It's very cold

There is something about moving to Spain. The cliche is sunny Spain. Now we knew before we got here that it gets cold in Spain in winter. We'd shivered in places as far apart as Caravaca and Bilbao. In fact when we first talked to some Spanish friends about living here we told them that we fancied somewhere near Burgos. "Colder than Siberia" they said.

So now we live in Alicante Province. That's the one full of Britons - here for the sun. But at the moment it isn't warm, it isn't even comfortable. It's absolutely perishing and it's making all us expats feel really miserable. Cold in front of the TV (actually we can just about keep the marble floored, uninsulated, curtain and carpetless living room warm), cold in bed even wearing socks and a sweatshirt, cold in the bathroom (and often wreatehed in steam) and certainly cold in my workplace. The one place it isn't quite as cold is outside particularly during the middle of the day. Even here, in Pinoso, some 600 metres above sea level and with traces of snow still visible on the hillsides it's a reasonable 5 or 6 degrees.

I think I might start wintering in Sweden where they know how to keep warm!