General life in Spain....

I thought I would post about some of the things that are different here to in the Uk and just general things I have observed. Because of the heat here, everyone woks to a very different routine them back in England. It is too hot in the afternoon to work or do anything much at all bar veg so everyone works until 2pm then everywhere shuts, and I mean everywhere. All the shops and services. They then all go home and have lunch and spend time with their families. I love this. The whole of Spain stops everyday to spend time with their family. What a great thing to do! They then go back to work at about half five and open up until 8pm. In the cities and town this can even be till 10pm. So all the shopping is done in the morning or evening. Parking rules on street meters don't start until 9am and you don't pay between 2pm and 5pm when everyone goes home or on Saturdays or Sundays either. Everything is more relaxed here and there is a feeling of don't rush, it's ok. Tranqiulla! None of the social gatherings for fiestas start before 10pm as it is too hot for people to bother going out. So you see children out really late here and they are sleep in the hottest part of the day. On the whole is it much cheaper to live here. Fuel being about 40p cheaper, and food in some cases much cheaper. You can get bread here for 20p and fruit and veg very cheaply too. Everything is at least a bit cheaper if not a lot. The parks here can be really messy though as they rarely have grass so they just have stones or a dusty floor with which the children get covered from head to toe in dust. I have found parks with grass, but as it is so expensive to water them every day it seems to only be in big cities. Nice grass is a rare find here and takes a lot of looking after, although the higher up the mountain you go I have found places where people have brought land and it is covered in lovely grass, so it is here. I think you just have to look really hard to find land with really good water supply. Water in Spain can be a real problem as you can imagine. Most of the houses in towns and cities have mains waiter, but not all! and those that don't are supplied with agricultural water. This comes from the snow that melts up on the mountains, so as you can imagine this in summer can get in really shout supply. There are a lot of houses where in August they have no water until it rains heavily again which here can be a long time. If we buy land here, it has to be on mains or have a source of spring water all year. You have to be so careful as having water in the winter does not mean that you have it all year. There are a lot of dry rivers here at the moment and I bet if you came looking for land in the winter, it would look completely different. It has been really good to see Spain in the hight of summer as this is when you see all the issues that rise with the heat and problems you are likely to get with your land. Winter is a bit easier.  It hasn't rained here since we got to Spain.....at all yet!

All of the small towns are still like they used to be in England with all the small separate shops selling their own produce. You have a separate bakers, butchers, fish mungers, and they are shops selling all the local cheeses and hams here in Alpujarra. There are lots of shops that sell large hams and meats on one side of the shop, and then the wine to go with them on the other side of the shop. That's it. That's all they sell is hams and wine. Tim will love it here! You can still find all the some kind of produce in the large hypermarkets and there is even a better range of  the gluten free and diet stuff too. There are shops devoted to ice cream made here, and ceramic shops with work done out the back. There are lots of wicker work places to selling baskets and water holders made while you watch. There is a market every Thursday that sells everything form clothes to local veg and spices, and a Rastro on Sundays where local people sell the things they have made or just want to sell. It's a cross between a car boot and a proper market. The roads in this region are really bendy, high, and narrow. As we are on the side of a mountain, you have no choice but to drive on some road that I never imagined that I would.  How the Spanish do it in their little puntos I have no idea! They just don't know any different. I am getting used to it, but if you are afraid of heights then this is not the area for you. If not though there are some of the most amazing views that I have ever seen. I must admit that there are some road that I just won't do and some houses on the edge of the cliffs that I wouldn't want to be in. If we buy land here we need to be specific about it being relativity flat, having easy access (which just means actually being able to get the car up to it) and having really good water. The higher up you go the colder it will be in winter too. That s the next thing to see. What is it really like here in winter? Does everyone leave? Is it too cold up here? We will see. Anyway, I must go and clean my children who have been running around outside and playing with the small stones on the camp site floor again and are now covered in dust. ( a regular occurrence ) At least here we can shower!

We went to see the house again....here it is!

