Back from the frozen north

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Paul

It was a very early start. Amanda was dragged shouting and screaming from her slumbers at an unearthly 4am this morning to give me a lift to Leeds railway station for the 5:30am train to Stansted. Once again I am back in Galicia and raring for work to get started on phase II of the barn tomorrow morning.

Neil, my increasingly indispensable good friend, collected me from the airport and re-united me with my car which had sat holidaying at his building site for the last week, during my sojourn to the frozen north of England.

With the afternoon sun shining and casting a beautiful light across the countryside, and the temperatures in the late teens, I couldn’t resist a visit to the house for a ‘quick Liñeiras fix’ and to re-acquaint myself with the neighbours.

Remembering three red apples that I bought a fortnight ago, and which were not particularly palatable, I thought I’d seek out Enrique and see if he remembered last year’s pitiful equine electrocution incident. He was busy foraging for food down the bottom of our finca but a whistle and the waving of an apple soon beckoned him.

But he did remember. He wasn’t going to take one from my electric hand, but was more than happy to accept one thrown to the ground. And another, and then the third.  All munched with aplomb and followed with a big donkey belch.

A quick check around found that the weeds and grass around the house had been strimmed or scythed back, either by Carlos or Facundo’s team ahead of works tomorrow. If the former he’ll probably come looking for some cash tomorrow.

Driving away as dusk fell I found neighbour Miro on the road with a wheelbarrow and our new neighbour now permanently moved into their old holiday home from Madrid after her husband was made redundant from his job in publishing. The family have settled well and love living here, their son is established into the local school with plenty of new friends, and they are delighted that the cost of living being a fraction of that in Spain’s capital city. This is what the crisis is doing here.

I saw three cars on the thirty minute drive to Ribadeo and the Eroski supermarket to stock up with provisions for the next fortnight. And only two on the way back. Quite a difference from my one hour and forty minute journey for the twenty-three miles to work in Salford yesterday morning.

All that remains for today is for me to cook the ½ kilo of fresh langoustines which I got from the supermarket for a measly £4, and get an early night to recover from the long journey and to be fresh for an early start tomorrow as Facundo and his able work crew descend on the barn.

Just time for a quick beer and a bit of free wi-fi to post this blog.

Posted in Local Life | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Choices, choices!

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Paul

I was quite surprised when the car ‘pinged’ at me on the turn of the key first thing this morning. Not the ping of another BMW problem, but the ‘ping’ accompanied by a ‘zero degrees centigrade’ readout on the dashboard. I’m in Spain for goodness sake, why is it freezing?

I gingerly made my way up to the house to rendezvous with the carpenter, Alessandro, at the barn so he could take the more accurate windows and doors measurements which would allow them to start their construction.

For the first time in my eyes the big house was covered in frost. Strangely it wasn’t on the barn, but as you can see it was all over the slate on the main house roof.

While walking around the perimeter of the house, and despite my feeble attempts in Spanish to warn him, our carpenter managed to step into a knee deep puddle, just where the ice cold water springs from the bedrock. His ‘hush puppies’ and corduroy trousers were saturated, mercifully in clean spring water.

I managed not to laugh, and uttered a heartfelt ‘lo siento’ (I’m sorry). He maintained some dignity, probably hoping I wouldn’t say anything.

Once he’d measured and re-measured everything we stood chatting in the sun, allowing his trousers to start the drying process, and he explained the reason for the wooden formula one car in his garage. His son, Bruno (Mendez), is a Formula 3 driver and despite Alessandro’s modesty a later Wikipedia search showed that he’s actually been World Champion. This, I guess, explains the brand new top of the range BMWs in his garage.

Although we’d planned to meet Facundo at the house, Alessandro had gone before my builder arrived, and after a brief chat we headed for a coffee and then to the bathroom place in A Pontenova. It was a small, and initially unpromising looking shop, hidden on a back street. But inside was a cornucopia of sanitary fittings, and more importantly tiles.

We must have spent an hour discussing options, exchanging opinion, and trying to decide what Amanda would, and would not like. In the end I made some executive decisions and plumped for Rust Slate Winter tiles on the bathroom walls, Rust Slate African on the floor, and a nice aged terracotta tile for the rest of the downstairs floor.

Remembering the lessons I learnt in England (from Amanda) I found a WC which I think matches her aesthetic requirements, and opted to get the sink and taps myself from a place I’ve seen in Lugo.

We worked out the prices with the shopkeeper and now all I have to do is check with Amanda that I haven’t made any catastrophic mistakes and then everything can be ordered as soon as I get back to Spain on the 7th November.

