My Birthday and other stuff

Really annoyed as I spent quite a long while drafting this earlier today; however, when I tried to save it as a Draft, as I usually do, Blogger promptly lost it and threw up some stupid message. Having learned my lesson I will now (try and remember to!) write it in Word first, save and then copy it over.

My birthday turned into a really lazy day thought that wasn’t my intention at all! We gave the Friday market a miss as it was raining to begin with. Late morning Sara and I turned on the webcams and she, Chloe and Scott watched me open my pressies (Elli was at the childminders). I had some lovely gifts – a huge selection of scented and floating candles and tealights, plus holders and a bowl to use them in, a ‘Me to You’ teddy, a kitchen noteboard with calendar for 2007, plus matching telephone jotter pad and notebook (absolute essentials for me!), a beautifully hand decorated ceramic vase, not too big, in fact just the right size to hold two or three stems, my special mug and coaster of course, plus my fave chocolate (of which there’s not a lot left now!). Also included in the box of gifts was the photo of Sara I’d chosen from the Olan Mills session, which she’d put into a beautiful black and silver frame. She said it wasn’t really a birthday present but I’m treating it as such because it is so lovely.

In the evening we went to the Country Kitchen and had a fabulous meal, as usual. Once home, our former neighbours and great friends, who we miss enormously, phoned to wish me happy birthday and to have a gossip. We hope they’ll be able to come and visit us very soon.

We’ve had the quotes for the aircon and the bedroom conversion – both are within but at the top end of the budget we’d set, so we were happy to give the go ahead for both. We hope work will start on the bedroom within the next two or three weeks, with the aircon being done around the same time. Just need to choose a kitchen now! I think we’ll be in a bit of a pickle for a while!

I finally got our clothes put away into the wardrobes – it’s official, Derek has more clothes than I do – 75 shirts/tops and 31 pairs of trousers – and has taken up the wardrobes in the two spare bedrooms. I’ve squashed mine into the wardrobe in our room. I’m going to give a lot of thought to storage in the new bedroom – although we’ll have probably the same amount of hanging space in there as we now have in the three bedrooms together, I’m not sure hanging is the way to go for everything. Maybe drawers would be a better idea for some things – just how much folding will I want to do though?

We are still struggling with our pictures – I swear if we don’t get them on the walls this weekend they are going in the basement. At the moment they’re in the floor in the sitting room, along with the tool kit and the electric drill and every time I want to clean I have to move them. We need the tools and the drill because I’m going to have to drill into concrete walls (well, that’s what they seem to be anyway!) in order to get secure fixings.

And cleaning is something else I must do today, I’ve become very neglectful in that area, my excuse being that there’s been quite a lot of wind this week so lots of dust and I was waiting for it to calm down!

Finally if I get all those things done I hope to do some scrapping. A new challenge is starting on the Scrapitude board today, and Maddy set one in the Weekly Wednesday challenge section which will suit a layout about my birthday. I also want to do some work on the boxes I cut from the Craft Robo, and add something to the beermat book I made in last week’s Cyber Crop.

Oh, and Derek wants a roast dinner tonight – beef and all the trimmings.

Better get on then, hadn’t I?

Update on Scott...

Forgot to do this last night.... Scott's brother drove him to Derby on Tuesday morning; they had to be there for 9 am and he was given to understand he would be treated as priority and his hand would be fixed. Not so! If he'd waited in that department to be seen to, it wouldn't have happened until Thursday (today)! They sent him home with instructions to be back yesterday morning by 11.30 and in a different deparment. Again, he was given the impression he would be dealt with first. So Sara took him - her good friend and neighbour Geraldine had Chloe for the day and she took Elli with her. Unfortunately it was another case of misinformation - he would be operated on at the END of the theatre list, not the beginning. Sara had to come home, she couldn't wait around with Elli until 7 pm (estimated op time 5 pm plus two hours at least). His brother did the honours yet again, drove to Derby and fetched him home - 2 hour drive each way.

The good news is the nerve was OK, no damage, thanks heavens for that! He has to keep it in a sling for two or three days, no driving for two weeks (therefore no work) and has to go back to Derby next Wednesday to have the stitches removed.

They are waiting to hear what date they will be moving house, originally it was actually to be tomorrow! However, the house buying/selling process being what it is, that date had been changed to 3rd November, then the 10th, now it's looking like the 17th, and in view of what's happened to Scott I don't think Sara cares if it's beyond that as he won't be able to do much.

So thankful it wasn't as serious as we feared, and we hope it will heal quickly and well and their lives can return to normal.

How's this for service!

The parcel we've been expecting from Sara arrived yesterday lunchtime (Tuesday). It was collected from her Thursday afternoon - we're very impressed. We used Ecopost - about £36 for parcels up to 25kg. That's the best service we've had yet to Spain and we'll definitely use them again. I had a big shock though - it was so heavy! All I was expecting was some mail delivered to our old address, the webcam we ordered in the UK, a book and a dvd (Da Vinci Code). Instead it felt as if it was full of bricks - this is what was inside as well:
















Lots of birthday pressies! I love lots of small surprise parcels, much prefer it to one big present! Once we'd set up the webcam Sara 'allowed' me to open two of the packages. One contained a lovely mug and coaster with some beautiful words on them, the other two bars of my fave chocolate, Bourneville. And that was really spooky - before I was married my favourite Sunday late morning 'brunch' was a packet of rich tea biscuits, a block of Bourneville and several glasses of milk! OK, I know it was probably a weird thing and extremely unhealthy but I was young and thin and didn't pay a lot of attention to food in those days - it was there and I ate it! The spooky thing was that I bought a packet of rich tea biscuits in the supermarket yesterday!

