It has, finally, stopped raining.  It has not really stopped since mid-December and now, at last, we have sunny warm weather.

Thank God!

Our rented place in Almodovar Del Rio did get flooded one day but fortunately I was at home on one of my part time days so I was able to stop it and clear it up without too much fuss.  The dogs didn’t like water surrounding the sofas that they were on but the cat was unaffected in the back bedroom where the floodwater didn’t reach.

Floodwater smells really bad btw.

The town itself found the surrounding fields and walkways around the railway lines flooded to a degree where tours were being offered to see the effect of the Guadalquivir river overflowing. 

It meant the additional headache of trying to find an open space without livestock or near a main road where we could let Luna off-lead like we do here in Fuente Tojar and not let Bindi jump around in sticky clay mud up to her tummy.  What to do?

What it meant for the students and staff at school is that we were all utterly sick of rain and wet breaks.  It has not been a great half term.

And what it meant for our house here is that there are endless places where water leaked or seeped through, tons of plaster and paint that needs to be replaced and a patio that has an abundance of weeds which love endless water and plants that absolutely hate it and die off.

And because we come home only on weekends, we don’t get the time to deal with these issues properly.  It’s bloody annoying in many ways.  And we know we’re lucky in many others because the walls that I built are still standing, unlike many others we have seen, and the things that have been a bit ruined can be fixed. 

We are very very glad the weather has returned to what we love – sunny and warm.

Another consequence of the endless grey and drizzle and rain is signs of Depression.  I know I have it.  This SAD is one of the reasons why I always became depressed by this time when I lived in the UK and, believe me, living in Cordoba recently has been just like living in the UK weather-wise.

I know I need to do something about it and I will.  I think the events of September and the continuing (but gradually declining)  anxiety when driving has led to this point and it needs to be addressed.  We are fortunate that the Spanish medical system is not bad although it would be much easier if we could speak more Spanish.

Actually that goes for pretty much everything here.  We can understand more and more of what is said to us when the person who is speaking knows that our Spanish is crap.  It’s when people assume you know the language that it gets difficult because they just prattle on at speed in an accent that is acknowledged to be “interesting” and uses colloquialisms that are “mind boggling” to any foreigner. 

We think our functional Spanish is just about okay but we need to move that onward to actually being able to have a conversation in it. 

Anyway, not a lot else has happened to be honest.  Our lives are not exciting or adventure filled.  We don’t lead a life that is anywhere near glamorous or full of fabulousness.  We go to work, we come home on a Friday night and we reluctantly go back to Almodovar Del Rio on a Sunday afternoon. 

That’s it, really. 

Except on the Friday night we are extremely glad to be home and on the Saturday we are extremely glad to take Luna out into the campo and let her run and run and run.  We wish that we could be here all of the time but it doesn’t seem possible just now. 

We have modest ambitions and yearn for a simple life that we know is definitely possible here in the village.  We don’t crave the thrill of living in a vibrant, “happening” large city – we have lived in 5 very different capital cities in the distant and recent past – and instead we want what the American philosopher Henry Thoreau described as living a full life and one where he could try  “to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life” but within the natural world and not one surrounded by modernity and complicated issues as you would find within a city.

“Simplify, simplify” was his advice and we like that.  Yes, we do know that having Luna is never going to be simple but when you see the sheer joy she experiences when she is running in the campo then you kind of get what Thoreau was on about. 

And to that end I will continue to purchase that one lottery ticket per week that the guy at the lottery shop prints out the second he sees me in the vain hope that it will reward us.  Our record thus far is getting two numbers one week.  Our normal result is zero numbers and that can only mean one thing – that we are due a big win anytime soon!  You know it makes sense!

Ayubowan

Hasta luego, inshallah

Ciao

Paul

PS: Really liking these guys at the moment.  Very Irish and very interesting.