Once upon a time I used to think that life
was something that you got the hang of.
Obviously it would take some practice and a lot of experience, a certain
level of income and for the kids to grow up.
As I have grown older, and with yet another birthday looming around the
corner, I am finally beginning to realise that life is more like a huge
roller-coaster ride, or Montaña Rusa (Russian Mountain) as they call it in
Spain. Now this is all sounding like one
great big excuse for not attending to my blog as regularly as I should, but I
just cannot fathom where this year has suddenly disappeared to or why I still
haven’t got a handle on my life.
The summer was mellow enough. I had no one breathing down my neck and no
builders for a change. I tipped away at
the garden, a medal design and practiced trimming the Westies to boot. But here we are at the end of November! Where did the last three months go??
Like everybody I have my share of ups and
downs. Right now it seems to be a lot of
downs, which are stealing my free time on the weekends as well as a lot of my
sleeping and waking thoughts. The
legalisation of our property meanders on with visits from and emails to
architects, builders and engineers.
Unfortunately the whole process has uncovered a possible weakness in the
structure of the house. A bit of a blow
to say the least. I had hoped for a
clean bill of health and straightforward glide into home plate. But nothing good comes easy, so I hope that
it will all be worth it in the end.
Though it will of course involve yet more money to be thrown into
reinforcing the foundations if indeed it is deemed necessary.
A couple of weeks ago the internet extender
decided to disconnect itself from my iPad and every other device I and my
November guests tried to attach to it.
It seems that it was the precursor to a mountain of little, and not so
little problems, that have come to assail me since. I am still awaiting a verdict from the
computer shop where I bought it, but in the meantime find my normal socialising
with friends and family severely curtailed as I now have to leave the comfort
of the couch and the Westies to come up to the office to send and answer emails
and messages.
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| Leaving the comfort of the couch and its Westies. |
On Monday I managed to blow up the electric
kettle, so had to go the next day to buy a new one. I opted for a hob top, whistling kettle. It has an enormous five litre capacity and
does not actually whistle but gently moans like a distant freight train through
a thick fog.
For several weeks I had been trying to organise
a service of our solar panels. With so much going on in November (it was the
month that everybody decided to visit me – one of the ups) it had been hard to
arrange a date that was mutually acceptable between myself and the heating engineer. The date finally came last Friday, but as
luck (or should I say bad luck) would have it, a couple of days before that when
I was sitting contentedly rubbing Westie heads and bellies and all sorts of
other bits in between and watching a bit of rubbish TV as I do of an evening, without
warning, the lights all went out!
Luckily I had the fire lit and a couple of little candles glowing away
so I was not plunged into total darkness.
I just sat for a while taking it all in and knowing that usually when
the electricity cuts out here it does not last for long and within a few
minutes I was certain that the current would be restored and I could pick up
where I left off. But as I sat there in
the darkness, rubbing a Westie bodypart, I realised that all the little
thermostat lights were still on as were the various lights on the heating
control panel that stares at me from the corner of the living room. This was strange, because it meant that it
was not a general village-wide black out, but very local, to my house to be
precise and not every fuse was affected.
So I got up and went to the fuse box beside the control panel and with
one tiny little night light in my hand I discerned that the main trip switch
had tripped out, so I tripped it back on.
Bang! Off it went again. I tried again. Bang! So carefully I turned all the switches off as
I have been taught and put on the main one again and began methodically working
through the switches. To cut a long
story short it seemed to be the underfloor heating in the master bedroom that
was causing the failure, but to my horror I also discovered that the lights and
sockets upstairs were also all on the same fuse! So now I had no lights in the bedroom either.
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| One of the November visitors. |
I was not a happy camper and for a couple
of days I actually did get dressed in the dark, giving me a real excuse for
some weird and wonderful colour combinations.
Though actually I have always been pretty crap at dressing myself.
I rang the heat engineer the next day and
he said he would take a look at it when he came and if he could not fix it, he
knew a good electrician. There was the
silver lining! Only very recently I had
being asking around for a good electrician to do some small jobs for me.
This week has also seen a very pleasant washing
machine repairman, Rogerio, come to fix the longtime faulty digital control
panel on the washing machine. He came
last Tuesday and fiddled about with it for a bit, then declared it would need a
new part, which he duly went off to order.
In the meantime though I have used the machine and his fiddling has
rendered it working again for now, but I know it to be very fickle and it acts
up just when you think everything is going smoothly. Still I know that he will return one day soon
(I hope) with the part and finish the job properly. I am sure that he will arrive unannounced as
he is a very quiet, neat little man who I feel has his own particular way of
working.
Friday dawned and Andy, the heat engineer,
arrived and took me on a tour of our rather complicated heating system, which I
now think I am beginning to get a better handle on. He showed me how to top up the solar panels,
which is a job that I can do myself in the future and he will return next week
to see how the floors are heating up, now that I am using the heat pump in
conjunction with the wood fire. I told
you it was complicated. Unfortunately
the floor in the principal bedroom is not heating up, so it will be his job
when he does return to uncover the reason why.
Let us hope it is not terminal, like the bathroom underfloor heating
probably is. My bedroom is decidedly
chilly at night now. It is lucky that I
possess a Siberian goose down duvet and three very cuddly Westies or I would be
sleeping in the guest room, which is toasty.
Andy arrived early, but had to go away to
get antifreeze and check on another job, he returned at two with the
electrician, Fernando, in tow; Fernando the silver lining. Obviously he first had to deliver the bad news
on the bathroom underfloor heating, but then he proceeded very swiftly to put
in another trip switch so that at least I would have light in the bedroom again.
On the downside I now have to wait for the
floor to dry out to try the switch again, which means I will have to shower in
the guest room for the time being. Well
lucky me! We have a second bathroom and
it too has electric underfloor heating, however, there is a downside to that also, the
thermostat in that room is very, very complicated to use. I have spent hours in the past trying to
programme it only to press the wrong button rendering it necessary to start all over
again. Now I cannot seem to adjust the
temperature on it at all, so as I brush my teeth I am sort of doing a funny little
dance on the far too hot tiles. I will
turn it off at night I think, until I can figure out how to lower the
temperature.
I then asked Fernando if he would be able
to put up a few light fittings for me someday.
He said “yes” and I said “when?” And he said “anytime” and I said
“today?” And he said “yes”. Which rather
caught me on the backfoot, but at least he had to go home for lunch first which
gave me a couple of hours to find the now ancient but new light fittings,
bought in hope many moons ago, but never put up because I never really found a
good electrician…until now.
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| Candy on the backfoot. |
He returned at about 5.00pm, which is
normal for Spain, and cheerfully worked away for a couple of hours. He then went home again to fetch bulbs for
the light fittings as I had none. Another
hour and a half passed, this is as I said, Spain, but luckily it was also
Friday and I was under no pressure myself.
He came, put in the bulbs, checked everything was working, I paid the
bill and he left as cheerfully as he had arrived and I closed the door on
another normally eventful and busy week.
The helter-skelter continues as I put on the
kettle for another cup of tea. Only
three days old and it now boils and boils, but no moan comes out of it anymore. I’m starting to feel seasick.
I take all my creams and pastes into the
guest bathroom and start performing my ablutions. The shower drain gurgles and Candy is on it
immediately, curiously tipping her head from side to side to catch the sound
and work out what sort of creature it is.
She sprawls on the floor of the shower with her nose in the drain as the
water trickles into the sink. She sighs
gently waiting patiently for the animal to appear while I do my funny little
dance.
These are all first world problems I
realise, and they are not really getting me down the way they used to when I
was younger. I am aware of the terrifying things going on in the larger world
over which I have no control, so perhaps that is why I try to keep things very
cool here on the homefront. In my own
little way I try to keep peace, lead by example when I can and live the best
life I can for myself and my little family.
…and yet I still have not got the hang of
life or the people in it, including Victor. After his sudden departure
last Christmas he is due to return to me and the Westies in time for this year’s
festivities. Like every great Russian
mountain I am certain it will not all be easy climbing as we try to put our
life back together again and I know for certain we will have plenty more downs along with the ups…but finally I think I am starting to learn that you never do get a
handle on life. It is life that has its
hooks in you and all you can really do is hang on and enjoy the ride!
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| a gratuitous photo of Candy on a mountain |
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| ....and another one xx |
