It Exceeded Even Our Own Expectations

The weather, or more specifically, the serious drought conditions that we are currently experiencing here in our part of Southern Spain have, I know, dominated many of my rambles recently and upon reflection I guess that I really should apologise to you all, for continuously going on about the water situation, especially as ‘some’ of you will be on the opposite side of that divide, suffering with far too much of the wet stuff, but also, wherever else you may happen to be in this world of our’s right now, you too may even have your own ‘other’ issues to contend with, as one such example, those who currently live in Iceland and suffering with a fourth volcanic eruption in as many months so, why would, or should, you want to read about ‘our’ particular issues, which to be honest do pale into insignificance compared to what some other’s are going through right now ?

So okay, apology issued and, hopefully received in the quite sincere spirit it was intended. But for those who may still have some slight interest in our particular drought situation and, especially after reading my last ramble on the anticipated wet stuff, and therefore may have a couple of questions they would like answering, it would be rude of me not to.

So the first question, did we actually get those four consecutive days of rain and, were they of the biblically epic proportions which had been forecast by the generally unreliable ‘Works of Fiction’ ? Well let’s just say a resounding YES to receiving ‘some’ of the wet stuff, as I can confirm that it was wet at some period during all four of those days, but NO, it was not anywhere near being that of the biblically epic proportions and, at times, it was no more than just a prolonged period of light drizzle, which let’s be honest, is actually no good to man nor beast really. But our hopes were raised a little, as we did get some short periods of the really hard rainfall, the sort of stuff that can actually start to refill Embalces (Reservoirs) and make you wish that you hadn’t paid to put the car through the automated wash the day before it started. However, also throughout each of those four days, the wet stuff and dark overcast sky was interrupted with some much brighter periods, even as far as getting some lengthy periods of warm sunshine that, in all honesty, was a bit like one of those pantomime villains, turning up to spoil the party when their presence was not really desired. So, all in all, although we had assisted in preparing the ‘ARK’, by loading it with a huge cargo of live animals and then ‘stood to’, at full readiness, to slip our moorings at a moments notice. But alas, our rescue mission did not have to swing into action and so, unfortunately, we had to unload all the animals again, two by two, the unloading was a lot quicker though, as the buggers just raced off uncontrollably in all directions 🙄 it was like a scene out of the film ‘Jumanji’ (the original version with Robin Williams) what with the Zebras, Lions, Tigers, Elephants, Giraffes and Rhinoceros, to name but a few, now running wild through the streets of ‘San Luis de Sabinillas’, that was all apart from the Turkeys, Chickens, Pigs, Sheep and Cows, which I have to confess we did ‘save’, for ourselves, not that we have now become farmer’s, no, they are now sleeping peacefully, in meal size portions, securely stowed away in our Fridge Freezer, well it would have been totally irresponsible of us not to, as they do not have any road sense and could have just ended up as road kill from falling under the feet of the other much larger and heavier stampeding beasts 😲 So we felt that it was the only responsible thing to do, better to prevent that kind of carnage on what are already congested roads, the human animals can manage that sort of carnage quite well without any assistance from us 😂 And yes, I can already hear your confusion, but you are not alone in that respect, for I too was most surprised also, as I didn’t know that such African beasts also roamed amongst the vast Spanish wilderness, well you learn something new everyday 🤷‍♂️ or perhaps it is just the enclosures in the Spanish animal parks and zoo’s that are looking a little empty now 🤔

Secondly, did enough rain actually fall over those four days to top up the water levels in our Embalces ? Well the answer to that one is also both a YES and a NO. According to those in the know, namely the Spanish ‘Works of Fiction’ (AEMET), that four day rainfall added 3% overall to the water levels, whereas we actually required very much more. Now, In my best Michael Caine voice, not a lot of people know this, but there are in fact around 74 Embalces in the Andalusian Region alone, six of which actually serve our own Province of Malaga, however the primary one that provides the water to our particular part of the ‘Costa del Sol’ is the ‘Embalce de La Concepcion’. Before the recent rainfall that was at only 25% of its total capacity but, after the four days of rain it had risen to 28% and that 3% increase was as a direct result of the rain that fell into the Embalce itself, but even though the rain had stopped after the fourth day, the water levels have still continued to rise, and this is due, according to the experts in the know on this sort of stuff, to the run-off from the streams, rivers and storm drains flowing down from high up in the mountains and which will continue to flow down into the Embalces, potentially for up to a further three weeks.

