I think that we are finally Spanish citizens from today. We were up early and travelled all the way down to Almeria city to collect our official residencia identity cards (Elayne doesn’t like the picture on her card, but there’s nothing new there). We spent two hours travelling each way and used about thirty litres of fuel for the pleasure of less than two minutes finding and being given our cards (with our finger prints on).
After the excitement of being in the middle of the tornado yesterday the builders must have decided that they need a day off to re-cooperate because we are sat here on our own once more today.
It’s a funny old world isn’t it?

Tuesday and Wednesday 29th & 30th May
Slow but sure progress on the utility room and garage yesterday and today. The roof beams are now in place with the roof blocks. The garage area is base blocked and one should think that the floors for both will be down soon.
We ended up our dancing classes at the bar in Lentisco’s last night because the Hostel room where we normally go was double booked, hey ho it was not too much of a problem and we enjoyed a good night until about half past eleven. Tonight we are going down there again at about nine o’clock for our usual Wednesday bash. It’s a hard life but someone’s got to do it.

PS, We have just had a minnie tornado whip past us. It took all the builders rubbish right up in the air and over the mountains. The builders had to cling on to the utility roof to stop them selves being knocked off the scaffold. We do see life here, TG it missed the caravan.

Monday 28t May 2007 (Good heavens, on line for ten minutes))

Three days off, just when three days work could make so much difference. A bad weekend for us, what with the wind and all.
Today we went down to Antas to view some items and to see if we can find some principal entrado furniture (knobs and knockers etc for the front door). No joy, keep looking.
Two builders on site all day. Whilst waiting for a delivery of more blocks for the utility room they started on cleaning the windows etc inside the house. They started off using an old piece of denim jacket to clean the windows with and I ended up giving them a roll of kitchen towel. They then hand finished off cementing/concreting the last ten meters of drive way. The blocks arrived so then they spent the rest of the day building up the walls of the utility room. We have been told that they will finish off the bathroom tiles on Wednesday and then that just leaves the illusive Carlos. Quite when we will next see him is a good guessing game. Any one wanting to wager a fiver on a particular day will get four to one odds from me (don’t count Saturday and Sunday, it’s not worth it).
The wind has died off a little this evening and this afternoon we have started to watch some of the French Tennis Tournament, just because we can (no mates to play with here at the moment) and together with Eastbourne and Wimbledon it will help to pass the time until the big move in, what ever month that might be in.

Tuesday 22nd to Sunday 27th. What a c....p internet provider.

