Back home

We're back "home", although "home" now is a bit.. diffuse. And it's very warm here. About the same temperature as in Spain, but far more humid. So it's very clammy. We don't like clammy. Clammy is only good for cleaning cloths.

We're quite tired. Travel groggy.

The hotel the night before flying had guests that kept on stomping around till two in the morning, keeping us awake.

I spontaneously had a flashback of the house in Amsterdam where the neighbors on one side had a trampoline in the living room ( " THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! STOMP! ") and a garage door that had to be opened a hundred times every day ( " RRRRRRANG! THUMP! WOING! WOING! ") and closed a hundred times a day ( " ZRRRRNGKLAP! "). Oh, and a guitar that was plucked an hour long, one string only. ( " PLOING! PLOINGG! PLOING! ", etc.) Yes, the same people who, on New Years Eve, put their car in their garage, then went among other people's cars to do fireworks. The trampoline was finally, after we became angry, moved from the living room to the room on the ground floor. As if that is better. Stupid people? Not really. Highly educated. Promoted even, but just nasty bastards.


The neighbors on the other side had a kid that banged the front door ( " THUMP! "), then pounded up the stairs ( " THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! ") (15 steps), then clapped close the door of the living room (" BANG! ' ). These people also had a kitchen counter against the separating concrete wall with kitchen drawers that were not very well braked, so every time a drawer slammed shut it was " KWANK! ." I do not want to leave unmentioned the squeaking shower tap deep into the night, like the piano that they could not play. The stampoline neighbors also had a piano, and were equally non-gifted. ( " Va-der-coPPLOING!" and "farmer-there-is-ZOINGG! "). These guys had two cars on three parking spaces. Fortunately, that street now has paid parking. (Heheheh!) Again: stupid people? Not really. Highly educated, even promoted, but just nasty bastards socially. Still hate them.

Oh, before the latter neighbors there lived another highly educated PhD bastard, who liked it if his little brat was rollerskating on the parquet ( " DRRRRRR! DRRRRRRRR! DRRRRRRR! "), and kept busy an hour with a nice bucket of marbles ("....").

That is why we have moved to a detached house. We remember a viewing of an otherwise very nice semi-detached house in Utrecht where the owner said "you never hear anything from the neighbors, unless she wears heels on the parquet". Oh dear, thank you, but no.

During the flight there were two screaming toddlers who were continuously comforted by their moms, but they just screamed louder and louder. Fortunately, I have in-ear earphones with a soft rubber perfectly sealing cap, and Bobby O.

The cat neighbours have their caravan in front of their house again. (Illegal parking.)

No, indeed we don't love people. That's why we bugger off to a remote part.

No helicopter in three months; here two in one day.

Three months one plane a week, here every 5 minutes from half past 4 for a few hours. (Hate you, KLM and Transavia.)

Three months no motorway, here a constant drone.

Inpakken // Pack

No pictures today, and the results of the prize draw need to wait, as today we pack up, the computer too. Till Wednesday! (Provided nothing ghastly happens.)

Finished! - Prize Draw!

Finished! All jobs. Two more days here. *snif*

And we end this series with a prize draw.
← WHAT IS THIS?

Snail

You haven't heard me tell much about snails yet, which I will amend now. There are a lot of nice big snails here, even though it is an arid area.

The snails here are very very silly. Do you think they hide in the shade in a dark humid spot? No. They sit (stick) in the full sun. En the sun does bake here, as I have mentioned before. (Sunny, 33º today.)

If you detach them, because you need them to move, you can see they protect themselves by sealing the opening of the shell with a thin layer of chalky material. That way they don't dry out. Isn't that beautiful?

And when they die their shell becomes all white. I'll paint one someday as a water colour.

Zoomba 1 year later

First

Then

A few days later

And

the

rest

is

history.

