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The view from the back

My blog is about our move to Spain, to be exact it's about the intergration of a techno junkie and his lovely wife of 30 yrs into 18th century Spain.

A very dry time in a very wet campo
Thursday, December 22, 2016 @ 10:07 PM

I don't really know where to begin with the on going trials and tribulations of our life in Spain , I'm sure that some of you will have real horror stories after the last weeks of bad weather some may have lost a loved one or a home all of which will make my moaning seem petty but it's been a long two weeks .

My father has been for a week arriving as always under a black cloud along with his partner and her sister . The black cloud got darker as the lovely wife drove them home from the airport a two hour run for her with them spark out as the rain started . 

From that point on the mood and sky's grew darker , why do families feel the need to visit when they don't really want to share your reality ? 

We don't drink much and we don't go to the bars at all these days so when a declared drinker visits the remote parts of the campo to a fairly dry house the mood is strained from the get go . The added bonus of on off electric , the loss of Internet access , English radio and flooding all around us and rain being blown under the roof tiles and doors is just whats needed to put the petrol on the fire . So the added double bonus of no water for three days of their visit and the rambler cutting us off from the shops was the tipping point . 

No need to go blow for blow but it was a very long six days during which the pump house flooded and seized the pool pump , a three metre wide sink hole appeared in the turning area , the wood burner was stocked so high by dad that the tiles got so hot that they flew off the wall and smashed in his lap . The rain run under the doors and I fell on the wet in the kitchen and then the water heater packed up and needs another . 

So no hot , no cold , no net , no electric, wet all over followed by constant Brexit arguments if we had some I think I'd have a drink ! 

after six days of roast dinners and mash in the mid after noon, our constitution turned inside out with boiled root veg with no seasoning or onions , garlic , herbs etc etc etc the water was still off and buckets of pool water were besides the toilets , the sun came out and the rambler ran dry and it was time to take them on to Benidorm their navarna !  they gave me the address of their apartment and I added it to the tomtom . The lovely wife loaded them up and set off to follow the route apparently to the constant intrusion of mind him , watch him etc after three hours they arrived on a street in Altea ? This isn't it ! He said the tomtom is wrong ! So after checking the address in the favourites against the paperwork it would appear that they have arrived at the billing address ! So 3 hours 45 mins after setting off the lovely wife finally dropped them Off . 

On with the dance toons and a ride back to our cortijo still with no water and hit n miss electrics . We now have our mains water back on after five days but it's not clean as its being taken from a lake untreated until they can get the repairs done . 

The water was returned just in time as the smell of chlorine was in every room and some of us were running out of clothes , the boiling of pool water is probably very dodgy as it smells a bit but it did the pots well we never needed to find out if agua con gas works in the kettle as the last bottle of plain was enough to get us by. 

Our chickens are settled in ok and are just staring to lay a little , quite a surprise considering the time of year and the weather we've just had a week in the cortijo was disturbing so the same in a wood box must have been like a biblical flood . So they are made of strong stuff and we are eggspecting great things for Easter ! 

DeeDee has and still is under the weather , we had her at the groomers down the vets and she came home with a new style and kennel cough . She's on tablets now and starting to look up so she'll be ok soon enough

Our daughter arrives tomorrow for Christmas her first off work in 14 years and as such our first together for the same time and our first in Spain so from the lows to the highs Galasa and Endesa willing .

Seasons greetings to you all and may your wishes come true . 



Like 2




4 Comments


briando55 said:
Friday, December 23, 2016 @ 9:34 AM

Wow, what a lovely well written piece. Made me feel part of the 'adventure'!

Being in Yorkshire right now and it being so unbelievably mild and pleasant, I can't help feel we will pay for this, maybe by February.

Enjoy your daughters visit. Have a good Christmas.


Weescottie said:
Saturday, December 24, 2016 @ 6:49 AM

Nightmare! Glad to see you've kept your sense of humour despite ungrateful visitors.


rubencito said:
Saturday, December 24, 2016 @ 5:38 PM

Gota fria, declared catastrophic zone this week. It happens every 9-10 years. Never buy a property where a Spaniard would never buy.


STEVEE said:
Saturday, December 24, 2016 @ 5:49 PM

Hi rubencito, the weather and the outages are no real problem to us we had similar in the uk often enough, the lovely wife has the larder stocked and were good for a week at least . However dad won't eat Spanish / med food and I would need to own a bar to have enough drink in .
It's a case of not every ones Spain is the same they are now enjoying their Spain and we are enjoying ours . The really big flood of 2012 didn't get us but our Spanish neighbours nearly lost their cortijo .


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