New home, new life. Moving in: the removal men and Henry the cat. And yes we now have internet again!

Hello again

Well as predicted this new post is being written from our new house with a brand new internet connexion. It's great to have internet back at long last. Thanks Telefónica!!

So here we are finally, adapting, adjusting, settling in, opening mountains of boxes and then dragging the empty ones down the drive to be picked up by the town council, washing, cleaning and more or less never leaving the house as there is so much to do. But the essentials are up and running: deep freeze, fridge, electrical appliances, tv, internet and a new telephone line.

The move took place over 2 exhausting days in great heat. There were 3 lorries and 10 men. I must talk about the men because it was a very interesting group, besides the fact that some of them were extremely fit and good looking, so Susi and I thought!!!! The foreman, Ernesto, was the only Spaniard and wow did he work hard; he was so fast I wondered if he was going to have a fit with so much activity. Then came Jerry, the good looking Bulgarian who was extremely happy to be in charge of the content of Olivia's room (more boxes came out of Olivia's room than any other room in the house!!! - in the new house she has 2 rooms!! One is for sleeping and the other is her study!). In fact there were about 3 Bulgarians, 2 Peruvians, 2 Ecuadorians, 1 Colombian and 1 Indian.

Dismantling the lounge in Río Tajo

The van outside Río Tajo.

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Sold!

Hiya

Yes, it's true. We have finally sold our house. It happened very quickly, from one day to the other. We had 3 visits on Wednesday afternoon and these people were the third. They didn't look particularly intersted but then in the evening the agency rang with an offer from them which was below the asking price. We didn't accept it but then they rang the next day to come and see the house again, this time with their kids and the Grandmother. The visit was quick and again we thought they didn't really like it but they did because an hour after they left yesterday, the agency rang to say that they wanted the house and were prepared to pay the asking price. They also wanted to sign the contract today Friday to which, of course, we agreed. Amazingly we signed it this afternoon.

We now have 2 months to find and move into a new house. Unfortunately 2 of the houses on our finalists' list are now no longer viable. So we shall be revisiting the others and seeing a few more too.

The nicest part of the operation is removing the For Sale signs which Susi and I did this afternoon. And here are the pictures to prove it.

Cheers/Masha

Snow on a Sunday in Madrid

Hello again

There has been snow all over Spain, quite bad weather and many new warnings of snow, even here in Madrid. However, snow is so unusual here and it hardly every settles, that I didn't take much notice of the weather forecasts. Eladio with his sixth sense for weather in general (he comes from a northern mountainous region in Spain) said last night, just as we were getting into bed: "there's going to be a heavy snowfall tonight".

And, lo and behold, this morning at about 5 a.m, when we were worrying that Susana still wasn't home, he looked outside and announced to me that there was a heavy snowfall. Poor Susi finally arrived home a bit later. She had no chains in the car and had driven home in 2nd gear.

When we finally got up this morning, the snow was still there, so Eladio went outside with his boots and took these photos.

Luckily today is Sunday so there will be no chaos on the road for people going to work or school.

I must admit it looks beautiful, specially with the contrast of the sun. It will melt pretty soon though, but while it lasts it's lovely and reminds us all of our childhoods. In this house, however, only the cat Henry has been out playing in the snow and that's a sight in itself to see.

Today will be a nice quiet day at home with the newspapers and my wonderful book Memoirs of a Geisha. The day however, beholds something nice to look forward to. We are all going out to dinner tonight, yes the 5 of us. The reason? Nothing special, just to enjoy life and do things together. My father is tickled pink about it, so good for him. We are going to Bice a lovely Italian joint operated under the Vips Group. The trick? I have an invitation because I am a platinum member which is a perk from my PR profession.

Cheers/Masha