Settling In

Day three and the majority of boxes are unpacked. There's still a very large suitcase to be tackled but today was not the day.

Three nights of lovely, peaceful sleep - should have left me feeling wonderful but seems to have made me crave more. I'm still so tired; we've worked so hard over the past week. I think it will take a while for us to feel fully relaxed and normal again.

Right now, Cesar is wandering around the house, drill in hand - drilling things, I guess.
Romy is in the little plaza opposite the house, seen in the picture at the top of the page, and I can hear other children shouting and calling her name, which is lovely.

The boys are watching a favourite programme on our newly connected TV - The Penguins of Madagascar - we all love this series; a spring off from the film 'Madagascar' but a lot funnier!


And I have been making fig jam - lots of it.

We went to look at a house on Sunday and there was a glut of figs in the garden, which the very nice owner said we should pick and take away with us.
The house was beautiful - the nicest I have seen so far - but Cesar was really unhappy with the fact that it was in a bit of a corner, overlooked at the front and built up very high at the back. I had hardly noticed these things but he felt claustrophobic. We are think we must go back for another look soon as it's strange we had such a different reaction to a property. Usually we like the same sort of thing.... one of us is out of kilter here. I can't say which one of us it is but I am worried that if we go back and each feels the same way again, we might have a bit of a problem!

Coming back to this house - we are committing to rent it for a while and it's beginning to take on a much more homely aspect.


Good points - as well as more peaceful and planted firmly on the ground - include a lovely roof terrace, from which we get a lovely view of La Mota - currently undergoing some restoration work, hence the crane:

 
And this is the view of the little plaza from our bedroom window, with the cheerful plants on display at No. 20 across the road. The man there plays the piano accordion. I say play in the vaguest possible sense of the word, you understand. It adds character and atmosphere to the place - a sort of bizarre and outlandish and somewhat dizzying manner. Think Les Negresses Verte crossed with Les Dawson, if that's possible. And if you don't know who Les Dawson is, you may consider yourself lucky - especially if you check out the YouTube video below.
(Though if you're from the UK, you might, like me, have a little bit of a soft spot for this most miserable, rubber-faced comedian, with whom so many of us grew up.)

 

Yes, we are settling in.  In fact, I'm not even going to mention the bad points - although there have been a few, which we are dealing with - the good ones by far out-weigh them.

Tomorrow, we're off to investigate the town swimming pool - and hopefully too, the oven will arrive at some point. (I know, probably whilst we're at the swimming pool!) 

And then I can set about baking a birthday cake for Mateo - who will be 13 on Saturday. 

We're planning a special birthday-day out. I'll let you know.