Another little difference - the diary

I've been keeping a diary since 1968. For years I used the A5, hardback size - the one beloved of Social Workers and Teachers - but, about 6 or 7 years ago I went over to the bigger A4 size.

In 2004/05, my first year in Spain, I tried to buy a big diary without success. I settled for the smaller A5 one. Since then I have been geting my diaries from the UK but this year my supply failed. It seemed, in fact it still seems, odd to me that A4 is so unavailable but, then again, getting plain ruled file paper here is tricky too - blank or squared are the usual formats. Have you ever noticed that in US TV programmes people often use yellow file paper? Different countries, different ways of achieving the same ends I suppose.

Being at home was an advantage. I know the woman in the stationers so I asked if she could order an A4 size diary. She wasn't sure - it was such an unusual size but her suppliers said "sí" and yesterday the diary arrived. I have a bit of a thing about stationery, nothing weird, I don't tie myself to it or anything, which means I have some idea about the pricing of items. I was ready for the shock. Nearly 29€ for a floppy, spiral bound design.

It's a good make said Susanna in the paper shop. Next year I may fly to the UK to collect one to save a bit of cash though I've just noticed that the Portuguese, our faithful allies, also use A4 diaries and Ciudad Rodrigo is only minutes from Portugal

Still all a bit temporary but...

It's 21ºc in our living room with just the log burner as heating. This is hot for our house in winter - very hot. Eduardo the cat has been lying on his back with his paws in the air luxuriating in it all.

There is still plenty to do but basically we've got the furniture back in place and, with the exception of the bedroom, which still has to be repainted and re-poulated with furniture, the interior is now done apart from the gloss paint, some bits of furniture, new lights etc.

The living room is a bit barn like but it's OK, quite "Spanish" looking.

The exterior still needs a lot of work.

Christmas hamper

This is our mate Geoff and the Chrismas basket that he won in the draw at a local bar. The baskets are dead typical. Lots of the bars have them, they're loaded with booze, biscuits and other seasonal goodies but, most importantly, with a real ham, complete with trotter.

The engine sighs - whispers home at last

We drove back from Ciudad Rodrigo to Culebrón on Monday, more or less without incident - Eddie the cat had a couple of incidents but he now seems dead pleased to be running around Culebrón where he can go to play whenever he likes and come and go as he pleases.

The house looked like a bombsite. In broad sweep it's actually not too bad but the detail is cry making. The light switches don't move as they should, the doors won't close properly, the plaster is slarted all over the door and window frames, tiles are cracked, paintwork destroyed, the fireplace is crooked, the chimmney pipes are wonky, everything feels damp, it's freezing, lights are bare wires hanging from holes in ceilings and walls, the garden is full of debris and weeds, the pool cover is hanging tiredly in the dried up pool like an out of date condom. The roof looks good though and the half of the frontage that has been rendered is a nice colour.

We've been cleaning for a couple of days and my hands hurt but I wasn't able to complain to you before as Telefonica seem very reluctant to reconnect the phone though they have finally given us Internet after four phone calls.

Proper posts to come.

New bar

We may be on the other side of the country but we still get plenty of news about the toing and froing in Pinoso and Culebrón. Our next door neighbour tells us that there is a new bar in the village. We think it's in a building that has been a bar and or restaurant with at least two different owners since we've had the house. If it is I just hope it manages to stay in business long enough for us to get a drink there. The chances are high as we are due back in the next couple of days.

I added the photo when we popped into the bar for a drink, and a yummy paella, over the Christmas break

Advice on trying to complete building work some 750kms away

Don't try it. That's my advice.

We rather hoped that we could stay in Culebrón over the Christmas break and even sort the place out a bit. So we have been trying to get someone to finish the work on the house before the holiday. We have had numerous conversations with various builders and several subcontractors. 

In the process of doing this several people have been upset. Also, despite being told that we had X amount to spend the builder, that we eventually asked to do most of the work, has taken absolutely no notice and done X plus 60% worth of work. I'm sure he thought it was some sort of game of bluff and that we had a little extra salted away. Unfortunately for both of us we were telling the truth. 

