Bonus & Wendy's Big Adventure . . . .

[Wannabe]

Best of luck, Bonus & Wendy.

Seems you guys are adamant to make this work for you. I'm quite sure your plans will come to fruition, due to your dedication and hard work.

[Bonus]

Packing the car for our Road Trip. We're driving down to Almeria, which is about 9 hours away, so that I can attend a Mountain Bike Guiding Course.

 

Tonight we will be staying over with some friends who live in Catalonia - which is about a third of the way there. The route passes by their front door!

 

Will be great to catch up with them again and stopping over means we turn the trip into a nice easy 2-part drive.

[TIB]

 

Feeling a bit down at the moment

 

When I started working at a local campsite I was told there would be a 6 month contract to cover the tourist season. A "Summer Contract". This would be a great help for us with regards to the banks. If not a full time job, at least it was a steady income for 6 months

 

 

(This was assuming that I actually wanted to stay and they wanted me to stay after six weeks or so of "try out")

 

 

I bought up the subject of the contract after the initial period has passed and told them I was keen to stay on for summer. They said they were happy too . . . . . and that's as far as it's gone.

 

 

I've mentioned it several times over the past three weeks. They keep saying all the right things, but then not actually doing anything about it.

 

 

Now, looking at the calendar, there isn't actually 6 months worth of Tourist Season left before they close. The best I could hope for is a four month contract starting in June.

 

 

I don't know if the plan from day one was always to stall for as long as possible - no contract means they save on what they would have to pay in taxes and insurances . . .

 

 

I've worked hard and done everything I was asked to do. All I wanted was for them to do the same. . . .

 

 

I know I should just be grateful that I have a job and some income - not everyone here in Post-Crisis Spain can say that - but I had hoped for a little bit more from them.

 

 

Good Luck Bonus, you have plenty of experience with stonewalling...

 

Illegitimi non carborundum    

[Bonus]

I'm happy to say that, after a few very intensive days, I am now going to be awarded the professional qualification of a Mountain Bike Instructors Award.

 

There are more qualifications above this if I want to continue, but for the moment . . . I'm happy.

 

 

Thanks to Wendy for her help and encouragement!

 

 

:-)

[Matchstix]

Well done!!

[Bonus]

Cheers  :-)

[Bonus]

So our road trip is over :-(

 

It was a 1950 km round trip - so further than Jo'burg to Durban but not as far as Jo'burg to CPT.

 

Good roads and for the most part, little traffic. Need to update the Garmin though - often it told us we were in the middle of a field when we were actually on a new road!

 

On the trip down we stopped and visited some friends and on the trip back we stopped and visited some family. We even met up with an expat FB friend from the UK whose been following our adventure.

 

Was great to see my Aunty Jan & Uncle Ian. You don't realise how much you miss family until you see family :-(

 

The MTB course was a success and I'll be posting more about that on our "The Pyrenees . . . " thread.

 

Ramon and Rosa were very please to see us when we got back. Rosa gets so upset when we go anywhere. You'd think they'd appreciate some peace and quiet but apparently not.

 

Now we're looking forward to putting some new plans into place. We'll update as we go . . . .

 

:-)

[Bonus]

It's always nice to meet up with old friends or to make new ones. In the last week we've done both :-)

 

The evening we got home from our road trip we met up with a guy from SA who has been following our adventure on-line since it started. He originally looked us up two years ago when he was cycling in this area on his own. This year he's back with a couple of friends on motorbikes and we caught up with them for dinner. Was great seeing him again. Wish it could have been for longer but I know, we all have schedules to keep!

 

Then last night we met up with a couple from Scotland whom we've never met before but who have also been following our adventure on-line. They are touring the area in a camper van and, despite a few misses and plan changes, we finally met them for drinks and a chat. We also took them for a quick spin around the village and showed them our "project". Was very nice to meet them and we look forward to seeing them again!

 

Despite our endless optimism, the delays and problems we go through do get us down sometimes and so it's always a welcome relief to have someone look at our property and the views from the garden and remind us that it really is amazing.

 

:-)

[Bonus]

You know you're becoming "well known" when someone visiting the area can go into the local bike shop and get your phone number from the owner by describing you as "Tony . . . used to live in South Africa"

 

 

We have a friend visiting us from New Zealand. We first met Bernie outside the hotel we were staying in when we were first ever in Ainsa looking at property, 3 years ago and we've kept in touch ever since but of course he's never had my phone number. Now he's over here mountain biking again and we're catching up  :-)

 

 

On Monday evening, over supper at Ramon & Rosa's farmhouse, I introduced Bernie to Darren, another friend visiting from the UK who was already here riding - and on Tuesday morning they rode together while I was at work. Then on Tuesday evening we all rode together again.

