Bedrock

Archive for the ‘Andalucia’ Category

After another late night Tuesday night in which we were down in the village until 1am, I had had an early start Wednesday – a Skype technical meeting with Blackpool. That out of the way, we went off down to Galera for some essentials – you know, food, grease, sockets….

Maureen then headed off to the hot tub while I took apart an old power supply to extract one of those lead-acid batteries to try out solar charging which I have to say went well, but after I while the battery warmed up and I was worried about overdoing the charge and so ordered a controller from the UK which I expect will turn up in a week or so.

That will allow me to leave lights running including the new false window, on the battery until the voltage drops at which point they’ll turn off – but NOT frying the battery in the process.  Finally got the security cameras working again and in the process managed to clean the lenses – amazing what a difference that makes.

I had a bit more work to do in the afternoon (someone had discovered that a map we use in the FSB has West Yorkshire in the wrong place, now fixed) but then the urge to sleep took over (a combination of the night before and 3,000ft in the mountains) and that was the end of that afternoon.

Early evening and friends turned up somewhat unexpectedly so we sat for an hour or so chatting at the Pergola before they headed off just in time for some new guys (well new to us) to come walking down the hill and we stuck up a conversation there which went well into twilight!  By then it was too late to start anything and so Maureen went off to bed while I decided to ruin my day by messing with the WIFI.

Well, it wasn’t deliberate but as often is the case, the router decided it was not playing ball so I spent ages messing with settings before being able to clear off to bed to watch “Prometheus” – I think for the third time – saw it originally in the cinema  – amazing movie –  I think Ridley Scott’s best work so far.

Got up at 7am this morning, some unfinished coding to do which took no more than half an hour, Maureen went off for an early morning walk and then we headed off to the Huescar market for Churros and coffee. 27c outside so a bit cooler than recently but very nice non-the-less.

There was really nothing new at the market… and far fewer than the normal number of Brits we talk to so here we are back at the cave at lunchtime – I have some wiring to do before we head off to the village tonight.

Sometime in the next few days – I need to stop my office wall from snowing!

It’s been a great first week here in Galera, met some new people who’ve been great company and we’ve already gotten a fair bit of work done.

Yesterday I went off to Huescar in the morning in search of washers to complete the gazebo (or carbuncle as Maureen calls it – after she bought it!!) over the hot-tub. On the way I popped into Spanish Inland Properties to pick up the solar panel delivered from England – I’ve tested that and it’s chucking out 2.5 amps reliably during the day so now I just need to find a suitable 12v 20amp (or so) “deep discharge” battery. I can get one overnight in the UK for around £40 but they won’t deliver to Spain.

We spent the afternoon putting up screens on the new carbuncle – and immediately ran out of screen so last night we went off in search of more – turns out the local Ferreteria in Galera stocks the stuff so that was easy -  of course we had to drop into the pub (La Poza) on the way back and that was the end of that night – we sat outside all night had a great time.

Got back very late but not too late to get the camera out as it was a clear night with a smashing view of the edge of our galaxy which you’ll see in the first picture. – look over on the right and you can see it coming out of the corner of the image (the left corner is light pollution from the village). That was a 16-second exposure incidentally – tonight I plan to try taking a bunch of them and averaging out the noise.

This morning I’m taking it easy – slight alcohol poisoning and it’s quite warm out there. I can see a quiet night in coming along and with luck we’ll get some more wall patching done (it’s a never ending task) and maybe we’ll finish off the carbuncle. I’m doing some work on the home control stuff but I’m kind of stuck waiting for parts to arrive from the UK which might take a few days.

I took the shot below late last night – most of the lighting you see there is either solar or LED or both.

Things I’m short of it anyone local has ideas for suppliers…. I need a couple of posts for the Pergola (to run horizontally for fencing off one side) – maybe 75mm diameter, 3 metres long.. and a deep discharge battery (camping type) 12v at maybe 20ah or so – got to be cheap as the solar panel is just an experiment for now.. haven’t even figured out where to mount it yet 🙂

It seems like a matter of weeks ago that I was starting longingly at my phone which has a little day timer.. “75 days to go” it said… yet here I am about to get on a plane back to the sun -  except that right now it’s not sunny in Andalucía!

It should be around 23c and sunny at the airport when I get there but by the time I get to Galera this evening it is likely to be as cool as it is in the UK.  The weather forecast however looks good – and by Wednesday it’s supposed to be sunny and warm.

Aside from not having the heat on when I first get there – which could be a challenge…. this is not a problem as I plan on spending a couple of days working on my new pet project… Internet remote control.

