Found of Madrid

So, I had a small melt down at the weekend searching for an outfit for a friend’s wedding and it literally took me the whole weekend to find something that I liked! Well, this wedding is in the UK and it is in October. Sun dresses that I usually wear to weddings at home will not cut it in October methinks so I required a shopping trip to rectify my lack of outfit. If only it could have been that easy!

The thing I have noticed about weddings here is that people tend to dress much more formally, no light summer suit or summer dress or the like here, oh no, the full fitted works or at the very least something resembling a ball gown that costs well over 100€ or you just are not quite the ‘thing’. Every time I went into a shop and said I was looking for something for a wedding I was whisked of to the expensive sections where silk and petticoats reign supreme. A bit over the top for a UK wedding unless you are one of the wedding party really. It made finding something formal-but-not-too-formal rather a trial. Fear not dear readers (not that I have any), I found the outfit after 3 days of searching and running around different branches of the same shop looking for something in my size (Incidentally, I seem to be the same size as every other woman in Spain because nowhere has my size!) .

However, I digress, my point is not just regarding the differences in dressing up for weddings in Spain, it is more regarding the fact that, for the entire day I was driving around Madrid and the surrounding area looking for an outfit and…I didn’t get lost!

I can go to most places in the world and have myself pretty much orientated as to which way is up and how to get from A-Z within a week or so. With Madrid I have really struggled. I often say I navigate by using water as a reference point which is true and since Madrid lack a significant body of water (sorry but that is not really what I would call a river) I have issues finding my way around. I don’t know what it is, but Madrid has had me stumped and only now am I finding my feet more. The weekend was a personal triumph for me, not because I found an outfit (rather a bonus that) but because I found my way around completely by myself. And no, I don’t have a TomTom.

Now, I exist. Apparently.

So, apparently I exist here in Spain; I now have residency and I have also registered my home address with the local ayudamiento so I am all official. My residency certificate is something of a disappointment, a green bit of A4 with an official stamp and a number printed on it, I was at least hoping for a laminated card! This scrap of paper has to last me 5 years, I have had cars and numerous other things made out of metal that have survived less time with me than that so I await with interest to see how long it actually survives!

Now…to go about importing my car….