There are still 9 little parcels left to open, some more from her and her family and some from Mark and his little girl. My birthday's on Friday, so after we're home from the market I'll set up the webcam and she and the girls can watch me opening the parcels. And I'll have a nice cuppa in that new mug with biscuits and chocolate on the side!

Today our new gardener has been and we've finally got the palm trees cut back. He must have taken 60 or more fans off them - there's a huge pile I'll have to drag out to the roadside on Sunday night for Monday's garden refuse collection. He also managed to dig up the remains of the massive cactus I've been trying to kill - evil thing! He was here nearly five hours and didn't manage to get anything else done, but we hope he'll be back next week when his work will be less arduous and we can decide what new plants we want to put in.

We managed to get some of our pictures up today but aren't particularly happy with the arrangement. In our previous house they all had their places but it was so much bigger than this one, and concentrated virtually in one room they don't 'fit' at all. Some will be suitable for elsewhere but a few are going to be hard to place to best effect. Back to the drawing board.

Tomorrow the plumber is coming with the quotes for aircon and the laundry-to-bedroom conversion - hope we're not in for a shock with that! Best of all, he's going to fit the reverse osmosis water filter! YAY - no more lugging water from the supermarket! What a difference it will make, not to my bill because it's relatively cheap, but to the effort it takes to carry it all!

Having difficulty staying awake tonight - think the cyber crop weekend has caught up with me, that and the fact that I acquired 7 or 8 mozzie bites during the weekend (think they must be living in the laundry room!) and they're dreadfully itchy at night, and have been keeping me awake. Finally tracked down my tube of Cristalmina and it's certainly helped today, so crossing my fingers it will do the same tonight.

Desperate to do some scrapping, my head is buzzing with ideas for layouts but somehow other things keep getting in the way. Maybe I'll manage something tomorrow......

Till then.......

Phew! (3)

Final pics:

Class 4 - Stretch your stash


Cathy set this class - from two sheets of cardstock and 2 sheets of paper (plus as many embellishments as you liked) she produced 3 LOs, 2 cards, covered a paint tin and decorated a beer mat - if you had the strength and stamina to do all 7 projects, the class was worth 10 points in total. I just managed one LO ...... :(

Finally, a pic of my scrap space in the laundry room (before I started, which is why it looks 'relatively' tidy!), with the lappy on the ironing board!:



... and the results, pegged up on lines because I had nowhere else to put them, other than the floor!



I intend to do a layout of the scrap space and finished results!

This morning Sara IM'd me some cute pics of Ellianne wearing a hat that was in a bundle of clothes given to her by a friend. I must scrap some of them! And I still have pics left from those I printed to use in the cyber crop - hope to get them (or some of them) on layouts this week.

Back later..........

Much later............

Spent the afternoon putting comments in the Cyber Crop gallery and then decided to get my Craft Robo up and running. Thank goodness I decided not to use it over the weekend because I ran into a few problems with it. Took me a while to sort out and it would have had me tearing my hair if this had happened during the CC! Managed to enlarge the french fries box template we used for a challenge - quite pleased with that! Now working on another box template posted by ScrappyFairy.

Finally, had some worrying news from Sara - Scott has somehow managed to put a screwdriver through his palm and has spent several hours at the local A & E. He's home now but has to go to Derby tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. for an operation - they fear he's gone through a nerve, though he can apparently move his hand OK so it may not be that serious (cross your fingers everyone please). His brother will take him as Sara can't do it with Chloe and Ellianne in tow. She'll be a bag of nerves and sitting on the phone for news. As will we. He has to take an overnight bag in case he has a full anaesthetic, in which case he will be kept in for the night. Let's hope all goes well and he can be home tomorrow night. Sara will be a basket case otherwise.

Derek is threatening to take over this blog to make it funnier - oh, it'll be that alright!

Phew! (2)

More pics:

Ch. 6 - It's all white (white background)


Ch. 7 - Tag book


Class 1 - Serendipity Squares (embellishments, mats, borders made from scraps)


Class 2 - Freeze Frame (beer mat book)



Class 3 - Sew easy (must include stitching)


Stay there!

Phew!

What a weekend! Scrapped myself to a standstill in the Scrapitude Cyber Crop but Derek wasn't well (pulled muscle) so I didn't achieve as much as I hoped. Check out the awesome work all the girls did here. There were 4 fabulous classes, thanks to Sally, Dawn, Audrey and Cathy, and 12 challenges, thanks to Kimmy. I managed all the classes and 7 of the challenges. I plan to do a layout with pics of my scrap area and the finished LOs and projects. This is what I did anyway:

Ch. 1 - 'Autumn' Card


Ch. 2 - Black background


Ch. 3 - French Fries container


Ch. 4 - Staple me (no glues allowed!)


Ch. 5 - Xmas with a Twist (must not use red, green or gold)


For some reason Blogger won't allow me to upload more than five images - wonder if that's the limit per post? Fair enough, will do another post (or two) to get the rest on! Back soon!

I keep forgetting....

...to update my blog! Apologies to those who read it! The days go by and I barely notice - is life getting boring or am I getting lazy?

We had the visit from the plumber and builder on Wednesday - there doesn't seem to be any problem with the changes we want to make to the laundry to turn it into another bedroom; just waiting for the quote! The plumber will be fitting the water filter next week so that will save us the endless shopping for water. The builder will start the steps up to the garage early November. Looking forward to that as well.

