Diary of a Nobody

My Covid-19 Diary - March 2020 to date

The Coronavirus pandemic has hit the world hard, with over 120 million global victims. I am British, married to a German and we live in Andalucía in the Serranía de Ronda. This blog contains articles I've written over the last 14 months which are about a weird life of curfews, lockdowns, masks, hand gel, rules and regulations and, for those of us who have been affected directly, the vicious after-effects of the virus, long-Covid, bereavement and financial ruin.

Covid-19 is a thing of the past – or is it?

This is a rewrite of a post by Paul Whitelock on Sunday, August 20, 2023.

As scientists warn of a new mutation of the Coronavirus, in the post-lockdown world, where the vaccination programme appears to have brought the worst effects of the virus under control, are there any positives coming out of the pandemic?

Paul Whitelock and his wife Rita caught the virus in January 2021, and suffered quite badly. There were no injections back then. Paul stood and watched as his wife nearly perished at the hands of the Spanish Health Service, who didn’t know what they were doing two and a half years ago. They had to send her to Germany, the country of her birth, for months, in order to get her well.

Two and a half years later

Both have been left with post-Covid issues, but at least they are alive and grateful for that.

But are there any positives about the worst pandemic to hit the world since the flu epidemic of 1918?

Definitely:

1. Covid-19 ultimately did for BoJo, Boris Johnson, the disgraced former prime minister of the UK who thought it was OK to break his own rules. The country is unlikely to see a worse leader ever. For this writer at least, a massive positive.

2. Covid-19 revolutionised work practices when the government insisted that people not in the front line had to work from home. Now the same politicians, eg Jacob Rees-Mogg, want everybody back in the office. Thankfully, many are resisting this, as they think they are more productive, waste less time and money on commuting and some companies are saving money by shedding or cutting back on their expensive office space. Working from home is another huge positive.

3. Being sick with the Coronavirus or losing family members made many people take stock of their lives and adopt a different outlook. Definitely a positive.

4. For a while the Coronavirus caused us to improve our hygiene, particularly hand-washing. I fear people have become complacent and have backslid. I am astonished at the number of men who leave public lavatories without washing their shitty mitts. A potential positive missed.

5. On a personal note, Covid “saved my life”. It kicked me out of an eight-year-long depression and got me doing things again. The greatest positive of all.

So, we don’t know what the future holds, but I fear as a people, we have gotten complacent rather too quickly.

Comments:

© Diary of a Nobody

Acknowledgements:

Eye on Spain

Paul Whitelock

Links:

Covid-19 is a bastard! Don’t mess with it! A cautionary tale of our times (eyeonspain.com)

Tags:

Andalucía, bereavement, BoJo, Boris Johnson, Coronavirus, Covid-19, Covid-19 is a bastard, curfews, Dave11, financial ruin, flu epidemic, hand gel, hand-washing, herd immunity, hygiene, Jacob Rees-Mogg, lockdown, long-Covid, masks, Pablo de Ronda, pandemic, post-lockdown, regulations, rules, Serranía de Ronda, vaccination, virus

This is Part 2 of a re-working of an article Paul Whitelock originally wrote in 2020 as part of a trilogy which describes, in diary form, his history of property renovation and development in the UK, Spain and Luxembourg.

He has owned three properties in England, three in Ronda (Málaga) and one in Montejaque (also Málaga).

He has also worked on several building projects for other people – two in England in Luton and Yate, two in Luxembourg, two in Ronda and three in Montejaque.

10 November 2020

Following my annus horribilis, when I was made redundant, my wife divorced me and I had a nervous breakdown, I found myself living with a new lady, Maude, in a beautiful cottage in Bryn-y-Maen, North Wales. 

I did a few bits and pieces of DIY there to keep my hand in, and then, when I took her to Ronda for a long weekend, Maude bought a small house in the City of Dreams on the spur of the moment (She was quite well-to.do!)

The little house in the corner

We called it El Rincón, because it was tucked away in a corner.

