How Spanish is our household and my Spanish CRB check

We sent the replies to Miranda’s questions last Friday. She was happy with those but later rang and asked a couple more questions. In her defence she warned us from the beginning that because it’s the first time that she fills in this new form that replaced Form F1, she may have lots of little bits to ask as she goes through the form. We’re not complaining as it means she’s obviously been catching up with our report, which is great.

The questions this time were about how Spanish our household is. We told her that we don’t speak Spanish in the house (well obviously I speak Spanish, but we don’t speak it among ourselves. Glen has done a few courses and gets by OK, but is not fluent), but we do have some traditions such as celebrating Epiphany and my saint’s day (Saint Fernando is on May 30th but there is no Saint Glen – although he claims that he IS Saint Glen for putting up with me but that’s another story). We also mentioned that we cook Spanish food often and I sometimes watch Spanish TV on Sky and listen to Spanish music. Now, I’m not sure if this means that we get “bonus points” if there are any Spanish children to be matched out there, or that we are excluded from any children that do not match our origins (I was going to write “ethnic origin” but it seems a bit silly considering that I am European white, just like any Brit - in fact Glen looks more Mediterranean than I do!). I sincerely hope that our varied background opens doors rather than close them.

Anyway, I’m back in Spain for a few days and yesterday I managed to sort out my Spanish Criminal Record. Glad to report it’s all clear. It was surprisingly painless. Well, painless in the context of Spanish bureaucracy anyway: it did involve queuing to get the form, filling it in, going to a bank to pay €3.47 as they cannot accept any payments at the office, getting the form stamped to prove that I had indeed paid my €3.47, going back, queuing again and getting the form stamped and signed by someone else. Like I say, quite straightforward for Spanish bureaucracy, it only took a morning and that’s good.

The good thing about being in Spain is that I get to see my family, including my nephew and nieces, so I’ve been spending some time with them. Tomorrow I’m babysitting my nephew, so that’ll be fun.