We tried to set off for HO this morning to view more electrical white goods for the kitchen, but instead of going there we had yet another Spanish experience. Fifty meters along the camino from the caravan it became clear that something was amiss with the car. We stopped and checked all round to find that the nearside rear tyre was nearly flat. We have a small tyre inflator / compressor in the boot so I ran that for a while off the cigar lighter but clearly it was making no headway in inflating the tyre. I gently did a six point turn on the narrow camino with Elayne having apoplexy every time I back towards the cliff into the rambla. Back at the caravan I started to change the flat tyre for the spare ’get you home’ tyre, only to notice that I had a jack in the boot but no handle to wind the damned thing up with. I fished out the trolley jack from the portacabin, jacked the back end up and removed the wheel nuts. With all the nuts removed I could not get the wheel off the hub at all.
I then resorted to a little ‘forceful persuasion’ with the lump hammer and a piece of wood on the outside face of the wheel, thinking that it would take just a tap or two to loosen the wheel from the hub. In the end I had to go under the car and drive the wheel off from the inside with the lump hammer and the wood using ‘muchos dramatico persuasion‘. Thankfully that loosened the wheel from the hub OK. I inflated the spare ’get you home’ tyre to 60psi (rate for the job, and do not exceed 80km/hr, promise I wont, ‘onest guv) and put that on. We set off once again only this time to Albox and a tyre stockist. On the, below 80km/hr, journey down to Albox I rehearsed in my head ‘Hola pinchazo neumatico problemo por favor’ Hello punctured tyre please, well it was the simplest way of getting over my message bearing in mind that I was going into a tyre stockist who would expect me to have some sort of tyre challenge for them to grapple with. I performed the said piece to the young man, who came to greet me and showed him the offending tyre and what appeared to be a nail stuck in the tyre, to authenticate my mission. He understood my message and problem perfectly well, first time and replied ’OK call back for it in an hour’ in a Midlands accent (even though he was Spanish), dhhhhh.
We then sauntered around Albox ’s extensive Tuesday street market for a while and returned to find the wheel, minus the tyre, on the floor of the garage and no one in sight. My conclusion was that he was unable to repair the tyre and the next thing was, when we returned, how much was I prepared to fork out for a new tyre when faced with him refusing to mend it because it would be illegal (indeed, of course, I had thought about this eventuality, last time it cost me €70). Anyway the young man appeared from his office and proceeded to mend my tyre which was already on a jig in the back. He finished the repair, put a new valve in the wheel, put the tyre back on the wheel, pumped it up and ensured that it was sealed, put it back in place on the car, replacing the spare into the boot once more, and charged me just €8. We then went further down the road to an auto parts dealer, who sold me a jack handle for €3. So all that turned out to be another cheerful, cheap, Spanish experience to store away for future reference.
We will try to go to HO tomorrow after tennis.
A story for the boys, perhaps?
We have been contemplating our energy situation and its requirements for when we move into the house. We have a 5Kw diesel and two 2.Kw petrol gennies and the conundrum was, what shall we do when we move into the house. We have tried to get our architect to find out how much it would cost to get mains electricity across 800mtrs of someone else’s land/countryside from the nearest transformer, no one seems to want to tell us so we assume the price will be very high. I did read as a guide that the electricity company will charge €5000 per post and one needs one post per one hundred metres = €40000. They can then take anything up to two years to put the posts in and install it all. The posts then look really gross across the countryside. So by looking at alternatives, then solar power becomes an interesting option with about a ten year payback, but of course you have no monthly electricity bills and you don’t get the frequent power cuts that are part of the Spanish electrical system. A good system would seem to cost between €15000 and €25000. Still big money that we would rather not spend just now. Just on Saturday I have also discovered a half way system that allows the genny to charge a battery bank whilst you are using the genny for high demand items during the day. Then through an invertor you can switch off the genny in low demand periods like in the evenings and run the TV, ‘puter and the lights from the stored energy of the batteries, probably right through until morning when the genny would be switched on once more. A system like this would be €3000-€4000.
Well jammy Fellowes strikes again. Out of the blue on Sunday we have a phone call from some friends, John and Anne, who live down towards Huercal Overa. Anne said that they have just been connected to mains electricity and before they advertise in the papers, and knowing our circumstances, would we care to buy their solar system from them at a very reasonable price. They have used the system for a while but now of course it is redundant. We called to see them yesterday (Monday) and we bought the entire system. There are eight solar panels and eight 24v batteries together with the control unit, that monitors and protects the system from overload, and the convertor that switches the battery power from AC to DC for use in the house. So we will be able to do all of the above and also collect power from the solar panels to make it all even more economic. We can add to the system should we wish at a later stage. What a good day.
