Friday 13-4-2007
Having a visit from Jehovah’s Witnesses and! having one’s finger prints taken, for the very first time in one’s life one may add, ‘onest, makes for quite a historical week (or should it be hysterical?).
Today we have travelled 318km getting down to Almeria and back via Mojacar and El Pinar. Quite a long run but we now nearly seem to be Spanish citizens. Forms were filled out and checked against passports, mug shots were glued onto the said forms and fingerprints and signatures were also adorned. Job finished, or nearly. We have to go all the way back to Almeria in 45 days time to collect our residencia cards (Credit card style ID cards). It was really a good job that Jodie came down with us or we would have been stuck at the first hurdle. No one at the police station office had much of a sense of humour, and who could blame them? The pictures that we took down (passport type) were wrong because the background was not white (it was when we took the pictures). Per chance we also had some others but ‘you know who’ didn’t like them of her. Anyway the second set were accepted, so she had to lump it.
It was a lovely warm sunny day down in Almeria. We sat at a bar after the formalities were over and had a coke and burger, it was really nice.
We had just got back and were having a cup of tea after all those km’s when my mobile rang. It was the chap from AVI wanting to know where we lived so that he could have a look at the modem etc. I had to go back down to Taberno to meet him and bring him back here. He diagnosed that the modem wasn’t working!!!!! dhhhhhh!!!! due to the transformer being knackered. The spare transformer that he carries didn’t work either, so we have to wait until Monday before he can get another one. He has left us on line though so I am posting all the missing days blogs all at once with some pictures, happy bedtime reading dear readers.
The plasterer did finish the plastering in the hall today and so he has now departed. It makes a big difference when the plaster goes on, we are pleased with it all. Someone came earlier and took away the lounge and kitchen doors, one presumes to glaze them, together with the frame from the front door. We are not sure when we will next see them again.
Happy week end to all our readers.
Thursday 12-4-2007
In the nearly twenty years that we lived in East Keswick we never had one single caller from the Jehovah’s Witness group. Guess what? We have just had our first call up here, miles away from anything and most people, in the mountains of Spain. When they knocked on the caravan door I thought that we had a visit from the dreaded Town Hall officials. The couple, him from Spain and her from Oldham, were very pleasant and we had a good chatter on the doorstep. As I said yesterday, it’s a funny old game.
My tooth, that was, has settled down nicely and I am able to eat nearly normally. I should be up to my ‘match fitness’ weight again in a few days time, just in case you were worried that you may not recognise me when we next meet.
We slept well last night after a dance night at Lentisco’s, it’s a while since we have been down there on a Wednesday evening.
The builders are working in the lounge this morning, plastering the lower half of the walls. We hope that they will then crack on plastering with the hallway.
Later
The lounge plastering is complete and the hallway ceiling is finished. We had a site meeting with Dario, Bob and Pam to discuss a small problem with the door rejas. We have paid out muchos extra dosh to have special rejas for the windows and the same sort of pattern for the stair case. Dario advised us that we should also have rejas for the lounge and kitchen doors. We know that insurance companies have a problem insuring properties without door rejas so we agreed to pay extra for them as well. When the stair and door rejas arrived they had made the ornate stair rejas to match the window ones but the door rejas were just very dull boring grills that did not match up at all with the rest. So we talked about this last night and Dario is going to have some scrolls fitted that match the rest of the rejas. Compromise and the problem is solved. We are certain that we will have just a few more challenges to face before we are ensconced in the house.
Sorry but still no internet just yet. I called the technical service department yesterday and they promised that someone would come within the next forty eight hours. One will hold one’s breath.
Wednesday 11-4-2007
We went down to HO this morning to do some shopping and called in to see Mags on the way. Her and Allen have been very busy on their garden recently and it is looking a treat. I must try to remember to ask them if we can put a picture or two of it on the blog.
Disappointingly we have not yet had any promise of an AVI internet technician calling to fix the modem problem. So another day of no service. When we eventually get back on line I have prepared a vitriolic email that I will send to AVI claiming for my time off line and the low signal strength since we started with them in September last year. I am going to claim from them about €240 in lost signal strength and down time. We’ll see what they make of it, if anything. I suppose they will just ignore the email and me altogether.
