Friday Smiles 2024 # Week 44

Week 44 and what a week it has been. For us it has been a catalogue of disasters but they fade into insignificance next to the terrible storms in Valencia and other areas. I am sure most of you will have seen this on the news - pictures of a street in Valencia with piled up cars, houses filled with mud and water, and trains derailed. 

They are saying it is the worst natural disaster in Spain for over thirty years, with a hundred and fifty-eight fatalities so far, and the hunt continues for folk who are missing. Our hearts go out to the families affected and those trying to help them. Nearer to home, in the Almeria area, they had hailstones as 'big as eggs' which caused considerable damage to car windscreens and body work. But can we find a silver lining? Well the reservoir are at least half full and agriculture is benefitting from the rain. (A year's rainfall in one day!). Our gardens are happy too. And I am very touched and grateful for all the messages people have sent us, checking that we are OK.

For us the silver lining is that we have escaped with barely a scratch. Our week started when the waste disposal unit packed up. I love that machine and I felt priviledged to have one as I don't know anyone else in this area who has one. Normally when it stops, pressing the reset, or turning the drum fixes it, but this time nothing worked. So in the end we called a plumber to take it out and replace it with a normal plug and drainage system. I was a bit worried about selling the house to someone who has never seen a  waste disposal, as they can be incredibly dangerous if you don't understand how they work. So maybe removing it was the best option. Had we been staying here I would have replaced it with a new one.

Then we decided to test light the fire in case anyone wanted to see it in action, or we needed to make the room nice and cosy for viewers, and that wouldn't work! We had the same problem at the start of last winter and we had to call a gas man out to clean the sealed unit and replace 'something'. So now we are waiting for him to come again.

Our third disaster was rather more serious. Just inside our garden wall there was a tall telegraph pole set into the tiles, carrying telephone wires for the rest of the street. On Tueday morning we heard a loud crash and when we went to investigate we found the pole had been blown over. We have had high winds before and the pole has stood there for at least thirty years, so it is just our bad luck that it chose this week to come down.

Again it has a silver lining because we are incredible lucky that no-one was out there, no-one was lying on the sun lounger, and it missed the side of the house by less than a foot. It broke the head rest of the lounger and shattered a large plant pot, but the damage could have been so much worse. Of course the cables were down draped across the front of our house, and our fiber cable snapped so we had no internet or TV!

I took photos of it all and took them up to the Town Hall. I was taken straight in to see the Mayor who was in the middle of a meeting, but he immediately rang the local police and by the time I had walked back down to the house, they were there. Their response to any real problem is exceptional.

We know our local police man quite well and he spent ages looking at the damage and taking more photos, and then he talked to the telephone company. They were slow to respond as they had so many calls about damage and flooding to deal with.

But later that day a man did come and make everything safe. The cables have been cut and removed, and the pole is lying up against the wall. Eventually someone will come and collect it and replace all the cables but they are not going to put another pole in which is good. They will use one out on the roadside that carries electricity cables.

We rang the fibre cable company we get internet from and today a man came and replaced the cable and made sure everythng is working properly for us. Another smile.

So a difficult week, but how much worse it could have been. In some ways it is a good thing we have not had any viewings for the house this week, but it is mostly tidied up again now.

We had several warnings about the Dana - also know as Gota fria or Cold drop. This occurs when there is cold air up high and warm air from the Mediterranean coming in below it. So we were expecting heavy rain and thunder storms, but we often get an orange or red alert so folk don't repond as well as perhaps they should.

But it was no suprise to us when it started raining steadily on Monday. This is our pool and it reminded me of mum who always said, if it bubbles when it lands then it will rain all day! She wasn't quite right because it stopped at tea-time. But we had thunder and lightening rolling around us in the night.

Leo is not a fan of rain so he spent the day indoors. He sure knows how to relax!

Yesterday was dry and fairly sunny so I got the sheets washed and they soon dried out on the line. At lunch time we walked round to the medical centre and both had our flu and covid injections. Needless to say Chris didn't even feel his, but I had a painful left arm for the rest of the day. It has eased off now and just feels slightly bruised today. Another good thing done anyway.

So now I am all set to publish this in the morning and link up with Annie's Friday Smiles. I am so glad I have the internet back to do this!