This morning I went to Garafía to help H&T with paperwork again; this time paying the annual bills for the house and getting a fresh certificate that they live there. So I dropped my son off at school, and carried straight on to Franceses. For once I got there well before ten, and we had time for a cup of tea before we set off for the town hall in Santo Domingo in good time.
Ha!
The road was only blocked by a digger that had fallen on its side. My first thought was that I didn’t have time to go all the way back to Barlovento to take the old road to Santo Domingo. But we worked it out, and decided we could just about do it.
The trouble is that the old road is full of blind bends, and frequently only one car wide. And we were in a hurry, so I went as fast as I could (which wasn’t very) and saw nothing of the spectacular scenery.
We got to the town hall, and went upstairs for the certificados de empadronamientos which basically says that they live in Franceses. Success. WE went to the planning office to ask if they had permisison for their bathroom roof yet. Nope. And we went downstairs to pay.
We paid for the certificados easily enough, but the woman who does the bills was on her break and we were out of time.
So I popped to the loo before we went back.
And while I was in there, the woman who does the bills came back.
Well I didn’t really have time, but I did have a back up in place in case my son got out of school before I got back. And it would only be five minutes, right?
Wrong.
Just befcause they bought the house in March, it doesn’t mean that the Town Hall has them registered as the owners yet. Thank goodness I was there, because Helen’s Spanish really isn’t up to this sort of thing yet. We paid the bill — 16€.
That seemed very cheap, even for Garafia. So I asked whether it included water and rubbish collection.
No it didn’t. Did we want to pay that?
Duh!
After some fiddling about, we got it clear that the previous owner still had land in Garafia, but not a house, so it was logical that Helen pay the water and rubbish too.
By the time we got it all sorted out, it was very late. But Helen had a great idea? If the road was stil blocked (and it was) instead of taking her home, why not drop her off near Theresa’s work. It would save a good half hour.
So we did that. And I was only five minutes late for my son.
