LA times

Cliff dropped me off at the airport in Almería at 5:30 a.m.  It was pitch black and there was no sign of life at the airport other than lights being on inside.  A few people started to arrive and stood behind me as they finally opened the doors about 15 minutes later.  All the check-in desks had electric signs above them saying "cerrado" which means closed.  One desk has a rope line in front of it.  So I stood in that area.  More and more passengers started arriving and standing in what was becoming a long line/queue behind me.  The flight to Madrid was scheduled to leave at 7:35 and at it was not until 6:15 that agents from Iberia finally showed up to check passengers in.  Other than the aisle seat I had on the first flight, I had not been able to get aisle seats for my other flights.  I was concerned about the 11 hour flight from London to LA since my bladder requires an aisle seat.  Fortunately I was able to get one through Iberia even though they can't access seats on British Airways readily.  The seat I was assigned was so far in the back of the plane that I thought I might be seated in the rear toilet.  Of course, that would have solved my bladder problem.  Fortunately, when I was in Madrid I was able to get an aisle seat much more forward and only two rows from the toilet.  Talk about living in luxury!  The British Airways flight from London to Madrid was fantastic.  The services and the meals were terrific.  Also, they did not charge for wine.  So I used some wine therapy and Benadryl to help me sleep.  I did manage 4 hours which is great for me.


The only downside in using British Airways is that have to go through security again at Heathrow even though you are in transit from one flight to another.  It took me almost an hour from the time I got off the flight from Madrid to get through security and to head to my LA flight.  I had an option of leaving Almería on a later flight but then would have had only one hour between flights in London so I did not want to take the chance.  I am glad that I did not.


I was pretty tired by the time I left LAX, got the shuttle to the rental car agency and made it to the hotel.  The Hacienda hotel in El Segundo is nice and very large. There are two major wings.  My assigned room was last one down the corridor on the 8th floor of the further away building.  I finally managed to lug my 3 bags to the door to the room only to discover that my key card would not open the door.  Of course, I do not have a working mobile phone since I have a Spanish sim card in mine.  With some trepidation, I left my bags outside the door and return all the way back to the lobby to get new key cards and a security guard to help me if those did not work.  I was finally able to get into the room.  I unpacked and tried to get on my laptop computer to let Cliff know that I had made it o.k.  For some reason I could not log on to their wifi system with either my laptop or my cell phone via wifi.  I finally collapsed and went to bed.  I slept for about 3hours and then tried to access the computer again.  For some reason, I could not get the password prompt using Google as my browser.  So I tried internet explorer and that worked.


Monday morning I took my life in my hands and faced LA traffic in driving the 20 miles to the Spanish consulate.  I did not have a GPS with me, just the Google map directions that I had printed off while in Spain.  Despite my miserable sense of direction, I was able to find the consulate without too many mistakes.  I dropped off my passport and evidence of my return flights to Spain around 9:30.  I was told my visa would be processed as a high priority.  So I left thinking that I would be notified as promised to return in 24 to 72 hours.  


In furnishing our new home, we bought the largest beds you can buy in Spain.  They are almost the size of a British superking bed which is a bit smaller than an American king size bed.  We checked into getting sheets and pillowcases for them in Spain.  The highest thread count for Egyptian cotton was 200 and for that you would pay more than one hundred US dollars or about 60 British pounds.  So I went on line and saw that I could get 300 count Egyptian cotton king size sheet and pillow case sets in Walmart for less than half of that.  So on my way back from the consulate I went to Walmart using my Google map directions that I had printed off in advance.  At Walmart I bought 3 sets of king size bedding and lots of over the counter medicines such as naproxen sodium (Alleve) which you can only get with a prescription in Spain.  Cliff had given me his over-sized very light weight suitcase to use.  I discarded all the cardboard and the wrapping from the sheets and have rolled the bedding up in the big suitcase.  Hopefully, it will still be  within the weight allowance limit.


Thusday I drove back to the consulate and made the mistake of taking the highways/motorways to do so.  It took me 80 minutes to travel 20 miles.  The good news is that my visa was ready.  Now I have 30 days to apply for residencia once I return to Spain.  This was a major hurdle and I am glad that it is over.


Staying in a hotel near the airport is convenient, but very boring.  I miss Cliff so very much.  Separation is so painful now that we are used to being together.  Today is my last day here as I write this.  So we shall be together again tomorrow.  It cannot come soon enough for me.