Tuesday 22-5-2007
It’s our 42nd wedding anniversary today, what an exciting journey, so far. Mind you it was Elayne that reminded me about it on the way back from Albox this morning.
One plumber has been here all day today, he has fitted all the CH radiators, the bathroom sinks and toilets and the bath. At four o’clock on the dot two concrete lorries arrived and tipped. Four builders then spent over an hour persuading the concrete to lay evenly with rakes and shovels and mattocks, a real hand ball type of job. They failed to get a billiard table finish so we’ll have to probably put some light gravel over the top. The concrete however has made a very good base for the drive that will not erode with heavy rain. It will take yet at least another lorry load to complete the job (a slight bit of under estimating we think, or they have not thinned it out enough. The garage and utility room foundations are down so perhaps the utility room will get built quite quickly.
I managed to get on the internet and the blog today so I have managed to load up seven days worth of blog and some pictures. I was just breathing a sigh of relief at being back on line and then about half past five it went off again.
We had our paragliding friends, Steve and Trudy round to see us this afternoon. Trudy has been on a herbalist holiday down near Orgiva (near where Chris Stewart lives and writes his books). Steve has been back to England to see his family. They brought us an aerial picture of the house that we had ordered. It was taken about six weeks ago when the window rejas were first being installed. It will make a fascinating historical document. We have asked Steve to come over again once we get in and a little established. Trudy is going to come down soon and show us some of the herbal plants on our land.
We are just off dancing (only two more to go) and then for a pint and a game of cards at Lentisco’s with our friends.
Wednesday 23-5-2007
It’s cloudy, cool and has been raining overnight. There was a stiff breeze as we went to bed but it must have calmed down again as it did not disturb our sleep. Elayne said that she was woken (although I was not, but that’s not unusual) by hail rattling on the caravan roof.
The plumber finished all his work on the two bathrooms and fitting the CH radiators yesterday evening. We just have one young man on site so far today finishing the tiling around the bath in the family bathroom. He is doing a terrific job, it is all very neat. Unlike the concrete on the drive, which has been laid so badly that I am going to tell Dario that it is not acceptable at all, I could have made a smoother finish to it than how they have left it. We are not forking out loads of extra cash to have the poor quality of the drive spoiling the house.
Later: Dario and Jose came upto site with another builder. I was able to tell them that the concrete is awful. They say that they will now hand ball cement with the cement mixer and cover the entire area with smooth cement. What a waste of time and energy when they could have done the job properly in the first place. The two builders are now building the utility room on the base that they laid yesterday. Dario indicated that perhaps Carlos would arrive on Monday with the wardrobe doors. Not sure when the kitchen will arrive. The sooner the better from our point of view.
Interestingly, Dario still seems keen on buying the caravan. We have given him the telephone number of Juan that moved the caravan for us to see if he will do the same for Dario.
Thursday 24-5-2007
After a good nights dancing last night we slept well and were awoken by the builders arriving. As the day started quite overcast a cool we set of down to Vera to see if we could find some bedroom furniture. As we got nearer the coast the cloud lifted and we found ourselves very hot (ambient 25 but in the sun it was 30+). After trailing around all the furniture shops that we know without being inspired we took a deep breath and went into one last shop before giving up for the day. We delighted to tell we bought all of the furniture for three bedroom, all matching, and a lovely patio set for on the roof, all in this one last shop. Another good job done to completion to both of our satisfaction., there’s unusual.
We arrived back on site around three o’clock, fortunately it was still cool and overcast up here so the cats were pleased that it had not been too hot. The builders have laid another section of the drive, properly this time, and are now trying to repair the abortion that they made the other day. Also Carlo’s men, joiners, are up fitting the wardrobe doors. They are enormous, the doors not Carlo‘s men). After fitting the doors and the architrives they will be putting a shelf in the top of each wardrobe so I have somewhere to throw my hat and boots when I come in after a days toil and slog on the land.
Friday 25-5-2007
The builders seem to be having yet another religious weekend off. It is now 08-54hrs and no one is on site.
A wind blew up from the north at about six o’clock this morning. It is not really too bad but we are still nervous about the winds, this is why it is all the more frustrating that we don’t have any builders. We want to get in the house as soon as we can.
It’s now 15-30hrs. What an extraordinary weather day. This morning it was blowing strong and through this it felt like about 12 degrees. We put jumpers on to go down to Albox shopping. The wind seemed even stronger and it started to rain, whilst we were in town. We got a little wet running from the rambla into town and back
Then the dark clouds came and the heavens opened. Fortunately we were in the car and already driving to the supermarket when it really started. We drove into the upstairs indoor car park, that is normally deserted, and just managed to get a spot. As we opened the car doors the noise of the rain on the metal roof was incredible. Once in this car park you can go down to the shop via a lift and you don’t go outside. From inside the supermarket we could see the rain coming down in stair rods through the windows and the streets were awash in very quick time. After we shopped, loaded the car and drove out again the street was a river. By the time we drove back home via Taberno it had stopped raining and the wind had abated . One hour later, writing this, the wind has died, the sun is out again in a blue sky and the temperature is now 26 degrees in the shade.
We went up to the house to see if the rain had caused any problems. We said that we hoped that we had a good downpour before we moved in and paid the final payment. There is one damp patch in the small bedroom ceiling and the combination of the wind and rain has driven some water under the front door. These two items and the wet area under the stairs which we already knew about are the only evident problems. It’s quite amazing considering the methods of building that we have seen used.
Saturday and Sunday 26th & 27th 2007
A generally fed-up and not good weekend.
No sight or sound of any builders all weekend.
It’s Sunday evening and the b……..y winds have been blowing for 24 hours.
This house project is so nearly complete but not near enough that we can even yet forecast when we will be able to move in. We have a long snags list that would not take too long to complete, but we don’t have any kitchen and the electrics are still not finished yet.
Yours, depressed.
I hope that tomorrow will be back to at least some, however small, progress.

22nd & 23rd May, not quite so bad?

