While our car was getting fixed (you can read about that post here), we rented a car – a lovely Peugeot 3008. This vehicle did everything but steer for us and, quite frankly, it became a bit of nag.
If we changed lanes without signalling – ding ding! If we parked too close to something – ding ding! (it wasn’t that close), if we didn’t put our seatbelts on fast enough – ding ding! If we went over the speed limit – more dings! At one point Michael opened his door to see if he was within the lines of a parking space – that warranted an alarm!! Do NOT, under any circumstances, open the door with the engine running 🙄 . But, it’s a very spacious and comfortable car and we took the opportunity to see more of Gran Canaria with a visit to Aguimes. You can read about that post here. Among other things, it has a very impressive church.
This week we have a houseguest. David is moving out next week to an apartment a few blocks away, and he has a roommate moving in with him. But until then, the roommate needed somewhere to stay for a week, so we invited him to stay with us. An Italian gentleman around 60-ish, who’s been in Gran Canaria for about 16 years.
It also coincided with the next step in our residency application. Having received our NIE number earlier this month, it was time for us to register with the Town Hall. This lets Spain know that we have a permanent place to say, complete with apartment lease, and is one of the documents required for the application.
Of course, to register with the Town Hall, you need to make an appointment. I was advised I could do this online and so I go to the relevant website and start the procedure. Of course, it’s all in Spanish, but, after consulting my trusty Google Translate, I fill out my details with a fair amount of confidence. I’m given an appointment date of June 27th. That’s cutting it very fine as we’re only legally allowed to be here until June 30th without some form of residency. I seek help from our new houseguest who tells me that I made an online appointment for the wrong thing! I made an appointment to register a municipal business! 😂 He goes onto the website again and reapplies for the correct thing. This time, the appointment is for Friday. Yes! This Friday! 💃
I realize I need to speed up my Spanish lessons.
With great regret, we take our lovely rental car back and pick up our own car from the mechanic. It seems to be running well. We celebrate by treating ourselves to a full English breakfast at the Harbour Lights Irish Pub in Puerto Rico along with a beer for Michael and a glass of wine for me. Technically, it wasn’t breakfast anymore – it was lunch!
On the way back to the car, we stop in for ice cream.
We try to spend every Sunday at the beach and over the weeks, we’ve come to realize that we’re amateurs when it comes to beach-going. Playa del Cura (where we live) is one of the beaches that the locals who live in the South, come to on the weekends. They make a day of it and have all the equipment – beach chairs, clips to hold the towels in place
umbrellas, folding tables, coolers filled with home made food, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages – you name it, they have it.
We decided that, if we’re going to become professional beach-goers, we need to up our game, and so on Sunday, we bought ourselves the first in a long list of beach equipment – a beach umbrella.
The sun here is very harsh, and this made all the difference. We spent 5 hours there happily people-watching, reading and sleeping. It’s a very relaxing and a pleasant way to spend a Sunday. I now have a list of beach gear that I need to buy.
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