Mallorca in our final week here!

So it's finally here - our last week in the Port 😟  Bittersweet sums it up really.  We're sad to leave as we've had such a wonderful time here, but it's the right thing and right time for us.  But more of that later and first to local PP news!

We've had more than our fair share of classic Spanish bureaucracy this past week!  Firstly we tried for the second time to pay the plusvalía tax on the sale of our apartment here which is payable at the town hall and theoretically should be done within 30 days of the sale.  Our solicitor obtained the paperwork from the tax office around that time so we hot-footed it down to the town hall to pay.  Apparently the man who deals with this comes down from Pollensa every Wednesday until 1pm.  I returned on the Wednesday.  He made a careful note of my details on his handwritten log and then.....computer say no.  Not on the system yet.  So he can't take the money.  Come back in about a month and try again he says.  We returned this Wednesday, careful note of my details again and.....yep, you've guess it, computer still say no.  Awkward as we're moving on 27th.  So he's told us to keep ringing/emailing to see when it appears on the system, after which they will actually be able to take our money if we pay it in at a bank on the mainland. Ah well, we tried.

The second delightful bureaucratic experience was regarding our move.  The removals company breezily told us that we'd need to pop into the policia local and request some official signs to put outside our apartment to prevent cars parking there on the dates/times listed so that the lorry can get good access.  So we duly turned up at the police station.  Closed.  A lovely man waiting for the social services office next door told us they were out on patrol.  So we had a coffee and came back and a friendly policia gave us the correct form and told us the drill.  And only in Spain would it be thus: 

• fill in this form and take it to the town hall office down the corridor;
• the town hall will check the form and details, decide how much it will cost and give us another piece of paper stating this;
• we then take the original form and the money one to the nearest Colonya bank and pay;
• return to the town hall office with three pieces of paper, get the original one stamped;
• take everything to the police station in Pollensa 48 hours beforehand to collect the signs;
• put out the signs 24 hours beforehand;
• return the signs to Pollensa.

Hmmmmm 🤔 added bonus entertainment was provided in the town hall office as the amount you pay depends on the size of the lorry.  I had no idea so I rang the removals company whose receptionist is shall we say not the sharpest tool in the shed - after a stunned silence she proclaimed it was 'a normal sized lorry'.  I put the phone on speaker so the helpful lady in the town hall could hear it for herself.  Cue much merriment 😂 her colleague was pretty amused as well.  Anyway, between about 5 of us we worked out the rough dimensions of a 'normal sized lorry' and are hoping for the best.  And then when we went to pay by card at the bank we were told they only took cash 😂  Oh what fun we had....   The bonus was that all of this was undertaken in Spanish and was good practice for me although afterwards I needed a lie down in a darkened room to give my overtaxed brain a break!

In local Covid news, there are 4 active cases in the municipality with two diagnosed earlier this week.  And vaccinations are still more than slow with this past week finally seeing most over 80s getting the 'call up'.  The national government is sticking to its target of vaccinating 70% of the population by the summer.  And because regions can decide how to manage things for themselves, some are opting to save doses to be sure they can administer the second shot while others are using them as they get them.  Nationally vaccinations have yet to start for the 55-80 age group largely due to the fact that Spain has decided not to use the Astra Zeneca jab on anyone over 55 which rather limits the options.  Here in the Balearics all care home residents and frontline healthcare workers have been vaccinated and I'm pretty sure they've done most of the emergency workers such as police, and also teachers.  In any event, the rest of us have Covid vaccine envy of the UK if we're honest, but just have to continue to be patient.

The Sunday meal for local needy families registered with social services continues to be provided at the Bellaverde restaurant and this week chefs Carlos Escandell Proust and Hernan Biblioni from Iru were involved in making a delicious smelling pumpkin and potato stew  as we walked past with the dogs just as the queues were beginning to form.  This is such a wonderful initiative and it's great to see people making their way home with their plastic containers and carriers full of good food, but equally it's so sad that this is needed at all.  

More local restaurants have now opened including Marcs but the pool of people to use them remains static and small.  How long some can continue is anyone's guess but we all just have to hope that tourism resumes at some point, the difficulty being how few of us who live here have been vaccinated.  It's a real dilemma.  From this weekend, German tourists have been allowed to enter the Balearics (with a negative PCR test) and of course there is a wide range of opinions as to the wisdom of this which I will not add to here; suffice it to say, what happens in due course will be most interesting......

Bar Manolo which closed last year following the owner's death, has now re-opened which is good to see.  But Hostal Borras remains closed for the foreseeable future.  And the other day I walked past Loqueria (just back from Manolo) and noticed this brilliant sign on the door:

I've drawn a yellow arrow to help, but basically it says "We are open from 11.00 to 12.00....more or less (mas o menos)".  Love it!  Just soooo Spanish (well the owners are Italian actually but.....) 😂

Yesterday was my last radio show on English Radio Pollensa which consisted of some great party music with the theme of a Goodbye Party for One as only one person can broadcast from the studio in Pollensa at a time.  It was great but really sad for me as it's something I've totally loved doing for several years now.  But I'm hoping to find another opportunity to be on air on the mainland in due course so fingers crossed 🤞

And finally, this is it!  My last blog post about Mallorca (although not the last about our adventures in Spain, there won't be one next week due to no wiFi but hopefully thereafter).  We've loved living here and have no regrets whatsoever.  Our time here has enabled us to settle in to life in Spain - the good and the rather more challenging - and we would do it all again.  This time next week we'll have been more than 24 hours in our new home although our belongings arrive on the Monday - so two nights on a camp bed and blow up mattress respectively it is then!  This is what awaits us:

Our lovely villa and garden is our dream home - and so we've called it Casa Sueño 😍  

Thanks so much to all of you for your kind messages - they mean a lot.  And we both hope that you'll all be back in your happy place of PP before too long.  In the meantime, stay safe and take the very best of care 😘