Tuesday 22-5-2007
It’s our 42nd wedding anniversary today, what an exciting journey, so far. Mind you it was Elayne that reminded me about it on the way back from Albox this morning.
One plumber has been here all day today, he has fitted all the CH radiators, the bathroom sinks and toilets and the bath. At four o’clock on the dot two concrete lorries arrived and tipped. Four builders then spent over an hour persuading the concrete to lay evenly with rakes and shovels and mattocks, a real hand ball type of job. They failed to get a billiard table finish so we’ll have to probably put some light gravel over the top. The concrete however has made a very good base for the drive that will not erode with heavy rain. It will take yet at least another lorry load to complete the job (a slight bit of under estimating we think, or they have not thinned it out enough. The garage and utility room foundations are down so perhaps the utility room will get built quite quickly.
I managed to get on the internet and the blog today so I have managed to load up seven days worth of blog and some pictures. I was just breathing a sigh of relief at being back on line and then about half past five it went off again.
We had our paragliding friends, Steve and Trudy round to see us this afternoon. Trudy has been on a herbalist holiday down near Orgiva (near where Chris Stewart lives and writes his books). Steve has been back to England to see his family. They brought us an aerial picture of the house that we had ordered. It was taken about six weeks ago when the window rejas were first being installed. It will make a fascinating historical document. We have asked Steve to come over again once we get in and a little established. Trudy is going to come down soon and show us some of the herbal plants on our land.
We are just off dancing (only two more to go) and then for a pint and a game of cards at Lentisco’s with our friends.
Wednesday 23-5-2007
It’s cloudy, cool and has been raining overnight. There was a stiff breeze as we went to bed but it must have calmed down again as it did not disturb our sleep. Elayne said that she was woken (although I was not, but that’s not unusual) by hail rattling on the caravan roof.
The plumber finished all his work on the two bathrooms and fitting the CH radiators yesterday evening. We just have one young man on site so far today finishing the tiling around the bath in the family bathroom. He is doing a terrific job, it is all very neat. Unlike the concrete on the drive, which has been laid so badly that I am going to tell Dario that it is not acceptable at all, I could have made a smoother finish to it than how they have left it. We are not forking out loads of extra cash to have the poor quality of the drive spoiling the house.
Later: Dario and Jose came upto site with another builder. I was able to tell them that the concrete is awful. They say that they will now hand ball cement with the cement mixer and cover the entire area with smooth cement. What a waste of time and energy when they could have done the job properly in the first place. The two builders are now building the utility room on the base that they laid yesterday. Dario indicated that perhaps Carlos would arrive on Monday with the wardrobe doors. Not sure when the kitchen will arrive. The sooner the better from our point of view.
Interestingly, Dario still seems keen on buying the caravan. We have given him the telephone number of Juan that moved the caravan for us to see if he will do the same for Dario.

