One instinctively knows

The house still isn't finished. The workmen have only been here sporadically over the past week - nobody on Monday, one man on Tuesday though we did have a full team today. If they had been here it may have been done and I could have made a stab at tidying up and finishing off the inevitable Spanish paperwork before having to leave for my new job which begins next Wednesday in Ciudad Rodrigo.

I had, originally, planned to meet my new employers to talk detail and to sign my contract today but, ever hopeful, I put that off in the vain hope that the house would be completed by now. No such luck. Fortunately the owner of the language school where I will be working was understanding, if not exactly overjoyed, by rescheduling that meeting for just 23 hours before I give my first class

Very unsatisfactory having to leave the house in such a state and it will be hard work even finding the things I need to take amongst the piled up furniture. But it will be good to be with Maggie again, good to be back at work with a bit of structure to my life and an income, albeit small. It will be nice to be able to stay relatively clean and live in a place where things like lights just work.

We are completely skint too. As poor as when we first arrived here.