I’m up early in the morning here in the UK to package up my circuits and wires, I have a prototype capable of checking inside and outside temperatures and controlling a couple of relays etc. – all controllable from my Samsung S4 – works a treat here so the trick is to get that up, running and reliable and leaving it in Spain until the summer begins properly by which time I’ll no doubt have come up with a very much expanded “MK 2”

I head off at lunchtime – a spot of shopping in San Javier to populate the fridge… and I’ll be on my way over to Galera armed with camera. Lots of renovations to be getting on with – the new hole in the wall for the fridge should be ready for painting and the bathroom wall upstairs needs a bit of work having been brought back to stone by our builder. All good “rainy day” jobs.

5 days on my own then I’m joined by Maureen at the weekend.

Not the best start to a holiday… we set off 10am on Saturday morning ready to enjoy a nice quiet break over in Spain… no worries, just a nice, relaxing holiday with sun.

So first things first, by the time we’d driven up to Edinburgh airport, the keeper of the keys realised she’d left them on the hook back in Wark. We deliberated but really, there was no going back.

The lady at the airport parking company had all sorts of ideas about putting the keys on the plane – ideas instantly dashed by the ever so useless attendant at the Easyjet stand who simply said that Easyjet don’t do packages. I don’t think they’d ship their own dead mothers to their funerals – but hey, they’re cheap! Before getting on the plane, Maureen rang up our friends here in Spain to see if they could help with the no-keys-for-the-house situation.

We arrived (after I have to say quite a pleasant flight in which I slept for all but the part in which I watched Prometheus for the umpteenth time) in Alicante around 8pm – dark outside but really quite pleasant temperatures. Our car was waiting for us at the airport – and looking at the queues for Goldcar rental we reminded ourselves why we go through the hassle of having our own car!

We figured we might have to stop over in Alicante until the key situation was resolved but on ringing up we were told that the locks had been bypassed and we were ready to go!  Well done Shirley and Cyril.

Of course it didn’t take me 55 minutes to find the Chinese junk shop in Alicante and Maureen needed groceries. Thus, a quick spot of grocery shopping and a few photos and we started our 2.5 hour drive to Galera, arriving around midnight

We’d had the sense to have the heating turned on before we left and so while not cosy, the place was quite liveable once we arrived. One pizza and a bottle of wine later we gave up for the night.

This morning, Shirley and Cyril came over to give us the loan of a chain-lock as the builder won’t get here until the morning to sort out replacement locks. Excellent.

That means we can pop out tonight down to the village to see what’s happening.

Not a lot, I should guess, at this time of year.  It’s been foggy here today but the sun keeps trying to sneak out and occasionally succeeds. My solar lights are out there praying and we’re in here watching TV and blogging. By teatime, we’ve spent the day relaxing (not much else I can do until I get access to my tools) and realising that of the new LED lighting I brought – I forgot the WHITE! Ah well. Thank heavens for Ebay.

Even on a Sunday, the FSB emails keep coming in so I’ve filed all but the most important and we’ve just returned from dinner – a night at LA POSA with friends –priceless…. the sun never really did make it out – which is strange because apparently until today it’s been fine here with 21c at lunchtime not being uncommon!

Well this certainly has been an interesting holiday…

Tuesday morning we set off in two cars with our friends Karen and Dave and Karen’s parents Shirley and Cyril, on a journey to Marbella (313km). The flu has come back to me with a vengeance and so we filled the our car with loo rolls as the other four headed off in their own car. Around teatime we arrived at the Refugio De Juanar, a really nice secluded little place up in the mountains, in Ojen – just inland from Marbella, on Tuesday evening. By then the weather was not that good – it was getting cool and raining. We got ourselves settled into the hotel and had a light snack.

That evening the plan was for the 6 of us to visit our ex-neighbours, Kristine and Richard who now run a bar in Marbella itself – the “K Lounge”. It would not have surprised me if we’d had issues with our car after the last time but it was an absolute star throughout the trip – sadly Dave’s car was not quite so helpful and as we readied ourselves to head down to Marbella, it promptly gave up the ghost, the gearstick refusing to connect to anything.

Cyril and Shirley stayed at the hotel as Karen, Dave, Maureen and I went off down to make the best  of things – keeping our appointment down at the coast. We had a good night, Richard is obviously enjoying his job as bar owner and we ordered an Indian meal in from one of the many nearby restaurants. Excellent despite the continued rain. Good food, drink and company.

Wednesday morning was different again – the weather was really great for the time of year. 9am on the spot a particularly miserable pickup-truck driver turned up to take their car down to the nearest garage on the coast. The trip to the coast was no more than 14km downhill and so with 4 people crammed into the back of our car we followed the rather speed-crazed driver down less than ideal roads to the dealer.

