Cold nights in Spain

Well... I'm beginning to think we might as well be back in the UK.

Ice on car

The weather here in Spain is pretty vile at the moment. Perishing cold, wet, overcast - you name it, it's here. The car was iced over at 21:30 last night - and I was scrambling around in the dark trying to find things to wrap around exposed pipes on my above-ground, 3000 litre, water deposit, (it's there because we suffered the water being cut off so many times when we first arrived).

This morning I purchased pipe lagging and was fitting it in driving, icy, sleet - not very funny!

The problem is, villas over here aren't insulated like houses are in the UK and winter can be damn cold. You can't even get into the roof-space to lay insulation. The floors are either marble or ceramic tiles (the builders think it's summer all year round), so we lay rugs wherever we can.

We have a high efficiency woodburner which helps out - in fact I love it - but it doesn't compensate for the fact that the rest of the rooms are cold. We have central heating, but bottled gas makes it very expensive to run, so we only have them on in the evening.

Weak financially

The Euro is so strong against the pound that it's now one-for-one, which means I've had a 20% cut in finances PLUS the cost of living is up, so I'm effectively 25% to 30% worse off compared to this time last year - so all in all, the UK is looking quite attractive at the moment....

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End of post - Cold nights in Spain

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Fuel wonderful fuel

We have wood!

We have wondeful fuel and now we can be warm. A metric tonne of assorted wood arrived and now I'm shifting as much as I can into the wood store before it rains. The rest will have to remain under tarpaulin until I can get to it.

Mind you, the weather is better here than some places in Spain. Apparently the dreaded white stuff has been lurking. We sometimes see it on the mountain peaks that surround us, but for some reason other places have it this time.... Let them keep it.

Walking the streets.

We're supposed to be travelling to Benidorm tomorrow to find a birthday present for a friend who'll be hitting a rather big one in a few days. I just hope it doesn't chuck it down with rain (or worse) whilst we're traipsing around the streets.

I don't think I'll be sitting on the sea-front with a café-con-leché and brandy, watching the world go by this time - maybe tucked away somewhere warm, deep inside....

Brrrr.

• Next post on Tell Me a Story - Spain can be cold.
• My other blog - Bedlam.

End of post - Fule wonder fuel.

Spain can be damn cold

With a bit of luck the fuel for the wood-burner will arrive this morning. If it doesn't it won't be long before we feel the cold.

Gas now cost 50euros for a large bottle for central heating and we use a bottle every five days when it's cold - very expensive.

I've managed to cut up some dead-wood from the surrounding area, so it's supplimented the heating bill somewhat, but we've had to succumb and place an order because I can't keep pace - we're using wood a lot faster than we hoped - the weather has turned into a damp cold that gets into your bones.

For those who think Spain is wonderfully warm all year around - forget it. Winters can be cold and houses aren't insulated like the civilized world. You can't get into the concrete roofspace to lay insulation - so when it's cold -its damn cold.

The wood should have arrived yesterday, but wouldn't you know, rain came down in buckets and it couldn't be delivered because it was soaking wet. I just hope it's dried sufficiently overnight.

It's windy (and perishing) this morning so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be here soon.

• Next post on Tell Me a Story - Writing is lonely.
• My other blog - Bedlam.

End of post - Spain can be damn cold