The roof

Just as a bit of an update. The work on the house in Culebrón still isn't finished. So far as I know the roof is fine, though you will remember it failed to keep out the water the first time it rained. Unfortunately I only have bystanders reports about the rest. A bit of a communication problem with our builder! He seems to have stopped talking to us. He also seems to have stopped work. Hey ho! Such is life.

Thousands of euros spent, work unfinished, 740kms away, furniture rotting in the garage. Ain't life grand.

Harold

There's an earlier post on Life in Ciudad Rodrigo about the disappearance of Harold the cat.

Harold looks a lot like Eduardo our other cat. Well he's ginger and cat shaped. I was outside the house in Culebrón one evening, having a smoke when he popped his head around the corner. I presumed he was Eddie and I couldn't understand why he was so nervous. Only when I found Eddie fast asleep on the couch inside the house did I realise that we had a different cat checking us out. It took a long time before Harold abandoned his home near the bins to come inside where it was warmer, drier and with three squares a day. He became part of the household and he travelled with me when I moved to Ciudad Rodrigo but he didn't settle in the flat. Like the Norwegian Blue (beautiful plumage) he pined for the fjiords. He got away pretty quickly.

In the earlier post he's declared missing in action rather than lost and I'm still prowling the streets around midnight and at 6.30am in the hope that he'll show up. But it's now five days since the last sighting and I'm beginning to lose hope; I think he's back around a bin somewhere.

I may well have given up and stuck to my bed in the morning but for the fact that Eduardo has now taken to coming out on the search with me. We stroll the streets together looking for our lost charge/pal.

I just hope that Eduardo continues to trot around and keep close. I'd hate to lose him too. Mind you he's spending most of the night charging around the flat, scratching at doors and generally making as much noise as possible. Cats and flats may rhyme but I don't think they go well together.

Living Away

I am now in my new home in Ciudad Rodrigo, a town on the opposite side of Spain to Culebrón which means that I intend to put the majority of the new post in my Life in Ciudad Rodrigo blog. Please have a look there to catch up on the trivia of our lives in Spain.

The reason for moving was that my partner, Maggie, has been working on a bilingual project in a state school in Ciudad Rodrigo for just over a year. I hadn't been able to find work near her so I stayed behind in Culebrón, with the cats.

Over the summer I was offered a job teaching English to youngsters and adults in the Dublin School of English in Ciudad Rodrigo beginning in the new academic year. I still hung on in Alicante hoping that our roof repairs and general ackling up of the house would be done before I had to start work but no such luck. I had to abandon the house to the builders and cross Spain with the house still, very much, a shell.

The cats and I moved into Maggie's flat just before the start of October. The cats did not travel well and are much less happy here than they were in the countryside but they are not unhappy either and we are hoping that they will get used to the change.

As for me I like the town and it's great to be back with Maggie but we are in dire straits financially what with the roof repairs and with me not earning any money through August or September.  Add to that the strain of any new job and it's all been a little unsettling. But the work isn't bad and even though it's pretty obvious that I'm not a natural born teacher I hope to get better. Fortunately for me, and for the students, the school is extremely well organised so that the process of beginning to teach has been quite straightforward.

Anyway, the main point of this entry was to redirect you to the blog I will be using whilst I'm here in Ciudad Rodrigo

Railway talk

Find out about Ciudad Rodrigo's international standing at Life in Ciudad Rodrigo

First "week" report

I have no idea what's happening in Culebrón. No word from our builders though the neighbour tells me that the chaps have been there a couple of days at least.

Here in Ciudad Rodrigo the cats are still very unsettled and I haven't managed to work out any sort of routine though both the cats and I have disturbed Maggie's.

The people I now work for, Gusa and Adel, have been very welcoming and they have tried hard to make sure that things have been arranged properly for me down to having a contract in place from the get go which is far from usual in Spain. The working environment is really pleasant - clean and light, nice office chairs, working computers, hot water - standard stuff really but slightly different to the work and working conditions of the last three years or so. Now I shower before going to work rather than when I get home.

As to the teaching - well the jury is still out on my abilities as a teacher. I have 19 hours of teaching arranged in different time slots between 4 and 9 in the afternoon (or evening as you Brits would say). There is everything from 7 year old children, through young teenagers and sixth formers and on to a geologist looking for technical language. Nice spread and nice people but also quite a mix of books, styles and abilities to get organised in my mind.