Three cheers for a walking stick!

Yesterday was the day for our visit to the Oficina de Extranjeros in Alicante for the next stage in our application for Residencia. It looked easy enough on the map .... The reality (as usual) was somewhat different - well, a bit anyway. We found the street, after a wrong turn and having to go back on ourselves, and the TomTom told us when we had reached our destination. Come again? That UNMARKED building with a big crowd and queue of people milling around? Ok, yeah, that's it... So where do you park? After driving round the block looking for a 'proper' car park it was obvious that you just abandon your car wherever you can. Luckily, second time round the block someone pulled away from the kerb right outside the entrance.

We'd decided if possible Derek would use his walking stick, just as well - no way would we have got the scooter anywhere near the office. I went to see if I could find out what the score was and heard some British voices. They had just been turned away from the door for not having all the correct papers but they were able to tell me where we needed to go. First down some steep steps with no hand rail for Derek to hang on to, scarey for both of us. Then a man standing outside the doors of the building yelled: 'Out, out' to all of us descending the steps, followed by something about security man and tickets. So we turned round and went back up the steps and out onto the street where we discovered a line of barriers we were supposed to queue behind. No sign of any security person (should have known by the time, he was on his break!). Derek sat back in the car waiting for the next move while I stood in line. After about 15 minutes said man appeared and continued his role of checking papers and handing out tickets which then entitled us to join the queue at the bottom of the steps.

Derek made his way down the steps again with me hanging on to him for dear life and a lovely British man walking one step in front of him in case he stumbled (always a possibility). When we got to the bottom, the man who'd told us to get out held everyone else back (including those who'd got tickets before we did) and took us straight in the building. We jumped the queue again ahead of those sitting waiting for a desk and clerk to come free and were taken to the first available desk. Papers checked, documents printed, photos attached where required and then handed back to the man, who turned out to be the one doing the fingerprints. Right index finger inked and printed and that was it! I bet we weren't in there ten minutes. I lost sight of the people around us who'd helped us up and down the steps and allowed us to go ahead of them, but I hope they weren't held up for too long because of it.

The only reason I could see for our 'special' treatment was Derek's disability and his walking stick. Sometimes you have to be thankful for these things.

So now we just have to take a paper to the bank to pay the fee, then in about a month's time we go to the Police Station at Benidorm to collect our ID cards.

On the home front, the painters arrived on Tuesday and started painting the bedroom walls, the doors, and they also painted the handrails on the new steps (I thought they were done - they looked OK to me!). Antonio started fixing the drive which is on a higher level and when it rains heavily the water seeps through and into what will be our wardrobe in the new room. We asked him to quote for removing the chimney breast in the living area and also crazy pave all of the back garden, including the barbecue area and under the drive. The first picture shows the back garden, the second where the new steps are, though this is an early picture and the steps are now tiled and have hand rails. There's some paving in the first picture on the right hand side - that's how the rest will be done.

Don't know when the work will start but it's going to be fun if they do it next week while the family are here!

Today I'm going to collect a wheelchair which is being loaned to us for our trip to Valencia next Monday. We're driving to Xeraco and taking the train from there. I contacted Help of Denia and they said this was the easiest way. I get the feeling that NO-ONE will drive in Valencia if they can help it. So how naive were we (me and Simon) when we did it TWICE when Derek was in hospital there!

Right, the shower beckons (I almost always blog first thing in the morning) so see you tomorrow or whenever! Have a good day!