We have a pair of Lesser Spotted Cuckoo’s flying around and near the caravan at the moment. We have seen them several times in the area. They are like a cross between a magpie, only spotted, and a small kestrel. We believe that they nest in crows nests’ as is the habit of the cuckoo. I have tried on several occasions to take a picture of them but they are very shy and fly off at the slightest movement.
I then resorted to a little ‘forceful persuasion’ with the lump hammer and a piece of wood on the outside face of the wheel, thinking that it would take just a tap or two to loosen the wheel from the hub. In the end I had to go under the car and drive the wheel off from the inside with the lump hammer and the wood using ‘muchos dramatico persuasion‘. Thankfully that loosened the wheel from the hub OK. I inflated the spare ’get you home’ tyre to 60psi (rate for the job, and do not exceed 80km/hr, promise I wont, ‘onest guv) and put that on. We set off once again only this time to Albox and a tyre stockist. On the, below 80km/hr, journey down to Albox I rehearsed in my head ‘Hola pinchazo neumatico problemo por favor’ Hello punctured tyre please, well it was the simplest way of getting over my message bearing in mind that I was going into a tyre stockist who would expect me to have some sort of tyre challenge for them to grapple with. I performed the said piece to the young man, who came to greet me and showed him the offending tyre and what appeared to be a nail stuck in the tyre, to authenticate my mission. He understood my message and problem perfectly well, first time and replied ’OK call back for it in an hour’ in a Midlands accent (even though he was Spanish), dhhhhh.
We then sauntered around Albox ’s extensive Tuesday street market for a while and returned to find the wheel, minus the tyre, on the floor of the garage and no one in sight. My conclusion was that he was unable to repair the tyre and the next thing was, when we returned, how much was I prepared to fork out for a new tyre when faced with him refusing to mend it because it would be illegal (indeed, of course, I had thought about this eventuality, last time it cost me €70). Anyway the young man appeared from his office and proceeded to mend my tyre which was already on a jig in the back. He finished the repair, put a new valve in the wheel, put the tyre back on the wheel, pumped it up and ensured that it was sealed, put it back in place on the car, replacing the spare into the boot once more, and charged me just €8. We then went further down the road to an auto parts dealer, who sold me a jack handle for €3. So all that turned out to be another cheerful, cheap, Spanish experience to store away for future reference.
We will try to go to HO tomorrow after tennis.
A story for the boys, perhaps?
We have been contemplating our energy situation and its requirements for when we move into the house. We have a 5Kw diesel and two 2.Kw petrol gennies and the conundrum was, what shall we do when we move into the house. We have tried to get our architect to find out how much it would cost to get mains electricity across 800mtrs of someone else’s land/countryside from the nearest transformer, no one seems to want to tell us so we assume the price will be very high. I did read as a guide that the electricity company will charge €5000 per post and one needs one post per one hundred metres = €40000. They can then take anything up to two years to put the posts in and install it all. The posts then look really gross across the countryside. So by looking at alternatives, then solar power becomes an interesting option with about a ten year payback, but of course you have no monthly electricity bills and you don’t get the frequent power cuts that are part of the Spanish electrical system. A good system would seem to cost between €15000 and €25000. Still big money that we would rather not spend just now. Just on Saturday I have also discovered a half way system that allows the genny to charge a battery bank whilst you are using the genny for high demand items during the day. Then through an invertor you can switch off the genny in low demand periods like in the evenings and run the TV, ‘puter and the lights from the stored energy of the batteries, probably right through until morning when the genny would be switched on once more. A system like this would be €3000-€4000.
Well jammy Fellowes strikes again. Out of the blue on Sunday we have a phone call from some friends, John and Anne, who live down towards Huercal Overa. Anne said that they have just been connected to mains electricity and before they advertise in the papers, and knowing our circumstances, would we care to buy their solar system from them at a very reasonable price. They have used the system for a while but now of course it is redundant. We called to see them yesterday (Monday) and we bought the entire system. There are eight solar panels and eight 24v batteries together with the control unit, that monitors and protects the system from overload, and the convertor that switches the battery power from AC to DC for use in the house. So we will be able to do all of the above and also collect power from the solar panels to make it all even more economic. We can add to the system should we wish at a later stage. What a good day.
We have a pair of Lesser Spotted Cuckoo’s flying around and near the caravan at the moment. We have seen them several times in the area. They are like a cross between a magpie, only spotted, and a small kestrel. We believe that they nest in crows nests’ as is the habit of the cuckoo. I have tried on several occasions to take a picture of them but they are very shy and fly off at the slightest movement.
No comments:
Post a Comment