The Elephant In The Room

In all honesty I was not actually expecting a marching band, a group of dancing girls, a celebratory cake or even a visit by the Mayor, although to be honest any one of those four would have actually been quite a nice gesture 🤔 No, Thursday June 13th turned out to be just like any of the previous 365 days that had just flown by, but for me, and my OCD buddy, this particular day, highlighted, as I am sure you would expect, on my calendar because, well for me at least, this marked a very special day, it was the first day of the start of our second year of residency here in Spain 🥳 However, that morning, when, as usual, I took in her ladyship’s morning coffee and iPad, her head barely poking out from under the duvet, and I know it is the light Summer one but, how on earth can she sleep underneath that thing in these temperatures 🤷‍♂️ Anyway, as I put her coffee mug and iPad onto her bedside locker to a somewhat muffled sound of gratitude, it is amazing what living with someone twenty fours hours a day can do with communication skills, as I can now decipher her various grunts and groans by their tone, no words need to be spoken 😂 I just happened to mention this special day to her, now I think that it was reasonable of me to at least expect some sort of upbeat reaction from my beloved, although I know her well enough by now not to have expected her to jump out of bed and do cartwheels, disappointingly, those sort of days have all but disappeared 🤔 However, I do have to confess, I was left more than a little deflated when the only muffled response that came from beneath the cover was “And…”, Oh well, I thought to myself, we can’t all wake up in the morning feeling bright-eyed and bushy tailed now can we 🤷‍♂️ I went back on to the balcony and stared out of the french windows, watching as the orange glow of sunrise started to slowly filter into the more usual blue daylight colour. I watched the silhouette’s of the freighters as they moved both slowly and silently, in opposite directions across the horizon, they always look to me as if they are going to collide with each other, however, in reality they are probably miles apart from each other. I sat silently, with my mug of hot coffee cupped in my hands, and thoughtfully asked myself the searching question, “Why is it that it is only me that felt excited about this particular day ?” I never did come up with an answer, so I guess, that it was, after all is said and done, probably just another ordinary day 🙄

There was also another first that happened later that day, now whilst our communal pool had actually re-opened on the 1st June, Shazza and I had not, until more recently, used it, I am not sure why when it is literally just a two minute walk from our front door and especially with the searingly hot daily temperatures which are now regularly between 28-35 degrees(c). Although, if you are in the UK, reading about the weather down in our neck of the woods, at least one of the British media publications would have you believing the complete opposite about our weather 😲 Perhaps it’s a UK Government ploy to try to prevent people from leaving the country, so that as many as possible will be available to vote in the upcoming General Election, although that could actually prove to be yet another costly miscalculation by this current UK Government 😂

Perhaps the ‘Reporter’, who wrote that particular article, was not familiar with the Spanish eastern coastline, for although the ‘Costa del Sol’ does stretch for some 150Km (93 miles), meaning that different areas along it, can have hugely variable weather patterns, but if you had happened to have read that particular article you would have noted that they stated that these ‘Torrential Rains, and ‘Floods’, had actually occurred in the ‘Region’ of Murcia 🤷‍♂️ Now for those of you that are not familiar with the numerous ‘Costas’ that run down the Spanish coastline, like that newspaper reporter obviously isn’t, the Murcia region coastline is actually on the ‘Costa Calida’ and not on the ‘Costa del Sol’ and, between these two ‘Costas’ there is the Costa de Almeria (217Km long) and the Costa Tropical (75Km long). The long and the short of it being that we, here on the Costa del Sol, have not had ‘any’ rain, of any sort of significance, since the two big storms back in March, so a torrential downpour here would most certainly have been more than gratefully received, just to top up the Reservoirs a little bit, as they are now, as anticipated, beginning to lose small amounts of water through the evaporation process, but nothing for us to get concerned about. But it does just just re-enforce the fact that the Media will not let the truth, or accuracy, get in the way of a story 🤷‍♂️ So don’t rush to cancel your flights to Spain, unless of course you are heading towards the ‘Costa Calida’, although I suspect that even in that location the wet stuff would have disappeared by now and the sun will be shining again, as bad weather generally doesn’t last very long in Spain, and as another saying goes ‘The rain in Spain falls mainly on…the UK’ 🤭