Garage Windows

Oh, one of the little tasks that had been halted due to the installation of the garage door and the doing-up of the main windows of the house is the doing-up of the simple white windows, shutters and frames of the workshop/garage. They suffered the damp early this year a lot, and the paint flaked off massively. The wood itself has barely survived, thanks to our ventilation measures.

With paint you can choose between acrylic, alkyd, unless you want to spend a lot of money on polyurethane paint. Not in Spain. Here you can choose between acrylic. En now and then polyurethane.

Those paints don't especially like each other. You cannot paint over the one with the other. We did not have much choice (see above), so acrylic it is. And sanding heavily. Which was not easier due to the fact meanwhile the rejas (grills) had been installed, so you can no longer sand the frame with the machine. And no, those rejas cannot be removed. Which is the idea, actually.

Oh, and primer. Quite unknown in Spain as well. Only a specialist shop had one brand. On the tin it said that for wood you first need yet another primer product for best results, but we gave that the finger.

And the "glazing bars", the small wooden slats that keep the glass in place: never properly painted, and so pretty tired. I removed them, and the glass panes, so we can paint the entire window, even the corners behind the glass. The window panes were standing against the wall, and then smashed with an iron thing dropping on them, smashing a few. Lucky we now had a spare window, which had been replaced by the garage door, so that can now donate glass and slats.

Yes, we still have a week and a half left.

Ventilador 2

The garage is quite hot and stuffy; that's what you get without ventilation. High time to make a hole in the back wall, and fit a small solar ventilator.

The hole was made by Rafa, the handy man in the area. With a big hammer and chisel. Because these hollow blocks are easy to punch holes in, he said.

BENG! BENG! Well, not so easy after all. Especially as the block had been filled with concrete and an iron reinforcement bar. So, the hole (BENG! BENG! BENG! BENG! etc.) became slightly bigger than intended. But, with portland cement and mortero revoco blanco impermeable I can handle any damage.

The fan was wrapped in fly screen so no wasps, mosquitos, foxes, flies, dogs, wood lice, whales, etc, can get stuck in there.

Some foam tape for air tightness.

Outside nothing obvious can be seen.

El panèl solar. (4W, 17-24v, 230mA)

Kit

Not so bad. And yet: HATE ! Sealant is horrible stuff. It sticks, and it's all over after a while. But I won't bother you with that right now.

Pur 2

After a sleepless night - will the plaster hold up to PUR, or will the house fall apart soon - I put on my naughty sandals and off I went. 

I think it'll be fine.

Have a nice kitten later, along the way!

Pur

I'm not happy with PUR. It is said it's great to fill big gaps, but only if you read the instructions well. You have to use the can upside down. It is not to clean the spray nozzle, as with many other spray cans. So now I have a big lump of foam in a newspaper.

Rubbish.

BBQ

Getting better at lighting the BBQ. No charcoal briquettes here.

Juan Moreno 2

You cannot always work while on vacation, so today were going to try Juan Moreno's other menu. It's a bit less extensive than the gourmand/gourmet menu, but still.

Aperitif

Tomatoes

Foie and fruits

Turbot

Pork

Textured(?) pineapple

Mortero Blanco Capa Fino Impermeable

Originally there was a gap of ca 1 cm around the window frames that was filled with some kind of gypsum plaster. The builders that looked at it made a sucking noise, because gypsum loves water. It does not rain here often, (29º and lovely today), but still. There was a water resistant wall paint over the gypsum, that probably saved the day.

And here is how I do it: I stick a trowel along the wood of the window frame, and fill the rest.

That leaves a gap of ca 2 mm, that I will fill later with a non-silicone caulk, so we have a water resistant elastic junction. Clever, huh.

Garage 4

This is the new home for the red mobile.

It took a morning of hefty cleaning up, sweeping, vacuuming... A mess! Dust, sawdust, etc..

Scorchio!

It was warm today, 38º in the shade. A warm wind. Yuck. And of course we were too late with closing the windows, as the temperature rises only slowly. Last night first time with a ventilator, but still no need for airco!