There is only a 50:50 chance that my selection will actually get fitted.

 

Posted in Barn Renovation | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Winter’s coming

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Paul

I’ve been accused of bringing the English weather with me as Saturday saw plummeting temperatures and steady rain for most of the day. While I’ve been mentioned in the same breath as the word ‘witch’, I think that my punishment will stop short of me being burned at the stake, but just in case I’ll be avoiding black cats in the short-term.

I couldn’t stay away from the house in Lineiras so I braved the rain and went to measure up the floor of the Cabazo (grain store) so that I can buy a sufficient quantity of rough cut chestnut next time I am here. Turns out that I need just seven and a half square metres, which when I mentioned it to Neil got a reaction that made it seem a bit pathetic. But I guess when he is building his own house totally from scratch, and totally by hand, he does usually deal in much larger quantities.

Dodging the rain, I also paid a visit to next-door-but-one neighbours Miro and Elena, the former still in bed at 11am and the latter out in the barn feeding this years’ pig. Knowing his inevitable fate of later in the year, I didn’t enquire about his name, I though it better not to humanise him in any way. He’s a massive beast already, there will be plenty of chorizo and every cut of pork imaginable to get our neighbours through the winter, and it looks like it might be necessary.

Why, you may ask?

Well. Neil and Rosa were kind enough to invite me out last night to what was supposed to be a dinner-dance, but with the poor uptake of tickets it turned out to just be a dinner, which suited Neil and myself brilliantly. During the excellent meal, Neil and Rosa told me that when they came to open their wood burner to get it ready for the winter they discovered an active wasp’s nest. Half a gallon of petrol and a match quickly solved the problem, but their neighbours told them that wasps in October are a sure sign of a bad winter. Now Neil is fitting his snow tyres.

The meal was in the youth hostel in ‘O Teixos’ which sounds fairly down market but was far from it. It is right up in the mountains and there was some talk of impending snow.

The dining room was spacious, warm (with a lovely open fire), welcoming, and better than many local restaurants.

The food was good, hearty, local Asturian fare served with good lashings of beer and Orujo (the locals home-brew that resembles the schnapps/vodka/gin or any other liquor made in someone’s garage out of left-overs from the harvest). All this for just 12 Euros (the additional 3 Euros in the poster must have been for the omitted ‘dance’ part).

The proprietors were great, their whirlwind young son crashing into the patrons and furniture like a spinning top. They made me feel very welcome. This is how restaurants should be.

Today is a lazy Sunday, and an hour longer to be lazier in than yesterday. A leisurely walk, a nice morning coffee, and then off to watch the Grand Prix and grab some more free-ish internet in Consuelas bar.

Tomorrow, my last day before I am back in the UK for a week, will be somewhat busier with meetings at the house with the carpenter and the builder.

Posted in Local Life | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The rude awakening and the wooden Grand Prix

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Paul

My rude awakening by the piercing shrill of the Spanish mobile phone (I must change the ring tone), at the unearthly hour of 9am, was instigated by Facundo; calling off this mornings planned trip to look at sanitary-ware as he had to go to Lugo. I’m sure he explained why, but still half asleep my rusty Spanish couldn’t keep up.

One of the other essentials on this first weeks trip of the new building season was to visit our solicitor and collect the Spanish equivalent of the Council Tax bill which needs paying before the middle of November. Failure to do so will undoubtedly mean a fine which will be disproportionately and outrageously large. This year the annual bill has increased greatly as the barn is now registered as living space, rather than its previous status as a ruin.

This year I have had to pay 64.80 Euros, yes that is just over £50, for the entire year. I don’t really begrudge it especially as they have totally re-surfaced the road for the three kilometres leading up the house. While I was most appreciative when driving it for the first time yesterday, the cautious side of me did immediately consider how dangerously slippy it will be when there is the first touch of frost this winter.

Once our debts were settled for another year, and a direct debit set up for future years, I decided to call on the carpenters that we have commissioned to make our windows and doors. We’ve gone for Iroco (more durable and slightly cheaper than the ubiquitous chestnut) but after seeing some windows locally which looked more PVC than wood I wanted to be sure that ours would have plenty of character.

Our previous contact, Mari Luz, was absent but I got talking to Alessandro, who I suspect is the boss, or at least acted like he was. After my initial spluttering attempts at Spanish he knew who I was and we talked through the quote, arranging for him to come to the house on Monday morning and measure up so that the manufacture process can begin. After giving him directions to the house I asked if I could see some examples of the wood and the windows and doors and he took me deep into the bowels of the factory and then outside into the garage under his house.

