Chasing the dream in spain

 One of our 'guests' decided they wanted to try tapas before they went home. I quite like this way of eating and everyone else was up for it, so tapas it was. We thought we would try a local place that had a good reputation and also had some good revues on the net. Every one in the family likes garlic prawns, so there were definitely going to be some of those involved. In broken Spanish, don't know why (there English is better than mine!), I took a brave stab at ordering some food. Got the wine, the bread and ali-oli, mushrooms and a few other things, right, prawns. There were none on show on the counter, so I had a quick scan of the chalkboards on the walls, pointing wasn't going to work here. Gambas ajzllo, hmm, definitely involves prawns, and looks to involve garlic in some way, so I went with that. I sat down, two pairs of eyes looking straight at me. What have we got then? A surprise, I said. I thought that was a good save, if we didn't get what I thought we were going to get, I could just say I thought we should try something different for a change. Things started to arrive at the table, I started to smile a little. Everything I asked for, and it was what I wanted. But wait, there was one dish missing, the prawns. At this point, there was quite a bit of frantic chopping going on behind the counter, then a couple of dull thuds, then flames shot up from the range the lady behind the counter was cooking on! My smile disappeared very quickly. The lady emerged from the kitchen holding an obviously very hot, large brown dish, and headed in our direction. I squirmed a little. As she got nearer, she held the dish a little lower, I sat bolt upright so I see what was in it. Yes!! There were some very large prawns in oil and garlic. I was now grinning like a Cheshire cat, and feeling quite pleased with myself. It didn't last long, and I now know what the two dull thuds were. We tucked into everything, leaving the prawns to cool a little. I am the first to try them. I stab a couple with my fork, and start chewing, they're fantastic, then it hit me. In my haste to enjoy them, I hadn't noticed the third item on my fork. The dull thuds were the sound of two very small, very red, seeds still in, birds eye chillies being bruised before being added to our prawns. I was now inadvertently chewing one of these with my prawns. Resisting the urge to drink any water I could find, I waited till the fire had died down enough for me to be able to speak in some form coherent manner. I then pointed out to everyone else that there were a couple of items in the dish they may want to give a miss. I wasn't going to admit to eating one, I'd have looked a bigger idiot than I already felt. The rest of the meal passed without incident, and the calamares were the best I'd ever had, not the usual rubbery stuff. The prawns were really good too, even if two of them were a little hot.

After eating, we moved on for a drink to a place with free Wi-Fi, so we could make a video call home. By this time, a member of our party was getting a little giddy from the tinto, so the conversation got a bit lively on both ends of the line. The phone got passed around so everyone could have their say, not that you needed to, the camera and microphone pick up everything. Things were going well, everyone catching up with what everyone else was doing. Then a lookie lookie man turned up, and started going round the tables, sunglasses and handbags, the usual stuff. He got to our table, pushed  his wares in front of the person who was on the phone. What happened next caused a few seconds of silence, followed by uncontrolled laughter from everybody, except the lookie lookie man. From the speaker on the phone came a voice, loud and clear, "they don't want any because they are rubbish!" That was not the actual word used, don't want to get myself in bother now, do I. He wasn't happy, and didn't hide it very well. The sales pitch was definitely over, and I don't think he will bother us again. Maybe you had to be there, the look on his face was priceless.

