Got back this morning from Sunny Spain. After a week of soaking up the sun (it rained Thursday but, apart from that, glorious) it was a bit of a shock at East Midlands to find a bitterly cold, biting wind and snow on the ground (not much but still had to warm the car up for over 10 minutes to get the ice and snow off). On the plus side, I bet the guy who got off the plane behind me in T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops felt a bit stupid!
Anyhoo, stayed in my new house for only the second time. Lovely having some bits of furniture in and a carpet on the floor. Still a bit echoey as we have no pictures on the walls, very little furniture (taking it all with us next year from UK) but is starting to feel like home. Met some lovely people in our area and really starting to look forward to going again (coming off the plane, both SWMBO and I said can we turn round and go back?).
The point I found this time is how expensive everything seems to be getting in Spain. I know the pound is crashing on a daily basis, but even in euros the costs appear to be going way up. We do stick to the local produce as much as we can but we found that rises in cheese, meats, butter, bread, eggs etc have gone way up. Of course, electricity is getting expensive everywhere but it looks like I've had a 50% increase in mine compared to last year when looking at the bills. Furniture, clothes and virtually everything seems way up in price. For example, we recently bought a Tefal frying pan in UK and whinged at the price of £8. The same type in both shops and markets in Spain was around 21 to 23 euros. Now, the pound has surely not slipped that far down the scale? We were looking for a cheap bedside table from one of the Brico houses, the type you put together yourself. Price in B&Q was £23, the average price in Brico House, Aki, Ardy and the like was between 60 and 85 euros. On the plus side, eating out is still relatively cheap (even with the exchange rate) but we did limit our going out to bars as the price of beer and wine seems a little extortionate. A glass of red wine in a small Spanish bar in San Miguel was 50 cents. At the pub near my new house they are charging 1.50 and beer has just gone up to 2.75. I may have to change to spirits as I can usually get 3 or 4 drinks out of the Spanish measures, another plus.
And why is so difficult to get simple things done in Spain? We have not yet had aircon/heating installed in the house and just have a couple of convector heaters. We saw those gas fires on sale and went to get one but none of the vendors of these things sell the gas bottles. "You can get them everywhere," we were told. Fine, but only if you exchange an old bottle. You have to get a licence.
"Where from?" we asked. None of the shops flogging the gas seemed to know. "Maybe the Cepsa office" one of them said, but no-one seemed to know where the Cepsa office was. So why do you need a licence? Apparently you're supposed to show the equipment and connectors are fit for use. As people are buying new items and using old gas licences this seems to negate that idea otherwise you'd have to take the new on to get checked out. All those we spoke to said the gas bottle was in the house when they bought it so there was no problem for them. End result? We carried on using the convector heater.
My bank card wouldn't work in the cash machines. I was issued a new one just before leaving UK and it wouldn't play. I did get some out on a credit card but, as this is a very expensive way to do it, I had sterling with me and went to a bank to change it. They weren't too happy as I didn't have an account with them so I had to find a branch of one I do have an account with. They still wanted my passport and would only change a maximum of £250 with all the charges that come with this type of transaction (I got 285 euros for that which nearly broke my heart).
Still, the weather was great, the people were great, the house was great so no real complaints. Just one question: Why are there so many roundabouts in the towns when no-one knows how to use them?" I must have seen at least 10 near misses with people coming on too soon (please let me get off the roundabout before you enter!) changing lanes before exiting (you know those things attached to the side of the car? They're called mirrors. Please use them before changing lanes). And, no, it's not the Spanish I'm complaining about. Most of these incidents involved plainly expats of many nationalities. I know roundabouts are unheard of in Germany and most other European countries but its no excuse for the British!
That's it. Still trying to warm my feet up even though the heating has been on full blast all day. My tootsies are turning blue but at least I had shoes and socks on.
Oh, and well done, Ryanair. You may fly at silly o'clock (6 am outbound from Alicante) but both ways left and arrived on time. The flight crew coming back (all Spanish) were really helpful and a seemd to take pleasure in their jobs. At £71 return for two it was fine.