“Stay Calm And Carry On”

During our previous eight year’s of visiting this part of Spain, before we took up full time residency here in June of last year and, usually by the end of February, but certainly by the first week of March at the latest, it would have been time to point our Motorhome North towards the ferry port at either Bilbao or Santander, as we would once again have been at the end of yet another one of our ninety day ‘Schengen Shuffle’ periods, reluctantly having to then return to the UK. Always just as everything here was beginning to prepare to open up, ready to commence another new tourist season, even now that feeling of disappointment at having to leave at the end of those 90 day periods is still very much emblazoned into our memories, as we were always disappointed at the feeling of being forced out, not just of Spain but out of Europe. It is something that Shazza and I were chatting about very recently, as we were strolling along the Promenade on one of our regular morning walks, but happily, here we now are, back at the point where we would normally be having to leave. Once again we were watching our small corner of the Costa del Sol waking up, as it began to once again shed the remnants of its Winter coat, but this time we smiled at each other, for it is now a nice feeling, knowing that we no longer ‘have’ to leave and so not having that feeling of disappointment. This is now, what will quite probably remain, our forever home, although we don’t risk saying that out too loud, for we never know if, or when, our feet will start getting that certain familiar ‘itch’ to travel and start another adventure again. Although however, the years do now appear to be flying past, far too quickly for my liking, and I am not certain that I would really want to go through all of the upheavals of selling up and re-locating elsewhere again, we certainly have no desire to return to the UK, other than for short breaks to visit family that is.

Easter is now just around the corner, a period on the Spanish Calendar which doesn’t just mark the start of the ‘Fiesta’ season, commencing with all the Religious parades and festivals that will take place all around the Country, from the smallest of Villages to the largest of Cities, but it is also the period when the first real influx of holidaying tourists start to arrive. Now although our town is an open all year location which, unlike some other tourist resorts, means that it does not actually close down or feel like a ghost town during the Winter for those five or six months of the year, life here just tends to go on as usual, just not quite as busy with the additional temporary residents although, there is still a significant change in the ambience as many, although not all, of the Chiringuitos (Beach Bars) do tend to close up for the Winter and, some seasonal type ‘tourist tat’ retail outlets also use that less busy period to pull down their shutters to enable them to go and take their annual vacations, but with everything else, well life just goes on regardless really. Now that we have acclimatised here we do feel the drop in the Winter temperatures so we do both find that we tend to miss the heat of the Summer, the frequent Fiesta’s, the Medieval Markets and of course the light nights, but we certainly do not miss the crowds.

Although we have been here now for nine months, on a full time basis, we are still continuing to settle in, to what is still in some ways, our new environment, and as our Spanish vocabulary improves, although at a much slower pace than either of us would really have wanted, because we did not really anticipate, in advance of coming to live here, that we would be amongst a community where the primary language spoken, even amongst the majority of Spanish people, is English. However, like a lot of things in this life, there are advantages and disadvantages to everything, so we just continue to do what we can and attempt to seek out the mainly Spanish speaking venues, like our small Spanish seafront Cafe where we continue our Spanish education by practicing our words in still very much disjointed conversations, but also by trying to understand the subject’s that are being discussed from the words that are spoken by the other primarily Spanish customer’s, words that we are now beginning to recognise, but this is still a little harder than we had expected, as learning the words is one thing, but picking them out from the sentences that are delivered at quite a rapid pace is quite another, it is quite a different challenge but we get a certain satisfaction when we actually understand what is being said on the surrounding tables. Little by little we are beginning to converse more and more within the small Spanish enclave in which we mingle which, other than for practicing our own general conversational skills, also has other benefits, in that it enables us to discover little snippets of information about the wider Spanish way of life. In one such conversation we discovered, to our surprise, that the majority of Spanish people do not actually venture very far, globally speaking, when they take their annual holidays, many choose to stay within this their own country, visiting relatives or friends who may live elsewhere in the many other different Regions and Provinces of Spain, or some just head to the Spanish Balearic or Canary Islands for a change of scenery, few, it would appear, take flights to the longer haul tourist destinations such as the Carribean. I guess with a Country the size of Spain, already surrounded as it is with its vast variety of beach locations along both its Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines, with different Mountain ranges that stretch from the North to the South of the country, providing numerous opportunities to either hike in the Summer or Ski in the Winter, to wander and explore through its vast number of Nature Parks or its Lakes, Rivers, Waterfalls and numerous old Towns, Cities and Villages that are filled with history. Spain also has varying geographical climates throughout the year, from those that tend to be much cooler in the North and Central areas, to the searing heat of the South. When we thought about this it did provoke us to ask the question to ourselves of ‘Why would you actually need to travel to other Countries if you have all of this variet already on your doorstep ?’, But for us, our wider travels are due to our wanderlust and a personal desire to go and visit many different Countries to experience their differing cultures.

