Sometimes it’s the smallest of things that mean so much but we don’t realise this until they’ve gone. Now being a UK expat, the things I miss most of all (after giant boxes of tea bags!) are carpets and instant heat.

Tell a Spaniard that you miss fitted carpets and they will cringe. Okay, large floor tiles may be cleaner but, when we’re talking comfort, they’re not even in the running. For me, gone are the days of sauntering bare-footed across the living room floor and feeling the hug of pretty reds or greens from skirting board to skirting board.

Still, I can drop a glass of red wine and not bother about a stain or a damp patch. I can sweep up the dog hair, because it’s there for the sweeping and I can wash the floor every week to keep it clean.

I still want my fitted carpets!

Here, they wouldn’t work. This part of Spain gets double the rainfall of London and, if our wooden furniture turns green in those damp months, I hate to think what might happen to the carpets!

Then there’s the instant heat. Oh, that ‘coal look alike’ gas fire is to die for. One click and you can feel yourself getting warmer. The first minute might be more of a psychological feeling of warmth but, at number sixty one and counting, it’s then the real thing. You’re probably wondering why I don’t have such a wonderful fire here and it’s because there is no gas supply in the village.

Here in Galicia, winter is met with either gas oil radiators (this oil is delivered by tanker), a wood burning stove or a calor gas bottle, all of which take time to get you into that early morning feeling of cosy comfort. But then there’s there are the sheets and the duvet, so that’s more or less sorted, though we may not be brave enough to get up before 11.30 a.m., so that’s a day wasted.

But, hey! It’s May now …. .

And it’s still cold, so I’ve moved into the world of onesies…. .

Well, wouldn’t you?

So, as I said, sometimes it’s the smallest things that mean so much but we don’t realise this until they’ve gone.

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