We’re on the move again this week.  Seem to have done this far too often in recent years, and you think we’d have learned a lot from this.  Well, I hope we have.  Here’s some stuff we have picked up, generally the hard way…

•  If people offer to help, nail them down instantly to times and places, before they melt away.
• Don’t place anything, ever, in a black plastic binbag, that is NOT rubbish destined for the bin.  Do not be tempted to put bedding, laundry etc into bags that make them look like they need helpfully chucking out, especially when multiple journeys/helpers are involved.
• You can’t have in your possession too much bubblewrap, tape, boxes or marker pens
• Levels of dirt acceptable in your own home / your own dirt, eg inside fridge trays or bathroom drawers, are ‘eurgghhh!’ when you are moving somewhere new and they are someone else’s dirt you must get rid of first
• Labelling any box ‘misc’ because you just shoved any old crap into it instead of sorting as you packed, is just going to backfire on you when you are cursing through the unpacking later
• Do not label anything with post-it notes, they do NOT stick well to boxes, and leads to chaos.  ‘Does anyone know what this “FRAGILE!!!” relates to..?’
• When packing up clothes and day to day stuff, think about pulling out and putting aside the stuff you need for the last few days before you move BEFORE you start.  Even pack yourself as suitcase as though you were off on holiday - then shove the case under the bed and you can pack up everything else in the room for the movers.
• Removal firm advice leaflets recommend keeping an ‘emergency on arrival’ box at hand with you at all times, but think carefully about exactly what you need in YOUR box, for those first 5 minutes after getting to your new home.  Whether its firelighters, a screwdriver, a corkscrew or your mobile charger, what can you not live without/wish to avoid searching for at that moment?
• If you really were going to eBay it you’d have done it by now.  Go to charity shop, go directly to charity shop, do not pass go and do not move clutter from one house to another
• Same with anything you were going to alter, mend or repair.  Let it go.
• Finally, if someone kindly brings you a bottle of something bubbly to welcome you to your new home, don’t think you’ll just pop it in the freezer to chill down for half an hour.  Unless you *want* to spend your first morning in your new place clearing moet-et-broken-glass icecream out of your new freezer that is.

OK one month in Spain now – as of early tomorrow morning. That’s pretty amazing, but I am still not sure whether it feels like we’ve just arrived, or been here all our lives.

But rather than the usual introspective ramblings I thought I’d try organising thoughts into lists today, now that we’ve had a chance to think things through a bit certain categories inevitably come to mind….

Things I wish we’d brought / brought more of:

• Our kettle – took us a while to figure out where to buy one of these
• Teatowels - what do Spanish people dry their dishes on? Took us ages to find these in a local rastro
• Oven gloves – still haven’t managed to find a pair still – will add to my eBaying list, but again, what do Spanish people do, are asbestos fingers the norm around here, especially with all the grilling and barbequeing, I can’t work that one out
• Tresemme Salon Silk conditioner – or any decent rich conditioner – seems to be very hard to buy locally, also kids detangling conditioner/spray. Spaniards must be naturally blessed with luscious hair I guess
• Our TV!! It’s very frustrating to know we have a decent widescreen in storage, when we look at the ancient goldfish-bowl one here. But we had one trip, and one car, and had to prioritise,
• Warm/winter clothes… OK, I know it’s hopefully only for a few more weeks tops, but I am bored with my 2 sweaters and have had to buy more,
• One of those presses that recycles old newspapers into blocks for the woodburner. I am definitely going to get one of those for next winter!
• The scanner. Again, got a perfectly good one in storage, didn’t think we’d need it, but the amount of things we have had to provide copies of – I thought I’d scanned everything I could think of before we left but we have substantially added to our haul of Vital Bits Of Paper in the past month

Things we brought that I wish we hadn’t bothered:
• So much kitchen stuff… I wish we’d had a proper inventory of what was here.
• 2 DAB radios – see previous posts – could have eBayed these and regained both load space and useful cash ?
• So much IT stuff – serious ‘if we can’t work we can’t stay!’ paranoia came into play here – of course the right set up is essential, but did we really need 3 routers? Honestly!
• Likewise stationery/office consumables. Yes, apparently they do sell pens in Spain, even highlighters.

Things I’ve learned:
• That driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road is actually possible (just still rather scary). Driving in ancient pueblos where the streets are barely as wide as your car, or along roads with sheer drops and cliffs to the side, is still best left to someone other than me however.
• ‘Mañana’ doesn’t actually mean ‘tomorrow’, when uttered by anyone in official administrative positions. If it can be done more slowly and irritatingly, it will be, and it can’t be done today because the office is just closing and anyway the paperwork isn’t quite right
• Conversely on the practical front, extreme weather is something a society can live with – forest fires, tree-felling winds, flood-inducing rainfall… none of these things grind the country to a halt the way they do in the UK, it gets fixed promptly without too much fuss and life goes on.
• That there are other vegetarians in Spain – although so far none that I have met are Spanish..! The fabulous Montgo Vegetarians are a great bunch and not a hair shirt or pair of dungarees in sight.
• How awesome the night sky looks on a clear night – especially during a power cut
• I’ve also learned all manor of practical things: how to wire a 2-pin plug, how to get a fire going even from damp wood, how to watch UK TV via a proxy server, and how to make coffee on a barbeque

Things I still haven’t really worked out, or just have no idea about…
• What the actual procedure is for post too big for the letterbox… some of it seems to get randomly delivered by private car, other might be waiting for us at Correos, it’s all very confusing
• What the exact translation of the slightly scary sign with a gun on it means at Grenadella National park (probably something about hunting)
• When we will ever get the promised 10meg adsl
• What on earth our electricity bill is going to look like after all these heaters blasting away
• How the girl’s school can justify charging 6€ for uniform socks
• Why the local radio stations play such cheesy rubbish

Things I want to prioritise for our second month in Spain
• Getting some decent walking boots and doing some walking
• Finally getting on the Padron (and investigating the potential nightmare of applying for full Residencia)
• Organising Spanish lessons – nope, osmosis is not going to do it (not in Javea working with Brits all day!)
• Going riding with Cassie
• Get more photos onto this blog –even though the resizing is a bit of a pain
• Getting my Spanish company properly set up
• Calling friends for chats instead of relying on Facebook –we have the ip phone set up in the office so it doesn’t cost anything – just psychologically feels like we can’t chat as its too far
• Having even more fun, outdoor family time and really getting to know the wonderful new area we live in. Another ‘OMG can’t believe we’re really here moment’ just in the offing!