Peter's Blog

Iberianspices spicesiberia

Tuesday 27 January 2015

Insulating now almost finished

Since i arrived back from the UK i have been busy getting the rest of the insulating done in the lounge. I have plaster boarded below the aircon unit and also under the stairs and also the first part of the stairs that comes down from the loft.

The floor was insulated first a couple of years ago when i first arrived here. Now all the internal lounge walls are completed apart from painting but with a bit of work the painting should be finished by the end of this week.

I have also polished the timber for my corner TV unit that should be put back into position i hope by the end of this week.

Here is the wall under the aircon unit insulated before the plaster board was put in position.












Here is the wall now that the plaster board has been put into position rubbed down and ready to be painted. There is still one bit to complete and that's where the aircon unit is but that can wait as the main bit has been finished.
The wholes on the left are for sockets behind the TV unit.





I combat heat lose through the walls at the side and under the stairs they got the same insulating treatment as all the other external walls. Rubbed down and now just painting is needed for ts part to be completed.








As can be seen the insulating and painting has now finished and also the TV unit has been put back in position. Over the coming weeks doors will be made for the TV unit.






I need a sheet of plaster board to complete the side of the stairs as you can see from this photo then the ceiling can be boarded and insulated.

Sunday 25 January 2015

Now the last leg of the trip from the UK

It was time to leave my overnight stop in Spain and make my way home. I could have arrived home by a little after 2pm but i wanted to take my time driving in the clear blue skies i had missed in the UK and France. Once i had filled the car with autogas it was time to leave and the difference it made not having to drive in the miserable rain that i had been driving in.

Looking ahead of me all i could see was clear blue skies and it was nice to make regular stops and just sit and enjoy the day. I was lucky that when i arrived at the turn for Salamanca i knew where to go to refill my autogas and on the whole trip this stop in Salamanca was the best to get to. After filling up it was just a few hours drive south and i would be home. After passing the Spanish border to Portugal i only had about an hour and a half to go but i still had one more fill to go and this took me of the motorway south of the turn for Guarda and onto the N17 that i know very well. The road to the next fill is a main road but it is in very poor condition in fact the lane up to my house is a better road. Where i go for autogas when at home the cost at the moment is below 60cents a litre  but where i stopped it was 75cents a litre. As it was all i needed was about 20 litrers of autogas and then next stop was to be home.

My whole journey from Liverpool to my home in Portugal was on autogas. I was lucky to be able to find autogas stations along my route even though France had not reduced the price of any of the fuels in line with the drop in the price of crude oil. If i could have filled up in Newhaven i could have got through France with only one fill at the over priced price they are charging at the moment.


Monday 19 January 2015

This was only going through France

Monday for the start of the week was not good, it was raining and i had a long drive ahead of me. I left Liverpool at 2pm to go to my Spice supplier and then drive south for the ferry at Newhaven. It rained from Liverpool to Newhaven and guess what it was raining when got off the ferry at 4am on Tuesday morning. What a miserable drive it was from Liverpool and it looked like more of the same.

After getting off the ferry i decided to start driving as what can you do at 4am on a wet Tuesday morning. I kept off the motorways so that when daybreak came i wouldn't have a boring motorway to look at all the time. It was still dark after 8am in the morning so i just carried on driving and it was still raining. As daylight came the countryside i was expecting to see was not what i expected due to the continuous rain. I carried on driving in the hope i would outdrive the rain but even though i was making plenty of stops it just continued to rain, rain and more rain. As i got further south it became obvious that the rain was in for the day and as i had travelled so far i seemed the best thing was to just carry on and get to my night stopover.

France is such a beautiful country but not when it's raining so after more breaks i was almost down to Bordeaux. As Bordeaux was close to the border with Spain i just carried on until i crossed the border into Spain and France was behind me at last. I crossed the border at about 11pm and yes i know from 4am it's a long time to drive but believe me i took many breaks. I went into MacDonalds 5 times to use there wifi and to spend a little money for the use of the wifi. The wifi is free but only for customers and it's no good just sitting outside in  your car because the wifi doesn't work and i did try it.

Wednesday 7 January 2015

the roads are No more, gone but not forgotten

I am not one to moan at home but I am not at home I am in Liverpool at the moment wishing I was at home. So what have I got to moan about bumps,bumps and more bumps, road bumps everywhere it seems that everywhere I go in Liverpool I meet the dreaded road bumps. One ot two just to brighten up the place would be ok. I whent to see my old friend Tommy who lives in a large estate. To get o his house I counted 15 road bumps it looks like an Alien had dropped them as they look to takeover the planet. You could do away with these nasty things by banning cars. Simple