electrical storm

We finally found ourselves an electrician to upgrade the power supply and fit new cabling, switches and points.

Finding any kind of contractor is a game of it’s own and electrical contractors are no different. However, we eventually got four to agree to look at the job;

The first lived in Córdoba province, knew we were located in Granada province, came to look, spent over an hour looking, discussing and agreeing and went away. Two weeks later we finally got out of him that he couldn't do the work because the house is in Granada province…… No, we didn't understand it either.

The second was a long established contractor from one of the local villages. He came to have a look, discussed, agreed and then went away. We finally got a quote from him a week later. This consisted of the price for a single switch, a single power point, a meter box, a circuit box and the price of one hour’s work.

We went back to his shop to ask him how long the job would take and this man of 30+ years experience said that he didn't know. We asked him how much cable he would use, “didn’t know”.

These English are not that stupid…..

Up until then, all of this had been transacted in Spanish and was VERY hard going.

The next one up to bat, was one of our new neighbours but in order to outwit him, we asked one of our Spanish speaking friends, to be there when he arrived. He looked, discussed, agreed but all of the time had a broad grin on his face which didn’t bode well to me (this hardened, old, ex-insurance broker doesn’t like people who smile too much). He went away and over two weeks later after much cajoling and persuasion, he turned up with his quote. He fished around in his pocket, pulled out his pencil and wrote the total price on the kitchen door frame.

Another non-starter.

The next came with two other friends of ours and spent the entire time telling us, through them, how this was wrong, that was wrong, this couldn’t be done, that wasn’t necessary.

Didn’t like him either…..

Last fellow was a delight; based in Ruté, his reputation for good, honest work preceded him and he not only gave us a written quote but it was an “all-in” price. We visited his shop to ask him when he could start and when Wendy suggested “mañana” (tomorrow), the whole shop dissolved into fits of laughter. Ignoring the obvious joke on the English, to his reply of “Saturday”, she asked “and when will you finish ?” This bought forth more laughter but despite all of this, he did start when he said he would and he always telephoned us when he couldn’t turn up the next time...

...and the time after that...

...and the time after that...

His range of excuses went from death in the family to a broken down van but he did finally finish on a cold day in January. When he asked me to accompany him in his van, I jumped in and we went off to a remote part of the countryside where he posted me under the transformer to guard against anyone who might decide to switch the current back on when he was making the final connection to the main grid supply.

He eventually returned after an hour during which time I had kicked numerous stones down a bank, counted the leaves on an adjacent tree and even made friends with the local cats.

I resolved next time to take a book and a flask of something hot……