To buy or not to buy..

Yes, that is the question at the moment. We have seen a house we like very much. It's not what we thought we were looking for in that it is not surrounded by lots of land that might be 'yurt-worthy' but it's a house we could live in immediately, it's in an area I love, the children would go to a very nice school -  and it's about the right sort of price - and now that we're here, those things seem to be our priorities.

And we suddenly find ourselves very afraid of making a definite decision. To make things worse, the pound took a sharp drop against the euro today - I check everyday and in the last week the drop makes a difference to us of about £3,000 which is not insignificant. So, we are hanging on a bit longer to see who gives in first - us or the seller. It's always a case of who wants what the most, as we have found out with the buyers of our house. In that instance, it was us who wanted to sell more than they wanted to buy and we took the hit in terms of the price we were prepared to accept. I can only hope that the same will apply here.

Enough of that - in due course, we will make our decision and we will have really know it's the right one for us. This morning, we had mentally moved in and decorated for our first Christmas there; now we are not sure.

But didn't I say enough of this!!

I went into Valladolid on my own today to 'orientarme' - a good Spanish expression - and spent a good two hours walking around, window shopping, looking at the amazing architecture and people watching. There is always an immense amount of faffing with sweeping brushes and mops going on around you  - I don't know if it's just in this area or whether it's a general Spanish trait but I have noticed that wherever I go, someone nearby is sweeping or mopping or generally cleaning something in a fashion close to obsessive. I had thought that Cesar's mother was an atypical example because she never stops for a second - bustling here and there with either a brush or a duster in hand - her energy is boundless. She's not overly houseproud - it's not that - but it matches the need the Spaniards seem to have to talk all the time too. And they all talk at the same time - or seem to - without appearing to stop to listen. I will take note when I return to England to see whether it's the same there but I just never noticed before....... Anyway, this morning, there was definitely more broom activity that I have been used to seeing around Huddersfield! I have started doing quite a bit of it myself, just because I feel I ought.

I must away to bed very soon. Each morning, Mateo gets up first, then Cesar and they leave to walk down to the bus stop together, which is across a huge dual carriageway and we are not happy about him going alone just yet; then I get up to prepare the younger ones for school and we then walk down to their bus stop - to go in the opposite direction - where I am now able to greet and chat with about 5 other mums, including one woman who arrives with her SIX children!! I was amazed enough at that, but was informed by one of the other that there are two older ones as well, who go to another school. The woman has 8 children!! And they are all lovely - the youngest one is only one month old. And she comes down smiling and cheerful every day - and I feel ashamed for being stressed at all when mine play up a bit. Then the bus comes and we load our respective children on, wave them goodbye and then I walk back up the hill again - at liberty to sweep the house for a few hours to my heart's content! Our children stay for lunch so can't catch the bus back - I go to fetch them at around 3pm. Today they came out full of happiness, Ruy in particular has many friends already - Romy more excited that she'd eaten everything AND had ice-cream for lunch today. A girl who loves her food. By the time they've done their homework and been swimming, it's time for bed again in preparation for another day - time is flying by!!

So, that's where I'm off to now. It's another balmy evening - last week it seemed as though the weather had taken an autumnal turn, but today has been 30 degrees and very sunny. It's rather nice - but the question remains.... to buy or not to buy. 

Escoba!

During the long hot evenings, we have been playing a Spanish card game called Escoba, which is quite addictive.  Escoba means brush, usually a long handled broom-type brush and so I suppose the translation of the game could be 'clean sweep'.

Cesar Snr likes to play against me and is very competitive - I have beaten him a couple of times and he's very keen to eradicate the memory! Whilst he's been away in Leon, I've been practising with Ruy - and unfortunately for me, I've taught him too well and he keeps beating me!

The game is played with a deck of Spanish cards and I have just looked this up on Wikipedia and found this image showing exactly the same deck that we play with. I have discovered something myself by doing this.

If you look carefully at the 'suites' of cards and you will see that they go 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 - and then directly to 10,11 and 12. I had thought that the cards in the Villa family were missing something important, but that like many things in this house the 'put and make do' attitude was prevalent! Bear with me....

The game requires each player to have three cards each and to start with, four cards are placed face up in the centre. The aim is to make 15 points with one card in your hand and as many of the centre cards as possible. If you can take all of them, that counts as an 'escoba' and you win a point. Now, imagine playing this for the first time and being pretty cool about adding up to 15 - and then discover that the 10 is only worth 8, the 11 is worth 9 and the 12 is worth 10.. takes some getting used to. Anyway, I can now confidently say that 11 plus 6 equals 15 and thus gather my cards as necessary from the table! Hope it doesn't have a negative effect on Ruy's mathematical development.

As to the 'put up and make do' attitude here - it is comical on good days and frustrating on bad. A few examples are:
i) The house is full of heavy old chairs - in the dining room alone, I counted 11 and usually there are only 2 people living here. That would be OK if there was room for them, but there isn't. One of them lives in front of the big old 'dresser' where the plates are kept and it is impossible to open the door to get plates out without moving the chair or taking the plates one at a time and turning them sideways to get them out.
ii) The dining table is again very old and very heavy - a solid walnut thing - oval with lots of inconvenient legs. It's in three parts that keep coming apart. It is impossible to get the big heavy chairs under the table because the legs are too close together on the table. Getting five of us round it a meal times is a challenge.
iii) In the upstairs part of the house, where we sleep, there is a terrace over which is a canopy - many other houses round here have one - but this one, when extended, is so low at the front that you have to stoop down to get under it. Occasionally, Cesar Snr must get irritated with this, so he winds it in - only to find then, that because the metal arms of the canopy have bent inwards as it closes, you can no longer open the door wide enough to get in easily!
iv) Another door that is impossible to open wide enough is the bathroom door, because is shelving unit has been put up behind it - most of the time, this isn't a problem, you just have to remember not to open the door too wide when you go in. However, the washing machine is in the bathroom, and because the bathroom door doesn't open properly, neither does the washing machine door! So, to load it, you have to 'post' the washing in bit at a time - there isn't quite enough space to go in, close the door and open the machine wide either - just in case you think I'm being picky!!
v) I'll stop after this one, though it's not the last! The plugs in the house have a tendency to leave the wall when you extract a plug... exposing the wires behind. OR, there's a disconcerting spark when you plug something in... I am constantly telling the children not to plug things in though thus far, no one has been damaged.

There are lots more little 'features' about the place...mostly created by Cesar Snr... the garage door, for example, is on upside down so you have to lift the handle up to close the door and vice versa to close it. As I said, mostly, it's amusing and there's a never ending supply as I keep discovering  more things. We keep making suggestions about making changes, but they are not usually accepted...and it is their home so we put up and make do as well!