To be completely honest with you, after publishing my last ramble around a week or so ago, I hadn’t anticipated writing, or publishing, another quite so soon, we were just into our normal leisurely daily and rather uneventful lifestyle routines with nothing very much of interest to write about 🤷‍♂️ But then, similar to a freelance journalist sitting at his desk, boringly sharpening his pencils whilst waiting for the phone to ring with the next big news story to land on his desk, for me, there was no desk or pencils to sharpen, just a pool to sit around, on a sun lounger under a sun brolley, neither did the phone ring, it was the lure of the ‘Doom & Gloom’ media pages that got my itchy keyboard fingers twitching. So, if you are sitting comfortably………………

The invasion of Spain commenced slowly at first, but then, from the beginning of July, the invaders began to arrive in ever greater numbers. These foreign armies of people struck from all directions, crossing Europes Land Borders in great swathes, along with assaults from other’s, arriving via Air and Sea, there would be no escape, it would be futile to resist for they would occupy every corner, every nook and cranny leaving no stone or beach pebble unturned. Whilst a small handful of dedicated resistance fighter’s attempted to repel these foreign invaders, with their wooden placards, some even armed with pistols (that fired water based ammunition), spray paint and tubes of super-glue, but they made little impact, but at least they had tried. However, and quite unsurprisingly, the larger majority of Spanish actually welcomed these invading hoards with open arms, for they knew that this was only another temporary Summer invasion of their shores, and a lucrative one, which would once again swell the ‘Shekels’ in their business bank accounts, in comparison to the much leaner pickings during the Autumn and Winter season’s. Some locals accept this annual invasion for good economical reasons, other’s oppose it for more personal reasons, but it is a very fine balancing act as their are Advantages and Disadvantages on both sides of the divide.

Shazza and myself know when the Summer season has truly arrived in our small corner of Spain, it is when we can no longer get a parking space in ‘any’ of our usual places or, we can no longer just turn up at any of our favourite Cafe/Bars and Restaurants and expect to find an empty table, or even more closer to home, quite literally speaking, it is when we have to get down to our pool by 10:30am, if we want a sun lounger and sun brolley and also have the time, and space, in the pool itself to enjoy a proper swimming session without fighting through the mass of ‘Little Darlings’ with their wide variety of inflatable toys, and the ball games being played both in and out of the water, being jolted out of a moment of ‘Personal Contemplation’, which is always best done with one’s eyes closed, by a football crashing against the side of one’s sun-bed, occasionally, but only occasionally, accompanied with the word ‘Sorry’, spoken in a wide variety of foreign tongues, we both knew that it was only a matter of time before one of us would mutter those immortal words, although in fact it was Shazza who it was that this time first vocalised what I was already thinking, “Roll on mid-September” she said, with a roll of her eyes. But then I reminded her that it would only be a matter of three short weeks before our own family numbers would swell our own family group by another five individuals, three of which would be our own quite noisy ‘Little Darlings’ down at the pool, twice daily. “Roll on the last week of August” I replied laughingly 😂

It was whilst I was enjoying a quiet swim in our pool one morning recently that I had another one of my ‘Contemplative’ moments, yes they are coming fast and furious recently, I blame the extended heatwave and the Summer crowds myself, keeping me incarcerated for far longer than is healthy for you my reader’s 😂 I began to recount how many moments of significant ‘Historical’ events that I have lived through so far in my life, some that I have actually participated in during my former Military Career, and other’s that I was much less directly involved with. I was quite astonished when I started to list them all, although not in any real Chronological Order, more just in the order my brain relinquished the information at that moment in time. It may seem a strange subject to be contemplating, although to be honest, my regular contemplative moments these days can be a variety of very wide subjects, as most of you will already know but, there had actually been a catalyst for bringing this particular subject to the forefront of my mind.

But what does the Land Border between Spain and Gibraltar now ceasing to exist actually mean in reality ? It certainly means that there is now Freedom of movement on the land border between the two countries, if you are an EU Citizen but, for some other non-EU citizens however, who used to visit Gibraltar for its lucrative low tax benefits on purchases, everything from much cheaper fuel, tobacco, alcohol, jewellery and electronic goods and for some, on both sides of the border, the ability to purchase their favourite UK foodstuffs from the ever popular ‘Morrisons’ supermarket on the Gibraltar side, or be able to take advantage of Gibraltar NOT being part of the ‘Schengen Zone’, well perhaps this new ‘Treaty’ may not be so beneficial.

But what has to be remembered here is that this latest change in the physical status between Gibraltar and Spain it is not about ‘Visitors’, it is about what this latest Historic event, that took place on Wednesday 15th July 2026, means to the people who actually live permanently in both Gibraltar and Spain. It is also now another Historical event that I can add to my list of things for which I would personally witness in my own lifetime. However, this particular one did not involve any armed conflict (Although a lot of verbal one’s) or indeed any loss of human life, so we should at least be thankful for that. Similar to the divide that was created between people during ‘Brexit’, for some ordinary members of the Gibraltarian public, this will remain an uncomfortable and disputed alliance and the decision, taken purely by Politician’s with no consultation (Referendum) with the Gibraltarian public, in forging this particular ‘Treaty’ will remain a topic of heated discussion amongst the local Gibraltarian community, for many year’s to come.

Now, just to try and lay this subject to rest, well as far as this ramble goes at least, you will be aware that both Shazza and myself are basically ‘History Heathens’, but this current event did raise my curiosity as to why Gibraltar was actually ceded to the British, and not the Dutch ? So, over to you ‘Mr Google & Co.’

So there you have it, the History of Gibraltar, well since the 1700’s, in just one relatively short ramble, but if you want to delve further back into its history, be my guest, for I don’t know about you, but my eye’s have already started to glaze over.

Moving swiftly on, the following day, Thursday 16th July, and along the majority of the whole of Spain’s coastlines it was yet another traditional Spanish event, marked annually on the countries ‘Religious Calendar’, the day of celebration for the ‘Virgin del Carmen’ (Patron Saint of Fishermen and Sailor’s) with the celebrations also including the presence of the first of many of this year’s ’Medieval Markets’ along the seafront with the sounds of ‘Roll Up, Roll Up and get your Tourist Tat here’, and why let a Religious Celebration stand in the way of Capitalism eh ? But after breaking bread and drinking a sip of wine at the church, from the chalice at the morning Mass, you could then go and gorge on ‘Burgers’, ‘Dinky Donuts’, ‘Candy Floss’ and ‘Fizzy Drinks’, with not a single Mediterranean Diet option in sight 🙄, but it’s all part of the day’s appeal to families, locals and visitor’s alike and finished off, in usual Spanish tradition, a long night of music and copious amounts of alcoholic beverages 😁

Now as you know, I do not need too many prompts to start my ‘Contemplative’ periods from going into overdrive, but even I thought that the first one, on the Gibraltar Border subject, would be enough to be going on with for this particular ramble, but no, it was not to be, for another ‘unanticipated’ event landed, quite literally, right into our living room 😲

It was around 7:30pm on the Thursday evening, we were about a quarter of the way through a film on Netflix when Shazza’s mobile phone rang, it was our Grandaughter’s back in the UK who, quite excitedly, wanted to tell us all about a school two night ‘residential’ trip they had just returned from, the first time they had spent any time away from home without Mum and Dad, and although it had only been two-nights away for them, it had been a major adventure which they thoroughly enjoyed and needed to tell us about. We didn’t want to concern Mum and Dad by informing them that now their 11 year-old ‘Little Angels’ had tasted parental freedom, that it wouldn’t stop at just school supervised outings.

However, we were unceremoniously cut off and, although we made several attempts we could not re-connect with them. Shazza’s phone displayed a ‘No Signal’ message, I checked mine to discover that I too had the same message. okay we thought, we will contact them via the Internet on Shazza’s iPad, but when we checked that, we also discovered that both our iPads were displaying the ‘No Internet Connection’ message, so as usual when the Internet goes down, we re-booted the Wi-Fi box, but with no success 🤷‍♂️ We couldn’t even finish watching our film on Netflix.

We didn’t think too much about it at the time, these things happen, not very frequently, and nothing that we considered to be out of the ordinary for today’s mobile technology pitfalls. To be honest, I rarely use my devices during the evenings anyway, and Shazza tends to read books on her Kindle, we only tend to use the Internet for occasionally watching films via Netflix, watching the football or, for following some Vlogs on ‘You Tube’, so it was really no great drama for us, the peace and quiet of the evening was actually rather enjoyable, we even communicated with each other verbally at times during that evening, although, god only knows what we are now going to talk about the following day 🤷‍♂️ perhaps the Internet will be back up and we can go back to our individual habitual ‘Zombie Scrolling’ activities 😂

I was up first the following morning and discovered that I had both connections back again, but that didn’t last very long before both the mobile and WiFi connections went down yet again, That did appear a little strange as they usually get these outages resolved pretty quickly. An hour or so later I discovered that my mobile phone signal had been restored, but only my mobile phone signal and not my Internet connection, and so I used it to check the posts on our local Social Media group, where I discovered that the same things had happened on all ‘Mobile Phone’ and ‘Internet’ service providers within the whole Manilva and Caceres municipalities, so it didn’t sound like an Engineer had inadvertently pulled the wrong plug on a local communications box. I telephoned our local Internet Service Providers office in town, they confirmed the Internet was down, stating that this was due to the recent wildfires which had affected two transmitter masts, but alarmingly they also stated that Engineers in the field had informed them that repairs would not be completed until after the weekend, which would be at ‘some point’ on the Monday, three day’s away. Now that was not very good news for all of us ‘Adopted Spanish’ residents as the World Cup final, Spain v Argentina was being televised ‘Live’ on the Sunday night, but we needed our Internet connection to be able to watch it, and so would most of the Bars in the local area that would be showing it on their ‘Big Screens’. There was also a big open air event also planned in the former fishing village let alone other similar events in the wider local areas, this was sure to create a major issue, for the Spanish Internet Provider, as they are also a Co-Sponsor of the Spanish National Team 😲

Anyway, let me cut this much longer story, very much shorter (Yes Pleeeeze Eric, I hear you all shout 😁). Fortunately, for all concerned and not just ourselves, the Internet connection was restored around 6pm on the Friday evening. End of story ? Come on, you know me better than that, for this incident had now created yet another Catalyst for my over active ‘Contemplative’ mind. Generally, I was just thinking at just how the world today is so reliant on all of these mobile communication technologies, in all aspects of maintaining our normal everyday lives, not just for social purposes, but also Banking and other Financial activities, Using Debit and Credit Cards, making Travel Arrangements, Withdrawing cash, Paying for Groceries and Fuel and the rest of the stuff that we all tend to do now using technology 😳 Governments are now encouraging a ‘Cashless’ society, along with everything else, making us more and more reliant on a more digital and technological world, so I think to myself, what happens when there is a ‘Denial of Service’, of course I was immediately thinking about hostile ‘Cyber Attacks’, what an easy way to disrupt global economies, or worse, we are all well aware that some of these incidents have already happened globally, although more usually for Financial Gain by the perpetrators of such acts, or even attacks on ‘Foreign Governments’, testing the countries resolve in such situations. But what about less sinister malfunctions, Electricity cuts or Natural and Environmental disaster’s, how would we (That is the Royal ‘We’) get access to the vital information that ‘we’ would need in cases of ‘Wildfires, Earthquakes, Floods or similar disasters’, the essential stuff like locations, escape routes, emergency shelters and all that kind of stuff 🤷‍♂️ That actually created more recurring thoughts in my mind, as periods of contemplation often do with me, a lot like these rambles I guess, where I often digress from the original subject and head off in another direction, well so it is with my contemplations 😁 Finally, when my mind was spinning out of control in numerous directions, I was left with the thought about the truth in that old saying, ‘You Only Miss Things When They Have Been Taken Away’ but by which time, often, it may be too late to do anything about it 🤔 I think it maybe time to go back and do my Ostrich impression…………….

So okay, the following ramblings will very probably be ‘Old News’ by the time you get around to reading this and you may well have already been wondering why I haven’t mentioned Englands failure to ‘Bring it Home’, before now in this ramble 🤔 I was saving the good news until the last. Anyway, back to the disappointment with our England performance, as a consolation prize, that to be completely honest, is completely irrelevant, but on beating France 6-4 in the play-offs, they did bring home some ‘Bronze’ coloured Bling, so at least their disappointment will be quelled a little, as they each now have something to sell on ‘Vinted’ or ‘eBay’ (Other on-line trading establishments are also available 😁) However, a few rambles previously I had already given my prediction as to the outcome (No Crystal ball required), yes I confess that I may have cheated a little as I had read the same script over and over again over the last fifteen FIFA World Cup footballing tournaments, where I of course discovered that the story and the ending, for England, always remained exactly the same 🤷‍♂️ But, I also told you that I had a 50/50 chance that one of my ‘home’ team’s would make it to the final, was I wrong ?

Now as you may imagine, every Village, Town and City in Spain would be glued to the ‘Big Screens’, many that had been set up in Parks and Plaza’s, but even on much smaller screens in Cafe/Bars in the much smaller villages, would have crowds packed inside and out for this major concluding event and, with the hard fought win going to the deserving team, and not the football thugs of the Argentinian team, although the game itself was not a classic in the history of this competition, the victory celebrations went on until the early hour’s of the following morning.

So, as another new week commences, which I suspect will now be very much quieter than the previous one, the excessive heat aided by the hot ‘Terel’ winds continue 🥵 but like the football, we have been here before too, so I will make yet another prediction, I anticipate that the heat of Summer will continue until around October, when Autumn arrives 😁 Yes, the Wildfires continue too, some worse than other’s, but that is true Globally, not just here in Spain or other areas of Europe but around other parts of the globe too. But please do not get overly concerned about our well-being, for there is very little tinder dry forest around our immediate vicinity, just a handful of Palm Trees between our apartment and two-minute walk to the pool 😂 However, here is another prediction, and somewhat of a certainty, the ‘Doom and Gloom’ machines will continue to churn out more and more depressing news to re-focus our minds, when all of the current stuff just becomes ‘Old News’, and on their current form that could well be as early as tomorrow 🤭

I will leave you with the advice we are advised to follow by our Andalusian Health Authority:

Until the next ramble……………………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

I often start thinking about the subjects of my rambles well before I even ‘draft’ the first sentence, that is what some of my contemplation periods are used for 🤭 As I have mentioned to you, many times over the year’s that I have been producing these rambles, I do not make any notes in advance and so only rely on what is in my brain when I do come to actually start drafting them, trying to recall things that we have done, where we have been or what is happening in our lives at any given moment in time. Sometimes, my memory can be supplemented and prompted by photographs that I may have taken, or indeed any media articles that I may have read and taken screenshots of, but generally I just ‘ramble’ and, quite often as it happens, I often find myself digressing from the intended script, well you my reader’s can certainly attest to that particular fact 😂

But why am I starting this ramble by re-stating this, something that you probably already know anyway ? Well the truth is that sometimes, even when I have already commenced ‘drafting’ the originally intended next publication, something rather inconveniently happens, which I believe could likely be of more interest to you, things that you may already have read for yourselves in your own media publications, but which you probably do not think very much about, after you have finished reading or watching them. Well sometimes, those very same things can have an impact on our lives here in Spain too, sometimes directly or perhaps even indirectly so, as your ‘man on the ground’ as it were, I may be able to provide a little more localised information but then, that sometimes mean that I need to go back to the drawing board, my ‘Draft’ Ramble, delete it and start again.

This is one such ramble so………………..

It had been like a furnace on this, our second recent visit into the city, the noise of people and traffic was almost overwhelming for us, the 40 degree(c) temperature and dryness of the heat made walking extremely uncomfortable, especially as large parts of the walk offered no shade whatsoever from the rays of the scorching sunshine, fortunately though, it had only taken us a little over a twenty-minute walk to get to our ultimate destination from where we had managed to park the car, although I have to report that on this occasion there was to be no ‘Free’ parking for us and we had to pay the extortionate fee of €1.20 (£1) for a full day’s parking ! But this, as you will already know if you had read my last ramble, and why wouldn’t you have done, but yes, it had been an essential trip, as opposed to just one for more touristic or leisure purposes, for us personally, it was to be a very lucrative one as, by the end of it, we emerged with our new updated ‘Residency Permits’ (TIE Cards).

We were however glad to finally leave the mayhem behind us and, by the time we had returned to our haven of sanctuary in our much quieter environment, we had been out for six hour’s. Although the car journey, in and out, had actually accounted for half of that time, but it had not been a relaxing journey, for either of us, in either direction, as the roads were extremely busy and so it was just one large bubbling cauldron of ‘people in machines’, of all shapes and sizes (That reference applies equally to the humans inside too 🤭) trucks, vans, coaches, car’s and motorcycles, all of whom, for whatever reason, appeared to be in a hurry to meet their maker, from the speed freaks to the one’s whose driving speeds were more of the Sunday driver type pace, but who chose to hog the overtaking lanes seemingly oblivious to the queues of death seekers behind them, which then created the impatient lane weaver’s to ‘undertake’ them which, in turn, meant that they took up other driver’s breaking distances and they would slam on to regain the lost ground, it was more akin to a fairground bumper car ride experience, but at much faster and deadlier speeds 😲 Shazza, who had been happy by the way to negotiate this nearly 200km distance Formula 1 racing circuit (100km each way), well she does go by the alias of ‘Lewis Hamilton’, but I do have to say that she actually coped with it extremely well, although I did hear her come out with quite a wide and varying range of expletives on numerous occasions. I shut my ear’s to most of it though and was happy, as the unemployed Navigator, for we knew this Motorway route like the back of our hands, to just sit and gaze out of the passenger seat window at the Sparkling blue Mediterranean Sea on one side and the Mountains, with their white-washed villages, on the other, although I had been brought back out of my semi-hypnotic sightseeing mode on a couple of occasions, when she had to make sudden braking manoeuvres and my head hit the dashboard or I was nearly garrotted by my seat belt strap as it tightened across my neck, but fortunately, no permanent damage was done, I think 😳 She of course apologised, after she had stopped laughing.

