Tales from Taberno

Date Wednesday 26-7-2006
Another scorching lovely day. We swim in the pool any time we can and especially when we return from anywhere and we are hot and sticky, we go straight in the water. Sometimes we swim first thing in the morning, just as the sun is rising above the trees opposite and before we go out and then we also bask in the cool water at midnight watching the glorious stars.
This morning we set of to get our Empadronamientos from the Office Municipal at Los Gallardos (a small village near the motorway). The young man who deals with these spoke a little English, thankfully, but advised us that as we are staying at El Pinar we should register up at Bedar village Municipal Office. So we drove upto Bedar (we wanted to visit the village which is about 8k above El Pinar, but hadn’t had the time yet, so this was good excuse) Bedar is another little white village set up on a mountain top and is very pretty. We drove to the outskirts of the village and walked on through to find the Office Municipal in Plaza Mayor (Mayors Office also). This young man did not speak any English so for some of his questions we were at a total loss and standstill. We got him to phone Gill at Lighthouse Properties who acted as our interpreter, bless her. When the process was finished and he had taken copies of our passports etc he indicated that we should return again tomorrow to collect the documents. It just happened to be market day in Bedar so we browsed as we made our way back to the car. We also called in a café and had cheese omelette and baguette for breakfast, what joy.

Tales from Taberno

Date Tuesday 25-7-2006
Went down to Gills for our contract of tenancy so that we can go to the local town hall for our Empadronamiento. tomorrow We talked to Gill, Berto and Jodie about buying a car so that we hope that we will have a good deal with out any nasty unexpected problems. All three are so helpful and happy to assist and advise on the complexities of doing things here in Spain, it’s a really good and secure feeling to have them on our side. Gill has prepared a sack of bed linen for us, although with the excitement of the car we left them all on Gills settee. We went back to the car place and agreed a small deposit that will secure the car for us until we can transfer the money over to our Spanish bank account, probably next Tuesday or Wednesday.
Jeanne and Graham Chadwick came up to see us together with their Granddaughter and a friend from Birstall who are both on holiday. It was really good to see them again and to know that they are safe and well after their long drive down from Santader, they were very brave and tenacious to do what they did in the way that they did it. They have bought a town house in El Pilar which is north of Sorbas. They will be staying with Angie until they have had some building work done on the house. After Debs, Ivan and Ollie have been we will ring them and go down to see them.

Tales from Taberno

Date 24-7-2006 Monday
What a shame, most of the world has to go back to work today J )))))))))))))
We are going to find a Toyota main dealer in Vera to see if he can put us in touch with any second hand Rav 4’s.
BTW I don’t know if I need to tell you that it was hot again yesterday and will be hot again today and I wouldn’t mind betting it might be hot again tomorrow, but I won’t rub it in J )))) (I’m in an evil mood this morning).
We found a rather nice Mazda Premacy at a car sales place in Turre. It’s a seven seater automatic 2 litre petrol and is only three years old. It’s not quite a 4x4 but it is quite high off the ground. Adding a tow bar for a trailer should prove ideal for the area that we are going into.
We will go tomorrow to do deal with the man. It will have the Spanish equivalent of 1 years MOT and there is no road tax.
We will get our Empadronamiento (electoral, census registration) tomorrow from the town hall. This registration will then allows us to buy cars etc.

Tales from Taberno

Date 23-7-2006 Sunday
Went to Turre to see if we could find any cyber cafes open on a Sunday, none were. Went on to Mojacar and found the same. Got more provisions from the Supermarket and the hardware store and then had a long cool paddle in the sea. Drove up to Mojacar old town and walked to the lovely little bar, the one you may have seen in an earlier picture of Elayne sitting outside of, for a drink and tapas (lunch). In the back of this bar I found four slot computers that we could use for 1 euro for half an hour. Business all done and emails answered, on line, we then came back to this lovely air conditioned villa and wallowed in the pool for a long while to cool off.
In the evening we went up to Taberno and visited our plot (well it will be on the 15th of August when we visit the notary in Vera to fully sign up and pay the balance of the purchase money over to the sellers solicitor). We worked out with a compass that the existing ruin points actually south east and this fits the direction that we should have the house for the best of the sun set/sun rises, and also it fits in with the sympathy of the lay of the land as a perfect and ideal combination.
We then went over to Pam and Bob (pre-arranged but still hooting the horn a quarter of a mile out to announce our arrival) and the four of us went for a fabulous dinner at El Rancho’s at a near by village (steaks and chicken done on a open fire) followed by ice cream and coffee at Paco’s bar in Taberno. Sitting outside a bar at ten o’clock on a warm evening is brilliant. Bob and Pam drove us back to their house where we could see the whole of the night sky, with no light pollution at all from anywhere, what a splendid sight, I do hope that we never take any of it for granted when we move up there. Bob said that he will now get hold of our ‘captured architect and builder’ to arrange an initial meeting to discuss the out lines of our ideas for the house, what fun.

