~~Our licence application is still crawling along apparently dragging its wounded body up an impossible incline, but it’s not dead just fatigued from its epic journey.
After waiting another week to see if we hear from our architect it was decided to contact him again this time with the help of our mutual friend who acts as a go between and translator, Pedro who has an English wife and lived in England for 25 yrs is now semi retired back in Spain , I don’t think anyone really retires here do they as every one we meet still has a bit of something on the side well past their three score years and ten !
He was surprised that we had paid anything to the rambler people as that was the architect’s job to settle so i showed him the papers we have and proof of payment and return tracked postage of the forms, he was out raged, wow a reaction from some one apart from the lovely wife. He promised to take copies to the architect and demand answers, yeh good show! But let’s see the results.
But true to his word he went to see the guy with our copies and yes our professional from the collage of architects was waiting for the papers that we have had for 6 weeks, the ones nobody was interested in at the time as the rambler people would not dare send them direct to the home owner when we have a professional involved, a guy who dismissed the forms when we phoned to say they had arrived as not relevant.
So as he picks himself up from the plinth of his pedestal he found time to complete the application pack and submit it to the town hall so that we are now back waiting for them just as we were in February they have said 4 weeks minimum, their last four weeks was nearer seven weeks so who knows, but as we drag ourselves up this hill we still have no idea if it’s a wonderful vista that awaits us or just the top of a dung heap.
On a happier note, we met a really nice guy when I was looking for a trailer, Brian from la Perla, he had a UK trailer that was surplus as he didn’t want to ITV it so off we went to inspect, it was ideal for what we need, moving logs and rocks etc behind the quad so the deal was done. Brian offered to tow it to our place with his 4x4 but I said that it wasn’t worth the risk as around Albox the Guarda are every where, I suggested I would return the next day and strip the axle and draw bar off so it would go inside my car. Brian seemed to think that it would go in his 4x4 without stripping down and as his is already beat up ( his words ) it’s a better idea so we tried and it was so close, But no cigar. So we entered in to a game of take a bit off and try it that went on for a good half hour that saw the trailer converted to a bag of bolts and a big box of bits as Brian was determined to get it in and prove the point.
So 45 mins later, sun burned and with a throat dryer than the dessert dust we had been rolling in we were home and Brian proudly deposited a big lad’s meccano set on the patio. We had a long drink and watched the sun go down I paid Brian and thanked him for all his trouble; he never checked the cash and set off, un aware that I had added some extra for his help. 45 mins later he phoned to say we had over paid and he would pop back with it tomorrow, the lovely wife explained and he was surprised. It appears there are still good people out there if you look hard enough.
An hour the next morning saw the trailer back on it wheels and being pressed in to wood collection and making the job much easier than trying not to knock lumps of the car!
That just leaves the change of ownership of the quad, as you will remember we were unable to get this done due to not having a in date padron, so the lovely wife went to our new town hall to get a padron taking with her all the usual stuff, like NIE, Passport, deeds, utility bills and the like. When she finally got to the front of the queue she was turned away because we both need to attend?? This will be our fifth padron and that’s a first.
Now me attending is a bit of an issue at the moment as I spending every waken moment waiting for the new PC to be delivered by the donkey parcel direct courier, at this point we were probably on failed outing number 4 or 5 who knows they all seem to blur into a very dark 12 days of waiting and emailing and calling, so the padron had to wait a while.
The donkey post called to say they would meet me in our village outside the coviran in 10 mins, so the lovely wife said she would go and meet them and get them to follow her back the 1000 metres down the rambler that is invisible to them as I was sorting out the dodgy wiring on the outside lights, so she hopped in the car and as she set off there was an almighty bang and as I turned to look the cat dropped out of the bottom of the engine bay and bolted down the field into the scrub.
I waved the lovely wife down who had no idea and we looked around and got a sick feeling as large clumps of cat hair blow around our feet.
The lovely wife went on to meet the dammed courier whilst I tried to find baggy. 20 min later I was still looking and the lovely wife returned without the courier or a parcel , after the set time she phoned them back and they claimed never to have arranged the time as 10 mins but as 8pm as it was just 11 am it seemed a strange confusion but we had to find baggy.
