Until The Fat Lady Sings

According to the local media, the Airport at Malaga is getting much busier now, not that it ever seemed to be not busy whenever we go there, our local campsite just five minutes down the road already has its ‘Site Full’ sign out at the front entrance 😲 Shazza and I have also observed that there are a lot more Motorhomes on our local roads up and down the Costa del Sol coastline, as well as the nearby AP7 motorway, which gives a fast link for the ferries for those going to, or returning from, Morocco. The car park spaces in our village and town are certainly much fuller than they were just a few short weeks ago and the prices in the Chiringuito’s, Cafe’s, Bars and Restaurants have all suddenly increased, so I guess that you don’t have to be a brain surgeon to realise that the 2024 holiday season has once again commenced. However, the seafront promenades, at least the one in our town and the one in Estepona, both still appear to be a little quieter than we had anticipated, but I am sure that that will change, as the temperatures begin to improve, from the chilly Winter 18-20 degrees(c) 🤭 climbing gradually towards the much warmer and hotter Summer 30-40 degrees(c) 🥵 Fortunately for us, as it would not have impacted on the tourists staying in Hotels or ‘Officially Certified’ holiday accommodations, both the storms we have had recently, the four day one swiftly followed by the seven day one, with the subsequent assistance of the ‘run offs’ from the mountains, has meant that the reservoir suppling our area has now reached just a little over 70% capacity, resulting in the Andalusian Government raising our personal domestic water usage allowance by 25%, from 160 Litres each, per day, to 200 Litres each, at least that will now mean we can save some money on not having to purchase as many wet wipes and deodorant sprays 😂 I did think about continuing to utilise my prayer mat to try and get a few more drops of the wet stuff to try and raise the reservoir capacity to 100%, but to be honest, I didn’t want to push my luck too far with the big man upstairs who had already generously answered my previous requests, BUT, just in case he is my ‘Anonymous’ subscriber to these rambles, a little bit more before the end of April would be very much appreciated 🙄

The decision, on whether our communal swimming pool will be allowed to be opened again, has now been delegated down to the local Mayors in each Municipality, so the jungle drums on our local social media forums are already reporting optimistic news for our locality. However, even if it were to be a favourable decision, it is still too early in the year to use unheated pools like our’s, as whilst the ‘air’ temperature may be reasonably warm, the ‘water’ temperatures are still pretty cold, which also includes the sea temperature. So, unless you come from Scandinavia, or other similar locations, and enjoy wild swimming in icy lakes and rivers, then for Shazza and myself it will probably be nearer the end of May before we dare to risk putting any of our lower bodily extremities into it 😲

We have however had yet another visit from the ‘Clima’, that orange coloured sand blown in from the Sahara, but this time the authorities issued a warning stating that the air quality was ‘Very Unhealthy’, last time it was only categorised as ‘Unhealthy’, so, and probably very much like ourselves, you may also be very well asking, “What makes the difference between the two categories ?” The answer to that is………………………..🤷‍♂️ However, that latest ‘Clima’ event only lasted for a couple of days before ‘Normal Service Was Resumed’ 😎

We have now submitted all of our documentation to our Solicitor’s so that they can now submit our residency permit renewal applications to the Spanish Immigration Authorities, for as we know, we are classed as ‘Immigrants’ in the eyes of the Spanish, and not ‘Expats’, as some of our fellow countrymen, and women, prefer to refer to themselves. Now whilst we continue to fulfill all of the criteria required, you cannot take it as a given that the renewed residency permit will be granted, for which some have already discovered when their renewal applications were refused, although they were subsequently successfully issued upon appeal 🤷‍♂️ So, until our solicitor’s come back to us stating that our applications have been approved, we are not taking anything for granted, so to quote the proverbial operatic themed saying, it is not over ‘Until The Fat Lady Sings’. At least if we are successful with our applications, then we will not have to go through this procedure again for a further two years 👍

Now you may also have to get used to a change in the title of our travel adventures, only by way of them becoming ‘Eric’s Adventures’ as opposed to what you previously knew as ‘Shazza Adventures’. I have recently planned what could be one extended road trip, within Spain, or what could probably become four or five shorter road trips of four or five day durations, which I think would be much more enjoyable and which would allow us to conduct them at a more leisurely pace with time to see a lot more things in each of the areas we intend to visit. Additionally I have a few single day trips planned, just to give us a bit of a change from our current more regular and routine daily schedules. However, these will have to be slotted in, between ‘other’ necessary personal upcoming commitments, and visitor’s that have already been scheduled into our diaries, but at least now the opportunity for us to travel a bit more is now beginning to open up and, once we get our residency permits renewed, we can then at least plan a lot further ahead and to then perhaps widen our travel horizons further afield 👍

