Thursday 17-8-2006

Today is a very significant day for Elayne and I.
We have lived in Spain for exactly four weeks, and we are still OK, if somewhat a little browner that when we left rainy Manchester on Thursday 20th July.
In that time we would like to share with you some are of our more notable achievements and activities.
We are Spanish Citizens (at least I think we are as we are registered in Almeria and have all our documents, and can buy cars and land).
As of yesterday we actually own quite a fair chunk of Spain.
We have managed to buy a car from a Spanish car dealer and have the tracking done and a new tyre fitted all at different establishments.
Elayne has driven on all classes of road round hairpin bends so tight that one is on full lock, on rough tracks and then nearly 80k all the way down the motorway to Almeria airport (a big achievement Elayne, I‘m proud of you).
I have not worn long trousers since we arrived in Spain (only shorts), or socks, or shoes, or a jumper, or a coat, and we have not used an umbrella to keep us dry from the rain, reciprocal for Elayne.
We have had two very small moments of rain lasting no more than an hour in total for the whole of the four weeks. Mind it is a little overcast this morning.
We have managed to sort out our finances to the extent that we know where everything is and how to manipulate it from our banks in the UK to our bank in Spain when required.
We can get on to the internet although it is a pain as we can only go on line at an internet café in Turre. However ,we can do what we need to do from there including banking, email and web logging. As soon as we get to Taberno we will get hooked up by micro wave to broadband then rejoin the land of the cyber living again.
So you may wonder if, after only these small notable happenings that, we are actually going to stay in Spain, especially after such an idle month of sea, sun, tapas, olive oil and swimming pools. Well maybe perhaps we will give it just another month before we make any hasty decisions ;-)))))))))
Today’s pictures are of a dust storm that we had. The day started cloudy and then the wind got up. It was a dry hot wind and is locally called Sirocco with the winds coming from Africa. It lasted all day until this evening and at dusk it dropped once more to nothing and we were able to star gaze on the roof again. The problem is that there is now lots of dust and sand in all the wrong places. We are told that this happens about three times per year so I think that we can cope.