After another hour i suggested that before we do our selves in we should just go to the house and wait, a few min’s behind us there she was, battered and bruised and scalped on one flank but amazingly walking near normal, so off to the vets who gave her some shots for the pain and an antibiotic just in case of any infection in the scrapes.
She reckoned she was very lucky not to have broken a bone or lost a leg and warned her that she now only has 8 lives left. The lovely wife corrected her as its now seven as the day before she got in to a fight with a neighbours cat in the dark and ended up the looser sat on top of the electric pole between the lines, that took a good while to coax her down as she kept trying to climb down backwards and then bottle it and go back up each time choosing to climb between the wires rather than the other side of the pole where there’s no wires. The lovely wife couldn’t watch she had to go in it was all too much.
Back home, at 8pm I went to meet the donkey guy I waited and waited and nothing, so a went home and dinner was ready, a stiff drink followed by a flamboyant cussing prior to sitting at the table, about an hour after dinner on the wrong end of a bottle of wine its pushing 10 pm and the phone goes it donkey guy wanting to arrange a new meeting point for now??? , err sorry that’s not convenient.
The next couple of days saw 2 more attempted deliveries albeit on paper any way as they never called or came near the house they just changed the status on the tracking. The next day after a melt down on the Skype phone they agreed a delivery and a meeting back in our village, the lovely wife went to meet the donkey guy who surprisingly has a van and a sat nav and a mobile so all the info I sent them including a 10 figure grid reference and a mobile number should have assisted him in his quest to conquer the 1000 metres in a straight line from the village.
When they met he offered her the parcel in the street, an option they declined when I suggested a different delivery address as I would not be present, so she declined and asked him to follow her to our house he wasn’t happy but had little choice so on the ninth go they were dragged to our door and presented me with my parcel upside down, I pointed to the arrows on the box to a shrug and a mumble in Spanish I’m probably glad I didn’t understand.
we were once told that here in Almeria, possibly this goes for the whole of Spain , if you achieve one thing a day then consider it a good day. We have had to modify it a bit and we settle on a week these days LOL.
So the next day it was off to the town hall for the padron, we waited our turn and went to the desk the lady recognised the lovely wife and was quick on the ball taking all our documents and saying that we should wait Yes WAIT for a visit from the police local to confirm we live in our cortijo if we don’t get a visit in 10 days call back and they will issue a padron? So we have to wait for an important check but if we don’t get one that’s ok also? The next day we had a call on the mobile from the police, I said we could be home within an hour as we were in Almeria and he agreed to visit in one or two hours. Now he must be related to the donkey guy as he didn’t turn up either nor the next day ( thought he might have meant between 1 & 2 pm ) so the next day I suggested we went to the town hall and say we have had a call ( with no explanation ) guess what we got our padron it was sat waiting for us.
So we went to the local services shop to transfer the quad ownership but they wouldn’t accept our photocopies of the NIE and passport as they were on the same page and not authenticated and stamped. So they re copied them and sent us back to the town hall to have them authenticated and stamped, but they turned us away as the copies were the same size as the paper leaving no room off the image to stamp them Arrrrrr.
So back home new copies in colour ( yes red cross parcel arrived ) re sized and separate back down to the town hall then on to the services shop and 170€ later we get a slip of paper saying its all in hand and WAIT, just for good measure and to beat the system we submitted papers to change the car address as well as that’s over due so by my reckoning that’s 3 things in one day and 4 in a week so a very good week but over the 15 months we have been here I think we are in the conference league on goal difference.
Baggie’s had a couple more trips to the vet for check ups and is fully fit albeit sporting a radical punk hair do on one hip. It seems there’s a bit more than a week between a good and bad scalping . she s pretty nervous about any loud noises that surprise her and if there any jobs getting done around the place she’s twitching like a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, it’ll take time to settle down and we peep the horn and wait before setting off these days !
After every thing I’ve said about rain its now rained every day for a week and our dusty dessert is starting to show a short carpet of green, will it bloom ? time will tell but its much better than filling the washer bottle each week just to be able to see out of the car windows.
May be I should fit some gutters ?