We have been at the house in Casas Nuevas for 2 weeks now
and have settled into life here. The village is 12km from a medium sized town,
Pliego and another 5km to Mula in Murcia.
The village is small with 2 shops, a local bar, which also serves food, a
church, a small part-time health clinic, a 5-a-side football pitch and a school
for children up to 11. It sits on the edge of the Sierra Espuna and the views
of the mountains are stunning. We were last here for an extended time in 2011
and there has definitely been an influx of people with young children, at one
point there were worries about the local school but it is currently doing well
with about 12-15 children. It makes for a lively time around 9am when they
start school and 2 pm when they finish.
Employment varies and local families have land with olive,
almond and apricot trees but that is rarely enough to support a family and work
on the land gets fitted in with other jobs. There are local pig farms,
quarrying for marble, factories making jam and construction and haulage work. Our
neighbour Frank works repairing agricultural machinery in Mula and his wife Juana
Maria makes the desserts and works in the local bar, and they have a one year
old little Francisco-who is the image of his dad!! Within the village one
family runs one shop, the bar and have a mobile shop (well a white van with
produce!!) and a vegetable stall at the weekly Friday Pliego market. Everyone
working in these concerns is a member of the extended family and when I asked
recently was everyone in the village related Paquita said just about!!
Monday we took Amy and Carl back to the airport after their
week spent here. This was our wedding present to them and they really enjoyed
the place. The area is beautiful and we went to Caravaca de la Cruz, Murcia
city, the coast and Carl and Chris did some cycling and walking. On Saturday we
went to an Elvis tribute night, a good evening, although didn’t know that Elvis
sang Delilah!! He was at the airport so
we can say “Elvis has left the country…….” We had a lovely meal together on
Sunday in the local bar and Carl tucked into the local rice with rabbit and
snails,
It is only a month now to the wedding and I think they appreciated the
break and the sun it is still warm here (31 C yesterday afternoon) during the
day but cooler at night and we are still wandering around in shorts.
We have freesat here so watched the situation with the
storms in the UK , luckily it didn’t affect the flight back to Newcastle. Sadly
it has affected Imogen’s plans; she was due to go to Amsterdam with her friend
Racheal. However Rachael was stranded in
London, not able to return and couldn’t get back in time today for the ferry .
We are hoping to get some work done on the house; some
outside painting needs doing at the rear, there are new windows and front door
on order. We need to get some firewood delivered, in anticipation that the
temperatures will start to drop, especially now that the clocks have gone back.
We want to do some more cycling we did a bit of the Via Verde
( an old railway line) the first week we were here. I like it as it is off road
and there are no great hills. We also hope to be able to take Ruby down to the
coast and spend some time on a campsite and do some cycling along the
coastline. I fancy a trip to Cartagena
too as it has an interesting history, given its position there are Roman and
Moorish influences.
We seem to be having an interesting time with Ruby, fresh
from her new clutch Chris tried to rearrange the roof recently!! We were parked
next to a covered parking area, we are too high to get under them, and he
turned too tight and knocked off the solar panel and the rear skylight. We
collected them back up and drove off. The guy making our windows made some new brackets
for the panel and Chris re-fixed the skylight………….not well enough and it was
lost somewhere between Mula and the house. He has made it watertight and we
will need to get another one. The solar panel is back on but we aren’t sure yet
if it is working.
This week I have had a trip to the dentist to get a tooth removed, I have
been struggling since Portugal with a gum infection and it is a repeat of a
problem I had recently and I hoped it would wait till I got home in
December but it is better to get it
sorted. I have had a week of antibiotics and the extraction went well, although
I have three stitches which need to come out in a week. My x ray was 10 euros and the extraction 30, so probably slightly cheaper than home. The dentist Manuel is good and his English is
excellent too and he works in very modern, clean facilities.
We are here in Spain till 30th November and then
we return to the UK, firstly for the wedding and then to stay for Christmas
coming back 2nd January. We are then hoping to have an extended trip
, which I have got roughly mapped out ,meandering through Spain and into
Portugal, going along to Sagres in the western Algarve then up the west coast
towards Lisbon then Porto and finally across to Santander to get the ferry home
mid March. This will allow us some time to sort our visas for China and we hope
to set off late March.
Before anyone ask we
are not going to China in Ruby!! Chris is keeping an eye out for a different
van-we love Ruby but for longer trips we really need a van with a fixed bed as
it gives more flexibility and dedicated living space…….and saves having to make
and unmake the bed every day!!
Till next time
Norma xx
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