Yesterday we visited the bank. I needed to pay in a cheque, change our address for statements etc., order a new cheque book and draw some money. It took 35 minutes, of which 20 were spent queueing! I have to keep reminding myself this is Spain and things take time, but I felt that was just ridiculous. Too many customers and not enough staff manning the desks. Plenty of staff around, mind you, they just weren't attending to customers. We visited the hardware shop where Derek picked up a number of electrical bits and pieces (we can now use our electric toothbrush - yay!). I picked up a new frying pan - the non-stick lining of my Le Creuset one is coming off in an alarming fashion and I can't swear we've not eaten some of it! This is the 2nd frying pan from Le Creuset that this has happened with, so I'm giving up on it.

I also hung some curtains I brought from the UK in the bedrooms and lounge area. They'll probably be too heavy for the summer months but they look pretty good for now and better than those I inherited. Just need to shorten them. Must admit I haven't quite got the hang of buying Spanish curtains yet (no pun intended)!

We called at a tapas bar for lunch and bumped into the girl via whom we bought our first property here (actually it's her father in law who's the agent). Very talented young lady, she speaks five languages! I think both Derek and I must have eaten something that disagreed with us because we felt quite 'off' it all afternoon and neither of us could eat our dinner.

Today is market day but this week we're giving it a miss. Hopefully we'll get our pictures hung at last and I need to do some cleaning too. I still have hopes of visiting another kitchen showroom if possible.

Finally, I need to prepare my scrapbooking area if I'm going to take part in the Scrapitude Cyber Crop this weekend. I tried to organise it as I was unpacking but having looked at it again it's not going to work for me the way it is. I haven't unpacked my two totes yet and I must print off the requirements for each of the four classes and decide what I'm going to use. Not to mention choosing pictures as well.

Later.......

We didn't get the pictures hung - Derek wasn't feeling up to helping me and I couldn't do them alone. The walls must be concrete, it's not just a question of knocking a picture hook in! Maybe tomorrow, maybe next week.....

So I set to in my craft area, re-arranged all my tools etc. Finally got my Craft Robo installed on my laptop, printed some pictures, sorted cardstock and papers and other requirements for the different classes. Unfortunately my laptop is too far away from the router (and with two solid walls in between!) for the ADSL to stay connected. That's a nuisance - I'll have to keep running backwards and forwards from lappy to scraproom!

Should have gone out for dinner tonight but Derek didn't feel like it, which suited me as I still had plenty to do here. So it was a quick pasta meal (right up my street!).

Some good news - ScrappyFairy is engaged! - her Ben very romantically proposed and she's accepted, the ring is gorgeous! Congratulations to you both!

It will probably be Monday before I blog again if I really get stuck into the Cyber Crop, it gets quite intense and I have been know to scrap into the small hours on these crazy weekends! So have a good weekend, see you in a couple of days!

More missing items!

Could swear I packed a hole punch, but despite a thorough search it hasn't shown up yet... Especially annoying as I had a lot of filing to do yesterday. Bought a replacement and quite expected the darn thing to appear somewhere obvious but not so far.

We also seem to be missing two spotlights, but they could well be in the basement among Derek's tools and other stuff that is still languishing in the boxes they came in - that's his department and even though it's spread everywhere and making moving around in there difficult, I'm still not touching it!

We had a quiet weekend, went out for dinner Saturday evening, but otherwise chilled a bit. Much needed in my case and I even managed an afternoon siesta. I think I was psyching myself up for yesterday's paperwork and phone call marathon!

Today we've had the 'junk' taken away, a visit from the gardener and also the electrician, plus we managed a supermarket shop this morning. We had planned to go look at more kitchens and visit the hardware store in Teulada but we were too late getting started today to fit it in.

Now that was strange - we have a bedside clock which updates itself from a remote signal, I don't know how it works but back in the UK it always did the change from GMT to summer time automatically. We managed to change it to Spanish time but for some reason during the night it went back to UK time! Weird! It also projects the time onto the ceiling so you can lie in bed and see the time in big red figures - neat! So I got up thinking it was 7 am when it was actually 8 am. Threw me right out.

Disappointed that one of my heroes of the scrapbooking world, Cathy Zielske, has shut down her blog, temporarily I hope. I did enjoy reading her thoughts. Hope she comes back soon.

The weather has been quite mixed over the last few days - we had torrential rain on Saturday for a couple of hours (found all the leaks!), since then it's been a mix of sunshine and clouds but still warm, usually around 22 degrees during the day. I think there'll be rain tomorrow.

Heard from Sara today that our webcam has arrived so look forward to getting that in the next week or two, along with mail that's still being sent to our old address.

This weekend there's a cyber crop on the Scrapitude site - I've really enjoyed the previous 3 but I don't expect to be able to fully take part this time. However I'm going to have a look at the requirements for the classes and try and pick some suitable pictures, and do what I can.

OK, that's it for today. Hope we remember to sort that clock out before we fall asleep!

Quieter days

The last couple of days have been much less frantic! Almost everything is now unpacked and homed, including our 'current' clothes. Spent time in the basement getting rid of some junk and tidying parts of it. It's the 'man' junk that needs to be dealt with now and Derek can only cope with it for a short while at a time. So it will be a slow process. We've inherited a christmas tree and decorations but I haven't looked at them closely - time enough for that!

Managed to unpack our regular clothes but had to resort to start using another room's wardrobes! So have started a charity clothes bag now!

Found a missing torch and a fire extinguisher - they were hiding in a box I thought I'd gone through already but when I moved a couple of things there they were. That's set Derek's mind at rest because they were among the last things packed and it's been puzzling both of us for days because we couldn't find them.

Market day today - we got there the earliest we've ever been but the car park was still almost full and by the time we left the traffic was horrendous. I don't know where all these people come from - maybe some of them come on coach trips from Benidorm or other resorts. By 10.30 it was heaving. Once again bought some lovely fruit and veg, more plants and a very nice ceramic plant pot. Then it was to the supermarket for supplies. I really must get the freezer working this weekend, I miss having bread and milk readily available plus meat and veg. I really only want to visit the supermarket once a week so I have to sort something and quick!

