How famous is our couch?

I was on the phone to an old friend in the UK tonight. She said nice things about the blog. She also mentioned how rewarding it had been for her to finally see a picture of the couches that we had moaned about not owning for so long.

So here, for all of you, who would like to see a picture of our living room - here it is. It's a dodgy photo but it's the only one with the new curtains, lampshades and rug!

Smashing up the house: Part II

I got the silicone so I could fasten the glass in. Unfortunately I stood on the piece of glass and smashed it. I sorted it in the end though.

I sorted the doors too. Two hours of filing, which seems to have damaged my hand quite badly so that I now have no grip and reduced sensation in three fingers, finally removed enough metal for the door to close. I couldn't face filing down the second door and I removed the tape. Then I had a brainwave and put the tape on the other face of the doorpost. It worked fine. What a lot of time I wasted.

Ironmonger

I had to go to the ironmongers today to get some hooks and some rawlplugs. As usual the shop was crowded and, as usual I was a bit worried about what I had to buy. After all, in the UK, you pop off to one of those giant superstores and search amongst the racks for what you want.

Actually you could always tell what you wanted, especially if it were Sunday and the toilet cistern was leaking, because the shelf that held the vital part would have just one section that was empty - the bit where that essential part you needed should have been. But I digress.

So in the UK knowing the name of some arcane piece of plumbing kit isn't a problem. In Spain though an ironmongers is still an ironmongers. They have a whole wealth of ironmongery treasures often for tiny amounts of money. You have to ask for nearly everything you want by name or, more often for we Brits, with a bit of mime and maybe a pen and paper. In our local shop called Demetrio's (Heaven knows why as the owner is called Olegario not Demetrio) there are lots of exciting and interesting things hung up on racks. He does make a point though of ensuring that nothing I can't ask for in Spanish is out on the racks. Not for me the soft option.

I called them rawlplugs, when I started this note, and I would ask for them in that way if I needed to ask someone for them (as distinct from taking them from the shelves) in the UK but I presume that's just a particular brand for those wall plugs that screws and hooks go in to. I don't even know what to look up in the Spanish dictionary to find a translation and rawlplugs are pretty straightforward to mime. What about when you want the netting they use to make flyscreens or a pole for a wardrobe with slot in fastenings!

I was just on my way out to buy the plugs, hooks etc. when Clive turned up where I work - "See you later Clive, I'm off to get some hooks" says I "Ah, interesting word hook in Spanish - alcayata for the L shaped ones, hembrilla abierta for hook type hooks and hembrilla cerrada for the round ones that aren't really hooks" says Clive (he's like that). I'd been going to use the word I know for a hook - gancho.

Olegario understood the words and when I said I wanted the plastic thing that the hooks gripped on to he gave me some. Actually he gave me two because I'd bought two hooks - not a packet, just the two hooks and the two plugs I needed.

Spanish ironmongers are a joy. Next time you're here pop in to one and get something interesting to take back.

And a rawlplug in Spanish, by the way, should you ever need to buy a couple, is taquete

Making out like bandits

A couple of friends who live in the UK have a place down on the coast. They were here for a few days and we went to meet them in Guardamar. We had a very pleasant evening at some Chinese place where they cooked the food you chose. Allan and Brenda also brought us a food parcel from the UK - marmite, stilton, tea, a pork pie, shortbread and a tea loaf. What a haul, what a kind thought.

It's amazing how kind people are. When a couple of other friends, Alan and Hilary, came they brought Ardbeg whisky, shortbread and a vase. Having a house in Spain is a bit like having a wedding. You get gifts just for doing it.

Smashing up the house

Not a good day on the D.I.Y. front. I decided to do a couple of simple jobs around the place. I thought I'd grease up my car and drain off the excess oil put in at the last service. The oil draining went reasonably well except for the puddles of oil on the drive. The greasing went less well. I couldn't find the grease points so I ended up covered in filthy grease but none went in the right place. I ran out of light. I'll have to try again later. What a bodge up.

I also stuck some insulation strips onto the exterior door frames. That worked well, they stopped the draughts remarkably well. The problem is that the doors won't lock properly. I can do it OK but Maggie doesn't seem to have the strength. I've spent ages trying to file out the striker plates but to no avail. What a bodge up.

