FROGLEGS

Workmen have been working on our street for about 2 weeks now. It all started with a jackhammer about 13 days ago. It was so loud, it was almost impossible to get anything done in the office which is located on the front side of our building. It really did sound like they were tearing up the floor right next to you.

I went down and asked one of the guys what they were doing. The workman in question was standing waste deep in a ditch on the edge of where my street used to be. With a cigarette hanging from one lip, he looks up at me and says, “Oh, we are installing the natural gas mainpipe for this street.” Nice time to be puffing away.

These weeks with the workmen has also been an interesting time of observation as we have seen the ol’ spanish ratio of manual labor: 1 man working to 3 men standing around watching and critiquing. Jim & Heather didn’t quite believe me until we caught them in the act. They are pictured here to the right. Ha!

One of the most interesting things about living in Spain is the working lifestyle. I was just talking to a friend in Australia this morning about it. He visited us in Malaga in September and was struck with how different the lifestyle in Spain is compared with Oz. There you get up at some ungodly hour, work through the day and get home around 6 or 7 and turn in close to 10pm.

NOT THE CASE IN SPAIN!!! Here you would get up around 8 or even 9 in the morning, be at work by about 9.30 (if you own your own biz, it doesn’t really matter when you get there or if you get there at all…). At around 11 or so, you will start to get a rumbling in your tummy ’cause you literally rolled out of bed and headed to the ol’ grind; so of course it is time for breakfast! You pop your little back in 5 minutes sign in the window and head out to the nearest bar (or they actually bring it to you from round the corner) for a bit of toast & coffee. That usually lasts a half hour or so unless you run into friends which could use up another 30 min. Eventually you get back to work and are there until around 1.30-2.00 when it is time to go home from lunch & siesta.

Now Siesta deserves its own paragraph. Many of you might have heard the word before or think that it is the spanish word for nap… Not quite. Siesta is very much a mid-day refueling time which lasts about 3 hours. You come home, eat your main meal (big, hot, heavy food) and then have about 1.5 to 2 hours to recharge for the rest of your workday. Some sleep, some lounge on the couch, watching TV, some head down to the local bar to hang out with friends. It all depends on what you like and what is best for you to be able to charge your batteries.

After Siesta, you head back (refreshed & vitalised) and really put your nose to the grindstone. You would work from about 5 to about 9 and then it is back home again. You would eat dinner (light, informal meal) in between 10 and midnight and then go to bed. somewhere around 1 or 2.

The Telefonica Saga II: The Ineptitude Continues

Telefonica is actually beginning to impress me… as far as their complete disregard for the good of the customer goes.

As part of our “Get Telefonica Out of Our Lives” campaign, we are in the process of changing mobile phone companies. Before we do that, I wanted to cash in the Customer Points (kinda like frequent flyer miles, but instead are frequent caller points) I have with them. It’s almost 5 years of points, so it would be a shame to lose them when we cancel our account with Telefonica.

Anyway, I went down to the closest Telefonica store to cash in my points and get a new phone (I don’t really need one, but i wanna take advantage of the points). I pick out the one that I want and, lo and behold, they don’t have it! So the order it in, estimating that it would be there for the next day or so. It actually does get in the next day (gasp) and so I go down to pick it up. I was quite pleased with it, it is the one in the picture above. There was only one problem with it… Its vibrator alarm doesn’t work! So I take it back down to see what is wrong and see if I can get one that actually works.

That was last week, the return is still being processed, and who knows when i will actually be able to get my phone back. Meanwhile, we are forced to continue in servitude to the evil Telefonica empire. Bummer.

Home again, Home again…

It was really nice to see Jesús n Rachel in Madrid, hang out with Sarah G. (an english friend who was in a discipleship school we led) and see the 24-7 Spain gang… It was with bleary and teary eyes that we headed back home this morning.

After a 3 hour train ride (not the usual 2 hours and a quarter, we took the cheap train) we arrived home to Sevilla! After below zero temperatures in Madrid, we had to wonder if we were still in the same country when we arrived to sunny Sevilla and it was 20ºC outside! We promptly stripped of our cold weather gear and headed for the taxi stand… Home awaited!

We came thru the door to the apartment and were greeted by an enthusiastically wagging black and gold mass that we think was our dog… It all happened so quickly that we still aren’t sure! Those of you who have been greeted by her on occasion will know exactly what i am talking about. She is getting better about greeting you by planting her paws on your lapels, but she is just as excited about anyone and anything that comes in the door… Dogs are strange creatures!

It was great to see Jim and good to see that he and Kati had a decent weekend together.

In Madrid today for a leadership meeting with 24-7spain. Hanging out with Jesús and Rachel is the best part really. We meet today with the gang in the morning and the afternoon and then have the rest of the weekend to just chill and have fun.

Heather got to come with me this time thanks to Jesús & Rachel being extremely generous and paying for half her train ticket!

Kati is at home with Jim, pray for him to survive the weekend!

We have had an ongoing saga with the national phone company, Telefonica since last August. I don’t wanna bore you with the details, but basically they have screwed us everyway they new how, denied it, lied about it, been completely inept and then tried to cover it up.
The latest chapter is that they overbilled us in January by over $300! They offered us a faster broadband service that they said would be completely free, just to try out for a month. I cancelled it after less than a month because it just wasn’t worth it. When I get the bill for January I see that not only did they charge us for the hi speed connection, they charged us for two other connections… during the same dates! When I called them on it, the lady that made the offer just plain lied and said she had never made such an offer and that it was impossible for them to give me that service for free!!! I have now lodged 2 complaints, had them denied and am now going to the Defender of the Public to see if they can get some results. This is twice they have ripped us off for a cumulative $600+!!!
If you use Telefonica or Movistar (their mobile phone company) I would encourage you to migrate to an alternative company. These guys have to know that they cannot treat people this way.
I am going to be switching over to Vodafone sometime between this month… But not before cashing in my Movistar customer points and getting a nice new phone!!! HA!