I am begining to get eye strain from using this computer. Not, as you would imagine, from staring too much at the screen, but from actually trying to see the screen. But it’s okay; my eyesight isn’t failing (well, no more than usual anyway), it’s simply that we haven’t much screen left to look at.
Let me explain.
We have always been computer addicts, so much so that we each have our own pc; mine a desktop and my husband’s a laptop. In fact, so keen were we to keep up with the net, that we converted the tiny room in our house into a computer room for my desktop pc. And one day I might just be able to use it in here.
When we moved out here, we packed my computer and monitor and put it in storage with the rest of our belongings that we were unable to carry in the motorhome, ready for the removal company we had hired to ship the lot out to Spain and deliver it to us when our house was ready. I mentioned in a previous entry that our storage goods were delivered before our house was finished and were piled in our second bedroom, untouched for several weeks. We did, however, check the number of boxes against the storage inventory and all appeared correct. What we were unable to check, however, were the contents of the boxes. We had absolutely no room to do so at the time.
Before our ‘project manager’ upped and left us high and dry with his work unfinished and us having to fork out a lot of money just to get the work done, we had had a few euros to spare. The idea being that we put some by for emergencies, some for general living expenses, and some for spending on little things that we just fancied buying because we could. In those days we had browsed furniture shops, bric-a-brac shops and (more according to my husband’s tastes) electrical shops. Looking at new sound systems has never been my idea of fun, but I did take a liking to a new, flat screen monitor. It would have looked great in our computer room, on our new computer desk. I did have an old, perfectly good 17 inch monitor waiting in storage, but it was bulky and just not as ’state of the art’ as this particular model. The monitor was also on ’special offer’. 129 Euros; a good price in relation to those sold in the UK at that time.
But, despite my assertion that “I would really like that; it is an ideal size for our computer room,” my ‘hints’ fell on deaf ears, as my husband was thinking at that moment more along the lines of a new flat screen tv …… so I let the subject drop ……
Around the same time, one of our dogs, bored from being confined in our motorhome, decided to do a ‘circuit’ of the place, leaping from bed to chair to any other object she could land on. She landed full weight on my husband’s laptop which was sitting in its usual place on the raised floor of the cab. Well, the laptop still worked ok …… but it had these funny little spidery black lines running across one corner …… Needless to say, my husband was not amused. Not only was the screen damaged irreparably, but he could not find anywhere in the area where he could get a replacement. But never mind, we could still see the screen …… if we scrolled down a little …… and in any case, we would soon have our other pc unpacked, together with the old, but serviceable monitor.
Well, time went on, the ‘project manager’ did a runner, but we finished the house enough to move in. We were by this time, however, very short of funds. But never mind, soon we would have my pc up and running. We had already found the pc box, stowed under a pile of box of ornaments (luckily it was strongly packed) …… but where was the box with the monitor in?
We searched all the boxes, piling objects on the floor, on the balcony outside, and wherever else we could find room, but we never found the monitor. Neither could we find our box of lovingly-copied music videos, a box full of commercial music videos, a large mirror (probably broken in transit), numerous ornaments (the more expensive ones of course), and other items we haven’t discovered missing yet. The strange thing was, we had all the boxes we had checked into storage …… it was just that some of the items we had stored in those boxes were missing ….. strange ……
Of course, the removals company claimed that they were not liable for missing items, as they had delivered the boxes and items as per the inventory taken. They suggested contacting the storage company, but they too said they were not liable, but had we checked with our insurers? Yeah sure. No insurance company is going to pay out on items which went into a number of boxes, boxes were counted at both ends, but some items from those boxes are missing …… and we didn’t find out until weeks after they were delivered. I think not.
I could, at this point, further speculate on the whereabouts of the missing items, but knowing our luck we would be sued for libel and we can’t afford that. So it’s just another thing we put down to a lack of vigilance on our part; not keeping tabs on our goods at all times (but when your goods are in the UK and then onboard ship and you are in Spain, that’s a pretty difficult proposition), and basically our ‘ironic luck’.
Ironic because the very thing we had decided not to replace but to wait for was the main item that went missing. And now, of course we cannot afford that ’state of the art’ flat screen model that I liked so much.
But never mind, it’s the beginning of the month and we have a little spare cash. We saw a cheaper flat screen monitor only last week that we could just about afford. So today, my husband went down to the shop to purchase one. Sold out of course and no more in for several months. The only monitors available now are at least twice the price of the original model that I took a liking to and definitely out of our price range.
And to cap it all, the ’spider lines’ on the lap top have these days turned into tarantula boot prints. In fact, in order to see anything on the screen these days you have to scroll right down and then turn your head at a strange angle, at the same time squinting to see through the smudges. I must admit that the ‘design’ we now have on the laptop screen is quite pretty; almost a work of art …… but it’s no damn good for looking through!
(wish it still looked like this!)
So as I type this entry I am constantly moving the ‘window’ about, scrolling down to see exactly what I have typed, and generally cursing destructive dogs and incompetent removal men.
But what I am cursing most of all is my (unusual) reluctance to push for something while I had the chance of getting it, together with the knowledge that this is just another example of our usual ‘ironic luck’.
La Sofa Cama (1)
March 21, 2007
I never did manage to start hand sewing my curtains as we had a more important project on hand – moving the sofa cama.
The background to this post is part of our ‘house trials’ and is typical of events occurring in recent months. When we employed our building project manager back in August of last year, he assured us that the work we wanted done in la casa would take 8 – 10 weeks, starting immediately. I will write a whole section about what actually occurred, but for now I will just say that as of today, 21st March 2007, the work is still not completed.
However, when it looked like work would be delayed, the project manager gave us several new ‘completion dates’, the ultimate one being the first week in December 2006. As we had sold or disposed of most of our UK furniture we had to buy new and this was something we had been looking forward to – moving into a new home with new furniture. But to do this we obviously had to order the furniture so that it arrived just before we moved in.
So we went out furniture shopping in November 2006, asking the vendors to hold on to the furniture for a few weeks. This was agreed by all, but all of the vendors wanted a fixed delivery date and said that they could not hold on to the furniture later than the second week in December. But this was not a problem (or so we thought), as the work on la casa woud be completed a week before this date.
Of course, that didn’t happen. By the second week in December our house was still full of rubble, building materials and the occasional workman. To make matters worse, one day during that week a representative from Endessa, the electrics company, called and, saying that our electric meter was unsafe, disabled our electrics! It was cold and dark in la casa. At that stage the only energy we had was electric (or at least it had been!) and we were at a very low ebb.
But the furniture still had to be delivered. The muebles companies were sympathetic but insisted on delivery. To make matters even worse, we had also arranged for the delivery of items we had brought out from the UK (a whole storage room full) and which were in storage in Northern Spain, as we could no longer afford the high storage costs.
So, during the second week of December, we took delivery of the contents of a large storage room; two full bedroom suites (including 3 beds); various items of dining room furniture; a large computer desk and chair; a large reclining chair; and a very large sofa cama.
Our casa is pequenia, but our list of prospective visitors is large, so a good sofa cama was a must; along with the beds it would provide sleeping accomodation for 4 extra adults or even more adults and children. We had carefully checked the dimensions of our lounge and the width of doors so we knew the maximum size our sofa cama could be – at least we thought we did!
As it turned out, none of the furniture could be left downstairs in our lounge which was still full of building materials, so everything had to be carried upstairs and put in the bedrooms (of which there are only 2). We had nowhere else for it.
The first items to arrive were the reclining chair and sofa cama. We explained to the delivery men that both had to go ‘arriba’. They were not particularly haopy about this as both were very heavy but they agreed to take them upstairs with our help.
The recliner was relatively easy but the sofa cama was something else!
The sofa cama came through the door into the lounge and then had to be turned to go up the stairs. Now our stairway, relatively speaking, is the only large area in our house. It is very wide and the main ceiling is very high, but the stairs are very steep and the bottom of the stairwell has a lowered ceiling. It took 4 people nearly an hour to get the sofa cama up the stairs with lots of heaving, twisting and alternating cries of “venga!”, “no te mueves!” and “venga!” We took the bedroom door off and, at last, the sofa cama was in the main bedroom. One of the workmen (who had watched but refused to participate in the operation) commented, “Well it’s up there, but I’m not sure you’ll ever get it down again!”.
How right he was!
Now it is March and las obras are almost completed, we are ready to move into our house. But to do so we have to reorganize all the furniture and storage items. We have managed to move the storage items to the roof terrace (up a ladder as, until yesterday, we had no stairs to the terrace) and there is a little more room now for us to move items around. The lounge is now almost finished so all dining room and lounge furniture can go down there which will allow the man who delivered our bedroom suites to actually come back and build them (in Spain you usually buy furniture which is delivered and assembled on site) as he had no room to do this back in December. But to allow enough room in our bedroom fora full bedroom suite we need to bring the recliner and the sofa cama downstairs. Easier said than done.
The recliner came downstairs easily and at least we now have one easy chair in our lounge plus a computer chair to sit on. But the sofa cama is something else!
We were talking about just how to move the sofa cama last week but I was chickening out – I am not particularly strong and my husband, although strong, is not Superman. We decided we needed help.
As luck would have it (or so we thought at the time), that evening came a knock on our door. It was an Englishman who had just bought a house in the village and was calling to introduce himself. He looked reasonable strong so, after a friendly chat over coffee (I really must get some wine and beer in!), we asked him if he would be willing to help us move the sofa cama. After looking at it he reluctantly agreed, but, as it was getting late, he said he would come back at the weekend to help. “Great!” we thought, “we will soon be able to move in!”.
Saturday came but we had a ‘problem’ with our car (see ‘He perdido mis llaves de coche!’) and couldn’t get to la casa but, never mind, the Englishman (I’ll call him ‘Clive’) had given us his address so we would be able to call on him on Sunday and ask for his help.
Sunday came and, after a visit to ‘La policia local’ (see ‘He perdido mis llaves de coche’), we went to la casa. After sorting out clothes washing, exercising and feeding the dog and all the other things we do on arrival, we went to look for Clive.
Now our village, like villages worldwide, has a wierd system of naming streets – they wind around corners, across roads, suddenly disappear, and sometimes they don’t seem to exist. Clive’s street was one of the latter. We searched the village several times and, although we found a couple of likely houses, we couldn’t be sure. Never mind, we knocked on the doors anyway, only to be met by surprised residents who had never heard of an Englishman named Clive.
So back to the drawing board. We had to move the sofa cama, but how to manage it?
Well, our neighbours are friendly and usually very helpful (they think we are a little strange but that doesn’t matter!). They can usually understand our faltering Spanish too, but on this occasion everyone we spoke to said the same – “lo siento, pero no entiendo!”. Probably what I would have said too!
But never mind. Taking a heavy item downstairs must surely be easier than taking it upstairs. Shouldn’t it? Of course not! We took off the bedroom door, took all the heavy cushions off the sofa cama and heaved it through the bedroom door. Only to be met with an impossble feat – how to get the thing downstairs, twist it around at the bottom and upend it to get it into the lounge, when it still seemed to weigh a ton and the stairs are so steep that there was no way of sliding it down. I did try putting mattresses down the stairs to raise them and make a constant slide, but that only raised the level too high for the bottom ceiling. My husband said that no way was he going to risk losing hold of the thing and have it crashing into the wall at the bottom, ruining the plaster, breaking the tiles and possibly breaking the thing itself.
So we gave up, heaved it back into the bedroom and decided to wait until we could find Clive.
But that was only the start. More to come.
