El Andalous - Hosting of Owners' Meetings

El Andalous Private Beach

I don’t really add much value as a resident. I’m not the person running errands for other people, I don’t argue for our rights with the management, in fact, I don’t really do much at all. However, I am appreciative of all those who put a lot of work into making sure that our community works and push hard to make sure that things get done and to get us a better deal.

I feel I should be putting something in, rather than just benefiting, so I volunteered to help with the weekly newsletter that is now being produced for the owners, since I felt that this was one area where I had the capacity to contribute. The newsletter comes off the back of the owners’ social meeting that is held every Thursday. It’s usually Jac(queline) who does the newsletter; the hosting of the meeting has been shared between Kathryn and Jac.

Anyway, Jac is in the UK for January, so we agreed that I would stand in for her and then maybe we would alternate the weeks of the newsletter so that she got a bit of a rest. Consequently, this year has seen me hosting the meetings and writing the newsletters.

At the first meeting there were six people, including myself. Something must have gone horribly wrong, because on the second meeting, no-one turned up! I sat for an hour with my wine and quavers (that I ate all by myself, with some help from Yasser) and read my “Egyptian Arabic” book. Learning Arabic script isn’t made easier by being told that the letter for the letter “dhaal” is pronounced as ‘d’ or sometimes as ‘z’ but is formally pronounced as ‘th’. Ugh! Sometimes, I get lost before I’ve even started.

I was initially sceptical that we would have news to report every single week, but fortunately things here are progressing and the meetings serve as a good opportunity to exchange information. The first week, we realised that none of us had yet received our maintenance bill for 2014 and I learned that I can get an internet top-up in the shop attached to our building (wifi requires a critical mass of residents before implementation due to cost constraints).

On the week where nobody turned up, I’d spotted some sunbeds down by the pier on my way back from the beach (yes, all of you who are reading in places where it’s cold and grey just now, I am still swimming every day under a blue, sunny sky!). I’d wondered whether, at long last, we had our own private beach, as had apparently been promised 5 years’ ago in some of the purchase contracts. I took the opportunity to ask Yasser about this while I waited and he confirmed that they’d just signed the papers for the beach. This was its first operational day.

So, these are the gentle issues that trickle through my life just now as opposed to the stress of an environment where guidelines, targets, and expectations are in continual flux as you try to keep up. Obviously, at the moment, I’m happy with my decision to change. I’d normally say that I need to be cautious as this is probably still my honeymoon period, but if it were a honeymoon, I may have already been contemplating divorce with all that’s happened. However, as it turns out, I’m content despite all that, so let’s hope this bodes well for the future.