Last week I found the village post office, it also doubles up as a bank. Normally when I think of the post office I think of long queues and impersonal service, but I should have known it would be different here in the Land That Time Forgot. It’s the ground floor of somebody’s house, presumably either the bank manager or post master. It’s a small room with a desk, a set of scales and a big basket. In the middle of the room was parked a moped with a goat tethered to it. The rest of the space was filled by women.

Spanish people don’t do queuing, they do mobbing. The trick is to ask “who’s the last” as you enter a room like this and then fight your way through as that person finishes. Once I’d worked out my place in the mob I stood back and watched. There was absolutely no system. The woman behind the desk was trying to do several things at once but achieving nothing. At one point she looked up and noticed me, the only man and obviously a foreigner. She shouted across the room “what do you want foreigner?” I shouted back that I wanted to send a package.

Her: Have you got the stamps?

Me: No, that’s why I’m here.

She took the parcel, weighed it and told me how much it was going to cost. I then had to go across the road to the cigarette shop and tell Maria how many stamps I needed, then bring them back. I did that, and when I returned she put the stamps on the parcel and threw it into the big basket.

Her: Don’t you live in that street up near the castle?

Me: (Wondering how she knew where I lived) Yes I do.

Her: Hold on, I think I’ve got something for you.

She started emptying the same basket that she’d thrown my outgoing parcel into. Eventually she found a packet addressed to me and handed it over. What a great system!

Another revelation. I’ve lived here for nearly a year, and in all that time I’ve staggered back and forth to the shops for water. Now, call me slow but I’ve just realised that the whole village is surrounded by natural springs. So, with pioneering spirit I’m off today in search of water. I may be some time.