However, when we did finally make it down to the pool, where we have been enjoying some rather pleasant swimming, even if it is purely for exercise purposes as opposed to just being for fun, and of course we have been doing a spot of sunbathing, well it would have been so rude not to 😎 However, and somewhat surprisingly, for most days we had the whole pool area all to ourselves, so it did make us wonder where the holidaymakers were, even the pool in the residential complex which is adjacent to us, which I can look out upon from our balcony, and with that particular complex having quite a lot of holiday rental apartments in comparison with our own, but even that has been unusually quiet for this time of year, not completely deserted you understand, just quieter than it would normally be 🤔 I remember that at around this time last year, just after we had arrived to commence our first year of residency, our pool was quite busy every single day, from lunchtime right through until 8-9pm, which is why we always used to go down there for two or three hours in the mornings, when it was very much quieter and we did not have the pleasure of all the ‘Little Darlings’. I do have my own particular theory on why there may be a lack of holidaymakers this year, and it is this, with the serious drought conditions that we have been experiencing here, and which we still are to a degree, it was well publicised in the media, both here and also in the UK media, that all ‘Private’ pools were closed, with no date provided as to when, or if, they would be reopening. So I think that those holiday makers, that would normally have pre-booked their holidays well in advance of their arrival in the ‘Privately’ owned apartments, would have read these articles, or as we have witnessed, asked the question about Pool opening dates on several local community Spanish forums, but didn’t receive very positive responses, so they made the decision to book to go to other summer sun countries for their holidays, somewhere where they had no such pool restrictions and, to be honest, who could blame them 🤷‍♂️ Although, they have not totally deserted us, as there are ‘some’ holiday makers here, as we have seen an increase in the number of beach umbrellas and sun chairs, although even they are not in the usual large numbers for this time of year.

Now usually, within these rambles, I do try exceptionally hard to stay away from getting into any really serious or deep and meaningful conversations around Politics, although, and I am sure that many of my readers will already know that, in the past, when I have had the odd nibble at the subject, it has mostly been of a more ‘tongue in cheek’ nature, with perhaps the odd bit of sarcasm thrown in just for good measure, unfortunately for me, ‘Bumbling Boris’ has been exiled, so a lot of the wonderful material that he used to provide me with, has subsequently disappeared too ☹️ But yes, I cannot tell a lie, occasionally I have also been known to have a bit of a rant, but to be honest that was primarily only over the subject of ‘Brexshit’, and only because that really did have a huge impact on our personal lives and retirement plans. However, it has been eight years since that disastrous ‘Referendum’ was held, and it is now three and a half years since ‘Brexshit’ was officially implemented, and so now it has very little, if any, impact on Shazza and myself and is just ‘water under the bridge’, as another saying goes. On the now rare occasions when I do go back and reflect upon that dark time, I now actually find myself being grateful for ‘Brexshit’, yes, I actually said words I never thought that I would utter like, ‘grateful’, who would have thought it eh 🤷‍♂️ So a big thank you is in order I suppose to all of you Brexiteers, for, if Brexshit had not have happened, then Shazza and I probably would not be living here in Spain now, enjoying the very nice lifestyle that it is providing us with. Strange how after all these years, this ‘fate’ business just continues to keep working in our favour, I do so like it when, what at first appears to be a ‘Negative’ actually turns out to be a ‘Positive’ 😁

Although we no longer glue ourselves to the TV screen at 7pm (6pm UK time) on a Monday through to Friday evening, just to watch the BBC half hour ‘Doom and Gloom’ show, we both do still read the news in the media publications on our iPads, not just with what is happening within the UK but also the rest of Europe, and even the rest of the World, as it pays not to bury one’s head too deep in the sand so that we can at least have some sort of advance notification of what may be on the horizon, and to make preparations if need be, just in case any of that ‘Doom and Gloom’ may ultimately have an impact on us. However, generally speaking, I do generally only really ‘speed read’ the headlines and don’t get too bogged down in the detail or the in-fighting, wether that be with Politics, Religion, Sport or even the ‘UK Royals’. Much like many other Countries, Spain also has a Royal Family, but they certainly are not in the National spotlight on a daily basis, and rarely make an appearance in the media, so perhaps the UK Royals, including those members who ‘chose’ to withdraw themselves from it, could learn something from them, stop ‘Washing your dirty linen in public’ 🤔 Whilst I am mentioning the UK Royals can I just take this opportunity to say, ‘Happy Birthday to his Royal Highness’, sorry for not sending a card, I suppose that’s the Knighthood gone then for providing 34 years in the service of my Countries security and safety. Perhaps I should have participated instead in ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ or been the Manager of our National Football Team that, until now, has failed to actually win anything since 1966 🤷‍♂️ Perhaps it would have made a difference in me getting my renewed TIE card much quicker, if the application form had stated ‘Sir Eric’ on it, although I very much doubt it 😂

