After our second which was largely spent by recuperating from the financial shocks of yesterday, the morning dawned grey and overcast. Today, we were expecting two furniture deliveries. Our excitement at no longer living in a white furniture-free box was palpable.
I really must learn how to answer my mobile phone properly. Yesterday evening, whilst having a beer or four with the boys, my phone had begun warbling. I’d made the mistake of changing the ring tone so didn’t recognize it as being mine that was ringing. By the time I got to it, my caller had given up. The call log showed a Spanish number. A while later, the same thing happened again. One of my pals could call back for free whereas my phone would rack up international call charges – what a nice man – so call back we did. It had been the helpful lady at Aitana saying that our sofas would arrive between midday and 1:00 PM.
So, with two deliveries expected, limp-along/hobble-along Franco was to remain behind awaiting delivery vans whilst Francine went and did what women do best, more shopping. 😀 To be fair, she was also popping in to our friendly estate agent [no, still can’t get used to that combination] to see what might be happening with the plumber and our shower screens.
The morning had brightened and, with the sun coming out, so had some local butterflies. The hillside behind Casa Libélule is essentially scrub but resembles something more akin to a building site, largely because that’s what it was going to be before any further development ceased. There are a few clumps of Red Valerian in bloom and these were attracting the nectar feeders, one of which was one of my absolute favourite butterflies, this pristine looking Swallowtail (). The Swallowtail had a Wall Brown () for company, which wasn’t pausing to meet its public, a Hummingbird Hawkmoth () and a very tatty Painted Lady (). What a pleasant way to hobble about whiling away the time waiting for delivery vans.
Good to their word, at about 12: 15 PM, from my vantage point up the mountain, I watched an Aitana van turn off the main Jalón-Alcalalí road into our development. Eventually the van climbed the rather steep hill towards the parking area behind our houses. I hobbled out to meet them and beckon them to the correct casa. Two sofas had arrived, all wrapped in protective bubble wrap. With all the cushions in place and the bubble wrap on, they wouldn’t fit through the entrance door – yes, that entrance door, the one that had caused all the lock/security problems. The bubble wrap was prized apart, cushions were removed and the sofas now fitted – just! Good job we hadn’t ordered anything larger. The men positioned them where we thought we wanted them and departed armed with all the packing and bubble wrap. I’d also assembled our extravagantly stylish LED standard light to complete the picture. It’s beginning to look like a home.
Shortly afterwards, at about 1:00PM, a second van, this time I hoped from JYSK, turned in. This should be lugging a serious amount of heavy oak pre-furniture. I say pre-furniture because this little lot was coming flat-packed and would need assembling. JYSK does offer an assembly service but it doesn’t come cheap; it would’ve cost us several hundred euros more to have it built. Daunting though the task appeared given the amount of furniture involved, we’d elected to do it ourselves. That is to say, we’d elected that I would do it. 😀 Once again I went outside to beckon them to the right house. The two guys walked in and out eventually leaving us with a somewhat daunting array of 16 cardboard boxes of various shaped and sizes. Casa’s brief flirtation with having looked like a home ended almost as quickly as it started and it now resembles more of a warehouse. 🙂
Faced with 13 bits of furniture split over 16 cardboard boxes, one has to start somewhere. I chose the glass-topped coffee table. As it turns out, this was, perhaps, the worst choice, there being so many individual pieces to assemble. The four main legs were of two different part numbers and each of the four sides that support the glass top was made of two separate pieces, one of which also came in two separate patterns. I made one mistake and had to redo it. Eventually, all my subassemblies were ready. Now we come to another human genome deficiency: two hands was always a poor design but two hands are quickly shown to be completely inadequate when one tries to juggle six separate engagement points on two heavy subassemblies. Four match up but two inevitably miss, requiring that you now take apart the four that originally docked successfully. Marvellous, you get the two recalcitrant lugs to dock but, of course, now two of the originally well-behaved lugs wander out of line and fail to dock. Repeat! Somehow, eventually I got all six points to engage and moved on the other pair of sides where the same problem occurred. If only we were like that Indian God with countless arms – we’d be able to careful position each individual lug at the same time. Perhaps, if we continue to assemble enough flat-pack furniture, evolution will lend a hand and increase our arm count. Anyway, sans glass top ‘cos the wood has to be oiled first, here it is.
Just another 14 cardboard boxes to go, then. Still, rain is forecast for tomorrow.
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