customs nightmare

Big Jim has arrived all safe and sound from Pakistan, albeit 8 kilos heavier! All in the belly...too much curry and not enough dog walking. That's where he is now, taking the pups for their daily runaround on the goat track. :-) Lots of gifts....DVDs, carpet, etc., but now we are having issues with customs. Ugh. Before we picked up Big Jim, C. and I went to the cargo area to collect the four boxes he had shipped back beforehand. Easy enough, I signed the paperwork, paid the 12-euro processing fee, and off we went. We were back in the village for 10 minutes, and the phone started ringing, and ringing. At first we just ignored it because who would be bloody calling us his first night back. But finally, Big Jim answered. It was the men from the cargo center. They had made a mistake---although the boxes had been there for almost a week and been signed over to me, the men later realized the packages had not cleared customs. At 9 pm, they insisted that we return to the airport immediately with the boxes for inspection. Big Jim told them he had been traveling for two days and had no intention of making another 80-mile journey last night because of their administrative failure. So, the phone calls resumed early this morning....long story short, after threats of heavy fines, etc., we have to take the boxes back to the airport Friday to the same cargo terminal (where they were released to me) for inspection. Of course, we had already opened the boxes, which mainly contained C.'s curry service as well as a small carpet and a few hefty computer manuals. The boxes were thoroughly inspected at the Pakistan airport, sniffed by the drug dogs, and sewn up by their staff with rice bags and raffia. And this is how I collected them. It's just so ridiculous, but what are you gonna do. I'll tell one thing we are never going to do again---ship belongings back to the Malaga airport. I typically don't curse in the blog, but what a bunch of fuckwits! They screw up, and we get in trouble. Welcome to Spanish law. :-( At least we convinced them to let us wait until Friday, when we are picking up Big Jim's son (who is coming to visit for the weekend), rather than traipsing back to the airport today. Bloody hell, what a pain. But it is lovely to have Big Jim back! Mr. Beebs' head practically exploded when he saw him, such excitement. The rain seems to have passed. For now the sun is shining. However, snow is actually in the forecast again for the weekend, even on the coast. Snow. I leave you with a photo mas tranquilo.
Just another village sunset. hasta pronto, mylifeinspain