So, the better news is that, at the time of ‘drafting’ this ramble the water level in our particular Embalce has now risen to 35% and, the water authorities have stated that we ‘should’ now have enough water to last us until May, provided of course that ‘we’ continue to stick to the current usage restrictions that are in place. So at least in the short term we will not be facing having to queue up for water at stand-pipes in the street’s 👏 Still on the good news front, but this time only for those planning on coming to Spain for their holidays, is that Hotels, and other officially ‘Certified and Licensed’ holiday accommodations, will have no water restrictions placed on them and guests can use the swimming pool facilities, additionally, Community Public Swimming Pools can also remain open, which means that the Spanish ‘Tourist Economy’ should not be impacted, as a consequence, no tourist sector industry or business should ‘Go Under’, no employees within those sectors will lose their jobs, or have their working hours reduced, so that too really is good news.

For permanent residents though, there is no change to the domestic water usage restrictions and we are still not permitted to use private community communal swimming pools 🤷‍♂️ As I have said previously, and purely from a personal perspective, Shazza and I are not bothered too much about not being able to use our communal pool facilities, we are after all only a five-minute drive from the beach and sea, but it will of course be good to get it available again, hopefully in the not so distant future, when the water situation permits. However, and still continuing on the good news theme, the water situation is now being monitored every two weeks, so you will forgive us if, and this isn’t anything personal you understand, that when the tourist hoards do arrive for their holidays, we permanent residents are hoping that it continues to rain at every opportunity 😂

The advance forecast, looking towards the end of March, shows some further optimistic news, several more days of rain, although it will not be continuous rain throughout the whole of those particular days, and of course we also already know how unreliable the ‘Works of Fiction’ can be, especially when they try to anticipate weather patterns that far in advance, but we have to remain positive, and of course optimistic, because every drop of the wet stuff that falls these days is a highly valued commodity and resource.

The timing of this last four days of wet stuff did actually have a bit of a silver lining to it though, well at least for Shazza and myself, because our kitchen contractors arrived first thing on a rather wet Tuesday morning, to commence the demolition of our existing kitchen, so it didn’t really matter to us what the weather was doing outside as we would be confined inside for the duration anyway. We obviously couldn’t use either the Washing Machine or Dishwasher, never mind the fact that we didn’t physically have either after the first couple of hours anyway, and it was pointless trying to do any cleaning, like mopping all the tiled floors, not whilst the contractor’s were in and creating a lot of mess, however, I am certain that we still didn’t save anything on our water usage over the week, what with the amount of extra water we must have used with all the additional Tea’s and Coffee’s that were being consumed on a daily basis by our temporary guests, and, as a consequence of probably making them too many refreshments, there was the additional usage of the guest room toilet facilities. Strange really because they flushed the toilet every single time they used it, I would have thought, being primarily Spanish, and aware of the current need to conserve water that they would have all been utilising the principle of “If its yellow then let it mellow, only if its brown do you flush it down” and just agree between themselves that the last one out, at the end of the day, would give the toilet a flush 🤷‍♂️ Anyway, we will not know how we have faired on our water usage until we receive the bill, which isn’t due until the middle of April, however, whilst we cannot legislate for what other’s are doing, Shazza and I will continue to keep minimising our own personal water usage as far is as reasonably practical, we currently still have plenty of wet wipes and deodorant 😉

For those that may be interested, I thought that I would provide you with a selection of images, some of which are of the old kitchen layout and colour scheme, then what the kitchen looked like during the demolition stage and finally, some of our newly installed kitchen, which was all completed (well very nearly 🤔) in eight days, although in reality it was seven, as one of those days was a Sunday, a non-working day.

So this is what our kitchen looked like on that first morning, before the demolition gang got their hammers and drills out…………….

BEFORE

Now if any of you are, or have previously been, viewers of the British TV property programme ‘A Place In The Sun’, then our old kitchen colour scheme, worktops and cupboards, will look very familiar to you. I think that no matter what area of Spain people purchased their property in, these kitchen fixtures, fittings and colour schemes, were all pretty much installed within the properties with the same bog standard kitchens, which, in the case of our apartment, was just over 20 years ago.