At that time, first thing in the morning the dealer had no idea how long it would take to fix the car and of course we were worried in case it was going to take all week.  Cramming everyone back into our car, we headed off to a sizeable shopping centre in Marbella where we spent much of the day.

We separated up and Maureen and I had a nice relaxing lunch at a German cafe within the shopping centre, outdoors as by then the temperature was around 20c and sunny. Dave and I both agreed the centre was mainly oriented toward women – the best we could manage was an Apple store and there was nothing new in there, not even the iPad mini which clearly has not been introduced to Spain yet.

To clear up a mis-understanding about Spain – it is NOT cheap. Fuel is approaching the price we pay in the UK and anything that smacks of electrical is HORRENDOUSLY overpriced, especially when compared to the (understandably numerous) Chinese stores. In the shopping centre was a large electrical discount store – I guess the equivalent of our B&Q – I went off to look at solid-state lighting and was so horrified by the pricing I took some pics. On the left you see the price of a simple transformer – 240v mains to 12v 1amp to drive LED strip. Yes, that’s 23 Euros each. Typically on EBay you’ll see these for around £3 or so. Worse, the strip itself, which can now be found on EBay even from UK suppliers at around £10 for 5 metres (300 LEDS) was sold double-spaced – hence 300 LEDS taking up 10 metres, priced at a stunning 103 Euros – I had to take a pic to make sure my flu-infested eyes were no deceiving me. All of this leaves one wondering about the clientele of the shopping centre – which certainly would not include the 40% unemployed. Dave and I came away empty-handed but of course the women went shopping, as they do.

I spent most of the day wishing I could sleep despite excellent weather, clear blue skies and good company and by mid-afternoon we knew that Dave and Karen’s car would be fixed and ready to go at teatime at a not-unreasonable cost. 5pm we crammed back into our car and headed off to the dealer before starting off on the long trip back to Galera, arriving back here around 10.30pm, stopping on the way for dinner.

We no doubt will have another trip to see Richard and Kristine in the summer sometime, hopefully without car troubles and maybe fitting in a trip to Tangiers while we’re on. Marbella is massive and we saw only the smallest part of it.

Click on any of the pictures here to see a larger version. The panorama below was taken most likely of Ojen during one of our trips up and down.

It’s been a very busy week having spent the latter part in Dublin visiting Google’s HQ over there (and learning LOTS from a bunch of talks and chats), I came back in time to grab a quick night’s sleep before driving up to Edinburgh.

We hardly got off to a good start to our break…. the plan was simple… because flights to Murcia were a tad expensive this year, we would fly into Alicante from Edinburgh and the company looking after our car would meet us there with the car.  We’d then drop the driver off at San Javier on the way to Mojacar where we’d booked a hotel for the night – with enough time for a spot of shopping and dinner.

That was the plan. The company screwed up big time and despite a very clear email with instructions, the driver was sitting in San Javier as normal, waiting for us there. Things went downhill from there. The driver had to come all the way up to Alicante, pick us up and drive us down to San Javier – by which time it was FAR too late to have dinner in Mojacar… We dropped the driver off any by now all our electronic devices were flat and in desperate need of charging from the multi-charge station in the car… easy enough except that someone had broken the charge unit while the company was holding onto our car… and blown the fuse – so it was impossible to charge anything. With time moving on and no ability to make a call if something went wrong we had to abandon our plans for Mojacar for the night and instead made a last minute booking at the King Alphonso 13th hotel in Cartagena after having dinner in a German restaurant in Los Alcazares. The company will soon know just how I feel about this one.

This morning after an atrocious night’s sleep thanks to round two of the flu, we had a nice room service breakfast at the hotel before setting off, devices fully charged to Mojacar where we had lunch at La Murala on the seafront as well as a trip to the local market before heading back off to Galera.

Our place is fine, the wood fire is glowing and after a couple of hours nap I’m sorting out photos and about to have my first glass of wine. The coast was really warm and sunny – here in Galera, it’s looking to be clear and dry and maybe approaching 20c tomorrow (not that we care as long as the sun is out and it’s dry, more than we’ve seen in the Northeast of England for a while).

We’ve a busy week ahead providing neither of us succumb to even more flu, we’re off at some point with friends to Marbella to see our ex-neighbours and I’ve brought a new solar panel over to give it a thrashing (ultimately I want to run cameras and routers etc. from solar in our absence for reliability) and of course I could see at least one trip to the Chinese junk store.