However, as much as I try to ignore anything too political, not even I could fail to notice that there has been quite a lot going on recently, on the political fronts that is. Much nearer to home, that of course being our now ‘current’ home, rather than our Country of Birth home, the European Elections to allocate new MEP’s has recently taken place, and that has created one hell of a maelstrom, Europe wide, with the so called ‘Far Right’ Parties winning many more votes than anyone could have anticipated, even themselves I suspect if the truth were known. The unexpected outcome of these Elections has resulted in the Belgian Prime Minister announcing his resignation, President Macron of France now calling an unexpected snap Election, which is playing havoc with the value of the Euro against UK Sterling, so my tip, if you happen to exchange Euro’s for your holidays, then get them ‘before’ the French Elections take place and you will more likely have much more holiday money than you had expected to have 😉

The same Election Fever is of course gripping the nation in the UK, although to be honest I have probably exaggerated and over egged it a little bit with the use of the word ‘Gripping’ 😂 It will still probably be a two horse race between the Conservative and Labour Parties, although if the hype in the media is to be believed, and with the Conservatives continually shooting themselves in the foot, I don’t know wether they will be able to actually ‘Race’ to the finish post, it is looking more likely that they will barely be able to Limp’ to it 🤭

Now being outside of the UK self-destruct zone, Shazza and I can look in from the outside and feel extremely fortunate that we did actually manage to get out when we did. So I do have to say that it is a little bit entertaining to now watch all the pre-election shananagans that are going on, although I don’t think that either ‘Sunak’ or ‘Starmer’ may view it as entertaining, more as a much unwanted irritation, like a bad case of Haemorrhoids. Yes, ‘Farage’ is back in his milkshake adorned suit and, much like Marmite, you either love him or hate him, but come on, he always tends to brighten up these Political ‘Muppet Shows’. However, his re-emergence on the mainstream political scene may not actually be good news for ‘any’ of the other political parties either, as I am sure that they will all lose ‘some’ votes to this ‘Reform Party’ who, it is generally believed, are unlikely to gain sufficient votes to see them actually win the election outright and to form the next Government, but I for one wouldn’t rule anything out in this current political climate 🤷‍♂️

I am perhaps a little guilty for leading you to believe, within these rambles, that Spain, is a land of milk and honey and doesn’t have any issues, everything is so idyllic over here all the time. Okay, perhaps I should address ‘The Elephant In The Room’ and talk a little about this vast land of sunshine, wonderful beaches and warm sea, what issues could ever disturb the harmony and bliss of such a Paradise like this, well apart from the same old, same old Political discord, which is always in the news here in Spain, oh yes, and there are the occasional Wildfires, Earthquakes, Floods and Droughts, and perhaps the odd ‘Anti-Tourism’ protests here and there 🙄 I am certain that many of you reading this ramble will already have seen all the media coverage about the ‘Anti-Tourism’ protests that have been taking place in Spain, although primarily it is confined to the Balieric Islands (Mallorca and Menorca) and the Canary Islands (Tenerife and Lanzarote), although not exclusively, as there have also been some similar, but smaller, protests in several of the Regions and Provinces here on mainland Spain, ‘Valencia’, ‘Madrid’ and ‘Malaga’ to name just three. But the UK media will have you believe that these protests are actually targeted at only the ‘British’ tourists, which is actually again not true, a tourist is a tourist, irrespective of the Nationality of those tourists, and the protests are in respect of ‘over tourism’ and not ‘tourism’ per se. Primarily though, the underlying grievance by the protesters is how it has created unaffordable housing within the local communities with all the ‘non-official and un-licensed’ rental properties as well as the ever growing holiday companies like AirBnB to name but one, but there are dozens more of a similar nature. But this is nothing new, it is very similar to what is also going on in many UK top tourist destinations, where second home purchasers, and large corporate Holiday Property Rental Companies, have priced out locals from purchasing homes within their local communities. The difference, as I see it, between the UK population, and those in Europe, is that in most of the European nations, if they are unhappy about anything with their Governments, they do not sit in their armchairs and just moan about it, they actively get up and take action, usually by hitting the streets in massive numbers where they cause mass disruption. In these Spanish Islands, tourism accounts for around 45% of the annual GDP, so any major disruption to this tourism industry, like for example, a Volcanic Eruption or a Pandemic, or several massive ‘Protests’ on Mass tourism, hits the Government where it hurts most, in their treasury coffers 😲 But it can also have a ‘sting in the tale’ for the protesters, if the tourists read, or hear, on the news channels, about these disruptive events, that then may discourage them from booking their holidays there which doesn’t just impact on the Government, but also within the Tourism Sectors itself, which could lead to business closures and lack of job opportunities. In truth, the issues behind these protests are very complex and, as usual, there are always two sides to every story and not all Spanish people are against Tourism, so you may be pleased to hear that I am not going to go into them in this ramble. Now whilst I cannot pass comment on how Tourists are being treated on the Spanish Island resorts, I can however say that here in our part of the Southern ‘Costa del Sol’, and I guess the same is true for the majority of this long stretch of our coastline, all tourists are made to feel very welcome, this area exists financially because of tourism so if, at this current moment in time, you do not feel confident about going to any of the Balearic or Canary Island resorts, but you still want to enjoy the Spanish sunshine and beaches, then there are lots of areas here in Andalusia where you can be assured that tourists, of all Nationalities, and their holiday money, will be made to feel very welcome, just as long as you don’t all come to our swimming pool 😂

