Travel writing

The travel writing gig took a little longer than expected, but the site is now up at http://www.lapalma.co.uk/ I don't own the site: I just did all the "Insider Expert" bits.

Well, our son's room is painted.

He decided to go for blue, and we chose paint that's supposed to cover with one coat. Luckily, the ceiling was already white, so we just had to point over the pink walls.

We put most of the furniture in the guest room, and the bookshelf on the landing, and got stuck in, all of us. This was the first time our son had painted walls, so his bit was a rather blotchy, but we'd expected that. the really nice surprise was that he did a lot more painting and a lot less moaning than we'd expected.

So we let the first coat dry, and painted over the blotchy bits. And that's when we realised that the white ceiling wasn't white. It was very pale pink, which looked like white as long as it was next to pink walls. Not now that it was next to blue ones.

So I dashed out and bought some white paint, while my husband took out the light fitting. We just managed to get all the painting done on Saturday.

Of course that meant that on Sunday we had to move the furniture back.

This wasn't simple. You see, the idea was to swap over the old furniture with the stuff from the guest room, so that there'd be more space for our son. But the original furniture in the guest room was now buried under our son's old furniture.

It took ages, but we did it, and our son will sleep in there again tonight (he spent last night on the couch.) That just leaves the light fitting, the curtain rail, and the curtains to do.

Decorating

We're giving our son's bedroom a makeover. It's had the same furniture, light-fitting, walls and curtains since we moved in. Since he was six at the time, and is now fourteen, obviously his tastes have changed since then. He doesn't want a clown light-fitting any more!

So in the past week, we've worked our way through his bookshelf, and given away two carrier bags of books he's grown out of (and made a couple of kids happy in the process). Tomorrow we move the furniture out and paint the walls.

Brakes!

As usual, I seem to be drowning in small-but-urgent things to do.

My friends in the north of the island have been adopted by an abandoned kitten. This is not much of a problem, except that a) they'd just booked a holiday and b) there's no catching the kitten to take it to the cattery and c) the neighbours are away too. So it's cancel the holiday (and they're exhausted), leave the weeks-old kitten to fend for itself, or I do it. Wonderful, it's over an hour's drive each way. But I'll only need to do it alternate days, and that'll be less tiring then the insomnia if I don't.

I got a small travel writing gig which I want to finish this week. So that meant a trip to Puerto Naos on the other side of the island, one of the few spots I don't often go (because there's another good beach just 10 minutes away).

So then the car brakes started squealing. Have I mentioned that this island is covered in twisty, steep mountain roads? Exactly the sort of place where squealing brakes takes all the fun out of travel.

So my husband spent the evening changing the brake pads or trying to.

It turned out that the last time I had the tyres changed, the workshop put the lug nuts on far, far too tightly. By the time Carlos got them off, most of them had broken threads. So it was rather late when he took the old brake pads with him to buy new ones (to get the exact model) and when the first two places were out of that kind of brake pad, everywhere else was shut. All he got was replacement lug nuts.

But he announced that the car was OK to drive.

I said, "Are you sure? I mean, my life insurance cover expired, you know."

But he was sure. Just as long as I took it easy.

So I went to see my friends in the north of the island the next day, driving s l o w l y and got nice clear instructions on cat sitting. In the evening, Carlos went to get brake pads from a shop that had ordered them in specially.

Wrong pads - they fit the current model of Toyota Yaris, not mine.

So yesterday I went to the other side of the island for my travel writing, driving s l o w l y , got my info, saw friends, and had fun. I particularly liked digging the first bit of the canal from one side of the island to the other, along with a five-year-old.

This morning the right kind of brake pads have arrived, and Carlos should finish the job. He'd better, because I'm absolutely NOT taking that car up to the observatory with dodgy brakes. For pity's sake, I have to drive back down about 6,500 ft to get home!

All good fun.

Paperwork Dragons

I should have done it years ago, but better late than never.

I've finally started the process of getting my English university degree registered in Spain. Actually progress to date consists of going to the government offices this morning and asking what I have to do. So far it's not as bad as I feared. If my subject (mechanical engineering) is on the list of EU professions covered by the 2005 agreement, I have to fill in a short form. If it isn't, I have to fill in a longer form and pay 91€. Either way, I'll need a sworn translation of the degree certificate. Ouch! That'll be about 100€ for perhaps 30 words! It's all the more painful because I could de a perfectly accurate translation myself in about ten minutes.

It took me a while to realise why sworn translations are so expensive. It's not so much the accuracy you're paying for. You pay them to take responsibility. The fees are so high that only an idiot would jeopardise their career for a bribe, so the government knows they can trust the translation.

Anyway, as my on says, it's a heck of a lot cheaper and faster than studying for another degree in Spain.