Lorna's New Life!

July

It is Tuesday 15th July and I would so love to report how July has been wonderful and all is well at last……… sorry it aint happening just yet!

However eventually there is good news!

The month began with Jack the German towing our car, that has been the bane of our life, down to the coast. He is putting in a reconditioned engine. It is our only hope of getting it back on the road, and we are waiting news of it as I type, surprise surprise! Oh actually as I type we have a phone call, he ordered the wrong engine!!! He is expecting the correct one manyana, sorry tomorrow!
I did however how a lovely, although quick, visit back to Brighton at the beginning of the month. I had a lovely meal with Mark and his new girlfriend Callie, and Frankie and Chris. I met up with all my line dance ladies, and Simon that has taken over those classes, had laid on lovely buffets and wine, at the classes. The ladies all gave me such a lovely welcome, told me how wonderful I looked, nice and brown and very relaxed… And how much weight I had put on, grrrrrrrrrr hehe!
I also called in to four other dance classes where I had loads of cuddles from my dance kids. It was so lovely to see them and the classes were all busy and they were obviously all having a great time. I caught up with bezzie mate Wendy and family, and Karen and Anita, who I worked with at school, and former neighbours Paul and Debs. It was such a shame that the time flew by so quickly. Also I had a wonderful morning at the stroke club, where I used to help out on Tuesday mornings. It was like I had never been away, but did n’t take anyone to the toilet, therefore did n’t leave anyone in the toilet, that I’m afraid I had been guilty of, a few times, in the past. Everyone looked very well, it was so lovely to see you all. It was especially good to see Maureen who runs the club, and thank you Ron and Maureen for the hospitality for one night too.
On our way to the airport to come to Brighton we had a call from Nigel Cobb, our little Basil was a little unwell, apparently he had a chest infection and was on antibiotics, but he was still eating and drinking so we hoped he would be ok, but with the way things had been going for us, I was n’t so sure. I told Alan, that when I was in Brighton, I was n’t going to ask about Basil or even Cassandra, who is due to give birth towards the end of the month, I was very nervous of more bad news and wanted to enjoy my time away, and face the music when I returned. Sadly when I met Alan at the airport he told me our little Basil had died, the day before. Nigel had phoned him, and he was distraught. (Basil and his mum Bermuda were still living with Nigel and Ginny, in Ronda, until Cassandra had given birth.) Nigel had even tried giving him mouth to mouth. He had been such a strong little boy, and even now it is hard to believe he has gone.
Since returning from England I have tried very hard to get a little fitter, and Alan and I have been walking with the dogs most nights. We do however have to wait until about 9pm, as it is still so very hot in the evening. Carlos, by the way has had his doggy injections. We took him on, what we think was probably his first trip in a car. He was so good, no crying and moaning the whole journey, like Geri does, bless her. Well he did n’t quite know what to do when we got him out of the car, and his tail was doubled under his little skinny little body, and he just refused to walk, or even be dragged, by his lead, poor little guy! So Alan carried him up the stairs to the vet. We went in and put him straight on the table and there he lay, not moving whilst he had a thorough check up by Andres. All was fine although he does have a nasty scar by her left eye. Andres said he probably caught it on a branch whilst living outside. Carlos had his injections, and was micro chipped, and he never even flinched. We then should really have covered his ears, whilst we spoke about having his rather large, manly, doggy bits lobbed off. But I think he speaks Spanish, so he probably could n’t understand us hehe! That will wait until the autumn, when we were advised that there are less flies around, so there is less risk of infection. Time to go, and Carlos would not move again. Andres told us to go outside and call him, no, he still would not move, so Andres carried him out to us, then Alan carried him back to the car……….. Bless his heart, he is always so scared!
Sunday 13th July we were invited to Ronda for a pig roast, sorry vegetarians. Although we had a lovely time, I do love a party and a good chat, I did feel quite low. We had just lost our little Basil and I was well aware that other alpacas were also poorly. Alan and I had even discussed if we could carry on with our “alpaca plan”. We have decided yes it is what we want to do still, but it was hard to be there, with poorly animals, without having a bloomin’ good cry.