However, in our particular case, the previous owner, and there had only been the one prior to us purchasing the apartment nine years ago, had not undertaken any major internal structural changes, not even with the original appliances, he had only conducted, or had had done on his behalf, some not very good minor DIY, I wonder if his DIY expert was called Eric, as it was probably about the same standard as someone else with that name !! Although to be honest, had I have attempted to do any work on the electrics, which is extremely unlikely, I would certainly have made a much better, and safer, job of it. However, fortunately his DIY projects only extended as far as installing some sloping shelving on the back kitchen wall, although I am certain that they were not supposed to be sloping, and a lot of additional electrical extension sockets above, below and even out of sight behind wall units and cupboards, which also included four, self-installed, under cupboard unit strip lights which, as we were to discover to our horror, that he, or his ‘Cowboy Electrician’, had not made a very good job of any of it, I would even go as far as to say, the very crude connections running from the existing electrical feeds, and believe me, their were numerous, were all left in a pretty dangerous state, all hidden out of sight, until that was, our kitchen installer came to initially measure up and when he removed some of the kitchen appliances he revealed these fire hazards just waiting to happen 😲 It was only then that we discovered why some of the electrical ‘things’ had never worked since we had moved into the property, albeit they were minor items that we were not that bothered about, as they were not of any real practical importance during the short periods we had been using the property merely as a temporary ‘Bolt Hole’.

Fortunately, this is now all being rectified by our proper Spanish ‘Certified’ Electrician, who is rewiring the whole kitchen properly, and safely, and refitting new, and more modern, electrical sockets to where ‘we’ now actually need and want them. The other major bit of work is to the existing plumbing, as with our particular new kitchen design layout we are changing the locations of some of the items (Sink and Drainer, Washing Machine and Dishwasher), so the existing cold water inlet pipe, the internal hot water feed pipe and the grey water drainage pipe, all need to be either re-located or extended. The other change to the current layout is that on the large white tiled back wall, where there were just the two ‘sloping’ wooden shelf units, and the electronic security gate entry/exit system, we will now be adding a tall storage cupboard, to hide away things like step ladders, ironing board, mop bucket and brooms etc. and then next to that cupboard, running part way down the back wall, a breakfast bar with storage under, and then just above it, the old wooden sloping shelving will be replaced with two new, colour co-ordinated, off-set floating shelves. As the majority of the current appliances were certainly well over nine year’s old, like the Electric Hob and separate Oven, which were both quite literally on their last legs, the bulky Microwave (which we are considering donating to a museum), Washing Machine, Tumble Dryer and Fridge/freezer, I elected to just completely renew ‘all’ of the kitchen appliances, with one notable exception of course, that being Shazza, as she is still, ‘currently at least’, an irreplaceable kitchen appliance, but I may consider auditioning for the the latest new TV production of ‘A New Wife In The Sun’ 🤭 I can of course smile to myself as I write this, safe in the knowledge that I am not going to get a hefty slap around my head for that comment, as Shazza never reads any of my literary masterpieces ? No okay, you are probably right, we will stick with just calling them ‘rambles’ 😂 We have also opted to go for a more modern style of ‘integrated’ kitchen, which sounds a bit posh, but all that really means is that all of the free standing appliances will be hidden behind colour matched and connected cupboard doors, which will definitely mean I will now never be able to find anything, or that will be my excuse anyway 🤭 We have also chosen, what we believe to be, a fairly neutral colour scheme and, as we have no intentions of installing another new kitchen in our lifetime in this property, I suppose at some point, with changes in technologies and designs, it too at some point will begin to look dated, but I guess that ageing process comes to us all eventually.

Last year, once we had made the big decision to turn our ‘Bolt Hole’ into our ‘permanent’ home here in Spain, we had at that point both agreed that there needed to be two major projects conducted as a priority, the installation of a brand new kitchen, and then, a complete re-fit and modernisation of our Master En-suite bathroom. So this new kitchen installation is that first ‘project’ underway and, hopefully, we will also have completed the second project, the En-suite bathroom, before the end of this year. Additionally, and although we cannot really call it a ‘project’ as such, our third priority, once all the major messy stuff has been completed, is to fully redecorate the apartment again, we last did that when we initially purchased the property, so by the end of it all, we will feel as if we have put our own personal stamp and signature on the place and be able to then truly call this ‘Our Home’ 🤗

