La Familia Davenpuerto

Well – finally time to start writing again, after the Christmas rush (well more of a dawdle actually).The end of 2011 was challenging what with the well pump packing up – no showers for you lot! We had to ferry water from the village pump which whilst being ridiculously cheap at 60c for 500 litres, also was very strange pulling a half full water tank up the mountain, being subject to the contents sloshing about.

The next bit of good news was that our fine came through from Camarles (a happy Christmas to you all from the Town Hall) coupled with the news that they would not accept our suggestion of paying it off at €100 per month over several years.

Christmas Day dawned sunny and more importantly, still. We had been lashed with the horrible gusty winds for three days previous, and it was a tremendous relief to be able to venture outside again without being tied down to a weighty object.

Buck’s Fizz outside, Roast Chicken inside and a home-made Christmas pud courtesy of a ‘raisin overstock situation’.

We nearly went for a walk and then decided not to – just stayed in and had several Skype mangled conversations – the internet has been very rocky recently, and some of the squeaks, whistles and farts coming out of the laptop were quite funny, albeit frustrating.

A nice two week break for the kids and for Jen, who has been teaching far too much of late. Whilst her day may have a slow start, she was frequently giving classes in the village up until 9pm, which makes for a long day.

New Year’s Eve was great. We were invited to a house party ( the Catalan gang) and after several ums and ahs, decided to go along. a madcap evening in the village ensued, and the kids kept us until 3am, not returning from bars and other parties until then.

Back to school, back to work – and the day to day creeps up on us all. The weather has been extraordinarily mild – very bright and sunny during the day, and coolish at night. we have yet to fall below freezing.

The well pump is fixed, after man in a van came along and towed it all out. We (I) found that the pipe was blocked, and some judicious poking about with a long piece of wire had it running again. ‘Man in van’ is yet to return so that we can lower all 100m of pipe, cables and pump back in situ, so we will chuck it down tomorrow, enlisting my tractor and Davide, a Catalan neighbour.

This will have to do for the moment as the kids are due back from school, and Mistress Jen from her classes. Jen has had a very sore throat and generally feeling off-colour this week, and has been finding it difficult to speak…