So the broken Chevy arrived in England today. Dumped outside my mum and stepdad's house by a huge truck. My mum was quick thinking enough to film the unloading so at least my two year old was happy!
The classic car garage in Rouen quoted £4,000 to replace the transmission unit but you can get them reconditioned on eBay for £400. There may also be something wrong with a piston but even that could be fixed according to our mechanic friend in Spain (who we made two days too late to ship the van here!). We need to catch a break with this van as it is ALL our savings.
It has lots of good points. Low milage, undersealed against rust, five new tyres and two new batteries (normal one and one to run laptops, kettle etc.) clearly a huge part of the quote is labour. So if someone wanted to fix it themselves, (not us we don't have the skill set) they could get a great van cheap. Do any of my friends know anyone interested? Or even know what I can charge for it broken? Any advice is welcome?
On another topic, back in Javea, I keep thinking about the fact people have lived here since pre-history. All the beautiful greenery around here is kept alive by black water pipes that loop round every tree. The palms don't grow in the sand like that without them. So when people first came here it must have been a brutal, baked place. Broken red earth and caucus plants, scraping salty rocks to find something alive to live on. Today it is raining. Those people from pre-history would have willingly handed over the last of the dried lizard meat to the gods for such a gift! English kids will be familiar with a day off for snow, Scottish kids will be familiar with wishing they got one, some kids here got a day off for rain! (I have been corrected, power cuts as a result of rain).
Even when the people here developed farming and irrigation their existence was still tough, pirates so molested the town by the sea, that the townspeople got together and had a meeting, where they all sounded like the villagers in computer games; "hrmm! humph! hrmm" as a result of the meeting they packed up the whole town and moved it two miles up hill, and inland, and built a wall around it! Me and my kids have done the "attacking pirate walk" up the hill to the old town and my nine year old will tell you, the last thing you want to do when you make it to the top is fight anyone, even if they are not behind a meter thick wall, ice cream is in fact the only way to recover! Please note: you may want to check a few dates and such if you are planning to repeat my history lesson in an exam - also don't say anything about computer games!
I have been teaching my kids to make rubbings and have included a rubbing of the city's coat of arms. We got it off a drain cover! Although it can also be seen on the court house wall. Also a shot of part of the wall that still remains in the old town and the face my daughter makes to any pirates that might survive the climb! Towns people 10, pirates 0!
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