 

Darren has moved on but tomorrow I'll take Bernie up to the "Muro de Roda" on Zona Zero Route 4 Light.

 

We're starting early 'cos Summer has arrived with a vengeance!

 

This is a pic of the view from the top that we have to look forward to . . .

Edited June 21, 2018 by Bonus

[Bonus]

The other morning while driving down the hill to meet Darren, a visiting friend who is English but who lives on the Spanish island of Tenerife, for a ride - I saw a couple of riders stopped by the entrance to Zona Zero Route 9 and they were studying a route map.

 

Whenever I see someone who looks like they might need a bit of help I generally stop and see if they're OK, so I pulled over to ask this couple if they needed any help.

 

They spoke English and I helped them with some directions. Then the guy asked me my name. I told him "Tony" and he said "ah, you don't know Mark Robinson do you? 

 

It turns out that "Pat" (who is Irish but lives in France) is a friend of Marks (who is English but lives in Scotland on the Isle of Skye) and Mark had told him about a guy (me, who is English but lives in Spain) and his partner Wendy (who is South African but also lives in Spain) after he visited us last year to meet us and to do some riding, after reading about us on-line . . .

 

 

 

 

 

It's a small world.

 

[blinx]

Indeed a small world

[Bonus]

On Tuesday we visited the offices of one of the local "Gestorias" in Ainsa. There are 3 or 4 to chose from . . .

 

"In Spain "gestorías" are private agencies which specialize in dealing with legal and administrative work. For a fee they carry out the trámites (paperwork) involved in getting passports, work permits, car documentation etc and liaise with the Agencia Tributaria (Inland Revenue), thereby saving their clients much inconvenience and queuing time"

 

As a Spaniard, trying to do your own paperwork & admin in Spain can be pretty difficult. As a foreigner it is nigh on impossible. Hence the need for several Gestorias in Ainsa, a town with a population of only 2000 people.

 

We used a big firm to do our admin when we moved here and bought a property. Now we need a local, smaller and more intimate firm to do some day to day stuff for us.

 

The first task was to apply for Spanish Social Security numbers - which we have now done.

[lechatnoir]

Hablo un poco de español - I'm going to have to as more and more Spanish creeps into Bonus' updates!! 

[coppi]

"In Spain "gestorías" are private agencies which specialize in dealing with legal and administrative work. For a fee they carry out the trámites (paperwork) involved in getting passports, work permits, car documentation etc and liaise with the Agencia Tributaria (Inland Revenue), thereby saving their clients much inconvenience and queuing time"

.

nothing different from here then......

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bonus]

Up early on a warm Monday morning and looking forward to working on all the little projects we currently have on the go!

 

Every morning I help Ramon feed the sheep in the barns while Wendy helps Rosa prepare warm milk for the 4 lambs who's mums can't feed them. This drives Ramon mad. He says they are spending 100€ per lamb on buying milk for lambs that he will sell for 60€ each! He won't stop Rosa though, because he knows it's what she wants :-)

 

I'm also trying to complete "one job a day" around the farm. Stuff that Ramon just doesn't get around to - he's 76 years old and still works every day of the week, regardless of the weather, but the jobs pile up. I try and do a bit of tidying up, a bit of gardening or repairing something that needs it. Slowly but surely I'm getting on top of it - although with a live farm you never really get ahead of the game!

 

While I do that, Wendy takes care of our part of the house and all the many day to day chores that keep us clean, clothed and fed.

 

We are trying to get in at least one bike ride together a day and then I'm trying to get out on my own for either a hard ride (building up my fitness) or an "exploring new trails" ride. In either case it's both fun and it's helping me prepare for Guiding people. We have some clients lined up . . . .

 

Lastly, having neglected our own Build Project while I was working at the campsite, I'm now keen to get back into it. There are a number of jobs that we can get on with that are labour intensive but won't actually cost much. Every bit of progress we make on our own project helps keep us positive!

 

Then we just have to find time every day to do some "learning Spanish" lessons, spend some social time with R&R, do our shopping & admin, keep in touch with friends and family, clean and service our bikes, eat and sleep.

 

Simples!

 

:-)

[Bonus]

Off to France to ride up a hill . . . .

 

 

https://www.colduportet.fr/le-col-du-portet