I’m not sure when the reality of moving abroad kicks in but it happens soon after arriving and I frequently find myself thinking ‘We live in Spain now!’. The process of moving, as ever, had its challenges.
The day before leaving our house in the United Kingdom, Tuesday 29th July, the landlord of the Spanish house we are renting telephoned with some insecurities over the payment of rent. We had paid the deposit as requested and had an agreement to pay two months rent on signing of the contract the day after we moved in. At one point it looked very like he was going to return the deposit and take his house off the rental market. Fortunately by the end of the day we were back to our previous agreement but the anxiety levels we had were much raised by the incident.
The following day, Wednesday 31st July, the removal company were scheduled to collect our furniture at 9AM. The company had been booked over the Internet and it was already slightly concerning to us that we only had a company name and telephone number but no address to use. By 10AM when the van hadn’t arrived the anxieties of the previous day began to surface again and we were on the phone trying to find out what was going on. The story from the broker that arranged the removal was that the van had been locked in a warehouse over night and they had been unable to unlock the van until 9AM so we should expect a lunchtime collection. A further phone call at 1PM assured us that all was well and the driver had stopped for lunch at Exeter and would be with us shortly. When the removal van arrived the excitement was tangible. Out of the cab stepped a slightly overweight greying figure puffing on a cigarette. I asked innocently whether he had one or two colleagues with him for this job. He laughed and asked if I had read the email they sent out. The answer was of course ‘no’ as our Internet had switched off a couple of days previously. Apparently they did email to ask whether one person would be sufficient for the removal and asked that we email back if we thought it would be necessary to put another person on the van. So, £1400 to arrange a removal and we got one guy to lift all of our contents and furniture up the eighteen steps at the front of the house and down to the van parked fifty yards away. Consequently I had to put in three hours of back breaking work helping load the van. With the help of my sister-in-law and niece, Sally cleaned the house through ready for rental whilst I loaded the van and then we headed off to the in-laws for a meal and a couple of hours sleep before the morning flight to Spain.
The first day here, the 1st August, felt slightly surreal. It was a Thursday and we were recovering from a long day the day before with lots of physical work in either moving or cleaning. The night before travelling had given us a little over two hours sleep each due to the time of the flight and consequently we were all tired, anxious and struggling to enter into the spirit of things. We immediately cooled off in the pool on arriving – the temperature was already a very warm 34 degrees. The next door neighbour appeared over the wall immediately to give Emily and invite to her daughter’s birthday party on the coming Sunday. The pool guy turned up and shared a beer as he explained some of the idiosyncrocies of the house and area.
The house echoed for a few days and it wasn’t until out furniture arrived on the Saturday that it started to feel like home. With the additional furniture that didn’t fit on the first van only arriving yesterday and the furniture we had ordered from a local shop joining it yesterday evening the house finally started to look and feel like a home.
The unusual thing that strikes almost immediately on arriving is the quality of care and helpfulness in the local community. Emily had an invite to a birthday party. Another neighbour came down with a telephone for us to borrow and some cups and cutlery. He also provided some tea, coffee and milk to get ensure we could have a drink on arrival. Today we are off to a pool party with other friends – it is surprising how quickly the community feel picks you up and makes you feel like friends.
Getting used to Spanish time has been another challenge of the last week. Mostly ays start early, take time out in the middle of the day to sleep or rest inside, and then continue late. Two days ago we heard there was a fiesta in the nearby village of Simat. Having spent days in the house unpacking we decided it would be good for all of us to go down and enjoy a little of the Spanish party atmosphere. I don’t know what we expected – Simat is only a small village. Sally thought there may be some entertainment for children. I guess my stomach had decided there would be stalls selling delicious titbits of local food, maybe even an outside bistro for a cool beer. As we pulled into Simat we saw what we thought was a stage and seating so parked the car and headed over. In fact the end of the street had been blocked off with a heavy wooden barracade and looking over there were steel cages placed up and down the street with spaces for seating on top. The streets were crowded with people playing football and chatting. It soon became apparent that this was going to be a bull running festival and surely enough following a loud firework to mark the start a bull soon careered through the street stopping only a few feet away and snorting as it was taunted by the crowds. The spectacle was interesting but principally dull as the bull had the run of the whole village so would appear for a few moments and then disappear for the next half hour. Eventually we moved back to our own village with the thought of getting an evening meal. The restaurant served drinks but didn’t start serving food until 9.30PM so it was a late night when we eventually got back to the villa.
Today we are waiting on a phone call from our abogado (solicitor) to confirm she has collected our NIE (basically a national insurance number for foreigners that is needed for everything). And then out to enjoy afternoon sun at a friend’s pool party. Having spent nearly a week without Internet connection it has been hard to keep my blog upto dae but hopefully thanks to the assistance of a Spanish speaking English neighbour who managed to phone the Telefonica support line and get our Internet running, keeping upto date in future should be easier.