And we've had the tiniest drop of rain today! It's also been blowing a gale - well, actually a strong breeze, but I hate the wind so to me it's a gale!

Something strange happened to the water today. The community is going onto mains drainage and work has been going on in the swimming pool area for the last couple of weeks. We suspect maybe a pipe was damaged and the water cut off while we were out this morning, because all the toilets, basins and 'wet' appliances (washer, dishwasher) seem to have air in the pipes. The colour was disgusting as well - even after flushing the toilet it still looked as though it hadn't been flushed at all. Yuck! Thankfully it's clear now and it didn't affect the washing!

OK, that's it for today - ta ta for now!

Getting there

I launched a ferocious attack on the laundry room first thing today. We think it was a garage originally, but the previous owners changed it to a laundry area and built a garage above it (we're on a slope and now have a 'fly-over' drive). We hope to convert it to a bedroom as Derek has difficulty with stairs (still waiting for the builder and plumber to show up!). It had become a dumping ground, plus my desk has been put in there and all my scrapbooking stash. My stash is now unpacked, the desk is clear and ready to be worked at! There's a neat row of baskets full of stuff to go in the basement (tools etc.) and the whole place looks a damn sight better than it did this time yesterday.

We went in search of a shop which could sell us a webcam and headset - in vain.... Resorted to ordering from ebuyer and having it sent to Sara so she can send it to us. So we're probably looking at a couple of weeks wait. Then we went to visit the kitchen showroom we failed to get to yesterday. I like their prices much better! We've had another showroom recommended to us and will probably search it out Friday or Saturday (tomorrow is another holiday).

Finally we got the CDs, DVDs and videos unpacked and put on shelves. Just need to fetch a few unwanted (inherited) items out of the basement to go on the junk pile, and put the stuff we've decided to store rather than unpack into the basement, choose where we're going to put our pictures and we'll be about done.

Apart from unpacking clothes and doing the 'admin' stuff (paperwork), that is.....

I do feel much better about things today, probably because I made such a difference in the laundry room! (Little things....)

Had a long phone conversation this evening with a friend here in Moraira, and got up to speed with the gossip.

Yep, it's been a good day today!

Aaaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhhh.......

Another 35 towels surfaced yesterday! We unpacked the stereo system (finally!) - 7 boxes in total. Each piece had been wrapped and packed in towels - most were old and should have been tossed when we packed our home up in June but we used them for packing instead. That accounted for 24, but when we ran out we used our better towels, mostly bath sheets, and I'd completely forgotten them. 11 more to find a home for! Plus 4 scatter cushions, which match curtains I've brought with me. The stereo works - we gave the neighbours a blast of Neil Diamond by way of a test! Just need to tidy up the cables (why do they always mate the minute you turn your back!) and find all the CDs etc.

I'm flagging, was too tired to blog last night, and my body aches. There's still a lot to do but I think (I hope!) another week will see us straight. I haven't even thought about tidying the garden yet, but I think we're going to get someone in to help with that. I desperately want to get into a 'normal' routine......

Derek is suffering from cabin fever so today we're going out - grocery shopping and looking at kitchens amongst other things. He would like to have lunch out at the tapas bar as well. Also need to post Elli's card for her first birthday on Saturday - can't believe it's a year since I watched her being born! What an experience!

I promised my mates on Scrapitude I'd post pictures of what I hope will be my new scrapping area so here it is. Please don't get hysterical, and cross your fingers it will turn out OK, because if it doesn't I don't have a clue where I'll find room to put my stash and be able to work!





It's a small corner neatly separated from the rest of the basement. You'll have to use your imagination and visualise what it will look like with a couple of coats of white paint and some decent lighting! The natural shelves formed by the blocks will make wonderful storage space. My only worry is damp when we have rain but in the two years we've had the house we've not seen any sign of it, nor smelt it either. Until it's ready I hope to use the laundry room, which we plan to turn into a downstairs bedroom - we're waiting for the builder to come and discuss our plans with us and get some idea of timescale for the work.

We managed to get to look round one kitchen store today - German kitchens to die for! So many features - but prices to match! We attempted to get to a second place but had to park quite a way away and the battery on Derek's mobility scooter gave out before we got to the top of the hill! I tried to get close enough to the shop to drop Derek off so I could park and walk back but that didn't work either, so we gave it up as a bad job and came home. The battery has been on charge ever since! Will try again tomorrow.

Tried to set up my webcam. The software loaded but when I hooked the camera to the computer it kept asking me to instal the software or kept saying there were errors with the installation. The camera is about five years old so I guess it's too old for my new lappy. Tried to get a new camera in town this evening but no luck. We may order online and have it sent to Sara to send on to us, but we have another shop to try tomorrow.

OK, that's it for today!

I didn't have time to do last week's when SarahJane posted it so doing both together now!

Sunday Blogger #5

PET HATES..if you had to list the top 5 pet hates.. the things that physically make you go "UGH"what would they be? what peeves you? What can make you leave a room!? Have a think and show us all your top five!