15th to 21st May, sorry

Tuesday 15-5-2007
Already half way through May and it is now not very likely that we will be in the house by the end of May. There seems to be little consistency with the number of folks on site. Today there is just one young lad cementing the walls below the staircase, they look good but there are still loads of finishing off jobs to be done as well as the entire kitchen to fit. A fleet of ten men would finish the job in two days, one man will take twenty days.
We have bought some bathroom cabinets and mirrors today and they were delivered this afternoon.
Last night was a quiet night so we slept well. The wind has swung around to the south east now so it does not worry us as much as a westerly wind.
We are again off line so at the moment you could say that we are just a little fed up with things today. We’re going out dancing tonight so that and a beer afterwards will perhaps lift the mood.
Wednesday 16-5-2007
We sort of danced last night and then had a welcome pint, or two, afterwards but didn’t play cards.
The night was perfectly still so that you could smell the campo as we got back to the caravan. This is quite unusual, as there is nearly always a light breeze blowing, but very welcome
We went to Albox (so what’s new I hear you say)today to collect some more light fittings this morning.
Another frustrating day, here on site, where ‘we’ had to point out blatant cock up’s to the ‘professional’ builders. Why don’t the professional builders see the problems and correct them to save an awful lot of time space and energy? (correcting the cock up’s). From this you may guess that we are getting impatient to have the job finished and for us to move in as soon as possible. When the builder drops one young lad off in a morning to work up here by himself all day, it does not to us seem a very determined effort on the part of the builder to conclude the job ‘rapido’. When Carlos (employed by Dario) works here on Wednesday and Thursday last week and then we don’t see him again and the entire kitchen has yet to be done, and the remaining electrics, and the plumbing, and the wardrobe doors, and the central heating, and the air conditioning, and the kitchen units need his presence, we don’t comprehend why.
We are told not to get excited about this way of working, but I am not going to let poor quality work go with out expressing our feelings about it, so that whatever anyone may think of us we have done all we can to keep our foot on the accelerator. We know also that it is not just a Spanish thing, all builders are getting away with it and they shouldn’t. Some tiles laid today were clearly a different shade to the ones that they were laid next to.
Needless to say we have had a meeting at three o’clock today to vent our spleens with Dario, Pam and Bob.
After a lot of debate we expressed our numerous points and grumps about the slowness of work. Dario, Elayne and myself have just now been to the tile shop where we created a riot of disbelief about the tile shade variation. Eventually an older man took control and took us round the back to show us some more of the same tiles. Immediately we could see the difference and so we came away happy, except that all the wrong ones have to be removed and replaced with the correct ones which takes even more time.
As we speak, so to speak, as I write this a JCB has arrived on site to level the drive way in readiness for re-enforcing and to dig the garage foundations. We are told that on Friday the concrete lorries will arrive to lay all of that.
Two steps forward and one backward.
Thursday 17-5-2007
We danced our socks off last night at Lentisco’s. It was about half past twelve when we arrived back at the caravan on a delightful starry and yet another calm night. The last time we danced to this particular DJ he exhibited the character of a lump of dough. It was quite sobering despite a few pints. Consequently we were not looking forward to last night too much, apart from being with our friends. In the mean time the DJ has polished his communication skills with the audience and he’s now quite chatty. His music, he plays the keyboard and the guitar, was always good, but his selection of music last night hit all the right spots for a lot of that particular audience including us. A round of drinks comes to about €12 (€6 each) and then supper is included so it’s a very reasonable nights entertainment.
On the house front ‘we’ (not the builders or the tile suppliers, but ’we’) discovered today why the tiles yesterday appeared to be off shade. The tiles already laid had been in place for over a week. Cementing the same tile next to the week old ones produce a grey effect on the new ones. We concluded that the agua (water) in the tile cement soaks into the back of the tile and under the glaze giving this grey colour. All this discovery after removing all of yesterdays tiles and replacing them. We hope and strongly suspect that when the new tiles dry out they will be the same colour as the already dried ones. Now why didn’t someone point that out to us?
The guy with the JCB has done a really good job on levelling the drive and digging out the garage foundations today, see pictures, if I ever get back on line. The front door, ‘principal entrado’ you may remember, now has three coats of varnish on it and is looking superb. Still no Carlos since last Thursday, probably be ‘all hell and no notion’ next week now.
BTW it’s another warm sunny day and you can probably tell that the mood has lifted considerably from yesterday.
Friday 18-5-2007
Having cleared the front of the house area the two builders are finishing jobs off and the place is starting to look more realistic now. The second of the lounge door rejas has been put on this morning and some of the final yeso’ing is being done. Still no sign of Carlos although we have called his secretary to find out when he is coming to site. We presume that the concrete lorries will arrive either tomorrow or Monday to lay the drive and the garage foundations.
We went down to HO this morning early and returned about half past eleven. The ambient temperature was twenty five degrees and inside the caravan it was thirty four, poor cats need to get over to the cool house as soon as we can get them there.
We are still off line and I am getting really p……d off about it. I call Iberbanda who say they will get a technician to call us but they don’t. Apart from a few hours on Monday we have been off line for over a week now. The problem of course is that, as we do not have a phone land line and as the signal comes via radio waves, there is no competition to challenge and sharpen Iberbanda’s performance.
Saturday 19-5-2007
Quite a busy day today. We started down in Albox quite early this morning buying front door furniture, only to discover when we got back to camp that the piece we had fallen in love with and ordered was very much too large to fit in the middle area of the front door. We picked up some diesel B for the genny, it’s running well since it set it’s self on fire last week. Then we treated ourselves, we do a lot of this lately, we hope the kids are watching their diminishing inheritance very closely, to a pair of very sexy mountain bikes. Elayne said that it’s about twenty five years since she rode a bike and it must be something similar for me. We have been out on them this evening and it’s wonderful to streak down hills at an alarming rate of knots. There are loads of tracks around here to ride on so it will keep us both fit and interested. I just know that we will have both found some long forgotten muscles by morning.
For all intents and purposes the builders have finished building the house. There will be snag bits still to do but in the main they are done. We had a brief visit by two plumbers today. They have laid out the central heating radiators, the bath and the toilets. However they disappeared at two o’clock and might arrive back on Monday. We also believe that the concrete lorries will deliver the drive on Monday and the builders can then get on building the utility room for us. Once this is finished we can get the central heating oil tank installed and the solar heating system up and running. The house looks delightful, from our point of view, and with the final rejas in place it has at last got it’s own character.
Domingo 20-5-2007
We have been here in Spain for ten months as of today. We have learned an enormous amount in that time and we are only just beginning really. We have been over to the house several times today, checking on things. We have started a snags list so that we have loads of time to hunt out any problems before they hand over to us.
This morning I attended to some interim pruning of the almond trees. I hard pruned a block of them last year and they have nearly all thrown out loads of side shoots which I have set to and take off. Everything to do with the almonds is tough. They bite and scratch for no apparent reason and one always comes away knackered, hot and bloody no matter what the operation being carried out.
It is a bit stormy this afternoon. We thought that we may have a thunderstorm but it all seems to be blowing over. The, all but, finished house looks terrific against the black stormy sky background .
The water coming down from the hebe is in a black plastic pipe that lays on the land. The sun takes the water temperature right up until we have enough hot water for two very long showers. The problem is if it gets too hot we then have no cold water to cool it down with. That’s life here in Spain.
Monday 21-5-2005
We noted that the spring flowers are shrivelling up and being replaced by the summer flowers. The bougainvillea is out, the oleander is flowering down the central reservation of the motorway and looks good. The huge stalks of the aloe vera are shooting up by the hour and the flower heads are starting to show, they grow to about fifteen to twenty foot and once they have flowered/seeded that part of the plant dies back and just leaves an ugly stalk. We were once told that it was illegal to cut the stalks down but we don’t think that this can be true.
The builders are preparing the drive for the concrete lorries coming tomorrow. We have a kitchen reja door but have now noticed that the makers have forgotten to put a handle on it, most odd. We believe that the plumbers are coming back tomorrow to finish what they started on Saturday morning i.e. the central heating and the two bathrooms. We’ll believe it when we see them. The builders have buried tubes across the drive from the house to the garage for the oil fired central heating pipes and the electricity from the house to the garage. They are also putting a drainage pipe under the drive to carry rain water from the upper land down past the house to the land below the house (don’t want the damned thing floating away after all this effort, do we?).
If the southerly wind dies a little this evening we will go for a short ride on our bikes.
PS to all of this: I am putting the pictures on but if you want to see anything particular please let me know and I will oblige if I can.

