Idle Thoughts

After my patio building trip in April 2007 I had got the house furnished to a basic standard. There were still some things I needed to get, such as a washing machine. I had also transported my telescopes, a couple of PCs and workbenches for the office. It was time to take stock of my experiences to date.

• Supermarkets range from the sublime to the ridiculous. On the one hand you have huge establishments in the major cities that offer an enormous range of goods, from live animals (pets, not to eat) to car tyres. On the other you have small shops in villages that call themselves supermarkets by dint of being self-service. Some smaller ones stock a range that is comparable to larger garage shops in the UK.
• Small shops are not dead. In fact they appear to be thriving. I am especially impressed by the range of items stocked by the ferreterias (hardware stores) which have pretty much died out in the UK. You also meet a lot of brits here, buying up stuff to improve their houses.
• Fresh produce is only available when it’s in season. There’s no (or very little, I haven’t seen it) air-miles, with strawberries flown in during the winter, or exotic veg that come from the other side of the world. There does seem to be a wider range of meat and fish generally and fruit and vegetables during the course of the year - and I don’t just mean 20 different varieties of apples.
• Markets were a big disappointment. I was hoping for locally produced food and goods. In fact they are dominated by “back of the van” type operators who go from town to town. These sell mostly cheap, unlabelled clothes of far-eastern origin and, presumably fake, branded/labelled goods at low prices. There are some fruit/veg stalls and the occasional stall selling “fresh” meat and fish from unenclosed and unrefrigerated counters.
• Furniture can be a challenge. If you don’t live near a large population centre you will have a problem getting stuff delivered. If you want “take away” your options are either a local furniture maker or flat-pack from the likes of IKEA. Some major supermarkets (Carrefour etc.) have furniture and appliances you can take home with you.
• Timber is scarce and expensive, too. You won’t be able to just pop down to the shops and get some boards to knock up a set of shelves. There are some DIY type sheds with wood sections- AKI and Leroy Merlin are two, but they are only present in larger cities.

Possibly the biggest lesson I’ve learned since buying the house is to do with population and the effects from having very few people in an area.

The first and most obvious result is the peace. The ability to sit out in your newly contructed patio, where all you can hear is the bells on the goats 2 or 3 miles away. The one or two vehicles that come past on an average day can be heard before they appear. I have found that without an alarmclock, it’s quite possible to lose track of time and sleep well into the morning - especially in the days after I arrive. Maybe I need the sleep.

Since people are more spread out, you also have to travel further to meet them. Whether that’s to visit friends or for business reasons, or even to find a shop that sells the particular something you want. Just “popping to the shops” means driving 15 minutes there and another 15 minutes back. If Benamaurel (pop. 2000) doesn’t have what you want, which if it’s more than the basics is almost certain, then double that time to get to Baza (pop. 25,000). Granada is the nearest city and that’s a 2 hour each-way drive. You soon learn to make the most of each trip. You’ve noticed that all these trips involve driving. “What about public transport?” I’ve been asked when whinging on about this in the UK. Yes, there are buses to get children to/from school and I have seen the occasional one at other times, but so far as a network of frequent and punctual connections goes, there just aren’t enough people to make the service pay. There are buses between the major towns, but you have to get to one somehow in order to catch it - so you might as well drive the whole journey anyway. Baza used to have a train station; but no longer, the site now hosts the weekly market.

The lower population density also gives rise to a smaller amount of choice. If your shop has many customers each day, there will be a greater demand for your products, so you can afford to buy more stock, as you can be confident that the higher turnover will support the investment. With fewer customers comes smaller ranges of goods that are easiest to sell. In food shops there are smaller quantities of fresh produce (you have to sell it before the shelf-life expires). For example, I have noticed that the “supermarkets” in Benamaurel stock little in the way of fresh food, but have a lot of tins, packets and preserved goods. So much for the mediterranean diet.

In practice, once you’re established, this all probably doesn’t matter too much. You can get into a routine (much as people do everywhere) of a big weekly shop, which makes the additional travelling more cost-effective - maybe even a bit of a day out. It’s just on the way to this nirvana, when you realise you bought all the nuts’n'bolts, but forgot to get a spanner that you notice how much time it all takes.