In the main though, it would appear that the majority of the Spanish people are just quite happy with their lot, and so they are more than satisfied to remain within their own Country. However, their is also another possible answer, perhaps it may also be just a simple matter of individual personal economics for, generally speaking, the Spanish income levels from employment are very much lower here than in a lot of its other neighbouring European counterparts and, with a few minor geographical exceptions, this is a country with very good, and inexpensive, public transport systems, so travelling throughout Spain to each of its corners, North, South, East or West, either by Road, Rail or Bus, it is not a major drain on a families limited financial resources.

The road network, throughout the length and breadth of Spain, we have found is also exceptionally good and, unlike some other European countries, the majority of the motorway networks are generally still mainly all ‘Toll Free’ here, but those that do incur a charge to use them, well to be honest, they are not that expensive in comparison to say France or Italy. We often used to travel from the Northern most Coast of Spain, Bilbao or Santander, to right down here in the South, almost 700 miles, using all Toll free motorways. However, unless you are in a particular hurry, the exceptional ‘N’ roads, many of which run parallel to the Motorway routes, take you through some amazing landscapes and pass through towns and villages that you would otherwise not get to see, we are certainly looking forward to doing much more exploration of the whole of Spain, and as we will not be in a hurry we may, on some of those occasions, elect to leave the car at home and let the Bus or Train take the strain 👍

On yet another one of our morning walks recently, again it was a nice sunny Spring morning, which is nice as it does enable us to sit outside at one of our favourite seafront Cafe’s and do a spot of people watching as we sit and drink our coffee’s and eat our Tostado’s, but this sort of weather is doing nothing to help fill the reservoirs 🤷‍♂️ However, no good going on about it, we have no control over the weather and hopefully, sooner rather than very much later, Mother Nature will sort herself out 🤞 We couldn’t help but notice the numerous very industrious council workers, they were certainly out in force, the beaches were being cleaned of the debris that had floated in, not just the seaweed but also the man-made debris that had been discarded, although to be honest they do tend to do these beach cleans quite regularly, often on an almost daily basis and even during these quieter Autumn and Winter months, but now all of these long stretches of sand have been levelled, and groomed, and are looking immaculate. We had also observed, over recent weeks, that even the promenade planted areas had been spruced up, some of the old brick edged borders having been totally renewed with more attractive looking stonework borders and now, due to the continuing drought conditions, they have been re-planted with much hardier plants that require much less water. Along one stretch of the promenade, between the small village of ‘Castellón de la Duquesa’, located on one side of the Marina, and the place where we generally park our car next to the beach, the brightly coloured bench seating which was decorated with nautical scenes, made up from small pieces of painted mosaic tiles, were being repaired where pieces had fallen off, either due to the ravages of the weather or human interventions (Kids jumping on them or footballs kicked at them). This repair work looked to be a very slow and painstaking task, we stopped to admire the workers handy work and could see that each piece was being re-applied with much care and attention. On the Promenade on the opposite side of the Marina, which stretches to our small town of ‘San Luis de Sabinillas’ the beachfront Chiringuito’s had also started to get themselves ready to re-open, the straw topped sun umbrellas had been put back out, in their neat regimented rows, many of them bearing new straw hats, the sun beds had all been washed down and gleamed white and blue, we didn’t question where the water may have come from for this purpose, we gave them the benefit of the doubt, seeing as there was lots of crystal clear salt water just a few metres away 😉 but once washed they were placed underneath the beach umbrellas outside their respective establishments, new canvas sun shades were in the process of being installed above the bar terraces and, where necessary, external areas were being re-painted. Even the flag poles were now sporting new clean flags, the Spanish National one, The Andalusian Regional Flag, the Malaga Provincial Flag, the Blue European Union Flag and of course, some may even say the most important one, the flag that proudly reflected yet another year’s award of the prestigious “Blue Flag Beach Status’ for the water quality.