In no particular order:

1. Bad driving manners - I wish I knew when the Highway Code was re-written because it surely must have been. These are just a few of the things that set me off! Failing to indicate or use the correct lanes on roundabouts; oncoming traffic not waiting to overtake a line of parked cars (on their side of the road), forcing those who have the right of way to take to the gutter or pavement; pulling out of junctions in front of me especially when there's nothing following me - does three seconds matter all that much?; tail-gating, don't think I need to elaborate on that one.
2. Telephone sales calls - thank you but no, I do NOT wish to upgrade my 4 month old phone, I have no need of double glazing, new drive or new kitchen.
3. Following on from 2, I dislike intensely the habit of practically everyone you speak to in these phone calls insisting on calling me by my first name without asking my permission. In most cases I am likely to be old enough to be the caller's grandmother, never mind mother, and if they must be informal they should at least check it's OK with me first.
4. Interruptions when I'm concentrating hard or doing something which requires my full attention and/or not being able to finish what I start (except possibly when I'm scrapbooking!). When I was working I once figured it out that 4 minutes was about the average time I had before being interrupted!
5. Being taken for granted.

I'm sure if I was still in the UK I could have come up with better 'hates' than those - it must be the Spanish lifestyle that's calmed me down!

On to:

Sunday Blogger #6

This weeks blog prompt is a TAG. A Tag is when someone you know "hits" you via email or PM with a list of questions that you blog, in theory anyone who reads the blog prompts from scrapitude or UKS have been hit........The sunday Blog tag questions are as follows:

1: Do you have any middle names? Norma (I don't like it)
2: Whats under your bed right now? Actually - nothing! We have tiled floors, beds with 'legs' and I cleaned the rooms thoroughly last week. There might be a little dust again but that's all!
3: Last time you laughed so much you cried? I don't remember; that's not to say I haven't, I just can't remember.
4: What age were you when you first drank alcohol? Probably about 15 or 16 - hard to remember as it was so long ago (late 50s/early 60s).
5: Whats your porn star name? (first pets name and mothers maiden name) Micky Harris
6: Whats your desk top photo on your pc? That purple flower, looks like an iris. Haven't updated to one of my own pics yet.
7: What did you have for breakfast? Bacon rolls!
8: Music or Tv? TV if anything, Derek watches more than I do.
9: Worst out fit you have ever worn? Can't remember, there must have been several in the 70s and 80s that were totally gross but nothing immediately springs to mind.
10: Where do you feel most at peace? Practically anywhere if everything is right in my world.

Thank you SarahJane!

Making progress

I really feel I am at last! Yesterday I unpacked my own kitchen pots and pans, the ones I really couldn't bear to let go and the utensils, bowls, knives etc. that I need to make my kitchen work properly! I dragged a shelf unit into the kitchen from the laundry room and set all my stuff out.

Where the shelf unit is there used to be an enormous fridge and one of the armchairs that should have been in the sitting area. Just making those changes has opened up the kitchen and made me realise how much space I have in that area now. Even if I wasn't planning to have a new kitchen installed I could live with this arrangement. My plan is to tackle one kitchen cupboard at a time, throwing out the 'inherited' stuff and putting my own in from the shelves.

In the laundry room this shelf housed about 24 sets of bed linen (singles), probably 30 bath sheets, and so many medium sized towels I haven't counted them yet! All the bedlinen is now upstairs in the wardrobes of each room, so many sets per bed, along with more than enough towels for guests, some of which, the wild patterns and bright coloured ones, have been 'downgraded' to beach towels. Today I plan to 'thin out' the remainder of the smaller towels and whatever remains will be stored in the downstairs cloakroom.

I also managed to put together a couple of 'first aid' boxes from the mish mash of plasters, cotton wool, ointments, cold remedies, indigestion tablets etc. which were scattered around the place. And I set up separate boxes for our prescription medicines (we brought 3 months worth with us). It's amazing how these little steps are beginning to stamp our personality on the house.
We visited the garden centre and bought more plants and potting compost. We put them into pots today and placed them on the low wall of the terrace, very pleased with the effect.

Derek thought he might make a start at setting up the stereo system, which is currently sitting in six boxes in the living area. It didn't get done, so has been moved to tomorrow's list of things to do!

I must add here that furniture and ornaments in these pictures is what we inherited!

Spent a long time talking to Chloe via Messenger tonight, sending icon pictures and so on. Scott had set up their webcam so I was watching her typing (she's only 7!) - such concentration! Then I sent a message saying I wish I could hear her voice because she was obviously talking all the while. Next thing she's got a pair of headphones and a mic on and we're actually talking via the computer (cheaper than a phone call!). I've got headphones but only the built in mic in the computer so on Tuesday we'll go to the electrical shop and see if I can get something better. Also need to search out my webcam and set it up so they can see us. All this technology!

Derek keeps on at me to relax but I want to get on and get everything unpacked and found a home. Once that's done I can get back to my scrapbooking - I took pictures of my proposed new basement scrapping area today - it needs painting, new lights and more power points, at the moment it's a complete shambles. Will post pictures tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the sun continues to shine, 27 degrees on our terrace today at one point. Tomorrow is fiesta - maybe there'll be fireworks!

Off to bed soon, hoping for an early start and lots of progress tomorrow!

Overslept.....

I can't remember the last time I didn't get up later than 6.30 am - I seem to have an inbuilt alarm; this morning however it was 8.15! And on Market Day too! Didn't give Derek time to come round slowly as I usually do, we needed to be up, breakfasted and off! There are never enough parking spaces on market day, you need to be there early, and although we were down there by 9.30 there were only about 30 spaces left in the big car park, which is supposed to hold 1,000 vehicles. However on Fridays the market stalls probably claim 150 to 200 spaces and the stallholders vehicles another 50 to 100, so space is at a premium.

