Chasing the dream in spain

 Stress! I can’t believe how stressed out I am now getting. There I am, out in the garden, in the rain, finishing the last jobs outside. My wife then decides that this would be an excellent time to sort out my tiny CD collection! There she is trying to sort stuff out, with the aid of a bin liner, can it not wait I asked her, “no” was the reply. So off with the muddy wellies again, and back into the house, with the door nearly hanging off its hinges I slammed it that hard. Eventually, after exchanging a few choice words, we decided it was much easier to do the gardening during daylight hours and sort the CD collection in the evening. The atmosphere has yet to return to total normality yet. The day did not get off to a good start either, that probably didn’t help much. Linda is having trouble a private pension she has with the Prudential. It’s only a small one, but what the hell, it all helps. She applied to have it paid out at the end of January, and they still have not managed to get it right yet. And before you ask, yes, the call centre is in India, or somewhere like it. The penny now seems to have dropped now she has put a formal complaint in. We are waiting for one form for her to sign, but they keep sending out one saying she is single, despite numerous calls explaining that she is, in fact, married. The best of all is when we asked for it to be emailed, thinking they would be up to date with their technology. “We can’t email it to you, but we can fax it”, hello, earth to Prudential, come in Prudential. Yes, we have a printer that will accept faxes, but, because you have waited so long to sort yourself out, we no longer have a phone line to attach it to. As explained to you on numerous occasions, it’s now cut off, we are leaving the country!  It’s a really good job we were not depending on this money. We now get phone calls from the UK asking if it’s arrived yet, no. Though this one is supposed to be coming by ‘special delivery’ with the Royal Mail tomorrow morning, I’m not holding my breath. Even getting this posted is a small miracle, and deeply stressful. Our mobile broadband needed topping up, what a performance. Top up online, what a good idea, if you don’t keep cutting me off, and of course it is after eight o’clock, so all those nice people in the call centre have gone home. Got there in the end. I really need a holiday after this lot, if anything goes wrong the other end, I will have a nervous breakdown. Yes, I know, keep the faith; it will all be alright on the night. Won’t it?

 A week to go to our departure to our taster of life in Spain. The decorating is coming to an end, and the packing now needs to start. Linda has decided that we are going to have some posh new suitcases, though personally I’m not bothered, but I suppose they will get some use this year. I will not be going ‘home’ as often as her, only the odd return for birthdays etc, whereas Linda will be nipping back on a regular basis, grandkids. Most of these flights have already been booked, the wife being a bargain hunter, so the trips don’t put too much of a strain on the budget. We will taking some advice we got from people about our NIE numbers, we will be making quite a few copies and keeping the originals in a safe place, apparently replacements can be time consuming to get. We will need them to open bank accounts etc, and you never know, we might just find ‘that house’. We have some friends who have already made the leap and bought, it will be interesting to see their purchase, and find out how they are getting on with getting all the services sorted.

Packing for this trip is going to be a challenge, as it will mean taking most of our lives with us, all those things you wouldn’t normally take. There will be a few times when we will get ‘re supplied’ from home when people out, but hopefully not too much, we might have to take it all home again! We are taking the laptop this time, but have bought a smaller, lighter one. The photo albums are being condensed onto a digital photo frame, it saves choosing which ones to take. That seems to be about it on the technology front, apart from the phones, and Linda’s hair straightners. The clothes, I’ll probably just lay everything out on the bed, and then keep taking stuff away till it fits in the case and is under the weight limit, leaving room for that favourite shirt. The beach towels will be bought out there, that will save some weight, same for the toiletries, just enough to get by for the first couple of days. Anyone know if there is a Primark near Alicante? I could get away with taking less t-shirts.

We have now been ‘cut off’ by most people, the phone didn’t work this morning, and some people did try ringing and got number unavailable, which provided a bit of a laugh. It always rings at the end of ‘corrie’, not anymore. The furniture and T.V.  go on Saturday morning, other things keep disappearing at regular intervals. I went to cook some breakfast yesterday in the microwave, only to be confronted by a blank space in the utility room where it used to live. Things like this really bring it home to you, it’s really happening and the nerves are setting in. Life is also getting very busy; I’ve not even hade time to write that much either. Linda is finding it harder; she has never actually had to move before, having lived in this house since she left home. Well, back to it, I will hopefully get the chance to write a few more lines before we actually leave.