 The new terminal 3 has opened at Alicante airport to much hype. It seems that just about every local dignitary had gone to have a look the day before it opened, and there was a dummy run to make sure everything worked ok, and guess what, it didn’t. Lucky for us, we didn’t have to use it on the first day of opening. There were some real stories from people who had used it, no signs, no road markings (not that anyone here takes note of them), and lots of people wandering around in hi-viz jackets directing people when they didn’t actually know what was going on themselves! Since we had to pick someone up from there, we thought that we had better go a little earlier than normal; it looked like the usual 45 minute round trip wasn’t going to happen. There had been some attempt at changing the road signs, and someone had got the ‘dulux’ out and put down some road markings. You still have to go round the same daft roundabout, and then drive past the old terminals, where everything is closed up and has been moved. People where still trying to park there, some succeeding, and facing a long walk to the new terminal. Apparently, there was only one ‘official’ type person wandering around the old part, so advice would be thin on the ground. When we got there it wasn’t as bad as I thought, although the car park was only partially open on each floor. One good thing though, they have put in that marvellous system they have over here to show where the empty spaces are, and how many. If you have never used one of these car parks before, your first thought is wow! Why can’t they do this at home? It works well, a sensor over each parking space with a light, which is red for a full space, and green for an empty one. You can see for miles where the empty spaces are. And this one even has a sign at the end of each row telling you exactly how many spaces there are in that row. The fun stopped there. Signs for getting out of the car park were very few, and there is no actual walkway, so you have to run the gauntlet with the cars. When you find your way out, getting into the terminal is a matter of puffing your chest up and charging into the oncoming mass of people leaving the terminal, he who dares wins. This is because there is only one bridge into the terminal, and everyone goes through it. Once inside it’s not to bad, arrivals downstairs, departures upstairs, there are loads of escalators and moving walkways. Not sure about departures though, two rows of desks opposite each other, so the ends of the queues end up in a mass of confusion in the middle! The gates that the ‘seagulls’ come through, (apparently, this is the local term for ‘guests’, as they fly in, eat all your food, and fly out!) has more of an area for people to stand and watch for friends and family coming out. So, all in all not to bad an experience, though it looks nice, they could have thought a little more about the flow of people through the building. And unlike the first day, there is more than one machine available to pay for your car parking! Two points to note. If you are in a hire car, and forget which space you are in, at least your registration number is printed on the parking ticket. Secondly, the luggage carousels keep breaking down, as there are no trolleys inside, do not be tempted to go outside and get one while you are waiting. You can’t get back past the security! Many people did this and were separated from their luggage, wonder how they got on. Viva Espania! 

 The weather has really perked up now, to the point where I got the sun beds out on the roof today. The combination of the sun and the largest sandwich you ever did see for lunch (no beer involved, too early in the day for me), and I fell asleep for an hour or so, I am now glowing a bit. I will need to be a little more careful for the next few days, at least I’ve tested the sun beds for when the next visit happens, which is looking like in about two weeks time, when our other daughter Lisa ‘drops by’.

Battle has recommenced with the thing in the kitchen posing as an oven. One of my purchases on the market was some nice looking red peppers, which I had decided to stuff with rice and few other things. I think I have finally mastered the beast, they came out done to a turn, along with some experimental flat bread, with could have used the garlic butter I forgot to make. Even Linda managed to eat most of one, despite not being a pepper person. They are so much sweeter than those back in the UK, and much larger, to the point that I struggled to eat two myself, despite having a love of peppers and a healthy appetite.

I have a contract mobile phone which I bought out from the UK, the package I have includes cheap calls to the UK and has worked well in the past. But I have had a problem with cellular data; I changed my contract before I came out to include 25MB a day European data as part of the bundle, so as to avoid nasty bills. I got a text from my provider saying my data was being cut off due to having spent in excess of €50. Having already spent the best part of three hours on the phone already since coming out here sorting this, I was more than just slightly miffed. After forty minutes of being told I wasn’t listening, and that the contract I thought I was on didn’t exist and never had, a few of my fuses popped. I want to speak to you’re your supervisor or manager please was my solution. She could put me through, but she wanted to know first why. Let me see, your company has taken money from me for a service that you say does not exist, then stops me from using the service, then has the cheek to charge me again for it, what would you call that? Words like fraud and theft spring to mind. And so I get to speak to the next person up the food chain. Would you be surprised if I told you I got exactly the same story? By this time my wife has joined me on the roof, no I wasn’t going to jump, it’s the only place where we are that the signal does not disappear on  a regular basis. She wants to rip the phone out of my hand and give the person on the other end some serious grief, but I hang on to the phone and carry on banging my head making the dent in the wall even bigger. She gets her phone and rings the same call centre I’m talking to. At this point I would like to point out to those people who design call centre systems that there is always an option missing. It should go something like: if you would like the idiot (sorry, call centre operative) you spoke to last time to self destruct, please press 9 now. It might prove popular, and would weed out the people who can’t do their job. I must point out I don’t mind call centres, just the people who work in them that have no idea what they are doing. She gets someone called Barry, not in the right department, but obviously does know what he is doing. He says he’ll put her through to the right department, i.e. the idiot I’ve just spoken to. After a bit of basically begging, Barry says he’ll help sort the problem. We swap phones, Linda tells the man I was speaking to he’s an idiot and cuts him off, and I start talking to Barry. All hail Barry, the god of customer services, and I’m not taking the mickey here. Within two minutes of speaking to Barry he knows what the problem is, and yes my price plan does exist, he sells them every day. Barry puts me on hold while he speaks to the idiot I first spoke to, to show them their error. No joy, they don’t understand. He then speaks to their boss, can’t get his head round it, no joy. You get where this is going. After Barry has gone about four levels up the food chain he finally finds someone who understands where the rest of them couldn’t, it seems that Barry seems to be the only person in that call centre that has any decent amount of product knowledge, all the rest wanted to do was paper over the cracks until I get back to the UK, I would then have to start all over again! It should now be sorted out over the next twenty four hours, we will see. If anyone from my service provider is reading this, the people with the little red punctuation mark as a logo, you know who you are, Barry should be running that call centre, and be earning a lot more money. I wait and see what happens, hoping that if I have to ring again, I get Barry, the customer service expert. 

