READERS PAGE

Here’s an exert from a reader’s letter to friends and relatives back in the UK when they first arrived in Spain. Looking back two years on they can see the funnier side.

Dear Family and Friends
Today we start our seventh day in residence and it’s been a hectic 6 days. Although the house is new there are many things still to do and because it’s a new country, village and most importantly language, everything takes much longer. Most of the Spanish we encounter are lovely, really patient and helpful but occasionally frustration is inevitable. Communication is hard, as mostly the people we meet in the village and town speak no English and arranging for delivery is quite hard but asking for building materials is almost impossible.........

I’ve already said that most of our encounters with the Spanish have been good but in the Repsol office we met the assistant from hell. Most houses in southern Spain heat their water with gas heaters (calentador) which are powered by a bottle of butane (bombana de botano). These are joined by a regulator (regulador) which is not supplied without an official check of your heater, site and ventilation etc. Then you sign a contract pay a fee and get your 2 bottles of butane. Each week the Botano man comes to the village on a Thursday and you put out your empty bottles for replacement. An excellent system if we could have by passed the shop assistant. The arrangements must be made by telephone or at the local shop (bit like the old electricity board shops in the fifties). So, rejecting the telephone as we only speak a little Spanish, last Monday we went to set things in motion and were greeted, or not, by a sour faced young woman who snarled her “Bueno” and glared - getting the picture. I explained haltingly in Spanish and she responded at the speed of light. At my request for her to repeat her sentences but very slowly, she shouted them at the same speed. It took a long time for me to understand that she would arrange a contract and someone would phone. I am usually very confident and assertive but I was shaking as I left the shop and she had almost reduced me to tears. There are 2 mobile phone companies whose signals we receive in the village but intermittently, when Moviestar receives Amena doesn’t and vice versa. So we use both. Consequently there was a message the next day, which I only partly understood, so I returned the call but got the shouting assistant who was completely unintelligible. Later that week I braved the office again to try to get a better rapport going but determined that I wouldn’t be shouted out. I wrote out what I needed to say and read my notes. She obviously understood me and I waited for a reasonable response, having explained that my Spanish was poor but I would understand if she spoke slowly and was patient when I asked for repetition. What a joke! Not only did she shout but she shook her fists at me. I’m usually politely assertive but now I’d had enough. Using my primary school teacher voice calmly and forcefully, I told her in English not to shout at me and to bring her manager to me as I would not speak to her anymore. Imagine my amazement when she responded in English and told me that it would be sorted next week and that the rep would come to my house. A phone call from a much pleasanter man that evening confirmed that he would come on Monday afternoon. So we wait in trepidation cos’ if we have to go to the office again I’m going to let Jim do all the talking. It will be interesting to see if she shouts at him, in this very male orientated country...........

Diane