We rang a garage in Albox this morning, which just happens to employ an English speaking young man just to deal with the lucrative Ex-pat community business. They could mend the car and would contact the breakdown people to have the car delivered directly to them. He would ring me once they had unloaded the car and had a chance to assess the damage.
Indeed he rang me about two hours later to say that they had received the car, mended it and it was now ready for collection. After the shock I bit the bullet and asked him how much it would be and he said €50. Now that’s what I call a good result, providing that we haven’t done any other damage to the engine. The insurance brokers that we use had also contacted the insurance company, Ibex in the UK, and already had a commitment from them that we could, if required, hire a car for a maximum period of two weeks at €150 per week. As it works out we won’t need to do this.
We have two builders on site today (I did promise). The rejas and the doors are all back on site again together with the rest of the staircase banister. We are still not sure that the lounge door rejas are suitable but we will await them being put in position before we nod or shake our heads. It is quite strange that Dario will take the rejas off back to the fabrication shop with a problem and come to a conclusion about how to solve a problem, then without asking us they will go ahead and amend the things and deliver them back to site in the hope that we will just accept what they have done to them.
If we could also get Carlos and his party interested in doing a full weeks work up here, we would be getting well on the way toward the final furlong of the house build.
The wind, which we had assumed had calmed itself for the summer, got up noisily again last night. We were awakened by the noise and buffeting at about half past four this morning and we didn’t get much more sleep before getting up at eight o’clock. The only difference last night was that we didn’t have the car here to escape in, even if we had wanted to.
One way or another it’s certainly a challenging business being out here doing what we are doing.

Friday, Saturday & Sunday sorry off line all weekend.