It needed a lot of work, which I happily took on. Maude was still working full time in the UK, but I was retired so spent months in Ronda re-wiring, building a new bathroom, tiling floors and creating a rather delightful terraced garden at the rear of the house.

A good lick of paint and El Rincón was finished.

A blast from the past

The end of that relationship put paid to my DIY activities for a couple of years, until an old university friend, Jac, who lives in Luxembourg, invited me to spend the summer of 2008 in the Grand Duchy helping her daughter and son-in-law renovate an old house they had bought there.

That was great fun and I developed some new skills, since building practices in Luxembourg differ significantly from the ones I had become familiar with in the UK.

I also did some remedial work at Jac’s house in Hesperange.

After that busy but enjoyable summer of 2008, which included a summer romance with Jac, I was “footloose and fancy-free” again.

So I headed off to Ronda to stay in Piso Blanco for a few days, prior to moving into a house in Latchford, Warrington, which I’d bought with the proceeds from the sale of Casa Blanca, the Ronda house I’d done up a few years before.

A “new” old house

The Warrington house was a real bargain. Tunstall Villa, as the “new” house in Latchford was named, was a “do-er up-er”. A Victorian detached villa, rather down on its luck, it had the potential to be a great house again.  It only cost me £119,000.

Still “unemployed” – by this time I’d been retired for three years – I had plenty of time on my hands, so I set about the renovation.

Over many months I created a delightful winter garden, renovated the rear internal area to provide a WC and laundry room, re-decorated throughout, and then, after two and a half years … I sold it!

Why on earth …?

A new life in Spain

Well, on that visit to Ronda in September 2008 that I mentioned earlier, I’d met a lady who had emigrated from Germany a couple of years before and was living in Montejaque. I nicknamed her the “Meter Maid”.

Yes, you guessed it, her name is Rita.

We dated in Spain, the UK and Germany, where she is from originally, and quickly fell in love.

I immigrated to Spain at the end of that year, 2008, to live with Rita in her lovely village house, Casa Rita, in Montejaque.

In 2010 we got married, in Maulbronn (Baden-Württemberg).

The DIY at Casa Rita didn’t stop, however! I built a kitchenette in a bedroom that we set up as a B & B and handled all the maintenance work at Casa Rita.

Both of us having committed to living in Spain, we needed a house that better met the needs of our respective families, eg her disabled grandson, my ailing mother.

So I sold Tunstall Villa in Latchford and we used the money from the sale to buy our dream house in the campo just outside Ronda. That house is known as Villa Indiana. That happened in 2011, the year after we “jumped the broom” and we still live there after 10 years of married life [now 14].

The DIY and gardening have continued, of course, although, as I get older, I rely a bit more on local paid help to keep on top of things.

In 2019 I decided to sell Piso Blanco in Ronda after 18 years’ ownership. We had been using it as a holiday rental, but all of a sudden the bookings started to dry up, so it had to go.

Property development Spanish-style

In October 2020, I used some of the money from the sale of Piso Blanco to buy a charming old house in Montejaque, where we had previously lived. I needed a project again and so I am currently restoring it to its former glory.

To be sure, I’m 70 now, but the mind is still willing even if the flesh is weak. With the help of professionals, Casa Pablo is currently being re-configured and re-wired, prior to re-plastering, installing a new bathroom and extending the roof terrace.

Then it will have a lick of paint prior to being offered as a vivienda rural to any tourists who might possibly pass this way again during and after this challenging Covid-19 life we are currently living.

The work is progressing slowly, because of repeated Covid lockdowns, but surely. And after it’s finished, who knows?

Maybe I should just hang up my DIY boots!

Update - 4 years on

This is a re-working of an article Paul Whitelock originally wrote in 2020 as part of a trilogy which describes, in diary form, his history of property renovation and development in the UK, Spain and Luxembourg.

Paul is now 74, yet in the last four years he has project-managed several renovation and improvement projects in the area.

In Ronda he managed the complete re-decoration and preparation for sale of a large house on behalf of the owners, a couple from Liverpool.

Unfortunately, he hasn't been paid yet for his work and the matter is currently in the hands of lawyers.