We of course knew, with all these kitchen works going on, that there would be a lot of noise, with hammering, electric drills and saws etc and of course, the unavoidable rubble and dust that is created. That meant that during the transition period, we would have no serviceable kitchen, Fridge/Freezer or cooking facilities, so we made the decision that for this interim period we would keep the old museum piece microwave, the bread toaster and our kettle, so that between the periods when the mains electricity was turned off, we were at least able to make something quick and easy for our lunches, and of course hot drinks for ourselves and our guests. So, our actual Living/Dining area became our temporary kitchen, food storage and preparation area, which added to the inconvenience, as we also had to utilise this limited space as a storage area, for the new worktops, splash backs, kitchen furniture and new appliances, whilst they were waiting to be fitted, we were effectively living in a building site. For the majority of the days, whilst the contractor’s were working, we were camped out on our balcony, looking at the lines of raindrops as they continually raced each other from the top of the french style glazed doors, to the bottom. At the end of each day, once the contractors had departed, we were able to then go out and eat a hot meal which, even in the wet and drizzly conditions, enabled us to get out of the four walls and away from the dust and to get some fresh air, more importantly, to exchange the constant noise of hammering and drilling, which was still ringing in our ears, for some more normal natural environmental sounds, the sound of the sea, the chinking of wine glasses, sounds of other people’s conversations and of course to enjoy a spot of people watching, the inclement weather did not stop people from going out to eat, thank goodness. It should also go without saying really, but we both felt the need to enjoy, and perhaps partake of a few extra, Anti-Covid Vaccines than we normally would, purely for medicinal purposes you understand, and of course, to clear all the dust from the builder’s rubble from our throats and my goodness, what a lot of dust there was to clear 😉

THE TRANSITION PERIOD

It only took the Spanish contractors, ‘Marco’, ‘Jose’ and ‘Brian’, (yes he was a Spanish ‘Brian’’ and not an English ‘Brian’) two full days to finish the demolition part of the task, (note to self 🤔: re-stock the medicine cabinet with headache tablets, ear plugs and purchase more Tea and Coffee). Then ‘Marco’ worked alone, for a further two full days, on the Electrical and Plumbing aspects and, by the start of day four, it was yet another change of contractor, ‘Sam’ a qualified Carpenter, who was British, and has lived here in Spain with his wife and children in excess of thirteen years, he had been tasked to complete the installation of our new kitchen and it soon became clearly apparent that he was a perfectionist. ‘Marco’, the electrician/plumber, returned again on the final day to check that all the appliances were working, that there were no leaks from the new plumbing installations and to finish off and tidy the electrical connections and any cables and wirings, however, at the beginning of this project we did not know exactly when that completion day would actually be, it had originally been allocated for a full two weeks worth of work. The only day there had been no work conducted was on the Sunday, which we were grateful for as we were ready for a peaceful day, and I imagine our neighbours were too !! However, on the contractor’s working days they started by 08:30am, which as you can probably imagine, meant that at least ‘one’ of us had to get up a lot earlier than usual, but mentioning no names, ‘She’ was not overly impressed at having to force herself out from under the duvet at such an ungodly hour of the day 🤭, however, I still dutifully delivered her morning coffee and iPad to her. Unusually, the Spanish contractor’s did not stop for lunch, so there were no typical two-hour Spanish ‘Siesta Periods’, so we were hopeful that they would be all done by the end of working day seven, on the following Tuesday 🤞

Then it would be our turn to get stuck in, to re-paint the kitchen ceiling and some other minor painting bits ‘n’ pieces, we then commenced a really thourough in depth clean of the whole apartment, not just in the new kitchen, so that we could get rid of all of the dust and grit which had accumulated in every nook and cranny in most areas of the apartment, even though we had tried to keep all the internal doors closed 🤷‍♂️ Then we needed to go and do a major shop as all the food cupboards, and Fridge/Freezer, were devoid of sustenance, before we could then, or perhaps more accurately, I should say Shazza 😉 could then commence the task of re-organising her kitchen drawers and cupboards, that could take a little longer than normal, as we would now have storage drawers and cupboards in different locations to where they had been previously. The truth is that even in the old kitchen I could never find anything, as Shazza has her own unique methodology when it comes to the kitchen storage solutions, which do not necessarily tend to match with what would have been my more OCD induced logically organised one’s 🤷‍♂️ But it works out quite well really, because when I say that I will prepare Lunch, or cook Dinner, but then, every two minutes shout through to her “Shazza, where do you store the mixing bowls ? Where is the blender ? Where do you keep the kitchen scales ? Which cupboard are the spices in ?” She would eventually just come through and say, “Oh, it will be quicker if I just do it myself 😤”. Oh well, that’s another cunning plan that appears to work quite effectively, I think to myself 🤭