 The first of the family arrived on Tuesday, and despite the changeable weather, were enjoying the break. So, on Wednesday, it was decided that they should see the local beach. Off we go to La Marina Playa, park up, and try to survive being sandblasted in the rather stiff breeze that lunchtime. After a quick peek and losing a couple of layers of skin, (quicker than one of those facial masks ladies), we head back to the car. The first of our party heading back through the dunes happens to see a silver car parked next to ours pull away, thinking nothing more than they hadn’t stopped long. When I go to open the drivers door, I realise there is glass all over the dashboard and there is a window missing. Apparently, the local criminal fraternity prefer hire cars; thankfully, we had nothing in the car and were well insured. We now have a Polo instead of a Fiesta, with no quaterlights to break in through. Rumour has it, that if we break this one, the hire company is going to taxi us everywhere, it’s cheaper for them. I have since learned that I should have removed the hire company logo stuck in the window, so as not to broadcast my willingness to get turned over, without realising it.

The weather is not up to much at the moment, I just need to keep in mind that it will improve soon, hopefully. Give it a couple of months and I’ll probably be complaining of the heat, some people are never happy. I am, however, eating lots more fresh fruit and vegetables than I would have at home, it is easier here, and it tastes better for not being shipped hundreds of miles. When you get over the lack of plastic packaging, and the fact things are not all shiny and polished, and the fact that nature does not produce vegetables of perfectly uniform shape and size, you start to realise how daft the supermarket system is back home. I am still having ‘fun’ with the Spanish style oven, it limits how adventurous I am with what is in the fridge, but I will master it, sooner or later. And I do have to admit to having a saucepan in one hand and a ‘tinto’ in the other whilst cooking dinner sometimes.

The weather did eventually improve, so our guests did get a day on the beach before they went home. And yes before you ask, the same beach, and yes the car is still in one piece, and it was where we left it. Our grand daughter Ruby, developed an unusual routine at bedtime, caused in part by the layout of the ‘quad’ style house we are staying in. After hugs and kisses all round, she would go up the first few steps to the turn in the stairs. There is an arch shaped opening there, she would then say goodnight and wave to everybody again. Then up some more steps, to the next turn in the stairs, and still being able to see everyone in the lounge would go through the entire process again. Bedtimes could last quite a while, and I still expect her little cheeky face to appear there, despite the fact that she has gone home. We won’t see her for another four weeks, when we go home for a week.

In answer to wend691’s question, we a staying on La Marina Urbanisation, maybe it’s not real Spain, but it is our first step, and easier going till our ‘spanglish’ improves.

While going to a bar for breakfast and to post this using their wi-fi, we had a small technical problem. The local weight watchers were in, and had taken over, not sure the owner was overly impressed, not good for business. Despite my urge to tough it out and order the largest possible breakfast on the planet, my warped sense of humour, we decided to go somewhere else, and ended up just across the car park.