I feel really positive today as we not only got to go and see the house again with a view to looking at the kitchen bits and taking some pics for you guys, but I also gave my first English lesson here. Tow in fact! So we were sat outside with the owner of the camp site last night and her daughter offered to help me with my Spanish. I said that if she did I would help her with her English in return. This then lead to her brother wanting a lesson too and before I knew it I was giving them a full on lesson each. It was good to get going and I really enjoyed it. Any way we then went this evening to see the house and the landlord (who is an ex primary teacher here) said that his daughter works in a center providing child care in the village and there is a room there I could use to teach English. He said he had spoken to her and I could maybe use the room and teach the children or parents of the children. He said he will take me there and introduce me to her. It is really great news as he knows lots of people in the village and I think he will be a great help in getting a good reputation here.  I am trying to get the Spanish going as fast as I can, but it is not easy! So many verbs. It is really hard. I also talked to a friend here about an idea of mine about supplying kids clubs to the retreat centres around here (of which there are many!) I want to provide parents with a kids club type thing so that they can enjoy a retreat while still bringing their children. Not everyone has the choice to come away with out them. I have been given a contact for a retreat here so I will sell it to them first and see what they say. There is an intercambio session on a Tuesday that I have just found out about so we are going to go to that next week to meet some more people and practise my Spanish. So here are the pics of the house. 15 days and counting...this is what £397 a month gets you here...five bedrooms, two bathrooms, a pool, a massive plot of land, a massive activity/ party room, and a really nice kitchen and fire place in the front room. Erm...might stay for a while.

and this is inside...

teaching room..

hall..

teaching room with separate entrance and kitchen area.

down stairs bathroom

kitchen

hall

one of the bedrooms is downstairs...four upstairs. Handy for people staying. All have two beds in them! 

front entrance.

Photo's, photo's, and more photo's......

Now feeling much better ad a little cooler I will post the photos of the Alhambra and the hotel etc. I didn't realise how ill I was until I started to feel better. having a temperature in blazing heat is not nice at all. Thank goodness I am much better now. Amy is struggling

with the heat a bit and there are moments where she just doesn't know what to do with herself and gets in  right old tis. I think this will ease greatly when we are in the house and she can keep cooler during the heat of the day. Anyway here are some pics of the Alhambra...

This is Granada and the hotel. Granada is stunning and has amazing plaza's where you can eat and drink surrounded by stunning buildings and old architecture. It is a very attractive city. Although we only saw a small part and there is meant to be loads more great places to see. next time we go we will get the tour bus around the city and see a

lot more. 

Been ill, really hot, and can't be bothered.....

I'm sorry I havn't bloged in a while, but I have been ill for a week and it has really zapped my energy. Being ill and living in a small caravan with two children isn't easy to say the least. Thank God I am feeling much better now. The raise in Temp to a running 44 degrees every day last week also knocked us and every time I went to blog I just felt to knackard. There have been moments this week when for the first time I have thought "what the hell am I doing". I think I have done well as it has taken nearly four months and a rather bad illness to bring this on. However being on my own at this point was tough. Although I did remind myself that even if I was in England I still would be on my own, just in a bigger house with a loo, and colder weather. The food thing is a pain in that I can't buy anything for tomorrow as it will go off in the heat by then. The fridge in the caravan in really tiny and even the milk goes off in there! So a house with water, a fridge, and a loo are going to be a blessing! I will always appreciate these things now.  So we went off to the Science centre, which was amazing! Loads for the kids to do and a really high observational tower amongst loads of other stuff to do. We stayed all day and had a great time. We also went to the beach, although this was when I then got really ill and we had to do a fast retreat back to the caravan for two nights of running to the loo and trying not to be sick. Oh that was fun. I must say that in this heat living in the caravan is wearing thin and we are all really looking forward to some more space and a cool place to hide in the afternoon. We have to just head to some shade by the pool and wait it out at the moment. Amy sits with a flannel on her belly and her feel in a bowl of cold water until it is cool enough to move again. We are muddling through though. So this weekend there was a planned pool party at the camp site. A full twelve hours of techno from midday till midnight. Oh joy. So we decided that we would book into a cheap hotel in Granada and use the chance to explore the city some more. I didn't realise just how massive it is! We arrived at lunch time yesterday, just after the techno starting banging out of the dj system by the pool. Ok So I didn't realise how I would feel about my first bath in three months. I have only had showers and all of these have been with the children in tow. Wow to get into a hot bath....heaven. I am learning to really appreciate the simple things in life, huh. We stayed in the hotel until it cooled at around 7pm and then went for a wander. It is a beautiful city with old buildings and tiny streets. Most of the city only allows local traffic and there are large sections which are no traffic at all. There are many plazas with bars and cafe where you can sit and eat and they are all cool and shaded. We then got up at 7:30am this morning (this was not easy on our part) and headed off to see the Alhambra. It was still really cool and we wandered around and looked at the gardens. It is stunning and well worth another visit or two. We didn't get back to the hotel until 2pm when we rested and then headed out at 7:30pm to find food. I would love to come back and do the tour on the bus as I think this would allow us to see so much more. Walking on foot with the kids gets you about four streets away and back. Still what I have seen has been amazing. We are off back to the caravan in the morning to wait out until we can get in the house. I feel stuck at the moment as I can't advertise for work or try anything out in that direction until I have Rob or Tim to help with the children. There is no way I can teach with them in tow. Not adults anyway. I can't advertise also until I am in the house and have the space to teach and my stuff from England to teach children. I want it to look right from the start as word will then spread. So until then.....we try and keep cool and wait. I will post pics as soon as I can get them off my phone tomorrow. Now for some sleep after another long day in the heat. Pics to follow... sorry about yet another speedy post, but this is not proving to be something I ever actually have allocated time to do. Maybe this will change one day.....Oh that's that dreaming thing again. Illusion I know. My ten mins is up and the kids are running riot in the room. I'm off.

Why is it there is always something to do?

I was hoping for a few days of not doing anything today and tomorrow, but nothing ever works out as you plan it. We got invited to watch a horse trainer train a horse on the campsite ground yesterday. The only problem was that it was for 8am this morning. Now the kids have not been in bed before 10 or 11pm since last month as it is far to hot even to think about it before then. Only at 10pm does it start to get dark and cool down enough to settle. So the idea of getting them up at half 7 to be ready was a bit of a worry. They were so excited to see a horse and maybe ride it though they were both keen to go to bed that bit earlier and were up and ready when she rode up. They watch keenly and got a few minutes on the horse at the end each. They really do love them. 

So as we were up so early we headed into town and and started to search for a replacement fuse that had blown last night in the caravan. My power went last night and I managed to chase the fault back to the electrical panel where a wire had burnt through and had blown one of the fuses. Now finding a 10A fuse in a small town in Spain is in interesting game. I started at the electrical shop...fair assumption right? Nope "Muy grande" too big! for them. So directed to the hardware store. Nope, on to the electrical appliance store...nope, and so it went on until I got to the garage who said try the shell petrol station. There the man looked at me, pulled a box of fuses out from under the desk, and got on straight out. 80p. Only took two hours to get there. So I re wired the panel and fitted the fuse and hay presto we have power again. Now I know my gas bottle is due to go soon so that will be the next thing. So we really didn't much rest today as after I fixed that the kids swam, and we went back into town as they had four massive free bouncy castles in the center all evening. Here's hoping for tomorrow. We brought some Spanish games today, one of which is a version of shops loto. I'm hoping it will bring on their Spanish some more. They are really enjoying it at the moment. We also brought some more books. I translate them and then read them in Spanish then English. It is good for us all and the children really like it. We have been to the Libarary several times now and they spend ages in their as the do in England. We need to join, but I have to get a residency card first, for which I have to go to Motril. Anyway I will try and write again tomorrow. We are up again early for the horse tomorrow. The kids will be knackard.