The following Tuesday evening arrived and, ‘Joe’, the owner of the firm, arrived in person to check over the work and complete the handover of the finished project, well perhaps not quite fully finished, as we had discovered that their were some outstanding issues 🙄 The main issue was that they had delivered the wrong model of Fridge/Freezer, although they stated that it was an error by the supplier, but my question was, shouldn’t ‘they’ have checked what had been delivered to their premises ‘before’ delivering the appliances to us 🤔 Fortunately, all of the other new appliances were correct. The issue was that Shazza had specifically wanted, and ordered, a “NO FROST’ fridge freezer model, with the freezer part having ‘three’ large food storage boxes, but what arrived was an inferior ‘LOW FROST’ model, and with only two large freezer food storage boxes and a small ice maker tray. A new fridge was ordered and we were told that the correct model ‘should’ be delivered to us by the weekend, it arrived the following Monday afternoon. The next issue was that part of the new worktop was missing, although it was only a small part and would not prevent us from using the kitchen, but without that piece, they could not finish fitting part of the splash back either. Then, at the end of the breakfast bar, running the full width and height, from the floor to the wall there should have been a colour co-ordinated end panel, it was missing and so that too had to be re-ordered. Finally, we should have had a new double light switch fitted at the entrance to the kitchen, which would have had a switch to turn on the ceiling lights and a separate switch to turn on the under cupboard LED lighting, they didn’t have it and would need to go and purchase one, so they needed to come back another day to complete all of these outstanding tasks. We were told to use the incorrect Fridge/Freezer they had installed until the correct one was delivered, so at least we did have something to use however, to me, this felt like finally completing a jigsaw puzzle only to discover right at the end that pieces were missing, and although there was nothing too major, apart from perhaps not having the correct Fridge/Freezer, for me, and my OCD, it was an irritation I could have done without. Now I do have to say, that to his credit, ‘Joe’ did not to try a make any excuses, he put his hands up and admitted that the errors had been his and so, being a little forgiving, I adopted the stance that sometimes, mistakes happen, but these were not serious one’s and could be remedied relatively quickly.

Now to be totally honest, on the grand scale of things and notwithstanding these relatively minor issues, but from start to finish, the standard and quality of work provided by the actual on site Contractor’s, including the respect they gave to our property, as well as us, and the overall quality of their workmanship, well all I can I say is that, ‘It Exceeded Even Our Own Expectations’ and as an additional bonus, for which, I hasten to add, their has been no additional charge, we both had the opportunity to practice some of our limited Spanish speaking skills with our Spanish contractor’s, and of course, refreshing our own English language speaking skills with ‘Sam’ 😂

It had been quite difficult to visualise, even from the high quality computer generated 3D images provided to us beforehand, whether our chosen new kitchen layout, and colour scheme, would actually work, whether the remodelling of the kitchen layout would flow, as we had wanted it to, or whether the installation of an additional cupboard and breakfast bar on the back wall would make the kitchen appear smaller, but happily it didn’t, whether it was because we had chosen an ‘Integrated’ style of kitchen, so that visually it had smooth flowing lines, and/or the neutral colour scheme, I don’t honestly know, but we both agreed that our kitchen actually now looks and feels slightly more spacious than it had done previously 🤷‍♂️ although obviously it isn’t, and so we are both exceptionally pleased with the final product, so much so that we have now commissioned the same firm to draw up some design plans, and provide us with quotes, for our En-suite bathroom project which we hope to have completed by the Summer.

THE BIG REVEAL

Although it is not quite the complete finished product quite just yet, as there is some finishing off to do, by both the Contractor’s and then some personal touches by ourselves, but we love the new layout and we think that the new colour scheme works very well 👍

