It Is Snowing !!

So you will have already gathered from reading my recent rambles, if you were not already aware that is, that down here on the Southern Eastern tip of Spain, that it is not wall to wall sunshine every day of the year here, but generally speaking, well it does tend to be pretty decent here when all is said and done. However, very recently in these rambles, if I am not talking about being hit with one adverse sort of weather condition, then I am talking about another, but it appears that it has just been one of those year’s when you could hardly call things ‘Normal’ and, for those of you, who like myself, watch a lot of the nature programmes on TV and Netflix, you will know that it is much the same for large parts of our world, so it isn’t as if we are special or anything.

For several days now, we have been experiencing a phenomenon known as the ‘Clima’, a term used here to describe the orange coloured sand that is blown in on the wind, across the sea from the Sahara Desert. This fine orange dusty sand quite literally covers everything in its path which isn’t under cover, buildings, pavements, roads, vehicles, outdoor furniture, everything, absolutely everything and as large swathes of Spain are known for their numerous white-washed villages and towns, well lets just say that it tends to make the ‘Clima’ a lot more noticeable, as you may imagine. But even this ‘Clima’ is not an unusual occurrence here, it just tends to vary year on year in its degree of intensity and this year it is by no means the worst that Shazza and I have ever experienced.

A couple of years ago when we were here, on one of our temporary ‘Schengen Shuffle’ visits, it had arrived in great quantities, but accompanied with heavy rain, so it rapidly turned into quite a thick sticky orange mud, which ended up taking several weeks to get rid of it from all the nooks and crannies it had secreted itself into within our car. This time, fortunately, there was no rain with it and so it arrived on the wind just as a thick layer of Orange dust, so for days we had been living in a continuous thick ‘smog’ like condition, throughout both the day’s and night’s, the air was thick with it and it reminded me of scenes that I had seen of London streets, in some of those old ‘Dickins’ Victorian era movies. My car was once again covered ‘head to toe’ in the stuff, or should that be ‘roof to tyres’ 🤔 It was pointless putting it through a car wash because, had I have done so, well it would have been just as bad again within minutes of driving away, so for now I will just have to wait until this ‘Clima’ has passed over, although it is still forecast to last for several more days and now, before it goes, another long spell of rain is also due, so who knows, that rainfall may just do the job for me and save a trip to the car wash 🤷‍♂️

The National ‘Works of Fiction’ have now also issued a colour coded map of the country, which shows the ‘Air Quality’ during this ‘Clima’ period, they are currently strongly advising anyone who resides in the ‘Red’ areas marked on the map, particularly those who suffer with ‘Bronchial’, or other serious ‘Breathing’ difficulties, to remain indoors with all windows and doors closed 😲

I hope you will forgive me, for as I sit here looking out upon the grey ‘orange tinged’ mist, and witness the first large raindrops fall on the pavement below, accompanied by the rolls of thunder and the flashes of lightning, I afford myself a smile as I think about programmes like ‘A Place In The Sun’ (I seem to be plugging that programme a lot lately, perhaps they will pay me some promotional commission 🤔), but they always make such a big deal about the amount of annual days of sunshine that this part of Spain gets, and they regularly promote ‘A Healthy Mediterranean Lifestyle’, although it conveniently neglects to mention the numerous annual Wildfires, Floods, Sandstorms and Droughts 🤭 So where are they right now I wonder, if they have any sense they will probably be filming in more sunnier Mediterranean coastal resorts like Italy, Greece or Turkey, which are not currently suffering with either this ‘Clima’ or the ‘Rain’ and where you may currently be able to enjoy a much healthier Mediterranean lifestyle.

As you may also well imagine, Shazza and I have not let this ‘Clima’ weather condition prevent us from getting out for our usual daily walks, for very fortunately we do not suffer with any breathing issues, although, now that I come to think about it, that is not strictly true, for sometimes my beloved, especially during the night, can be heard doing a particular farmyard animal impression 🐷 However, when she wakes up in the morning’s and complains to me that she had woken up in the middle of the night and could not breathe, I don’t own up to the fact that it may just have had something to do with me putting my hand over her face 🤭

So back to the humdrum of normal everyday life and there I was, one morning very recently, sat alone at the beach cafe next to the car park on our favourite stretch of beach, Shazza had gone for her appointment at her regular hairdresser’s in the village. There was quite a strong Easterly wind blowing in off the sea, whilst not only serving to dump even more sand on our location, it was also driving the orange sand even further inland, share and share alike, that’s what I was always taught as a child. The turbulent waves with their white frothy crests were crashing noisily up on to the shoreline, just a few metres away from where I was sat, there were no other customer’s, just me, sat with my mug of hot strong coffee, I got lost in my thoughts, mesmerised just watching and listening to the boisterous waves.

