What’s this about?
This is Peter and Maureen Scargill's Spanish website. We live in Galera in Andalusia (for clarity, that is the English spelling - Mid-Spain they spell it Andalucia and pronounce it "And-a-loo-thee-a").

We've had a home in Spain for more than 14 years and it is now our permanent base though we retain a small home in the UK.

Find out more about this by reading through the blog entries, menu-accessible pages and archives if you're interested! Welcome to Peter and Maureen's Spanish website.

Get in touch via Facebook Peter's Facebook Page
Please follow Peter on Twitter Follow Peter on Twitter
Join Peter's LinkedIn network Join Peter on LinkedIn
Archive

Posts Tagged ‘The start of a hot summer break in Spain’

Arrival in Spain–the Summer Begins

At the airportAfter a nice flight from Newcastle (well, I assume it was, I slept through most of it, one of the better results of ageing) and a spot of shopping at Eroski in San Javier, we arrived at the cave at 1am Tuesday morning after a very pleasant drive from Murcia – the temperature being around 20c at midnight!

Tuesday we spent cleaning the place up, the builder has rebuilt the gateposts so the numbers and welcome sign had to go back up – I’ve still got the letterbox to fit but the rest is done. Tuesday night we went down to Pizzeria La Posa for a beer and to catch up with friends.

Fartons PoloWednesday some more cleaning and some work on the hot-tub – Maureen has been cleaning it out, emptying and re-filling and it’s now just about ready for use. I fitted two new cupboards which I’d stained on Tuesday. So now much of my wiring is now nicely hidden – still can’t get the new router to work however so that’s a challenge – the existing one has a tendency to stop working without notice so it has to go).  I then got landed with a Skype video conference I’d forgotten about which thankfully wasn’t too long and last night we had a BBQ with our neighbours and some new friends and I have to say what a cracking night, 3 of us got talking, one fellow was a chemist, another a medical guy and we covered every taboo subject from politics through religion – we had a great time.

Apparently the last people left at 2am this morning, I think we were nearer to midnight. The chemist guy I spoke to says I need to use multiple spray coats of PVA on the walls I’ve been having trouble with followed by something called Capa Fina– and Maureen has a new cure-all tape which you wet then put on the wall and which ends up as a rock-solid coat which looks remarkably like Plaster of Paris – so things are looking up. The tape looks amazing and I’m convinced a heavy coat of paint will make it invisible but we’ll have to wait and see – meanwhile friend Adrian has shown me the right tool to use to get the correct wall finish after plastering.

Maureen Scargill hidingToday Maureen and I went off to Baza to get a new “tent” to put over the hot-tub. Massive affair, the idea is to get a fly screen around the whole thing so we can relax without visits from wasps who absolutely gravitate to anything remotely like water (and who can blame them).  My work area is well on the way to being usable and I’m hoping to knock up a test controller soon – the plan being to leave accurate temperature and humidity sensing here along with control over external lighting – but clearly it has to be ultra reliable.

My auto-answer kitty-cam idea back in the UK is working flawlessly – except there are no kitties there – either that or they are deliberately hiding behind the camera. All I get is a video of an empty cat food tray…

Leffe BlondeTonight we would normally go down to the “G8” meeting – ie a load of Brits in the bar but as we’ve been on the pop 2 nights in a row, time for a quiet night and some Coca-Cola. If it cools off a bit we might get some work done.  It is of course nice and cool in here, maybe 25c maximum…. but outside is just a TAD to hot to actually do anything!! Once I get that hot-tub cover up all that of course changes but as I don’t fancy wasp stings, the lazing around in the tub will have to wait just a little longer.

Readers of my Facebook entries may recall my griping about the price of a glass of LEFFE BLONDE beer in Brussels which can reach the giddy heights of 8 Euros in the bar. Well, as the photo on the right clearly demonstrates  they are all thieving bastards as the cost of a 33cl bottle (same size as glasses in pub) in LIDL here is 1.19 Euros !!!

More later. I need Coca-Cola. Just had a call from the delivery people delivering the solar panel that Aidan kindly gave me – they can’t find the address of Spanish Inland Properties – they’re going to try again this morning – their so-called English-speaking operator had immense difficulty getting the tracking number off me… I suppose I could have read it out in Spanish….