I’ve been having the village blues. The sort where you stop and think to yourself:”Why on earth do I live here?”. It has not been the blues about living in Spain away from family and friends (I don’t think it has, but maybe that is part of it as well?), more the blues about living in s small town full of small town people.

I would love to have some more friends locally, especially more spanish friends and not just expats, but the small town mentality doesn’t really do it for me. Wish I could get rid of half the population and instead import people from Barcelona and Madrid or another large city to create a bit more life, diversity and alternative thinking.

It is almost the same as with some countries, lovely country, shame about the people. I know it is probably not pc to say it and I have chosen myself to live in this small village but I do feel stuck sometimes. I shudder to think about how it would be if I did not have the internet which makes me sound like a sad person with just a virtual life and not a real life. Well, we all (hopefully) know that that’s not the case.

I am sure I will be back to normal soon or just lean to live with it.

What a shit nights sleep. Still got a banging headache and work is going slow this morning (yes, it is still morning. In Spain it remains morning until 2 o’clock - then it becomes afternoon until around 8.).
El Rubio had his first nights sleep in his own room, as he was obviously not too sure about it. This resulted in me getting in and out of bed around 15 times. I really do understand why they use sleep deprivation as a means of torture, not getting enough sleep is just evil!

El Rubio woke at normal time this morning, but I was still shattered. Maybe his teeth were also playing up, because he was not that happy. We had to ditch first attempt of getting him off to nursery. He went absolutely bonkers when we tried to get him in the car seat, screaming, crying and arching his back making it virtually impossible to seat him. But luckily since I work from home, I can afford to have mornings like this so we went back into the house, he had a little rest, some milk and a play of the roof terrace. After an hour we tried again and no problems getting him into the car, but he was crying loads at the nursery.  Called them 30 min later and he was happy playing with the other kids in the patio. Phew. Nobody quite prepares you for this when you become parents. The stress of leaving your crying children.

I am expecting another bad night, I am sure it will take a few nights for him to get used to being alone. And me too. I am so used to just opening my eyes and looking at him in his bed.

My little boy is getting bigger!

Will keep you posted on lack of sleep and crying babies.

Definitely spring has arrived. Apart from some strong winds, it is really warm. We spent most of today up on our roof terrace enjoying the rays and being outdoors. The house itself is still quite cold, insulation is not a big thing here in Andalucia.

Most houses are built for summer, even though it does get cold in the winter. I have not been in northern Spain yet, but buy looking at pics I can see they go for the more solid buildings with big stones and beams, all designed to keep the cold out.

Anyway, sitting on our roof terrace you really cant help but notice how little other people use their roof terraces for enjoyment. Most of them are only used to hang up the washing and often covered by corrugated iron sheets. Not very pretty. It is quite easy to stop the houses owned by foreigners as they are usually decorated with plants, nice tiles, lamps, tables and chairs with the washing lines playing as small a part as possible.

I think it is often the case, when you grow up in an area. You take the scenery and beauty for granted and don’t really think that much about it because it is always there and always has been.

So why sit on your roof terrace and look at the mountains. It is just the same old mountains that have always been there.

We went to the town hall the other day to ask about a plot of land in the countryside, on behalf of a friend. He was interested in maybe buying it and wanted to know what it would be possible to build on the land.

Quite interesting conversation we ended up having with the town hall architect. When we asked about why our friend would only be allowed to build a small 40m2 house when we have seen so many houses mushroom in the countryside in the last few years, the architect told us that they were all illegal. He said that there were around 2-300illegal houses in the countryside around my village. I think that is a hell of a lot, especially considering our town only has around 2500 inhabitants.

There is an estimated 4.000 (i think or was it maybe 40.000?) illegal houses in the Marbella area, and out of all of them only 40 so far has been ordered to be demolished. I am hoping that they will crack down harder and and more will have to go. Otherwise the odds are just too good, so people take the piss and build houses here there and everywhere. If you know the chance of it getting demolished is so little, it could be worth the risk for a lot of people, which is a shame.

I guess we just have to wait and see what happens over the next year or two. Most of the courts have a massive backlog, so it will take some time for all the decisions to come through.

We have got family over at the moment, so me and El Rubio went to the zoo with his cousin Cecilia who is 1.5 years older and my sister, her mum.

I have heard good things about that zoo previously, but never been. And I was really pleasantly surprised.  The last time I was in a spanish zoo was 22 years ago on a holiday in Santander in Northern Spain. I was 12 and camping with my mum and sis (and I kissed a boy on that holiday, but that is another story…) and ate spaghetti bolognese and oxtail soup.

