It was snowing this morning from before I got up at 7.30 till 9.45. The flakes varied between small and dusty and big and heavy. The temperature on the balcony was 3C, so it didn't really settle on the ground, but the cars are all white. We were planning to go to Santander today to get some shopping, but as it is not essential we'll leave it for when the roads are a bit safer. The kids had a great time trying to catch snowflakes on their way to school.
During the weekend, it was just very cold and grotty -- rain and icy wind. We wrapped the kids up well and took them out for a bike ride in the park on Saturday, but with the wind Jamie could barely get started, and we ended up scuttling back home fairly quickly. It was more a case of getting them out of the house briefly, to stop them getting too stir crazy.
We rented Collateral on Saturday. Excellent thriller with great direction and script, a good performance by Tom Cruise, but can anybody tell me what the big deal is with 'Academy award winner' Jamie Foxx? To me he just seemed like he was practicing his best frown all the time.
Last week we put up adverts in supermarkets for the baby furniture -- the cot, wardrobe and chest of drawers/changing unit. As I only have a black-and-white printer, I asked a friend to print some colour copies for us. She showed them to a friend of hers who is pregnant, who phoned us and came round to see them on Saturday. She walked in, glanced at the furniture and said "when shall we arrange to pick them up?". Uh ok then. She didn't even open a cupboard or drawer. So that was easy - in fact you then start wondering if you shouldn't have asked for more money… However, it is very handy to have it sold so quickly, and as the price was half what we paid for it in Holland 6½ years ago, I don't think we've done badly. Danny is going through a phase of trying to get attention whenever we talking to other people, so he was doing a very loud estate agent impression at our feet, showing off his toy chest and crates, and beautiful play mat. Where's Supernanny when you need her?
While it's nice to have got that sorted out, we both spent a few wistful minutes looking at the furniture after the people had gone. Another milestone, sigh.
Speaking of ads, we got another booking at the weekend. July is now fully booked, in fact we've had to turn several people down. This was a French family, who phoned us, so I had to use my rusty French which was interesting. What with all the Spanish and Dutch words I kept sprinkling into the conversation by accident, I was getting a headache by the end of it. Meanwhile, August is still completely available, although we do have a provisional reservation from an English family for the last two weeks.
Monday, February 28, 2005
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Milestone
Jamie said something for the first time this morning, that felt to us like it was a milestone on the path leading away from childish innocence:
"I'm not wearing that, everyone will laugh at me"
The first but very definitely not the last time she will say that!
Meanwhile the weather has continued to be horrible, rain, hail, wind and even snow keeping us indoors or wrapped up very tightly when we go out. We had a trip to the shops in Santander on Saturday, but Danny wasn't himself, we think in retrospect overtired, and after lunch I took him to the car where he promptly fell fast asleep, while Carmen got the last of the shopping. We bought new 4-season duvets for the kids in anticipation of the big changeover when Jamie's new bedroom furniture arrives in the next couple of weeks. Danny's room is almost ready, we just need to do a little painting first. And then get rid of the old furniture - another milestone as the baby furniture with changing unit and cot bite the dust. Hopefully we can sell it with an ad in the supermarket or local paper. We're also hoping to sell the computer desk in the spare room and put the office desk there, from the flat. That'll give us a bit more elbow room when sitting next to one another at our respective computers.
In between lots of work I have been steadily advertising the flat on as many free sites I can find, which is quite a few. (Before anyone says 'cheapskate' we've already put it on several paid sites). Do a search for 'flat cantabria', 'self catering cantabria', 'piso barquera', or any other similar combination on all the main search engines and there's usually at least 2 or 3 links on the first page that lead to an ad for the flat or through to the website.
"I'm not wearing that, everyone will laugh at me"
The first but very definitely not the last time she will say that!
Meanwhile the weather has continued to be horrible, rain, hail, wind and even snow keeping us indoors or wrapped up very tightly when we go out. We had a trip to the shops in Santander on Saturday, but Danny wasn't himself, we think in retrospect overtired, and after lunch I took him to the car where he promptly fell fast asleep, while Carmen got the last of the shopping. We bought new 4-season duvets for the kids in anticipation of the big changeover when Jamie's new bedroom furniture arrives in the next couple of weeks. Danny's room is almost ready, we just need to do a little painting first. And then get rid of the old furniture - another milestone as the baby furniture with changing unit and cot bite the dust. Hopefully we can sell it with an ad in the supermarket or local paper. We're also hoping to sell the computer desk in the spare room and put the office desk there, from the flat. That'll give us a bit more elbow room when sitting next to one another at our respective computers.
In between lots of work I have been steadily advertising the flat on as many free sites I can find, which is quite a few. (Before anyone says 'cheapskate' we've already put it on several paid sites). Do a search for 'flat cantabria', 'self catering cantabria', 'piso barquera', or any other similar combination on all the main search engines and there's usually at least 2 or 3 links on the first page that lead to an ad for the flat or through to the website.
Sunday, February 20, 2005
Article: "Leave castanets and costas to the lovers of Spain-lite"
Excellent article about 'finding the real Spain' here
Friday, February 18, 2005
Jamie megastar
Click here to see an article about Jamie and her class' carnival show, with Jamie in 2 of the photos - coming down the steps in the photo on the right, and next to the teacher in one of the top centre photo (slide show). One of these is a close-up that looks like Jamie but the girl is wearing red polka dot shoes, and that's definitely not her, Jamie is wearing black shoes. Shame she's under so much make-up really!