Last evening I went ‘paragliding‘. Some new friends of ours (Steve and Trudy) have a motorised paraglider and also a tandem non motorised paraglider. They run a business taking aerial photographs of peoples’ houses from the air. They flew over and photographed our new house some time back and I had said to them that if the opportunity arose I would like to do a paraglide with them. Well they phoned me on Wednesday afternoon to say that from the weather patterns and weather forecast up in the mountains, it looked as if conditions would be favourable tomorrow (Thursday) and was I still up for it? Was I ever. We phoned them in the afternoon (Thursday) to see if all was still OK and then at about half past four we set off to meet them. They then took us, in their 4x4, off up into the mountains on a very rough track. The launch site turned out to be a little area of cleared scrub land about half the size of a tennis court. The launch site has a gentle slope and then at the lower edge of this gentle slope is a 300 metre vertical drop over the cliff face. Standing at the cliff edge I did consider if perhaps I should have worn brown trousers. It was awesome and so was the view. The temperature was in the mid to high twenties with a gently gusting breeze.
We unpacked all of the bags and equipment and carried it from the track to the launch site and then Steve and Trudy laid out a large piece of olive picking netting on the upper side of the site. This was so that the canopy (vernacular for a very small looking handkerchief) and ropes would not snag on the rough ground at launch time. This done they then turned their attention to an unusually quiet me. Elayne busied herself taking pictures of ‘the last sight of Paul’ just to show the insurance people if she needed to make a claim. Firstly I was squeezed into a very flashy ’jump suite’ with zips and pockets all over the place. It fit rather well I thought but it was also very hot inside it. Then a crash helmet, which made me start to twitch because I didn’t think that we wanted to crash. Then I was adorned with a very flashy pair of velcro fastening knee pads (I presume in case I wanted to say my prayers before we jumped off the cliff), and lastly I had to put on a very strong pair of gloves that has steel palm protectors. Thus trussed, and very hot and not just a little nervous, I then watched as Steve kitted up and started to check the equipment again. He stopped all of a sudden and I thought that perhaps he was going to cancel the flight, but no he had only forgotten his crash helmet. Trudy kindly volunteered to drive all the way back down the mountain to their house and recover Steve’s crash helmet. In the mean time I took off some of the protective, hot garb and tried not to think of the lovely pint of beer awaiting us if we should ever land on the floor of the valley in one piece.
Twenty minutes later Trudy arrived back and we started kitting up once more. Steve then gave me very clear and unambiguous instructions about what I was required to do and what I was to expect to happen at launch time.
Steve emphasized that he was the boss and his instructions, if not followed, could put both of our lives at risk. I can assure you that arguing with him over anything at that point in time was not a very good option for me.
Steve then unfolded the canopy whilst I inwardly trembled and cursed my independent character streak that made me open my big mouth in the first place. He then attached himself to the canopy and called me over to do like wise. I did notice whilst I was on my ‘last walk’ how my brain said it was not too late to pull out, but my legs kept on walking. In addition the wind sock indicator, which until that moment, had been either straight out or at the very least had been at a jaunty angle, had given up the ghost altogether and only just managed a small limpid stir. But no one said ’sorry we can’t go’. I arrived at Steve’s side and whilst he was irrevocably attaching me to the handkerchief, which actually did look quite large now, it occurred to me that ages ago whilst he was giving me my instruction he had casually mentioned that I would be facing and looking over the cliff edge whilst he would be facing back wards. I could only now assume that he didn’t like heights and was leaving me to guide him off the cliff edge ( I joke if any of Steve’s potential customers are reading this blog). With a whoosh and a lot of noise we are stumbling, together, backward away from the cliff edge, Steve shouts ’run’. Well excuse me, I know that I promised not to argue with the captain, but I thought that we were supposed to run forward and glide gently off the edge of the cliff in graceful harmony like I have seen on the telly. In actual fact we did a few back steps and then a couple of front steps like a couple of beetles dancing and all of a sudden we were flying right out over the edge of the cliff. I thought that Steve had stayed behind because I couldn’t see him but as we took the first turn I felt the re-assuring nudge of his legs on my back and then he told me to lean over into the turn a bit like you do on a bike only this time there is five hundred meters of clear air below us. At this stage I decided that if I was going to arrive back on terra firma I had better start to breathe again. I was then able to marvelled at the fantastic, wonderful vista before us. Needless to say my camera came out of the overall pocket and we gained height and swung round back towards the launch site just near enough to wave to Trudy and Elayne (so that she could put the insurance policy away just for now).
