A Jack of all trades

Hola everyone! As I promised on my shiny new Facebook group (link to be found on the right) here is my latest post.
This one might be a little 'higgledy-piggledy' because I'm writing it in between helping cook for and serve the customers but I'll see what I can do!
On Saturday I was meant to go to the bulls with Jon and Martin but since I was absolutely shattered I had a bit of a lie in - what a treat! - then went to help Pedro with the shopping. We returned in time to wish Jon goodbye because he was leaving for Barcelona before heading back to Amsterdam. It's a little quiet without him but I think Linda's happy not to have to buy as much food - that boy is like an eating machine! There were quite a lot of customers in over lunch so we spend a good while helping in the kitchen before finally sitting down to have our own lunch. Pedro however missed out as he was out for a lads meal in his mother's home town with the men of the family - a little peculiar but apparently there were no ulterior motives and they had a good get together.
The afternoon was spent collecting vegetables, and having a bit of down time before getting back to work. We had bought some plant fertiliser for the Aloe Versa since it wasn't looking to healthy so I spent the evening replacing some of the bad soil with proper compost and adding the fertiliser before getting dinner and settling down for a nice Skype call.
On Sunday morning I wasn't half way through my coffee when we realised that the fridge wasn't working! Now there are two fridges here, one large industrial one then a normal fridge-freezer. It was the later one that broke. Oddly the freezer section was still working but upon taking the whole thing apart we discovered that the fan had completely frozen up, as had the entire back of the freezer. I spent the next half an hour defrosting it with Linda's hair drier. Once all the ice had gone we left it for a while in the hope that it would resume work on it's own accord. In the mean time I decided to build a frame for the new compost heap. Pedro and I found a good spot near his small vegetable plot, cleared the ground then hauled three pallets down from a huge pile at the very top of the land. Despite the heat we quickly built the frame - three sides with pallets and the front simply had a couple of lengths of wood at the bottom to strengthen the structure and prevent the compost from falling right out. We used wire and nails to hold it together with a couple of long metal stakes to keep it on the ground. By the time we finished it was time to get back to work in the kitchen and help cook for the guests before finally getting our own lunch.
Unfortunately the fridge wasn't interested in getting back to work so we dismantled it a bit more to see if there was another problem. Before long we had everything off the fridge-freezer that could come off but still it wouldn't work. I even took the fan out completely, cutting the wires to do so. However with half a dozen other things to do that was the best we could do with it for the day except leave it in the hop that further defrosting might fix the problem. By the time the plants and animals has been cared for it was meal time again. Two Russian guests appeared - a mother and daughter - half starved since most places were closed due to the fiestas. We had a good chat, I told the daughter all about helpX and they explained what they did back in Moscow. The daughter ran a fast food restaurant while the mother was a chemistry teacher. Amazingly she only earns around 450€ a month yet still manages to get by with supporting her family and going on holiday.
By the time they left it was quite late so I called it a night.
Monday was definitely one of those days were I almost wished I'd stayed in bed. First I managed for fall out of afore mentioned bed, then as I opened the big fridge door it wobbled and a pot of junket (cuddled milk desert) fell over inside the fridge going everywhere, then the coffee filter got stuck to the machine and fell into my coffee. This was later followed by the appliances trying to electrocute me!
After the coffee and another half hearted attempt at working on the fridge I ventured outside to muck out the donkey. Luckily he's outside most of the time so there wasn't as much to do but there was still enough to make a welcome contribution to the compost heap. After a quick snack Pedro and I returned to the fridge with renewed determination. We extended the cables a little since I'd cut them too short although it really wasn't a very solid join and they came apart a few times. It did work enough for us to rig the fan up to the car battery and it turns out it worked fine! However when I tried to connect it back up to the fridge *ZAP!*  Despite the fact the fan refused to turn the fridge still decided to give me a good strong shock, just in case I still planned on forcing it to behave. Back to the drawing board. After everyone had had lunch - customers, family and staff - we had another fiddle before deciding that the only option was to get a new fan. Pedro had tried soldering some new cables on but unfortunately took it past the point of no return so we couldn't reattach any cable at all!
First we tried the Chinese shop in Tafalla - if ever you need something from somewhere other than the supermarket the first port of call is the Chinese shop. Fridge fans however were not part of their typical stock and the guy didn't even know where else we could look. Plan B - Pamplona, the big city! Pedro and I ran around the streets searching and asking any passers-by where we could find an appliance parts shop and eventually we had the answer - the opposite side of town. Off in the car we went and after stopping for directions so many times I lost count we finally found the shop! Closed. Perfect, after rushing around thinking it might be about to shut - it was almost 7pm after all - it turns out that they're only open in the morning! At least we knew where the place was.
By the time we got back everyone was shattered so after a quick dinner and a bit of internet time it was off to bed - I fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.
I had promised Martin I would go with him for the final bull run in Tafalla so at 7.15am bleary eyed and  questioning my sanity it was off to town. You could tell things were winding down already - there were less people, less traditional colours and even the bulls took their time getting along the road. In the ring there were quite a few more men (some still only boys really) wanting to try their luck. Some only wanted to watch from close range but I did underestimate a couple of them - the gymnasts. Skinny, quiet looking lads who didn't look up to much. As the bulls charged towards their friends and comrades these guys leapt over the animals as though they were just pieces of equipment in the gym. It was amazing, although still a little scary when you consider how it could go wrong. A similar moment  occurred when one of the lads jumped over the high barrier out of the ring but the bull tried to follow. It was determined to get over the barrier and from there into the crowd. When we left the arena Martin an I went for a coffee and on the shop wall I saw some photos from two years previous. On of the larger bulls had made it over the barrier and into the crowd. In the pictures you could see blood on its horns, people scrambling out of the way in fear and people not getting out of the way in time. It's the sort of thing that so rarely happens but can be devastating when it does. Luckily no one died that time but a lot where injured and in the past people have been killed.
On the way home we met with Pedro and Linda who were off to Pamplona so I quickly swapped cars in the road and headed back the way we'd come from. We dropped Pedro off for a doctor's appointment and Linda and I went to see if we could get this fridge part. The shop was open and when we explained this situation to the guy running it he could hardly believe his ears - what were these two daft English lasses doing dismantling the fridge?? Why hadn't we called a guy to come and fix it for us. Well, we explained how it was an emergency and how expensive a call out would be, doing it ourselves was the most sensible option. To be honest, I think we made his day, and we left the shop with a new fan complete with cables and ready to fit.
Pedro stayed in Pamplona as he was off to Dan Sebastian to visit Daniel and the baby so Linda and I headed home ready to start on the lunches. Four couples wanted feeding and one couple decided to stay the night too. By the time we got our food though there was trouble brewing. Linda and Iker had a pretty big spat over how little he was helping here which resulted in him storming off, Linda getting even note stressed and Mytani (I still don't know the spellings) - Iker's girlfriend getting upset and sitting chain smoking on the terrace. After I'd spent some time trying to cheer her up it was back to work. I still had to finish fixing the fridge. Thankfully it was an easy fix from that point. The fan worked and once everything was put back together it worked fine - success!! The atmosphere was still pretty chilly too though so I kept out of the way and kept looking for where to stay  next. I have my next project organised in Portugal but I'm going to have a quick wander around the north west of Spain first. After a while Iker and Mytani decided they were going to watch the football in the dining room while me and Linda stayed upstairs and watched some Spanish cookery program while I carried on looking through stuff online until I turned in for the night.
Today has been much more chilled out. I went to do the shopping with Fatna this morning, refilled the now-working fridge, made pineapple crumble, helped with lunches, then we sat down for our own lunch and since then I've been typing this up and catching up with some old travelling friends.
There's still the rest of the day for some madness but hopefully it will continue to be a quiet one - even Iker and Linda are talking again.
Now don't forget to check out my photos the Facebook group and feel free to comment!
Until next time!