We are not really that comfortable in large cities these days, perhaps because we have allowed ourselves to fall quite easily into our much slower paced lifestyles and surroundings, which means that when we do occasionally have to re-enter, what is the ‘real’ outside world, well let’s just say that it tends to come as a bit of a shock to the system, but there are times when you just have to do whatever it is that you have to do, although in the future I may travel wearing a crash helmet and one of those neck cushions.

Once back into our much cooler apartment we agreed that we would go back out later for dinner, neither of us wanting to really think about what we were going to have, or more importantly, the enthusiasm to prepare and cook for ourselves on that day, but we both agreed that we much preferred on this occasion for it to be somewhere that was right on our doorstep, not the Marina or the local town, just somewhere where we could just basically ‘eat and run’ and then get home again as quickly as possible, as we were both pretty much knackered after our already long and extremely hot day. We both unanimously agreed on our very convenient, typically British, ‘Fish ‘n’ Chip Restaurant, which was only a two-minute drive away at the bottom of the hill, and yes we could have walked but we didn’t. We savoured every single mouthful of our Medium sized battered Cod, I remember thinking at the time, if that was a ‘medium’ sized cod then I was glad that I hadn’t opted to have gone large on this occasion 😳 It of course came with the usual portion of homestyle chunky chips, curry sauce (Although we could have selected ‘mushy peas’) and a slice of doorstep thick bread and butter (To make the mandatory Chip Butties of course, it’s a British thing 🤭). Our delicious meal was worth every single mouthful of ‘unhealthy calories’ which, just for the record, neither of us even thought twice about when putting them into our very grateful, and hungry, stomaches 😂 Shazza enjoyed a bottle of cold toasted ‘non-alcohol’ cervesa and of course, you already know what my refreshment of choice was without me having to tell you. Having enjoyed our meals and it still being 30 degrees(c) at 7pm in the evening 🥵 we both thought, ‘What the heck’ we may as well go the full nine yards, so we called in at the Supermarket, which was virtually next door, and purchased a box of ‘Magnum Double Caramel’ ice-creams, which we enjoyed whilst we sat and watched ‘Enola Homes 3’ on Netflix, which was a particular movie that had been on our ‘favourites list’ for ages, their was no FIFA World Cup football on the TV at all that particular night.

It felt so good the following morning to know that our usual, much more sedentary lifestyles, would return to normal now, well for at least the next couple of year’s, to just do what we like, when we like, if we like and even my OCD Buddy can now, hopefully, enjoy an extended vacation.

Although the daily, and nightly temperatures are keeping the mercury levels high, generally around 35 degrees(c) and 24 degrees(c) respectively, in our little corner of Spain and, as we are now utilising our Summertime schedule on a daily basis, sometimes, making decisions on what we are going to do on any particular day can actually be all about timing. Occasionally, if we are ‘both’ up early enough, we can still find the opportunity to get down to one of the quieter stretches of beach, just a couple of minutes walk away from our usual ‘favourite’ solar basting beach and where we park the car. We take off our flip-flops and stroll at the waters edge along a near empty shoreline, the tourists, who are now beginning to arrive in much greater numbers, don’t tend to descend until much later in the morning. There is just something so nice about getting off the scorching hot sand and feeling the cooler water lapping over our feet, just walking slowly along a seemingly endless expanse of beach, listening to the gentle rippling of the waves, the intermittent screeches of the gulls overhead and just the very slightest audible drone of traffic noise drifting across from the nearby A7 coastal road. These moments, for us, are one of the ‘True Moments Of Pure Bliss’.

However, the sun burning our exposed skins was a timely reminder for us not to wander too far, with each of us lost in our own silent thoughts, before turning around and heading back towards where we had parked the car. We stopped at a small Chiringuito, to partake of our slightly later than usual ‘Cafe con Leche’s’ whilst watching the local area start to wake up, the security shutters on the small village shop started to raise, the woman owner popping her head out of the doorway to see what customer’s were waiting to enter, to purchase their daily loaves of freshly baked bread, baguettes or rolls, their were none waiting on this occasion so she exchanged pleasantries with the lady owner of the Cafe/Bar that we were sat at, before then disappearing again, back inside the darker and very much cooler sanctuary of her shop. People watching and general observations of life is one of those pleasures that require a lot of patience, and of course time, for which we now have an abundance of. We both smiled at each other when we saw an elderly gentleman, sat at a table opposite us, receive his ‘Tostado’ accompanied by a pot of blended tomato, bottle of Olive Oil and sachet of salt (Tostado con Tamate), he paused for a moment, as if he was thinking on how he would construct his breakfast, would it be Olive Oil poured on top of the two halves of small toasted baguette (Pitufo), followed by spreading the tomato paste then adding a light sprinkling of salt, or would it be the Tomato first and then the Olive Oil 🤔 Either is acceptable, but he opted for the more traditional way, the Olive Oil first. What made us both smile is that it is a very similar conundrum to the British way of eating a ‘Scone’ with Strawberry Jam and Clotted Cream, is it the Jam that is spread first, or the Clotted Cream ? My answer, if asked, is always, ‘Does it really matter ?’ for you put it into your mouth and swallow it all together anyway 🤷‍♂️

It seems strange how one minute you can be enjoying the calmness and serenity of life, and then, you literally just turn around and become aware of the reality that, in the real world, ‘Things Can Change In An Instant !’. One moment can feel quite calm and tranquil, but then for some, in that same period of time that we ourselves were enjoying, that plume of smoke that we could see in the distance, in the low lying foothills of the mountain near Estepona, was about to turn some other people’s day into a less than calm and tranquil one.

We had of course been keeping up to date with the Wildfires, both those happening in Spain but also those in other European Countries too, but to be honest the first one’s reported had occurred many miles North of us, up in the Province of ‘Catalonia’ around 7-8 hour’s drive away, but within a matter of only 48 hours many more, quite shocking reports, and images, started appearing on our own Spanish News Channels, as well as on European TV News Channels and in the media, including in the UK, where reports were awash about incidents all over Spain, Portugal and France. It made we wonder on just how many times we had read news articles, or watched TV News, and seen and heard about disasters all around the world, but if they do not directly impact on us then, whilst still shocking, the often tragic scenes that we may have just watched, or read about, are quickly forgotten as we move on to another unrelated news subject. We are the same here in Spain, if these incidents are further North, or just across the borders in either Portugal or Southern France, we take note, make the usual comments and then get on with whatever it is we were doing.

However, since owning a property in Spain, and now living here permanently, we have had very regular realisations, on an annual basis, that here in Spain incidences of Wildfires are a very real threat, so Shazza and I take a lot more notice of any that are reported, both within our local area, for which their have been three so far, and also several other’s further afield. That isn’t for just ‘General’ Interest, as these Wildfires can occur without warning and spread within minutes at an extremely rapid rate, not helped by the strong winds that fan the flames, for wildfires know no boundaries. By way of an example, very recently, on the day that we had travelled to Malaga, a Wildfire had caused part of the A7, that we would use on our way home, to be closed. We were not aware of this whilst we were in Malaga, we had other things on our mind and had no reason to check our Google Maps App. Fortunately, the fire had been brought under control and the road re-opened by the time we travelled back on it and, in reality, we would have been stopped well before we got anywhere near it, but we actually only learnt about it later that evening on the local news. But it reminded us of an incident in our former nomadic lives, we had been Wild-Camping for a couple of nights in an inland forested area in Central Portugal, on our way down to the Algarve. By sheer luck, we had got talking one morning to a local, who asked if we were aware of the Wildfire a few miles away, we weren’t, as we didn’t listen to the local Portuguese news, we didn’t know the language 🤷‍♂️ A few days later, sat in the comfort of our van on a campsite down on the Algarve, we learnt that that particular fire went on to burn for many days, burning thousands of acres and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people, including those in the area where we had been discreetly hidden away 😲 The thought haunted us for many year’s after that, ‘What would have happened to us, if we had decided to remain in that discreet spot for a few more days ?’ 😲 Now, recalling that incident, serves to remind us of just how real these situations are, how quickly they can develop and just how close we now live to them.

Initially, the news articles made no reference of any of the foreign nationals fatalities as being those that were in Motor-Homes or Camper-Vans, only a general reference to ‘Vehicles’, although it later transpired that these were British and Belgian Nationals who were ‘residents’ in the area. However, recent reports from some of the survivor’s made us realise at how, during our own Portugal experience, that Motorhome ‘Aires’ or ‘Campsites had actually offered us no safety.

Another was just as chilling…………….

The following images reflect on just how close these recent Wildfires came to populated areas, and at how ferocious they can be. I do not include these frightening images for ‘Sensationalism’, just to show that there is a very thin line between a tranquil and safe existence here in Spain, much like what we enjoy on a daily basis but, there are also some less desirable realities of doing so, whether or not you choose to live in more isolated rural communities or down in the much more populated holiday hotspots (Definitely no Pun intended).

Similar scenes are being played out in several other countries too, it isn’t confined to just Spain, last year Italy and Greece made the major news headlines, especially Athens, where one such Wildfire threatened to overwhelm the city itself. These events have become much more frequent, they are annual events but each year they are getting more frequent and much more intense. It is the word ‘Frequency’ that should concern all of us, for no matter where we live in the world or whether it be Wildfires, Earthquakes, Volcanic Eruptions, Floods, Storms etc. for we are regularly being warned by the respective Scientists and Meteorologists, that all of these events are getting worse, year on year.

As if the current Wildfires dangers are not enough, now, here in Spain, it is about to get even worse as another frequent annual event returns to fan those flames of destruction, and raise the already high temperatures to yet another level.

So yes, Shazza and myself can sit and be left speechless at some of the most amazing and enjoyable Sunrises and Sunsets, we can take leisurely walks along miles of long sandy beaches enjoying the water lapping over our feet, we can sit in the shade of an umbrella on a beach, or by our swimming pool, or under a shaded terrace enjoying Cafe con Leche’s, Lunches and Dinner’s and yes, this is the serene, idyllic and pretty much regular part of our daily lives here in Spain, but as each year passes, the realities of our rapidly heating planet call by, and they provide us with a bit of a wake up call 😳. There are two questions that I am often left asking myself, about Global Warming and Climate Change in particular, they are, ‘Can we as individual’s, do anymore than we are already trying to do ?’ And the other question of course is, “Should we stop worrying about the things that we can neither control or influence ?”

So I know that this has probably not been one of my more lighter rambles for you to read, but it does show the other ‘less pleasurable’ side of living here, and I do try to be honest with you and paint an accurate picture of what life is like for us here in Spain, which like anywhere else can, more often than not, be extremely good, but then, occasionally, for a variety of reasons, perhaps be not so good at times.

In Other ‘Slightly Better’ News……………

Both my Spanish and English flags remain flying on my balcony, as both countries progress to the Semi-Finals stage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup competition 🎉🎉🎉 Perhaps contrary to something that I ‘may’ have stated in a previous ramble, maybe, just maybe, we can start to believe that instead of stealing the prestigious World Cup Trophy, and hiding it in their Cabin Baggage, this England team may possibly be able to ‘Bring It Home’ and quite legally 🤔

Now some of you may recall that I have previously stated, somewhat surprisingly, that in all the times we have been coming here to what was initially our ‘Bolt Hole’, before becoming our now permanent home, that we had never witnessed any drunken or loutish behaviour in either the Marina or our local town, on any day or night of the week, or during Fiesta’s that go on until the early hours of the mornings. Well perhaps this next recent media report may provide the answer to why that may be.

Well I believe that this slightly amended Ramble, from the original one I had in ‘Draft’, is lengthy enough to enable those of you suffering with ‘Insomnia’ to at least get some relief from your ailment, so of course, it goes without saying, that I am always pleased to be of service 😂

You may also be pleased to hear that, come Floods, Earthquakes, Wildfires or the ever increasing temperatures, Shazza and I will just continue to attempt to exist the best that we can, for as long as we can, what more can anyone do 🤷‍♂️ Although on a less happy note, for some of you that is, that does mean me that I will almost certainly be producing and publishing a hell of a lot more ‘Rambles’ 😳 So, until the next time……………………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos

As I began ‘drafting’ yet another literary masterpiece 🤭 It was Wednesday afternoon (1st July) and there I was, sat on the balcony doing absolutely nothing, ‘Well that is nothing ununusual for you Eric’, I can hear you all saying, and yes my dear reader’s, of course I can hear you, even if you were only thinking it in your heads 😁 However, I was shaken quite abruptly out of my semi-hypnotic state by my phone ringing, an unusual occurrence I do have to say, not unusual about me being in a semi-hypnotic state but about my phone ringing, as in truth, my phone rarely rings at any time of the day 🤷‍♂️ it is more usual for Shazza to receive phone calls or other notifications on her devices than mine. My initial thought was that it was probably one of those irritating unsolicited ‘Call Centre Tele-Sales type Calls’, which, under normal circumstances I would just ignore, but for some inexplicable reason, I didn’t and instead I chose to answer it and, as it turned out, it was a very good job that I had. It was Silvia, from our local Solicitor’s office, advising me that our new Residency Permits (TIE Cards) were ready for collection, from the Malaga Immigration Office and that she had already managed to secure two back-to-back appointments for us to collect them, although the earliest she could get was for midday the following week (Wed 8th July), so that would entail another 90 minute or so car journey into what would be the furnace of heat in the City, with forecasts currently reflecting that it would be between 40-43 degrees(c) on that particular day 🥵

To say that I was ‘Shocked ! Stunned ! And Surprised !’, in equal measure, would be a bit of an understatement, Why so ? you may very well ask, and even if you don’t ask I am going to tell you anyway, so nothing unusual their either then eh 😁 Well, it was for two reasons mainly, the first being that, as you will no doubt know by now, from my consistent rebukes in these rambles about Spanish Bureaucracy, for they are not generally known for their lightning speed efficiency, but also because I was aware, from the Spanish ‘Doom and Gloom’ media publications, that this recent ‘Migrant Regularisation’ process, which I think that I may have mentioned once or twice in some of my more recent rambles 😂 had actually attracted well over 1.25 million applications nationwide by the 30th June cut off date, of which, according to those that know these sort of things, 400,000 of those applications were made within our own Malaga Province 😲 Now that doesn’t mean that all of those applicants were, or even would be, accepted or approved, but I feel sure many will be, as it was more a Political will to introduce this ‘Regularisation Process’ but, as a consequence of that process, it would also mean that the Immigration Authorities would have to produce even more TIE Residency Cards to those that were successful, in addition to the usual ‘routine’ renewals applicants like ourselves.

Interestingly enough, from the published statistics, ‘other’ Nationalities, originating from some much closer European destinations, who have been living here ‘Illegally’ for quite a number of year’s now, were excluded from those statistics. However, what did come as a surprise to me was that ‘some’ of those ‘other’ nationalities had actually taken to Social Media Channels to say that although they had applied, under the ‘Migrant Regularisation Scheme’, their applications had been rejected, for a variety of reasons, insufficient supporting documentation being the main one but many, who had stated that they were ‘Retired’, had been rejected for they were not now able to meet the ‘Official’ financial requirements of the NLV Visa, the Spanish Government of course wanting migrants of a ‘working age’ which would more benefit the country’s economy, now and in future year’s. Now I am sure that you know me well enough by now to know that my cynical nature would also kick in, on reading many of these Social Media comments from those who stated that they had been rejected, nearly all of them submitted ‘Anonymously’ I hasten to add. So my cynical mind got to wondering, ‘Just how many of these comments were actually ‘Fake’, for why would anyone go on line, anonymously or not, to publicise the fact that they had actually been living here illegally, but had perhaps now wanted to come ‘Out Of The Darkness In To The Light’ but subsequently been rejected. Perhaps it was a warning to say to other’s if, in the future, a similar scheme is deployed, ‘If you have managed to live here ‘under the radar’ for a number of year’s and not been discovered, then don’t put your head above the parapet’ 🤷‍♂️

Anyway, enough of that and back to script………..

So, when the Immigration Officer in Malaga told us, just two short weeks ago, that we would have to wait for somewhere between 4-6 weeks before our new TIE Cards would be ready for collection, you can probably understand my scepticism, expecting it to take very much longer than that in the current migrant regularisation climate, so that is why this unanticipated phone call from Silvia had taken me by complete surprise. Although what will not come as any surprise to you my reader’s, will be to hear that my OCD Buddy had already marked an advance date in the diary, for mid-July, which would be the time for me to start chasing up our Solicitors, to find out if our new TIE Cards were anywhere near ready for collection, so my OCD Buddy has now erased that reminder from the calendar and gone back to solar basting by the pool 😁 So, you my reader’s, should probably now go and get your own OCD Buddies to make a note in ‘your own diaries’, for this is likely to be a very unique and once in a lifetime statement within these rambles, YES ! I am now actually going to announce ‘very publicly’ that, in my personal opinion, the ‘Spanish Immigration Authorities’ have for once, gone above and beyond the call of duty 🙏🙏🎉🎉 Perhaps, I think to myself, some of them are actually themselves followers of these rambles and wanted me to say something nice about them for a change 🤔

Some of you may well be wondering what all the fuss is about, I mean it is only a plastic card that certifies our Official residency status in Spain and, in truth, this Residency Card very rarely see’s the light of day, although we do have to carry it on our person at all times when we are away from our home, just in case we get stopped for an impromptu ‘Spot Check’, which has happened to us only once in 11 year’s. However, that said, this small, credit card sized card, actually does do a lot more than just confirm our residency status. For I now need to update our Spanish Bank Records, for they keep informing me, on-line, on my Banking App, that our legal residency here has expired, and they now need a photograph of both of our new Cards, or it may effect our banking status with them 😲 To just clarify for you, there are ‘Non-Resident’ Bank Accounts, which can attract various Bank Charges, which can be up to €240 a year just in maintenance charges, sometimes a lot more, dependent on the type of transactions that you may make as a ‘non-resident’ on the account. Whereas, ‘Resident’ Bank Accounts do not ‘usually’ attract any ‘routine’ fee’s or charges, even when transferring money to accounts in other EU member Countries. Additionally, this residency card can also have some other useful benefits, in my particular case, due to my more ‘Senior Status’ to that of Shazza’s, it can entitle ‘me’ to either ‘Free’ (My favourite word) or ‘Discounted’ fees, on certain admission fee’s (Tourist Attractions, Cinemas), or even certain products and services, and so, as you can imagine, with me being a poor pensioner, although happily not poor enough to have my renewals application rejected, even a few Euro’s saved here and there is worth having as far as I am concerned 🤭 Then of course there is now the freedom to travel within Spain, although to be honest we could have still done that anyway on our British Passports had we have wanted to, but the production of a TIE Card, rather than a British Passport ‘may’ exempt us from paying ‘Tourist Tax’ if we were to book directly with certain accommodation establishments, but not if we use the On-Line Hotel Accommodation Booking Platforms, and of course, the more important advantage of holding this Spanish Residency Card is that we can now also once again travel further afield within Europe, without the need to go through the inconvenience and delays associated with the recent introduction of the EES processes and procedures, so this small card does actually bring some other very useful advantages along with it 👍

That should now, hopefully, even if only for you my reader’s sakes, be the end of me making any further mentions of this whole Residency Renewal process again within these rambles, or the mention of any other Spanish Bureaucracy, for we have also just sorted our 2025 Tax Bill with the Spanish Tax Agency, so yes, hoorah, that will be a relief to your eye’s in not having to read anymore about it 😂 Although, I will just pre-warn you, that it will only be a ‘temporary respite’, for a couple of years, for then it will be time to do it all again, only on that occasion it will be to obtain our ‘Permanent Residency Status’, which should, well theoretically at least, involve a little less Bureaucratic Administrative Procedures, ‘Not in your wildest dreams Eric’ I can hear you saying already 😂😂

So what else has been happening here in Paradise ? 🤔

For us personally, not a lot, just much of the same really, Beach days, Swimming Pool Afternoons, Shopping, Occasional exercise walks with accompanying Cafe con Leche and people watching activities, the odd lunch out somewhere (usually combined with doing something else like the shopping, going for hair cuts or other appointments), or dinner out, when the sun has dropped in the sky and stopped burning, although then the humidity levels do tend to increase. Dinner’s out, for us at least, are currently just a once a week event and usually just at the weekends but, other than that we have been doing much of the same daily and weekly sort of stuff, although at a lot slower pace of course, due to the current temperatures 🥵 Which does actually link in very nicely with some other more Spanish related news topics……….

As you may recall me saying in a previous ramble, I do not know why the Doom and Gloom merchants are making such a big deal about it this year, the temperatures during the month of June have regularly been in, or even above, the 40 degree(c) range for several year’s now, I remember in our first year of living here on a permanent basis, in June 2023, the temperature reached 42 degree’s 🥵 I guess the only difference is that they are now making a much bigger deal about the number of deaths here in Spain, rather than in the whole of Europe, who are also suffering a high number of heat associated fatalities. However, they do not break those numerical statistics down, like how many of those deaths were actually permanent residents, or how many of them were non-permanent residents who can quite easily underestimate the dangerous effects of the searingly hot and dry temperatures here 🤷‍♂️ I guess that highlighting how many ‘Temporary’ visitor’s die of the extreme heat would not be good for the ‘Spanish Tourism Industry’, in addition to the continuing ‘Anti-Tourist’ demonstrations that are also still going on 🤔

Shazza and myself have adapted reasonably well though, to the Spanish heat over the Summer months, as I am sure other’s have certainly done when re-locating to much hotter countries than their own. There are daily routines that you just do as a matter of course, and I have documented these measures in previous rambles numerous times, so I won’t bore you with them again. We do of course still have to venture out for the normal everyday stuff, but we try to do that during the mornings, whenever possible. Within the last few days Shazza had a hair appointment at her usual hairdresser in the small former fishing village, whilst she was having that done I went to a small Cafe, which is opposite the small whitewashed village church where I enjoyed a ‘Cortado’, which is a slightly stronger coffee than a ‘Cafe con Leche’, and I just sat waiting for her, in the shade enjoying the tranquility.

Now whilst doing so my vivid imagination came to the fore, here I was sat in a ‘Cantina’ style Cafe, rustic clay pots hung from the walls, in a small village with whitewashed houses and narrow streets, a typical looking one-horse sort of town or village that you see in those old American Westerns on the TV, although, on this occasion, without the ball of tangle-weed blowing down the dusty street. At any minute I was expecting the ‘man with no name’ to nonchalantly walk around the corner, brim of his hat pulled down concealing his eyes, chi-root hanging from the corner of one side of his mouth, one side of his poncho slung over his shoulder, hand on the pistol hung in the holster by his side, looking for the bandits that had done him wrong …… Which, I know, you don’t have to tell me, was very stupid really, for when you actually sit and think about it, we all know don’t we, that he did have a name, it was ‘Clint Eastwood’ 😂

Shazza’s hairdresser was quite literally just around the corner from the Cafe, no more than a two-minute walk, so after she was done she joined me and enjoyed a ‘Cortado’ herself, before we headed off, in the car, as opposed to climbing into a saddle and riding off on a horse into the sunset. We headed into our local town as we needed to go and post a Birthday Card to my daughter in Germany. It was a Friday, so that meant that the weekly market was on and it was fairly busy, fortunately though the weekly market is on the seafront side of town and we needed to be on the opposite side, not that it was that much quieter as the main large Mercadona Supermarket is also on the same side as the ‘Correos’ (Post Office) but, like the seaward side, we also know where to park on this side to find a space. By this time the temperature was already at 28 degrees(c), but it was only a ten-minute walk and, inside the ‘Correos’ the air conditioning was doing its job, there was only a couple of other people inside waiting to be served so we were not waiting long, virtually in and out in no time, on other occasions it can be manic inside and we have to wait for ages for our turn. Opposite it, rather conveniently, are three separate Cafe/Bar’s, here in Spain you are never really short of Cafe/Bars to choose from, although none of these are any of our normal regular haunts, but there is one in particular that we occasionally stop at for lunch, if we happen to be on this side of town so, being in the immediate vicinity, and it being in the shade, we did the same on this occasion, and lunch was of course accompanied by the usual mandatory Anti-Covid Vaccine 🍷, well it would of course have been rude not to and, I suddenly realised that it had been almost a week since my last dose of Anti-Covid Vaccine, however did I manage to let that happen 😲

Stomaches full, we headed home out of the rapidly increasing heat of the afternoon, we contemplated getting changed and going down to the pool, but then lethargy took over, maybe tomorrow we both agreed, so I took up my usual position on the shaded balcony, Shazza went to the cool shade of the bedroom to read a book on her kindle device, with the shutters three quarters of the way down and the four French window style doors fully open, it allowed the cooling sea breeze to waft through. We each remained in our favourite places until early evening, just me moving to make us both our regular afternoon cuppa’s, after having first checked that Shazza hadn’t decided to partake in a cheeky little afternoon Siesta 😂 Then later, Shazza would prepare whatever culinary delight we would be having for our evening meal, which of course would consist of the majority of the ingredients being of the much more healthy variety, you know to which I refer by now, lovely 🙄 Then we both settle down in front of the TV, to watch whatever teams happened to be playing that night in the current FIFA World Cup competition, just really a typical sort of day for us at the moment 🤷‍♂️ Now, for all that I may have a rather ‘Whatever will be will be’ sort of attitude to life these days, I do have to confess that I am rather glad that we have got our Residency sorted here in Spain once again, for we both do rather enjoy our generally tranquil lives here, this certainly feels like home to us and it will continue to be our home, until ‘we’, or perhaps someone else, you know to whom I refer, decides otherwise.

Looking at subjects just a little wider afield than our own back door ………. Did you know that the annual ‘Wimbledon’ tennis tournament had started ? Well to be honest, I hadn’t, well not until I saw some newspaper articles on it. I don’t really have to much interest in that particular sport, but even less so when it is held at Wimbledon, but that is only because I am more afraid of having to see ‘Sir’ Cliff Richard suddenly arise from his seat in the spectators area, and then start, for no particular reason, to give a rendition of one of his very old hit songs, although, if you are someone of a much younger generation, who doesn’t know to whom I am referring, don’t worry about it, he isn’t really that significant anymore, only at the ‘Mistletoe and Wine’ sort of season. Unlike, Emma Radacunu of course, the young female British tennis ‘star’, and I use the term ‘Star’ very loosely you understand because, a few short year’s ago now, and barely out of her school uniform, she apparently won a prestigious USA tennis tournament and, for that one time only event, she received, in 2022, an MBE (Member of the British Empire) award from our current King Charles III, although I do have to say, since winning that one tennis tournament and attaining that prestigious award, she has won bugger all since 🤷‍♂️ Neither will she be gracing us with her presence in this year’s Wimbledon tournament either, because apparently, at the ripe old age of just 23 year’s, she is injured, yet again, she probably fell over her ego getting out of her Ferrari 😂 Oh no, I just heard my mother chastising me from afar, “Eric ! If you cannot say anything nice about a person, then don’t say anything at all” 😳 Oops, “Sorry Mum”

As for the football and this year’s World Cup competition 🥱🥱 Yes I know, boring, boring, boring, well for some at least, so I will excuse you if you want to go for an unnecessary ‘Hydration Break’ 🤭 (Some will understand that sarcastic comment more than other’s)

Well, what can I say, England are up to their now customary antics, with their somewhat lack lustre performances in the early stages of the competition but now, with what I have to say was an absolutely brilliant performance, and somewhat unexpected win, against Mexico they now progress into the Quarter Final stages, which effectively puts them just three games away from lifting that prestigious trophy. Can we fans now start singing the infamous ‘Its Coming Home’ chant now, I ask myself, the one we have been singing since the one and only time we brought the trophy home in 1966 🤷‍♂️ and let’s be honest here, it does have a lot more catchy rhythm to it than our pretty boring and uninspiring ‘National Anthem’. Although it seems that we have now adopted a new ‘post match’ anthem, ‘Wonderwall’ which both the fans and the players sing with much gusto to each other. To be perfectly honest with you, although being one of the many loyal and patriotic English football supporters, I feel the need to just remind my fellow fans that we have been here before, many times, haven’t we ? Where we make the latter stages of a major competition only to stumble at the last hurdle 😢 However, on a much more positive note, the good news is, ‘You have to be in it to win it’ and there are quite a few nations that cannot say that at this stage of the competition and, mentioning no names, some of them are one’s that you would have expected to still be at the party, but have departed early 🙄 My personal belief is the same as it was at the beginning of this tournament, and that is that the only way that trophy is coming home to England is if one of the team, or coaching staff, steal it and hide it in their cabin bags 😂

Our daughter (English) and son-in-law (Australian), who live in Munich, are especially miffed, they both went out and attempting to blend in with the natives, bought the latest German National Team football shirts, which they have been wearing in various ‘Biergartens’ in Munich along with the locals, good on them for integrating that’s what I say. But I couldn’t help but think, there was €200 down the drain then, perhaps more if they had splashed out on new Aussie tops as well 🤷‍♂️ Although, I did try to be helpful and sympathetic (Although perhaps not as sympathetic as I could have been 😂) and suggested that they look to see if they still had the receipts for their recent purchases, so that they could try to return them and get their money back, although there probably would be a long queue of people attempting to do the same 😁 I do have the faintest of hopes that our ‘second’ country will also progress in the competition, now that would make a good cup final, again 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 v 🇪🇸, although we didn’t do too well the last time around when we had that encounter, well not the 80% of me that is English that is, but I do at least still have a 50/50 chance of still being able to celebrate something at the end of all of this as long as ‘Ronaldo & Co’ do not spoil the party tonight that is 😳

So, on that note, and because I can hear you all yawning now, and yes, I can still hear you 😁 I will bring this latest ramble to an end.

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

The long hot Summer days and sticky humid nights continue to roll on, one into another, but that is nothing unusual, for it is the same here year on year, funny old thing though, although this is a frequent annual occurrence, the media, local and national alike, bless their little cotton socks, still consider it to be major front page headline news 🤷‍♂️ Now of course, I can fully understand these headlines appearing in the daily ‘Doom & Gloom’ publications in some other more northerly areas of Spain, or even in some other countries, where such extreme temperatures are a little bit out of the ordinary and not something that is generally expected or tolerated.

What does tend to bring a smile to my face though, a sarcastic one if I am being totally honest, is the fact that these Doom & Gloom publications actually feel the need to have to ‘advise’ people on what they should be doing in such extreme conditions, to keep themselves cool and hydrated, or measures to prevent themselves from suffering heatstroke and other heat related issues………REALLY !! I mean, I know that there are some certain elements of our society, who constantly display a serious lack of common sense, and that comment by the way is not aimed at the less intelligent members of our society, who, for the obvious reason that I have just stated, may have an acceptable excuse, but seriously, surely the majority of us, of reasonable intelligence, already know that if it is extremely hot that you need to drink more water to remain hydrated (As opposed to Alcohol, including, albeit essential, Anti-Covid Vaccines 🤭) and, wherever possible, you try to keep in the shade, although I do accept that that is not possible for everybody, especially if their profession is one of those that does, by their very nature, require them to be outside, Agricultural workers for example, or those employed in Construction, Law Enforcement or Military personnel, to name but a few, but come on, I am not talking about them, for the advice that is being provided by these ‘Doom & Gloom’ merchants are to people like you and me, yes the normal general public. Anyway okay enough of that, it was just reading and listening to all of these recent ‘News’ reports that made me have another one of my ‘contemplation’ moments on this particular subject, in particular as to whether we really have become such a Global ‘nanny’ population where we have got to the stage that we need other’s to tell us what we should be doing to keep healthy and safe 🤔

So how are we ourselves managing to cope, you may well ask, although then again, in truth you probably haven’t given a second thought to either Shazza or myself since you read my last ramble, so what does that say about you and your civic responsibility for ‘Care in the community’ towards the elderly eh 😂 But to be totally honest we are, in comparison with some other’s, having it relatively easy here, at least in this particular little corner of the Iberian Peninsular, although, perhaps not so further up our coastline in Malaga City, and places like Madrid, Seville and even Granada, where they are currently having to cope with daily temperatures of 40 degrees(c) and above (which by the way is very much the same every year during the Summer months), but yes, it is much cooler here, by at least 7-8 degrees, with the ever present coastal breeze helping of course, and so, looking at the advance ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts, it is likely to remain much of the same for us, the only thing that personally gives me any real concern, is whether Shazza will permit me to have a little extra room in the fridge to keep my supplies of ‘Anti-Covid Vaccines’ cool 🤭

Of course we do still have to dice with danger now and again, having to risk pedestrians suffering heatstroke and collapsing into the road under the wheels of our air-conditioned car, melting tarmac clinging to our tyres, whilst we go about the essential business of attempting to re-provision our food cupboards and fridge freezer at the local supermarket and fruiteria, and no, before you ask, we do not have the luxury of ‘Home Delivery’ in our particular area, we are not that affluent. But yes, occasionally, even we we will toss our own ‘common sense’ by the wayside by risking an early morning walk into our local town, for our routine, but quite essential, cafe con leche’s and people watching activities, how irresponsible of us you may think, but actually the ‘Doom and Gloom’ media ‘advised’ us that regular mobility and social interaction is essential to stave off ‘Dementia’, although I forget which publication it was in 🤔 but if they told us, then of course, it must be true. Although, in truth, at this time of the year we do tend to drive into town, rather than park in our more usual spot and walk in, so no, we are not totally stupid and, on such occasions I do tend to wear my rather trendy Panama Hat, which, in addition to it being for primarily practical purposes, it also does tend to give me a rather distinguished look, even if I do say so myself. In my opinion, it is what all retired English gentlemen, of a certain senior status, should be seen wearing when out in the public domain, certain members of my previous profession refer to me as ‘Our man in Sabinillas’ 😁 (You may need to watch a certain movie to understand that one). Then there are days when we may go down to the beach, where I just hide underneath my sun umbrella, not wearing my Panama Hat you understand, (you should never wear such prestigious items of headdress on the beach, that’s what knotted handkerchiefs are for 😂) I sit there in the shade, cool and well hydrated just watching Shazza, either solar-basting, turning her over occasionally so she is cooked equally on all sides, or keeping an eye on her whilst she is irritating the sea creatures by continuously invading their natural habitat.

Although, to be completely honest with you, the majority of our daily routines now comprise of starting the day, as is usual, relaxing on the balcony where it remains shaded, as the sun, during the Summer months, is too high in the sky to intrude, and where we of course have all the windows and doors open to allow the cooling gentle breeze to flow through. Then, after lunch we will head down to the very nice, small but perfectly formed, communal pool and spend a few leisurely hours there before returning to the cooler sanctuary of our apartment, where we will enjoy a late afternoon cup of tea and a digestive biscuit, how typically British of us 🤭

And so, let me just move on to some more topical matters and, as you can see from the photograph at the top of this particular ramble, no, not the swimming pool, the very top of this ramble, where here, in ‘San Luis de Sabinillas’ (To give it its ‘Official’ name) the theme for this year’s ‘San Juan 2026’ celebrations was ‘Harry Potter’, and why not, for the film, and all of its sequels, was just as popular over here as it was anywhere else in the modern world but, just in case for some totally inexplicable reason that I cannot think of, you have not been reading my rambles over god knows how many year’s, you may be wondering what this major annual Spanish festival is actually all about 🤷‍♂️

Each location has its own theme, and not all have just the one bonfire on the beach as we do here, although, you do have to wait until midnight on the 23rd June to witness them being set alight but, the festival itself , which consumes the whole of our long promenade, actually starts during the early evening and continues until sunrise the following morning. In addition to the vast array of usual Cafe/Bars and Restaurants, there are lots of ‘Pop Up’ Bars, a large stage with Live Music which goes on, and on, and on throughout the night and early hour’s of the morning, there are a whole host of other entertainment activities going on at the same time, Stilt Walkers, Fire Eaters, Giant Illuminated Unicorns, Bouncy Castles for the youngster’s, Food stalls, Ice Cream Parlours, Candy Floss and Dinky Donut stalls etc. etc. etc so it feels exactly like what it is, just one big massive street party which is attended by both locals and visitor’s alike, of all age groups, from the very youngest to the very much more senior age group. Unless you have booked a table, months in advance I hasten to add, at any of the ‘front-line’ restaurants then you will have to rely on grabbing something to eat from wherever you can, one of the back street Cafe/Bars is usually the best option, or queue up at one of the many fast food venues, although ‘Fast’ should not be taken literally on night’s such as this or, you can do what many do, just bring your own food and drink, a beach rug or towel, or even beach chairs, and just picnic on the beach. So, without further ado here are just a few images from another fantastic annual ‘San Juan Celebration’, although, just to be completely up front with you my reader’s, I may have borrowed some of the below images from other local social media sources 🙄

There are numerous local events here during both the Summer and Winter months, our Municipality of ‘Manilva’ has its own programme of events but other nearby communities, such as Estepona and La Linea also hold their own, so their is always something going on somewhere in the area and, in addition to the main annual events, which are published by local councils in advance, other’s take place too, like the annual ‘International Communities’ celebrations, and of course the annual ‘Gay Pride’ event that I mentioned in my last ramble.

Now I am not going to make out that Spain is the only country in the world that holds their own, or even unique, annual events but for many Europeans, including those from the UK, Spain is a short hop, skip and jump away, perfect for a holiday with guaranteed Summer sunshine and warm night’s for dining out ‘Al Fresco’. Until recently it has also been a very convenient, and relatively cheap place to own a ‘Holiday home’ or, for people like ourselves, to come and live here permanently without being too far away from family and Friend’s. However, like most things that start off being convenient, and cheap, eventually with their rising popularity that starts to come at a price. Even just coming here on a holiday, using the numerous ‘Cheap Flight Airline’ companies and to what, once upon a time, were cheap ‘Package Holidays’, well that is all beginning to change as ‘Capitalism’ once again rears its ugly head. Forget, if you will, at least for the time being, the delays and inconvenience now brought about by the recent introduction of the EES system and let me just highlight a few other areas that could now impact on your holiday experience. The recently introduced ‘Tourist Taxes’, not just on the cost of your holiday accommodations, but also added to the cost of many Tourist Attractions, then there are the wider global events impacting on the costs of importing products and produce, which you will feel more if your holiday entails eating meals out on a regular basis or, if you rent apartments and have to purchase your own supplies from local supermarkets.

But the biggest impact is on those who now want to consider re-locating to Spain on a more permanent basis. Don’t get me wrong, anyone with a good eye for a bargain can still discover opportunities to grab them, away from the more desirable locations. However, even we cannot believe how fast property prices have escalated in the relatively short time since we purchased our property here.

We recently conducted a re-evaluation of our own apartment, basically because of our recent Visa and Residency Permits, just in case we unexpectedly found ourselves in a situation where we may have had to sell up here. We were quite surprised, even with the knowledge that property prices had gone up year on year since we purchased it, initially as a ‘holiday home’ some eleven year’s ago now, to discover that, if we were to sell it now, that it is valued at just a little over 100% more than what we initially payed for it. To put that into some sort of perspective, if we were looking to move here now, we certainly could not afford to purchase this very apartment that we now call home 😲 The days when you could come here and offer a price ‘much lower’ than what was actually being asked, and have it accepted, are virtually gone, ‘Seller is once again King’. So, as one Agent who specialises in helping people re-locate to Spain, recently wrote……….

There are many people that want to come and live in Spain, from families who want to relocate, young entrepreneurs, people who want to come and start their own business, or purchase an existing one or people like ourselves who didn’t want, or need, to work and just wanted to spend our Retirement year’s here. So whilst I am on the subject of living in Spain, as a retiree, on a permanent basis, and now that the UK is no longer a member of the EU, just a reminder of the first financial hurdle that you will have to meet before you even step foot in Spain.

Does €3,000 (£2,608 approx) a month represent what you really need to live here ? Well, as I have said many times before in these rambles, it depends on a number of initial factors, can you afford to purchase a property without the need for a mortgage ? (Although you could choose to rent rather than own a property but that rental fee, like a mortgage payment, has to be built into the financial consideration), in which area do you want to live (Some Regions and Provinces can vary on how much it cost to live there) And, probably quite importantly, what kind of lifestyle do you want to enjoy ? Now I can only talk about our own situation which is without the need to have a mortgage, or pay rent, and living on our monthly incomes which are solely from our ‘Pensions’, but even so, we are able to pay ‘All’ of our bills, Utilities, Communal Charges, owning and running a car, two mobile phones and home WiFi, and personal expenditure for Coffee’s (and Anti-Covid Vaccines), occasional Lunches or Dinner’s out and the occasional ‘Road Trips’, and we find that we can certainly live a very comfortable lifestyle here, and I can confidently tell you that it does not cost us anywhere near €3,000 a month. So, if you had savings, that you could keep in the bank without having to access them, so that you can keep meeting the ‘current’ annual Visa and Residency Permit requirements (Bear in mind, using savings rather than annual income means that when you come to the 2 year renewal intervals you need to have twice the annual amount e.g. 2 x €36,000), but then you would not need an income of €3,000 (From other sources e.g. Pensions or Investment returns) to meet the needs of your normal monthly commitments, dependent of course on the initial factors that I mentioned above. But worth taking into consideration, the current Visa and Permit financial requirements may be amended at any time (more likely in the upwards direction), and will your ‘other’ monthly incomes increase with the ‘Cost Of Living’ and, if you transfer money then of course you need to take account of any fluctuations in the exchange rates. So, if you had savings to meet the Visa and Residency Permit requirements and then, as a couple who were both in receipt of full UK State Pensions, you could live here in Spain in reasonable comfort.

Regular reader’s of these rambles also know that I often do comparisons between life here in Spain, with what life is like in the UK, or sometimes other areas of Europe. I try to be open and unbiased in my comparisons and I am certainly not Anti-UK, I could go back there to live tomorrow, if I really had to, although I cannot say the same for my beloved, imagine this picture, Wild horses and lots of kicking and screaming, that would probably best describe her attitude to returning 🫣 However, at the moment at least, I do much prefer living here in Spain, for numerous reasons, although Spanish Bureaucracy not being one of them, which I guess many of you are already aware of 😂 However, for all of its positive aspects, Spain in General, is not unlike many other countries in Europe, or indeed probably the world, it has its issues too and no, they are not all to do with Anti-Tourism.

And yes, there is a lot more that I could add, but I think that I may just have made my point, which is, it doesn’t matter in which area or country you may live, or which area or country that you may choose to re-locate too, that old saying is still certainly so very true, ‘You can please some of the people some of the time, BUT, you cannot please all of the people all of the time 🤷‍♂️’

However, sometimes you are lucky enough, due to your own personal situation, and perhaps even because of the place where you may happen live, that you discover that most of the ‘external noise’ that is happening all around you, does not have any major impact on you and so, whilst you remain aware of it, you also learn to co-exist alongside it the best that you can.

So, to end this particular ramble I will just say, as we have run this year’s gauntlet with Spanish Bureaucracy, and come out the other end with another favourable result, (It was never in any real doubt, was it ?) so, Shazza and I, much like the 2026 ‘World Cup Trophy’ will not be ‘Coming Home, This Year’ 😂

Enjoy the rest of your Summer (or Winter) wherever you may happen to be in the world reading this 👍

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

Just a bit of a pre-warning before you do get stuck into reading this particular ramble, ‘It could be a long read’ so best go and prepare yourself a large flask of coffee and, dependent on what part of the day you may be reading this, either a hearty breakfast, a picnic lunch or a generous supper 🤭

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We left home at 09:50, a little earlier than we would normally do when we were just going down to our local beach, perhaps subconsciously we just needed to take a ‘full day’ off from all the hour’s and days of bureaucratic procedures that we were currently trying to wade through, for some reason it seemed much more intense than previously and, we were both aware that there would still be yet more hour’s, and days spent dealing with it, before we could finally settle back into our much more now accustomed relaxed lifestyle. Although, it didn’t help that I had also become aware that I also needed to sort out another bureaucratic issue, this time with the UK HMRC who keep getting my personal tax arrangements wrong, and of course not in my favour. This was the same issue that, I wrongly believed, had been sorted out last Summer when they had to refund me quite a substantial sum in overpayment of tax, but they had not amended my tax records for the current, or future, tax year’s. It would certainly be a bit of an understatement to say that we were both becoming more and more frustrated with each passing day recently, ‘When it rains, it pours’, as the saying goes. So sometimes you just have to disconnect from all of it, force yourself to take a break and allow yourself to take a deep breath to re-set your equilibrium, to re-gain the motivation to continue to fight for the life that we feel that we have worked so hard to achieve.

Armed with our reclining sun chairs, sun umbrellas, bottles of chilled water and a sandwich for our lunch, we were all set up by 10:05am on our favourite stretch of beach, having made a land grab for our personal bit of waterfront territory, with the car, parked in our normal ‘free’ car park, less than 30 metres away, and with the sea a little more than 6 metres from our toes 😎 We arrived to a near empty beach, there were just a couple of other early arrivals, but just how long it would stay that way we didn’t know, neither did we really care, we had got our position, so everyone else would just have to fit in around us if it got that busy, however, spoiler alert, it didn’t, probably because it is still too early in the season for the bulk of the visiting tourists.

The sea conditions were not exactly what you would call flat calm, more a case of generally light swells, with the occasional larger rogue waves sweeping in now and again, just to keep things interesting of course, one of which just happened to wipe Shazza out on one occasion, much to my amusement I do have to confess 🤭 She re-appeared, swept her hair back and just resumed her swimming as if nothing had happened 🤷‍♂️ The sun was already high in the sky and the temperature felt very hot, although it was only 24 degrees(c) when we had initially arrived, but it was forecast to rise to nearer 32 degrees(c) by midday 🥵 Fortunately though, their was a light Easterly breeze, blowing in from across the sea, which kept it pretty bearable although it didn’t really matter to me, for as you probably know by now, I do not do ‘Solar Basting’, so I was more than happy to remain under the shade of my umbrella, keeping a watch for Shazza to ensure that she did keep re-surfacing from between the tall swells that, every few seconds, hid her from my view. But on this particular day I was also on the lookout for the tell tale shape of a large black fin, which would alert me to the predator that may now be lurking somewhere out there in the deep, which could quite possibly have had Shazza for lunch, before she had even had a chance to take a bite out of her own 🫣 Yes, you may think that I am being alarmist but I did actually have a very good reason for this, for that very morning I had read an article, in one of the usual daily ‘Doom & Gloom’ publications 😲 (Turn on scary theme music to the movie ‘Jaws’)

Now okay it was after all only the one confirmed recent sighting of a Great White in our waters, and that was actually quite a substantial distance away, the sighting being off the coast between Sicily and Tunisia, but in reality, the Mediterranean is just one large circular bay, and large predators like these can travel very many miles in a relatively short period of time. Also, I had not forgotten about the Hammerhead Shark sighting in a much closer Spanish Harbour to us last year ? Or the Pod of Orcas that are still attacking boats off the Spanish and Portuguese Coastlines and, if those few encounters aren’t enough to cause some concern, then there were also these……………

Now I feel rather certain that all of the Marine Biologists, well okay, perhaps only those that do research in this part of the Mediterranean, will be ‘wetting their pants in excitement’ at all of this positive news around the increase in the bio-diversity that is happening in our waters. But I bet they are not giving a single thought about some of us normal beachgoers, who may actually be suffering from doing much worse things in our pants, just at the thought of actually coming face to face with any of these dangerous sea creatures, just to clarify that statement, I mean coming face to face with the ‘creatures of the sea’ and not the marine biologists 😂 Yes I can actually hear them all now, the young marine biologists and not the sea creatures, having spent years on years of doing several Marine Biology University courses, which would have no doubt involved numerous late night sessions in the Student Union Bar, funded of course by the bank of Mummy and Daddy, but now being able to confidently say to them, in some sort of triumphant and jubilant manner no doubt, “See, I told you it would be worth all ‘your’ expense one day” 😂

Okay Yes, I have digressed yet again haven’t I ? Best I get back to the script before you, my reader’s, start having nightmares about the terrors that lurk beneath the waves 🫣 I can just hear some parents already saying to their ‘Little Darlings’, “No Tommy, we are not taking you and your sister to the beach today, it is far too dangerous, but look, instead of that, we are taking you zip-lining across a gorge that has a 1,000ft drop, then some nice bungee-jumping off a suspension bridge, far safer and much more exciting than the beach my Little Darlings” 😂😂

So okay, where was I 🤔…..Oh yes, we are at the beach and, whilst Shazza was playing with the sharks, in the waves, I had momentarily taken the opportunity to indulge in a moment of ‘personal contemplation’, should anything untoward have happened to my beloved, I was certain that I would have recognised her unmistakable blood curdling screams 🤭 So there I was, just leisurely ‘contemplating’, as I often do, it would have been rude of me not to with all this peacefulness that surrounded me. I was not sleeping you understand, although I admit that I may have been resting my eyelids whilst I partook of this contemplation opportunity. As I lay there, eyes closed, I could hear the sounds of the waves as they broke onto the shoreline a very short distance from where I was sat, it reminded me of the sounds that I have heard very many times, whilst watching my favourite ‘real life adventure’ sailing videos on ‘You Tube’, it was a very similar sound to that of a yacht’s bow cutting effortlessly through the water, the swell of the waves gently lapping on to the sides of the hull as it did so and then, well it just sort of happened really, it was as if I had been beamed up out of my sun chair and transported, right into the wheelhouse of ‘my yacht’, where I was navigating myself across one or other of the world’s Oceans. Now perhaps I should just say at this point that the particular yacht that I speak of, is actually very real, and believe me when I tell you that I know virtually every inch of it, it’s upper decks, bow to stern, the rear capacious cockpit, the internally protected wheelhouse, and down below, the Salon, Galley, Cabins, Heads and Engine Room, for I have studied all areas of that particular vessel in great detail, from the numerous photographs that I have of it. The only imaginary bit, is me actually owning it, but in my imagination, that bit really is quite irrelevant 😂

“Are you asleep ?”, the instantly recognisable voice said, as I was jolted back into the real world, it was like the bubble of pleasurable fantasy that I had been in, had quite suddenly been burst and so, there I was, back in my sun-chair on the beach 😢 Damn it, and there I was just about to drop the anchor in a deserted bay off an uninhabited tropical island. ‘No, I was just listening to the sound of the waves” I responded, well she would only have made one of her ‘Tutting sounds’ at me if I had told her where I had actually been, even if it was only in my own vivid imagination 🙄 It had been fairly quiet on our stretch of beach that morning, with no more than a handful of other couple’s on it, different to a day or so earlier, on the Saturday evening when we had walked passed it, when at 7pm it was still jam packed, but we weren’t complaining, for we do tend to like a bit of our own space, as I feel sure that you probably already know 😉 “Time for lunch, I’m starving” she said, so we sat, eating our pre-prepared sandwiches just people and boat watching.

There are some ‘water toys’ that almost silently creep into your vision, such things as paddle-boards, sea kayaks or canoes, but then there are other’s which you can hear, long before they come into sight, the tell tale sounds of the Jet-Ski’s, and a group of five appeared, playing follow my leader, heading off in one direction after they had first crawled out of the marina at snail’s pace, before then entering the open water and then letting rip, full throttle, then, some time later, they came flying past again with their plumes of water behind them shooting high into the sky, as they headed in the opposite direction, that was until their play time was over and they returned, the engines purred rather than roared, as they drifted at snails pace, back into the marina. I observed one of the ‘Dolphin Trip’ boats come and go, several times, but fully laden each time with it’s passengers in their orange high-vis floatation aids, they don’t call them Life-Jackets these days on pleasure trips as it conjures up the wrong sort of images. However, at €40 each for their one-hour trip, let’s just hope that they at least got to actually see some dolphins. One reviewer of such a trip declared that she had seen ‘Hundreds’ on her particular one-hour trip, but if I have told her once, I must have told her a million times, to stop exaggerating 😂 The ‘Guardia Civil’ helicopter also flew right across the top of us on a couple of occasions, following the coastline, no doubt looking for ‘Illegals’ who were probably attempting to come to Spain to apply for the ‘Migration Regularisation Programme’ 🤭 Perhaps, with the weather and visibility being so good, they may also have been looking for the high speed drug boats, who make their illicit transfers ‘at sea’, or perhaps, as this was the same Agency that processes our Visa Renewals, maybe they were sent out just to confirm that we were actually living in the country (Sarcasm does not become you Eric, as my mother would say to me) 😂 There were the usual array of other vessels, either coming and going from our own marina and also those, that were a little further out, either on their way, or returning from, who knows where 🤷‍♂️ I enjoy coming down to the beach and spending hours, just silently observing the comings and the goings, there are lots of people watching opportunities here too and, apart from Mondays, when a lot are closed, their are a number of nearby Cafe/Bars open if ever we fancied not bringing our own lunch.

By 2pm, the wind had changed direction and was blowing from the South-East, this seemed to impact on the strength and much greater frequency of the waves, far too choppy to swim in safely, enough to deter even certain Little Mermaids from wanting to do battle with them, so we gathered our possessions and went home. It wasn’t long before we were once again sat on the balcony of our apartment with a nice hot cuppa, French doors and side windows fully open, Shazza sat reading a book whilst I chose to just gaze out of the windows and watch the world go by, it had been a lovely day of doing absolutely nothing.

The following morning, and whilst I could perhaps understand why Shazza was suffering with sunburn on her arms and shoulders, I couldn’t work out why my shoulder’s had got burnt, I had been under a sun umbrella the majority of the time 🤷‍♂️ Anyway, our planned day by the pool had to be put on the back burner and we opted instead to drive in to nearby Estepona, well we needed to get our photographs taken for our forthcoming new TIE Cards anyway, we knew that we could get them done in the large ‘Carrefour’ supermarket, our local photo-shop in our own town, where we usually get these done, had closed down since we last needed to use it. Shazza hadn’t needed anything from our Organic Fruit & Veg farm, so this time we drove straight in to Estepona, well our usual place on the outskirts just opposite the Carrefour supermarket. We had however planned to walk from the Carrefour, along the promenade and into Estepona Town, around a twenty-minute walk, but when we got out of the lovely coolness of our air-conditioned car, the external temperature showed that it was already nearly 28 degrees(c) and the hot blast of dry sticky heat hit us, so we got our photo’s and took a ‘rain check’ on the walk into the town. We drove back to our own smaller town, parked up and made our way to the Central Plaza, the location of another one of our favourite Cafe/Bars, but this one was shaded from the rays of the searingly hot sunshine, and more importantly, to us, it served lovely ‘well filled’ sandwiches, and of course they too could supply me with my mandatory Anti-Covid medication 🤭 The Plaza is a great place to watch other people go about their own daily routines, the tradesman collecting supplies from the ‘Ferreterias’, (Small DIY shops), the shoppers, in and out of the ‘Fruiterias’, ‘Pastalerias’ (Bread & Cakes) Tabac’s (Newsagents and cigarettes) etc. etc. People armed with their beach equipment heading both to, and from, the seafront as well as watching, and listening, to our fellow Cafe/Bar customer’s, the only foreign conversation heard were our own, never mind all the ‘Pay To View’ TV Channels these days, this leisurely activity is the real readily available ‘Free to View’ entertainment.

The following morning, after having had a very nice couple of days relaxation, the bureaucratic business once again reared its ugly head. We became aware, through Spanish media articles and Spanish social media channels, that there were a lot of people, throughout the whole of Spain, who were in a similar situation to ourselves, many were having no luck with obtaining official appointments to do the second bit of the process, which was to apply for the TIE Residency Renewal Permits, apparently, there were just no appointments available ! The few that were actually reporting that they had managed to secure appointments were saying, that although they had been successful, those appointments were for weeks, even months, in advance with some declaring that by then their current Residency Permits would have expired. So my obvious question, to our Solicitors, was ‘What would happen, even though we now had renewed Visas permitting us to remain in Spain for a further 2 year’s, if we could not get an appointment to apply to renew our TIE Cards, before they expired ?’ The answer was that we would still have 90 days (The Schengen Visa Free Period), after the expiry date, but ‘they’ felt confident that we would get appointments before then although they had no ‘priviledged access route’ into the appointments system and had to use the same database that the rest of the public were using 😲 Now a little bit of additional research by ourselves revealed that you can access this online database in two ways, using a Digital ID, or without a Digital ID, although having a Digital ID does not necessarily give you any greater advantage, other than providing you with access to some ‘Immigration Offices’, that will only accept appointment requests through the Digital ID channel, but in our Province that was only two Immigration Offices. Now I am not going to bore you with anymore rambling on the subject of these Digital ID’s, but suffice to say, we did actually have them, one each as it happened, which we had forgotten that we had organised when we initially registered to live here in Spain, but we never really knew what they were for, or how to use them, as our Solicitors always dealt with the official stuff on our behalf 🤷‍♂️ So, armed with this new information, we learnt how to use our Digital ID’s and this gave us access to the Immigration Department Website where we could ‘attempt’ to book our own TIE renewal appointments as well as having our Solicitor also trying to obtain appointments on our behalf.

We put the access to the Immigration websites, via our Digital ID’s, to immediate use, only to discover that even with it, it is an extremely laborious process. We also discovered, that whilst these TIE Residency Cards are physically the same, no matter which part of Spain that you reside in, you can only apply to renew them at an Immigration Office ‘within’ the Province that you actually resided in, so although we were elated, after spending hour’s of searching for available appointments, when we came across two available appointments, both on the same day, and available in just three weeks time, at an Immigration Office in ‘La Linea’, just thirty-minutes drive away from our home, but then disappointed when we couldn’t book them, because that office is actually across the Border in the Cadiz Province 😤 For seven days, including the weekend, literally morning, noon and night and all periods in-between, Shazza and I kept trawling through the appointments availabilities on all offices within the ‘whole’ Province of Malaga, but we kept getting the same responses, ‘No Available Appointments At This Time’ 🥺

The problem we were encountering was probably more due to the timing of our renewals date which unfortunately also happened to be during the recent introduction of the amnesty period for ‘Illegal Migrants’ to apply for a one year Spanish Visa and Residency Permit. That window of opportunity for them was a three month period between 1st Apr- 30th Jun. The Spanish Government had anticipated that there could be up to half a million ‘Illegal Migrants’ currently living in Spain who would be applying during this amnesty period, they were in for a big shock !

Although we had taken a couple of days off from our search for appointments, we had actually still been trying first thing in the mornings and during the evenings. The start of a new week arrived, Shazza for once was up before me and had started looking at 07:45, commencing as we always do with the Immigration Offices nearest to us, however, it was the same old story ‘No available appointments’, we were pretty much despondent by now as all the other offices up and down our coastline continued to reflect the same responses 🤷‍♂️ But then, we couldn’t believe our luck when we logged in on our next round of attempts, to the Immigration Office in Malaga City, two appointments within 15 minutes of each other came up 😲 Now you have to apply for these appointments using your own personal Digital ID, so she booked one appointment for herself and I quickly booked the other, YES ! YES ! There were no words to express the relief that we both felt right at that moment. Within a matter of seconds of completing the appointments bookings on-line we both received our ‘Official Confirmations’, one by text message on our phones and another via Email. Of course we were absolutely elated but, in our haste to book them, as you only have five minutes in which to complete the appointments reservation procedure otherwise the opportunity ‘times out’, so we were in somewhat of a hurry to annotate all our details on the form, however, in that haste we had not actually checked the dates of these appointments, were they for next week, next month, the month after 🤷‍♂️ We went back to look at our appointment confirmations and to say that we were totally gobsmacked would be an understatement, they were not for next week, or the week after, or for the following month no, these appointments were both for the following day, one at 11:15am and the other at 11:30am 😲 We immediately contacted our Solicitor’s and informed them of our good fortune, but could they have all the documents ready for us to collect from their offices that same day, as we needed to leave early the following morning to drive into the City and find a parking space close to where we needed to be ? Other than the usual documentation, there was also a little matter of the Application Form and Fee, which had to be paid at a bank with an official receipt issued, this had to be presented along with the rest of our documents. Of course they could they said, and they would also arrange with their Malaga Office to have a member of staff meet us at the Immigration Office, in order to provide translation services, if required.

We attended our appointments, suffice to say that there were delays with even our supposedly ‘pre-booked’ appointment times, and we found that we were delayed by nearly an hour before we were each sat, individually, and at different desks, in front of our respective Immigration Officers. These delays were purely down to the large number of people who were queuing outside to do exactly the same thing as ourselves. The procedure itself actually took no more than 5 minutes 🤷‍♂️ the Officer’s checked that all our documents were in order, re-took our fingerprints and then handed us the duly stamped form to confirm that we had renewed our Residency Permits, just in case we were stopped by the Police for any reason, who would note that the dates on our current cards had expired. We will have to make a further appointment to go and collect our new physical cards when they are ready, in around 4 weeks time, but our relief that we were now ‘officially’ legal residents once again was almost tangible.

Interestingly enough, Hannah, the Para-Legal that met us at the Immigration Office, stated that we had been extremely lucky, as she had been trying for nearly three months to get TIE renewal appointments for two of her clients who reside in the Province of Granada 😲 Perhaps, we said to ourselves afterwards, those client’s were not aware that they didn’t have to rely solely on her to obtain the appointments on their behalf, and that they could have attempted to do it for themselves as we had just done. Just how long we ourselves may have had to wait, if we had left it completely up to them to obtain them, would have been interesting, as we knew that they could not spend all day just trawling the different Immigration Websites, they had other clients who required use of their ‘other’ legal services and of course, other client’s trying to get appointments for Initial Residency Visas and Residency Permits, as well as those like ourselves requiring renewals, so where would we have been in the pecking order of their priorities 🤔

We rarely visit the bright lights of the city, although we have done so on several occasions for different reasons, either visiting with friends and relatives or when we have to have our car serviced, for this is where the nearest dealership to us is located, so we did very briefly consider staying and looking around, as we were already here and had secured a ‘free’ parking space with no time limitations but, it would be a forty-minute walk into the heart of the centre and the seafront and, with midday temperatures already at 36 degrees(c), neither of us fancied trawling around just for the hell of it. To be honest, it was also as if a pressure valve had been released and, whilst we both felt jubilant and a great sense of relief, we also felt mentally and physically drained, we just wanted to get out of the extremely noisy and busy city, back to our much quieter environment and familiar surroundings, and of course back to the sanctuary of our home.

My own personal feeling of elation and relief was soon short-lived though, for I knew that I now had to sit down and commence my call to the UK HMRC Tax Office to sort out their administrative failings. Fortunately, my initial call was answered within 15 minutes, in the past such calls were not answered for over an hour, ‘must be my lucky week for good karma events’ I thought to myself. I spoke to a call handler, who of course wanted to know what I was calling about and then tried to give me ‘advice’ on why my tax ‘may have looked’ as if it wasn’t correct. I quite politely advised her that I already knew why my tax payments were incorrect and that it was in fact ‘their error’. She then re-directed me to ‘Brenda’, in the ‘Manchester Office’, who listened attentively to my very detailed, and pre-orchestrated dialogue, providing full dates and financial information, some from my own facts and figures but also from my personal financial and tax data obtained from their own official on-line records. It became obvious to me that whilst listening to the information that I was divulging to her, she was, at the same time, checking these details against my tax records on a screen in front of her. She was a very pleasant lady who confirmed, almost immediately, after listening to me and checking my records, that an error had in fact been made by them and confirmed what we both already knew, that I had been paying too much tax since April of this year. She confirmed, as we spoke, that she was amending my records and my tax code, so that I would not have to keep making this ‘Annual’ phone call (That bit is yet to be seen to be believed) and that the overpayments from April would be refunded. She was true to her word as far as amending my records were concerned, as the following day I received a notification through the official Government HMRC website, that my tax code had been amended and that my State Pension had been removed from any further UK Tax Liability (Although of course I do still pay tax on it, but to the Spanish Tax Authority and, at a higher rate than I would do in the UK, but at least now I am not being double taxed on it). I am now just waiting to be issued with the refund. All in all though, getting both these issues resolved, it has turned out to be somewhat of a rather productive and fruitful week, so Shazza and I can now get back to the more ‘uncomplicated and relaxed lifestyle’ that we have become accustomed to although, I have to admit that, recently there have been many occasions when I have said to Shazza that, personally speaking, ‘It Would Feel Easier To Just Give Up ! Perhaps I am just getting too old, and beginning to lack the patience, tolerance and motivation for us to keep fighting the fight to live the best lives here that we can, but on this occasion I am glad that we did. However, in two year’s time, when I am another two years older and into my 70’s, when it comes to the time to apply for our ‘Permanent Residency’, I am not sure whether I will have the energy or motivation to go into battle with Spanish Bureaucracy once again 🤷‍♂️ I do appreciate that Shazza and myself are ‘Foreign Immigrants’ living here in Spain and that there are procedures that have to be undertaken, it would be the same for any other foreign country that we may have chosen to live in, and the same for those ‘Immigrants’ who choose to want to live in the UK, we are no different to them, but perhaps, when all is said and done, and for all its imperfections, there actually is no place like home.

The Fiesta season is well and truly upon us, just a couple of weeks ago it was the local Manilva International Communities Festival. This last weekend (13-14 June) was the annual ‘Gay Pride’ festivities, which is actually quite a good atmosphere with street parades, various stalls selling a multitude of products, a large stage with ‘Live Acts’ performing, and of course plenty of flowing liquid refreshments throughout the day and night and, just by way of confirmation, being a member of that particular persuasion is not mandatory 😂

Then, on the 23rd June, it is the big festival of ‘San Juan’, which goes on from early evening on the 23rd until around 4:00am the following morning. At midnight (23rd June) they burn the large structure that has been built on the beach, in previous year’s the theme has been related to Nursery Rhymes but, as yet, the base structure is just being erected so we do not know what this year’s theme will be.

A few weeks after the ‘San Juan’ festival it will be the, ‘La Luna’ festival, a similarly large celebration, well the Spanish do love to party and they need little excuse to hold one. We have actually attended each of these annual events several times over the last eleven year’s we have owned our property here, so whether we will attend all, or any, of this year’s events, will be one of those on the spur of the moment decisions and, if we do, well you already know that I ‘may’ just write a line or two about them 🤭

So yes, it has been a bit of a turbulent few weeks for us personally, but upon reflection, as I once again find myself sat here on my sun-drenched balcony contemplating it, after partaking of our usual morning walk, which is conducted slightly earlier these days due to the heat, but each time we have encountered bureaucratic issues we have always seemed to get through them in the end, albeit after a few irritations and frustrations. However, the reality is, that we now have another two years to continue to enjoy the lifestyle that living in Spain has provided us with, with of course the occasional bumps in the road, here and there 🙄

So, on that thought, and until my next ramble……………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena (once again)

I am not one who ‘generally’ tends to allow myself to worry about things that I have no control or influence over, you my reader’s will probably have got sick of hearing me quote that particular statement within these rambles over and over again. However, when you have moved your whole life from your natural ‘home’ country to live a new life in a ‘foreign’ country, one in which you have to keep applying to renew your residency Visa every few year’s in order to permit you to continue to do so, then that philosophy can, at times, go flying out of the window 😲.

After gaining our initial Visa and Residency Permit three year’s previously, we then had to go through our first renewal just a short twelve months later. It is actually a two part process, first you have to apply to the Immigration Authorities to approve the renewal of your Visa, for without this approval you cannot apply to renew your actual ‘Residency Permits’ (TIE) and, if that Visa approval is not forthcoming then, when it expires, you have 90 days in which to leave the country 😲 Unless of course you are an ‘Illegal Migrant’ who have been living, and/or working, in the country for a number of year’s under the radar, and then you just have to sit and wait for an Amnesty period to be announced 🤷‍♂️ Why pay thousands of pounds using the ‘Legal’ route these days, I am seriously beginning to wonder because, it appears that you are more likely to experience more and more rules and procedures for being a law abiding citizen 🤷‍♂️

Our first renewal period, in June 2024, was a bit of an anxious time, but only because it was the first time that we had gone through it, and so we were unsure of the actual processes and procedures, or the timelines involved, although we were using the services of our Spanish Solicitor’s and, as it happened, the anxieties that we had, at that particular time, proved to be unnecessary, as the two separate processes went seamlessly and were completed without any issues, all within a short four week time frame.

So here we are, two year’s later, and it is time to go through what would be the last ‘Tempory Residency’ renewal process, for after this one, in June 2028, we would have completed our mandatory five-year ‘Temporary Residency’ period and could then apply for our ‘Permanent Residency’. Although that word ‘Permanent’ is a bit misleading, because in respect of Spanish “Foreign Residents’ Visa’s, the so called ‘Permanent’ one’s still currently have to be renewed after every 5 year period 🤷‍♂️ Although, there are mutterings amongst the grapevine, that these 5 year renewals could be extended to every 10 years 🤞However, the grapevine is often not an Official medium for accurate information.

Now you can only apply sixty days in advance of the Visa expiry date to renew them, so, on the 15th April we commenced the process of applying to renew both our Visa’s, and Residency Permits (TIE Cards), but this time we actually felt quite relaxed about it, and you know what happens when you do that, yes, the ‘Dark Forces’ have their beady eyes on you 🙄 As I am sure you would expect by now, of course ‘yes’, me and my OCD Buddy were already prepared, we had all of the documentary evidence ready, the stuff that was officially required and which our Solicitor’s had confirmed to us that we needed. They then confirmed that our Visa renewal applications had been submitted digitally by them and so, all we had to do was sit and wait for the approval confirmation, before we could then proceed to Stage two. They also assured us that we would not be caught up in the delays currently being experienced by the recent introduction of the Spanish Governments ‘Migrant Regularisation Programme’, the one that was currently in operation between the 1st April and 30th June. This was an Amnesty period directed towards those who had been living, and/or working, ‘Illegally’ in Spain and it was estimated that there could be in the region of half a million undocumented ‘Illegal Immigrants’ 😲 However, for ourselves who didn’t fit into that category, as we had paid thousands of pounds taking the ‘Legal’ Residency route, so all we had to do was wait until our ‘routine’ Visa renewal applications were confirmed. On receiving that confirmation, our Solicitor’s would then move to Stage two of the process, this would involve them securing appointments for us to attend ‘in person’ at our local Guardia Civil Immigration Dept, in Estepona to submit our applications for the renewal of our physical Residency Permits (TIE Cards). Our current Residency Visas were due to expire on 13th June, so we had commenced the process in good time on 15th April.

We started to get a little nervous when, just three weeks before our Visas were due to expire, we received notification that the Immigration Dept were now demanding evidence that we had in fact been living in Spain over the last year 😲 This had not been part of the previous Visa renewal process, so we had not prepared for it and now, with the clock ticking and time rapidly running out, we had to ask how they wanted us to prove that 🤷‍♂️ Those communications ate into another two days of our rapidly dwindling time frame. They wanted ‘Official’ Bank Statements from both our Spanish and UK Banks, and that wasn’t as straightforward as you may imagine. For the Spanish Bank Statements, no of course we couldn’t just go on-line and print off statements ourselves, that would be far too easy, no, they had to be done at the bank and each page, front and back, had to contain their official stamp, so we had to make an appointment to be able to do this, and of course, there were no appointments available for three days 😲 However, the Immigration people were happy to accept copies of our UK Bank Statements ‘without’ official stamps 🤷‍♂️ provided they were on official bank headed paper. Have I ever mentioned previously in these rambles about how frustrating Spanish Bureaucracy can be ?

We were in, and out, of our Spanish Bank within five minutes of our appointment and fortunately, the local branch of our Spanish Solicitor’s is in our local town, so we hot-footed it to their offices and handed them the documents, which they scanned and sent to the Immigration Department. Then all we could do was sit and wait, and wait, and wait and sweat it out as each day passed, with our Visa expiry date growing ever closer. So when I say in the future, “Do not worry about things that you are unable to Influence or Control”, bear in mind that there may be some exceptions to that philosophy, especially if the results of those ‘thing’s’ could have a major impact on your personal lives 😲 We had, through no fault of our own I hasten to add, given those evil ‘Dark Forces’ another opportunity to strike at us once again.

With less than one week left on our Visas, finally we received the ‘digital confirmation’ that our Visas Renewals had at last been approved 😮‍💨 That was, ‘Cutting It A Bit Too Fine For My Liking’. It should have been more of a joyous occasion than it actually was, so let me just describe it as a great relief (Massive Understatement). Unfortunately that news came on a Saturday morning, so we will have to wait until Monday to prompt our Solicitor’s to attempt to secure us our appointments to submit our TIE Card renewals. However, this is where the delays could really kick in, for the local Immigration Offices that are dealing with the ‘Routine’ Residency Card Renewal Applications, are one and the same as those also processing the ‘Migrant Regularisation Programme’ initial Residency Card issues, and they have not been provided with extra manpower to process this massive extra workload, so you do not have to be an overly intelligent person to realise that of course there were going to be inevitable delays, unless of course, miracles of miracles, our Solicitor’s manage to just happen to time it right with their request, and get us a relatively quick appointment confirmation, and ‘Pigs may fly’ is the immediate thought that sprung into my mind. Obviously, for practical everyday reasons, we would like to be in possession of our updated TIE Cards, as they also serve as our Spanish Identity Cards, but in reality, provided we did not need to travel outside of the Spanish Mainland, or needed an Official Service, they are not quite as important as the Visa’s, for it is the Visa’s that provides us with the proof that we are actually ‘Legal Residents’ for another two year’s. So now it is just another waiting game, but with a slightly little less stress and anxiety 😮‍💨

It raised another couple of questions in my mind about this ‘Migrant Regularisation Programme’ ? So let’s say you were one of those living here illegally, and potentially earning an undocumented income, or just living on UK Pensions (State and Private) and you decided to take this Amnesty opportunity and register as a Resident. Would the Spanish Authorities then come after you for ‘Tax Evasion’ 🤔 Even Brits, just living here on their UK Government State Pensions, as many do, although they possibly will not have been paying tax in the UK, if that were their only income, as it is under the Personal Tax Threshold, but under the ‘No Double Tax’ Agreement, as we ourselves discovered, the UK State Pension is, by agreement with the UK, taxed here in Spain and not in the UK and ‘With Ignorance Of The Law’ being no excuse, well that could be a very interesting point couldn’t it when it comes to the question of having declared it 🤔

The other question I ask myself is, in respect of the Financial Requirements for obtaining residency, under those requirements, we, legally have to prove that we have the annual income specified to obtain residency here, which is currently €36,000 per annum, for a couple. So, does that apply to those who register under this ‘Migrant Regularisation Programme’ ? Or perhaps it is once again a case of one rule for some, and another rule for other’s. It could be that it isn’t just the UK that has two tier standards, or are these questions that, as a legal but foreign resident, I shouldn’t be asking out aloud 😲

We now have no immediate plans to depart Spain, by choice or otherwise 🙄 Looking at some of the issues with doing so, it is probably a good job that we don’t plan on holidaying elsewhere within Europe at this moment in time either.

So, this ramble is really just an update on our Residency status, as I had mentioned it in a previous recent ramble, before there then being silence on the subject, and now you know why 🤷‍♂️ The next renewal for our ‘Permanet Residency’ status should also be interesting, well at least for you my reader’s, for on that one we need to prove that we have not been out of Spain for more than the permitted 10 month period during that first 5 year period, and then of course, any other surprise requirement that the Authorities decide to throw into the mix 😲

Just as a footnote, yes living here for the majority of the time is a truly wonderful privilege, and one that we both enjoy very much. However, there are frequent formal processes that have to be conducted and complied with, and they can, occasionally, create frustration and a degree of anxiousness. So I hope that through these rambles, documenting our ongoing lifestyle here, can also provide an insight into some of the other ‘things’ that have to be taken into consideration, it is not just about enjoying the heat and the sunshine, the beautiful Spanish scenery, the laying on beautiful beaches and swimming in azure coloured seas, or people watching whilst enjoying a ‘Cafe con Leche’ or perhaps even the occasional Anti-Covid Vaccine 🤭 Although, the reality is that, all of those above things that I have just mentioned, make the Bureaucratic aspects pale into insignificance.

Until my next ramble……………….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena (Well it is now 😂)

As I looked contentedly out of the passenger car window, it was a reminder for me, if one was actually needed, at just how diverse the landscapes are, here in the southern part of Andalusia. The Province of Cadiz stretches from the Mediterranean coast, on the East, with the Strait of Gibraltar to the South, and the Atlantic coast on the West. In between there are a combination of mountain peaks and lush green fields with views that spread out for miles as far as the eye can see, their are Natural Parks with thick forested areas and acre upon acre of Olive groves and orchards containing a wide abundance of different varieties of fruit, with the orange orchards being the easiest to distinguish from a moving car, for quite obvious reasons. We drove past reservoirs that are now full, although they had been as dry as a bone over the last couple of year’s, but now we see cattle and horses in the fields surrounding them and they are now able to wander and graze in the open fields and down to the waters edge where they can now drink their fill. Up along the mountain roads you have to take care as you will often come across herds of goats grazing on roadside bushes and see them up in the branches of trees nibbling on the more succulent leaves, the danger coming more from the stationery cars that have stopped on the road to take photographs of them. But these landscapes, whilst beautiful can also be a source of extreme danger in hot Summer months, when high temperatures, or carelessly discarded cigarettes, can ignite Wildfires which, when fanned by the strong winds can become infernos of heat in a matter of seconds, we have already suffered two of these in our region in the last couple of weeks, even before the temperatures pushed the mercury over the current 30 degree(c) mark, fortunately the authorities had responded quickly and soon had them under control, but it served as a timely reminder for us to check our route beforehand, Google maps now show where such wildfire outbreaks occur, we certainly wouldn’t have wanted to find ourselves heading towards one of these inferno’s.

So, some of you may very well be asking why am I commencing this ramble about being on a journey in the car 🤷‍♂️ Although probably the more logical question would be ‘Where were we travelling to ?’ Well I will get around to that, but first, to give this ramble some sort of context, I should tell you that this story actually started some three mornings earlier………………..

It was Friday the 22nd May, the morning had commenced just like any other, a slow leisurely start before going out on our normal daily walk. As is our normal routine, we had stopped at one of our favourite Cafe/Bars to enjoy our mid-walk refreshments and, because we had done enough chitter chattering during our walk, we sat in silence with our own thoughts and just enjoying the same marvelous views, whilst of course conducting our usual people watching routines, it would be rude to break this now ritual daily pastime. However, things were about to change, for out of the blue, Shazza breaks the silence between us, “We should go on a short mini-break” she announces, “That’s a good idea” I respond, “Where do you fancy going ?”, I enjoy mini-breaks but in truth I was really thinking that this was just going to be another one of those futuristic travel ideas, the ones we discuss but that rarely ever materialise into anything because, although we quite regularly have these conversations where we come up with numerous ideas, and locations, for potential trips they never actually come to fruition. We are both as guilty as each other for that, the simple reason being that neither of us can ever make a decision about where to go, or when 🤷‍♂️ But of course, I played the game and continued to elongate the conversation, well I suppose it did pass some time whilst enjoying the heat of the morning sunshine, and so I of course asked the next logical question, “When are you thinking of wanting to go on this mini-break ?”, but upon hearing her reply I couldn’t help but burst out laughing, “Well, I thought we could perhaps leave first thing on Monday morning”, she just gave me one of her ‘I am being serious’ looks, “Why are you laughing, we don’t have anything urgent that needs doing and how long does it take to pack a suitcase ?”. Now of course, my beloved was right, for a mini-break generally only means, in her mind, anything from a couple of days or, perhaps a whole week, but not anything much longer, not a major holiday, or anywhere outside of our immediate local area, say within just 2-3 hours drive, so we wouldn’t need to pack very much for just a few days. I tried to be gentle with my response, “Well ‘we’ my darling may be ready at such short notice but, as we don’t yet know where we want to go, let alone find accommodation, with vacancies, at such short notice, so I really do think that we may just have to allow a little more planning time”. She glanced me one of her ‘not very impressed’ looks and returned to silent mode. However, I knew better than to think that this would be the end of the matter and I could hear the cogs turning in her brain as we walked back to the car 🙄

So we returned home from our walk and sat, enjoying lunch on the balcony, but without mentioning anything to each other about our earlier ‘mini-break conversation’, but we were both sat, somewhat surreptitiously with our iPads, scrolling through ‘Google Maps’, looking for some sort of mini-break inspiration. I was thinking that we perhaps we should get away from the coast, somewhere up into the mountains where we could stay at one of the many rural B&B type ‘Fincas’, many of which have swimming pools, which would be an absolute necessity in the current temperatures 🥵, many of them will also provide Dinner in the evenings, if requested in advance. That, I thought, would be a much nicer relaxing break from our usual repetitive daily routines or 🤔 Perhaps we could visit one of the numerous inland villages, or towns, that we have not as yet visited, where we could just stay in a local rustic hotel, with a pool of course, but somewhere where we could perhaps venture out during the cooler morning periods if we felt the need, to visit some of the other small whitewashed villages and towns within that immediate local area and then spend the searingly hot afternoons lazing around the pool with a glass or two of something cold 🍺 Mmmmm 🤔 decisions, decisions……….. Shazza gave out a very loud ‘huff’, closed her iPad and picked up her Kindle, I knew that there were far too many options for her, especially with her not knowing exactly what it was that she was seeking, so she gave up looking, we have been here before on numerous occasions.

Whether it was divine intervention, or just plain good old serendipity, I really do not know but, after getting brain fog myself with all of the different opportunities available, and believe me, their were loads, my iPad ‘pinged’, informing me that I had an Email. It was out of sheer coincidence, and I have to say, damned good timing, that an advertising promotion Email, from the RIU Hotel Group, arrived in my ‘Inbox’ informing me of their latest worldwide availability offers. Now I should perhaps clarify for you that I have actually been a ‘loyalty card’ member of this Spanish owned hotel group for very many year’s, so they are quite regularly sending me promotional literature. They have some very nice 4* and 5* hotels, and resorts, all around the world and we have stayed in quite a number of them over the last 20 years, although, these occasions were mainly when we were still living and working in the UK, and those were primarily ‘Winter Sun’ holidays at different ‘Long Haul’ destinations, like Mexico, Jamaica, Tunisia and Egypt and usually for periods of 10-14 days. We do like RIU hotels and resorts, for they provide what are generally considered to be luxury, but without being overly ‘Posh’, we do both enjoy a bit of luxury, but definitely without all of the pomp and pretentiousness. Now it goes without saying really, but being a Spanish owned hotel group, they do also have several hotels and resorts within Spain, including Gran Canaria and the Baliarics, although, strangely enough, only a handful here on the mainland, and many of them are just hotels and not full resorts. We have stayed in one fairly local to us in ‘Nerja’, which is just three hours up the Costa del Sol coastline from us, and of course, very nice it was too. However, they do also have a large Hotel Resort location even closer to us, on the Atlantic Coast, just half an hour or so south of Cadiz, and the resort itself is only an hour and a half coast to coast car journey from us. However, we have considered this particular RIU beachfront resort location previously, but then always very quickly discounted it, as that particular resort is one of those large family fun one’s, the sort that attract scores of excited ‘Little Darlings’ running all over the place morning, noon and night, and of course being a resort, they have all of the associated kids entertainment programmes with the associated noise that comes with them, so obviously this would certainly not be the sort of place for a pair of ‘Old Wrinklies’ just looking for a little bit of peace, tranquility and relaxation 😳

However, I thought to myself that I may as well just look at the current offer at that location, just out of curiosity really, as you do. I was a little surprised, especially as it was the school half term holidays, that price wise it did actually reflect a very good deal for a 4* star resort on an “All-Inclusive’ package and with it being beachfront and seven on-site swimming pools, on-site restaurants, several bars and lounges and very importantly, on tentatively checking the availability dates, it confirmed that it had availability from the Monday through to Friday as we wanted. “Shazza, I may just have found somewhere, and not too far away, for us to go on that mini-break” I said. I verbally provided her with the essential information before passing her the iPad so that she could look at the images on the website. To be totally honest with you, I had expected her to pull a face and discount the suggestion, as she had done many times previously but, to my complete surprise she said, “Why not, it’s only for a few days”. So I logged on to their website, requested a sea-view room with balcony, and secure on-site parking for the car, just for the four night’s and the booking was confirmed almost instantaneously.

So, here we were, within just a few hours from when Shazza had first made the suggestion at the Cafe/Bar, we had actually made a decision and the booking was made and confirmed, bloody hell that was totally out of character for us 😁 Now all we had to do was relax over the weekend, throw a few items of clothing into our small suitcases, well not true actually, as my OCD Buddy would never let his military discipline do anything less than fold such items nicely and with precision 😂 Shazza on the other hand, who had never been anywhere near a military establishment, just threw her clothes in. But we didn’t really need to pack very much, swimwear for the lazy days around one of the seven on-site pools, a couple of pairs of decent dress shorts, and short-sleeved shirts, for the evening meals in the on-site restaurants, and for taking evening drinks in one of the many bar lounge areas. If we did want a change of scenery, or to get away from the noise of excitable Parents and their ‘Little Darlings’, we could always walk down to the long stretch of white sandy beach, which could be accessed from the back security gate in the garden area, or we could always take the car and visit other places in the area, along the coast, North or South or even drive inland.

Looking at the advance ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts for our time away, it looked like that particular coast was going to experience 33-36 degrees(c) and a minimum of 22 degrees(c) during the early hours, much the same as the heatwave currently effecting a lot of other locations elsewhere in Europe, so in reality I didn’t anticipate wandering much further than the swimming pools 🥵

We could not officially check-in until 3pm, but we decided to leave at 10am anyway, and make a stop en-route at the small hilltop town of Medina Sidonia, a place that we have often passed along this route, always intending to stop but never doing so. In fact, being only a one hour’s drive away we could have visited this town on just a short half day trip from home, but we had often just forgotten about it, out of sight out of mind, as the saying goes. But depending on how much of interest there was there, we could perhaps kill a couple of hour’s and have lunch before then heading to the hotel which would be only another hour’s drive away.

We pulled into a car park (Free Parking) just outside the entrance to the town, only a couple of minutes uphill walk and almost immediately we came across a side street Cafe/Bar, the type that Shazza refers to as ‘Old Men’s Bars’, meaning a place that is utilised generally only by the locals and not tourists, and not just by ‘Old Men’ I hasten to add. We went inside to the small, but busy, inner sanctum and were greeted by the usual ‘Buenas Dias’ without heads lifting or eyes moving from the newspapers they were reading whilst consuming their coffee’s, beers or second breakfast’s, we of course responded in the usual manner. The bar area was busy but the man behind the counter looked at us and nodded, an acknowledgement that he had seen us and would take our order once he had finished doing whatever it was that he was currently engaged in. He then looked up at me, “Dos Cafe con Leche” I said, he nodded and motioned for me to find a seat, he would bring it to us when he had prepared it, “Cuanta Cuesta” I enquired, “Tres” he responded and I left the money on the counter and we went outside and we sat at a table, a few moments later two piping hot cups of coffee were delivered, “Muchas Gracias” I said, ‘Dinada” came the response. We smile at each other because when you are learning how to speak a language, any language, it is always in complete formal and grammatically correct sentences, but the reality, especially here in Spain, is that they do not waste breath on superfluous unnecessary words and, if you use them, you just stand out as being a tourist 😂

In the height of Summer the central Plaza would be full of tables and chairs belonging to the adjacent Cafe/Bars that sit on the roadside opposite the Plaza, but it was extremely windy on the day of our visit (40mph gusts) and although the sun was shining and it was already in the high twenty something’s, being at the top of a hill, believe me that wind made walking challenging at times. it was a Monday, unfortunately closing day for a lot of the retail establishments but nevertheless, we strolled along the pedestrianised street that naturally followed on from the Plaza. We looked in the windows of the artisan stores, no big corporate branded stores here, but the town had everything you would need on a daily basis if you lived here, two Banks, three Pharmacia’s, Butcher’s, Baker’s ( Although we didn’t see any Candle Stick Makers 🤭), Fishmongers, even a small interior market hall with its own cafe. Medina Sidonia also has castle ruins further up the hill, and although they would certainly have provided superb 360 degree views of the surrounding countryside, they are only ruins, so we decided not to bother and just weaved our way in and out of the narrow cobbled streets.

It didn’t take us long to see everything their was to see here, well, apart from the castle ruins that is, so it was still too early for lunch so we made the decision to make our way to the hotel, we could always leave our suitcases in the car in their car park and hopefully find somewhere to eat nearby, until the official check-in time.

We pulled up outside the large hotel reception area a little before 12:30 and was greeted by a very friendly and smiley female concierge (Or should that be Conciergess 🤔), she told us that we could off load our suitcases and leave them in the large internal lobby area whilst we parked in the secure official car park across the road. After parking the car we went inside, to see if we could leave our suitcases in a store room until check-in time, again, we were greeted by another friendly female member of the RIU staff, she was a pre-check in representative and provided us with lots of information on the resort facilities, before directing us to the main reception desk, where we expected to be told that we were too early. However, another very friendly and smiley female took our TIE Cards (Spanish Resideny Identity Document), checked her computer and informed us that our room was ready 😲 After a very swift check-in procedure we were handed our Electronic Room Key Cards, two Pool Towel Cards and a Resort Map which contained one of those ‘QR Code’ things which would provide us with all the information that we may require during our stay. She said we could leave our suitcases and they would be delivered to our room for us, we declined the kind offer, after all they were only small ‘Cabin Bag’ size and were not heavy, plus they were on wheels. It felt a longish hot walk to find the accommodation block that we were in, although in reality, once we had familiarised ourself with the resort facilities it wasn’t as large as it first appeared. Fortunately, we were accommodated in a two-storey block of only twenty rooms, away from the noise of the pools and entertainment facilities, whether this was by design when they saw that we were just a couple with no kids, and being of a certain ‘senior’ age group, I don’t know, but it could not have been more perfect. The room was on the second floor and was immaculately clean, and large, and when I stepped onto the large balcony, complete with two chairs and a small table, it looked over a side garden out to sea, this was the RIU standards that we had previously become accustomed to, we both looked at each other with big beaming grins on our faces, we immediately felt that we were on holiday and that we could have been at a resort anywhere in the world, it brought back very many happy memories, RIU had not disappointed once again. But even better than that was the fact that we could go and take lunch in the buffet restaurant 😋😋😋

Anyway, you will be pleased to know at this point of the ramble, that I am not going into a day by day account of what we did, which wasn’t that much to be completely honest, each day we ate, we drank, we lazed around the pool and we enjoyed the evening entertainment, rinse and repeat, the perfect mini-break and one which, once again, just goes to prove, especially to us, that we should not judge a book by its cover 🙄

So, all in all, okay we had only really changed one set of regular daily routines for another ‘Temporary Change Of Daily Routines’, but they do say after all, that a change is as good as a rest, and we can concur with that wholeheartedly. Whilst we initially intended to keep somewhere close to our healthy diet regimes, and to be honest, with the wide variety of food available, to suit all dietary requirements, so it would have been easily possible to have kept to them, but in truth, the temptations away from them proved just too great to resist, even for Shazza 😂 We do not usually like being where there are large groups of people in a confined area, but we had no worries about contracting any rogue bacterial infections, as we both well and truly overdosed on the wide variety of Anti-Virus Medications that were freely available 🫣🤪

Even though this had only been somewhat of a short mini-break, the days had just flown by so quickly, a sure sign that we had both actually truly enjoyed ourselves but to be honest, we were both ready for home now, if only to detox 😂 It had been a bit like a busman’s holiday in one respect, exchanging one beachfront location for another, but at least for Shazza, much more than myself, she had had a well deserved break from planning menu’s and then preparing and cooking meals, here that was all taken care of for her. But it did confirm something that, in reality, we already knew, and that is that we are no longer the sort that can be away from home for long periods of time, these shorter mini-breaks are much more enjoyable, for we have become home birds and, as Miguel and Katya, our Spanish neighbours keep telling us, whenever they return from their Camper-Van trips, “You go on a holiday, and then you come back to your own permanent holiday location”, and they are so right.

Even whilst we were on this current mini-break holiday we started to discuss doing a similar thing elsewhere in Spain, even if that did mean considering the RIU establishments on the other Spanish Islands. However, it would not stop us from trying other similar hotel groups either, we have already stayed at a couple of the Spanish ‘Parador’ group of hotels, although they are extremely expensive just for the accommodations, without any meals included, and they also tend to be in isolated locations so you do need a car. But I still have a yearning to do the ‘Finca’ experience so who knows 🤷‍♂️

We had breakfast at the hotel on our final morning and were still back at home before lunchtime. The temperatures here on the East Coast during the day are a little cooler, climbing to just 28 degrees(c), and a humid 22 degrees(c) at night, but we can certainly feel that 6-7 degree difference, but June is just around the corner and so those daytime temperatures will just keep climbing day by day, to anywhere between 35-40 degrees(c) by the time we reach July and August 🥵 Time I think to get ourselves down to our own on-site Pool and to also enjoy some sandy Beach day’s 🏖️ For now though, my OCD Buddy is pleased to be back to the more usual daily routines 🤗

Until the next ramble…………………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena 😉

I may have mentioned in my previous ramble that the days here were becoming much warmer and, although it is still officially Spring, it has felt as if Summer really is finally on its way. It has remained much the same pattern over the last three or four weeks since my last ramble, apart that is, from two or three consecutive days when it was unusually cloudy and overcast, but even then it had remained dry with temperatures hovering around the 20-22 degrees(c) mark, however, since the departure of that brief wayward weather system, it has been virtually wall to wall sunshine and, surprisingly, the mercury had even risen on one afternoon to 26 degrees(c), although to be honest, that sort of afternoon high is unusual at this particular time of year, even for this part of Southern Spain, but of course we were already preparing ourselves for we know that by the end of May the mercury is likely to regularly be showing daily temperatures of 30+ degrees(c), so whilst Shazza is building up her supply of Factor 50 sun cream, I will be stocking up with Anti-Hantavirus Vaccines, well you have to keep up with the changing bacterial threats don’t you 😂 Fortunately all of my usual suppliers maintain their stocks of these anti-viral medications 🍷🍷🍷

I have to be honest though, it is very nice to once again be able to sit on the balcony first thing in the morning with my coffee, watching the sunrise appearing at a little before 07:30am, with the daylight remaining until 9:30pm and so being able to also witness some beautiful sunsets. Having experienced the worst Winter here for the last ten years, where the mornings and evenings have certainly been far too cold to sit in my favourite room in the apartment, it now feels good to be back to some sort of normality and I am beginning to feel a lot like Keir Starmer, super-glued to my seat and unwilling to move 😂

We still find ourselves having to smile, if not bursting into fits of laughter, when we read both the daily and advance weather forecasts, for they never seem to be able to agree with each other, let alone get it anywhere near right, and so, just by way of yet another example, we were supposed to awake very recently to thunder and lightning and heavy rain, which would last, according to you know who 🤔 for a full 48 hours, whereas our much more reliable ‘Forrest Gump’ meteorological forecasting service, revealed blue sky and sunshine on each of those days. When I sit and reflect on it now, it seems that no matter where we may happen to have lived, be it in the UK, travelling in our Motorhome in our more nomadic days and even now, living here in Spain, no matter what the location the weather always seems to have an influence on our daily lives, either being too cold, too wet, floods, wildfires, too hot and even suffering prolonged droughts 🤷‍♂️ However, this ever changeable weather does provide certain ‘personal’ advantages for me, for without this ‘Works of Fiction’ subject, what else would I find to consistently ramble about 😂

We have also noticed, over the last week or so, that there is a much larger visible presence of Police in the area, and when I say larger presence I mean from there usually being literally no, or very little, visible presence to us now seeing, on a daily basis, lots of Police Officers (Policia Local, Policia National and Guardia Civil) on both foot and mobile patrols in the Marina and the Town, many more Police vehicles on the roads doing road side checks and even Guardia Civil Helicopters patrolling the coastal shorelines. At first we wondered if there had been a major incident in our locality, should we be concerned we wondered as we had seen nothing reported in either the local or national media 😲 Then it all became evidently clear for this increased presence, as we started to observe that certain Public Areas were also starting to be maintained, cracked paving tiles along the seafront promenade, which had been in a state of disrepair for the last couple of year’s, were now being replaced, many stretches of the main A7 Road in our immediate area were being fully re-surfaced, not just pot-holes being filled in, but was this not just scheduled work prior to the arrival of the new Summer Season’s tourist hoards 🤷‍♂️ Of course not, this recent increase in both the highly visible Police presence and the local Maintenance services, was due to one main event happening later in the month, which we became aware of by the large number of Advertising hoarding boards that had started to be erected, and covered with large posters with the faces of the Politicians representing the different Political Parties, yes of course, it was time for the Local And Regional Political Party Elections 🤷‍♂️ Once they were over, of course normal service would resume, the Police foot patrol officers would return to their air-conditioned offices within Police Stations, potholed-roads, that had not been repaired before the elections, would remain pot-holed, the cracked and broken pavements would remain cracked and broken, or perhaps that is just me being far too cynical again 🤔

However, apart from that, our own routine daily lives have just continued as normal and to be completely honest with you, it seemed a little pointless trying to pen a weekly ramble over the last three or four weeks as we really have not been up to very much, just the normal daily routines. We are of course still awaiting the outcome on our applications to renew our VISA’s and Residency Permits but we are not overly concerned about it, for as you know from my previous rambles around Spanish Bureaucracy, they rarely tend to do quick 🤷‍♂️ What is the worst that could happen 🤔 If, for whatever reason they choose to decline to extend our ‘Legal Immigrant’ status to reside here, then we will just remain here ‘Illegally’ for the next two years and then apply for ‘Official’ Residency status as ‘Illegal Migrants’, after all they are granting residency to half a million ‘Illegal Immigrants’ right now, so we may have a better chance using that route 😂

There is a heck of a lot of building works going on around us at the moment, a new nine Villa luxury complex at the bottom of the hill, each of these at a starting price advertised as being in excess of €880k, although the final price with Spanish Tax (IVA) and any other additional features (Swimming Pools, Luxury Kitchens & Bathrooms, Glass Curtained Balconies) that the new owner’s may wish to have included, will take the final price to over €1 Million, although there is not one new social housing development for the local populous included in any of the ongoing developments 🤷‍♂️ They have also just started putting in the foundations for another luxury Apartment complex, half way up the hill (or is it half way down 🤔) from our location and also, after a period of some two years of building Phases 1 & 2 of even more luxury Villas, they are now in the process of completing Phase 3, a complex of Luxury Apartments on the opposite side of the complex that is directly adjacent to us 🤷‍♂️ Fortunately, none of these new ‘Urbanisations’ will have any impact on our actual views, as they are all being built on land further down the hill, but the state of the roads, from all of the heavy construction traffic continuously driving back and forth over them, have left their scars 🤔 The main inconvenience for us is the noise from all of these construction sites, but more particularly, the amount of dust that is being created, our car exterior is constantly covered, on a daily basis, in a thin sheen of sand and construction dust, making washing it a pointless exercise 🤷‍♂️ However, every cloud has a silver lining as they say, and that is being reflected in the increase in the prices of existing properties that surround these new developments, which of course includes our own community of Apartments. However, as we have no intention of selling, we have not had a current valuation conducted on our own property although, our recent new neighbour, living immediately next door to us, purchased it for ‘well over’ €200k and that apartment has had no modernisation done to it since these were built, over twenty years ago, so who knows we may now be living in our own little gold mine 🤔

On the 4th May we hosted our first family visitor’s of the year, Shazza’s Aunt & Uncle, they have visited us almost every year over the 11 year’s that we have owned the property, but generally they used to come out during the Winter month periods, usually between December and March. This time they would be staying with us for 8 days, arriving late morning on the first day and departing late evening on the last day. We went out every day, although they had by now seen most places within our local area, so finding somewhere new to visit was always going to be a challenge for us.

It was 437 years ago, when Sir Francis Drake paid a visit to Cadiz, with his flotilla of warships, that being of course for a far less touristy or friendly purpose, which is referred to historically as, the ‘Singeing of the King of Spain’s Beard’ which delayed the ‘Spanish Armada’ by a full year. Now similar to our own ‘Province’ of Malaga, for which ‘Malaga City’ is the capital, Cadiz is also a large ‘Province’ with ‘Cadiz City’ as its Capital.

There are three ways to enter the Island Isthmus from the mainland, a road from the South, or a choice of two road bridges on the Eastern Side. I plotted a route on the Sat Nav to a Car Park on the North Eastern side and discovered that it was in fact just a little over 80 miles from us, on a straightforward, primarily all dual-carriageway road, which would take across the most Northerly of the two road bridges with a total journey time of just a little under ninety-minutes.

Unlike Sir Francis Drake though, we had no hostile intentions and so ‘The King of Spain Had No Reason To Fear Our Visit !’ on this occasion. Although Shazza and I had made a day visit to Cadiz many year’s previously, that was during our more nomadic motor-homing days and, to be completely honest, it was a very brief visit and so we have always said that one day we would like to return to do it a little more justice. On the selected day of our trip the ‘Works of Fiction’ forecast a very warm and sunny day, although being on on an Island jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean, we anticipated that it may be a little blustery so we went prepared. As Cadiz City is less that a two hour drive away from us, and our visitor’s had never been there before, it seemed like a decent opportunity to tick another place off our own ‘To Do List’, whilst also providing them with another memory of their visit to us.

It was extremely easy finding our way to our nominated car park, although we were a little surprised, with it being within a very short and easy walk into the ‘Old Town’, to find that there were ample parking spaces available when we arrived at around 10:00am, and even more pleasantly surprised when we came to leave to find that it only cost €1 an hour to park. Cadiz is a very walkable city, no need to catch buses to get from one area to another, although they did have the customary tourist ‘Hop On, Hop Off’ buses which I guess take you to all the major Tourist attractions without you having to find them for yourselves, or if you are limited in time. However, the discovering of these places for ourselves is the bit that I tend to like, just wandering around aimlessly through narrow cobbled streets and discovering Plazas, large and small, or beautiful Green Parks, and of course the many different watering holes, for it is thirsty work being a tourist 😉

A few photo’s below from our day………………

After a lot of walking, although still not having seen everything their was to see in the ‘Old Town’, our visitor’s were all walked out, so we suggested driving a little further down the coastline, only around half an hour to ‘Chiclana’, well not to the town itself, which is a couple of miles inland, but to the nearby ‘La Barossa Beach’, a long stretch of beautiful white sandy beach with a promenade that had a lot of eateries overlooking the sparkling blue sea where we could enjoy a very late lunch. We had been here before and knew that our guests would enjoy it.

Apart from the full day trip to Cadiz and the Beachside lunch, the rest of their time spent with us we just remained in the local area, with walks to the Marina and into our local town, and a short drive into Estepona, for they tend to like just enjoying the weather and being sat with a nice glass of something cold, or eating relaxed lunches and going out on several nights for Dinner. Fortunately, they only experienced one day of drizzle with grey overcast skies and a very strong wind, although the wet stuff was just a bit hit and miss, but the majority of their days with us were very warm and sunny 😎

We took our visitor’s back to Malaga Airport for their evening flight home. Once we returned home ourselves, it felt very strange, for after entertaining, being tourist guides and the in-house catering for guests, for eight days, the apartment felt empty and so very quiet. We were both all talked out, so we sat in silence on the balcony with a nice hot cuppa. We knew that it would take us a good couple of days to get back into our own normal routines, it always does, comprising of one day doing a full domestic clean, including Shazza stripping the beds and catching up with all the laundry and ironing, and then one complete day of doing absolutely nothing, not even stepping out of the apartment to go for our more usual walk, we both agreed that we had done enough of that recently 😮‍💨 We enjoy having family and friend’s stay with us, having different people to converse with, in our own native language and catching up on all the news and gossip from back home, as well as sharing our beautiful location and lifestyle with them. But it is much the same as when we have been away somewhere on holiday ourselves, it is always nice to get back to some sort of normality afterwards.

As I write this, the local elections here have not yet taken place, although I guess that it will be much the same as any other elections, in any other country, where some political faces may change, a different party may gain overall majority in the Coalition Government that we have here, but in reality nothing much will change after that, pre-election promises will still continue to be broken, that is par for the course, just the same old story really on the merry-go-round of Politics on our planet, why any of us ‘normal folk’ should expect anything any different I do not know 🤷‍♂️ We are still awaiting news about our VISA’s but not holding our breaths, we still continue to adopt the philosophy of not worrying about things that we have no control of. It appears that the War on Iran, that a certain President claimed to be over weeks ago, is still ongoing, as is the one between Russia and Ukraine, so it is good to see that not much has changed in the eight days that I have purposely not been reading the Global ‘Doom and Gloom’ media reports. Spain has just announced that it has enough Aviation Fuel for the next three months so, at least you can leave Spain to go on your Summer holidays, although I am not quite sure how you would get back from any of the Countries that are running out of it 🤷‍♂️ Normal fuel prices for vehicles (Petrol & Diesel) are falling slightly here, although still not back to the prices they were before the crisis, funny how they always go up immediately there is news of a shortage, but are much slower in coming down when there isn’t one 🤔

But to end on a much more positive note, the sun is still shining, the temperatures are still climbing, the sea and the sky are both still a lovely shade of Blue and to top it all, my favourite Cafe/Bars still have copious supplies of both Anti-Covid and Anti-Hantivirus Vaccines. So yup !! It is a tough life here in our little corner of the Iberian Peninsular, but never fear for I am determined to be brave and suffer it for as long as I am able to, and you can rest assured that I will continue to dedicate myself in providing you, my reader’s, with these lifestyle hardship updates, well at least for the next four weeks until our Residency Permits expire 😁🫣

Until the next ramble…………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

There are times in our lives when we have to make hasty decisions, based entirely on only the information that you currently have at hand at that particular moment in time. Gambler’s will ‘generally’ take the higher risk decision, in order to reap the ‘potential’ reward linked with that decision, financial or otherwise, whilst those, like myself, who are much more risk averse, will tend to choose to take the safer bet.

For a little over a week, we have enjoyed being back in the comfort of our own home, enjoying walking out in the gloriously warm sun-filled days, rather than be in a potentially wet and soggy France, worrying about where our next tank of Diesel fuel may come from. After taking the decision to cut short our road trip through France, and just out of curiosity, I continued to keep checking the ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts and I began to question myself on that particular subject ‘Had I Actually Backed The Wrong Horse’, as the ‘Works of Fiction’ now revealed that, whilst not exactly sun-drenched, most of France, especially the Regions that we would have been driving through, were relatively dry, albeit cloudy and overcast. Then, with what would have been just one week into our French road trip, the media headlines reported that the ‘Strait of Hormuz’ had re-opened, fuel would still be readily available and the prices were decreasing. However, that in reality was a short and very fragile ceasefire agreement which looks, if recent media reports are to be believed, is not going to last, with reports that both Iran and the USA have broken that agreement. So perhaps the fuel issues will continue to rumble on for some time yet, who knows 🤷‍♂️ To be completely honest, initially I was more than a little frustrated with myself, for not taking the gamble and sticking with ‘Plan A’, but as I now reflect on that decision, if we had, would we have been able to fully relax whilst on our road trip or would we have been continually looking over our shoulder having to worry about fuel availability 🤔 However, like any form of gambling, you place your bet, you roll the dice or turn the card and then sit and await the outcome 🤷‍♂️ Fortunately, my gamble did not result in any financial loss, indeed, as I searched to try to find some sort of a positive outcome for my decision, I consoled myself with the knowledge that we perhaps did benefit, financially at least, as we had returned home with more money than we would have done if we had have completed the full duration of the trip, although somehow, even armed with that knowledge, it certainly didn’t make me feel like fist-punching the air in celebration, for it still felt like a lost opportunity to me. But on another positive note, whilst Shazza may not have celebrated her birthday in a ‘French’ Restaurant in France, we did still get to celebrate it with a very pleasant Spanish lunch, under the sun canopy of one of her favourite Spanish Restaurant’s in our own home town, then we followed it up just sat, relaxed and enjoying the sea views, with a spot of good old people watching, from the shaded terrace of a Beach Bar for good measure🍹🌴 We both say quite often these days that we do not actually feel our ages, but much younger, by as much as twenty or so more year’s, so with that in mind, I sang Shazza a ‘Birthday Song’……………..

🎶 Enjoy Yourself, you’re older than you think,

Enjoy Yourself whilst you still have the ability to think,

Enjoy yourself, Enjoy yourself, you’re older than you think !! 🎶

Of course, I braced myself for the physical and verbal assault that would surely follow 🫣 However, she saw the funny side of it and said, “Best I order another couple of cocktails, then I can blame the memory failure on the alcohol” 😂

The weather, since we have been back, has been …… well quite normal for this time of year in this part of the country, ‘Hace calor, pero no demasiado’ as we say here in Spain, (It is warm, but not too hot) with the average daily high’s of between 22-24 degrees(c), sun high in the sky, barely a cloud and just a gentle warm breeze blowing in from the sea, so it is certainly back to wearing our much more preferred clothing of shorts and tee-shirt (Cortos y camiseta) 😎

We had only been away for just a little over two weeks, but in that time there had been a few subtle changes, mainly the number of seasonal beach bars and touristy type shops that have re-opened, or on the brink of re-opening, the latter just adding the last few splashes of paint here and there, washing down the plastic tables and chairs, all that sort of stuff. There was definitely an extra buzz in the town as the early bird tourists also appear to have arrived, beginning to replace the silver rinse brigade ahead of the main holiday crowds, but without the increase in the number of the much younger ‘Little Darlings’ in tow 🤭 Although that seasonal element may soon be arriving in greater numbers, subject of course to how much Aviation Fuel the holiday flight tour operators still have, but if, or when, they do arrive they will once again swarm the promenade, beaches, ice-cream parlours and take up all of the car parking spaces, which is the non-official announcement that the annual Summer holiday season has once again commenced 🙄

As you may imagine, on returning home we quickly settled back into our usual daily routines, but we also had to start thinking about a more immediate priority, the administrative preparation required to commence the renewal of our Non-Lucrative Visas (NLV) and to what would be the last renewal of our ‘Temporary’ Residency Permits. It should be quite a straightforward process, we have already been through this process twice now in the nearly three year’s we have lived here, our Solicitor’s, who do all of the ‘official’ stuff on our behalf, have most documents on file and hold our ‘Digital Certificates’, meaning that they can access official databases to get any necessary updated official documents and make all the necessary on-line applications, we just have to provide up dated financial information which have to first be ‘Officially’ interpreted, strange but I thought numerals were written the same in most European languages, 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. but there you go, in Spain you learn something new everyday 🤷‍♂️ We will of course have to attend the Immigration Office in Estepona in person, twice in fact, once to submit the applications in person to renew our ‘Residency Permits’, which involves them taking our fingerprints yet again, then the second visitation is to collect our new Residency Permits, which will again be valid for a further two year’s, which will take us up to our 5 year point when we can then apply for our ‘Permanent Residency Permits’, although they too still have to be renewed, but every 5 year’s, instead of the current 2 year periods.

The only issue that I could foresee was in there being a major delay in the administrative processes, due to potential blockages created by the Spanish Governments recent controversial announcement that, with effect from 16th April, it is opening up official residency applications to grant half a million, or perhaps even more, ‘Undocumented Migrants’ who are currently already living and working in Spain, the opportunity to gain ‘Legal Residency’.

I broached the subject of the ‘potential’ delay in our own renewal process with our Solicitor’s, however, they stated that there ‘should not’ be a problem as the ‘Undocumented Migrant’ processes are being conducted under separate database processes. Although, it has been reported in the local media that there are no additional Immigration Staff being employed, so I am not sure how delays are not going to become inevitable, but we can only wait and see how things turn out 🤷‍♂️ Our own current Residency Permits expire in the middle of June, but we cannot actually physically go to the Immigration Office to submit the forms to renew them, until the actual date of expiry, if we can get an appointment on that date that is, we then have to wait for them to re-check our submitted documentation before they make, and then issue, the new Residency Permits, which effectively means that we will not physically get our new permits until some point in July, at the earliest 🤷‍♂️ This is not really a major issue for us, provided that we do not need to leave the Country, but if we did, in say a family emergency in the UK for example, well that would involve another quite separate administrative headache.

For people reading this who may be considering re-locating to Spain thinking ‘Oh my goodness, that sounds complicated and too much hassle’, all that I would say is that in reality, this renewal procedure is to gain a two year ‘Temporay’ Residency Permit, and so it is only a few weeks of slight disruption and officialdom, short term pain for long term gain, as the saying goes. After the last two year renewal, then it is every five year’s between renewals on the ‘Permanent Residency Permit’ and that process then comes with much less administrative requirements, and do not entail the restrictions that come with holding the ‘Temporary Residency’ permit. Additionally, if you use authorised professionals to do the majority of the Administrative requirements on your behalf then, in reality, it isn’t that cumbersome, but it does give us Brits something else to have a good moan about 😂

There appears to have been a lot of changes happening in respect of Migration this year, the introduction of the EES system for ‘third country’ citizens wishing to enter any of the EU Schengen Zone Countries, that has brought about its own well documented issues with long delays at various ‘Ports of Entry & Exit’, with people ‘allegedly’ queuing for hours and some even missing flights because of it. Now, another Immigration process here in Spain, to register ‘Undocumented Migrants’ already living and working here illegally, and provide them officially with ‘Legal Residency’ status, then, in July, when Gibraltar officially becomes part of the Schengen Zone, which if I recall correctly, a certain British Government Minister said would never happen 🤔 which then means the EES procedures will also be adopted at the ‘Ports of Entry & Exit’ in Gibraltar, although there will no longer be any land border, but again this will only effect ‘Third Country’ nationals arriving, or departing, via Gibraltar then, as if that wasn’t enough to be going on with, purportedly, towards the end of the year, the EU are introducing the European Travel Authority (ETA) procedure, who wants to take any bets on whether the date of introduction of that will not be pushed back yet again. So what may come next is anyone’s guess, perhaps an identity and global locator chip placed under our skin ? ‘Many a true word spoken in jest’ Eric 🤷‍♂️ Anyway, as I am not the official European Tourist and Travel Information Service, enough about any and all of that, I am sure you are capable of reading associated media articles, or ‘Official’ information websites, on any of these subject’s for yourselves 😂

By way of a change to our normal daily routines we opted, on yet another warm Sunnyday (Yes it was actually sunny, and it was a Sunday 😁), to drive the relatively short distance into Estepona. We had read that there was a ‘Ruta de Tapas’ event on, between the 17th-19th April, so this was to be the last day. This annual event is where a large number of Cafe/Bars, I think around seventy-four, offer a specific Tapas and one drink for a set price (€3.50) and each establishment provides a different type of Tapas 😋😋 The event is combined with a market, held in one of the main streets, where the stalls offer tastings, and of course sell, Spanish Wines and Vermut, a whole range of Spanish Cheese, Hams, Chorizo’s, Bread and Pastries and their was one stall where there was a competition for the best leg of ‘Jamon’ slicing, which is a very serious specialisation here in Spain with National Competitions being held around the country so, of course it would have been rude not to attend such a local event.

It was a beautiful day, but we had forgotten that, being a Sunday, it was also the day of the weekly market held in the Estepona Marina, which is where we had decided to park 🙄 It was crowded when we arrived at midday, although there is a large piece of waste ground utilised as overflow parking so we managed, only just mind you, to find an unoccupied piece of hard dried uneven mud to leave the car. We have actually attended this market on numerous occasions, although these days, usually only to bring our visitor’s here, who seem to like buying ‘stuff’ that they didn’t know they needed, then get it home and realise that they didn’t 😂 As it was, on this occasion, with no visitor’s in tow, we just by-passed the row on row of ‘Tourist Tat’ stalls and took a slower than usual walk from the Marina into Estepona Town. I have to say that whilst we could feel the increased buzz of people in our own town, here in Estepona we could actually see it, for it was very busy, probably a combination of the sunshine, weekly market and the special weekend events that brought out locals and tourists alike out in their droves. The first thing we needed when we reached the town was somewhere to re-hydrate, but not at any of the seafront hostelries at their inflated prices. We headed slightly uphill into the back streets, not far out of the main town, and found ourselves, a new to us, Argentinean owned ‘Bodega’ with tables and stools positioned outside and, quite coincidentally as it happened, discovered it was one participating in the ‘Ruta de Tapas’ event, so of course, it would have been rude not to enjoy a tasty morsel with our refreshments 🤭

It was such a pleasant environment and the ambience was good so we stayed and enjoyed another drink, but we were both being good and enjoyed ice cold ‘Toasted non-alcoholic Cervesas’ with me foregoing my more usual Anti-Covid Vaccine. We then pushed down back into the town and located the market stalls, as you may imagine, it was crowded, not just with those perusing the stalls but the street was lined with Cafe/Bars so there was plenty of people watching going on, although this time we were probably the victims of the people watchers, fashion police and body beautiful judgementalists and, after our recent over indulgent period in the UK, well the body beautiful judgement panel would have had a field day 😂

They say that ‘A change is as good as a rest’ and certainly making these occasional variations to our daily routines does make a difference, for no matter how much we like our own environmental bubble of tranquility, the seafront, marina and town, sometimes following the same routines can get a bit boring. With the mid-afternoon temperature in Estepona peaking at 26 degrees(c), we had one more re-hydration stop on our walk back to the car and we both agreed that the time is rapidly approaching, when we will have to soak ourselves in sun cream before going out, and we may also need to start to wear sun hats as the Summer is well and truly on the horizon, although I cannot say that we are looking forward to June, July or August, when the daily temperatures will undoubtedly rise towards the 40+ degree mark 🥵🥵 We returned home late afternoon and spent the evening on the balcony, Shazza reading a book on her Kindle device whilst I commenced drafting this latest ramble, the sun keeping the balcony pleasantly warm until well after it got dark at 9pm.

The following morning and ‘Forrest’ revealed to me that yet another sun-kissed day was in store for us, although Shazza was slower this particular morning at peeling herself from under the lighter summer weight duvet. When she did, I proffered a number of suggestions for her to ruminate over, whilst she drank her coffee, 1) a sunbathing day down at the pool, swimming not compulsory though, 2) perhaps a day on the beach, or 3) just our normal daily walk routine. She looks over the top of her mug of coffee at me, “Can we have a day off today ?” She says, with puppy dog eyes. I let out a chuckle, “Every day is a day off for us isn’t it ?we can do whatever we choose to do, and that includes choosing to do nothing at all”. Although I knew that unlike myself, Shazza couldn’t sit still for two minutes, so her day off comprised off re-organising her wardrobe, bringing out Summer clothes and storing her heavier winter one’s, changing the bedding, pottering around in the kitchen making something or other, her day off just actually meant not walking anywhere outside in the searing heat, we had both done enough of that over the last week. Sometimes it is just good to be able to sit with your feet up, and be thankful for where you are and for what you have, or then again, you could just sit with your feet up 😁

So, as we enter yet another new week, where on earth do they go to I ask myself yet again 🤷‍♂️ However, we have no specific plans, other than trying to progress a little further if we can, administratively at least, with our VISA and Residency Renewal procedures and, of course, we will continue with our walks, although they may soon have to be shared with days around our pool, as this activity does also provide us with an alternative ‘Exercise’ regime, however, the water temperature, at least for my liking, still isn’t quite ‘Crown Jewels’ safe just yet 🥶 Although, there is certainly no good reason why we cannot just grab a sun-bed and commence replenishing our fading sun tans for it has been a very long, cold and wet Winter period this last few months. And, as we discovered late yesterday evening, it is also looking likely that we may have some short notice family visitors arriving, for a week’s stay with us, within the next fortnight, although I guess there may still be a possibility that some third parties, who are located in countries much further away, may yet still have an input into whether that visit does actually materialise 🤔 But as far as we are concerned, it will be what it will be, we have no control over those sort of things so we will continue to just take each day, week and month as it comes 🤷‍♂️ It seems that everything that is going on in the world today is actually in the hands of a self acclaimed ‘God’, you know what ? he actually looks familiar, now where do I know him from 😂😂

Until the next ramble……………….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena