Holes Bricked Up

Thursday 8^th February

Juan arrived promptly at 8 am but no sign of Franchico…..must be off sick. Ricardo arrived soon after with a large roll of TV ariel wire, and with help from Juan, threaded it through the plastic bendy pipes to arrive in the front bedroom and lounge. They borrowed washing up liquid to aid the process, Ricardo having first asked for soap, so perhaps a new method developed.

J a bit worried about this job, as it has never been asked for, and there was nothing wrong with the old one. Also that Ricardo told me that the wire was very expensive, and that the large roll he had brought cost 200 €. J worried he is doing chargable jobs that are not really necessary, to compensate for the extra expense he incurred with the pipes and neighbour episode.

I painted downstairs ceiling bathroom second coat, and filled in switches and junction boxes, whilst J did more scraping and painting upstairs.

Juan spent the day building the 1.8 metre walls and cementing the big holes in the bedrooms, having to make his own cement. Ricardo irritated Franchico had not phoned him, as he doesn’t have a mobile phone.

We spent the morning on general work, breaking to make a phone call and visit the cheap shops for odds and ends. Back to house in the rain….mist swirling round the mountain, and did a bit more work.

We decided to try a menu del dia @ 7 euro, which was excellent value, and included a drink of orange juice. The homemade chicken soup arrived looking very unappetising, with croutons and what turned out to be egg floating in it…..but it was delicious , other than not much chicken. Followed by chicken kebab for me and fish cooked Malaga style for J, and a flan for desert…..as I said excellent value.

It continued to rain heavily throughout lunch, with the road outside becoming a stream. Went home briefly in rain, before heading off to Malaga to look for a memory stick or discs to back up some of my key files , as the blog files, the web site, and pictures, as they have become valuable to me, if the hard drive crashed or the laptop got stolen.

The weather leaving town was very foggy/misty and driving was difficult for a bit until we got lower, and it was partially sunny on the coast and noticeably warmer.

Shopped in Carrefour where they have a big sale, and got memory discs, shirts, and a terrace set of a table, 4 chairs and a parasol…..in Mediterranean blue for 89 € …except noticed they charged 99 € when we got home, so another job to get refund.

Table set wouldn’t fit in car, so had to empty box and put in car separately. Drove home and unloaded, and read for a bit before going to bar El Timon for tapas supper at 8 pm. Home to update snag list., and a separate list for Ricardo.