Although it is never really completely deserted here, as there are always a steady stream of temporary visitors throughout the Autumn and Winter months, from those who stay on the local campsite in their Caravans and Motorhomes (No Tents on this particular site), and those who either own, or rent, properties in the area, so that they too can enjoy the Winter Sun and temperate climate of the Costa del Sol, but their is still a distinct change in the ambience between the Winter and Summer months and now, for us, to have experienced spending our first four combined seasons of the year here, instead of just two ninety day chunks of it, it does feel a little bit special to have actually witnessed these changing seasons for ourselves and yes, we do still continue to enjoy those ‘Pinch Me, Am I Dreaming’ moments and remember the days when we used to make these very same walks and would often say “Wouldn’t it be nice if we actually lived here”, and now, look at us, here we are, which puts a slightly and more positive twist on what is generally accepted as being more a statement of caution, ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’, or the other popular one, ‘Better the Devil you know’.

Now I may have mentioned, in one of my earlier rambles, that on 16th December last year, we were out and about somewhere, when Shazza received a telephone call from our local Health Centre, informing her that her State Healthcare Card had arrived. When we applied for them, back in July last year, as part of our initial residency process procedures, we were told that we could be waiting for up to a year to get these, as their was a massive backlog, so this was good news getting them after only five months. However, when we went to pick up the card, the same day as getting the phone call, we discovered that it was actually only Shazza’s card that had arrived, mine hadn’t 🤷‍♂️ I waited until mid-January before going back to check on the status of mine, but it had still not been received and, when the receptionist checked my medical database records, it reflected that my card had actually been issued and sent out by the Andalusian Health Authority on the 23rd November 🤔 The receptionist told me to give it another month as it may be stuck in the Postal System, what with there being Christmas, New Year and the ‘Three Kings Day’, although it did still seem odd that Shazza and I had both applied for our Health Cards at the same time and she had received her’s before Christmas 🤷‍♂️ Anyway, I gave it another month and went back to check again towards the end of February, but alas still no sign of my Health Card. Now I had done some on-line research in between time and discovered that if my Health Card had not been received, within a month of it being issued, then I needed to report this to the Issuing Authority, via our local Healthcare Centre, and using a specific form. However, the receptionist tried to tell me that I would have to just make another new application for a Health Card. However, sometimes you have to just get firm with some of these people and so I politely informed her that this was not the correct procedure, that it needed to be reported on a completely different form stating that it was ‘No Recibor’ (Not received), so that they could then cancel the original card, in case it had been intercepted and being used illegally by someone else. The Andalusian Health Authority, upon receipt of this form, would then issue me a new card, but simply submitting another ‘initial application form’ for a Health Card would possibly only have created confusion, more questions from them but even more importantly, adding to the already long delay. I could tell by her body language and facial expression that she was disgruntled that I was actually telling ‘her’ what she actually needed to do, however, seeing that my own body language and facial expression and change in my tone of voice, she soon realised that I was not going to leave, so she went to speak to another member of the back room staff, who looked over her glasses in my direction, I then saw her typing into her computer. The receptionist came back and told me that the form had been sent, I enquired as to how long she thought it would take for me to receive the new card, she responded in the usual fashion, palms of her hands turned upwards, her arms raised to shoulder height, she raised her shoulders a few inches, just to add to her ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude, and with the facial expression that said “Who Knows !!”. So I left the Health Centre wondering wether I would ever receive my Health Card. Now in the grand scheme of things it wasn’t really a major issue, practically speaking, as I was already in possession of a paper form, which acted as my ‘Temporary’ authorisation to receive free State Healthcare, should I require it, but you know me and my OCD, I should have an ‘Official’ plastic Health Card, Shazza had her’s and so I wanted mine, otherwise I didn’t feel that my residency documentation or status was, as yet, quite fully complete. Although I didn’t really hold out much hope of receiving it promptly, it had taken 5 months for Shazza to receive her’s 🙄 But sometimes even I can get pleasantly surprised by the rare efficiency of the Spanish bureaucratic processes, for it was just one week later that the newly issued Health Card arrived, this time however, it would appear that even the issuing authority hadn’t trusted sending it directly to our local Health Centre, but instead they had sent it in the post directly to me at our home address. So now, thankfully, my OCD has once again calmed down and that is it, I now feel complete, just in time to commence the first annual renewal process of our Residency Permits 🙄

Fortunately the renewal process is a much more simplified procedure than the initial application and, things like our Health Cards and Driving licences do not need renewing, the majority of the administration will be processed by our Solicitors, we basically just have to provide the documentary evidence that proves we continue to meet the annual Financial Income aspects (€36,000 net per year). Once we have completed this upcoming renewal procedure, we will not be required to conduct any further renewal actions until the end of March 2026 which will then take us to March 2028 which, at that point we can then start the process to obtain our ‘Permanent Residency Permits’ 😁

After my last ramble, where I mentioned the continuing and worsening drought conditions, well it would appear that even with some of the prolonged periods of the wet stuff, four consecutive days of it has been forecast to arrive, but still, the news coming out from the Spanish Meteorology Agency (AEMET) ‘Works of Fiction’ is still not looking very positive.

So you may, or perhaps you may not 🤔 be asking the question about how the lack of water will impact Spain over the Summer months, especially with the huge influx of temporary additional residents during what is a continuing and worsening drought situation. Well for the Government it is going to be something of a double edged sword really, for whilst us permanent residents will still have to legally comply with the drought restrictions and limitations to how much water we can use on a daily basis, and still not be able to use our private communal pools during the scorching Summer months, what is creating much discontent is in the announcement from the Government, who have just recently given assurances, that ‘tourists’ will not be effected, Hotels will still have access to water, for their guests to take baths and showers and flush their toilets, they will also be able to use the hotel swimming pools, although I am not sure how this will impact on privately owned rental villas, that still all seems to be a little confusing at the moment with no clear guidance having yet been issued by the powers that be, and with differing rules, not just between Regions, but also local Councils within the same Province the discontent is becoming much more vocal 🤷‍♂️ Now of course, there have been lots of murmurings of discontent from ‘permanent’ residents here, and I don’t just mean from those within the International Expat communities, but the much greater and larger number of permanent Spanish Citizens, whose complaints are, ‘Why do they have to suffer restrictions when the Tourists won’t ?’ Now from a purely personal perspective, Shazza and I would rather have drinking water coming through our own domestic water taps, rather than having to collect it on a daily basis from Stand Pipes in the street and, not having the use of our communal swimming pool is also not really that much of an issue for us, as there is a very big, and wide, bathing facility just a few minutes down the road, and it comes complete with it’s own beach 🤭 Whilst we can certainly understand the feelings of the local Spanish population, the reality is this, one of Spain’s most lucrative incomes, after the exporting of Fruit and Vegetables, is via the Tourism Sector, so if the large number of Tourists who would generally visit Spain each year, were to find themselves being restricted to their water usage whilst here, and not being able to use swimming pools, then quite simply, those tourists would quite possibly elect to go elsewhere for their holiday, where those facilities were readily available, which for Spain, would not just have an impact on the lack of incomes from the Holiday Accommodations, the Hotels and Rental properties, but also the wider hospitality sector that supports the tourism industry, Bars, Cafe’s, Restaurants, the wide range of tourist attractions, including the Coach and Boat Tour companies, Car Hire and Taxi companies etc. etc. So the wider risk is that some business, without the crucial incomes that they receive from the influx of seasonal tourist cash, is a very realistic risk that, much like the lack of tourism that occurred during the Covid Pandemic, many businesses could risk going under, which of course would then mean growing unemployment, so it certainly is one of those Catch 22 situations with no easy or quick solutions, other than to get some unseasonal prolonged periods of rain. But these are the realities of our world today, dare I use those words ‘Climate Change’, but this is just one of the many consequences of that, and of course not having heeded the warnings over recent decades, whilst we here in Southern Europe are not getting enough rainfall, other countries are getting too much, globally the Volcanic Eruptions, Earthquakes, Floods and Fires are ever increasing in their frequency, the ice caps continue to melt at a phenomenal rate and the sea levels are rising but still, the World’s Governments continue to do what they have always done, business as usual “Stay Calm And Carry On”.

But the weather is a strange beast at the best of times so you can never trust in what the ‘Works of Fiction’ predict and what we are actually going to get.

It really does feel strange at times, just a little over two hours drive North from us, still in our region of Andalusia, but in the Granada Province, on Sunday 3rd March, up in the more mountainous areas, they have very recently experienced temperatures of -14.5 degrees(c), whilst, at the very same time, down here on the coast, we had temperatures of +22 degrees(c), quite a massive 36 degree difference between two different areas which, distance wise, are not really that very far apart. Just a pity that the harsh frost was not actually deep snow because at least when it melted, and flowed down from the mountain rivers and streams, at least that may have brought a little relief and have helped, even if only a little, in starting to at least provide some top up to the water levels in the Embalces.

Now I am not usually one who would get overly excited at potentially being held a prisoner inside my own four walls for what could be several days, however, in light of the current water shortage problems, we can only hope and pray that for once, the ‘Works of Fiction’ do actually get it right 🙏⛈️ Our local forecast reflects the wet stuff starting to fall during the night on the Wednesday, and then not letting up until the early hours of the following Monday morning, yes, four whole days of rain, brilliant 🤗😄 But of course, what is actually forecast and what we will actually get could be quite two different things and, to be perfectly honest and realistic, even four consecutive days of the wet stuff would not really be sufficient to make a huge difference in the water levels in the Embalces, but let’s show a bit of positivity here Eric, at least its a start, a little is better than nothing and after that, well all we can do is hope for even more ‘unseasonably’ wet weather over the coming weeks, so my Prayer mat is still out but, being out of practice with its use, and knowing my luck, we may just end up with ‘Fire and Brimstone and a plague of Locusts’ 😂

I do have to make a bit of a confession, as it won’t just be the rainfall that will be keeping Shazza and I housebound over this anticipated rainy period 🤔 On the Tuesday morning, before the rainfall of hopefully biblically epic proportions arrives, our kitchen demolition team are due to arrive to commence ripping out the old one, before hopefully, a few days later, installing our completely brand new kitchen furniture and appliances, so the confession is that we would have been housebound during this period anyway so not just as a consequence of the weather. However, more about how those things develop in my next ramble, in relation to both the weather and the new kitchen. So please, ‘Works of Fiction’, hear my prayers and bring on the wet stuff in torrents, totally selfish of me I know and, as much as I would like to take credit for coming to the assistance of our new home Country and its water shortage issues, I unfortunately actually have nothing to do with the timing of these weather conditions, just in case any of you were actually wondering. I know that I may often use the word ‘God’ or ‘Jesus’, but just perhaps not always in the most appropriate of circumstances, but then again, who knows, perhaps I do have a direct line to the big man, or of course woman, we have to be careful these days with what may possibly be construed as sexist statements 🤭

So, as you can see, Shazza and I are just getting on with our daily lives, our only real concerns at this time being whether the Supermarkets over here will soon run out of, ‘Bottled Water’, Wet Wipes’ and ‘Deodorant’ 😂😂

Until my next ramble,

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, “La Vida es Buena”