Now you will know how I often complain about all the ‘Doom and Gloom’ in the news media publications, in all their forms, televised, printed publications or indeed, much more these days, on Social Media platforms. Interestingly enough I cannot remember when we last watched the U.K. News broadcasts on the television and even on my iPad I now only speed read through the headlines, ignoring the Political, Celebrity and even Environmentally focused ones and concentrate a bit more on any Financial one’s that may impact on us personally, Bank Interest Rates, Pensions etc. However, it isn’t just the U.K. press that are full of ‘Doom and Gloom’, Spanish media is just as bad and so what I try to do now is to seek out the more humorous, lighthearted or totally outrageous headlines, which tends to brighten my mornings. By way of example I have selected a few to share with you from the Spanish newspapers:

Now in our own little village where we park our car, in the mornings, we often see an elderly lady, probably in her 80’s, stood on the corner of the street in her dressing gown, just watching the world go by and waving at passing pedestrians and people passing by in their car’s, and yes, we often wave back, it would be rude not to. In the U.K. in Shazza’s mums village we have also seen women, not necessarily in their senior years, go to the Newsagent/Tobacconist in their ‘Onesies’. However I have to confess that I have never seen anyone go into a town hall on business in their nightwear, I suppose we should be thankful that they elect to put on some sort of clothing, as many people these days don’t wear any form of nightwear 🫣

I guess that if he had stuck to just wearing his Angel wings and guitar the worst he would have suffered from would have been candle wax burns. Thank goodness it wasn’t a female priest reading the sermon about the ‘burning bush’ 🤭

Now I am sure that we have all done it at some point whilst on holiday, purchased from the battalions of ‘Looky Looky’ traders, a cheap carton or two of cigarettes, some sort of headwear to shade ourselves from the scorching Spanish sun, perhaps even a handbag or purse etc. etc. and of course all at ‘ASDA’ or Walmart’ price no less. But now, and currently only in Benalmádena, although if successful could stretch right along the Spanish coastline, you could be fined for contributing to aiding and abetting illegal street crime 😲 It will be interesting to see how they manage to find the resources to police this latest initiative 🤔

And finally, I have saved the best till last as this my friends is no April Fool joke……………

Yes, public tax payers money has been spent on conducting a study on this 😲 Now if that isn’t reason enough to ask the question as to why tax payers money has been spent on this study, the other obvious question should be, who thought that it would be a good idea to publish this information, especially the map and named location of the safe locations because, from the limited zombie apocolypse movies that I, ‘for some inexplicable reason’ I hasten to add, have watched, the zombies always seem to be able to seek out the hiding places of the unaffected, but now someone has gone to the trouble of provided them with a map and names of the ‘safe’ hiding locations 🤷‍♂️ So my friends, an obvious piece of advice I know, but do not come to Spain if their is a Zombie Apocolypse, as they will already know where to find you, unless of course they are already waiting at the Airport when you land and they are dressed as Immigration officials, who all have that humourless look and brain dead appearance anyway 😂 The study did reflect that those who own Motorhomes, Campervans or Caravans, would actually have a higher life expectancy rate because they can be both mobile and self-sufficient, able to move quickly between locations seeking out food and water supplies and even other safe haven communities, damn it, I knew importing the car and selling our Motorhome was the wrong choice 🤬

Anyway, Shazza and I decided to get out before the Zombie Apocalypse arrives, when I say ‘get out’ I don’t actually mean leave Spain, I mean get outdoors and enjoy the current safe environment whilst it lasts, although, in all honesty it may also have had something to do with their being a ‘Classic Motor Scooter Rally’ being held in our local town 🤭 It was beautiful warm and sunny day, and yes the sky was blue and cloudless, the sea was a glistening shade of turquoise and blue, but you didn’t need me to tell you that really did you ? We wandered into the town mid-afternoon, although when we got there it looked and sounded a little too quiet, the music stage had been erected, the loudspeakers and amplifiers were in position, but there was a serious lack of presence of any people and no tell tale smells of two-stroke fuel or the noise of any hairdryers, sorry I mean Scooter motors 😂 Perhaps the Zombie Apocolypse had already commenced 😲But I was wearing my ‘Indiana Jones’ hat, purchased of course many years previously from one of those illegal ‘Looky Looky’ criminals, Shazza was dressed nin her leather cat suit outfit with whip, but I digress, that’s a story for another day 😂 so we both felt brave enough to continue walking along the promenade. We saw several people, who we adjudged not to be looking brain dead, although it was a close call with some of them, and we risked stopping at a convenient beach side hostelry to partake of a cold Anti-Covid Vaccine 🍺 to quench our raging thirsts. We continued to just wander along the full length of the promenade before then turning back via one of the back streets, to shade from the heat of the sun. We could hear music, live music, as opposed to the usual stuff emanating from the numerous bars, but it was too far away from where the Scooter Rally was gathering, so we just followed the noise and discovered a couple of back street bars in the ‘Plaza de Naranja’, an Irish Bar and a Spanish bar. The Spanish bar was pretty much full, although we found one table, in a corner of the small Plaza their was a stage and an elderly gentleman crooner singing, mainly Spanish songs, but with a few English ones thrown in. He was actually quite good and so we sat and enjoyed a couple more Anti-Covid Vaccines, as you do, and just enjoyed ourselves amongst our Spanish brethren. The Irish bar wasn’t anywhere near as busy but the handful of customer’s seemed to also be enjoying the late afternoon entertainment.

