Our Andalusian Adventure

We have now been living in Andalusia for 4 weeks, we have packed quite a bit in to that time and managed to survive without Wifi LOL! We had trouble deciding (well i say we, mostly Paul) which way was best to recieve Internet and UK TV. This search took us gladly to a Tuesday market nearby. Once we found it we were pleasantly surprised by the array of local and handmade items. The best of it was the location, a hidden paradise set in beautiful gardens we couldn't believe our eyes! A stunning venue for a wedding or a party, my brain started to whir. My background has been in organising events and i am pretty sure there is a market out their for unique wedding venues. Maybe that could be how we make a living out here?

I digress we found the man we were looking for and he helped make our decision on the Internet. As we live in a village in the mountains the best option for us was ADSL cable rather than satellite or fibreoptic. The next research was which provider to use and what bundle to go for. We chose a box for TV channels and its fantastic! All the UK channels are including SKY Sports, SKY Movies, Box sets, we'll never be bored on a rainy day! That is what it's there for, we have made a rule though no telly before the evening unless it's rainy we don't want to slide back into old habits.

Our nearest bank is in a old town called Velez Malaga i am glad we have had to go into branch as it has helped us explore and get to know this gorgeous town. We now regularly find an excuse to pop along and enjoy a coffee on the square and people watch. It's lovely to see their high street's thriving and so well kept unlike back in blighty. On our first visit we walked until we found the old castle having walked the many steps we were rewarded with a roof top view for miles.

At this time we were expecting our first visitors from the UK my mum and her partner Rob.  This brought a whole load of feelings, would they like it, would they understand why we made the move?? 

One of the things i love to do is Yoga it's good for my mind, body and soul, my love affair started in 2004 at a local class in the UK, back then i practised at least twice a week, once the girls got older I found it more difficult to go regularly. I continued through both pregnancies and I am sure it played a huge part in having straight forward home births. When I saw a Yoga workshop advertised in Benajarafe on the Digame website I got straight on the phone to book my place. A lovely german lady took the class and was delighted i wanted to join in. The workshop was at a German Yoga retreat hotel 40 minutes away we had no idea what to expect once we found it it was in the most beautiful gardens a real hidden gem.

It was bustling with fellow yogi's who were staying at the retreat. I had fun finding the studio through a maze of ornate narrow pathways, giant palms and water features. The session was two hours long and once completed i was full of calmness and serenity. 

While I was slaving away Paul and the girls went to the delightful Benajarafe beach nearby and had a fantastic time helped by the fact they were the only ones on it! Once we were reunited all very hungry we decided to try the local bar and have 'Menu del Dia' we were not dissapointed 8 euro each for 4 courses including a drink and bread. We left happy customers and of course on a scorching day i had to have a dip in the sea before returning to the mountains. Bliss! 

After my relaxing other worldly Sunday i had the anxiety the following day of my first appointment at the recommended local hairdresser's. Most of the anxiety came from the fact that i don't speak much Spanish, how would i explain which colour i require.... Luckily the hairdresser is a sweetheart and having showed her photos she knew exactly what i wanted. The result was just as good as before if not better and for almost a third of the cost!! I was thrilled and now i'm thinking of changing my colour again. My fresh looking hair was perfectly timed for our first party night in the village. We are very lucky that we have at least four bar/restaurants to choose from at any one time we like all of them for different reasons and they are all a 2 minute walk and due to the hills a 5 minute walk back. One of our most favourite haunts is due to the hosts Hildi and Manolo and this is where our party night happened. They have made us feel most welcome since our arrival in Spain, and have since got to know each other well. They host regular music nights with a plentiful buffet. We all got dressed up and took lots of selfies before heading out. By the time the buffet was ready we were ravenous and a little tipsy (Paul and I that is) there was a wonderful array of food on offer and we filled our plates high! It wasn't long after that the music started and a charming german lady took to the floor and sang in many different languages, French, English and Spanish. It took a while for her and the crowd to warm up but once she got into her groove it wasn't long before we were all up dancing. It was a wonderful feeling and made me feel so grateful for our new life it was a real celebration of all our hard work to get here. What better way to celebrate than dancing under the stars on a warm September evening with my wonderful family. It was imperative to make the most of this evening as all of our peace was about to be disrupted by the non stop arrival of our visitors from the UK from now until November 

Our third week in this beautiful place ~ First day of school for our girls it started with a leisurely short day of 12-2.30pm  This first week was all about settling in and the following week they would start lessons. Chloe (year 2) needed books ordering from a book shop in Velez Malaga we had no idea where to find this book shop but our estate agent helped us out again and with the magic of modern technology we sent her a photo of the list of books and they ordered them. They were ready to collect on the second day of school and we faced the next challenge of finding the book store !!  The official document with the book list was stamped by the school, it had all the books needed for Chloe, and we were told to guard this piece of paper with our lives. We found the book shop and handed over the list. The man was aware of our order- result- and he then handed over the books. We then tried to pay the 133 euro but it was not necessary this was paid for by the education system. With this good news we dived into a cafe and celebrated with a orange juice, i know rock n roll right Olivia who is in year 6 does not need new books they borrow previous pupils as they do not write in the books. Anyway, they both enjoyed their first day and days to follow Olivia especially enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere. In her last school year in the UK the teacher was extremly strict and if you were caught holding your pencil at the wrong time your name was written on the board! Talking to one another was not allowed either. Here they have no uniform, the teacher high fives them on the way in and everyone is smiley. 

One of the the concerns when moving to Spain was where would we find raw dog food for Ted, we decided to change him from dry food to raw when he almost had canine bloat, which is deadly as the stomach flips and is normally irreversible. He is 18 month old now and has been on this for around 6 months now, the health benefits are huge, not to mention the dry pellet like poo so much nicer to deal with. We found a dog hotel called Posh Pets over in Alhaurin about an hour and a 1/4 from us, they supply frozen BARF complete dog food so now once a month off we trundle ready with our cooler bag and freezer packs. The things we do for our pets.... He has settled in really well, he still hates the pool and cannot for the life of him understand why anyone would want to get in their willingly! One day i will buy him a lifejacket and teach him to swim. Surely he'll enjoy it when it's 40 degrees?

Off now to collect more visitors from bus station 

Girls first day at school - still can't rotate pictures!! 

Me and Ted at the Rio Alcazar

Torre del Mar with bird of paradise

My bedroom view

Next on the agenda was 'buy a car' for years now we had bought a car relatively new from a dealer paying by monthly payments, now we had to put a chunk of our hard earned cash into buying a car outright and from a person who doesn't speak good english and we do not have a mechanical background. This process did take some time but we still needed a car to get around so this meant we hired a car for 8 days thinking by then we would have found the right one. Unfortunately this did not happen so we ended up hiring 3  the cars were great value but we had to go through the soul destroying experience of driving back to Malaga airport and then waiting for our next hire car .... The worst time was the last when we hired through Goldcar, we had to queue up for over an hour to collect our car!! It was ridiculous. Considering we had already booked online, considering the amazing technology out there now this was very unnecessary. The last car we hired was a Peugeot Panther we thought this would be good as we could use it to move furniture and dispose of garden waste what we didn't realise was how basic they were inside. I also think someone had stole the aerial as we had no radio! We had to endure journeys with no music, one particular memorable journey was after finding a beautiful sideboard for sale on the 'digame' website we needed to collect from Torrox. Now if it wasn't for the GPS co-ordinates we would have never found the place it was deep into the mountain along various tracks. We, well I underestimated the size of this piece of furniture.... With the seats pushed down and the passenger seat right at the front off we went home with Paul's face squashed up against the windscreen, and me driving with my right arm above my head as the furniture leg was poking in my shoulder, i wish we had videoed it! It did give me the giggles though and i'm happy to say we all love the furniture and it was worth the 50 minutes of discomfort. Back to cars after test driving a couple - one was a hyundai i30 and the test drive was another side cracking moment everytime he took his foot off the clutch a little it raced off like something possesed!! We decided against that car. We ended up buying a Mazda 5 from the Toyota garage with 1 years warranty, we don't need 7 seats but it has come in very handy i must say. The sales guy was quite a character too reminded me a bit of a spanish basil fawlty! 

During our second week we also thought it best to pop our heads in to the school and show our faces. The estate agent had handed in the forms back in June but i had had no confirmation. We went to the office and spoke to the 'Director' the girls were on their respective class list but she was adamant they didn't have the forms and we should fill in new one's. As you can imagine i was insistent that she actually had a look for the forms, after several minutes had gone by her secretary popped in and confirmed she had the forms..... With this we then were told there is a meeting tomorrow for everyone for the new school year. We did go to the meeting but it was hard as they didn't translate a word even though they did speak English. So, we left with a A4 piece of paper stating the materials we needed for each, all in Spanish with all kinds of  equipment needed including packs of tissues. We had some good advice from a fellow brit on where to buy the materials which was a god send and since starting the girls are really enjoying it. Olivia (10) really enjoys the relaxed style here as when in the UK she wasn't even allowed to talk to friends in class. There is no uniform, the days are 1 hour shorter and you call your teacher by their first names. They have now been there for 4 weeks and have two trips planned, one is to the Science Park in Granada and having researched it i'd love to tag along, surely they need a extra pair of hands.