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!