Rain & Flood Watch

Friday 21st September

Awoken by severe thunderstorms at about 2.00 am which continued until about 11.00 am. The rain started to get much heavier at 5.30 and decided to get up and check the drain and watch the lightening. The drain was coping fine, but at about 6.00, the rain became torrential and the drain did not seem to be coping and the patio started to fill. The deluge lasted about 20 minutes and water started seeming in the door into the kitchen, but managed to contain it with the mop. As the rain eased, the level started to recede, but not at my calculated rate…..in fact the water should never have have got that high….rain intensity was clearly a factor, although I didn’t know the rate of precipitation during the deluge…… Perhaps once the drain was full, the rate of flow reduced significantly ? …more spreadsheets required lol !!

The lightening was continuous and spectacular, lighting up the night sky like the aurora borealis, with surreal cloud effects. As day dawned, the rain continued to pelt down, with the drain coping well. I decided to try another drain test and poured 5 litres of water in to the patio. This filled the drain and the patio immediately started to fill…..the rate of flow had stopped completely. Sensing there may be an airlock, I got my trusty plunger out and plunged it over the drain, and hey presto, the water quickly drained away……perhaps my original calculations were correct ? I tried another 5 litres of water, and it drained in 20 seconds as per my original timings. Back to square one !!

Between 9-10 am, another thunder cell hovered overhead, depositing large amounts of rain and a continuous growl of thunder for the whole hour …I’ve never experienced anything like it. The drain coped fine. Eventually, it brightened up about 11 and the rain stopped at last.

Went for a walk after the rain , popped in Bank to update J’s bank book, and also enquire about bill from Ayuntamiento …some overdue tax I think.

After lunch, spent the afternoon updating blog and pictures ready to hopefully upload tomorrow in Fuengirola.

Water Diviner

Thursday 20th September

Weather very cloudy and overcaste, but forecast indicates rain further down coast (Cadiz). Pottered around in morning, updating blog and downloading pics and videos from yesterday…some quite good ones.

Went down to the market about noon but no bargains in the fruit and veg department. Popped into second hand shop …Beverley not there this week but had a brief chat with Mavis. Had a walk round town and home for lunch of tuna and salad on the porch.

Spent the afternoon designing some spreadsheets to try and calculate the volumes of rain that could fall on the house in a worst case scenario, and how best to manage the flow to the small patio drain. This exercise included determining the area of the roof terrace and the other roofs and terrace/patio, timing 5 litres of rain going down the drain, and working out volumes of rain water produced by variable levels of precipitation in millimetres.

It soon became clear that based on my timings, the drain could easily cope with very high levels of rainfall (up to the highest month’s (November) rainfall in 5 hours which surprised me, and had obviously coped with the 16mm of rain last week. …….I wonder if I got those decimal points in the right place ?

One hour later

Gigantic Paella !!

In the meantime, the giant paella was being cooked by the A Sanchez Cocinamos Platos Gigantes, a Company specialising in truly gigantic paellas. Again, I will let the pictures tell the story. It apparently provided 600 good sized portions and took nearly an hour to serve. I noticed some Spanish queueing up for seconds, and yours truly was offered the last portion (having already had one earlier) as I was taking a picture of the empty pan.

Spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around, and managed to miss the 16.50 bus through not understanding the system. It pulled in behind a Fuengirola bus which was loading, with another 50 or so people at the bus stop waiting for the next bus. I had anticipated the Coin bus would stop at the bus stop for people to board, but instead it followed the Fuengirola bus as it pulled out without stopping. It transpired the other people were waiting for a BenalMadena bus back to the Costa……very irritating.

No option but to wait for the last bus @ 19.35…bought a Mail to catch up on the Madeleine story developments, and had an expensive omelette and chips.

Back home, phoned J from the locutorio and went to a bar to watch Barcelona play Lyonaisse….good match winning 2-0. Brief catch up on e mails and back home. Someone knocked on door about 11pm bring round some bill from the Ayuntamiento (Town Hall) for 91 €…..need to follow up.

Flamenco in Mijas

Wednesday 19th September

Up about 8 am. Cooler and cloudy over mountains. Weather forecast indicated rain on the coastal plain today….not sure if it extends down to Malaga.

Off to catch the 9.30 bus for the Mijas 2007 Tourist Day featuring flamenco dancing and a giant paella cook off and sangria for lunch at 2 pm. Wandered around Mijas being a tourist amongst the coach-loads of fellow tourists from around the globe….American, Japanese, French, German, Italian….and of course hoards of Brits up from the Costas.

The event was held in the Municipal Auditorium at the top of the town overlooking the mountains, and started about 11.30. We were welcomed by the flamenco dancers passing through the audience giving out red carnations to everyone, having been issued with a yellow straw hat and a tot of Sangria on entry ….a nice gesture.

The Flamenco dancers from the group AZABACHE were stunning, followed by the “Mediterranean”show by the Juan A Perez Flamenco Company featuring traditional singing and dancing. I will let the pictures and videos describe the event.

Changes to Town

Tuesday 18th September 2007

Got up about 8.30 and watched News and Weather…..again no sign of rain, although continued rain and thunderstorms in the North. Popped out to get some coffee and toothpaste before another round of cleaning and dust removal.

A few changes to the town since last here in April. They are building a little parc next to the new flats opposite Mercandona ….new full size palms and other trees. This is a feature of Spanish town and country planning…the creation of avenues of full size palms along most new roads, as if they have been there for years, and the creation of new parks with mature trees to give the impression they have been there for 50 years….never come across this in any other country.

Also, there are a series of new one way roads from the feria parc ground towards the old gypsy quarter….perhaps paving the way for a new complex of houses.

Before and after lunch, spent a few hours creating an accounts spreadsheet to monitor spending over here ….a savings plan in effect, and starting this blog again. Weather hot and sunny with the thermometer touching 30 in the shade, but keeping the house cool with doors and windows shut…will open up late evenings early mornings.

Went for a long walk mid afternoon in the heat both for exercise and to check out new roads near the feria ground. 3 new roads but difficult to visualise the final system, and whether there will be housing between them. Walked up through the town and to the garage, and then home about 5pm for a shower and meal before going to the locutorio to phone J. Nice long chat to update her , and then caught up on e mails.

I had picked up The Town Crier ….a local paper in English, which reported on heavy rain last Wednesday, when 16mm of rain had fallen over an 18 hour period, and that Malaga Province had declared a yellow alert. The drain had obviously coped with this as there had been no sign of flooding.

On to Bar Bramley for what I had hoped was the second half of the Rugby. I tried to ask the bar maid to change over to “le Rugby”, but drew a bewildered shrug and a look of pity……looked up the tv listings in a paper, but no sign of any televised rugby ! Settled down to watch the first half of Madrid playing Bremen ….very fast football. It was bizarre to see most customers smoking including staff behind the bar.

Return to Spain

September 17th 2007

Today I set off for Spain, a year to the day since J and I had made the same trip to renovate her old town-house in Spain. Then, we drove leisurely through France and Spain for nearly a fortnight, as you can review at the start of the blog. This time, I travelled alone, and flying direct to Malaga from Bristol. J will join me later for 2 weeks on October 3rd, her 2 part time jobs keeping her in the UK this time.

The prime purpose of the trip is to be on “Flood Watch” ….to be there when the heavy rains come, to observe the water flows, and to hopefully rectify the flooding problem that happened 3 times during the renovation work, due to sloping the roof terrace into the small patio drain. I will do a separate post at a later date explaining the problem and possible solutions.

J set the alarm for 4 am , which was a bit premature. We left for the half hour drive to the airport through the empty streets of Bristol….so different from the jams of week-days. Joined the long check-in queue about 5.15 am….EasyJet are quite efficient checking in, but after the long security queues, had to go straight to the boarding gate, and the plane left on time @ 6.15 am. At least it was a lot more efficient than the dreadful queues we had to endure at Stanstead recently.

An uneventful flight getting in to Malaga @ 9.45 local time. The only light relief on landing was a luggage pile-up on the carousel (where it goes back behind to the loading area), caused by a pushchair getting jammed, and 40 or so cases piling up and falling off there. Irritated passengers started collecting their luggage from the pile, and someone managed to unblock the jam, but a large pile still remained. Luckily mine was not caught up in the melee.

Joined the crowd of people waiting for the bus into town, which was nearly 30 minutes late. By then, there were about 80 people waiting for the bus. Of course, there was no orderly queue, and when it finally arrived, there was a scrum to board the bus, everyone struggling with heavy luggage through the small entrance at the front, paying the driver their 1 euro fare……the only consolation. The reason for the bus delay soon became apparent …the main road into the city was a building site for several kilometres, a single lane in each direction, with heavy cranes and lifting gear…something to do with the new metro I think.

Got to the bus station at 11.50 just as the Coin bus was pulling in. Rushed to get my ticket from the station kiosk ( not allowed to buy on bus), and just managed to catch it, arriving at about 12.45…..a 6 hour trip door to door.

The house was fine….a bit damp and musty, but I opened up all doors and windows to let the air in. The only minor problems were a fine layer of dust everywhere, both inside and out, the bougainvillia blown over, the patio drain full of leaves, silt and detritus from the garden and the downstairs bathroom was full of hundreds of small black flies, mostly settled on the white tiles.

Before tackling these, I popped out for some fly swats and lunch at Bar El Timon….tapas of albondigas (meat balls in tomato sauce) and enchilada patata (potato salad), and a small beer…with change from €4.
Spent the afternoon cleaning out the patio and drain, killing most of flies, drilling hole and hook to support bougainvillia and mopping throughout the ground floor, inc the bodies of hundreds of flies…only a few left for another day !

Shopped at Mercandona for the staples of life …beer, wine and a nice loin of pork cut into thin cutlets @ €5…enough for 5 meals (froze enough for 3), cereal, salads, juices etc..Cooked meal about 9 pm and then watched TV news as best I could….Northern Rock leading here, so I guess the ”run on the Bank” continues.

Interesting weather story from Northern Spain…severe thunderstorms with hail the size of tennis balls causing damage to property and cars. Unfortunately, no sign of rain here….hot and sunny with temperatures in high 20’s continuing.

Sat out on the mid terrace with a glass of wine until turning in about 11pm as knackered.