You Cannot Party Wearing A Straightjacket

Early Warning Alert !! : You will definitely need to prepare a substantial picnic lunch and large drink before commencing to read this current ramble 😲 And Dougie, I know you will read this first, so tell Avril to save it until she attends her next appointment, she may just have finished it by the end of her next session 😉

There are often times when I have my contemplative moments, these are more usually when I am sat on the balcony and just staring out of the window at the views, but on one particular morning we were down at the pool, Shazza was solar basting and reading her book whilst, somewhat surprisingly, I had gone straight into the water for a swim. Now I say surprisingly because, as many of you will already know, I used to find swimming in the pool quite boring, just monotonously swimming from one end to the other, whereas now, especially as the Summer has started and it is warm enough to go swimming in the morning’s, it has become my ‘go to’ means of exercising, and I have found myself quite enjoying it, even more so than the walking, especially in the Summer heat. Although I have to say that I am still rather competitive, even against myself, so I try to do more lengths during each daily session than I had done on the previous daily session. Anyway, there I was, in my usual ‘oblivious’ mode whilst I went from one end to the other, counting off the lengths as I completed them, and with the sunshine and only the sound of the water filter pumps operating around me, I found my mind wandering and beginning to wonder where we would be now if we had not left the UK to come and live here in Spain, and of course, had that have been the case, we would have not sold the Motorhome. But what part of the country would we have chosen to put down our roots ? Although the reality of that would have been more a case of where we could have afforded to purchase a property 🙄 But what would we be doing now, this very day, on a Saturday morning ? That I guess, being in the UK, would also have depended primarily on the weather conditions. If it had been a dry day, would I have been doing some gardening, whilst Shazza did the washing or ironing ? Yes, I thought to myself, we would have definitely bought a house with a garden. Perhaps I would be passing the day hand washing the car and/or the Motorhome ? Although to do both would have been a two day task. Perhaps we would have gone and done the weekly Shopping at the local Supermarket ? Or, perhaps would we have been away somewhere in the Motorhome, either somewhere within the UK or, even across the Channel into Europe using all, or just part of, our 90 day ‘Schengen Shuffle’ allowance ? Although, to be completely honest, these were questions that were not really that easy to find answers to, because we had never actually been properly retired in the UK before we came to live here, so we had not got into any of the retirement routines like we now have here. Apart from the obviously much better, and much longer, annual periods of warm sunny weather that we do have here, I wondered wether our lives, and routines, would have been so very much more different to what we have, and do, here 🤔 But when you are living somewhere, on a permanent basis, you do get used to things like the weather, the changing seasons, the local environment that you live in, the available facilities, it is something that I guess you just accept without really thinking about it, so you just tend to do the things that are appropriate to your environment and circumstances. It is much the same here in Spain, I mean we live by a wonderful coastline with beaches galore quite literally on our doorstep, but to date, apart from just the one occasion last Summer, we have not spent any time on any of the beaches near us in the last year, but when we used to come here, for our shorter ninety-day periods, we spent lots more time on the various beaches, perhaps it was because back then it was more of a novelty 🤷‍♂️ We do also have our daily/weekly routines, much as we would if we lived in the UK, so in the end the only real difference, for us, is I suppose the warmer all year climate which provides a better outdoor lifestyle, and I guess some of the more favourable economical aspects, for we certainly find it much cheaper to live here in Spain than it appears to be in the UK, and I say ‘appear’ because quite honestly we have not actually lived in a house in the UK for nearly eleven years, so we cannot personally accurately do comparisons with things like the cost of Utilities (Water, Electricity, Gas), WiFi and Telephone Bills, TV Licences, Household Buildings and Contents Insurances, Council Tax, Groceries, Dining out, Associated Transportation costs etc. etc. the only information that we do get is either from people that we meet, who do live permanently in the UK, or from the media articles that we read, and we know how biased they can be. I guess the mantra should really just be, no matter who you are, or wherever you may live, to just try to live and enjoy your life the best way that you can, within whatever constraints that you may have, to live ‘in’ the moment and not ‘for’ the moment, and to not look at what you have not got, but actually what you actually do have, and that doesn’t just refer to financial aspects, but also to the friends you have around you, the family you have and, hopefully, the good health that you have, as I have said several times over the year’s within these rambles, this life that we have is not a dress rehearsal, you really only do get one chance at it, so make the most of it, whilst you still can and before something, or someone, comes along to take those freedoms of choice away from you 😉

