we cannot see the town and there are no street lights in view so there is no way of knowing when the power is back on other than to try it.

Looks like we need a contraption to tell us when we have power again, but at least future powercuts will be less stressful, if a little noisier.

El tanque es lleno finalmente!!!!!

A recap.


We decided to live in a house in the countryside 1,000 metres up a mountain. It gets cold in the winter, there is snow in the winter which is deep enough to stop us getting the car out for days at a time. We decided we would put gas central heating in running on propane from a tank as we are way too far away from any mains supply of gas. Natural piped gas is not common in this part of Spain although highly populated areas are beginning to get piped supply.


We only knew of one supplier of bottled gas, Repsol, and so spoke with them about the supply. Their tanks were massive so we would need to run off the tall bottles and were recommended to have 8 bottles and run 4 on/4 off. We weren't keen as this would look unattractive at the back of the house but, any less would mean the bottles needed changing too often and if the track was difficult to access because of snow we could run out of gas and have no heating or cooking.


In conversation with Manolo at the plumbers merchant he told us about another supplier Cespa, who did a smaller tank than Repsol, suitable for domestic use. 1,000 litres which should last for months and certainly see us through the winter months without difficulty. The tank is quite cute, if a fuel tank can be cute and it seemed perfect for our needs. Refills would be 3-4 days from order, which is a simple phone call. While we were waiting for the tank we could run the system with 4 small bottles, 2 on/2 off.


We started the process in mid-November and we received the signed contract from Cespa dated 26th November. We were given a timescale of 3 weeks for the tank to be delivered and a further 3-4 days for it to be filled up. With any luck it would all be set-up by Christmas and we wouldn't have to worry about fuel throughout the winter.


But, this is Spain. Timescales can stretch out quite a while.


The timescale for our tank has stetched way beyond expectations. In Spain you learn to be patient but this has certanly tested our patience to the limit.


The tank is manufactured in Portugal as it is cheaper than if it was made in Spain. At Christmas when we asked,it was only just in production, should be shipped early January. We had one fall of snow where we were snowed in for 3 days and on day 4 we had no choice but to dig our way out as our bottles were empty. The bottles only lasted for 4 days in really cold weather when we needed the heating on 24/7. When you run on LPG there is always a residual amount left in the bottles, normally 10% but in cold weather it can be as much as 15% - this means when you need the most get you get the least! The outside temperature affects the amount of usable gas. It also means you are paying for gas you can't actually use. Each change of bottle was costing us €10 so it is not a cost effective way of running a heating system, but it was meant to only be for a 4-5 weeks!


But this is Spain. Finally, after almost 10 weeks the tank arrived. We were told it would take about a week for the first fill and after that it would be 3-4 days for a refill from when we telephoned an order through. We were so excited.

The excitement didn't last long.

We waited for it to be filled. In the meantime we had more snow, we couldn't get out for 3 days. This time we ran out of gas on day 4, but we stayed warm through the snow. A week passed and then a second. We started calling into the shop every week for an update. Every week was the same, the paperwork is stuck in the system. We cannot get the tank filled until the paperwork is sorted.

Last Friday we finally had a call to say the tanker was coming to fill us up. We knew better than to get excited this time.

It didn't arrive.

I rang to ask why and it seems they sent the big tanker (like you see deliver fuel to petrol stations) and he was worried that the slope on our track was too much and, having got down to the house, he wouldn't be able to get back up to the tarmac road.

They needed to send the smaller tanker which has to come from further away, so doesn't come to the area every day. It would be here Tuesday or Wednesday.

It didn't come.

This morning we got a phone call. The little tanker was coming.

AND IT DID!!!!!!!!!

We now have a full tank of LPG,well 85% full - that's the maximum they can fill it. It should last us several months. We don't have to change bottles anymore.

Now, we are very excited. We're going out to celebrate tonight.

We're going to town for a PIzza!