Bedrock

Archive for the ‘General’ Category

After spending the day in virtual meetings while Maureen painted, I polished off the day by doing repairs to our bedroom ceiling and testing out some (blue) tiles for our soon-to-be-wonderful tiled BBQ….  and then we took a trip to Huescar to get some odds and ends before returning to the local “Galera Hotel” which has a balcony outside where you can drink and enjoy the scenery.

To the left is the view from the balcony of the Galera pool  – this is in no way recoloured or enhanced, it’s straight off the iPhone. Lovely colour. Might take a dip in there soon..

We finished the night at the local pizzeria, sitting outside talking to people we’ve already met and people we met for the first time which was nice. Interesting conversation about the weather here, it’s currently just under 40C mid-afternoon so very hot indeed yet less than an hour down the road, there are easily-accessible mountains with snow on the tops. Now we know you can get to them I can see a trip out with the camera in the coming weeks.

We must’ve had a good time as I have a startlingly bad head this morning, not the ideal way to start a day of constant meetings and some tile-cutting but there you are. I’ve an hour left before planting myself in front of a video camera for 6 hours! At least this is the last of the meetings for a while and we can get on enjoying the break.

It’s wonderful out here… we’ve been out since Saturday with friends and the weather has been exemplary – topping 33 degrees in the afternoon and a nice 25 degrees in the evening.

It’s been busier than we expected as we’ve had damp problems – a learning exercise and some shoddy Spanish workmanship combined to give some of the furniture gangrene (a Geordie joke I think, it’s “gan green”) and so we’ve had some stuff outside drying out and quite a bit of PVA is currently on the walls awaiting a coat of paint…. but we’re getting there.

Today is a lazy day, I’ve been cleaning the shed and PVA’ing but that’s about it apart from a trip to the post office to fail to pick up a notice that someone sent a month ago when we were not here, but oh, while I think on,  we have put up some new solar lights, I’ll try to remember to take a picture tonight. Very impressive.

While there can be no doubt that the weather in Spain is a major driver for Brits to clear off to the sun, there are a lot of problems in this country that not everyone is aware of.

I’ll give you an example – today we went off shopping to Granada. As usual, shoppers in front of us using credit cards were asked for identification (they don’t seem to use chip and pin here) but for once we were paying cash – at Carrefour and MediaMarkt.  It may be we’ve always used credit cards in the past or just not taken too much notice, but not only did the operator at MediaMarkt open up the goods we were purchasing (presumably to ensure we could not claim that bits were missing – not that they’d know the difference on anything really technical) but EVERY Euro note we gave them was checked through a machine.

This is either the height of paranoia or they have some SERIOUS fraud issues – I can’t remember the last time in the UK I saw anyone run notes through a scanner. Apart from the time wasted while this process occurs it does not exactly give you confidence in the people around you in the shop – the assumption being we’re all a bunch of crooks!!??

Another issue I’m becoming aware of is that no-one seems to know how to mix concrete – and if they do they’re not letting on – all around us we see severe winter damage despite the weather here CERTAINLY being no-where near the disastrous weather we had in the UK this year. Concrete simply falling apart because of ice getting into it!

On electricity – well, there’s a fight we’re just starting. Voltages in our area as low as 170 volts not only causes heaters to run at less than 50% efficiency it also damages motors which stall due to insufficient power and damages electronic lighting already blighted by the unfortunate fact that retailers here seem to buy in the cheapest Chinese junk they can get their hands on. I plan on next visit to bring in plenty of electrical equipment from the UK where at least we have some standards! Meanwhile we’re planning to take on whoever is necessary to get something remotely like normal electricity. Anyone local reading this – please note we need your input.

More on this later and you can’t get away from the fact that it was WARM this afternoon while back in the UK no doubt folks are freezing…

For our latest adventure we set off from home mid-morning for our flight to Spain – weather forecast said rain all week.

We arrived at the airport in time to discover the plane being delayed for 3 hours during which my stomach gave me more grief than  I can ever remember.  We decided to play safe and book a hotel in Cartagena – very nice indeed – Hotel Los Hombreras – nice view. The bar like many over here was full of smokers, not exactly what you want when you’re feeling ill but we had a good evening totally ruined by me being utterly ill overnight.

Next morning we set off for Galera and watched the weather degrade by the mile. It’s snowing on and off in Galera, very pretty of course but we’ve a slight problem – the amateur-night-out electricity over here, supplied by the builders is running extremely low voltage, around 170 instead of the normal 220-240v.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to do the math and discover that this means heaters putting out around HALF of their rated output (not make sense? See below) and so keeping warm is the current priority. I’m terrified of leaving the premises until my guts are in better order and right now Maureen is putting together some porridge to test the waters!

The broken broadband turned out to be nothing more than a corroded wire and so at least I can check my emails and run the iPhone without a massive bill.  Those of you who follow this blog will know that I use Vodafone when roaming as they offer(ed) a flat rate overseas – well, looks like they’ve changed their minds – I’m having it checked right now but according to the text message from them, they want £9.99 for 50 meg and then £9.99 for every 50 meg after that – can you imagine it – bunch of THIEVES.  Anyway, that might’ve been a standard message and someone in the office is checking for me – more later.

All out of newspapers and magazines to read… it’s a tough life….

Thanks to Peter and Ann who look after our place when we’re away, it appears we’re back in action, electricity works and it’s all locked up – meanwhile I’ve been back to Costco to throw their rubbish solar lights at them and I’ve just fitted a new type to the wall here in rainy Wark. If it can handle the winter here, next time we’re over in Spain I’ll take several with me and light the place up properly!

Well, it looks as though the initial magic has gone… we’re not back in the UK for more than a couple of months and some presumably local wipes have been in and burgled the cave!  Sadly I never did get the floodlight up and the camera last operated at 10.30pm last night but it was too dark to get anything, so I’m reckoning they broke in at around 10.10pm (Sunday 16th Nov) – if anyone saw any strangers around at that time please DO contact the local police – or us. Apparently they managed to get through the door (the weakest spot). 

Next time we’re there a remote controlled foghorn is going up that they’ll hear in the next town – I’m a quick learner if nothing else. The police of course will do nothing – pretty much like the UK police, it’ll be crime number and insurance – the usual. By the time we get there I’m hoping local gossip has identified the culprits…  if you’re one of the culprits and you’re reading this – I suggest emigrating to the far end of the planet – now – because we’re planning on paying you a visit.