We twisted and turned over the valley in a magnificent manner and all too soon Steve said that I was to put the camera away. Just after take off I had been able to sit down in the harness and Steve now told me to push myself forward out of the sitting position and into the stand up position. It’s very odd being all the way up there and being asked to stand up. We gently came down into the rambla and just about ten foot off the ground, and travelling at some little speed, the wind died altogether and we hit the ground in a rather undignified heap, me in the dust and Steve on top of me.
We recovered our dignity and I can remember being very grateful for the knee pads, the helmet, the overalls and the palm protectors. When we had both recovered our breath we stepped out of our equipment and I congratulated Steve on my safe deliverance. By the time we had straightened out the canopy and packed it away, Trudy and Elayne had meanwhile cleared the launch site equipment and then driven down the mountain to meet us.
Needless to say we repaired to the local hostelry for a well deserved pint. We sat on the veranda in the warm clear evening air and my goodness did that drink taste good.
Afterwards on the drive home Elayne asked me if I would do it again. The answer was very simple to formulate, YES PLEASE.
What about the builders? O! I’ll tell you about them tomorrow.
Saturday 12-5-2007
After the adventures of the last day or so we thought that we wanted a quiet un-eventful weekend. As we were driving back up from shopping in Albox this morning we thought that we had run over something that kicked up under the wheel arches. A soft sort of noise, not like a brick. Anyway we drove on because nothing was obvious. As we left Taberno, about 2k out, we noticed that the air conditioning was not doing it’s job and then we noticed all sorts of dashboard warning lights come on. We pulled in and could hear the radiator boiling it’s socks off, so decided to leave the bonnet up and wait for half an hour to see what happened. As I was looking at the engine I noticed that the water pump/fan belt was missing and some of the shredded remains were visible down in the engine compartment. So now we knew what the noise was. All that we had to do now was to call the Insurance assistance ‘hot line’ and ask for help. We had been assured that someone at the end of the phone would be able to speak English. Well the lady who answered could nearly speak a little English. I thought that eventually I had managed to describe where we were. She said that someone would be with us in half an hour. In the mean time Elayne phoned Mags and Allen to warn them that we might have a problem coming to their house for supper tonight. After explaining the situation to Allen he said that over here the breakdown truck drivers are only that, they would not do any ‘on the road side’ repairs, they take the car to your designated garage.
Whilst we waited the recovery trucks arrival a young guy drove past and stopped to see if we needed any help, just as the none very English speaking recovery truck driver phoned to ask where we were. The young lad (Robustiano) not only told the driver to drive to Taberno but then insisted on going down to Taberno to guide the driver back to us. They then drove in convoy back to us and Robustiano stayed to help interpret what the options were. Initially Robustiano said that he would be happy to drive Elayne back to the caravan, to let the cats out of the caravan as it was very hot outside, so probably would be much hotter inside, but then after further discussion and bearing in mind that it was nearly quarter past one on a Saturday (every thing closes for the weekend at two o‘clock on Saturdays), it was decided to send the car down to Albox for the weekend on the back of the recovery vehicle, and Robustiano would bring both of us back to the caravan. What a superstar Robustiano turned out to be, and making an enormous effort to help total strangers out like that is brilliant. He wouldn’t accept anything for the favour but said that if we saw him in Lentisco’s one night we could buy him a drink.
So here we are back at the caravan sin (without) vehicle and dear Mags and Allen are going to collect us this evening and we are all going down to Albox for a Chinese meal.
O! and the house, well, because we cannot get on line at all today I’ll do an update tomorrow, promise, although we do not have anybody on site at all.
Sunday 13-5-2007
Some days are wall to wall excitement and others are not. Today is not. We have no builders or carpenters, no car, no internet access but we did have a lovely talk to my sister on the phone this morning. We are just passing the day reading and generally being quite lazy after doing a few chores this morning.
We got up late (or at least I did) after a fabulous evening with Mags and Allen at the Chinese Restaurant known as The Wok in Albox. We ate till we were busting and had several drinks all for €15 each. Mags and Allen dropped us off at home at about half past eleven. It’s hard to believe but I am just starting to feel a bit peckish again.
Tomorrow we have to try to sort out the repair of the car and hope that it doesn’t take too long.
Back to the book.