Now in my best and poshest BBC news presenter voice……………… “moving on to other news”

Over the last couple of weeks we have not really done anything that is of any real significance, although very recently, as in that start of this week (10th June), I have been enticed to wander off our more usual ‘Plant Based’ dietary regime, but, I hasten to add, only for Health & Safety reasons. Well to be completely truthful, not for my own actual personal health & safety, more for the safety of the wider general public 😲

Now I don’t have any real problem with my actual weight, it has remained pretty much the same for very many year’s, dating back probably to my mid-thirties, and since then it has only varied slightly, bouncing between 74-75Kg (although using the word ‘bouncing’ is probably an unfortunate choice of word to use in this particular context 🤭). Men in particular, when they reach a certain stage in their lives, tend to store surplus body fat on their bellies, more commonly referred to as ‘Middle Age Spread’ or ‘Beer Belly’, although never having been renowned for being much of a beer drinker, I would therefore suggest that the ‘former’ description best applies in my particular case 🤭 However, over the last couple of years my ‘Middle Age Spread’ has developed a bit of an issue, one that can see it ‘Inflate’ uncontrollably during the day, from starting off, well, for the sake of a better word, let’s just call it ‘normal’, first thing in the morning, to then just increasing as the day goes on, but the worrying bit is, although I do not generally eat breakfast, this ‘inflation’ can start to happen before I have actually eaten anything 😲 But it came to a head a couple of weeks ago, one weekend, when we were getting ready to go to our favourite fish restaurant for lunch, I tried on six different shirts, all of which I had, up to then, been able to get into quite comfortably, but they were now all extremely tight around my belly and I had serious concerns that once I had eaten, the threads holding on the shirt buttons would be under so much pressure that they would snap, sending small projectiles hurtling towards other diners and potentially taking someone’s eye out, or landing surreptitiously in their food, then them choking on it 😲 And, just before you suggest it, no my increasing girth is not why I entitled this post “The Elephant In The Room’ 😂

That was it, I was forced into conducting some serious research on ‘You Tube’ and discovered that I was more than likely suffering with a condition referred to as ‘Bloat’, but, as usual, according to all the dozens of different ‘Experts’ on the subject there could of course be more than just the one reason for it 🤷‍♂️ After reviewing a lot of the videos, by people with either the title ‘Doctor’, or ‘Professor’, in their titles, although no confirmation as to wether they were ‘Academic’ or ‘Medical’ qualifications, Shazza suggested that I should look at one that she had confidence in, which she discovered whilst she was doing her own previous research around the ‘Plant Based Diet’. Now with her having a professional background and University degree in Science, more specifically the ‘Biology’ aspects in this instance, and so she was pretty good at being able to sort the ‘Wheat from the Chaff’ on the accuracy of the ‘Scientific blurb’ that a lot of them were spouting, the majority of which went way above my head, so I took her recommended advice. However, whilst this particular ‘Expert’ in the field did appear, from the specific symptoms that I had been encountering, to identify my particular issue, the cause tended to conflict with some, albeit not all, of the Plant Base produce that we had been consuming within our ‘Plant Based’ dietary regime, which brought me to the realisation that actually, this was all Shazza’s fault, because it was she that got us on to this so called healthy ‘Plant Based Diet’ in the first place 😂