The afternoon turned to early evening and we both began to feel hungry, we had only eaten a light lunch at home, deciding to eat dinner out for a change, as it was the weekend. As we got back to the Motor Scooter Rally point the small square was crowded, this was where another one of our Spanish Cafe/Bars is located, and where we sometimes come to enjoy our morning Cafe con Leche’s and Tostado’s, there are actually four small Cafe/Bars in this square but they were all crowded, the music stage opposite was still empty, there was no music so we assumed it was going to be more of a late night event, but at least now their was a decent number of Motor Scooters parked up in one long line.

A brief look along the lines, just to remind me of my youth, although in those days I only ever had a 50cc moped which certainly didn’t warrant me worthy of being a member of such an elite club. We strolled back along the sun-drenched seafront promenade, even now at 6pm it was still hot in the sun, which would not set for another three hours, we headed back towards the Marina with it’s numerous eateries, although we had already decided that it would be ‘Pizza Night’, not something we eat on a regular basis, and we knew exactly what we would each be ordering, Shazza her ‘Veggie’ favourite and me my usual ‘Meat Feast’ washed down of course with another couple of Anti-Covid Vaccines, well you have to look after your own health these days and as always, it would have been rude not to 😉

We returned home an hour before sunset and sat for a while on the balcony just enjoying the view out to sea. It had been a very pleasant and relaxed afternoon, the sort of days we both enjoy, although we had no expectations beforehand of how that afternoon was to turn out, we certainly hadn’t anticipated the live music in the Plaza and being sat amongst the Spanish enjoying it, so it was nice to find something a bit different to do during one of our normal walks into the town. The Fiesta season hasn’t started proper yet, with the parades, the music, the fairground stalls and of course the crowds, but these will happen on an almost weekly basis very very soon, we both like the atmosphere of the Fiesta’s but not so much the crowds, I think it’s an age thing these days.

So there has not been very much going on, or exciting, to perhaps tell you about in this particular ramble, although as you know that never actually stops me, but for us, these are just our normal days now, and we like the freedom of it, some days, even if the sun is shining, we may choose to have a day indoors, sometimes out of necessity, cleaning, washing etc. but always confident in the knowledge that more often than not, the sun will be out the next day, and the day after that. It wasn’t that long ago when we would pay good money just to enjoy a couple of weeks of this, even our year’s of living full time in our motorhome, there was always the constant moving on, the time restrictions, but now we don’t have to worry about any of that. You may think that it is just a throw away line when I say that we both think ourselves very fortunate to now be living this lifestyle, but it is actually true and both Shazza and I do remind ourselves of our good fortune quite frequently in our conversations wether that be whilst sat on our balcony just enjoying the views, or sat at one of the seafront Cafe/Bars enjoying a morning Coffee and Toast, or an afternoon weekend lunch at our favourite seafront seafood restaurant, or dinner in the Marina overlooking the boats on their moorings or just walking along the Estepona seafront promenade, we didn’t need to win the Lottery to be able to come here and enjoy this lifestyle and you do not need to be rich to live here, in fact it is a lot cheaper when you compare it with the cost of living in the UK and you don’t even need to speak the language, although it has obvious advantages if you can at least converse a little in the local lingo. The truth is, you just need to want to give it a go, I will be honest, at first I did not want to but it was a combination of the impact of ‘Brexit’ and the ‘Covid’ Pandemic that was instrumental in me wanting to give it a go, Shazza has always wanted to live here. I realised that living here wasn’t actually a prison sentence, that we can choose to leave whenever we want to, but for now, we will stay for a little bit longer and, who knows, maybe we will never leave 🤷‍♂️

Until my next ramble…………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, (La Vida Es Buena)