Eladio and his Mother enjoying her stay at our new house.

Hi again.

Now that blogger uploads photos again, here are some pics of Eladio and his Mother together during her stay. They spend most of their time talking about old times in Montrondo.

It has been lovely to have Ernestina, despite the intense heat. The hightlight of her stay was probably the outing to the Zarzuela operetta called "Doña Francisquita" held in the open air as part of the Madrid summer theatre festival. It started at 10 at night and finished at 1 in the morning. Even the kids were asleep when we got back.


It has been really nice to have her and we hope she will repeat the experience soon.

Cheers/Masha
Strolling round the house
Mother and Son
Chatting by the pool

Settling In

Well now that we are nearly all sorted out, with most things in their place and many missing, of course, we’re going through a settling in period. Sometimes I have the feeling I’m on holiday or in a hotel – especially when I go in our super duper bathroom. And when we talk about “home” we usually mean our old house. It is our house ok but it still doesn’t feel like home. I think these things take time.

Some things are frustrating. We have 4 tvs , 3 digital receivers and 2 aerial men have been and gone and we still can only get Tele 5 on one of the TVs. The problem there is that I only really ever watch one programme a week and that is “Hospital Central” on Tele 5! And the one TV I can see it on is the only TV the World Cup can be watched on, so yes, a bit frustrating. To get even more football, we are getting Canal + installed but they are having trouble with putting the antenna on the roof as they hadn’t expected such a big house.

We are very “home bound” at the moment and tend to live in our own little world only going out occasionally to do the shopping. Our only other outing is our daily walk which is not as nice as the one at our old house, but the exercise is the same, thank God. So we must start to socialize again. One way will be with the housewarming party on the 8th July next which I am busily preparing in my mind. The invitation has gone out already though. Something lovely to look forward to.

The girls are having their 2nd housewarming party tonight and there will be more than 30 guests. A barbecue has been planned and dear Susi bought nearly all the meat there was in Carrefour. Thank God Eladio and I are going out to dinner! The problem is that when we get back at 11ish their party will only just be starting and it takes place on the terrace just beneath our bedroom., so there is no escaping it. Well you never know, we may just join them.

The family are fine. My poor Father is dealing with the hot weather as best he can but confessed the other day that his favourite month in Spain is January! Eladio has lost 3 kgs thanks to the removal and is now worried he is on the decline or getting old and is bent on eating more than usual. It’s very funny. I wish I had lost weight with the move. I am losing but the rhythm is about a kilo or less a month. I think the ice-cream a day (Magnum) might have something to do with that. The girls are going through the end of term, just before the Summer hols phase and are have finished their exams. Susi just has to finish a dissertation on food hygiene. So, of course, it’s Summer party time.

And that’s all for the moment folks

All my love
Masha
PS Sorry no pics again. Blogger just won't upload them and I don't know what the solution is.

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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Still no Internet + moving house soon

Hello again.

Long time no write, that’s because we are still without Internet at home. I don’t want to go into the why, suffice it to say the whole story is like a Kafkian nightmare. We just asked our service provider to increase the broadband speed to 4 megas and the result has been no ADSL for 3 weeks and no land line for 2 weeks. It’s a battle between Wanadoo and Telefonica which I think no one will win. So here I am writing from Fátima’s house. It now looks like we will no have no internet until we move to the new house in 3 weeks time (Yes, 3 weeks time, more about that a bit later).

There have been a few ups and downs lately. The University project is now over. Despite the success of the Mario Vargas Llosa project, there isn’t really any more work for me. On the other hand, another project – selection process for a big US multinational, fell through in the end after more than 7 interviews. There were 4 of us left at the end but I didn’t make it. That has been ongoing for over 2 months now, so I’m sure you can understand my disappointment. But you have to get up and fight again which I will, of course.

However, the fact that I’m not working will be a blessing in disguise for moving house. We will be moving in on the 5th and 6th June. It seems a Herculian task, sorting out and deciding what to take from this house after 18 years here – you cannot imagine the junk, plus the moving itself but also the unpacking and deciding what to put where in the new house. Today Eladio and Olivia went downstairs to the old toy room to decide what to throw away what not. I went down in the middle of it and was just on time to save Celeste (Barbar’s wife) who Eladio referred to as “esa elefanta”.

Not much to report otherwise. Oh yes, Eladio and I went out to a freebie dinner invited by Iberia Plus last Thursday. Funny thing I have just lost my gold card as I hardly fly anymore but they obviously haven’t updated their data base yet! The whole thing was very corporate and a bit stiff – a fancy restaurant with tables only for couples and a huge menu to get through but nothing else. But, in any case, a freebie is always appreciated.

So that’s about it for this post. Oh, yes, Fernando Alonso won the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix today, just ahead of Michael Schumacher to the delight of crowds of over 130.000 people Yes, yes, I am now getting into Formula 1 like most of Spain is.

Next time I write, it may well be from the new house.

All the best

Masha
PS Photos are of the new house, the front and the back (with the pool).

We have a new house, finally!

Hello again

Well, yes, today we signed the contract for the new house. We have been very quick choosing it and in the end it wasn't one of our finalists. We went to see it last Sunday, just 2 days after having sold ours. It was amazing. We walked in and both Eladio and I knew right from entering the front door that this was the house we wanted to buy. It was the style, the decoration, the size that decided us. While we were there, we called the girls to come and have a look too and they fell in love with it too. There was no discussion, we all loved it, including my Father for whom there is a luxury apartment all for himself on the ground floor.

And after a bit of negotiating this week, we all met this morning to sign the contract. The latest completion date will be the 8th July but we all want that date to be as soon as possible.

The photos are very poor but give some idea. It is a modern house, measuring 600 m2 in grounds of over 2000m2. The doors are white lacquer, the floors wood and the walls painted in the latest fashion (pastel colours and white). I won't go into how many bedrooms with en suite bathrooms there are - quite scandalous - but suffice it to say they are all en suite.

So all we do is talk and plan house moving and just how happy we are with having finally found the house we really want. By the way it is just a few km from where we live now in another "Urbanización", this time called, "El Bosque" which means"The Woods". So I will be able to say we have a house in the woods.

Cheers again
Masha

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

This could be it - our dream house?

Now that the pink house is no longer in the picture, the Argentinian a little pricey, we have come across this lovely Basque/Santander type country house. It is not perferct (not one is) but it is beautiful, great quality in the materials and I just love the architecture. A big plus is the huge country style kitchen. Don't like the driveway to the garage though so if we go to live there I shall be parking outside in the cul de sac.

Tell me if you like it

Cheers/Masha

Still searching for a new house

Well we chose the pink house but negotiations are proving difficult so it just may not be. Only time will tell.

Cheers/Masha

Searching for a new house

Hiya

A few days of silence as we had an internet blackout for a few days but actually we are really busy searching for a new house.

A lot of you know that Eladio and I shall be selling our current house because my Father is coming to live with us and we need more space - actually a bedroom on the ground floor.

We have probably looked at about 70 houses in the same area where we live now and finally have come across the dream house, but actually 2 dream houses. We are having trouble choosing.

Our first choice is a British looking pink house with ivy and the second is a more modern (yellow house) built by an Argentinian football player who has just left Spain.

I wonder what your choice would be .......

Let me know.

Photos are of the pink house with ivy, our current (white) house where we have lived for the last 18 years!!! and the yellow Argentinian house.