Whilst the information that I was reading, and listening to, pointed towards me eating too many Carbohydrates and Sugars (Bread, Potatoes, Pasta, Legumes and Fruit), what I hadn’t really understood, or knew, was just how many Carbohydrates and Natural sugars actually exist within all of these items, all of which are the key ingredients to a ‘Plant Based Diet’ 😲 So I have started a ‘trial’ period which involves cutting from my daily diet, all Bread, including Shazza’s own home-baked sour dough bread, Potatoes, Pasta and Rice, additionally I have now also managed to identify the particular vegetables, and fruits, that also contain the highest levels of Carbohydrates and Natural sugars. Now although this particular ‘Dietary Expert’ promotes the ‘Keto’ diet, with ‘Intermittant Fasting’, which for those that do not know is mainly a ‘carnivorous’ no carbohydrates diet, but with some selected low carb vegetables, but I didn’t want to go down that particular route totally, and so I have sort of adapted it to try to continue to maintain the principle of staying on our ‘Plant Based’ diet wherever possible. But to be honest, even as part of the ‘Plant Based’ diet we are on, I have always eaten Chicken and lots of Fish, so no changes would be required on that score and, as is our usual weekend routine, we generally eat out and use it as our ‘treat’ days, so that will remain too, ‘all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’, as another saying goes 😉 So I will still continue to occasionally eat some ‘Red’ meat over those weekends if I want to, as I generally have been doing anyway, Burger (although now without the bun), or the Lamb and Med Veg Wrap and Moroccan salad (with a portion of French Fries). However, I do draw the line at risking my own health, so any suggestion that I should not continue with my Anti-Covid Medications will immediately fall upon stoney ground, there are still some things that are ‘Sacrosanct’ 😂

So, within the first week of being on this ‘amended’ dietary regime, my stomach has not bloated once 👍 I started at a weight of 74.2Kg and at my first weigh in, a week later, the scales showed 73.2Kg so, although this new regime is not primarily about weight loss and more about the ‘bloating’ issue, I am quite happy with the result so far. However, I am not fooling myself that this new amended dietary regime is the complete reason for the weight loss, as we have both been doing quite a lot of swimming recently, which is in addition to our normal walking regime, so this has almost certainly been a contributory factor in the result thus far. More importantly, ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’, to state another well known saying, so I can also confirm that after just one week I can now get back into ‘most’ of my shirts again, but, there are still a couple that require just a little more ‘breathing space’, perhaps 1Kg more of breathing space 🤭

I have committed to staying on this new regime for at least another week, just to see how it continues to pan out and I will of course let you know my progress in future rambles 😂 Our ‘Plant Based’ diet, which Shazza is sticking to, and my ‘Amended’ version of it, do not actually vary too much but, as my new diet has involved introducing me to some additional healthier options, like fermented vegetables (Sauerkraut, Kimchi) and also natural supplements like Cod Liver Oil, this has meant that Shazza has also been able to extend, and vary, her own dietary regime too, so we both do still eat much of the same Plant Based vegetables and fruits with some variations of course for myself as I now have to stay away from Potatoes, Carrots, Parsnips, Beets, Corn and Peas and most of the Legumes (beans). However, as I have discovered with lots of similar dietary advice, what may sound healthy for one person may not be right for everyone, for example, this amended diet recommends eating lots of leafy greens like Spinach, but this is actually definitely a no no for me, due to my historical Kidney Stone issues, as it is high in ‘Oxalates’, for some reason my body lacks the chemical to break these down sufficiently 🤷‍♂️ I can certainly understand why lots of people cannot be bothered with all this dietary stuff, because you need to know so much about what Vitamins, Fats, Sugars and Carbohydrates etc etc there is in each food group type and what your own body can and cannot process, it is a minefield really 😤 Fortunately, whilst I enjoy writing my rambles, reading books or watching Vlogs on boating, my beloved enjoys reading and watching Videos and Netflix documentaries about Food and Nutrition so she has done most of this current necessary research for me. Although, she has tried to kill me off early once, should I really be giving her a second opportunity 😲