Sadly since that weekend two other babies have also died and two adults are ill. I’m sorry it all seems to be bad news does n’t it! We have however had the final results from Black Dancer’s autopsy and our vet Andres, the vet in Ronda Alonso, and the professor from the university in Cordoba, that performed the autopsy are now working together to organise an antibiotic program. We hope that as soon as Cassandra gives birth, first please god it will be alive, and second there will be an antibiotic already for her and her baby. Plus of course the other 40 or so alpacas still in living in Ronda. Cassandra will not be able to be vaccinated until she gives birth. Ginny has been on the phone in tears many times recently. It is so sad, her and Nigel so love every animal they have, and we are all so helpless to fight this infection at the moment. My heart goes out to them.
We called in to see Nigel and Tina’s new house, that we bought the olive mill from, what a beautiful house with a beautiful view. We had a lovely catch up with them, and it was lovely to see their animals again. Many of which we had looked after for them for a week, when we first moved here. Alan rather fell in love with Harley. Harley I believe is a Spanish mastiff, actually I think he’s a small horse in disguise. Since then Alan has been trawling the Spanish dog rescue centres for one for us, he is in love!
We had a much awaited email from our solicitor to say the monies were in place for the house to finally be sold, great news we thought! About two hours after this, we received another email from her this time saying they wanted us NOW, YES NOW to reduce the price. I used every swear word I could think of, and probably made up some new ones too. Alan is his usual relaxed manner calmly emailed back, and asked for more details. It turned out that they had arranged for an electrician and a plumber, to check out the house, not a week ago, or two ago but after we had been already been instructed that all was in place. Well apparently they decided not to charge us for a new boiler, even though it may need replacing in two or three years time, yes how lovely and considerate of them! The were however wanting to charge us for a new fuse box, or meter, or something electrical and important, as I believe there is a law to change some this year, I guess if they are of a certain age. They wanted to charge us a rather large sum to cover the replacement and labour. I got straight on the phone to our good friend, and ex neighbour Paul. Paul Stiles, great electrician by the way, and asked his advise. He advised us offer them half the amount, as it was a more realistic figure. We did this and hey presto they said ok! Thanks Paul! As I type we should be finalising this week, yippee!
Now the car…… Jack the German has now told us he wants an extra ONE THOUSAND EUROS for the work he has done on his car. No I’m afraid I am really not kidding! Nigel did his utmost to reduce this figure for us, and to try and find out exactly why. Words were thrown about like, batteries, leads being cut, air con, and lots of other words, I don’t understand. Jack the German and his wife were apparently extremely unsympathetic, even when Nigel asked him the scenario “ What would you do if you went into a shop to buy a hat, and it had doubled the price in a week?” J the G said “I would n’t buy it!” Exactly our thoughts, however we need our car back. We do wish that maybe we should have just dumped it, and lost 4500 euros, instead of everything else, on top of this, it has cost us. Oooooh Alex from Alhaurine, that we bought the car from, has done a runner, back to England. No surprises there really. So I’m guessing we were n’t the only ones he did the dirty on! As I type, feeling of déjà vu here, hehe, we are picking up the paperwork for it tomorrow, then we need to pay J the G, and sadly have to hire a car for one more week, as it needs to be ITV’d, the equivalent of an MOT in England, then we should get our car back. Not really a yippee moment, as I can’t wait to get shot of the bloody thing!
Friday 25th July, Alan popped back to see his family and mates and also to play football, he has been really missing his footie. There is a five a side team here in Montoro, and David the pharmacist, has friends that play. Alan has not yet plucked up the courage to go along. It will be quite a challenge, as none of them speak any English. I hope he will be brave enough to go along at some point, I know he will enjoy it, plus it will be very good for his Spanish too. I dropped Alan off at Cordoba station, he was going to get the train down to Malaga, to save me the six hour round trip. I had planned my weekend, with painting, a bit of Spanish homework, reading, chilling, and trying not to be too nervous being here in the middle of the campo, with just two dogs, a pig and three stray cats for company. I must admit I have