Apologies for the Spanglish title;  ‘or bust’ doesn’t translate well into Spanish.  But it does kind of illustrate what the last few weeks have been like for the both of us.  We have been living in two very different worlds where the juxtaposition of our life here in rural Andalusia and that of job-seeking in…

It was the festival of the Three Kings and, given its importance to my god-daughter, we planned a trip to Bilbao nearly 800km away to see her.  Of course, it wouldn’t just be her.  It would also be her brother and sister, her parents, her grandparents, her uncle and aunty, her other uncle, her grandmother’s…

Feliz Ano Nueve!  Welcome to the first blog of the New Year.  It’s going to be a big and bewildering year again for the two us and our brood.  We have Brexit to deal with and finding a job somewhere and our 50th birthdays and a wedding in Romania to attend and trying, desperately, to…

Well, I’d like to say it’s been another busy week in the Byatt-Abeyawardene household but that wouldn’t be strictly true since we’re not actually working. We have done some stuff though; some because we have had to and some because we’ve had two weeks of brilliantly sunny winter days with temperatures hitting the 20’s regularly.…

It has been an exciting few weeks in the Byatt-Abeyawardene household. We hosted my mother for ten days as well as a curry night for 9 people, some of whom were old colleagues of Sonalee. I’ve also managed to do my first road race and I made a coffee table! That, and we discovered that…

So, firstly, it turns out that the recent bad spell of weather really was a bit of a fluke for this time of year. Great. We’ve got more of that to come in December. Ah. Not so great when you have your god-daughter and her family coming to visit. Three small children + mummy and…

Ouch, it’s cold. It’s Baltic. It’s freezing. Its Brass Monkeys out there.* It’s also a bit of a shock to the system let me tell you. The shops in and around Priego have been selling those portable radiators and other heating-related products to great effect. I reckon we weren’t the only ones caught out when…

Or, as its known around these parts, Priego. It’s a small town about fifteen minutes drive away from us here in Fuente Tojar and is the municipal capital for the area surrounding us – The Subbetica. You can find more details here but you can be sure that it is a place that you will…

One of the many joyful aspects of having four dogs and two cats, aside from almost weekly trips to the vets, is the many questions that arise all based upon three main themes:-a) Who did that disgusting poo? (Normally Bindi or Luna)b) Who did that wee right here? (Normally Luna)c) Dear Holy Christ in Heaven,…

Well, the winter is here and it arrived practically overnight. The temperature today is 20 degrees! 20! It’s been many years since we’ve seen temperatures plummet so far. The Autumn/Winter is also the start of the Hunting Season in Andalucia. We’ve never lived anywhere that has a hunting season that has affected us. Living in…