The BMW 535i and brand new M3 signalled to me that there is a probably a bit of money in windows, and as we went round a corner in the vast garage, he showed me something most unexpected. There, varnished, polished and shiny, was a full size Formula One car made entirely from wood, by Alessandro’s own hand. Any worries I have about his workmanship or skill were instantly allayed.

This thing was fantastic, all wood except for the tyres, with a working steering mechanism, suspension, and a steering wheel which detaches from the top of the steering column just like you see Jensen Button doing as he crashes out every other Sunday.

Behind this one was another smaller F1 car (his practice) and yet another ¾ size wooden saloon car wholly made in various varieties of wood.

A quick stop at the supermarket for provisions where I stumbled across a new potato chip that I’d never seen before, and I had to buy a pack.

They are called ‘Facundo’, the same name as our builder. Facundo actually means eloquent, which isn’t a great name for a crisp in either language.

Perhaps that is why we’ve had to wait for October until he started work, he’s spent the summer perfecting the new crisp that bears his name.

Having sampled ‘Facundo’ for lunch, all I can say is that he’s a much better builder than he is snack maker!

As I write this Ramons internet isn’t working, but I have absolutely no grounds to complain as he is allowing me to stay in his apartment for nothing. What it does mean is that to use the internet I have to buy a beer or two at the wi-fi hot-spotted Hotel Taramundi, it’s such a hard life that I lead!

Posted in Barn Renovation | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Back ‘In Country’

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Paul

I am back ‘in country’ and it is an absolute delight. At tea-time last night it was twenty-five degrees and today is definitely t-shirt weather.

The ‘tyre punctured’ message on the dashboard on the A42 to Birmingham on my way to collect the wood burning stove turned out to be the Germans having a ‘bit of a giggle’ at my expense. The stove took four of us to cover in industrial bubble wrap, and load into the back seat. It nearly had the rear wheels rubbing the wheel arches.

I made the ferry in good time and just to pay testament to the ‘it’s a small world’ philosophy, the guy behind me in the queue to board was the same guy who was at the hotel in Santander (just three guests) the night before I brought the Land Rover home in January. He’s a parachute instructor who works near Seville and since we last talked he’d walked out of a catastrophic plane crash. Not the kind of story that you want to be able to better.

The sailing on the Pont Aven was uneventful apart from the inedible food from the self-service cafeteria and we docked on time after sailing over what felt as though it resembled a mill pond.

Customs left me alone at both ends, which was very wise considering how many of us it would have taken to lift the fire out for them to check it, and the drive from Santander to our friends Stephen and Kay’s newly finished barn conversion near Trabada took just under four hours. I did, of course, observe the ever fluctuating speed limits after learning an expensive 400 Euro lesson last time.

Stephen and Kay’s’ barn is nothing short of delightful. The attention to detail is stunning, the craftsmanship of the highest quality, and the overall comfort is like slipping on your favourite pair of well-worn slippers. The building wraps you up and it’s location is other-worldly. A constantly re-topped glass of wine and some delicious tuna lubricated and fuelled discussions, which went on until 3am.

I was up to watch the dawn, at a very civilised 8:30am, and see the mist lift to reveal dew laden fields as cockerels crowed and cows mooed.

An external inspection of the barn and newly renovated bread oven house (horno) and grain store (cabazo) showed that there was no skimping on quality there either.

When I got to Lineiras at 11:30 this morning to meet Facundo it was evident that they hadn’t started work yet, and that nature had once again begun reclaiming the site with an abundance of weeds and tall grass. All the fruit trees were empty of their bounty, evidence that Carlos had once again taken our crop for himself.  The new zinc guttering looks great and the re-finished balcony has stood up well to the summer.

Work is now re-scheduled to start on the 7th November, which suits me fine as I am back in the UK for a week starting next Tuesday. Facundo is predicting that the works will take about a month, but the elapsed time will depend on the manufacture and delivery of the windows which are needed to make the place water-tight before first fix electrics and plumbing can be installed.

I will use Friday, Saturday and Monday to choose bathroom sanitary ware (with Facundo tomorrow), flooring, liaise with the carpenters over the windows and doors, and go to Ribadeo to pay some bills.

It feels like I’ve never been away, and my Spanish is coming back to me pretty quickly. Shout and wave your arms…it works every time.

Posted in The House in Liñeiras | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment