It has been a bit quieter this week, although there has been a lot of activity between here and Spain and here and the UK, things seem to be moving with regard to the House at last. I had an email to say that the Judge was insisting that all people who have land bordering my house in Spain, and all former Owners, including my ex-Wife, were asked if they have any objection to the new Deeds.
This meant a 100 page document being translated at a cost of €1200 + IVA (VAT), then be sent to my Ex, she sign, return, and that be translated back. However to save the cost my friend with Power of Attorney asked if my Ex were to give POA, could it be done that way, and the Judge agreed, fortunately my Ex has agreed to help out, and so she goes to the UK Notary on Tuesday, to whom I have sent the POA, he will oversee it, and send it off to have the apostille stamp afixed, and sent back to Spain, I will reimburse my Ex for the total cost. Hopefully within two weeks that will all be resolved. Why she was left to last, I have no idea, everyone else has been contacted, and agreed to the changes. I am hoping that everything will be completed before the end of November, but I suppose that is optimistic going on current form.
Last Saturday, we went out to celebrate Maria Elena\’s 50th Birthday, at least my mother-in-law is now in the same set of teens as me!! We had a lovely meal, I had to be selective as it was a fish Restaurant, but I had a beautiful grilled trout in garlic, it was delicious. Then we returned to Maria Elena\’s for cake! yes, you are right, not great for someone on a diet, even if the ingredients were supposed to be diet friendly!
Sunday, we had a curry for lunch that I had prepared at the week-end, it was lovely, and welcome, as for the first time it was grey all day, raining, and cold! but only for the day!
Tuesday and Wednesday were diet days again, I had put on 0.5kg on my five normal days, but lost 2.5kg on my diet days, and overall over four weeks I have lost 6.4kg, so I am quite happy.
During the next week, I have a few appointments, a medical to go onto Private Health Insurance, and we called into an Optician today to see how much an eye test is, and it is only the equivalent of £6, so I am going for one of those as well, as my eyes seem to be getting worse. Apparently I can go and have them checked on the Health Service, but that means having Health Service specs, no thanks.. I had enough of those as a Kid!
I had a nice surprise last week, I was checking my Bank Account and there was a deposit, I had no idea what it was for, and had to ask Marcela, who told me that DIAN, which is the equivalent of HMRC in the UK, give you back all the IVA (VAT) you pay, when using your Bank card, this occurs every three or four months. For those of you who know me, you will know I have only ever used a card for emergencies and online payments, now I use it for everything!!!
The other thing that has given us food for thought, is that the President has announced that he wants the Country to revalue it\’s currency and knock off three zeros. I can see the sense in this, because when everything is talked about in millions and billions, it does take some getting used to. However to do it when the Colombian economy is so buoyant seems crazy, the minimum wage here is 586000 pesos per month, and people are not happy about that, to then have just 586 pesos in their pay packet will cause uproar. Also as the country trades in US dollars, I do not see the advantage, we will just have to wait and see what happens.
Another week has past, and the Christmas decorations are flooding the shops…frightening!
An Englishman in Colombia 