In Montejaque Paul managed upgrades to two houses owned by an English artist from Essex.

One was made ready for sale and has already been sold.

The other is a large rental property, which is renting well. This time Paul has been paid in full.

As for Casa Pablo in Montejaque this "do-er up-er" has been renamed Casa Real, in honour of the family he bought the house from (Real is their surname). All three phases of the renovation are now complete, and Casa Real is available to rent:

CASA REAL, Montejaque (Malaga) - Help me, Ronda (help-me-ronda.com)

Casa Real is also for sale:

CASA REAL, MONTEJAQUE - Large modernised traditional village house in beautiful pueblo blanco - 149.000€ - Help me, Ronda (help-me-ronda.com)

© Diary of a Nobody

Links:

www.help-me-ronda.com

www.secretserrania.com

Acknowledgements:

Paul Whitelock

The Olive Press

www.help-me-ronda.com

www.secretserrania.com

Photos:

AirBnb

Karl Smallman

Paul Whitelock

Rightmove

www.help-me-ronda.com

www.secretserrania.com

Tags:

£11,000, £119,000, £37,500, amateur, A new life in Spain, A “new” old house, Baden-Württemberg, balcony, Blogging, bricklayer, Bryn-y-Maen, building a new bathroom, building project, campo, carpenter, Casa Blanca, Casa Pablo, Casa Real,  Casa Rita, collapsed floor, Covid-19, divorce, “do-er up-er”, DIY,  drainpipes, dream house, early retirement, electrical work, electrician, El Rincón, England, ensuite bathroom, extending the roof terrace, “footloose and fancy-free”, four-bedroomed, four reception rooms, garage, gardening, Germany, Grand Duchy, Greater Manchester, guttering, Hesperange, installing a new bathroom, interpreter, Jac, Jeryl, journalism, languages teacher, Latchford, laundry room, lounge-cum-music room, Luton, Luxembourg, Málaga, Maude, Maulbronn, “Meter Maid”, Montejaque, Montejaque Diary – First Ever Stay, mortgage interest rate, M6, My God! What Have We Done?, North Wales, painter and decorator, painting, painting and decorating, patio, Paul Whitelock, pergola, Piso Blanco, plumber, plumbing, professional, property renovation, re-configured, re-decorated, redundancy, remedial work, re-plastering, retirement, re-wire, re-wiring, Rita, Ronda, school inspector, semi-detached, shower, southern Spain, Spain, summer romance, terrace, terraced garden, The houses that Jack built, Thelwall, Thelwall Viaduct, third WC, three-bed detached, tiler, tiling floors, tradesman, translator, treehouse, Tunstall Villa, two bath-roomed house, UK, university friend, upgraded the kitchen, Victorian detached villa, Villa Indiana, vivienda rural, wall-papering, Warrington, WC, winter garden, www.help-me-ronda.com, Yate, YouTube 

By Diary of a Nobody

This is a re-working of an article Paul Whitelock originally wrote in 2020 as part of a trilogy which describes, in diary form, his history of property renovation and development in the UK, Spain and Luxembourg.

He has owned three properties in England - in Walkden (Greater Manchester), Thelwall (Warrington) and Latchford (also Warrington) - and four in southern Spain – three in Ronda (Málaga) and one in Montejaque (also Málaga).

He has also worked on several building projects for other people – two in England in Luton (Beds) and Yate (S. Glos), two in Luxembourg, two in Ronda and three in Montejaque.

10 November 2020

Paul Whitelock was a languages teacher, a school inspector and a translator / interpreter. Since retirement nearly two decades ago he has also dabbled in journalism and blogging.

But what he really wanted to do when he was younger was to be a tradesman, eg. plumber, electrician, carpenter, bricklayer, tiler or painter and decorator. But he was encouraged to go to university where he gained an honours degree in German and Spanish.

Over the years he’s had a go at all of these “trades” on an amateur, DIY basis with relative success. Here’s the story of the houses that Jack – Paul – built! Or helped to build…

First steps in DIY

I first started doing bits and pieces of DIY when, as a poorly paid young teacher, I bought my first house, a semi-detached in Walkden, Greater Manchester, for £11,000. A lot of money back then and the mortgage interest rate was a massive 16 per cent!

