Our new home in the Orba Valley

Well it seems the rain in Spain falls mainly.....here!  The Valencia region has had what might be termed a 'wet spell' for days now, it's like being in the UK 😱  Last night there was a lot of lightning and thunder which was a good backdrop to the suspense of Line of Duty.  Slight digression and if you're not a LOD fan skip this bit, but my favourite Ted-ism of all time has to be "Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and the wee donkey..." 😂  But back to the weather - it has rained not quite non-stop but not too far off, for longer than I can ever remember before in Spain!  

Leading on from the weather, earlier this week our German/Spanish neighbours invited us round to enjoy the delights of watching a large metal manhole cover in their garden bob merrily up and down as a torrent of - let's call it impressively dirty 💩 water and leave it there shall we - gushed like a delightful brown fountain/waterfall to flood all over a lot of their terrace at about a depth of 2 feet and then out of 2 large pipes to make its way god knows where (luckily not to us as I'd have had a complete meltdown).  Apparently this has happened to them before in certain rainy conditions, hence the installation of the 2 large pipes.  Quite why they wanted to show us their plight slightly escapes me but I can only assume a problem shared is a problem halved 😳

This week Ian has continued to work on the work-through wardrobe out of the first half of the over-large ensuite bathroom.  He's built the walls and boarded the back of the wardrobe area:

He's now put the door into the bathroom on but as the ceiling spot lights are being done tomorrow, I'll save that for next week's blog.  The toilet will also be moved from its current position in the now wardrobe 😳 and into the 'new' bathroom.  It won't be properly new until the whole suite, tiles etc are done but that won't be until the autumn - patience is a virtue 😇 And we're also hoping to get the gorgeous new wooden double front doors fitted in the next week or so.  There is a lot of building dust floating around right now and living on a semi building site has its challenges but it will be worth it in the end.

I've been busy too and managed to finish painting an old dark wooden Castilian style dresser complete with nasty wood grain sticky back plastic on the shelves.  I wanted to keep aspects of the dark wood (not the sticky back plastic as I draw the line there 😝) but make it into something more contemporary.  I'm pleased with the result:

I've started my Spanish lessons and am loving them.  They're just the right level for me where I don't feel intimidated but am learning new things and the other students have been so welcoming.  And today I did my art course (drawing) which was fantastic.  I haven't done any art for decades (since O level in fact!) but managed to produce something that looked more or less as I wanted it to, but more importantly I was inspired and learned lots.  I'm really looking forward to my course in oil painting next month 😍

On the teaching front, I've met up with the owner of a language academy and it looks like I'll be working there from the autumn which is very exciting.  I'm going along on Thursday to meet some students and take a couple of classes so it all looks very promising. 

Despite all the wet weather though, it really is a stunningly beautiful area, these were taken this evening, the first as we walked back from town where we love a little Spanish bar where you can have a pint and a glass of wine for the princely sum of 2,20€ and 1€ respectively; and the second during our dog walk thereafter:

We can't believe we've been here a month already as time has flown - but I guess it does when you're having fun 🥳

Stay safe and hasta la próxima semana!

Our new home in the Orba Valley

This past week quite a few people have asked us if we had any regrets about the move - the answer is unequivocally, none at all.  Everyone is friendly, the scenery is stunning, the house is shaping up nicely, the garden/pool are fab - what's not to love? 💕

Soooo... what have we been up to this past week? 

Today our palm trees were pruned (not sure if that's the right word but...!).  We've never had palm trees before and are now the proud owners of 1 Washingtonia and 3 slightly shorter ones (like the ones around the marina car park in Puerto Pollensa if you're a regular reader) and have been regaled with horror stories of palm weevils which kill the tree and you're left with one of those sad and very ugly lopped trunks.  The weather over the last week has been pretty wet and at times torrential, so they couldn't be done until today.  The tree man, who looked like a bearded pirate, shinnied up the Washingtonia with boots that had crampons and a length of rope to hug the tree with - not a harness or helmet in sight for we laugh in the face of 'elf and safety in Spain 😜 - and the dead bits came crashing down all around as they were chopped off with a pretty impressive machete type knife:

