Bedrock

Archive for the ‘Andalucia’ Category

The new Pergola is up and running and just as I was getting the camera out to take a pic, I noticed the most amazing rainbow just across the valley.

This one’s even better – honestly – THIS is what it actually looked like this afternoon, looking down the valley..

and that’s about it – nice day for the time of year, the Pergola is now all wired up again, expecting our new car to arrive tonight – just in time to store it away for a while over the weekend!

The rain today didn’t help, but here it is, the start of a new Pergola, poles treated and buried in concrete. If the weather holds we may have everything put back together before the weekend is done… it doesn’t look much now, but just wait… what with that and the soon-to-be-functional pylon (just out of view behind the rearmost post) all that’s missing now is a decent US or British-made power supply for the broadband – and we’re all set!

Not much else happened today, we went to the Huescar market, it rained, nothing new – oh, Maureen got some new material as she’s planning an insulating curtain between downstairs and upstairs (to keep the heat out of our bedroom in the summer – and keep it downstairs in the winter (there are both upstairs and downstairs bedrooms). IN THEORY the new car turns up tomorrow night! If that all works out, no more car renting – which means I can pop over anytime for a few days.

Considering the time of year, the weather today was not that bad – sunny pretty much all day and heading toward 20c. We took a trip over to Orce market, which was a little disappointing but while there we noticed a sign for the museum and headed over there. A small entrance on the outside hides a 16th century very nice building which houses the museum.

Once inside we were welcomed in and given full instructions in English before being left to roam freely, not signs to tell you not to use your camera, no big-brother cameras. Very civilised.

We left the museum towards lunchtime and headed over to Huescar (just a few kilometres apart) where FINALLY after much effort and wasted money I found some solder that actually works at the local Ferreteria. There was most likely nothing wrong with my original soldering iron – just the cheap rubbish Chinese crappy solder they supplied with and sold separately from the irons – hard to imagine as to why a retailer could be so thick as to sell soldering irons along with solder that isn’t suitable for those irons – but there you have it. Anyway, along the way today I took some photos and here they are. You can click any photo to enlarge it.

Enjoy the pics… click to enlarge…

Believe it or not, after 3 years of builder’s electricity, it looks like we’re about to get "proper" electricity. The pylon is up, wired and apparently ready to go.

After some disappointing weather over the last few days, we’re set for sunshine today so we’re off to the Orce market to see what’s new there.

After bringing some new lighting technology over with me to add atmospheric lighting to the cave, I’m now onto my second Chinese soldering iron which utterly refuses to do the job and I’m convinced it’s actually the solder. The last one I bought was a 60w device and I bought solder and flux to go with it, yet after 40 years of soldering I cannot even START to tin the iron bit never mind do some sensible soldering – so the logical conclusion is that this is something ELSE the Chinese can’t get right (at least not in the stuff they sell here). So I’m off in search of good old-fashioned European-sourced solder!

Yesterday we went off to the lakes with friends – too cold to go swimming but just to show them around. We’ve also been to the Huescar fair which ended on Sunday night, not much to write about, just a standard market, the same people as usual.

I’m starting to get jaded with the smaller markets you rarely see anything new and interesting… not so bad in the summer when you can just enjoy the weather but we really could do with finding a really large and varying market.

Our Spanish-licenced car should be arriving this week, just in time to go into cold storage until our next trip – but at least this means we can kiss goodbye to extortionate car rentals once the paperwork is sorted and it gives me greater possibilities for short trips over here when there are last-minute cheap flights available, something we’ve not been able to do up to now.

I’m looking forward to some sun today so I can try out some new hi-def video capture software for the iPhone. Yes, I’ve a decent camera that can do video but I get sick of lugging a camera around. A phone on the other hand sits in your pocket – the problem being, the quality is usually rubbish. Well, I’ve already gotten around that with the HDR software on the iPhone to some extent (most of the photos here are HDR taken using the phone) and so now it’s time to turn to video.

Many problems with amateur videos taken on phones can be improved on the iPhone with a little care and the right software. Firstly clean the lens every single time you use it – and secondly use software to turn off the automatic controls. The stuff I’m playing with turns off auto-focus, exposure control, white balance and lets you take 16:9 format video – I’d prefer cinema format but the phone isn’t fast enough for that.. iPhone 4s to the rescue (if only). With these settings as seen in the phone in their normal default it really doesn’t matter what you do – your videos are always going to look home made.  Easy to say, let’s see what I can do with this – results in a later blog providing the weather holds out.

Oh yes, it’s around 20 degrees MAXIMUM here during the day, a far cry from September… and no sign of the builder!!

I was just thinking how crappy the weather was in the UK when what do you know, the day before I set off, a nice day in Wark!  Maureen and I spend the day gardening and got LOADS of stuff done.

6am this morning we were up to drop me off for my flight to Murcia – probably my last as apparently the military want it back! I  don’t know the politics of this but WHY did they have to grab the most friendly airport of the lot… Malaga is AWFUL.

Sunday lunchtime – after an effortless flight (no really, non of yer EasyJet squabbling like animals, seat booked (exit seat) and I just walked into the airport and onto the plane after a few minutes being checked to see if I’m an Islamic terrorist. I’d filled the iPad with movies but only had time for one – "G.I Joe – The Rise of Cobra" – if you’ve not seen this – it is worth the effort of getting the DVD – ok, it’s silly but the effects FAR exceed what you’d expect in a less than blockbuster movie – indeed they rank along with the very best.

By the time that was over it was time to land – I was a little worried as just approaching land there were some horrendous clouds – but I should not have worried – 26 degrees in St Javier. Now remember – this is a Sunday… everything was OPEN! So a brief trip to the Chinese supermarket then off to Eroski for groceries.  About the only notable part of the journey was the fact that they gave me a completely trashed car. I grabbed the car guy and pointed out that the rental form said nothing about scrapes etc. at which point he noted down the major gash on one side of the car and laughed at the little bumps and scratches I pointed out elsewhere. Regardless I took a video of the whole car while I was there -  just to be sure.

Got here late afternoon after having a good look around Caravaca De La Cruz – which I intend to repeat at some point as they have a nice little town square with cafes etc., looked really neat. 22C when I got to Galera and all looks well, everything works apart from one cheap Chinese power extension which is easily replaces. All my solar stuff is working, one camera needed a reset so tomorrow I’m off for a 24-hour timer to give it a 5-minute reboot first thing in the mornings – better safe than sorry.Other than that, nothing new… no-body us here, Maureen joins me next Sunday and we have friend coming over… I expect I’ll pop down to the village to see what’s new there but for tonight – a quiet drink, a little blogging and a nice fire.

Tomorrow – shopping, a little R&D and no doubt the usual cacophony of phone calls and emails. But at least it’s warm.

We had to drop Maureen’s sister Elizabeth off at Granada airport first thing this morning so we took the opportunity to visit the Alhambra by travelling down first thing on Wednesday morning and stopping overnight in the city.

Don’t forget to click on any image if you want a larger version.

First thing in the morning (7.30am) the views of the mountains were spectacular with low-lying clouds hovering above or in the mountains themselves.

We arrived around 9.30am and had to wait a while for the British guide to turn up to take us around the famous Alhambra. It’s not my first visit but you always see something new. The guide was superb, sadly the audio technology he was carrying was rubbish so we ended up missing some of what he said. Non-the-less a thoroughly enjoyable if hot way to spend the day.

Looking every bit the tourist with my hat and “I love Alhambra” badge, I set about taking photos – I’ll put the lot into a Google Album and include the link rather than filling this page up with pics. There are a couple I need to show you… these two in particular – spectacular panoramic views from the top of the city…

Maureen and Elizabeth thoroughly enjoyed the trip – sorry the latter had to leave so soon. Afterwards as I took a nap back at the hotel they went off for the bus tour and we all caught up later on for a drink.

Thursday morning we dropped Elizabeth off at the airport and headed back to the Alhambra car park so we could park up (now I know how to get there from the motorway instead of weaving across half of Granada) and continue the bus tour. HOT does not begin to describe it but we found ourselves at the science centre – WELL recommended…  The roof of the science centre below has photocells over the roof (out of site here) generating – wait for it 200kw of electricity! Again more photos to come – on the way back up home from Granada I took a wrong turn off to Almeria and though it only took around 10 minutes to twig I’d got it wrong, I was glad I did as we found the largest alternative power plant I’ve ever seen, firstly a massive solar plant (heat pump type) and photovoltaic but also a massive wind farm all in the same location – how to do the job properly!

Unfortunately the photos just don’t do it – I forgot my large camera and what looked really impressive in real life just doesn’t cut it here. What you are looking at below – is part of an image with hundreds of huge arrays of curved, reflective solar panels. To the left off-image was a fairly large photovoltaic array and to the right out of shot, hundreds of windmills… unbelievable.

The BEST way to see these and many more photos of the trip is to go to the relevant Google Album. Click here to visit Scargill’s Google Album of Granada, 2011 – if you prefer to see this stuff in Facebook – checkout our Facebook Bedrock page here