Bedrock

On Monday we spent most of the day waiting for deliveries and by teatime the place was transformed from a pristine cave to a cardboard mess. Until then, without tools or even a brush we couldn’t do much, now we had fridge, washer and microwave all shipped from the UK mainly as the prices for that kind of stuff over here can be a little over the top – for the rest, we had planned several trips to Ikea but as it turns out – many of the local shops have really good pricing – so we’ve bought a couple of sofa-beds (and very comfortable too) as well as a china cabinet locally all of which turned up Monday. A trip to the local gardening centre (half an hour) proved interesting – the people there spoke no English – so if the stuff turns up next year instead I won’t be too surprised – but in theory we’ll have an outside table and chairs today (Wednesday). BBQ is in as you can see – and late last night we sat star-gazing until the early hours.

On Tuesday we had our first visit to the local hardware store to eat into our list of 1000 items we need – amazing what you miss when you’re away from home then we went off to the next village, armed with solicitor, builder and Les to the NOTARY office to sign papers -the place is now officially ours. It turns out that while the shops close at 2pm, the restaurants are just opening up then so we had a very pleasant lunch /(which seems to involve chips no matter what you order) after which we narrowly avoided serious burns getting into the car. It’s now mid-afternoon and we’re in here now until 6pm when we go off to yet another hardware store and a large cash and carry to further narrow down the huge list which is growing by the minute. Items of major importance included mesh for the windows – and beads for the door – so as to keep out the nasties.

So the general trick appears to be to get up very early in the morning – and get anything done that needs effort – then have lunch and a nap mid-afternoon – in preparation for shopping followed by evening entertainment and food which seems to start no earlier than 9pm and goes on through the night if you’re up to it. Once the sun goes down, the temperatures are comfortable t-shirt weather until way after midnight. Oh check out the image at the garden centre.

Incidentally, check the slideshow of images – there are far more than you see presented here – covering everthing from the cave as it develops – through the solar panels you’ll see in the countryside here and huge windmill farms. As a Brit I find it a little painful that while we’re endlessly talking about this stuff – they’re doing it… but there you are.

I’ve already bought and wired up a boatload of Spanish mains plugs and extensions and asked the builder to triple the number of wall sockets.

We’ve paid several trips to the municipal “tip” – I don’t even want to go into that one – a far cry from Hexham’s organised tip with containers for every substance known to man, over here we have basically a large open area of land which everythign gets thrown into.

On the way is more furniture including a computer desk (I’m currently working in the kitchen) for the office upstairs…. and we need more solar lights.

I now have the tools I need to cover the pagoda… and fix the outside light… no more excuses.. it’s an early start today…