More building work has taken place - was that ever in any doubt 😂 ?  Ian's making great progress in creating a walk-through wardrobe area out of half of an over-large ensuite, first having to move a doorway sideways.  He's also removed a lovely sky blue bidet (matches the sky blue bath and basin plus sky blue floor tiles so you can imagine why we're going to be changing that as 1980's retro is NOT the look we're going for!).  In a slight digression - does anyone actually use a bidet?  I do know of a couple of people but not many.  I remember the first time I saw one as a child and thinking it was something to wash your feet in.  Quite why my juvenile mind thought that a foot spa would be at least 18" off the floor I'm none too sure, but certainly I had a rude awakening when my mother informed me which part of the anatomy it was actually used for 😳  In any event, our bidet has gone the way of doubtless many others and is currently the crowning glory of a pile of tiles which also needed to be removed in order for Ian's next task which is to build a new wall and doorway into what will be the new and more bijou ensuite.  Here is the bidet in situ before it met it's untimely end:

Incidentally those strange circles on the wall are cement - tiles here used to be put on with blobs of cement and just pushed into place and there was none of your fancy mortar and grout nonsense oh no!  The problem with this is that if you want to just remove a strip of them, all the surrounding tiles want to crash down too as you can see from the picture; it really is a voyage of discovery......   Still, next week with a bit of luck we'll have wardrobes in which to put the several boxes of still unpacked clothes, probably doorless but definitely progress.  The ensuite itself is planned for later this summer so the sky blue suite is with us a while longer although at least the loo is white!

My DIY this week has been painting a large Castilian style dresser with cream coloured chalk paint and I'll then distress it a bit.  Mind you, I've been pretty distressed myself because it's a very dark wood and has taken three coats on the top half which is as far as I've got paint for (more is on order).  I've not painted it all and have left some as natural wood.  When it's finished I'll post some photos.  

This week we also ordered our new front doors - yep, that's plural.  The doorway is wide so we're having two doors made in a rustic Spanish style and think it will really make an impressive official entrance and sort of 'finish' the front of the property.  The current 'front door' goes straight into the kitchen which is reasonably standard in many villas round here but not always the ideal route for visitors.

In other news I start my Spanish lessons tomorrow and am very excited 🥳  I met the teacher earlier in the week and we chatted in Spanish for about 20 minutes so he could assess me and I could tell him a bit about me and my language journey.  I need the discipline of actual classes but also enjoy the camaraderie that you get in a class situation and prefer it to 1-1 learning.  We've also done plenty of walking around the town and tried a few new places for a drink, coffee or as today, a delicious 3 course menu del dia for 10€ including tortilla, bread and aioli and a drink and where the portions were not only delicious but quite sizeable!  One little Spanish bar we've found (conveniently opposite where my Spanish classes are) charged 8,60€ for 3 beers and 2 wines - yep, you read that correctly 🍻  Don't mind if we do!

This past week I also spent some time with lovely Vernon from Valley FM, talking about radio, music and music software.  Valley FM is a great 24 hour local radio station with a huge variety of music, local and international news, and topical discussions.  Once I've got to grips with the software (which rather inconveniently isn't compatible with my MacBook Air so cue some grovelling to Ian to use his HP laptop 😬 ) .....well, I'll keep you posted.

Stay safe and hasta la próxima semana!

And so the adventure begins......our new home in the Orba Valley!

Finally getting around to writing in the blog - it's been a whirlwind couple of weeks for sure!  But we're more than happy living in the Orba Valley with scenery like this around us 💕

So.......what's been happening?

The packing took two days on 25/26th March and we were most impressed with this wonderful machine which lowered all the boxes on a lift down to the lorry - we could have done with this moving in I can tell you!

Our last night was strange and we didn't sleep brilliantly as we were aware of getting up at 5.30am to get to the ferry terminal in Palma for 6.30 😱  We drove out of the Port with a mix of emotions.  I'd done my last radio show the previous Saturday and had worked until the Wednesday and saying goodbye to my students was sad and a little bit surreal if I'm honest, but now we were actually doing it and leaving not just the Port but Mallorca 😥  And we were also leaving the place which had seen us through the challenges of the past year so a bit of  'gulp and square the shoulders moment' if I'm honest.  It was dark and of course nothing was on the roads so we made it to Palma in good time and as only one person could drive the car onto the ferry, I queued up with all the other passengers - I took the dogs with me which made the queuing a challenge to say the least especially when it came to the security check (three bags, two dog leads, a boarding pass and passport are not easy to juggle 😳) but we made it and met up with Ian in the doggy area where we put them both in the same large cage with a blanket and some water and had to walk away.  I hate this bit, it's kind of like leaving your child at playgroup during the first week, but it was better to leave them to it although we kept a regular eye on them.  This was our view as the ferry was leaving Palma's port:

The journey, via Ibiza was pretty uneventful.  The ferry was completely packed including several groups of youngsters from sports clubs, but at Ibiza it almost totally emptied! Very few joined at Ibiza so the second half of the journey to Denia was a lot quieter 😄 The ferry was well organised with everyone wearing masks and sticking to their seating area so we felt perfectly safe despite how busy it was during the first half of the journey.  Anyhow, as we approached Denia we got the furbabies out on the extremely breezy deck for the big moment:

We were allowed to disembark by car and braced ourselves for the inevitable police road block on the road out from the quay as currently the Valencia region has closed borders; I'd have stopped us as the car was loaded and we looked like we were going on holiday so to speak but nope, other cars were stopped and spoken to but we were just waved through.  Maybe we have honest faces 😂 anyhow, it's only a 15-20 minute drive to our new home and the good news was we arrived to meet our estate agent who had the keys.  The bad news was that the sellers had emptied the house of all white goods including the fitted oven, dishwasher, fridge, washing machine, ceiling fans and lit bathroom mirror - we literally were left with wires handing out of walls and ceilings 😱 So our first task was to drive to a second hand goods emporium to buy a fridge!  You had to laugh.  No really, you had to.  I mean if the last year has taught us nothing else, it has shown the power of laughing in the face of adversity.  So we set up our little camp beds on the floor and got ready for a slightly challenging couple of nights.  But not before Ian's mobile rang and he passed it to me as they spoke Spanish which isn't Ian's strong point - it's the Balearic health service and would Ian Froome like to come for a Covid jab tomorrow?  Ah 😳 dammit!  You couldn't make it up really - we've been waiting, dead keen for the offer and the very day we leave Mallorca they ring.  I reckon they did it deliberately 🤔😂  

Sunday saw us kept firmly occupied by taking down a wall which had split the living room in two and unblocking a doorway - as you do!  We unearthed an unexpected arch:

And outside and around the back of the garage we found the very doors that had previously fitted the blocked doorway - the wood was a little the worse for wear but all things considered they were in great condition and even the glass was intact so up they went.  In a couple of weeks' time we'll be able to treat the wood properly and bring them back to their former glory:

Our things arrived safely on the Monday but my goodness we lost count of the number of boxes!  The whole of the naya (an enclosed 'outside' terrace) was full as was the garage.  So for many days we have spent our time unpacking, doing work on the villa, shopping for second-hand furniture - this last one is great fun as there are several emporiums in the area where it's like a treasure trove of bargain furniture and we already have some lovely pieces.  

Following on from our call about the Covid jab, we registered with the town hall (padron) after which we spoke to the health centre.  Our appointment to change our health (SIP) cards from the Balearics to Valencia is 3 May and only then will we be on the Covid jab list here.  Patience is a virtue.....😇

This coming week I'm meeting a local Spanish teacher and also someone from the local 24 hr radio station here - Valley FM.  Plus I've registered for a beginner's drawing course.  And I've registered on OYG Davina (McCall) which offers a VAST amount of online keep fit classes which I can fit in as it suits me.  There's also great information on nutrition and wellbeing and I've been using it for a week now so I think that's me sorted fitness-wise 💪  We've met lots of lovely, friendly people - our Spanish neighbours even gave us some yummy torrijas (bread pudding) traditionally eaten in Lent - and we've eaten some rather nice food locally, a bonus being that interiors here have stayed open at 30% occupancy unlike Mallorca plus terraces can stay open until 6pm instead of 5pm 🥳 

So has the move been worth it?  Most definitely yes.  Everyone has been very friendly and welcoming and I keep having 'pinch me' moments where I just can't believe that we're lucky enough to live here and in such a lovely house which is in the countryside but just a few minutes walk to all facilities.  One thing we've really noticed is the bird song and we realised that we never heard birds in the Port (apart from caged ones on balconies).  The air is heavy with the amazing scent of the blossoms and filled with the sound of bees busily buzzing around them on the citrus and almond trees which cover the whole floor of the very large valley.  Dog walks in these surroundings are heaven on earth.  We also hear a distant (so not intrusive) cockerel crowing in the morning which really underlines that feel of the 'campo'.  It really is beautiful even though the weather has been a bit hit and miss here (much like the UK) but on one of the sunnier days Ian braved our pool (not me, I don't do cold water 😂) but it sums our new life here up in a nutshell.

The verdict thus far is that Mallorca will always hold a special place in our hearts, but here is where we are happy to be 💖

Hasta la próxima semana (espero domingo) - stay safe!