 Our first week here is drawing to close, and the weather hasn’t been too bad, despite one day of serious rain. The house has had a few more adjustments due to it being a little cold this week. It has been fine during the day, just cold first thing and during the evening. We have solved this by tracking down where the drafts were coming from and the use of a temporary heater, all is now fine and dandy on the temperature front. Shopping at the market was a great for the fruit and vegetables. Lots of variety and really cheap, you could almost go vegetarian here, if it wasn’t for the prawns, chorizo and ham. We will be going again before the first visitors start to arrive on Tuesday.

Taking advantage of the good weather, we went to Guardamar Del Segura for a stroll along the seafront, great for burning off the late breakfast. Last time we went there we soaked to the skin, not this time. The ‘sand art’ there is amazing, the size of the pieces and the shear amount of detail, they must work on them for hours.

I am now starting to miss friends and family. The first visit from family will be quite soon, but visits from friends might not happen while we are out this time. Ringing them just isn’t the same, maybe a little home sickness is creeping in, or perhaps it is just having time on my hands after a stressful few months. We are making friends quite easily here, albeit mostly of the English variety. We bumped into a couple we saw last September, they had just moved over here for a year, and watching their furniture being delivered on an articulated lorry on these small streets was quite entertaining. They have settled in ok and really getting into the swing of things, but still in shock from the price of second hand cars over here. A 12 month ‘special’ at home, costing around £600, is pushing five times the price here. I’m not sure if he has been ripped off, but knowing the liking of paperwork here, I would not be surprised.

Mobile internet at the bottom of the urbanisation here is useless, unless you are using Movistar or Yoigo, the reception for Vodafone and Orange is pants at the best of times, and even worse indoors. Thankfully there is a bar not too far up the road with free Wi-Fi, and it is quite empty on a Sunday morning, great for Skype to see the grandkids and family etc. The trouble with only being here five months is, it’s not long enough to get the landline switched on, that will have to wait till a permanent move is on the cards.

 We have finally arrived in Spain. While we were waiting for the call to board, having just scraped through on the luggage allowance, I noticed someone buying currency. Can you believe they were actually accepting an exchange rate of €1.03 to the pound, what a rip off. The flight passed without any bother, picking up the car went smoothly, but slowly, of course. We even found the house without getting lost, quite impressive really. Linda is now settling into the new ‘Spanish’ lifestyle, just a few furniture move rounds, a few throws for the sofas etc, just to make the place more ‘homely’. She is now sat on said sofa watching ‘corrie’, lifestyle change complete.

The house was as we expected, although this one was a little more ‘live in’ than ‘rental’, with all the trappings of people with time on their hands. There are mountains of books everywhere, everything from women’s home remedies to a large Jeffrey Archer novel by the looks of it. Looks like I won’t need to buy any books after I have read the one that work bought me, must be enough here to keep me going for at least six months! I was hoping for a decent oven this time, some you win, some you lose. It is the usual top and bottom grill type affair, although this on does have a fan too. Unusual, or so it seems to me, is the time on it. The oven won’t work without this being turned on, might get interesting when trying to cook anything fancy.

The weather was rubbish when we first arrived, cold and windy, not the best of starts. It got worse. Whilst going for a walk to get something to eat, the heavens opened, and it threw it down. Apparently, they have had a bad winter, and it is dragging on a bit. Thankfully, on the second day, the big orange thing put in an appearance. Amazing what a few hours of sunshine can do to ones mood, I even got a bit domesticated. I cleaned all the balconies, swept all the paths outside, and had a reasonably successful attempt at rescuing the barbeque. I think that’s enough work for one day, need to save something to do for tomorrow, and I think I have done enough to earn a beer.

We managed to find some free Wi-Fi yesterday; well it was really forced on us almost. One of the ‘locals’ insisted on going to the bar and getting us the password, very helpful. It will help to keep the bills down for keeping in touch with home, and posting here as well. The phone signal round here is poor as usual, I will have to see if anyone else can get better reception on any of the other networks, it might be worth investing in a Spanish sim card. Time for that well earned beer I think.