We all assembled at Lentisco’s last night for a good night of dancing and an occasional alcofrolic libation. The young lady singing her tonsils out was not playing to the audience and so she started to remonstrate that no one was dancing. Wrong tactic because no one then danced unless she sang a decent ‘dance to tune’. She didn’t take the hint at all. Had it not been for the good company that we were in, it would not have been a very good evening. Hey ho.
More doors in the house are on or are being shaped up for fitting and the painting is going great guns. The painters must be really fed up with the balustrade. It’s like painting half a mile of railings, only to discover that at the end you have to go round the other side to get at the bits you missed. It must be hard out in the hot sunshine, working away with just a straw hat for protection from the fierce sun. We’re glad we don’t have to do that.
It has been another scorching day today. When we came dashing back from town the inside of the caravan was thirty four degrees. Poor cats came out gasping. We have now bought a small air conditioning unit, and a big oscillating fan, and we will leave the genny on so that it stays a bit cooler when we are out. The air-con unit will also heat up if required so both items are useful now and will also be useful when we get across yonder.

Last night after dancing, the longest hour of the week, we all adjourned to Lentisco’s to replenish our lost body liquid . Friends Chris and Avril (I spilt a half pint glass of beer all over Avril last week, and she is still talking to me) brought a game of American Dominos into the bar with them. Eight of us played this very intriguing game of dominos for nearly three hours. It is a very clever game with double twelve being the highest domino. We left Lentisco’s and Taberno at gone twelve, after a brilliant night.
Today we have been down to Huercal Overa briefly. We set off early and got back as soon as we could, because the caravan gets really very warm inside (about 32-34) and we don’t like to leave the cats too long when it’s as hot as this. They don’t seem to mind, but we do. The house by contrast is very cool inside even on days like today, at well over thirty, so it will be much more comfortable for them when we get moved over there and we have to leave them.
Two joiners are fitting the doors today and then sanding them off. They feel wonderful, as properly sanded wood does and the smell is very evocative. I want to get back to my woodworking. The painters have started on painting the upper level outside. The paint we have chosen is a very slight off white towards lemon shade and it is looking a treat. From a distance it looks white. The amendments to the lounge and kitchen doors and rejas for the doors and stairs are starting to hold things up because nothing in those areas can be finished off. Dario has said that he will bring the doors up to site himself because the glazier (cristalaria) keeps making promises and then not keeping to them. We will have to wait and see.
I think that we are out again tonight so perhaps a siesta might be in order.

Another super day on site. The builders have (I think) finished painting all of the inside of the house and have already put two coats of paint on the north and east side of the outside of the house. See picture of the builders pretending to be working. They are really nice guys and asked if I could take a picture of them. So we contrived this picture to look as though they are working, but as you can see there is no new paint on the walls, note also the tough image of the marigolds. Carlos and pal have continued with the architrives and have now fitted several of the internal doors as well. Not sure what follows these events but we are very pleased with the way it’s all going. It will be good to see the amended reja and the lounge and kitchen doors returned correctly. We’re getting there slowly but surely.
The temperature today has been nearing thirty degrees. Down in Albox, this morning, it was stifling, but up here on site there is a little gentle breeze blowing that is keeping it from being too hot. Imagine, just last week and we’re still with our top coats on. This is glorious and long may it continue, perhaps summer has arrived at last.

What a super day it‘s been, full of progress and activity towards the house completion. We are probably still three or four weeks out yet but today we have had two people painting and Carlos and his mate putting the door architrives in place today. There is now only the hallway to have a second coat and the general interior painting is complete. The woodwork surrounding the doors, the architrives, is progressing at a fair lick and will be finished tomorrow. That then leaves the finishing of the tiled skirting up to the door surround before the builders are finished altogether inside.
It has been a superb day as far as the weather is concerned as well. We were down in Mojacar this morning, collecting mail from our friends Isobel and Eric, and this evening, on our visit to the house, we have discovered that the summer evening sun actually comes right around the house and shines back into our bedroom once more (our bedroom is on the north east corner of the house). So we not only get sunrise in our bedroom, we also get sunsets as well, all this because we have north and east facing windows. Also we have tonight realised that, as well as being able to sit on the west end porch in the evening. watching the sunset, the sun is coming all round to the front porch, and it‘s warm. We did not calculate that any of the front, north, side of the house would get any direct sunlight at all so all of this is a huge and welcome bonus to us. What a great unexpected joy. We also sat up on the solarium, on the floor, this evening for the first time, what a sun trap that is going to be. We shall have to write a book, how about a title of……eh…….great expectations, or has it been done perhaps ;-)))
Elayne and I played badminton down on the campo, at a quarter past nine, tonight using the clothes line strung between two almond trees as a net. We had to give in when ‘poor light stopped play’ but it was good fun.

After frightening off the builders yesterday, we were up early to see if they would return today as promised. Indeed they did. I was able to give Dario a ‘plano’ of the way we want the driveway finishing (muchos extra euros again) together with a small drainage system to run the rain water from the upper land and the camino down away from the house. Two lads spent until two o’clock today painting inside the house, and then went off for the day. They have now finished painting the two small bedrooms and the kitchen and family bathroom. They have also put a single coat on the small hallway, the main bedroom and the ensuite bathroom. I estimate that if they come and work full days, they should finish the painting inside, by mid week. The finished small bedrooms look really good and have a lovely cool atmosphere. It will be good if Carlos now arrives and gets to grips with things tomorrow.
Today dawned incredibly clear and full on sunshine. By ten o’clock, being Sunday, we were sat out reading and gradually taking our jumpers etc off. By twelve o’clock we were starting to burn and thinking about seeking shelter. By one o’clock a big dark cloud came over and it rained for half an hour. It’s now three o’clock and it’s lovely and sunny and hot again. We are thankful for small mercies, ‘onest we are.
We have just watched a solitary golden eagle come in quite close to us and then soar off to a great height and head off towards Saliente. They are wonderful.