Unable to afford to employ professionals, I informed myself from books (no YouTube videos back then in the late 1970s) and tentatively did a bit of electrical work, plumbing and painting and decorating.

My first wife, Jeryl, and I then moved to our second house, in Thelwall, Warrington, not far from the infamous Thelwall Viaduct on the M6.

A three-bed detached it cost us just £37,500, a huge amount in 1980. Over the next 20 years, the house grew in size to become a four-bedroomed, two bath-roomed house with four reception rooms and a third WC plus garage and large balcony overlooking the adjacent park.

Although builders did the main construction work, my DIY skills had developed so much that over the years I was able to re-wire the whole house, convert the original garage into an extra lounge-cum-music room, turn the separate toilet and bathroom into an ensuite bathroom with new suite, install a shower, replace all the guttering and drainpipes and build two patios and a pergola. Not to mention wall-papering and painting throughout. I even built a treehouse for my two kids.

Buying property in Spain

In the early 2000s Jeryl and I bought two properties in quick succession in Ronda (Málaga). The first, Piso Blanco, was a small flat that needed little doing to it, but the second, an end-terraced house, which we named Casa Blanca, was virtually a ruin.

Piso Blanco facade in 2001                                                         Daughter Amy posing in front of Piso Blanco in 2023

Over the next couple of years I re-wired Casa Blanca, replaced a collapsed floor, upgraded the kitchen, re-built the terrace and decorated throughout.

Then disaster struck .....

..... or should I say three disasters!

Redundancy, early retirement and divorce in quick succession, in 2005, had a profound effect on my life.

To find out what happened next click here:

The houses that Jack built! Part 2 (eyeonspain.com)

© Diary of A Nobody

Note: This article and its 2nd part form part of a trilogy with Montejaque Diary – First Ever Stay and My God! What Have We Done?

Links:

www.help-me-ronda.com

www.secretserrania.com

Acknowledgements:

Paul Whitelock

The Olive Press

www.help-me-ronda.com

www.secretserrania.com

Photos:

Karl Smallman

Paul Whitelock

Rightmove

www.secretserrania.com

Tags:

£11,000, £119,000, £37,500, amateur, A new life in Spain, A “new” old house, Baden-Württemberg, balcony, Blogging, bricklayer, Bryn-y-Maen, building a new bathroom, building project, campo, carpenter, Casa Blanca, Casa Pablo, Casa Real,  Casa Rita, collapsed floor, Covid-19, divorce, “do-er up-er”, DIY,  drainpipes, dream house, early retirement, electrical work, electrician, El Rincón, England, ensuite bathroom, extending the roof terrace, “footloose and fancy-free”, four-bedroomed, four reception rooms, garage, gardening, Germany, Grand Duchy, Greater Manchester, guttering, Hesperange, installing a new bathroom, interpreter, Jac, Jeryl, journalism, languages teacher, Latchford, laundry room, lounge-cum-music room, Luton, Luxembourg, Málaga, Maude, Maulbronn, “Meter Maid”, Montejaque, Montejaque Diary – First Ever Stay, mortgage interest rate, M6, My God! What Have We Done?, North Wales, painter and decorator, painting, painting and decorating, patio, Paul Whitelock, pergola, Piso Blanco, plumber, plumbing, professional, property renovation, re-configured, re-decorated, redundancy, remedial work, re-plastering, retirement, re-wire, re-wiring, Rita, Ronda, school inspector, semi-detached, shower, southern Spain, Spain, summer romance, terrace, terraced garden, The houses that Jack built, Thelwall, Thelwall Viaduct, third WC, three-bed detached, tiler, tiling floors, tradesman, translator, treehouse, Tunstall Villa, two bath-roomed house, UK, university friend, upgraded the kitchen, Victorian detached villa, Villa Indiana, vivienda rural, wall-papering, Warrington, WC, winter garden, www.help-me-ronda.com, Yate, YouTube