Some of you may have noticed that the Euro 2024 football competition has now started, although I appreciate that some of you won’t give a damn, but Shazza and I like our football, so we are fortunate that we now have two teams to support in this competition, England, of course, and also, for obvious reasons, Spain. However, you may be wondering wether we will have a dilemma, if both teams end up playing each other at some further stage of this competition, perhaps even in the Final 🤔 Well of course not, because it will be a win-win situation for us 😁 If England win, we celebrate in one of the many (English) bars in the Marina, 🎶Sweet Caroline🎶 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 But, if Spain were to win, then we celebrate in one of the many (Spanish) bars in our local Town 🎶Olay, Olay Olay Olay” 🇪🇸 And if both get knocked out of the competition, then it will not matter where we commiserate and look forward to only having to wait for two years, until the World Cup takes place and as the football commentators would say, “we go again” 😂

Now in one of may last rambles I mentioned the Fiesta season and provided you with a list of the dates, well they have just started building on the beach in readiness for the ‘San Juan’ Fiesta on the 23rd June, which marks the official start of the Summer, however, we noticed two structures being built instead of the normal one, but one of them looked more like a stage. The theme last year was ‘Alice in Wonderland’ but, as yet, we had no idea what theme they would choose this year, so it will be interesting to watch over the coming days as the structure starts to take shape 🤔 Our curiosity was raised over this second stage like structure so we asked the Spanish lady in our seafront Cafe, she told us that it was for the band during the ‘Gay Pride’ celebrations, which was happening over the weekend (15-16th June). This was not something that had been advertised on the ‘Official’ Council list of events and I cannot recall ever seeing, or hearing, about similar events being held in our particular local town during previous year’s, but it does now at least explain the recent re-painting of one of the ‘Pedestrian Crossings’ in the town.

We did not attend the event ourselves, but from the photo’s in the local media, it looked like we missed a pretty good Fiesta ☹️ The following weekend we have a bit of a double header coming up, another ‘Fiesta’, that is not on the ‘Official’ list, is a ‘Deep Purple’ Tribute Band concert in one of the main Plaza’s on the Saturday night, followed by the ‘San Juan’ on the Sunday night, so party season has certainly started again ‘🎶 Here we go, here we go, here we go 🎶’ and this time the chant has nothing to do with the football 😁

We have now switched to our Summer routines, so unlike the tourists, we will, wherever possible, be staying out of the searing heat of the sun from midday to early evening, the daytime temperatures are now reaching, and sometimes exceeding the 30 degree(c) mark, this last Sunday it reached 35 degrees(c) 🥵 the nights and early mornings though, although cooler once the sun has set and darkness falls, still remain in the low twenties, so all our doors and windows are now open once again for virtually 24 hours, although, as yet, we have not had to resort to keeping the external window security shutters closed during the day, which keeps the internal areas of the apartment cool, but that time is also fast approaching. We may also have to resort to turning on the Air-Con in the apartment at night, usually for about an hour before Shazza goes to bed. Of course, at times we do still have to venture out and do some shopping, the busiest times in the shops are early mornings or during the evenings, but it is better for us to go when everyone else is on the beach, or when the locals are at work, but at least we can go from a nice cool air-conditioned car straight into an air-conditioned supermarket and we don’t hang about, in, out, and back home again. Of course we will be spending a lot more time now at our communal pool, as this has now taken over as our main daily exercise regime, from the more usual walks into town, but when we are not in the pool swimming we keep under the shade of one of the provided sun umbrella’s, or at least one of us does, the other still enjoys solar basting, now I wonder if you can guess which one of us that is 🤔 Trips down to the Marina, or our local town, are now generally only at weekends, which we have now changed from going out for our more usual ‘treat’ lunches, to going out in the evening for ‘treat’ Dinner’s, or of course whenever there is a Fiesta going on 😁 and whilst in the evenings the humidity increases, the temperatures do tend to drop down into the low twenties which is actually quite nice. There is of course ‘potentially’ an additional bonus to this stifling heat, and that is that I may be able to sweat off a few extra Kilograms from my belly 😂

Until the next ramble………………….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos (La Vida Es Buena)