We have only two builders on site again today. I believe that they should have finished the roof tiles etc and by tonight they may have finished putting the marble plinth around the upper level of the wall crazy paving.
First thing this morning I saw a JCB trundling it’s way along the camino opposite to ours. I thought that perhaps the guy who came up to site last night was a JCB driver and that he was coming to do some work for us today. As always though as soon as you start to expect something to happen, here you are invariably in for yet another disappointment. On the contrary things do happen that you could not possibly expect and they then make up for disappointments. Funny old game isn’t it? We are just too impatient I suppose. All this and it’s warmer in the UK than here, it’s all going wrong!!!!!!!
There you go you see. Just what I was talking about above. We are sat here mid afternoon and there is nothing very exciting happening on site. Then Jose arrives with his pickup truck and delivers the rejas for the lounge and kitchen doors together with the reja style railings for the stair case.
Tuesday 10-4-2007
The builders arrived at a more reasonable 8-30 this morning, however there are only two of them. They have sealed the last of the roof with the bitumen and they are laying the tiles on top of the bitumen and cement. When they then have put on the small half tiles, that stand vertical, at the wall edges, they will have finished the roof except for the chimney top and the top of the stairs. The new front balustrades look good but will look even better when the polystyrene formers and the pillar tube tops are eventually removed.
So far today the builders have borrowed our gas lighter to light the gas burner that they seal the sheets of bitumen with, because they can’t find theirs. They have borrowed my mattock so that they can dig out the base of the patio surround, and they are also plugged into our genny so that they can run the cement mixer, because their genny is broken and Jose has taken it off site. one presumes to repair it. One has got to surmise that if we were not on site, not too much would actually get done today.
It a ‘high cloud’ grey day today but it’s a mild 12 degrees with no wind so it feels quite nice outside. I have just been out taking some more pictures of the house and it’s updates etc.
Would you ‘Adam and eve’ it? We went down to Albox so that I could re-visit the dentist. You may remember that last week I was convinced that I had a cracked tooth. The dentist however decided to drill the root centre out and then put a temporary filling in. He gave me a prescription for some antibiotic and ibuprofen pills and said to come back, today, to have the permanent filling put in. For twenty minutes with him the cost was a princely sum of €40. We decided that this was very reasonable for a private dentist and the treatment that I got. On Saturday whilst we were out at dinner with Mags and Allen I bit onto a piece of steak and felt part of the tooth dislodge. I thought that I had swallowed part of the filling. I had to not eat on that side because it was painful if I bit onto something. Sucking a lovely piece of steak is no fun at all. Allen said that he had a similar experience and the dentist wanted to charge him over €300 for a bridge and treatment. When we got home it was evident that the tooth really was now cracked in two, even if it wasn’t before. I was prepared to wait until today’s appointment provided that it was not too painful when I was not eating on it. I did discuss with Elayne how much money we should take with us bearing in mind Allen’s experience and we ended up having about €100 on us when we set off. When I related what had transpired to the dentist, today, he said straight away that he would have to take it out altogether. Great by me, rather than prating about gluing cracked teeth together. Any way five big ,and more or less painless, injections later he tries to get the tooth out and then it really does break in two pieces, with a loud crack half of it came out. He then had great difficulty getting the remaining bit out. Whilst he’s straining away against my tooth and head he is trying to hum a tune, probably for my benefit, but the tune and him straining away against the reluctant tooth makes for a very strangulated melody indeed. After some time he has the remaining part of the tooth out, much to his relief, and mine of course. We have ‘muchos congratulations’ all round as I leave the surgery. At the reception I enquire when my next appointment was to be and the very nice young lady says that I don’t need one. I then ask how much they would like for today’s treatment and she tells me ‘no charge’. Now how’s that for good private dental service?
When the builders left tonight we went up to the house and solarium and found that, apart from some grouting, they have finished the roof tiling altogether. Tomorrow will see it complete, if it doesn’t rain. A new man came to site this evening with Dario but we are not sure what he will be doing yet.
Easter Monday 9-4-2007
It’s another grey wet day, with the forecast predicting more rain and thunder later. We are still in the warmest part of Spain with a forecasted minimum temperature of 12 degrees. Northern Spain is having 5 or 6 degrees.