It's also nice to see some long shots of the sports hall in which it's held, you can never get that kind of shot with a normal (= cheap) camera.
The son of friends of ours (Daniel) is dressed as a chick on the left of the second centre photo. He's coming round to play with Jamie after school while his parents go furniture shopping.
Below is a selection of the photos in case you don't manage to see them.
It's also nice to see some long shots of the sports hall in which it's held, you can never get that kind of shot with a normal (= cheap) camera.
The son of friends of ours (Daniel) is dressed as a chick on the left of the second centre photo. He's coming round to play with Jamie after school while his parents go furniture shopping.
Below is a selection of the photos in case you don't manage to see them.
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Yes!
This afternoon we got our first two summer bookings for the flat! One through www.homelidays.com and one through www.spain-holidays.com. 2-9 July and 9-16 July, at 450 euros per week. Suddenly the 200 euros hesitantly spent advertising on the two websites above seems like peanuts.
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Monday, February 07, 2005
Flat site
The flat site has been updated on the basis of all the feedback I gratefully received from you lot. Have a look at the new version at sv-barquera.spain.com. There should be a map visible at the bottom of the page now, if you can't see it, click Refresh. I have also registered it on one of the big holiday property search engines, www.homelidays.com - select Spain as country and Cantabria as region and look for the classic postcard photo of SVB...
Another success is the ranking on Yahoo search (not Google yet, unfortunately...) - type in 'flat barquera' and we come out top of the heap. For flat cantabria we're pushed back to the 2nd page, mais ce n'est deja pas mal.
Another success is the ranking on Yahoo search (not Google yet, unfortunately...) - type in 'flat barquera' and we come out top of the heap. For flat cantabria we're pushed back to the 2nd page, mais ce n'est deja pas mal.
Sunday, February 06, 2005
Carnival
We had a quiet Saturday at home until 6.30 when we went out to watch the main carnival events. We finally managed to persuade Danny to keep his knight's outfit on and Jamie was all princessed up. Groups of friends and neighbours do joint themes with small floats, so there was a bunch of Spitfire pilots with their own cardboard Spitfires around their waists, nuns, astronauts, etc., plus a smattering of celebrities. These groups got up on stage in turn to sing songs with hard-hitting & amusing political texts. Most of them laid into the mayor, as is the case most years, although we heard this morning that he got laid into in a more physical manner later on last night...
We went off for a drink with some friends and the kids played together. Just as the main parade was ready to begin, the rain started... Well what does one expect in February, it's not Rio after all.
We went off for a drink with some friends and the kids played together. Just as the main parade was ready to begin, the rain started... Well what does one expect in February, it's not Rio after all.
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
flublog
The kids are slowly getting better although still a little peaky. Jamie went to school this morning, and at lunchtime she looked as though she wasn't in any state to go back for the afternoon, but when the time came she suddenly picked up. Carmen went along to help make mardi gras costumes with a group of other parents (in a different room to the kids) so maybe that got Jamie motivated. Danny went to the creche this morning and was fine.
They were both very weak and wishy washy in the evening though, and Danny was coughing a lot, so I gave him some liquid paracetamol. I must say we've been very lucky that they've both slept through most nights.
Carmen and I are both coming down with it now, unfortunately, Carmen was very feverish at tea time, and I was fighting against it in order to get the kids fed and to bed. Our busy and stressful day didn't help - we heard yesterday from Nuria that someone was interested in our flat for a few months, obviously not at tourist rates but at this time of year you're happy for anything. Trouble was she had to move in
today, and the flat still had all the videos, cds, books and assorted office supplies in it. So we spent a busy morning, Carmen cleaning, me moving stuff down to the lock-up and juggling stuff from cupboard to cupboard. Plus we had to get a plumber in as the tap in the kitchen wouldn't shut off.
We managed to do a passable job - obviously (for those who've been there!) we didn't get rid of all our stuff in such a short time, we'll have to go back later and finish it off. The tenant is a stand-in teacher and very friendly and flexible, wasn't bothered about the storage space as she's on her own.
They were both very weak and wishy washy in the evening though, and Danny was coughing a lot, so I gave him some liquid paracetamol. I must say we've been very lucky that they've both slept through most nights.
Carmen and I are both coming down with it now, unfortunately, Carmen was very feverish at tea time, and I was fighting against it in order to get the kids fed and to bed. Our busy and stressful day didn't help - we heard yesterday from Nuria that someone was interested in our flat for a few months, obviously not at tourist rates but at this time of year you're happy for anything. Trouble was she had to move in
today, and the flat still had all the videos, cds, books and assorted office supplies in it. So we spent a busy morning, Carmen cleaning, me moving stuff down to the lock-up and juggling stuff from cupboard to cupboard. Plus we had to get a plumber in as the tap in the kitchen wouldn't shut off.
We managed to do a passable job - obviously (for those who've been there!) we didn't get rid of all our stuff in such a short time, we'll have to go back later and finish it off. The tenant is a stand-in teacher and very friendly and flexible, wasn't bothered about the storage space as she's on her own.
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