A life full of firsts

Life is like that, it chops and changes, and then life is full of ‘firsts’ once again.

You know what I mean.  As a child and you go to school – the first day at school, the first homework to bring home, the first friends, the first exams.

Life is full of experiences and with those come all the firsts, scary, unsettling, unfamiliar, but all they are just ” firsts”.

When you get married that first year is the year when you experience your first birthdays in your own home, your first Christmas, your first anniversary, your first child.

Now that we have embarked on our new adventure we are beginning our year of ‘firsts’.  We have already had our first Christmas and soon we will experience our first New Year.  Each day I am watching as the weather and the seasons change marking in my mind again all the firsts that I see.  I look forward to all the firsts that come along as we go from winter to spring, from spring to summer and then autumn back to winter.

The cycle has to go around, the changes have to be seen.  All the experiences have to be experienced until the firsts appear to be no more.

But they never go away.  Each season, each year, each decade, the firsts continue to pop up to surprise us.

Without the ‘firsts’ without the changes that life brings we would become stagnant and stale.  Change brings ‘firsts’ and firsts bring change.  Life is cyclical but ever changing.

I wouldn’t want it any other way!

Boxing Day and after – Spanish style

Boxing Day here is definitely different to the Boxing Day being celebrated back in the UK.

While friends and relatives in the UK are still enjoying their public holiday and eating, drinking and making the most of their time off, here work day is as normal.  The builders are back next door getting on with the refurbishment of the apartments and the post lady has been and dropped of the post with a cheery ‘buenos días, que tal’.

The festivities here will commence again on the 28th December when it is Santos Inocentes (Holy Innocents) the equivalent of April Fool’s Day and then 31st December, Noche Vieja, when we will be joining in with eating our 12 grapes as the new year is chimed in.

On the 5th January there can be processions and floats where sweets are thrown out to the children and on 6th January the day all Spanish children look forward to – Feast of the Epiphany (Día de los Reyes Magos) – when they wake to find that the Three Kings have left them presents.

As we are still newcomers here we don’t yet know what is being celebrated in this area but from what is read in the papers most of the celebrations will be held in Palma.  Perhaps by next year we will know where all the local fiestas are being held but for this year we will watch it on the TV as we raise a glass or two!

 

Christmas Day stroll on the beach

Just a few photos of our Christmas Day stroll along the beach at Playa De Muro.

Weather Patterns

I find it interesting learning about the weather patterns out here.

Today I awoke to see a mist blowing off the land. Now I am used to mist and fog in the UK but this was different as I could almost see that there was a sun above it.

Now only half hour later the white mist has a definite yellow glow to it as the sun is trying to burn through. I reckon that it is going to be a hot one today.

I should get to take my photos of paddling in the sea after all then!

Going to be a scorcher.

Christmas Day

Good morning and Merry Christmas to everyone.

I awoke this morning to the sound of my Skype going off. Dashing to answer it I was too late. My mum had rung off and did not answer when I returned the call. So I guess she is playing with her iPad again.

The same happened yesterday and when I phoned her and asked why she didn’t answer I was told she was watching You Tube. I guess she is doing that again!

Oh well I am up now so I will wait until she is ready to answer.

Familiar and unfamiliar – Part Two

I decided to split this post in two as I had too much to write in one post.

Carrying on the ups and downs of yesterday on the up side I had received several emails and one phone call from a local estate agent. One email was sent at 23:05 – don’t they ever sleep!

The result of these calls was an appointment for next Thursday when he has marked the whole day as being devoted to taking us around all the houses and apartments that he thinks may be of interest to us plus the properties we had originally shown an interest in. Now that is good service. (I know it is in his interest but hey that is still good service).

The result of this is that this morning I got a little jittery. We cannot afford to make a mistake. We have sold our house in the UK and all that we have is sitting in the bank. We are not wealthy and do not have enough to give us an option to change our minds once the deed is done. When we buy here then that is it. Properties are not selling very fast here so there is no chance to change our minds and sell up. Once we buy then we buy and there is no going back. It is a scary prospect.

Yet I don’t have ‘failure’ in my dictionary and I never give up without a fight. Once the decision is made then I will carry on regardless, tackling each problem as it comes along and relishing in the good times. It is just such a big step. Perhaps even bigger than the selling of our home in the UK.

Yes it’s a funny old day today. I guess the time of year, my distance from friends and family, the rather surprising email from a colleague yesterday, my inability to speak the language better, the unfamiliar things around me, they have all lead me to be a little reflective.

Oh well where is the ‘familiar’ that I put in my title. Well I have PG Tips tea, weetabix, cappuccino coffee, custard cream biscuits, my iPad, my laptop, Skype, email and the Internet. What more could I ask for!

Oops nearly forgot – I have my husband too 🙂

Familiar and unfamiliar, good and bad – Part One

I awoke this morning, the day of my son’s birthday, and looked out at the early morning light.

As yet the sun has not risen but the day is calm and looks to be another lovely warm day. Yet I feel a little strange.

Yesterday was a day of ups and downs. All part of settling in and getting used to this new way of life.

I had a problem with a Spanish courier firm who could not find my address and would not deliver my order from Amazon.es. Silly really as I saw the van on the other side of the road looking at the house numbers. Problem is that he never came across to our side of the road. Not wishing to bore you with the details several calls from Amazon (thank you Amazon you were brilliant) and a rather grumpy call from the courier company head office in Madrid I have been told that it will be delivered next week some time. The local office in Palma still seem to think that this address does not exist and I have been given their phone number should I have any problems. All this for ink for my printer!

Now the problem is not the hassle with the courier, after all I had many problems with couriers in the UK, but it is my inability to communicate with a local company over the phone! I cannot contact them because I cannot understand enough yet to hold a full blown conversation by phone. All the years of studying Spanish have come to nothing really when you are involved with trying to make yourself understood in an intelligent manner to someone who talks at normal speed (fast).

I now know how a child must feel when they are trying to make an adult understand what they are trying to say!

Patience, patience, I must learn patience

Now the sun is shining and it’s a glorious day. Temperatures are around 22 C and doors and windows are open. The blue sky and fluffy white clouds remind me of one of my reasons for loving Mallorca.

But I still have to learn patience!

Red tape, Christmas holidays and all that stuff mean that we can’t move on with our plans yet.

I want a place of my own. The money is sitting in our bank account from the sale of our house and I just want to get settled. But I cannot buy a house without my NIE, and I cannot get my NIE without some help. My Spanish (which I have been studying for years) does not leave me confident enough to tackle going to see government officials. Add to that the Christmas holidays and our friends returning to the main land to visit family then I am stuck in limbo.

Another of my concerns is how long will it actually take to complete a purchase? After all we only have a limited time that we can stay in this apartment so I need some idea of timescale.

As usual Mick worries about nothing and just shrugs and says everything will work out.

But that doesn’t help me – a person who needs to be in control and who is, sadly, unable to control this situation….