![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.visitgalicia.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/housepath.jpg\" "\\"housepath\\"")
<\/a>The thoroughfare, where visitors arrive<\/p><\/div>\n
It emerged that his sister had told him that the house would be sold tomorrow and that he had to remove all of his ‘stuff’, a task which he appeared to have left until the very last minute. He asked Amanda about whether he need to dig out his already sprouting potato crop. ‘No, that’s okay, leave them and harvest them when they are ready, we don’t intend to do anything with the land until later in the year.’ <\/strong><\/em>There was a tear starting to form in the corner of his eye, it looked like one sentence had lifted a massive weight from his shoulders. He wouldn’t starve this winter.<\/p>\n ‘And what about my car, can I leave it in your garage?’<\/em>, ‘Yes’ <\/strong><\/em>replied Amanda. Feeling more confident he went for the third favour, ‘What about my donkey, can I leave him on your land?’. ‘Sure..’<\/strong><\/em>, said Amanda, ‘..until later in the year when we start work’<\/strong><\/em>. Then the last question, the one that he was obviously really nervous about asking but was the most important to him. ‘At the end of the summer can I cut your grass and take it as hay?’<\/em>. Result for us! ‘Yes’<\/em><\/strong> said Amanda, trying to hide her delight. For allowing a few small favours we were going to get the land tidied free of charge at the end of the summer.<\/p>\n Then our first neighbourly visitors arrived, and tried speaking to me to which I awkwardly responded using my very rudimentary Spanish and\u00a0shouted to Amanda rescuing\u00a0her from her conversation with Carlos.<\/p>\n ‘Are you buying this house, we understand you are opening up an old peoples home?’.<\/em> The Galician\u00a0chinese whispers had been working overtime. ‘Yes and No’<\/strong><\/em> said Amanda, ‘We buy the house tomorrow, and then\u00a0we are going to develop it into a rural hotel’<\/em><\/strong>. This met with smiles, I am not sure whether they were happy at the prospect of a small hotel in their village\u00a0or just laughing at us. ‘Very good, that will be perfect’<\/em>. And then, in this most Catholic of countries, the typical Spanish second (although usually\u00a0the first) question ‘And do you have children?’<\/em>.<\/p>\n When we responded in the negative there was a look of pity on their faces, I felt myself being looked up and down as potentially ‘inadequate’, and then Amanda was\u00a0stared at with pity (at having an inadequate husband). ‘Ah, that’s a shame!’<\/em> they said as a couple.<\/p>\n As they pulled away in their old Mercedes with sun dulled red paint neighbour number two approached the property from the other direction, this time with two children in tow. ‘Are you the new owner?’<\/em>, she asked me (so I was told later by Amanda). My good wife rescued me for the third time in ten minutes. ‘Yes, yes we are’<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n ‘And do you have children?’<\/em> said the woman, ‘No’<\/em><\/strong>, Amanda responded. It was a conversation killer and\u00a0it was at this point that I became\u00a0concerned that she’d offer us one of hers, or at least organise a village collection to get us one. Childless, I felt almost guilty as she shuffled off\u00a0two grandchildren in tow, one picking his nose and the other banging two stones together with no particular rhythm.<\/p>\n With this local fascination with children, perhaps we should be\u00a0converting the house into\u00a0an orphanage?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We arrived in\u00a0Galicia\u00a0on the evening of the 20th June, cutting it fine as it was one day before we could\u00a0lose our 10% deposit. But with\u00a0the completion\u00a0scheduled to happen on the 21st, the longest day, and with our feet on Galician … Continue reading