Inside the house we have a door with wrought ironwork on one side of a glass panel. The painters didn't bother to take the glass out to paint the back of the ironwork when we moved in so I thought I'd do it now. Remarkably I got the glass out without smashing it but I can't get all the encrusted paint off the glass and I also realised that I had no silicone to seal the glass back in. So that we now have a very draughty living room until I get the silicone and I'm worried that if I try harder to get the paint from the glass I'll smash it. What a bodge up.

A High Wind in Culebrón

On Sunday, back from our trip to IKEA (100,000 people visited the new store in Murcia during the first five days), we set about our weekend cleaning and fettling tasks at home.

Though the day was bright and sunny there was a stiff breeze from quite early in the morning. By 3 .00pm in the afternoon the gusts were apparently reaching 120kph. Bits and bats were flying all over the place and our pool cover (the pool is actually an old irrigation tank) made from some black polythene sheeting did an Orville and Wilbur and made several short, aerial hops. I cut a lot of the plastic loose from one of our fences to stop it being blown over. One of the three guy wires that keep out TV aerial upright snapped at about 5.00pm and I had to go onto the roof to retrieve the flailing wire and tie it back onto something solid. The little "tin hat" on our chimney creaked, groaned and banged and the noises it made echoed down into the living room. All through the night I lay there, listening to the various bangs and clatters, waiting for the TV aerial to fall over and take the roof with it. But it didn't.

Monday was bright and sunny with a gentle breeze.

A brick in yer ed

About a month ago a brick from an old chimmney breast fell through our suspended ceiling. I was very concerned that one day it would be more than a single brick. Today I thought I'd do something about it so, armed with a lamp and wearing filthy overalls and goggles I went to have a look. This is some of what I saw



I managed to get the old bricks down without them smashing the ceiling. This is the stuff I removed. I felt very pleased with myself.

Yo tengo diez palabras de Castellano

It means I have ten Spanish words. I use it a lot as a way of showing that I can manage more than "A bit" as the response to the question "Do you speak Spanish?"

By the way, I use Castilian, in Castilian, to be more precise. There are several Spanish languages - Galician, Basque, Catalan and it's many variants, Valencian (a linguistic argument to be had with the Catalans about whether it is a language or a dialect) - and the one that is now the third most common first language in the World, Castilian. It's Castilian that is generally thought of as Spanish but, because we live in an area where Valencian is the first language for many people, I try to remember to say Castilian instead of Spanish

Anyway, for one reason or another I have been speaking a lot more Spanish than usual over the last few days. Notable successes have included a voicemail message that actually produced a plumber at a client's house and an enquiry about where to buy autogas that ended up with a full tank. I feel particularly cool when I am speaking to someone and then someone else I know turns up and greets me in Spanish. This has happened when Paco the man from the glass place, turned up in a house where I was collecting some furniture from Consuela and when Maribel turned up as I was having a discussion with Eli on the behaviour of town councillors. One day I will be able to maintain a reasonable conversation in my new language without having to make excuses as I stutter through a list of words.

The world ranking for languages by the way is now Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, English in that order. Though as a second language English is still way out in front. I felt I had to check this out when my language exchange pal was adamant that Castilian had more words than English. It doesn't; English probably has about twice as many words as Spanish but nobody knows for sure as it is so difficult to count them!

More on the drains

Excitement mounts as the drainage contractors move ever closer to our house with their diggers and big concrete pipes. At the moment one of the access roads to our house is closed off so they can dig a big collecting pit and one of our neighbours had a chat with the workmen who confirmed that the drainage system is definitely coming our way. Apparently we'll have to do the final connection from the current septic tank to the new mains drains at our own expense but that doesn't sound so bad.

That Bottle of Brandy

I think I may have found the Lord.

Apparently Lent started today, I know this because I saw a news item on the TV where lots of Spaniards were throwing flour at each other. You may also remember the blog I did in February called "Drinking too much?"

We have been drinking far too much booze and, as giving something up is what you do for Lent, Maggie and I have decided to go on the wagon for the forty days.

Cutting a log in Murcia

IKEA opened its doors in Murcia city today, just 60kms from Culebrón. Nobody was trampled to death and there were "only" about a thousand people in the queue to get in as the store opened at 10 this morning. We've been waiting for it to open so we can buy a CD tower and some new covers for our chairs - proof positive of our exciting lives.