Well it is in an excellent condition with a new roof and no damp àt all. But like all this rural houses in Spain I suspect it will need rewired. Apart from anything else there is only one socket in each room apart from the kitchen. No one had lived in the house for two years and they left some windows open so I will have a good mornings work cleaning, but since there is no furniture it will be easy. They say I need to press a red button for the hot water but I can't find it. But the estate agent will tell me I hope. There is a washing machine left and I am hoping it will work. One of the neighbours said she will give me a fridge when I get here which was fine. I found an old bed in the basement which must have been the dead aunts and will do me fine with a new mattress. They told me I can buy everything I need in the village, furniture , blinds , cooker, whatever but it seems hard to believe. I wondered what to do with my field but I notice my neighbour, Pedro (whose son and wife I talked to) uses his for vegetables, flowers and as a large garden. Everyone seems to be very hard working and always racing about on tiny tractors looking very serious and determined. One neighbour a lady in a car stopped to talk. She appeared to be totally amazed that I had come all the way from Ireland. They had no idea the house was sold. She had many, many questions. The iron stove/fire appears to be working but rusty. I think I can fix clean the rust off with a steel brush. If not I can get it renovated. They seemed very interested in the fact that I am Catholic. They remind me of the country people in Ireland. They don't really regard themselves as Spanish but Galician in the same way as Irish people don't regard themselves as British. They are very kind I asked Amelia where I would get some wood for the fire and she said one neighbour would not mind me cutting down her trees as her place is a wilderness. They are such very, very hard working people. They commented on how cold it is. But I walked about in a tee shirt and found it very warm. Good news . I thought I would have to pay 4000 euros in property taxes but I think it is really only 1000 since AI am staying for good. So the 3000 saved will pay for the furniture appliances , getting the hot water fixed if it needs it and maybe even the rewiring. I am dying to move over at once but my lawyer in Ireland does not want me to leave my place empty so it will not until February 11th or so.
It's not that easy to open a bank account in Spain until you are a resident. I was here almost 2 months before I could finally open a bank account.
The lawyer came with me to the bank and a gentleman called Delphine (Dolphin) opened it for me. The estate agent and lawyer offered to come with me to the police station to register when I arrive for good. I also got a Spanish phone number about an hour ago. The lawyer is getting the water and electric companies set up , also the internet. The Estate agent is also got going to the town hall with me to the town hall to get me registered as a resident. They call this a Padron. Everyone is so kind. The lawyer also offered to come to the tax office with me. Lawyers make things easy. They are worth the money. They are like gunslingers, no one says no to them, they have an answer for everything. Like Moses opening the Red Sea.
Wow, things are falling into place fast for you! All of those things took me forever to get sorted! I don't think I've been praying enough...
I find it amazing Padraig you are going to be in Spain at the time of the warning & should be able to get to Garabandal for the miracle as your not that far away. Your Spanish must be pretty decent if you can converse with the locals as they probably have a heavy accent.
I was learning Spanish for the last four or five years and am classed as Intermdiate, 72 points. But I have never really used it. I need to build up confidence in real situations But I can often, simply by understanding a few words get their drift and them mine. It is amusing when they don't expect me to understand what they are saying privately I do. In towns plenty of people understand English but in rural villages, forget about it. You really need to understand it I went to Mass in Spanish in the Cathedral and was able to follow pretty well. But not the homily. But I can read a lot of Spanish pretty well. I am reading Robinson Crusoe in Spanish at the moment and cannot follow it quite a bit.
Yes. That's all that counts really, buying the house. But it's a big plus that the Spanish are so wonderful and Catholic. Hopefully now I can be living in Spain when the big wars start .
I am so glad to have a water well, my own water supply Now I have to rack my brains for alternative power Food is simple. Land is King.
This is all very inspiring Padraig. What I like also about Galicia is that it is within striking distance of Garabandal, Fatima, Coimbra, Pontevedra, Tuy, Avila and, I suppose, many other sites such as those of the Spanish mystics. And Celtic too.
Thank you. A strange thing happened to me the other morning when I was walking down an unfamiliar street near my hotel in Santiago about 5am. I felt the spiritual atmosphere chilling several degrees suddenly, a feeling of darkness and oppression. The opposite feeling to entering a Church. I knew at once this was one of the dark spots in the city. A place of power for the dark side. Looking around I saw I was in front of a shop selling erotica. It was closed off course but there was a mural painted on the front containing many occult symbols such as the horned , 'God' and the pentagram. To the side was a dark alley way were many young people hung about looking zonked out and best kept away from. I hastened onwards. On my way back home I checked things out again. Across from the porn shop was a Tattoo parlour and in the window were ceramic skulls, one of them a goats head with a star on the forehead, inverted. Lots of other occult symbols. It reminded me that we're there is great goodness there is also great evil. About ten minutes away is a 24 hour adoration chapel which I prayed in twice. Father Malachy Martin said that he was talking to a local exorcist in New York who referred to asuch a Dark Seed pot in Brooklyn. It was under a bridge were all kinds of bad things went on. The exorcist said he was driving past this spot to do an exorcism when the driving wheel was pulled by invisible hands away from him, causing him to crash. Happily he was unhurt.
The evil forces are everywhere. It’s so out in the open now. Don’t leave home without your brown scapular!
Is the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance in the chapel also exposed for 24 hours? Even if no one is there, or is someone always there?