Tales from Taberno

Date 22-7-2006 Saturday
We are going to see if Garrucha, as claimed, has wireless internet around the town. Then we will drive on to Vera to see some cars.
I made contact with Pam and Bob up at Taberno. Today they are shifting tonnes of sand (34 degrees) that has been delivered to them exactly on the spot where they want to build a wall with four pallet loads of concrete blocks. I have arranged with Pam that we will pick them up at about seven tomorrow and take them out for a meal.
We will also visit the ruin at a different time of the day/night. Pam told me that the local council have prepared the road that comes up to them, and us, from Taberno, for re-surfacing.
Only found one car selling place on the outskirts of Vera. He has a few cars in, the best being a diesel Land Rover Discovery.
We tried to get internet access for the lap top at Garrucha but to no avail, cyber café it will have to be for now.
Whilst we were driving, looking for cars, we were in a village/small town called Antas. We have not been there before and as it was baking hot we parked the car and walked down the main street and decided to have a cold drink. We turned into a café/bar and ended up having bacon and egg sandwiches and some chips. Everyone in the café was English.

Tales from Taberno

Date 21-7-2006 Friday
We both feel a bit better now that we have slept quite well and we have explored and accepted all the mysteries and crannies of this brilliant villa. The cats, especially Pip are wandering about feeling a bit strange but they soon get used to the place. Instead of letting them out altogether we have bought some small mesh plastic garden screening so that we can let the out onto the terraces without worrying about them wandering off.
We felt brave today so we went to Currency Direct and Cajasur banks on our own to move some money about and to ask Cajasur for check books and debit cards. Gill finally got our NIE forms from the solicitors in Mojacar.
Last night, as we were shopping at the supermarket in Mojacar, Steve called us, before he flies off to Canada, for two weeks cycling. We also had a very long chat with Debs and the kids. They are so looking forward to coming over to see us a week on Tuesday.
We arrived home after dark and because it was just so hot we swam in the pool and looked up at the super night sky. It is a very beautiful experience to be floating on your back in the dark and watching the stars. It will be an even better experience when we can do the same thing up at Taberno.
We had three drops of rain this afternoon and it partly clouded over but still hot.

Tales from Taberno

Date 20-7-2006 Thursday
Got up about 1am after a fitful hot sleep on top of the bed.
We all went round the house again and again before finally locking the front door for the last time and slipping our only remaining key through the letter box. We set off for Manchester with the cats just before 3am (we were already knackered with the lack of sleep and the events of the last few days taking it’s toll on our humour).We arrived at the Cargo Depot at Manchester about 4-30am, after thunder and lightening and heavy rain on the way (me in only my sandals, shorts, tea shirt and no umbrella) and the whole cargo documentation kicked in and went as sweet as a nut . We left the cats and made our way to terminal 1, said our final farewell and thanks to Nick for coming back down from Skye to take us to Manchester, checked in straight away and thus we spent the next two hours wandering about the airport in astonishment at the so called bargains to be had at ‘duty free’ which in fact are double the price of the same goods on any decent high street. We boarded and had an uneventful flight, but on arrival at Almeria we couldn’t see sight or sound of the cats anywhere, in fact we didn’t even see them loaded at Manchester which the made us start to panic a fraction. After getting quite a few people involved we were reunited with the paperwork and two very watchful cats. We loaded us all into a 4 door Hyundai with A/C and travelled upto Mojacar and then to El Pinar where we have all now cooled down a bit and I have had a lovely dip in the pool (eat your heart out). With a good nights sleep we can start to relax a bit before we start hunting for cars and static caravans. So far with a few exceptions the whole thing is going to plan.

