The Rain In Spain Stays Mainly In.......

Mojacar......

What wild weather we have been having recently and as I type this (Saturday Arvo) it is going mental out there!

Today is going to be the worst day and by Tuesday we should be back to wall to wall sunshine.

I took the below pic this morning whilst walking the doggies.

The below pic was taken yesterday as I was heading back to Mojacar, In all honesty Im quite enjoying it, its actually starting to green up a bit in the campo, nothing like English green but for this area it's a welcome change. 

So apart from the weather the other exciting thing to happen is that the motorbike passed its ITV (MOT)  

Once I got the correct paperwork it was pretty straightforward, I was most impressed by the setup, the test has to be done by a government testing station, they test emissions, noise, brakes on a rolling road plus suspension is checked  on a device that puts the suspension through the wringer. They also check underneath for anything hanging off etc.

In my opinion is a much better way than letting a garage do it as for one they are not looking to fail the vehicle to get work, plus the system in theory should stop your mate giving you a dodgy pass. So although most Spanish cars are battered to bits, mechanically they should be ok.  

So with the new ITV ticket I should now be able to ride the bike legally......well no this is Spain remember....... nothing is simple.

I was informed by the chap doing the transfer of the bike into my name that there is in fact an embargo on the bike because the previous owner has a couple of outstanding debts so the bike cannot be transferred into my name until the debt is cleared.  Sounds like a good system except they cannot tell you how much the debt is, the debts are from a couple of years ago, indeed the debt could even be cleared but not put through the system yet.  The previous owner probably doesn't even know he has a debt and it could be anything, a parking ticket, speeding ticket, fine for anything or an unpaid bill.

So in the wonderful Spanish tradition they now have to go to another department to trace the debt, this could take weeks, not days but weeks!!!  

Spain really is a very strange place and as I have said before if the sun didnt shine you wouldnt go near it with the proverbial barge pole.

With that said on Monday the little Citroen starts its journey to be put on Spanish plates, it should take a couple of days, the headlamps have to be changed, it has to have matching tyres on the same axle, not only size but make!!! Thats correct the tyres have to be of the same make.....as I said Spain is a fcked up strange place.  Once that is done it has to go to a special testing station one hours drive away  where it is checked over to make sure it is mechanically sound and is built to Spanish specifications, it also has to be checked to make sure it has enough dents and scratches to fit in with the other Spanish cars! 

After the tests its then all down to the office wallahs to create as much paperwork as possible to try and bring the Spanish unemployment down to  below 25% !

Im doing all this so that Im legal and above board whilst living in Spain, there are so many UK immigrants here that live under the radar, and I have to admit it is very tempting.

So you might think that I'm pissed of and angry about all this, but after the year I have had I find it all rather amusing and just smile, I have all the time in the world to get it sorted.