The view from the back

Well having translated all the EX18 form with bing I must say I'm not much the wiser as it doesn't actually ask most of the questions I was prepared for , our personal circumstances only appear in the temporary residence section not the permanent section and we were given the form to pay the tax on as well so were having a go what can happen we can only get it wrong and do it again! 

Like most of you probably do the lovely wife has been doing the main shop in the supermarket with veg and salad from the market and bread from the bakery , last saturday off she went at 8am for her " me time " in the market, it was the morning after the local fiesta and they were just tidying up , after a wander and a coffee in the bar she started the drive home only to find the road back  thro the village still closed so as about turn for the long way back . whilst turning a man taps on the window so thinking he has road info the lovely wife winds the window down and this guy inserts himself through the passenger window waving a ID card and pictures of his kids on his phone ! Well the wife panicked shouting no ! No!  Vamos ! the guy replies Sí Sí  . ( You long timers will be aware vamos means " lets go " not " go" ) so you can see the confusion , obviously still drunk and after a ride home a nice lady sorting the flowers came to her aid and give this guy an ear bashing at 50 words a minute and off he went , the lovely wife thanked the good samaritan & she was gone. in town the other day i said I'd see an interesting looking shop in town with some really good offers on meat & cheese in the window should we pop in its only around the corner ? Yeh go on then , I said it looks very Spanish and is on a side road so probably no English spoken ! Yeh go ill be fine , so off we went , double parking seems to be a way of life around here even on the main high st as for the side roads  park in the middle and move if they get really upset seems to be the norm. So double park I did ( trying to blend in ) in she went after the 3 pollo 6€ & 1kg queso 4.5€ oferta. I sat conspicuously double parked engine running ( for the air con ) like a get away driver outside a bank. Out she popped weighed down with a smile on her face " ok "  " yes it's a great shop , very friendly " off we went looks like you got extras ? " yes and some steak ! " ok with the lingo ? " we'll , I saw the steak and wasn't sure if it was beef and as I couldn't remember the word for beef I pointed and went moo " What " when that didn't work I repeated with the addition of two fingers for horns followed by pretending to milk and saying leche " you never  I crocked in stitches trying to remember to stay right , what did she say ?? She replied " Si its beef " so I got a 1kg . I'm not waiting in the car any more this shopping lark sounds too much fun .

Just got back from the national police station in Almaria,  had a run down with the lovely wife , 90 mins each way . When we arrived there was no where around to park all the streets were chocka so I dropped the lovely wife off outside and said ill go around again and meet her in the queue when I get a spot. I went around a couple of times with no hope then there out side is the lovely wife , she hopped in " go on what's wrong " nothing " I have them here " grasping a clutch of papers she was like cat with the cream ! The lovely wife reported no queue no waiting and a nice lady who although claims no English was more than willing to work along with the wife's Spanish and a crib sheet , less than 10 mins and were on our way home. Just need to work through the forms and have a run back again so phase one complete

The guy Who invented the Internet was a real smart guy , the guy who came up with unlimited access brought it to life . I've had my money's worth over the last few days , searching , downloading ,e mailing , calls via VoIP I've gin it a caning, the lovely wife is sick to her back teeth of the chime of yet another incoming e mail, this afternoons e mail should have arrived with a full fanfare of the home guard. You've guessed it after shed  loads of data we have our cover . 
It might have all seemed a bit melodramatic my last post but when you have burnt as many bridges as we have to get here and you start running the numbers should you have to about turn its easy to lose the plot . 
Our stay so far to be honest has been very bitter sweet we have had numerous problems with the rental and the agent who has so far corrected them as they occur always be littles the issue in an very annoying way. We've had a cooker hood with no power fitted, faulty washing machine, 2 toilets that won't flush , pool filter with hardly any sand in it so the pool goes green easy and last night the bedroom air con went bang and tripped all the power off not bad in 2 weeks 6 days , oh don't forget the wasps in the meter box that have a love of chlorine , its surprising  the rate at witch they can breed based on the number we net off the pool each day. Out of our grand total of 20 days in Spain we've had six waiting around for tradesmen with more to come , the rest has been spent setting up our new life , getting a mobile , po box , Internet, bank accounts . The Skype calls from friends and family are a real joy and a source of amusement as they ask been on the beach ? Been out for a meal ? How far's the bar ? When you ask them the same questions you get the same answer back " not this week " " but your in Spain " and that's the point if your thinking of following us its no holiday it's daily life in beautiful surroundings with lots of quirky ways of doing things . Around here is still quite traditional with all the stores closing at 2 pm so no time for lying in if you need to shop. Most reopen later but to be fair but when it gets to 5 pm we don't feel like going out again , argh manaña . 

As part of the many documents you need to apply for inclusion on the EU register and receive an NIE number you need proof of health care. As part of our pre planning in march we had received a quotation from a company named after young swans , after speaking to the agent we agreed to be in touch when we had touched down in Spain , so I called them yesterday to take up the quote, but as always it had changed the offer had passed the policy was no longer available ill sort you out an equivalent so after 15 mins of horse trading he arrived back at a figure just above where we started for similar cover , result ! But no , this policy requires a medical questionnaire , Sh1 t here we go , well not having any medical defects this should be ok but big lad is a big lad , then there it was the BMI question , puff the offer was gone ! So it's back to the web to find cover , hopefully if not no cover no NIE , no NIE no car or house so effectively deported. our stay may be very short and expensive . The lovely wife is currently hiding the sharp stuff . 

Been out looking at cars what should be a pleasure I always find a chore,  the wandering around , up down in out trying to get the measure of how much your going to be ripped off , all that and the language barrier and then for good measure its not easy to spend money in Spain apparently I need to register and get a NIE before I can spend on a car and provide an income to the agent allowing him to provide for his family. So car buying is off and trying to get registered is on , having only been here 3 weeks I was not expecting to have to do this just yet , but apparently you have to do this within 90 days ? My neighbour back in the uk used to go to benidorm for 6 months every winter  and never registered for anything and drove his own uk car both ways ? 
So I'll have to sort out medical cover for the lovely wife and I and then go 100 miles to the office collect he form go home 100 miles fill it in go back to the office 100 miles collect a form to go to the bank 100 miles pay the bill go home 30 miles then go back to the office 100 miles to collect my registration and home 100 miles , 630 miles 1013km . It would appear that the form is not available on line from a official source as that would save a journey. Unless you know different ? 
I had a run out with the camera to Cabo de Gata , we have a pleasant afternoon on the beach snapping away running through all the manual settings & reading the book a lot ! No wonder they make em automatic out of a couple of hundred shots only a handful turned out when the combination of settings worked out. So that done back to the course to see what I learned because I'm not sure LOL. 

Last night just before the lovely wife and I were about to turn in for the night we heard this howling from the inky black of the garden it sounded just like some stray tom getting his oats it went on for quite a while but eventually we assumed he slipped off back to his own alley, all was quiet. This morning we awoke to a surprise in the pool bobbing next to the block holder was a dead kitten we can only assume that what sounded like an old Tom having his way was in fact cry's of help from this kitten. Who'd have thought something so small could have been so loud. I have also started my photography course and completed the first unit so only 14 left , I now have to have a day out using the camera on manual , manual ? Why did I pay so much more for automatic ? But a day out seems like a good idea. Just need the book to see how to turn the camera on manual !

Well every thing arrived , as you may remember we sent 150 items with the shippers although they could only count to 148, well when they arrived 2 different guys said we have 148 items plus 2 more that we hope are yours as they are tagged the same ! The lovely wife went into full traffic control mode with manifest clip board and pen mustering the guys to call out item numbers in exchange for directions of where to put things  whist she ticked them off all in the mid after noon sun of at least 35c it all looked very organised from my vantage point in the pool, after an hour of bed 1 , shed , kitchen , bed 3 , bed 4 , lounge , bed 2 the guys had it all in place , all 150 items as sent with no damage and a cool drink in hand. That was Thursday since then we've been sorting , putting some boxes under the stairs and un packing the others and swapping out the beds so we now have our beds set up and theirs apart underneath as the mattresses are so thin they were easy to roll up and lay under the beds. We only have a few boxes left to sort of mainly clothes and bedding both of which we we have little use for ! LOL  our bank cards arrived ok on Friday after our epic visit last Friday so with dread we went on in to collect them expecting another saga but easy pesy every thing was ready  the manager pulled use out of the queue and we were out in 15 mins with some banco sweets to boot , we now have all we need to relax whilst car hunting  and house hunting. 
Lets hope all the uk bank profits lift the £ some eh?