When Shazza was finished at the hairdresser’s we continued along the promenade and walked into the town where we stopped for a coffee, before returning to the Marina to enjoy a leisurely lunch, but under cover from both the wind and the sand. I think that we do tend to live a relatively simple, and certainly a much more relaxing lifestyle these days, apart from the rare occasions when we may have to deal with Spanish Bureaucracy that is, although, to be honest, it is not that often that we stop for leisurely lunches during the week, but we do enjoy the walks and, some days just a stop for a coffee will suffice 😉 I think that we both could enjoy taking leisurely lunches out every day of the week, as we currently rarely spend even half of our allocated monthly ‘personal expenditure’ budget. However, our decision not to, is more about wanting to maintain our healthier ‘Plant Based’ diets, at least during weekdays, as their are not a lot of ‘Plant Based’ options readily available in the majority of the Cafe/Bars and Restaurants in our neck of the woods, so it would get pretty boring if we had to just stick to using the establishments that do. Now the truth is that there is actually a lot of variety of food establishments here, both in the Marina and the local town, however, the majority of them serve more of the traditional type menu options, basically meat and more meat, deep fried or grilled but, to be fair, they will usually list a ‘Vegetarian’ option on the menu, but, more often than not, that generally just means salad 🤷‍♂️ We are also beginning to identify some dedicated ‘Vegan’ establishments in the wider area, but as yet, in this part of Spain at least, they are still pretty sparse and Shazza is not actually a ‘Vegan’, but those type of establishments, by their very nature, do of course offer a wider variety of ‘Plant Based’ options. Because of the limitations on ‘Plant Based’ options in our immediate local area, Shazza has compromised and she will now eat ‘some’ varieties of fish when we go out, and/or Goat’s Cheese. As for myself, well I am pretty easily catered for, as I do still eat all varieties of Fish, and even Meat. So we do tend to stick to eating out primarily at weekends, when it then becomes more of a treat for the both of us, but for me, the real advantage has nothing to do with menu options, more a case of weekends having much more people out and about, so the ambience is much better, as of course are the people watching opportunities 😉

The windy conditions were set to get stronger over the next few days, reaching 40-50mph which prompted the ‘Works of Fiction’ to issue yet another weather warning, this time for what they described as a ‘Coastal Event’, stretching right along the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca coastlines, with wave heights expected of between 3-5 metres. Now personally, I really do enjoy these sort of weather conditions, being able to see at close quarter’s, although not too close you understand, the raw power of the sea as it stampedes in and batters the rocks, watching as the tumultuous waves climb, and breach with ease, the outer harbour wall of the Marina, watching as the waves race along the beachfront and getting ever closer up the sand, even threatening at some points to breach the low promenade wall. Then there is the accompanying noise it brings with it, just one long continuous loud repetitive drone, much like the sound of the engines of aircraft getting ever closer, as they race down the runway, gaining speed before they lift into the air. I have also experienced these same conditions in the UK very many times in the past, at many different coastal locations in England, Scotland and Wales, although more commonly during the Autumn and Winter periods, the only significant difference being that back then, I would have been huddled in a thick warm outer coat, braced against the icy wind and cold weather nipping at my exposed skin, but here, it is very warm and humid, my thin outer jacket being more of a protection from the wind than the temperature which remains in the low twenty somethings. To think that in probably no more than a fortnight’s time, it will all change again and I will very probably be mentioning, in these rambles, all about the bright cloudless blue sky, the flat mill pond like sea conditions, and the crystal clear water, I certainly think that nature is truly awesome, it provides us with so much variety although, at times, it can perhaps also be a little scary.