I did not actually have any answers to any of the questions that were drifting in and out of my mind, but they had certainly been enough to keep me occupied until I decided, after completing my thirtieth length, that that was quite enough for my first session, I was not sure at that point wether I would have the motivation to conduct a second, or even a third one, like on the previous pool session a couple of days previously when I had then managed a total of forty lengths, although I knew of course that I would still need to do a lot more than that, before I could even consider competing at the Olympics 🤭

I lay outstretched on my towel on the sun bed to dry off before commencing starting to read a brand new book on my Kindle device. That in itself is a rarity, I don’t tend to read a lot of books these days, although I have dozens saved into my device library, I would get through them eventually though, the one that I had just read had taken me a year to finish 😲 It wasn’t as if I had not enjoyed reading it, as most of my favourite books are about real life boating adventures, either on the Canals and Rivers in the UK, or Europe, or crossing Oceans in Sailing Yachts, either Monohulls or Catamarans, and even Motor Yachts, but I generally have to have complete silence when I am reading, no distractions whatsoever, but there is always something to distract me when I am sat on the balcony. Shazza on the other hand is always reading a book on her Kindle and she is constantly adding to her already vast library, she reads every single day, morning, noon and night but she enjoys mainly ‘Fiction’. What I cannot understand though, is that she can stop reading any of her books at any time, even part way through a Chapter 🤷‍♂️ Whereas I have to finish a Chapter once I have started it and, after finishing a book I cannot then immediately start reading another, like she does. Which then made my thoughts drift towards wether, as individuals, do people’s personalities, and behaviours, reflect in their personal habits. Shazza is more of a spontaneous sort of character, she can start, or finish, things in the blink of an eye, whereas, myself, and of course my constant OCD companion, need to have a plan, a start and a defined finish point, we cannot stop mid-flow, no that would never do. I never did go back into the pool that day, I must have tired myself out with all of this trivia that I had whizzing around my head 🤭

We are quite fortunate really, with living this far down on the Eastern coastline of Spain, as it is very close to the Gibraltar straight, the advantage of that, is that it can get quite breezy along this lower section of the Costa del Sol coast, as the weather systems blowing in from both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean clash and are squeezed between the narrow 7.7 nautical mile channel that separates mainland Spain from Morocco. This means that during the Summer months in particular, whilst it does undoubtedly get hot here, it dos not get as ferociously hot as some places further North, or even a bit further Inland, unless that wind is of the scorching ‘Terrell’ variety so, generally, apart from the odd day here and there, the temperatures do not get much higher than 35 degrees(c) during the day, although, in the height of the Summer, it is regularly 24 degrees(c) throughout the night and well into the early mornings, when it then starts to heat up again 🥵 But, with all of our doors and windows open, the constant breeze makes sleeping quite bearable really, although we do then tend to sleep on top of the duvet, rather than underneath it. However, within the last week, the Spanish National weather forecast agency has issued a warning that the temperatures, for a week or so, are likely to hit 43 degrees(c) 🥵, but in reality when ‘they’ actually say Southern Spain, they are generally referring to areas such as Seville, Cordoba, Granada and Malaga and not as far South as where we are located, so we shall just have to see if that forecast does actually materialise down our particular stretch of coastline 🤔