Tales from Taberno

Date 19-7-2006 Wednesday
Strewth. Two removal men arrived at 9am after being sent to the wrong address at Bardsey.
It was made very plain to Elayne, Nick and myself from the very onset that we were not required for the most part of the packing-up process.
Fine, thought I, these guys are professionals and know exactly what to do and how to do it and we have paid an extremely large dollop of cash for them to do it all without us.
So apart from ‘is this really going?’ and ‘don’t pack that please’ we had a really boring day of sitting in the garden keeping cool whilst these guys baked inside working like dervishes.
I found it quite stressful not being able to get stuck in with them.
Anyway they had the whole job complete by 5pm and were gone mumbling about being sent to pack-up 400cu/ft and ending up packing 550cu/ft for which we will get another supplementary invoice for the extra. Mind you it was their own bloke who said it was 400cu/ft in the first place. Will we ever see it all again???
Elayne, Nick and I then went to The Black Swan at Aberford for a final ‘pig-out’ (and it was, Nick tried the large mixed grill). Tried to get a couple of hours sleep although it was really hot.

Tales from Taberno

Date 18-7-2006 Tuesday
After paying the vets at Wetherby the thick end of £400 for the cats to be chipped, have ant-rabies injections and then doing further blood tests to ensure that they have taken., we finally received The Cats Passports. Later this evening whilst swotting up on the route to the Manchester Cargo Terminal for the cats, I noted on the cats tickets that the vets have to either sign page 28 of the Passports of have to issue a letter to the effect that the animal is fit to fly. When I looked at page 28 of both Passports it is blank. Elayne phoned the vets who said that they had never done this before and that we would have to take both cats up once more to be examined and passed as ‘fit to fly‘, the only remaining time left to do this being whilst we are trying to move out tomorrow morning. The additional fee for this basic service is yet another £40.
Now excuse me for thinking perhaps the vets should have done this all before we spent the first £400. What happens at this eleventh hour when the whole process has now cost £400 plus a further £800 for all our tickets and car hire if said very professional vet says that one of the cats is ‘not fit to fly’. We are stranded in the UK with no house, duff tickets to Spain and £1200 less well off for the pleasure. Can you imagine arriving homeless, all packed and fully laden at Manchester , just to be told that we can’t fly because the bloody stupid vet forgot to read the passport that they have just issued. I was furious at them for their total negligence. I would have gone up and played merry hell with the vets had it not been that the removal men were working in the house.

Tomorrow is the big ‘move out’ day.

This is the day that we have looked forward to and worked towards for nearly four years.
It does seem very strange now that it’s nearly here.
Graham and Zoe came round last night told us that all the solicitors are exchanging contracts tomorrow 19th and will complete all the sales next Wednesday 26th. This all sounds OK to us as long as it all goes through by the end of the month then we will be content.
Ellie and June came round in time to meet Graham and Zoe but Sue arrive back from visiting at hospital after they had gone. It was a good evening with a glass or two of nice wine. Ellie only ever has a drink at Christmas so she was feeling a little light headed when she left. We joked that we could call a taxi for her if she wanted. We last saw her going out of the gate arm in arm with Sue, supporting each other.
It’s going to be a busy day today. We are going to Otley then to Leeds, calling at Killingbeck on the way back. Then we go to Leeds again tonight to pick up Nick from the coach station at 11pm.
As I have to dismantle the desk and the computer today, this will be the last UK blog and perhaps the last blog for a little while until we find a way of getting on line with the laptop in Spain.
So Adios UK, Hola Espana.

Two full days to go and counting!!

This run of weather is really terrific isn’t it (well if you're not working it is;-)
Who needs to go to Spain???
The car has developed a brake squeak that is loud enough to hear whilst driving.
There is nothing for it but to strip the brakes down and fit new brake discs this morning, before we give it to Nick on Thursday.
I managed to tidy up the garden OK yesterday.
Then I must do, what I hope is, a last trailer load to the tip this morning.
Today we must also clean the place up as best we can for Graham and Zoe coming tonight, it will be the last clean up before we depart.
Busy, busy enjoyable exciting days

Only Three Full Days to Go

(Move out Wednesday, but we actually leave the house for the airport with the cats at 03-15hrs on Thursday morning).

It’s all getting just a little weird and unreal now.
We are packing things to carry with us on the plane and we have paid for the removal folks to walk in and pack all the stuff that we are putting on the slow boat to Spain. This is very strange because we have always done our own packing on moves in the past. We have drawers and cupboards full things that are as yet untouched. Part of the moving insurance says that if we pack items then we are not covered under the damage part of the insurance. So we will just have to stand in the middle of each room and let them get on with it. I have had comments from ‘you know who’ to the effect that ‘they’re not touching my knickers’ so some things are already packed.
We still seem to have mountains of things to do including keeping on top of the garden until we leave.
We have invited Graham and Zoe to come round tomorrow evening and have some driving lessons on the household utilities, like the water system, the electrics, the shower, the central heating system. At the same time we will invite the folks from both next doors to come to meet their new neighbours.
We hope that this will make their 'move in' a little less frantic.

Nice place opposite our rental.

It's a beautiful morning again in EK, with the promise of good weather all week end, we just hope that Wednesday is fine for moving out.
We talked to the house buyer last night and all seems set for a grand climax! sometime before the end of the month (this month one presumes that he meant).
We will just have to sit in Spain awaiting our furniture and watching our bank account intently (all this whilst also basking in 'the pool' or down in the sea at Mojacar, trying to stay cool just as best as we jolly well can, I’m tired already at the thought ;-)))ooo.
It's great to have Debs and the lads coming over to see us on the 1st August as it gives us a focus other than moving and informing the hundreds of people that go with moving abroad after twenty years in the same spot. It will be great to show them our ruin and plot.
The most farcical department I have so far had to deal with, whilst changing address and stopping payments, is the TV Licensing Office in Bristol. You are advised on the license to ring a number for change of address. After six minutes waiting and getting the usual run about pressing this button and that you are informed by yet another robot that someone will ring you back "within the next three days". Sod that I’ve written them a letter, it’s cheaper.
Surprisingly most organizations are quite easy to deal with and we’ve had many offers to ‘carry our bags’ and comments like ‘you lucky things’ which has made the whole process quite painless although it has been a long slog.
We are going down to Leeds today to have a final run with our ‘bus passes’ and to pick up more shorts and tea shirts which obviously are quite expensive in Spain. In fact anything to do with the sun and outdoor living is quite expensive so we are stocking up.

From one of the terraces at the rental El Pinar, Bedar

I have just managed to sort out the time scale on this blog.
I see it was setup for LA rather than GMT+1.
My nocturnals will look a little more normal (if you believe that that is possible).
We have squeezed a few encouraging words from our tacit solicitor today like 'exchange of contracts might take place this week’ but with completion within the next two weeks. This is OK as we already told him today that we are flying to Spain early Thursday morning next week after waving good buy to the furniture and chattels on Wednesday. We even spoke of the eventuality of the sale being off and having to re-sell the house again. Everything can be done from a distance and this seemed to be no problem as far as he was concerned.

Six days of chaos before we sizzle of to our Almeria

It’s a lovely summer morning here in EK. If we had another six months of this sort of weather we wouldn't have seen the need to move in the first place.
We are going to see our ‘tacit solicitor’ in Wetherby this morning (he's a man of few words and answered an email of mine the other day with just the word 'yes'). There seems to be an underwhelming air of excitement on the chain below us so we’ll see if we can shake the bushes a bit and cause a slight breeze (a small desert storm would do).

Well that seemed to work OK.
I must sit down soon (after visiting the local charity shop once more, it's starting to look like our house used to ;-))) and the local tip, it might have been easier to move the tip here to EK) and write some seriously interesting prose, duhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

The second Blog day and I am still unsure how all this works.
I will try to upload this and see what happens to the whole published log??
I rather like the 'Only fools on horses' program on BBC1 just now.
That's some riding school facility at Braintree.
I would like to get back to riding when things settle down a bit in Spain.
It's a wonderful feeling to be galloping across a wide open space on the back of a powerful horse.

It started a long while ago.
This Spanish dream of ours.
Whiteley (who employed me for nearly twenty years) must have seen the far away look in my eyes.
They obliged, and made me redundant in September 2005.
What a joy, released from the daily grind after forty four years.
Leaving our many friends still working, we both retired.
We dared to have a dream.
Now at 11-7-2006.
We think that we have sold our house.
We are nearly all packed.
Elayne me and the cats (Saphy and Pip, who are now proudly 'chipped and pinned') have our air tickets and next week we are off, ready or not.
We have a delightful rental pad in a village called Bedar, near Mojacar, in Almeria Spain for two or three months.
We have paid a deposit on a twelve acre plot of land.
The plot is near a village called Taberno and has Almond, Olive, Fig and Pomegranate trees galore.
This weblog is a diary, (with pictures) of our 'audatious adventure' into the great unknown.
Follow it and you also will see the fluctuations in our spirits over the next two years of building 'our dream place in the sun'.
Come back for more when the mood takes you.