It’s the last day of the year and it’s a real scorcher, well in the 30’s – nightmare eh?
The Jungle Drums magazine came out yesterday so we grabbed a copy, the article that I wrote looks great and the advert also looks good so hopefully someone will be impressed enough to ring and ask for some help!
Yesterday we also drove inland a little, to ‘Onil’ and ‘Castalla’ (the red circle on the map) to have a look at the prices around there for both rental of business premises and for house prices, the place was quite Spanish and certainly it would drop us in the deep end with our language skills – Liesl thinks that we should improve our Spanish dramatically before we even think about moving somewhere like 
that – I on the other hand think that we should just go for it, I’m sure that Liesl’s more sensible approach will be the way that we go.
The price of a small 3 or 4 bedroomed place around ‘Onil’ with about 4000m2 of land worked out to be around 150,000€ (around £100,000), so its much cheaper than here on the coast where the same property with much less land would be around 3 times the price! It was a nice drive, about an hour, which took us up into and beyond the mountains, roof down, and sunny but with snow on the ground as we got into the mountains – extremely beautiful and stunning landscape; I wish I had taken my camera so that I could have showed you.
We are going to a street party tonight with Gerry and Trisha (and their family) who have arrive for Hogmanay, there was also mention of kilts – so look out for the pictures – hehe.
I collected all the officially signed paperwork for the business and managed to setup a bank account, so I am finally ready to start trading!
The article and advertisments should go into the various publications in early January, hopefully that will generate some interest, guess I should get on and complete the second article.
Fingers crossed!
Today is Christmas day and some of us are suffering from a little over indulgence at the disco we went to last night (at Raffles the new ‘piano bar’ that has opened just 3 minutes staggering distance away from the apartment).
As you can see from the photo, Liesl again was the life and soul of party, however this time, unlike me, she had the foresight to stop drinking early and take some water – so she is hangover free this morning!
Once we were all ‘alive’ at about 11am we went down to the beach to celebrate Christmas with a bottle of bubbly, it’s a fantastically warm day and is pushing twenty degrees in the shade.
We asked a passer by to take a photo of the group, below, before we returned to the apartment to set about organising a traditional British Christmas dinner (yes, very Spanish I know!)
We collected the boys from the airport and stopped the car as we drove back to take a picture of a melting snowman that someone had made at the side of the road, we thanked the guys for bringing the British weather with them.
It’s great to have some of our closest friends over to stay, they hired a car so we could all drive about together, and although they were only staying for 3 nights it was going a great time, we just knew it.
Gerry and Trisha (friends from the new comers club) were kind enough to offer their house to us, so Simon and Jim were ensconced there, while Dave had to put up with staying at the apartment with Liesl, H
etty and I.
As they are “boaty people” they were able to tell us interesting facts about the vessels moored in the harbour, many of which were worth several million pounds! I understand that our other friend Dave is partial to a good cruise as well 😉
Busy day today, the carpenter had spent the last 2 days fitting some much needed cupboard space to our hall and terrace, we can now pack away all of my tools, Liesl’s card making paraphernalia and the excess amount of towels that we bought when we were renting the place out.
Its good to get the stuff packed away and out of sight, but because the carpenter took 2 days to do the job (he quoted for 1 day) I am now a long way behind on the arm long list that Liesl left for me!
Just finished cleaning the windows, which is no mean feat! For those of you that don’t know our apartment, it has 70’s style aluminium double glazed units that slot in and out of the runners that form the window sills. Some of the panes can be lifted out, but it takes great care as they are very large (the terrace ones measure about 5ft x 2.5ft), so trying to man handle these heavy panes out of their runners without dropping them the 4 stories down is quite an art – needless to say no one was killed that day by falling glass!
I also went to Guadamar to collect the rubber stamp that Liesl had ordered from a book shop for her card making. The owner, not surprisingly, didn’t remember me so I had a great time of trying to explain who I was, why I was in her shop and what I wanted, all in Spanish with many charades like hand movements!
After Guadamar, I drove down to Torrevieja to get some electrical manuals guarantee stamped for Gerry and Trisha, however as the customer service señora explained to me after I had driven the 35km to the shop, the manuals cannot be stamped until 30 days after you have tested the goods as, until that time is up Spanish law says that the goods can simply be returned for a refund – great trip – then it started to rain just to top it off!
I am going out tonight to the Jungle Drums Christmas party in Santa Pola, I wonder what will be on the menu – scary!
Apparently it’s Christmas in a week’s time?
Well, it certainly doesn’t feel like it, its really strange being here, knowing that Christmas is just around the corner but it just doesn’t feel the same as back in the UK!
Today it was in the 20’s again and there was no need for a coat, even a jumper was too much, nightmare eh?
Decorations have started to go up around the urbanisations and streets (not like at home when they tend to go up in the last week of August!! I took a few photos of the lights that have been put around the trees in the urbanisation so you can see.
Well this morning I took Liesl to the airport so that she could fly over to be with her cousin Tim who starts chemo therapy on Monday. I have a list as long as my arm (which aint short) to keep me busy while she is away, so I have just started preparing the wall for the carpenter who is coming tomorrow to fit some cupboards in the terrace and hallway.
Amazing weather today, 20 degrees in the shade and almost double that in the sun! Liesl and I said that we hoped the weather would hold out for when Dave, Simon and Jim arrive next week.
Right, DIY to do, better get back to it!
Went out to the very Spanish “Dick Turpin” pub this evening with Gerry and Trisha (the friends we met at the newcomers club), they had moved into their new place yesterday and were manically trying to get things delivered, lights put up, beds made, etc so I think that they were glad of the opportunity to get away from the manic activity that was happening at their place 2 days before they fly back to the UK!
Afterwards with Liesl’s help I pretty much finished off the article for Jungle Drums, its been accepted and was described by the editor as “perfecto!” which I am assuming is good 😉
I have also decided to take out an advert in the magazine as I have been offered a slot half price because of the article.
It should go into the magazine for the January issue and I hope that we get plenty of business from it, by then everything should be setup so I should be able to actually start working.
Guess I had better start to think about what to write about for the next article – it takes so long to perfect the text, never realised how much time it would take!
Paul and Jackie came round today for a meal, I cooked so, as usual it was roast chicken, Yorkshire pud etc. Lol, I really should try something new at some point in my life.
Anyway, they are going off on a 5 week holiday to Australia next week (lucky buggers), so it was good to catch up with them before they go.
We went to the table top today, what a total wash out, I don’t know whether it was the weather that kept people away – it was a bit colder than normal and overcast.
We paid our 7 euro entrance fee and setup alongside the 4 other stalls! I think that Liesl had 4 or maybe 5 customers, one of which spent the princely sum of 1 euro, so in total it cost us 6 euros’ to go to the event – lol, lesson learned.