At the time of publishing my last ramble we had still not heard from our Solicitor about an appointment to go to the Police Station to ‘apply’ to get our new replacement TIE residency cards, albeit, several weeks earlier, we had received confirmation that our renewal applications had been approved so, after sending frustrating Emails back and forth, with no positive news about securing an appointment date and time, we decided to just stop worrying about it, although, in truth, Shazza wasn’t worrying about it at all, and I guess that in truth I wasn’t actually ‘worrying’, at least not in the real meaning of the word, it was just my OCD buddy who kept constantly reminding me that it was, as yet, still an outstanding item on my ‘Not Yet Done List’. But I had no choice in the matter, as there was nothing that I could actually do about it and they, our Solicitor’s, I knew couldn’t just conjure an appointment up out of thin air 🤷‍♂️ So perhapsthose ‘Dark Forces’ who had been lurking in the shadows, could sense my new more nonchalant attitude and had decided to go and pester somebody who did actually give a damn, whatever it was it had worked, because shortly afterwards it came as an unexpected and very pleasant surprise when I received an Email on the Thursday morning (20th June), to tell me that we had finally got appointments, for the following morning, at the Estepona National Police Station, although I had to afford myself a little smile when our Solicitor asked wether we would be available to attend these appointments, were they being sarcastic I wondered 🤔 or did they really think that I would possibly respond with a “No, we are not available on that day”. So, as you can probably imagine, I responded immediately with a resounding ‘Yes’ and, although we knew that even after attending that appointment, that it would still actually take a further 5-6 weeks before the new TIE cards would be ready for us to go and collect, that didn’t matter, just knowing that we would have actually attended the appointment, and submitted our TIE Card applications, was the last piece of the formalities. The nicer thought though was that once we did receive those new TIE Residency Cards, we could then sit back, for a further two year’s, before having to go through all of this Spanish bureaucracy again. It also served as a reminder to us that in our first year we had only been out of Spain for one week, so we now had an additional seven weeks to add to this year’s eight week travel allowance 🤗 In all probability we wouldn’t even use all of that, but it is nice to have it available in our back pockets, just in case we ‘need’ to go back to the UK at some point for extended periods, as we both do still have elderly parents living there, or perhaps we may even take some time on an extended holiday during the cooler months here, the ‘Over The Water’ Villas in the Maldives still remain un-checked on my personal travel ‘Bucket List’, if only I could convince Shazza to give me the combination code to ‘my’ wallet to get access to my Credit Card 😂

We had separate appointments, mine being at 11:00am, Shazza’s just fifteen minutes later and, because parking around the Police Station area can be a bit of a nightmare, we had arrived early, but parked at our usual parking area at the Northern end of the town, which is just on the outskirts, although it was probably no more than a gentle thirty minute stroll away from the Police Station. As we had plenty of time before our appointments, we went for a coffee in one of the many Spanish Cafe’s in the back streets, near the Police Station but away from the tourist hub where the costs are astronomical. Morning coffee’s are a bit of an institution here in Spain, more of a social gathering, a time to meet up with friends, or extended family and catch up with all the local gossip, so it was a nice ambience, although there were far too many conversations going on to really hear and focus on any one of them, but it was good opportunity for a spot of people watching.

We turned up for our appointments ten minutes earlier than scheduled, Silvia, from our Solicitor’s office was waiting outside, she is a lovely Spanish lady, who speaks excellent English, probably in her early fifties, and she always greets us as if we are friends rather than clients, but I suppose after nine year’s it has turned into more of a friendship as well as a business relationship, we chatted about what we had each been up to since we last saw each other and some chit chat about our respective families. Inside the Police Office, there was a row of around eight desks, but separated into categories, some dealing with Spanish Citizens Passport Issues, Some with Foreigner’s Visa extensions and Work permits and then our area that dealt with both Initial, and Renewal, TIE Card applications, it hadn’t changed in appearance since we came here last year. The actual normal day to day Police Station side of the business is located elsewhere in the two-storey building but there were plenty of gun toting Officers, male and female, constantly coming in and out of the building. Only three of the desks actually had any staff working at them 🤷‍♂️ although the actual waiting area was busy with people waiting to conduct whatever business it was that they had to do. We took a seat and waited for our names to be called, however it was 11:45 when I finally got called to the cubicle with the middle aged stoney faced female Officer, so much for appointment times I thought to myself 🙄 I made it my personal mission to make the woman smile before I came away from the desk, it was not an easy task I can tell you, the female officer that I had seen last year, when we came here to submit the applications for our ‘Initial’ TIE Residency Cards, was far more personable. But finally I got a breakthrough, we had to take updated Photo’s for our new Identity Cards, but the stoney-faced woman, looking at my records on her computer screen, told me that she didn’t need it as I had not changed in appearance since last year, “Si, Sigo Siendo Tan Guapo” (Yes, I am still just as handsome) I said, and a broad grin broke out on her face, she looked at me and responded, in English, up to that point she had only spoken in Spanish and via our Solicitor, “Yes, but you will have to bring new one’s when you come back to renew again in two year’s time”, I smiled at her, her face now back to stoney-faced mode, “Crees que no seré tan guapo entonces?” (You think that I will not be as handsome then ?) I said, with a smile on my face, she smiled again, knowing I was being a bit mischievous with her, but she made no response this time. I wished her a nice weekend and she responded “Gracias, Igualmente” (Thank you, you too). Yes ! I had actually succeeded in my mission, and not once, but twice, I thought about fist punching the air in celebration but didn’t want to push my luck 🤭