No idea what the zoo we visited was called (give me a break, it was 22 years ago, and I have had a baby since then which is a way of getting senile, seriously I cannot remember a thing any more these days). But the zoo was not a pretty sight. Kinda like the animal version of those Rumanian orphanages. There was big cats in tiny circus-like cages pacing back and forth (you know the type I am talking about: small box, bars on one side and solid wall on the remaining three). A stench of animal piss and shit, no stimulation for any of the animals who all seemed to have various manic-nervous behaviour issues. We didn’t stay long and my sister and I were in tears.

So went we went to the Zoo in Fuengirola, I am happy to say that it was as far removed from my previous horror experience as possible. I will tell you more about it soon, but someone is clinging to my leg making typing difficult.

I found this video of La Macarena de Sevilla at being carried around in the procession at Easter.

I’ve been getting my hair done. When I say done I mean I had my hair cut and this time also coloured, not I had my hair done as in styled to the max.

It is funny that even though I speak quite good spanish, there are still a few things that you would prefer someone who speaks good English to do. And one of them is cut your hair. It is just that your hair is a serious matter and the finer details in describing how you want it done are rather important. You don’t want to leave the place looking like a throw-back from the eighties.

Luckily I found an English hairdresser in Spain and had my hair sorted out. Nobody seems to have noticed though, as I have not had a single comment (either that or they think it looks horrid ).

El Rubios hair is growing and growing as well. Not quite ready for his first haircut, but I think he might need one this summer. The question will then be if I take him to the hairdressers or if he is going to get a best-of-mummy-style-of-haircut? Or do I let it grow into a prober mullet?? Just joking, that would never happen even if this hairstyle is fairly popular in the south of Spain.

A comment to my previous post about Salud Responde and the process of getting an appointment at the doctors http://www.morethansunandpaella.com/2008/02/26/salud-responde/

Well, it seems I was overly positive and optimistic. This new system has reached the health centre in our nearby larger town, but our very local and small get-up consisting of a nurse and a doctor are still caught in the dark ages.

Not the doctor and nurse literally, of course, but the system. For some reason it has not been updated yet, so you still have to get there at 8, wait for the doctor to arrive, get your number and try to figure out when it might be your turn and end up wasting most of your day…

It is just so inefficient in drives me nuts. And such a waste of time for everyone. I wonder how many millions of euros Spain looses every year in lost revenue due to employees having to take a whole day of to go to the doctors. Arghh!

I makes you consider signing up to some private health scheme here in Spain, just to avoid the wait. At the moment we are all covered by the national security because we live and work here (Seguridad Social) but if this continues I might have to go private!

Because of El Hombre being ill I decided to take the pushchair and the two dogs out. Not an easy task I tell you.

It wouldn’t be so bad if only the streets were flat and I felt certain the dogs would be all right being off lead, but no, I am not so lucky.

In order to get to the flatter streets of town, you have to navigate a hill going downwards. So off I went with a dog on either side, and it went ok apart from the odd eagerness to get going which resulted in the dogs pulling a bit.
But then they spotted some food on the street and being the greedy fuckers they are, almost pulled me down the hill. I swear, some days they do my head in.

Furter down in the village I ran into an old Spanish man who, after seeing my getup with two dogs and a pushchair, asked me if I was not scared that the dogs might jump up and bite the baby? Ahemmm, no?  I decided there was no point in telling him that the dogs sleep inside on their shared doggy bed next to the fireplace. He was an old man and there is no point risking him having a heat attack. I just once again show the differences in attitude to animals in Southern Spain and Northern Europe.

Illness seems to have a good hold of us this winter. We have just been struck down again. This time at least, El Rubio was not in the firing line, and neither was I.

El Hombre got sinusitis, i think its called, and it got really bad in the weekend. He could hardly move around for the pain in his head and behind his eyes. Having not had this before, it took a bit before we figured that it was the sinuses which were the culprits.

I decided to get out of the house with El Rubio as much as I could, as I am sure that the high-pitched shrieking, screaming and yelling of a child just over a year old is not what you need when your head is about to explode.

We went to see some of our other foreign friends in the village, and it endd up being a rather productive trip. As I moaned about El Hombre being ill again, it seemed that these sinus problems are rather common and everybody had a bit of a boots pharmacy going on at home. So I came back with the loot which included: Those drops you put in boiling water to inhale (cannot for the life of me remember what they are called right now), vapour rub, decongestion and painkiller tablets, and some other tablets. And they really did the trick! He is feeling much better, as the headache is more of a normal headache and not this crippling pain.

I think we need to stock up in Boots next time we are home in the UK. Sounds silly as you can get a lot of good products here in Spain, but there is something about using products you know well and have always used. Old habits die hard I guess.

I’ve not been that efficient at blogging this month, but El Rubio has been ill again(!) so he has been home from nursery creating havoc in the house instead.

The Junta de Andalucia (kinda andalucian government) have made some efforts recently to make things a bit more userfriendly. A much needed step! Part of this has been to introduce a Service called Salud Responde, a telephone service open 24/7 for you to book appointments with the doctor or ask questions.

This is brilliant, as they previous way was an utter waste of time. To see the doctor in our small local health centre you had to get up early in the morning, queue with all the other ill people or just people having their prescriptions renewed (80% elderly people who would start the line at 7, the doctor arrived at 8 ) get a number when the doctor arrived and then estimate when it might be your turn. So if say, your number was 26, you then had to try to suss out how long it would take for the 25 patients before you to be seen which meant you always ended up waiting at least at hour because you didn’t want to get there too late and miss your turn.

Going to a health centre in a nearby larger town meant trying to call around 10 times to make an appointment and being on hold for 10 minutes. So I am so chuffed with this new system.

The telephone number for Salud Responde is 902 505 060. I don’t think they speak other languages than Spanish, but I have not tried. Obviously this could be dependant on the operator you get through to.

We’ve had a tragedy in my village. At the start of last week, three young people aged 19, 20 and 25 were killed in a car accident.

My village is only small so when something like that happens is involves everybody. The town hall declared 2 days of mourning and you could feel the funny mood everywhere you went.

The guy of 25 and his girlfriend of 20 years old was one of my neighbours and they lived just a bit further down the street.

The kid of 19 was always hanging out with the two you girls next door as they were cousins.

When I was first told about the accident it somehow didn’t affect me that much. I think I didn’t really understand it. Death is a very abstract thing. But as the day went on I got more and more upset.

Wednesday there was a funeral for all three of them. It took place at the cemetery and the little chapel up there. We went up to pay our respects but couldn’t walk into the room where they were laid out in coffins with glass tops. It was devastating listening to the cries from family and friends.

The car accident took place on the road between Cartama and Coin. I think it was raining and they tried to overtake a car and ended up hitting a 4×4 head on. Unfortunately none of them were wearing seat belts which really upsets me. I don’t know enough details to comment on whether or not it might have saved their lives, but I can’t help but think it might have. The thing is, you never plan for an accident. That’s why they are accidents. So please use a seat belt.

I really really need to learn Spanish properly.

I can speak it quite and get by, but I would love to feel confident that my grammar was correct and not break into a cold sweat everytime I am asked to write something.

Furthermore, what if we move from Spain one day? I can then add to my CV that I can get by in Spanish? Not really good enough. Would be nice to have a diploma or degree of some sort to prove that I can speak it to so and so level.

Since moving abroad I have gained a much better understanding of why immigrants don’t always learn the language even after several years in their adopted country. The reason is that it is so easy not to. You hang out with other immigrants, you can get buy in the shops and on the street, you work with other immigrants. A bit sad though, but that is how reality is for a lot of people, myself partly included.

Living in a small village I haven’t met that many spanish people my age that I really feel like I am connecting with. Yes, I chat and am friendly with quite a few, but friendship cannot be forced and if you  have only a few things in common it doesn’t really evolve that much. For that reason I do wish I lived in Madrid or Barcelona sometimes.

Feeling a bit sick as I have absolutely stuffed my face with toffee this morning (morning in Spain lasts until 2, remember?). My mum is over and have brought supplies which I have been doing my best to demolish to  a level of great success. So I am now suffering.

This is a brilliant little video. I have never take part of El Rocio myself, but it gives you a good idea of the whole thing and the history behind it.

See it and see a bit of the real Andalucia!

Spanish Festival - El Rocio

We are ill again! Can’t believe it but I guess that is the price you pay when your child starts at the nursery.

E l Hombre has been ill for a week, I have been ill for a few days, Rubio has got a cold and now has diarrhoea (thank god for spell check!) for the third day in a row.

I was in tears changing him before because his little bottom was so red he was just crying when I changed him and trying to get away. Proper tears and all. I really didn’t like it. I’ve got some cream and all, but it is difficult to keep at bay when he is constantly shitting.

So the photo doesn’t have much to do with being ill, it is just one I took the other day when I was out with the dogs. It is, or was, a frog. Now it is a very flat and dead frog. I like the colours of the earth in the photo and the slight stain on the ground around his body. Maybe the earth got sodden with frog blood. What colour is frog blood anyway?

I am getting bored with being ill and my respect for single parents have really grown. I can’t imagine being alone with your sick child and feeling like shit yourself.