We don’t have internet or landline phone access but I have managed to contact Iberband this morning and they will be on the case as soon as possible. Bearing in mind that this is the first working day after an extensive holiday I would imagine that it will be a little while before we get sorted out with a new or mended modem..
We do have builders on site. There are three of them, so we should see some progress once more on the home front.
They arrived at nine o’clock so we think that they may have been slow out of bed this morning after the excesses of the Easter celebrations. They have decided, despite the rain, to work on the roof again so we see their heads bobbing about now and then. We did see Dario and Jose up on the roof this morning, so perhaps they were giving instructions to get the roof sealed properly before doing any more indoor work. We’ll see later.
I have to go back to the dentist again this afternoon. The temporary filling, that was put in last Monday, seems to have come out and the back half of the troublesome tooth is now loose. Perhaps now he will take it out altogether. It has not been too painful but I have not been able to eat on it since Saturday night. I’ll have a figure like Twiggy if I carry on like this.
Tooth note. I have just re-looked at my card and discovered that my appointment with the dentist is Martes (Tuesday), not Lunes (Monday) duck egg. I now have to wait yet another twenty four hours to get it all fixed.
Easter Sunday 8-4-2007
A easy going ‘slob out’ day today, after a splendid meal out and evening with Mags and Allen last night. We didn’t get home until after eleven so we slept the sleep of Sleeping Beauty until after nine this morning.
We have pottered about all day and done a little work and watched a little TV. I have just had a small walk around the plot and took some more pictures of the lovely wild plants that are still in flower. Finding poppies and convolvulus, in flower, where you don’t expect them is a real treat. The almonds are coming along at great speed and the olive trees are in blossom although it is a very modest blossom for such noble trees and fruit.
We are looking forward to the return of the builders tomorrow. We are hoping that they will graft twice as hard now that they have had a refreshing five days off. We can always live in hope.
I am off line again today, it would seem that the modem has given up the ghost. I will have to contact Iberband tomorrow and try to get them to give me a new one quickly.
Having a visit from Jehovah’s Witnesses and! having one’s finger prints taken, for the very first time in one’s life one may add, ‘onest, makes for quite a historical week (or should it be hysterical?).
Today we have travelled 318km getting down to Almeria and back via Mojacar and El Pinar. Quite a long run but we now nearly seem to be Spanish citizens. Forms were filled out and checked against passports, mug shots were glued onto the said forms and fingerprints and signatures were also adorned. Job finished, or nearly. We have to go all the way back to Almeria in 45 days time to collect our residencia cards (Credit card style ID cards). It was really a good job that Jodie came down with us or we would have been stuck at the first hurdle. No one at the police station office had much of a sense of humour, and who could blame them? The pictures that we took down (passport type) were wrong because the background was not white (it was when we took the pictures). Per chance we also had some others but ‘you know who’ didn’t like them of her. Anyway the second set were accepted, so she had to lump it.
It was a lovely warm sunny day down in Almeria. We sat at a bar after the formalities were over and had a coke and burger, it was really nice.
We had just got back and were having a cup of tea after all those km’s when my mobile rang. It was the chap from AVI wanting to know where we lived so that he could have a look at the modem etc. I had to go back down to Taberno to meet him and bring him back here. He diagnosed that the modem wasn’t working!!!!! dhhhhhh!!!! due to the transformer being knackered. The spare transformer that he carries didn’t work either, so we have to wait until Monday before he can get another one. He has left us on line though so I am posting all the missing days blogs all at once with some pictures, happy bedtime reading dear readers.
The plasterer did finish the plastering in the hall today and so he has now departed. It makes a big difference when the plaster goes on, we are pleased with it all. Someone came earlier and took away the lounge and kitchen doors, one presumes to glaze them, together with the frame from the front door. We are not sure when we will next see them again.
Happy week end to all our readers.
Thursday 12-4-2007
In the nearly twenty years that we lived in East Keswick we never had one single caller from the Jehovah’s Witness group. Guess what? We have just had our first call up here, miles away from anything and most people, in the mountains of Spain. When they knocked on the caravan door I thought that we had a visit from the dreaded Town Hall officials. The couple, him from Spain and her from Oldham, were very pleasant and we had a good chatter on the doorstep. As I said yesterday, it’s a funny old game.