been fine, apart from the art of sleeping. That has been a ridiculously difficult task. Crazy how you miss a body beside you, even when its just so hot, you have a fan on all night, and you can’t let any of your own body parts touch each other, let alone someone else’s… ok too much info hehe! You get the picture, anyway getting to sleep was ok, staying asleep totally different matter. Saturday morning I got up early, and started painting, and I was doing quite well. I was planning to paint until about 2 or 3pm when its pretty unbearable to do much at all, with the heat, then stop for the day. It was going ok apart from dropping a whole tray of paint on the floor, that took some cleaning up, thank goodness for floor tiles! The telephone rang, and a cheery Ginny shouts excitedly down the phone “Congratulations” woo hoo we had a new baby alpaca. If you remember Cassandra was at Ronda with Nigel and Ginny, until she had her baby. Alan and I were just too nervous and upset, having lost our gorgeous Black Dancer and her baby recently. My first question was “Are they both OK?” Ginny said “Yes, but he’s the wrong colour!” Hehe! Now Cassandra is a beautiful brown, and her handsome fella is the stunning fawn, and top champion Tulaco Centurion. Our original plan was to breed coloured alpacas here in Spain. Since losing Black Dancer, Alan and I really did n’t care if this cria was pink with yellow spots, and looked like Mr. Blobby hehe! He was however pure white, did we care… not on your Nellie! As I was covered in paint, I jumped in the shower, and organised copious amounts of food for the animals, and shot off to Ronda, with the plan to come back the following morning. What a lovely time I had, Nigel and Ginny love an excuse to get out the champagne and we nicknamed the little fella “Bubbles” as we drank to his health. Alan and I had said we did not want to think about names, before the birth, as we were just hoping and praying the baby would be alive, and we would chose something apt, God willing! The birth sounded pretty text book, thank goodness and also very quick. Cassandra was as soon as possible back to her food, and being a fantastically protective mum. Sadly one of the other babies, Eduardo had passed away that very morning, with a dreadful infection they have in Ronda called pseudomona, sadly there is no blood test in Europe to check for it, and the babies, all bar little Enrique have died. We so hope Enrique makes it, we need to know there is some hope, if they are strong enough to fight it. Black Dancer’s autopsy showed that she died of pasterella, and our animals are in quarantine in Ronda, originally to protect Nigel and Ginny’s animals, however the tables are now turned as pasterella can be vaccinated against and there is an antibiotic that can cure it. The problem with herd animals, including alpacas, is that they do not show signs of being ill, until they are close to dying, It is there survival instinct.
Wednesday 30th July I picked Alan up form Malaga airport. I don’t mind admitting I had really missed him, I had been very careful not to use too much electricity, and have to go out in the dark and “press buttons”! Of course that wasn’t the only reason to miss him! We had both been up very early, that morning, Alan checked in at Gatwick at 4.30am and I left home at 7am for the three hour drive. We had things to do! With the imminent sale pending we wanted to buy more paint, then we had to meet a guy who had our paperwork for the car. We were then off to see our new lil baby, then off to Nigel and Tina to give them the paperwork for the car. Did it all go to plan? Stupid question, of course not. We hoped to meet Jamie, with the paperwork around11ish, but he could not meet us until 3pm. Which meant we did not get to see Nigel Ginny and the alpacas until around 6pm, and we had to cancel Nigel and Tina. We arrived home around 11pm, exhausted, turned on the generator and had toast for dinner.
We chatted during the journey regarding the name of our baby alpaca. As I had named Carlos the dog, I thought it only fair to let Alan chose the name for the baby, although I had of course given him names to choose from hehe! We decided to call him Rafael, which in Spanish means "Healed by God". So lets hope the name will keep him safe. So his full pedigree name will be Sunshine Rafael Tulaco. Sunshine as it is our herd name and Tulaco is his father. Rafael is also the first name of Nadal the tennis player from Spain, who won Wimbledon this year, so quite apt. Alan calls him Raffa after Nadal, I tend to call him Raf, or Rafi, bless him.
Rene, Ginny’s mum had spent some time in hospital having suffered a slight stroke, a few weeks ago. I am so pleased she is back home, and seems to have made a complete recovery. She is still undergoing further tests, and she is looking great and we wish her well.

FRIDAY 1ST AUGUST AND WE HAVE SOLD THE HOUSE!