It was lovely and sunny and we did stop for a coffee at one of the refreshment stalls after we'd done shopping - today we bought strawberries, yellow plums, bananas and oranges, potatoes, asparagus, cauliflower, lettuce, enormous spring onions, radishes, cucumbers, mushrooms and tomatoes - I think that's it! No different to what I'd buy in England really, it's just that the size and taste are so much better! Bearing in mind there are only two of us and stuff goes off quite quickly, I think we'll be eating a lot of fruit for breakfast and heaps of salad for lunch! We also bought plants - Derek can never resist the plant stalls and it took two trips to the car to unload all we bought. At last I managed to get a pot of basil - I love the smell of basil! There were bargains to be had on some men's shirts, but I couldn't carry any more stuff!

After lunch and while we were waiting for Michael the plumber to arrive I sorted throws, towels and bed linen, all of which had got into a bit of a muddle in the laundry room, and stashed them away in the bedrooms, ready for visitors.

We've asked for the water filter to be fitted as soon as possible, and for the steps to the drive to be built asap as well. Michael is bringing the builder round next week sometime to refresh his memory about the steps and get a quote for the conversion of the laundry room to a downstairs bedroom and ensuite (it's a BIG laundry room!). We've also asked for a quote for aircon. Then we'll need a new kitchen........ Michael went away with a long list and a smile!

How's this for service?? !! Yesterday I mentioned we were having trouble keeping the pilot light going on the boiler. Michael decided a new thermocouple was needed and said he'd get Junkers (who made the boiler) to call in and replace it. He phoned his office, asked them to phone Junkers to get the service call logged (next week there are two fiesta days when no-one will be working so he wanted the call making today). Amazingly 10 minutes after Michael left I had a phone call (in Spanish) from which I got the words 'ahora' (today), diez minutos (10 minutes) and 'a su casa' (at your house). Sure enough 10 minutes later the Junkers man was here, the boiler was fixed, we parted with €75 and we once again had agua caliente (hot water)! And this is Spain! I am still stunned!

This evening we decided to eat out - back to the Country Kitchen. We are getting predictable - Jan had just about written Derek's choices down before he opened his mouth! We should explore more places to eat but we love CK so much. Maybe we'll alternate - CK one week, a new place the next.

I think the weekend will see us doing a bit of gardening and I'd like to get my kitchen things unpacked. I'm desperate to get some scrapbooking under way, but I won't let myself do it until everything is either unpacked or taken into the basement to be stored. Therefore the sooner I do it, the sooner I can set up a temporary scrap area. The permanent area will be in the basement but it needs tidying up and painting first.

It's late again, off to bed - nighty night all!

It's just us now...

Wednesday - A new day dawns and the real on-our-own-now start of our life here in Moraira... Trying to get used to the idea that this is now HOME!

Earlier in the week Derek had made me agree to having a few days doing nothing (and getting my feet back to normal!) once everyone had gone home. I thought it would be easy but I'm afraid that's just not my style! If there's stuff to do I have to do it - my philosophy has always been pain before pleasure - LOL! Therefore today I made a start on straightening the house up. We made a few phone calls - to the electrician Mark to get some more lights fitted in the garden and in the basement, to Michael the plumber (100% Plumbing) to discuss having a water filter fitted plus starting work on the steps up to the drive which his builder has already quoted for, and also to talk about converting the HUGE laundry room to a downstairs bedroom and ensuite (the shower, handbasin and toilet were put in by the previous owners).

Sara phoned to tell us about their flight home - Ellianne was hyper for about an hour and a half, playing peek-a-boo with any nearby passenger who would play the game! Then she finally fell asleep. Chloe was an absolute angel and struck up a conversation with the people sitting behind them. Sara had lots of offers of help from fellow passengers if she needed it, and was lucky to have one of the two spare seats on the plane beside her, so she was well pleased! Thomson's have completely wrecked Ellianne's pushchair, it's beyond repair. She'd already spoken to them before she phoned us and was optimistic that she'd get compensation and a new pushchair chosen by the end of the day.

(I've come to the conclusion that baggage handlers never travel by plane - if they did, surely they'd have more respect for other people's luggage - grrrrrrrrrrr......)

And she has a moving date - my birthday, 27th October. Just over three weeks to pack, bless her. And I'm not there to help *sob* - however, her m-i-l will lend a hand and there are other family and friends to help as well. I'm so relieved she has this move to think about it and no time to dwell on us being here in Spain.

I cleaned all the bedrooms and bathroom upstairs and re-arranged the furniture. I have a growing pile of surplus furniture for the 'man with the van'! Three separate small side tables scattered around the place turned out to be a nice set of nesting tables, I'd like to find a home for them somewhere in the house if I can, so might hang on to them for a while. The last thing to go was a big pot with yet more silk flowers which stood at the top of the stairs. I've replaced it with a white wicker display stand thing - it stands about 4 feet high, measures about 9 or 10 inches square and has five shelves. I plan to search out some colourful Spanish ceramic pieces to display on it.

It was gone 6 before we went shopping - I will be so relieved to have the water filter in, I'm fed up with carting litres and litres of water from the supermarket! The downside of that will be not having lovely chilled bottles in the fridge - best find my ice trays!

Threw a quick pasta meal together and chilled for the rest of the evening.

Incidentally, the temperature hasn't dropped below 21 degrees since we've been here, it really is gorgeous right now. Today there was a bit of a breeze and it's caused us problems with the pilot light on the boiler. Think it must be the direction of the wind - another thing to discuss with the plumber on Friday!

and Thursday......

Mark texted to say some b***ard cloned his Mastercard somewhere in Spain (fuel station most likely) and tried to use it yesterday. Fortunately it was refused and somehow the fraud squad are involved. On the plus side, the truck hire company have agreed to return our deposit in full and trade off the damage to the mudguard (incident with a traffic cone on the way through France - must have been filled with cement) against the extra fuel costs we incurred due to the injector nuts being loose (their fault). So we'll just be charged 4 days hire. Nice one Mark!

