Connecting!

Oh no, wait, yes...I've LOST the piece of paper that means we're residents in Madrid!!
Hurrah, well at times like this we're trying to learn to laugh (& eat watermelon).

We're in a very bizarre situation of occasionally feeling like we're on holiday but on the other hand feeling stressed out as we grapple with 'the new' and as we press on down a list of things that need to be done to get our lives up & running here.

This is our first blog post from our PC, which means we have at least managed to get ourselves connected to the outside world with a landline and internet access - tick! Due to the quirky nature of our flat, however, the current home of our router is in the middle of our living room floor, halfway between power sockets and telephone sockets :-)  The surprises continue in our flat as we discover the hard way that the electrical system won't tolerate the oven, hob, washing machine & kettle all being on at the same time - 12 trips later down to the basement to reset the trip switch and we're beginning to get the balance right :-)

Our plaza is a really great place to get connected with local people. We come out our front door (1st pic) and straight into this park (2nd pic) which at key times is bustling with all generations sitting / chatting / playing /smoking weed :-) We've had some good first chats after realising that behind the indifferent looks many Spaniards are actually very approachable! And as I write this, one of our big goals is being achieved as Sally & the kids have gone out shopping with a Spanish girl and her young child - Hurrah, Sally's longings for girly chats MAY not be too far off!

I'm still to find potential Spanish friends (spare a prayer!) but it's early days: I start work on Wednesday, we'll be taking turns to take Ellie to the schoolgate once she is allocated a place on 4th October, and on Sunday we went to a really friendly church 5 minutes walk from our house. No doubt God has some mates for all of us somewhere in that mix.

One other great connection is that our 5th (adult) member of the team has now joined us in Madrid - welcome Dave! He's similarly left friends, job & home (in East Grinsted) to help out in this mad adventure and we've just spent a great weekend with him, including a cable car trip from the city into Casa del Campo (parkland) on Saturday. Spare another prayer as he looks for work & a house-share and settles in as a Madrilleno.

The kids are well, if a little moany at times with the heat and all the changes in routine. Ellie wants to go to school, Joe walks past people and says 'Hola!', and they are learning to walk 'tippy-toes' along our hall in a noise prevention strategy!

Thanks to all who have written, emailed, messaged, phoned or (more recently) skyped. We value and love you lots. Until next time! x

Sal might kill me, but I'll leave you with a mini-taste of our home situ :-)