The Careful Movers

A shortish story to let you know about an encounter that I had with Pickfords, this was by no means a brief encounter....sadly!!

Him indoors and myself had decided to go off on one of our jollies to Andalucia. The trip was for many reasons, some connected with our cave house purchase and social reasons. The day had started reasonably well and we had made good time from Murcia to Andalucia. We called into our bank where we had opened our joint account some two weeks previously and asked if we could collect our bank cards. This seemed to be the start of our problems.

It seemed that the cards would be available for collection either Monday or Tuesday of the following week. Doh ! We could kinda live with that, so we thought we would ask to speak to the Bank Manager to see if the valuation had been done on the property and also find out how the mortgage application was going. The manager, we were told, had gone out for petrol and would be back soon, so we elected to go for a coffee in a bar across the road and await his return.

Coffee drank we headed off back to the bank where a long queue had formed, and it appeared that the bank manager was in great demand. We waited there for somewhere near an hour, and finally got our audience with Antonio the bank manager.

Great chap, very friendly and a supporter of British football, even though it seems he supports Liverpool, a somewhat dubious choice of British Club, but each to their own. The mortgage application had not been started and the valuation had not been ordered. This was starting to feel just a little bit dodgy, which is when we decided to phone the agent and get him to explain to the lovely Antonio that he either got the process started and with some haste or we would be taking our custom elsewhere. This seemed to do the trick and Antonio fervently worked on all the documents whilst we waited and within a short space of time all the paperwork had been set in motion.

For us this was a result, but the time spent waiting in the bank had meant that our next appointment was running late. We were due to meet a lady who I had contacted via the internet, who also had a business in one of the nearby towns. We thought that it would be nice to meet her and have a chat, and also have a quick look around the market which would have been in proccess. When we finally arrived at the market, there was very little of it left so I gave the lady a call to find out where I would find the bar that we had intended to meet in. Sadly, due to the late hour she was heading off to collect her daughter from school but arranged to meet us at a local garage so that we could follow her back to her cave house and have a coffee. We decided to find the bar in any event and have a quick drink and if possible a bite to eat as we had about half and hour to kill before we met up for our next appointment.

The bar was found very easily and we ordered a small beer and a brandy, and this came with a plate of paella, although initially we were not sure who the paella was for. We scoffed the paella and I have to say it was wonderful. I am not a great fan of paella, it is ok but not something that I would normally chose to order, this however was an exception.

Tummy's full we headed off to meet our new friend and head off to look at her cave home. We headed off the main road and onto a muddy track. The rain that we had over the days previous had made the road very muddy and we were sliding all over the place. Finally we reached her house but the road had been blocked by a very large Pickfords lorry who were delivering packages to her neighbour. We soon settled down and had a nice chat about the area over a cup of coffee and her friend joined us for a chat. We learnt quite a lot about this particular part of the area for which we were grateful.

We said our goodbyes and headed off for the final visit of the day with two very good friends we have made locally. Our plan was to meet with our new friends at their house, another cave home, and have a good look around and a natter before heading back to our current home in Murcia.

All I can say is "the best laid plans of mice and men" !!! As we were getting into our car the lady from next door told us that we would not be able to get out as the Pickfords lorry was stuck in the mud and blocking the road. Terrific we thought, but as the car that we were driving was very small we thought that there may be a way for us to squeeze our car past, where maybe a larger vehicle would not be able to pass.

Nope not a chance, how wrong could we have been. When we got to the lorry it was stuck fast and this was no ordinary lorry it was in two parts and some 69' long. Driver and mate were not looking happy bunnies, and once we realised our predicament we were not happy bunnies either.

Two young Spanish boys happened along on their mopeds and seemed delighted that this entertainment had arrived on their doorstep, their delight was evident, as they raced their mopeds back and forth, bombarding the two chaps from Pickfords with rapid fire Spanish. They were then joined by one of the gypsy farmers who had been tending his sheep. He also seemed to be greatly amused although he did not say anything, he simply surveyed the vehicle from every angle and grunted away to himself. The Pickfords vehicle and its predicament was attracting an every growing audience. Next came a chap in his 4x4 who managed to get passed the vehicle by using a ramp to the side of it and drove into the field below and out the other side. We did contemplate this operation ourselves but having watched the 4x4 lumbering around in the field we realised that at the very least we would get stuck but more likely inflict massive damage upon our little car.

People came and went and finally after some two hours a JCB arrived and pulled the huge Pickfords vehicle back and out of the muddy rut that it had been trapped in. Whoo Hoo at last we were free to go on our way.

I had to feel sorry for both of the guys from Pickfords, they had followed advice from the lady they had delivered the packages to, and she had told them that they would be able to turn around no problem. They pulled their vehicle forward and away from the rut and let us pass. How they got their vehicle turned around is anyones guess they may still be there now.

We continued on our journey and met up with our friends where we told them our tale of woe over a few beers and brandy. We eventually set off on our way, and to find some food. We had only gone about 2 Km when a bird flew into the side of the car with such a clatter we decided that this day was not panning out well and the sensible solution would be to end it there and then. We ended up staying in a hotel overnight having realised that it would be safer to take our chances travelling back on Friday 13th.

All I can say is Pickfords have painted on the side of their vehicle " The Careful Movers".........I beg to differ, as on this day they were neither careful, nor were they moving.