As a bit of an added bonus, well for me rather than Shazza, and seeing as we had a proper qualified Electrician on hand, I took full advantage of his presence whilst he was doing the last minute tidying up of the wiring bits and pieces. We had three loose, and badly fitted, electrical wall sockets, where the original builder’s of these apartments had made too large a hole, for the electrical socket and light switch in our bedroom to fit into properly, and also the same issue on two of the lower electrical wall sockets in the guest bedroom. Shazza had been mithering me for ages to look at, and of course rectify them, now I can proudly state that I had been quite pro-active with the ‘looking’ part of this task, and also with the scratching of my head and sucking my teeth, just like a proper contractor would do. However, I hadn’t to date spent very much time, well actually, no time whatsoever would be a more accurate statement, on the actual ‘rectification’ bit 🙄 Well, you should know me well enough by now, from some of my previous rambles, at just how enthusiastic and skilful I am at conducting DIY tasks, but do not judge me too harshly for I had gone as far as buying what I needed to commence the work, some thin sheets of wire mesh and some quick drying plaster, however, whether the tub of plaster would still be in date and usable now is another matter. But, as you will also already be aware, I never look a ‘Gift Horse In The Mouth’, especially when one conveniently presents itself right at my feet, so this was the perfect opportunity to finally get these outstanding tasks sorted, or perhaps more accurately, to get someone else to get them sorted for me 😉 What’s that old saying ? Something about ‘Not Buying A Dog and Then Biting Yourself’ 🤔🤭 So ‘Marco’ willingly came to my rescue and although he was quite insistent that he did not want any payment for his time and trouble, about fifteen minutes worth, and that included the head scratching and teeth sucking. However, he was most appreciative for the opportunity to now purchase some of his own chosen flavoured brand of Anti-Covid Vaccines 😉 So, if any of you are looking to buy, at a knock down price of course, some brand new, unused and still in its original packaging, sheets of thin wire mesh and, a small unopened tub of plaster, although the ‘Use By Date’ may now be illegible to read for some reason 🙄 then you of course know how to contact me, however, I am sort of making and educated guess that I will have to perhaps wait for quite some time to receive potential enquiries, especially as it is on a collection only basis 😂

So we now have our new, more modern, kitchen and we have completed this kitchen project by re-painting the ceiling and those horrible looking yellow tiles have now been re-painted ‘Grey’. The whole apartment has had a thorough Spring clean, moving all the furniture and cleaning behind and underneath it, all ceiling lights and wall fixtures and fittings, skirting boards, tiled floors etc. you name it, it all got cleaned, so we were both more than ready for a bit of a rest and to get back to our normal everyday routines. We have only around three weeks to fully enjoy this though, as the first week of April, just after Easter Monday, we have to start to get ourselves organised, administratively wise, to commence our first ‘Residency Permit Renewal’ processes and procedures, it is amazing, but gosh where did that first year go 😲 Although, in reality, it is actually only 10 months, but we have to commence the renewal process sixty-days in advance of our current ‘Residency Permits’ expiry dates on 13th June. Fortunately, these next ‘residency Permits’ will be valid this time around for a further two year’s, before they need to be done again, meaning that we will be free to concentrate on other, more exciting things, for the remainder of this year and throughout all of 2025. The other bonus, with being occupied with other things during this last year is, we have only used one week of our travel allowance in this our first year.

Just as a refresher, for those reading this who may be considering applying for the Non-Lucrative Visa (NLV), now or in the future, is that one of the requirements/restrictions associated to this particular NLV (Retirement Non-Working Visa) is that you are only permitted to travel, outside of Spain’s Borders, for a total of 10 months in the first 5 year period. Now you can break that ten month period down any way you like over those five years, taking longer periods one year and a shorter period in another, but if you want to apply for ‘Permanent Residency’ at the end of the five year ‘Temporary Residency’ period, you cannot have exceeded the ten month restriction and, very importantly, the onus is on you to prove that you have not exceeded that ten months and not for the Spanish Immigration to prove that you have.

For our own purposes, Shazza and I have just simplified it down to considering ourselves to basically having two months per year, to travel outside of the Spanish Borders, within our own particular ‘Temporary Residency Periods’, (which commence each year on 13th June). However, and in addition to that two months travel outside of Spain, we can of course still travel, Internally within Spain, which includes the Balearic and Canaries group of Islands, as often as we like without any restrictions. So with us having a rather lean travel period in this our first residency year, that will mean, as from 13th June this year, we will be carrying a surplus of seven weeks over into our second ‘Residency Year’, so we could, if we so choose, travel outside of Spain for a period of just under four months, now that opens up a lot of potentially viable extended travel opportunities 🤔

So just as my mind starts to drift into the potential vast list of destinations around the globe we could travel to, I hear the dulcet tones of my beloved, “Are you making the Dinner this evening ? You really need to familiarise yourself with where everything is in the kitchen cupboards and also with the use of the new Induction Hob and the Oven and Grill”, damn it, another ploy that hasn’t worked I groan to myself 🙄 Oh well, until the next ramble………….

Adios mi Amigos, ‘La Vida Es Buena”