Sara has the new pram for Elli and is delighted with it. It's not the same make as the one which was damaged but she thinks it's better by far. Elli seems to like it too - she made herself very comfy and fell asleep!

Tackled the living area today, the pile for the man with the van gets ever bigger! Today's chuck outs included a coffee table and a stereo system complete with speakers, more silk flower arrangements, a pair of pottery cats and some strange brass items. I need to unpack my own kitchen pots, pans and utensils but the cupboards all need a good clean first - might fit it in tomorrow, though I've half promised myself a day off from cleaning and planned to concentrate on mundane stuff like ironing!

This evening we had a visit from J. and C., the lady who looks after her between school ending and M. getting home. Really pleased to see them.

Market day tomorrow, plan to stock up on fresh fruit and veg, I think we could live just on those things, there is so much choice and it all looks so appetising - would be good for our figures as well!

Off to bed, it's past midnight (and still 22 degrees!)....

The boys go 'home' ....

When will I stop calling the UK 'home' I wonder?

The boys left about 8.15 after tearful farewells. I don't think either of them wanted to go and if Mark hadn't been due to drive a lorry load of stairs to Scotland later in the week neither would have taken any persuading to stay on an extra day. Scott was very relaxed, unlike his holiday here in July, and Mark apparently just loves the place. I don't think we'll have any trouble getting them to visit us in the future!

Unfortunately the lorry's diesel leak worsened during the day and early evening they phoned and asked us to find an Iveco service centre somewhere in the south of France (can't remember exactly where they were!); meanwhile Mark was in touch with the hire company in the UK who estimated it would be four hours before anyone would get to them. Eventually, after a fruitless internet search here, and complete lack of useful information from the hire people, the boys decided to press on - the drive from Moraira to Calais is about 22 hours including stops.

We'd kept ourselves busy for the rest of the day, no difficulty there as there's plenty to do! To be honest, so much has happened in the last ten days that I'm beginning to lose track of it all!

Ellianne developed a very nasty nappy rash, which we can only think was caused by using a different brand of baby wipes I must say they had quite a strong 'vinegary' smell, even though they were marked as being 'sensitive' and containing aloe vera. Sara and I rushed off into the village after our steak and chips tea to search out some Johnson's ones at the english supermarkets. No joy - we were too late, they'd both closed. Thank goodness for M. who gave us some Sudacrem, and then Sara found a tiny pot of it in one of her bags.

We heard from the boys about 9.30 am Tuesday morning - they'd reached Calais! Someone had managed to get to them during the night and discovered four loose nuts or something on the fuel injectors (I think!). They got the 10.30 ferry back to Dover.

Tuesday was a strange day, Sara and the girls being due to leave at 5 pm. We went into the village for some last minute shopping. Sara had discovered Ale-Hop - it has some really gorgeous stuff! Derek and I had been there before and will certainly go again after we've had a new kitchen put in! I spent the afternoon playing 'schools' with Chloe while Sara did the last minute stuff.

Chloe worked it out that it's 83 or 85 days till christmas and then they'll be coming back!

All too soon it was time for them to go...... Antonio, our fave taxi driver, arrived dead on 5 pm. After that everything happened in a bit of a rush - J. got home from school in time to say goodbye, then just as Sara had got herself in the taxi Scott phoned. So protracted farewells were avoided, though we did all have tears. Sara texted soon after they'd left to let us know that Scott had arrived home safely and Mark was now on his way to Leeds to return the lorry and collect his own vehicle.

The house was so quiet after they'd left! It seemed really strange. Derek asked if I wanted to eat out, I said no! we'll have a chinese takeaway! I didn't want to do anything much at all, except soak my feet and have a nice long shower!

Sara texted to say she'd arrived home (her house) about midnight. Great - I can go to bed now, it's 1.15 am....

Continued.....

Saturday 30th - Unpacking day! Of the lorry, that is.... Up bright and early in order to start before the heat became too much to work in. Everything that had been packed up when we sold our house was in four wooden crates but the things we'd had with us in our temporary accommodation (i.e. Mark's house!) was loose and that all came off first - cases, boxes and most of my scrapbooking stash. We have a 'fly-over' drive and the area beneath, which is by the barbecue, proved the ideal spot to 'dump' everything. Mark had brought a lifting device to move the crates around and at one point the lorry had all the crates on one side - I thought it would tip over as it was parked with two wheels on the pavement, so as not to block our narrow-ish road, and the crates ended up on the lower side! Sara and I were, to put it mildly, sh*t scared!

Finally everything was off loaded and all the stuff in big piles in various places in the garden.

Next job was moving fridges and freezers around. I didn't like the way they were and now I no longer have to 'put up with it because we're only here on holiday', I wanted to make changes!

Once that was done we let the boys relax a bit! Mark took himself off to the beach which he'd loved when they were here in July. He missed Robyn and felt all wrong that he was here and she wasn't.

I had made the mistake of wearing new sandals bought from the market during all this activity, mainly because my comfiest shoes were packed away in a bag yet to be found. By the time all the unloading was done I was in agony - hard skin and blisters are a very painful combination.

J.'s mum invited Chloe to go with J. to an activity session at the church in the village - she was thrilled about that and had a great time. They played here when they got back - you'd think they'd both have enough of school, but that's what they chose to play!

At the end of a long hot day we treated ourselves to a meal at our favourite restaurant, the Country Kitchen.

Sunday 1st - day of rest for the boys, and we decided to have a barbecue. There was some stuff to take back to the UK, a few bits of furniture Sara wanted, plus the majority of her's and the girls' clothes, to lighten her load on the return journey, as she'll be travelling alone with the children, so the boys loaded the lorry with that, then we despatched Mark and Sara to do the shopping for the BBQ! J. was supposed to be going out with her mum to friends but the girls managed to persuade M. to let her stay with us instead. After the BBQ we went into the village for ice cream at Tutto Frutto (check the varieties here) - Sara's fave is Ferrero Roche, I haven't decided which is mine yet, there are still several I haven't tasted *smacks lips*. Then onto the beach where the girls paddled in the sea - Chloe got her skirt wet and J. her shorts, so they took them off and carried on paddling and jumping waves in their panties - until they got those wet too!

Finally we headed for the marina to show the family a boat belonging to some people we know, see one like it here. A beautiful craft - Mark was totally drooling over it.

Headed home for an early night, the boys planning to leave about 8 a.m. Monday morning.

End of part two..................

Time to catch up......

I'm worried about boring everyone with what's been going on over the last week - if I'd been able to blog each day separately it would have been better, but it just hasn't been possible.

So here we are in sunny Spain (yes, it really is - I'm not just saying that to make you all feel bad or me feel good!). I'm still in 'holiday mode' and I guess I will be for a few more days or maybe even weeks. However there are piles of stuff to find homes for and it may be that sorting them out will make me realise once and for all that we're here for good.

But let me go back to the day we left....

Tuesday, 26th - had to repack our cases a couple of times, trying to make room for stuff I normally would take as hand luggage, leaving a few things behind I thought I could manage without until the lorry came on Friday. Turns out I could have taken more into the cabin than I thought. Seurity seems to be all over the place at Doncaster. You'd have thought they'd be opening check in desks earlier than two hours before the flight, they've been making enough fuss about security measures. But no, this lot managed to be 15 minutes late getting the desks open even though ours was the only flight checking in.

Derek got a phone call from his bank while we were queueing because he'd overlooked his barely overdue credit card payment. English is not the primary language for the person who was on the other end, which always makes conversation difficult. Derek made the mistake of telling her that we were actually moving to Spain as they spoke, so of course she wanted the new address. Could have killed him! Because of his poor vocal strength most phone calls to him end up with me so I found myself talking to this non-english person and having to spell out every word of our new address. It was when I started to spell A-L-I-C-A-N-T-E (the third line of our address) that Sara and Derek collapsed in hysterics behind me and I could barely finish the conversation.

We arrived at Alicante along with about 6 other flights (why do they DO that?) all trying to get our luggage at the same time, seemingly no extra baggage handlers are employed at mega busy times so it took us at least half an hour longer than normal to get on our way. We were pretty late getting to the house and the girls were a bit fractious. Had to change one of the bedrooms round to get the travel cot up and I think we fell into bed just after midnight.

Wednesday 27th - First job is always a trip to the supermarket to stock up. DS2 Mark and his friends were in the house last and left us pretty well stocked up with booze and soft drinks, and we found bread and bacon in the freezer (amongst other stuff), so managed bacon sarnies for breakfast. Can't really remember much about Wednesday other than finding my re-packing before departure had left me short of a few items I needed! Sara decided she'd better hire a high chair for Ellianne, as the booster seat thingy she had wasn't a good fit on our chairs. Think Wednesday was the evening we went into the village for dinner. Throughout the day the washing machine was going constantly doing the bedding and towels that had been left from Mark et al's holiday (I knew it was waiting for me as they'd had an early morning flight home and no time to see to it!)

Thursday 28th - Mark and Scott (Sara's husband) left Lincoln about 10 am, made excellent time to Dover and caught an earlier ferry than we'd booked for them. However, due to the changes made to the vehicle before they left, they had to pay extra because the lorry was bigger than I had booked but the good news was that they qualified as freight and were able to use the drivers' lounge, which amongst other things allowed them to eat free! The lorry had a sleeper compartment so they planned to do four and a half hour shifts of driving each with the non-driver sleeping. Sara and Scott kept in touch by text and phone throughout the day. As for us back here waiting, Thursday was pretty much like Wednesday - Sara took Chloe and Ellianne down to the pool in the afternoon but the water was much cooler than when they were here in the summer.

The washing machine continued to churn away - ended up doing 9 loads! By the time they were done we were beginning to fill the laundry basket with our own dirty washing...... Thankfully everything was drying quite quickly in the 24/25 degree heat....

Friday 29th - Friday is market day in Moraira and a must for a wonderful selection of fruit and vegetables. It's also the place to buy sheepskin slippers! Sara and Scott won't wear anything else and every holiday visit requires the purchase of half a dozen pairs or more - at €5 or €6 a pair they're an absolute bargain. A must for me is the 'Aloe Vera' stall where I buy the cream I use for cleansing and moisturising, along with various other aloe vera products. We bought Chloe a Spanish dress and shoes, very touristy! Although the market was busy it was nothing like as busy as in the peak season but parking was the usual nightmare.

By now we knew the boys would be arriving about 3 pm. We'd underestimated the cost of the toll roads through France and Spain and they'd just about run out of euros, not helped by the lorry developing a diesel leak and needing to be refuelled more often than expected. They turned up on time, hot, sweaty and tired but relieved to have arrived safely. Scott was disappointed not to have seen more of France in daylight, especially the Millau viaduct which he'd seen on a Discovery channel Megastructures programme.

Unloaded a few bits and bobs from the lorry but decided to leave the rest till the following day.

Went out for Chinese dinner and a spot of shopping for cigars and cigarettes to take back to England. Also acquired a parking ticket!

Chloe met up again with J. who lives a few doors away from us. J.'s mum M. is editor of The CB Friday and they played together when we were here in July, J. also played with Robyn, Mark's little girl, when they were here in July. J. is of course at school during the day but they made up for it over the weekend and played here most of Saturday and Sunday.

End of part one!