My tooth, that was, has settled down nicely and I am able to eat nearly normally. I should be up to my ‘match fitness’ weight again in a few days time, just in case you were worried that you may not recognise me when we next meet.
We slept well last night after a dance night at Lentisco’s, it’s a while since we have been down there on a Wednesday evening.
The builders are working in the lounge this morning, plastering the lower half of the walls. We hope that they will then crack on plastering with the hallway.
Later
The lounge plastering is complete and the hallway ceiling is finished. We had a site meeting with Dario, Bob and Pam to discuss a small problem with the door rejas. We have paid out muchos extra dosh to have special rejas for the windows and the same sort of pattern for the stair case. Dario advised us that we should also have rejas for the lounge and kitchen doors. We know that insurance companies have a problem insuring properties without door rejas so we agreed to pay extra for them as well. When the stair and door rejas arrived they had made the ornate stair rejas to match the window ones but the door rejas were just very dull boring grills that did not match up at all with the rest. So we talked about this last night and Dario is going to have some scrolls fitted that match the rest of the rejas. Compromise and the problem is solved. We are certain that we will have just a few more challenges to face before we are ensconced in the house.
Sorry but still no internet just yet. I called the technical service department yesterday and they promised that someone would come within the next forty eight hours. One will hold one’s breath.
Wednesday 11-4-2007
We went down to HO this morning to do some shopping and called in to see Mags on the way. Her and Allen have been very busy on their garden recently and it is looking a treat. I must try to remember to ask them if we can put a picture or two of it on the blog.
Disappointingly we have not yet had any promise of an AVI internet technician calling to fix the modem problem. So another day of no service. When we eventually get back on line I have prepared a vitriolic email that I will send to AVI claiming for my time off line and the low signal strength since we started with them in September last year. I am going to claim from them about €240 in lost signal strength and down time. We’ll see what they make of it, if anything. I suppose they will just ignore the email and me altogether.
We have only two builders on site again today. I believe that they should have finished the roof tiles etc and by tonight they may have finished putting the marble plinth around the upper level of the wall crazy paving.
First thing this morning I saw a JCB trundling it’s way along the camino opposite to ours. I thought that perhaps the guy who came up to site last night was a JCB driver and that he was coming to do some work for us today. As always though as soon as you start to expect something to happen, here you are invariably in for yet another disappointment. On the contrary things do happen that you could not possibly expect and they then make up for disappointments. Funny old game isn’t it? We are just too impatient I suppose. All this and it’s warmer in the UK than here, it’s all going wrong!!!!!!!
There you go you see. Just what I was talking about above. We are sat here mid afternoon and there is nothing very exciting happening on site. Then Jose arrives with his pickup truck and delivers the rejas for the lounge and kitchen doors together with the reja style railings for the stair case.
Tuesday 10-4-2007
The builders arrived at a more reasonable 8-30 this morning, however there are only two of them. They have sealed the last of the roof with the bitumen and they are laying the tiles on top of the bitumen and cement. When they then have put on the small half tiles, that stand vertical, at the wall edges, they will have finished the roof except for the chimney top and the top of the stairs. The new front balustrades look good but will look even better when the polystyrene formers and the pillar tube tops are eventually removed.
So far today the builders have borrowed our gas lighter to light the gas burner that they seal the sheets of bitumen with, because they can’t find theirs. They have borrowed my mattock so that they can dig out the base of the patio surround, and they are also plugged into our genny so that they can run the cement mixer, because their genny is broken and Jose has taken it off site. one presumes to repair it. One has got to surmise that if we were not on site, not too much would actually get done today.
It a ‘high cloud’ grey day today but it’s a mild 12 degrees with no wind so it feels quite nice outside. I have just been out taking some more pictures of the house and it’s updates etc.
