Hola Steemians! I have one word for you.
GEARBOX.
Yup. Over two weeks ago we learned that our beloved Kangoo, Jimmy was living on borrowed time. He's always made lots of weird noises but this was not good news. And not great timing as partner had to head back to the UK to take his mother to a hospital appointment.
In all honesty, the stress of the last few months building up to the move, then living without water for 7 weeks, living from hand to mouth and trusting money to come in to cover the continually expanding expense of getting said running water into the house... has wiped us out on what feels like every level and layer of our being. We've kept smiling and stayed positive through it all, but the truth is we're a bit battered and bruised too!
But in the world of 'Namaste This' where miracles really are a reality.... we have actually done it….and we can now turn on a tap and hey presto..... we have water! The shower is strong and hot... and OMG I love it…. but we do only have a few minutes before the boiler gives up and we're doused in a freezing cold downpour. But we can live with that for now. Quick showering is an art. And we're getting good at it.
I hadn't appreciated that it's basically the majority of the engine... and a BIG deal. We asked our friendly mechanic to start looking for reconditioned gear boxes 2 weeks ago and…
Sh*t! They are expensive... and very, very elusive! AND you have to hand over your gear box before they'll give you theirs. Bugger. Suddenly living up a 2.5km off the main road, 6km away from either Órgiva and Lanjarón... and being car-less, didn't sound so adventurous and fun. Neither did breaking down along winding mountain roads. No siree. Nothing ‘miracle’ filled about that.
Things frustratingly kind of came to a halt while my man was away…. but as soon as he landed back home and heaved a sigh of relief, he promptly fell ill and has been basically housebound courtesy of a full on ‘man cold’… but the gearbox situation was not going away… in fact, the pressure was building and no answers in sight.
Doing things the Spanish ‘mañana’ way, has always been a challenge for My Man… and with no definitive answers coming back and a gearbox that could give out an any moment, his nerves and patience were shredded and stress levels were going through the roof… and we still had no idea how we were going to pay for it all. Being ill didn’t help either of us, or the situation.
Long story short… Mr Google eventually offered up a reconditioned gearbox, 5 hours away, near Alicante, but it was still going to cost us almost a 4 figure sum that we didn’t have… it still had to be delivered to our mechanic and our gearbox still had to be taken out (which could be a 2 day job in itself) …. and handed over to the delivery driver to be taken back to Alicante. And all of this now meant that we had to find a replacement car.
Cue our angel friend Aaron… Spanish born, but English, he happily stepped up to the mark and became our negotiator, mediator, organiser, translator and saviour. We owe him infinite amounts of beer and whiskey… and whatever his heart desires. It’s hard to explain how difficult it is to organise anything here… everything is so fluid and plans change on a whim… it took 3 days to even confirm that this gearbox would be ours.
Plan X (because that’s how many version we’ve been through this week) was finally actioned. We managed to get a loan to buy the gearbox and after a fraught transfer where monies didn’t arrive in time and we had to rob Peter to pay Paul… the friendly bank teller in Órgiva sensed my desperation and helped me make the transfer at the ATM to save on the charges. All basic Spanish and fluent Portuguese had left my head by that point and gobbledegook was no help at all. That done, I sent a photo of the proof of payment to my man, who sent it to Aaron, who sent it to the garage in Alicante. Who now said that their engine would be with us on Tuesday… not Monday as promised.
In the meantime Aaron had managed to source a ‘friend’ who casually rents his car out… and last night we were to meet this man, who we couldn’t get a handle on his name, but we were to look out for someone tall, dark and with glasses, at the big BP garage for the handover. Let all images and experiences of airport car rentals leave your head now. We stood like foreign numpties at the garage while life came and went and eventually this man drove up, over half an hour ‘late’, in a bit of a battered Fiat, tooted the horn and we breathed another huge sigh of relief. There was little to say when you don’t speak the language… he pulled out a manual receipt pad, took my mobile number, took a photo of my driving licence and as we handed over the cash fee, he said we could just leave the car at the garage or on the road when we were finished with it next week and leave the key with the guys at the shop. They were used to it apparently.
We drove Jimmy and our temporary Jimmy over to the mechanic and left him there to be dismantled and ready for the gear box hand over. And on the drive home, we had to stop off again in Órgiva because in all the gearbox chaos, I’d forgotten that my dues, were due at the Centro Holístico where I offer healing and reflexology… and somehow we’d got to the 30th November without me realising it. That done, we finally headed home.
It was kind of bizarre being in a normal car again… a car that didn’t rattle like a tractor or bump you out of your seat… and initially it really threw us that we could hardly hear the engine. We crawled back up our track in the pitch black…. hoping not to hear the bottom scraping over the increasing and growing bumps, ruts and ravines created by last week’s rains… but we made it back in one piece and MGM had a moment of simple joy on hearing the click of modern central locking work. It’s the little things!
Finally…. it feels like this saga will be resolved.
So despite the lows of late… where we’ve felt that our trust, wallets, relationship and basically ‘everything’ has been pushed to the limit… I still feel that everything is going to be ok. But Universe… please…. could we just have a bit of ‘clear blue water’ for a while!?!
Hasta Luego Steemians! 😎
Love,
Sally xx
PS. Since penning this blog... it's all change again... the courier that was to bring the gearbox has now said he won't pick up ours and take it back to Alicante... but we've paid for the Alicante gearbox and.... our gearbox is now out... so we're hiring a car for a week of nothing.... jeeez!!
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