Monday morning, 8.30 am ish, croissants and coffee by the pool, sun shining down, blue sky, the very best sort of breakfast meeting, I love Monday mornings, fantastico
. We wake up each day and still can't believe we are here for good now, and then we realise that we can't hear any traffic, we can't hear any English voices........and it's not b****y raining, so it is beginning to sink in.
We are in our sixth week , we have been been able to take early retirement, but it is taking a while to get 30 plus years of stress and toil out of out systems. I finished work before OH, and was able to spend time at the villa before he retired, so I am abit more chilled than him at the mo...although he may say differently........trying to get to grips with the bureaucracy, the medical set up, the driving etc etc, good thing the vino is cheap.
We have had our villa for 10 years already and have been coming to the island often,. The vila does need abit of work according to OH, whereas I think it needs rather alot of work, however he is Cornish, so the amount of work the villa needs for him is directly related to his wallet, likewise, whenever I suggest we need to get a tradesperson in to look at the more complex tasks, he replies not to bother with that, he is sure he can tackle it and will have a look at it 'directly'..............but it's ok, we usually come to a good compromise over a bottle of Navarra or dos.... and then I get a tradesperson in.
Neither of us speaks much Spanish, which really is disgraceful, we do intend to put that right, OH is very good, he listens to tapes , and when we need to visit a builders merchants, solicitor, local authority office etc, he will write down a few suitable phrases, one time at the builders merchants, he was intent on carrying out the whole transaction just speaking spanish to the very helpful young lady, we went in for a few drill bits and some sandpaper, came out with three tape measures...and when we had paid for them, me with eyebrows raised and OH mouthing, 'Just pay, don't ask'......the helpful young lady gave us another tape measure as apparently the store was giving them away free that day .....we are now a four tape measure family and me joints still have rough edges.
We are enjoying the glorious weather at a time of year when there are few tourists , Menorca is a beautiful island, and the discovery of wild orchids at Es Grau biosfera last week, was just amazing. This is all very new to us, as until now we have been unable to be here at this time of year. We live on the very edge of a village, and it is exciting watching the village get ready for the new season. We have spent today though on the local poligon trying to buy a used car, and that is a whole other story for when I have got my strength and sanity back,
Hasta la proxima