Would you ‘Adam and eve’ it? We went down to Albox so that I could re-visit the dentist. You may remember that last week I was convinced that I had a cracked tooth. The dentist however decided to drill the root centre out and then put a temporary filling in. He gave me a prescription for some antibiotic and ibuprofen pills and said to come back, today, to have the permanent filling put in. For twenty minutes with him the cost was a princely sum of €40. We decided that this was very reasonable for a private dentist and the treatment that I got. On Saturday whilst we were out at dinner with Mags and Allen I bit onto a piece of steak and felt part of the tooth dislodge. I thought that I had swallowed part of the filling. I had to not eat on that side because it was painful if I bit onto something. Sucking a lovely piece of steak is no fun at all. Allen said that he had a similar experience and the dentist wanted to charge him over €300 for a bridge and treatment. When we got home it was evident that the tooth really was now cracked in two, even if it wasn’t before. I was prepared to wait until today’s appointment provided that it was not too painful when I was not eating on it. I did discuss with Elayne how much money we should take with us bearing in mind Allen’s experience and we ended up having about €100 on us when we set off. When I related what had transpired to the dentist, today, he said straight away that he would have to take it out altogether. Great by me, rather than prating about gluing cracked teeth together. Any way five big ,and more or less painless, injections later he tries to get the tooth out and then it really does break in two pieces, with a loud crack half of it came out. He then had great difficulty getting the remaining bit out. Whilst he’s straining away against my tooth and head he is trying to hum a tune, probably for my benefit, but the tune and him straining away against the reluctant tooth makes for a very strangulated melody indeed. After some time he has the remaining part of the tooth out, much to his relief, and mine of course. We have ‘muchos congratulations’ all round as I leave the surgery. At the reception I enquire when my next appointment was to be and the very nice young lady says that I don’t need one. I then ask how much they would like for today’s treatment and she tells me ‘no charge’. Now how’s that for good private dental service?
When the builders left tonight we went up to the house and solarium and found that, apart from some grouting, they have finished the roof tiling altogether. Tomorrow will see it complete, if it doesn’t rain. A new man came to site this evening with Dario but we are not sure what he will be doing yet.
Easter Monday 9-4-2007
It’s another grey wet day, with the forecast predicting more rain and thunder later. We are still in the warmest part of Spain with a forecasted minimum temperature of 12 degrees. Northern Spain is having 5 or 6 degrees.
We don’t have internet or landline phone access but I have managed to contact Iberband this morning and they will be on the case as soon as possible. Bearing in mind that this is the first working day after an extensive holiday I would imagine that it will be a little while before we get sorted out with a new or mended modem..
We do have builders on site. There are three of them, so we should see some progress once more on the home front.
They arrived at nine o’clock so we think that they may have been slow out of bed this morning after the excesses of the Easter celebrations. They have decided, despite the rain, to work on the roof again so we see their heads bobbing about now and then. We did see Dario and Jose up on the roof this morning, so perhaps they were giving instructions to get the roof sealed properly before doing any more indoor work. We’ll see later.
I have to go back to the dentist again this afternoon. The temporary filling, that was put in last Monday, seems to have come out and the back half of the troublesome tooth is now loose. Perhaps now he will take it out altogether. It has not been too painful but I have not been able to eat on it since Saturday night. I’ll have a figure like Twiggy if I carry on like this.
Tooth note. I have just re-looked at my card and discovered that my appointment with the dentist is Martes (Tuesday), not Lunes (Monday) duck egg. I now have to wait yet another twenty four hours to get it all fixed.
Easter Sunday 8-4-2007
A easy going ‘slob out’ day today, after a splendid meal out and evening with Mags and Allen last night. We didn’t get home until after eleven so we slept the sleep of Sleeping Beauty until after nine this morning.
We have pottered about all day and done a little work and watched a little TV. I have just had a small walk around the plot and took some more pictures of the lovely wild plants that are still in flower. Finding poppies and convolvulus, in flower, where you don’t expect them is a real treat. The almonds are coming along at great speed and the olive trees are in blossom although it is a very modest blossom for such noble trees and fruit.
We are looking forward to the return of the builders tomorrow. We are hoping that they will graft twice as hard now that they have had a refreshing five days off. We can always live in hope.
I am off line again today, it would seem that the modem has given up the ghost. I will have to contact Iberband tomorrow and try to get them to give me a new one quickly.
No comments:
Post a Comment