More business to do today so a relatively early start was needed. I say relatively because I was up at 06.55 but Garrath didn’t get up until 08.30. No matter, we got on with things well enough and got into town to pay Monasor for the electrical work. The final bill was three hundred and seventy euros but what astonished us was the part of the bill that was for the call out and emergency repair was only seventy six euros. Needless to say paying the bill took ages, so I entertained myself by looking at their kitchen and bathroom fittings and the huge range of ceramic tiles available. Such are the things that dreams are made of!
After Monasor we went to Kuxtabank to close all our accounts there. Much as we loved the care taken by the staff in Calpé, all the communications to us in the UK are in Spanish and now that we have given up hope of moving to Spain that made the management of the accounts too difficult. The delightful Luis was very understanding and made it into a very pleasant experience. Luis’s parting comment was to wish us well, hope that the health issues clear up and that we will be able to move there in a few years.
We walked down to Sabadell and deposited we cash we got back from our accounts at Kuxtabank into the account we use for business there. Amazingly there was no queue. Either they have got their act together and employed more staff or so many people have abandoned them that the two hour queues are a thing of the past. Whatever, depositing the money was quick, pleasant and painless.
A quick stop at the cosmetics shop for mascara (no, Garrath does NOT use it) then next door to Cafe Dany for tea and viewing my favourite Spanish TV cooking programme. Ironically they were demonstrating Chinese recipes today, which is fine because I have to make my own Chinese style food anyway. Tell a Chinese chef not to use soy sauce, black bean sauce or hoi sin sauce ? I don’t think so.
By the time we had done that lot it was lunch time so we drove to the port and our favourite restaurant there, Las Barcas, for a special salad and paella feast. This time it was Paella Valenciana, the meat one, and though I enjoyed it and Garrath prefers it (for some weird and wonderful reason he doesn’t like seafood) I much prefer Paella Mixta with the seafood. We do a deal when we have that. I eat the shellfish, Garrath eats the meat, so we get the best of both worlds.
We have a ritual when we go to Las Barcas. We play dominoes. One time we really confused the staff by taking a set of Lancashire dominoes – they go up to double nine. One by one all the staff came up to stare in wonder at these strange dominoes. It caused much conversation and consternation. This time, however, we took the ordinary dominoes and played after lunch. My luck was in for a change and I won the majority of the games – most unusual.
At around 17.00 the fishing boats started coming into harbour so I got the camera trundly (Lowepro wheeled camera case) and we went to meet them. While they were unloading their catches I took photos of the fish. Each boat seemed to have a reasonable catch and one in particular had a very good one and I got loads of photos.
Once unloaded the fish go straight into the fish auction. We have paid to go in there on a previous visit and it is fascinating but this time we passed on that in favour of going back to the house, parking the car and walking back down the hill to The Chicken Shack.
All in all a very satisfying day because we have got all of the business, other than paying the gardener, completed in less than a week. It should all be R&R from now on. Whoopee!