Over the few days that followed, we continued to go out in these conditions, in the knowledge that, if the ‘Works of Fiction’ forecast was accurate, we could very possibly be confined to barracks for over a week 😲 We were not alone on our daily walks, the advance party of Easter holiday makers had arrived and although the beaches may have been pretty much deserted, the Cafe’s, Restaurants and Chiringuito’s were benefiting from this recent influx of tourist cash combined with these current adverse weather conditions, for whilst the tourists may not have been able to sunbathe on the beach, or swim safely in the sea, at least they could sit and watch it from behind the windows, or protection of the zipped up weather canopies, whilst they enjoyed their breakfast’s and lunches.

Shazza and I really can empathise with those tourists, who have probably been looking forward to coming here for many moths away from some of the much cooler northerly climates, having parted with their hard earned money which they may have been saving for months, and then spent it both getting here and also on their holiday accommodations, expectant of a sunny beach holiday for a week or two. Generally speaking, even Shazza and I much prefer the warmer sunnier weather, however, for us, now living here permanently, it is currently a double edged sword, for we also desperately need the extended periods of rain 🙄 It reminds me of that saying, “You can please some of the people some of the time, but you cannot please all of the people, all of the time”.

My feet are also now beginning to feel a little itchy, and no it isn’t a medical condition, before any of you ask 🙄 “I am beginning to feel the need to get back ‘On The Road’, to do some more travelling again“ so I say to Shazza one morning over coffee, “I am not getting any younger you know, so each hour, of each day, of each week is time that I am never going to get back so we need to start thinking about our travel agenda”. Shazza, is a little more circumspect about it and just says,“We still have plenty of time, there is no hurry”. I give her my indignant look, “That’s fine for you to say, but you’re almost a decade younger than me”. She just laughs, “But you are still a fit and healthy ‘old man’, and I am sure that you have a good few year’s left in you yet”, then she laughs again, more mischievously this time, and then gives me a wink of her eye. The cheeky bugger, I think to myself.

Talking about future travel, and I may already have mentioned this once or twice before in these rambles, we have a large family re-union event in Austria in August, many of our wider family members, who reside in many parts of the world, will all be gathering, from as far afield as Australia, to those a little closer who live in Germany, France and the UK, and which will also now include two very recent ‘new borns’, one in Germany and the other in France, meaning that Shazza and I have also gained new titles, ‘Great Aunt and Uncle’, as if ‘Nana Shazza and Grandad Eric’ didn’t already make us feel older than we would actually like 🙄 But in respect of that particular event, we have now pre-booked, and pre-paid, for everything necessary for that trip, Return Flights, Airport Car Parking, Hotel Accommodations in Munich (Our Daughter and Son-in-Law have paid for our three night Hotel accommodation in Austria) and we have also booked our Return Rail Tickets from Munich to the event location in Austria. I love it when a plan comes together, although special thanks must go to my ‘Carer’ who organised it all on-line in no more than fifteen minutes, there are some really good things about modern technology these days, so me, and my OCD buddy are well happy 🤭

We have also just had our Water Bill for the last three months usage, a little earlier than I had anticipated, but the good news is that we used no more water, during this billing period, than we did in the preceding three months, even though in this current billing period we had some family visitor’s for nearly a week and of course the recent Contractor’s and, I discovered that both of our last two bills were even less than the one that preceded both of them, which was a period when we were not on water usage restrictions, so we are at least getting it right and so when I receive the actual paper invoice, which always arrives a couple of weeks after we have paid our Direct Debit, I will be able to confirm our actual water consumption, so who knows, perhaps we will be able to have our family come stay with us in August as originally planned, instead of them having to stay in a hotel 🤗 So, for the time being, as far as we are concerned, “The Rain In Spain” can fall as much as it likes at the moment as long as it keeps filling those Embalces.

And just as a footnote to bring this latest ramble to an end, seeing as I started on the subject of the weather, I may as well end on the same note. Just this morning we awoke to the news that whilst we continue to have the Rain, just up the road from us, perhaps no more than an hour away, and all over the rest of the Andalusian Region, even up into the Alicante area, “It Is Snowing” 😲 Eventually when it melts, some of it may also find its way into the Embalces, so the good news just keeps on coming, well okay, perhaps just for some of us 🙄

Until my next ramble…………..

Hasta Luego Mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena (Life Is Good)