You must be wondering what I have been doing. It is not usually this long between my posts, but I have to be wondering the same thing! Sometimes time just flies by and I don't seem to have done anything particularly significant, yet I am usually busy for at least part of each day. (For the other part I am recovering from being busy!).
So, what have I been up to in the week and a half since our friends went home. There was, of course, a certain amount of extra washing and clearing up to do, but washing is not a problem out here when we have a machine to do it, and we know the first load will be dry before the second load is ready to hang out. I have also put some effort into making Christmas cards. I had ordered a set of rubber stamps from UK, and when they arrived I made a run of eighteen cards all the same style but in different colours and I am very pleased with them. That's sixty five ready to use now so I am nearly half way!
Last week I bravely joined the local Spanish class, which is organised free by the town hall. I say 'bravely' because the class is led by a Spanish man who teaches in school all day, and he speaks no English, or even less than we speak Spanish anyway, and that's not very much. So it is very different from what I am used to, as we rattle through new grammar techniques and then do exercises using them, and we do a piece of dictation, and read passages aloud from books, all without actually translating any of it. If we stop him and say we haven't understood he explains (in Spanish) and gives us lots of examples until we all nod sagely at him, and he carries on. It's a steep learning curve but it will help me to improve my listening skills - my weakest point - and also help my pronunciation. The down side is that the classes are for two hours (3.00 - 5.00) three times a week - Monday, Wednesday and Friday - with homework over the weekend, which is a big committment when you actually 'have a life' beyond the classroom. I did not want to start from scratch again so I am in the intermediate group, and there are only six to ten of us at any session, so we have to work hard, and we will either learn very fast or all sink together! I am hoping to continue my one hour group with Paco each Thursday evening as, although he is also Spanish, he speaks excellent English and we get more conversation practice with him, plus he can explain and translate for us in English. I had to buy a text book for the new class which cost me €20, so I need to get something out of it to get my money's worth, don't I?
Today I have a poorly kitten. Little Luna hasn't eaten or drunk anything since Saturday night, and she has hardly moved off her bed in that time. She doesn't seem to be particularly distressed, just floppy and docile. I took her to the vet this evening and she said she has a high temperature, but she couldn't find any real evidence of an infection. She put her on a drip as she was a bit dehydrated. I have been using a syringe to get some water into her, but I obviously haven't done it often enough. She also gave her an antibiotic injection which she thinks will sort her out, so we will have to wait and see what she is like tomorrow. I had to drive through a Spanish-style thunderstorm on the way to the vet, which wasn't a very good experience, but fortunately it didn't last for long. Of course, it left the road awash with rain, so the journey home was a battle to see through the sunshine bouncing off all the spray.
This morning I drove to Huercal Overa to collect some paperwork from the hospital. I have my appointment with the anaesthetist next week (prior to my cataract operation), and I was going through the things I have to take with me when I realised that I was missing a particularly important form. I did not want my appointment to be cancelled because I hadn't got it, so I thought I had better go over there and sort it out. I knew the receptionist spoke no English, so I looked up some useful vocabulary before leaving home, and was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to explain what I wanted. Within a few minutes I was on my way out with the missing form, so I spent the rest of the morning wandering around HO market. It is huge compared with ours, and the prices were cheaper too. I must go back there soon to buy some fabric. I want to make new curtains for our patio doors before the cold weather comes, but today I had no idea how much I will need. If I find some material that I like, I may try to make matching semi-loose covers for our two reclining chairs as well. We have throws on them at the minute but they are always dangling on the floor where they are traps for the unwary like me, and they never look tidy. So I shall see what I can do.
So perhaps I have done quite a lot in the passed ten days after all!
So, what have I been up to in the week and a half since our friends went home. There was, of course, a certain amount of extra washing and clearing up to do, but washing is not a problem out here when we have a machine to do it, and we know the first load will be dry before the second load is ready to hang out. I have also put some effort into making Christmas cards. I had ordered a set of rubber stamps from UK, and when they arrived I made a run of eighteen cards all the same style but in different colours and I am very pleased with them. That's sixty five ready to use now so I am nearly half way!
Last week I bravely joined the local Spanish class, which is organised free by the town hall. I say 'bravely' because the class is led by a Spanish man who teaches in school all day, and he speaks no English, or even less than we speak Spanish anyway, and that's not very much. So it is very different from what I am used to, as we rattle through new grammar techniques and then do exercises using them, and we do a piece of dictation, and read passages aloud from books, all without actually translating any of it. If we stop him and say we haven't understood he explains (in Spanish) and gives us lots of examples until we all nod sagely at him, and he carries on. It's a steep learning curve but it will help me to improve my listening skills - my weakest point - and also help my pronunciation. The down side is that the classes are for two hours (3.00 - 5.00) three times a week - Monday, Wednesday and Friday - with homework over the weekend, which is a big committment when you actually 'have a life' beyond the classroom. I did not want to start from scratch again so I am in the intermediate group, and there are only six to ten of us at any session, so we have to work hard, and we will either learn very fast or all sink together! I am hoping to continue my one hour group with Paco each Thursday evening as, although he is also Spanish, he speaks excellent English and we get more conversation practice with him, plus he can explain and translate for us in English. I had to buy a text book for the new class which cost me €20, so I need to get something out of it to get my money's worth, don't I?
Today I have a poorly kitten. Little Luna hasn't eaten or drunk anything since Saturday night, and she has hardly moved off her bed in that time. She doesn't seem to be particularly distressed, just floppy and docile. I took her to the vet this evening and she said she has a high temperature, but she couldn't find any real evidence of an infection. She put her on a drip as she was a bit dehydrated. I have been using a syringe to get some water into her, but I obviously haven't done it often enough. She also gave her an antibiotic injection which she thinks will sort her out, so we will have to wait and see what she is like tomorrow. I had to drive through a Spanish-style thunderstorm on the way to the vet, which wasn't a very good experience, but fortunately it didn't last for long. Of course, it left the road awash with rain, so the journey home was a battle to see through the sunshine bouncing off all the spray.
This morning I drove to Huercal Overa to collect some paperwork from the hospital. I have my appointment with the anaesthetist next week (prior to my cataract operation), and I was going through the things I have to take with me when I realised that I was missing a particularly important form. I did not want my appointment to be cancelled because I hadn't got it, so I thought I had better go over there and sort it out. I knew the receptionist spoke no English, so I looked up some useful vocabulary before leaving home, and was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to explain what I wanted. Within a few minutes I was on my way out with the missing form, so I spent the rest of the morning wandering around HO market. It is huge compared with ours, and the prices were cheaper too. I must go back there soon to buy some fabric. I want to make new curtains for our patio doors before the cold weather comes, but today I had no idea how much I will need. If I find some material that I like, I may try to make matching semi-loose covers for our two reclining chairs as well. We have throws on them at the minute but they are always dangling on the floor where they are traps for the unwary like me, and they never look tidy. So I shall see what I can do.
So perhaps I have done quite a lot in the passed ten days after all!
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