Never too old to rewire a Chandelier

Saturday 17^th February

Got up about 7.15 …light rain , and had intended doing blog, when decided to rewire the old Spanish chandelier…as one does. We put in the auction a couple of weeks ago, but it didn’t make it’s reserve of 5 €, and J is quite fond of it. I took it to bits to see how the wires ran to the 5 lights, and it seemed relatively simple…..2 sets of thin white wires from each light wrapped around the 2 main wires and taped…no earth !!

Found some of Ricardo’s left over blue and black wires and ran them through the main stem of the chandelier, and wired up both sets of the 5 wires to each. I broke a key internal nut at this stage, and left the problema to have breakfast.

After breakfast, took stuff to punto limpio and went to ferreteria to get stuff to progress jobs such as downstairs bathroom lock, TV ariel connections etc. Home to varnish bath board, and try to hang chandelier. I hadn’t left enough wire to hang it at a reasonable height, the nut was still broken, and I lost a tiny screw for the little connector box for the wires, so scuppered again.

J spent the day cleaning in preparation for her daughter L’s visit , arriving Sunday evening.

After lunch, I decided to rewire chandelier again with longer wires, and went in search of ferreteria for the little electrical screw ….Ferreterias that are open on a Saturday afternoon are few and far between……anyway, found one open on top road which seemed to specialise in hunting and fishing….rifles, pistols, fishing reels etc…..and the electrical bit.

I super-glued the broken nut…..it had fallen out previously, and measured up all the wire and put 2 extra links in the chain supporting the chandelier, linked up the wires and amazingly, it worked first time !!.....my first bit of proper electrical work.

I started to put the lampshades on the new lounge chandelier, but it was clear that the weight was on wire rather than chain…..I checked out what was under rose, and was concerned at what I found. ….I could have done a better job, and I’ve only done 1 in my life ….about 10 minutes ago !!.

Railings and Finishing Doors

Thursday 15^th February

I was up early as usual …..no builders expected today but Antonio the Metalica man was expected 8-8.30 am, although J was doubtful he would turn up. Antonio arrived about 9.30 with his mate, and proceeded to fit the railings, window security grill (reja) and mended the front door , taking about an hour. Problemos included having to weld reja twice on one side and getting their power lead stuck behind the reja, having to cut the plug. New glass was still required for front doors, and Antonio suggested we can bring the window doors down tomorrow and they will fit glass in a few hours. I suggested they take them now, but they were not keen to do so, as they were late for their breakfast.

After they left, we continued separating builders stuff from ours, and transferring theirs to front room and reclaiming dining room. I took all rubbish to punto limpio inc 2 buckets of rubble, rather than fly tip round the corner. Punto Limpio man helped us dispose of right rubbish in the right skips….wood in 1, metal 2, plastic in 3 etc, but as J discovered , there was wood, metal and plastic in all three !! The Punto Limpio man was interested in the sky digibox, which had appeared I the house, and was thought to belong Sergio the sacked Russian, which he had pinched from a cuba (skip), together with a carpet……anyway Punto Limpio man also liked the old reja, which he passed over a fence to a neighbouring “business” …all a bit of a mystery.!!

On the way back, I walked back thru market and bought 5 kilo of oranges for 2.50 € + 1 k of lemons for 1.50 €…..for juicing later in week.

Went for lunch menu del dia….another interesting home made soup…..given a dated token and told we could get a meal free if we collected 10 tokens for having 10 menu del dias ….think we might make in time left here !!

Spent afternoon ….C giving front door a second coat of neranja melio (orange primer), whilst j scraped and painted in patio.

Tommy turned up at 4.30 to fit front room light…..took about 2 minutes to hook support chain on to a hook embedded in espuma de ploiuretano (polyurethane foam), which he assured me was very strong …..surely not !! He then spent 1hr chatting to us, until we had to make our excuses and continue our work.

Friday 16^th February

Juan arrived unexpectedly at 8 am to finish off door cementing and ariel bit on roof …about 4 hours work. After breakfast, I removed the glass doors and metal shutter doors from the front door, and took the glass doors down to the Metalica place. Antonio there, and J chose glass …cheap and frosted. ….ready by 1pm.

Back home and J cleaned and cleared front bedroom, while I helped periodically, and pottered. Went to punto limpio with door frame Juan had kindly cut in half, bedside cabinet with woodworm, and recyclables, inc my vectra boot lock, which punto limpio man interested in. Also gypsy scavenging cubas, and found a bird cage……not interested in cabinet which was rapidly crushed.

