Living with the Presidente.

Valencia was wonderful and very HOT. It turned into something of and EOS outing what with More and her OH and Patpur and his Mum accompanying us. It was a long day but really good...............................then me and El Predident went home.

On our doorstep were two new ,but broken cigarettes. Why ?? From where ??................don't know. Was it a subliminal message for me ?? I smoke, was someone trying to tell me something ?? Anyway we decided to just leave it as one of those unexplained things ( another !! )

Friday's offering, on the doorstep, was a plate of steaming paella, which I nearly stepped in as I dashed out of the door to catch the window cleaner, who had not, apparently, left the paella. Neither had he cleaned my windows.

In the evening, El Presidente and myself went to our local quiz and my ticket was drawn out for a go at winning 640€ at Play Your Cards Right. I got straight through the top line and half way along the second line with no probs, choosing 'higher' and 'lower' with great aplomb. Then I drew a Jack. So I looked at El Presidente and he said go 'higher'. WHAT ??  That means I would need a Queen, King or Ace........you don't get anything for a pair ( altogether now......) NOT IN THIS GAME !!
You all know what is coming next, don't you ??
I went 'lower' and it was a Queen.

Where's that b***** swear box ?? And a cloth to wipe that smirk off El Presidente's face.
                                            

El Presidente and myself went Irish road bowling this morning. We usually go on a Thursday but we are off to Valencia for the day tomorrow so we said we'd go this morning.
On the way back we called at the bank and then decided to treat ourselves to menu del dia. We got home about two o'clock.
The man was due to come and look at the mangled door closer AFTER 3pm. But guess what? he had already been and of course the only other day he can call is tomorrow when we will be in Valencia.
There was a note pushed under our door which said we have a plague of ants in the pool area under where the lifebelt is hung ( this is on the far side of the pool ) and these clever little ants were invading a house on the other side, which means they must have swum over the water or perhaps they were using the inflatable that was floating in the pool at the time!!



The phone rang and the person on the other end said the electronic garage door had stopped working and what was El Presidente going to do about it?
The doorbell rang and an owner informed us that he had lost his pool key and if we didn't give him another STRAIGHT AWAY he would climb over the fence into the pool. ( suit yourself.........my thoughts......not El Presidente's )
The good news is that we have ( at last ) got planning permission to put gates on either end of the periferal road and extend the railings round the existing wall.......................I cannot wait for that work to start because, although ALL the information has been in the AGM minutes for two years, there is bound to be someone who knew nothing about it and doesn't want it done anyway !!
I'm looking forward to the trip to Valencia tomorrow and it will be interesting to see what we come back to tomorrow evening !!

One of the joys of living with the Presidente is the endless opportunity to learn something new.

The doorbell this morning heralded the arrival of a rather irate Spanish gentleman. The Presidente, of course, was missing ( see earlier post about the sink full of dishes !! ).
Now my Spanish is limited, although I can get by and can understand a lot if it is spoken at a reasonable speed. This gentleman was anything but reasonable AND he was shouting ( in Spanish ).
The gist of the matter seemed to be that 'someone' had said his son had broken the door closer on the main back door. Certainly, the door closer is broken beyond repair, how this was achieved I will never know, but it has been achieved and will now need a new one costing at least 200€.
So I tried my 'tranquilla' por favor. Obviously my Spanish was not his Spanish and the vitriol continued. Still no sign of El Presidente. 'No mas' I said repeatedly and attempted to explain that as far as I knew, no one was blaming his son or anyone else. But this gentleman wasn't having any of this and he certainly was NOT going to speak any English...................which was strange really, cos this was the same gentleman that I was conversing with in English last Saturday evening at a local social do !! So he shouted some more and I tried to retreat away from my open front door and he stuck his hand on the door jamb so I couldn't escape without breaking his hand ( and the thought had occured to me, even though I am not a 'physical' person).
A couple of faces appeared from other doorways along the corridor, here's some help I thought. Wrong, they'd just popped out to see what the shouting was all about. 
Our community seems to have a complete 'no involvement' policy when it suits them!!
At some point in my observations it occured to me that the gentleman had shut up, so I again, tried to explain to him, in Spanish ( mostly ) that no one was blaming anyone. He turned away, then turned back and with an illuminating smile said 'Okey Dokey, Bye Bye'.
Exit one Spanish gentleman down the corridor to the right..........................entrance El President from the corridor to the left.

Is there a problema, says El Presidente?         Not so you'd notice said the one who lives with El Presidente.  

There are three notices in the pool area and the all say...............'NO INFLATABLES'.

El Presidente was 'pottering' in amongst the pretty bushes and flowers around the pool area yesterday when a four foot dinghy ( with oars ) arrived in the pool.

Erm, have you seen the notices, he asked the dinghy crew of two adults and two kids.
 'What notices', was the reply.
 So El Presidente pointed out the 'NO INFLATABLE' notices.
 'But this is a boat mate',
 It's an inflatable boat says El Presidente. 
'No, mate, it's a dinghy, I know you can't have lilos in here but this is a dinghy, mate'.
Did you blow it up, asks El Presidente.
'Course I f****** did, mate'.
Well then, it's an inflatable says El Presidente.
'No mate, it's an f****** dinghy'.

Next time I go in our pool ( which is only small ) I shall take my darning needle and the dinghy ( and any other inflatable ) will go 'POP'.

When we 'retired' to Spain, I thought that we would be able to spend lots of time together!!

Wrong!!

This Community thing is all consuming!!

At 4.30 today he popped off to see the Administrator, it's now 4 minutes to 7 and he's not back!! It's about 20 minutes drive to the Admin's office....................so where is he??  I bought him a moblie so that he could ring me to let me know what was happening but the mobile is still on the window sill!!

We are having a 'stand off' about the washing up...................according to me I do the cooking so El Presidente can do the washing up. Consequently we have no knives and forks or dinner plates left clean ( it's not as bad as it sounds cos we only have 6 of everything cos we have a little apartment not a mansion!! )

So it means I can't start to cook tea till he gets back unless I do the washing up, so I've put it to soak in the sink but I can't wash it yet cos the water's too hot.......................let's hope he gets back from where ever he is before the water cools!!

When we opened our front door this morning we stumbled over a bag of oranges and one of lemons.

There are no citrus fruit trees left around us now and we don't know anyone with trees.

Well says El Presidente, never look a gift horse in the mouth, so we took them inside and went off to do some shopping.

When we got back...............there was a bag of oranges and another of lemons by our door, ahhhhh himself says, we have a very prolific gift horse.

We thought we'd have a dip in our Communal pool and when we returned there was a bag of oranges and another of lemons by our door.....................some gift horse!!

After dinner we went to our local to do the quiz and when we returned.........................YES...............there was a bag of oranges and another of lemons !!! AND a note which said ' Gracias Mr Presidente, you do good for us'.

See........................there is a good side to living with the Presidente after all.................................................................urmmmmmmmmdoes anyone have any ideas for 52 oranges and 47 lemons?????

Answers on a postcard please and rude ones will be ignored !!!

What's that?? .......................'grunt'..............................wake up, somebody's ringing the bell........................................wassatime?........................................answer the bl**dy bell, you're the Presidente, not me.

It's 2.25 AM.

The Presidente 'hops' ( !! ) out of bed and trips over his slippers which he couldn't get his feet in, bangs into the bedroom door and narrowly misses the bookcase in the hall in his haste to answer the main door intercom thingy.

Who's that I hear him say ( quite calmly ), well where is it ( what ?), ok I'll let you in then.

To me, as he clambers back into bed, 'Are you awake?'........................( ??? ) ( told you I would need a swear box )
'That was apartment number **, she left her main door key in her apartment, but she's ok now I've let her through the front door'.
' Good, can we go back to sleep now?', says I.


RRRRRRRRRRRiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnggggggggggg...............................................that's our doorbell, it's 3.05 AM.

Guess who it was?? Apartment number ** !! She's left her apartment keys in her apartment as well as the main door key. Wouldn't you thought she would have mentioned that the FIRST time she woke us up??

So it's over the balcony for the chap who lives next door to her AND yes, she's woken him up too. But it's ok...........she's left her patio door open so the chap next door and the whole of the Costa Blanca could get in easily.

So why did she ring our doorbell just after I'd got back to sleep, especially as she seemed to have enlisted the help of the chap next door to her.....................apparently she just wanted to thank the Presidente for letting her in the main door !!

I did not thank the Presidente!!               

Today is housework day, well, it's got to be done!!     

Today is also the day that the Presidente is off to the bowels of the apartment block with the man who is going to check the water storage tanks.
The water will be off for about 15 minutes, he tells me, it should be ok though and it's too late to put a notice up warning everone because we weren't given any notice, the man just arrived.

Right.

So I get out the Cif and the Marigolds and away I go..............................NO............................the phone rings..................'Did you know the water's off?'. Yes, but it'll be back on soon.
Back to the bathroom..........................NO.........................phone rings again.................'Did you know there is no water?'. Yes but it'll be back on soon.
Back to the bathroom.........................doorbell rings......................'I've got no water', Niether have I, I say but it'll be back on soon.
Approach the bathroom from the other angle......................don't get there because the doorbell rings........................? I've got no water and I've had to turn my washing machine off'. Why I ask? 'Well the water's off and water and electricity don't mix?'
But it will be back on in a minute, I say. But I'm going to England tomorrow and I need to dry my clothes' she says.

Now the reason that I will never be Presidente is because my answer was..................? So....... why didn't you do your washing before this?'

Enter El Presidente.............................haven't you finished the bathroom yet????

We've got a swear box now 'cos I think I'm going to need one !!!
                            

It all began when I said that I would like to live by the sea. I meant Margate or Tenby.

So we came to Spain, where I had never been before, on one of those inspection trips. Before we set off I was told by my partner that we were NOT signing for anything. So we came back, four days later, having signed for an apartment. Not only that, but while we were in sunny Spain, my partner proposed. Oh, how sweet, I hear you say!! How romantic. NO............he had just been to the loo, in a hotel foyer and was fiddling with the zip ( as men do ) and he said.........I know it's not a good time, but will you marry me?

Five months later, we were married and over here.

The first year was spent in rented accommodation waiting for our apartment to be built. No real problems and we moved in.

For the first three months there was another Presidente but he had to go and my life as the wife of the Presidente began.

That's given you a quick intro..........................................more to follow.............................