On to Ferrateria to take back door handle and lock, and to buy upper bathroom lock, varnish, long handled paint roller, metal filler for front door etc.. Back to fit door lock and help J fix leg back on to pine cabinet.

We drove to pick up windows at 1 pm and get bill…..they were ready, but silicone still tacky, so told to drive slowly and not fit for 4 hours or so. Popped out to buy pliars at another Ferreteria to change tv arial.

Back to house and straight out for lunch, basking in the hot winter sun. Returned to house to varnish bathroom board on roof (very windy), unpack new Mediterranean table set, and paint porch high bits. We were both getting tired about 5.30, when I went out to car to get glass doors to re-hang…few problemas, but ok with a bit of wd40.

For a change, we went out for a Chinese meal…..eve of Chinese new year ….of the pig……excellent beef chop suey and chicken in black bean sauce with special fried rice, and house wine @ 5.50…..excellent value.

St.Valentine's Day

Wednesday 14^th February

Tommy arrived early about 7.50 and Juan about 8 am. Both set about their jobs…Tommy working through the snag list, and Juan cementing in front door area, and in the afternoon, the old ground floor bedroom door area.

I took a break to do send off some paperwork and buy J’s valentine present….a broom with hearts all over it…lovely sweeping action !! J was scraping the small marble table as unable to do other tasks as Tommy in way. I filled in a few plug points, and then popped down to see Antonio to see if he was coming today (hoy) to fit the railings and window grill, as we needed to know…..agreed mañana tomorrow at 8-8.30 …we’ll see. Went out for lunch about 2 pm.

Back home and J painted railings and I started second coat of neranja melio on the front door. Juan did the cementing upstairs on the ruin roof of the tv arials….I acted as Franchico and swept up after him.

Finishing Touches

Tuesday 13^th February

Tommy, Ricardo & Franchico arrived promptly at 8 am and started clearing house of tools and equipment. Franchico painted the street wires outside (the ones Ricardo had been told to put in aluminium trunking by the Police), whilst the others loaded, and they then dismantled scaffolding, loaded it and Ricardo and Franchico were off to their next job….a very frantic hour. Weather hot and sunny …up to 22C

Tommy finished his coffee…having been told off for drinking coffee whilst there was work to be done, and I went to Ferreteria to get hooks and screws for washing line, and door handle for small bedroom…….

The process of buying the door handle was reminiscent of the Two Ronnies best known sketch……..fork handles/four candles, with Ronnie Barker asking for similar sounding items, and Ronnie Corbett as the hardware shop-keeper going out the back and bring out the wrong thing. It was exactly like that, and the girl went back 5 times to bring out an assortment of handles, locks, big ones, small ones, right and left opening ones. On the 6^th attempt, she brought out a door set of 2 gold handles and catch and associated bolt and screws…….and I said I’ll take it !!......Needless to say, J took one look at it and said they were too big…….which of course they were. I’ll try and link to the Two Ronnies sketch if its on youtube .

I took the railings and security grill up to the roof terrace for J to paint negro
(black), whilst I started cleaning the front door with solvent and then painting with neranja melio (orange primer).

We then went to Coin for a new number 4 that Juan had broken, and to the Ferreteria for light pendant fittings which Tommy said he needed, and after lunch, painted the front door all afternoon, whilst J “supervised “ Tommy doing snag list jobs.

We drove over to Pizarra to check if tiles available, but they were not ready. However, looked at kitchen sinks, as they had a nice aggregate sink with an unusual drainer for 114 or 135 €, dependant on colour.

Front Doors, Ruin and Previous Owner

Monday 12th February

It was always going to be a busy day, and so it proved. Juan and Franchico arrived at 8 am and started removing the front doors and frame (very rusty), which took an hour or so, and then started cementing the new 1.8 metre walls on the porch. Ruin Man opened up the ruin first thing and disappeared. I scraped paint off the outer terrace walls and J did bathroom tile cleaning, whilst waiting for Antonio.

Ricardo turned up 10 am and J went through the snag list with him, and he was not too perturbed, and said most would be finished this week……!! We offered to help Franchico clear building rubble from the ruin, which had accumulated over the last 4 months and last week from the ill fated tube fiasco.

After an hour or so of heavy rubble lifting in buckets to Ricardo’s trailer, we decided to take the doors down to Antonio, as he had not turned up by 11 am, and the frame had to be made, and the frame/doors refitted by 4 pm. Antonio was surprised to see us, and said his “friend” would have collected them in an hour or so……manyana I guess. I told him we would have to postpone fitting the railings today, as the cement would still be wet on the new walls…….no problema …!!

Back to the ruin for another 2 hours or so. Whilst we were there, a chap turned up, who was the previous owner of J’s house, and trying to tell us to do something. J caught the odd words such as Mi Casa (My house), Abogado (Solicitor), Problema , and went into a flat spin, think he had come back to claim his property back after 6 years, now all the work was done.

Eventually got hold of Ricardo to speak to him, and it turned out he was being hassled for 4 years property back tax , which J had already sorted with her Solicitor. I took a fraught J for bacalao tapas, and when we returned at 2 pm, the doors had returned encased in a new frame, and welded to keep the doors in position. The railings and window grill had also arrived for fitting Wednesday.

I supervised the fitting of front door, which started at 3 pm and Juan finishing cementing at 5.30 pm…..Fitting the doors was cumbersome and exhausting, as the whole unit must have weighed 100 kilos, and it took 3 of us to lift in position. It was clear it was NOT going to easy, as the frames had 3 x 10 cm steel ties, which had to fit into the wall.

Franchico and I held the unit upright on the outside, whilst Juan drilled out huge channels in the walls to take the ties from the inside. Once it was in position, Juan removed the welds holding the doors in position, and they quickly splayed out of position and the doors wouldn’t shut. Juan eventually managed to get doors and frame vertical and working, and cemented in the ties.

Oldest Rockers in Torremolinos

Weekend 10^th/11^th February

We continued scraping and rubbing down the metal front doors by hand for 3 hours in the morning before heading off to Torremolinos, booking into El Loro Rojo (The Red Parrot Hostal). The room was huge with ensuite bathroom and a balcony overlooking the bustling street…..good value for € 35.

We then went for a walkabout exploring Torremolinos, a major tourist centre, mostly English and German tourists and residents enjoying the hot February sunshine. Some people think of Torremolinos as vulgar, with lager louts, fish and chip shops, English pubs and souvenir shops etc, as it was one of the first places to cater for the explosion of cheap package holidays in the ‘60s. However, although souvenir shops and eateries catering for tourists abound, the town has a nice feel to it, and the long walk down the winding steps from the town centre to the sea front is delightful.

We decided to be tourists for the day, and I had an all day English breakfast with a glass of red wine, and J had a half chicken and chips in a German bar. ,There was a purpose in having a large meal and wine at lunchtime ( 3pm), as we planned to have a siesta when we got back to El Loro Rojo, as we had a long evening and night ahead.

After our siesta, we sat out on the balcony with a glass of wine catching the last rays of the setting sun, and made our way up to the Palicio Congresso about 10 pm, where the last evening of the 2 day 13^th Rockin’ Race Jamboree was in full swing. This had been billed as” the biggest rockabilly project in Andalucian history , with 16 live bands, record hops with international DJs, stands selling 60’s rock records and tee shirts, vintage cars, parties, burlesque shows etc”. We had just come to see Mike Sanchez and the Portions, who were on at 12.30 am !

The huge convention hall was crowded with mostly Spanish young people all dressed in 60’s clothes, with brightly coloured suits and dresses, drainpipes, brothel creepers and the haircuts. We saw Mike Sanchez in the hall incognito….no one seemed to recognise him…..J asked for a photo-opportunity, and …..see pic.

Walked the stands and listened to the bands , awaiting expectantly until 12.30 am for Mike Sanchez…………but “Lee Rocker“ the top billed American Group came on….for some reason, they had swapped……Mike wasn’t on until 2 am !! Had a few more beers, something to eat and listened to Band, who wer’nt all that great, but popular with the crowd.

Finally, Mike Sanchez came on at about 2.15 am…a lot of people left after Lee Rocker, not realising they were about to miss a great Act. The crowd were slow to realise how good he is, but after about 30 minutes, he had them rocking, and at the end , they were demanding encores. Click on Sapphire to watch my video of my favourite numbers. He finished about 3.30 am and we got a taxi back to El Loro Roja to bed.

Despite a late night, we got up at 10 am and had a nice English breakfast at El Loro Rojo before heading off to Fuengirola to post the blog. I had a lot of technical problems with Firefox, and only managed to post the basic blog rather than link to the video I took of Mike Sanchez, which I hope to do next week. J went for a walk along the front and saw several speed boats and took pics, as She thought it might be Ricardo.

Back home to do a few more hours scraping the front door, as it goes to Antonio, the Metalica man tomorrow for its new frame.