Fortunately, Shazza was next in the queue and so just fifteen minutes later, after our paperwork had been submitted and our fingerprints taken (yet again), the three of us exited the building and said our farewells, Silvia returning to her office in Sabinillas whilst we headed back into Estepona to have a bit of a wander. Although Estepona is no more than a twenty-minute drive away from us, we do not often come here, unless of course we need something that our own town has not got, which is an event that is as rare as hens teeth, so generally we only pay a visit when we need a change of scenery, or there is a Fiesta or something going on. Estepona was busy, which is pretty much usual, we walked through the town and in the shade, as far as was possible, and then we headed towards the seafront promenade, just really to take a look at what their ‘San Juan’ themed structure looked like, but disappointingly they didn’t have one, at least not one that we could see along the long stretch of beachfront 🤔 Although, we did both recall having read somewhere that the residents of Estepona make there own, personal smaller structures, and they take them down to the beach to set alight at midnight on the 23rd June, but it doesn’t really matter what size the structures are, for the Spanish need little excuse to hold a ‘Fiesta’ and I guess, the smaller the structures are the quicker they burn, so then they can get back to the bar’s 😂 We stopped at one of the seafront cafe/bars for a cooling Anti-Covid Vaccine, as you do, it of course would have been rude not to, then we returned to the car. By this time it was around 1:30pm and the temperature was already at 28 degrees(c) and still climbing, so we both just wanted to get back home, open up all the doors and windows and chillax.

As it was the start of the weekend, which to be honest is getting harder to delineate from just any other day of the week, we decided that we would go to our local Indian Restaurant for Dinner, they do a nice Sizzling Tandoori Chicken and Vegetable dish, which stays within the principles of my new dietary regime, without the usual Garlic Naan Bread or Rice ☹️ Although, as it is a double-header ‘Fiesta’ weekend on both the Saturday and Sunday, I may well not be as strictly disciplined with my dining choices over the next couple of days, so my ‘Official’ weigh in, on the Monday morning, may well see any weight loss that I may have achieved during that last week, get totally decimated. Well, ‘You Cannot Party Wearing A Straightjacket’ now can you 😂

Although we are not doing our usual daily walks as regularly these days, due to the heat, we do still occasionally have to go into town. I had gone for my usual haircut, an event that my OCD buddy has me doing every six weeks 😂 and although Shazza and I have both now ‘temporarily’ stopped having morning ‘Tostados’, we did still stop for our usual coffee’s, which turned out to be a bit of a bonus, as right in front of the Cafe was where they had built the structure for our town’s ‘San Juan’ Fiesta, and they had now finished it. It always seems such a shame with all the effort that must be put in to making these large structures, when it is just going to go up in flames at midnight on the Sunday, when it will then, very shortly afterwards, just become a heap of ashes. Now, as some of you may remember, last year’s theme was ‘Alice In Wonderland’, this year they have stuck with the ‘Fairy Tales’ theme, so I have taken a photo of it for you (Below), but you do not need to be able to understand Spanish, the actual Figuirine Character’s provide the clues to the respective fairy tales, so how many can you name 🤔 (You may need to zoom in to the photo)

Just to give you some idea on how high this structure actually is, the white sign at the front stands over eight feet tall. Similar events to this do take place throughout the whole of Spain, not just on our beach in our particular town, although I am not sure how they get on in places where they do not have beaches 🤔 Although, I guess it must be similar to the UK when they hold their annual ‘Bonfire Night’, on the 5th November, although those UK bonfire piles are not quite as artistic as they are here in Spain, well come on, they wouldn’t be now would they, you should know by now, especially as I do keep reminding you of just how ‘everything’ here in Spain is always so much better than in the UK 🤭😉 Unless of course we had selected to live elsewhere, France, Italy, or Greece, then of course, it goes without saying, that everything there would have been far superior to the UK 😂

Saturday arrived and we had another casual sort of morning sat on the balcony with our coffee’s, before going down to the pool once again, which we still had pretty much all to ourselves, although we know that now the Spanish schools have just closed for their long Summer break, this peacefulness will not remain for much longer, with the members of our Spanish community having their children at home during the day and supplemented in numbers with their own visiting families ‘Little Darlings’. We remained at the pool until mid-afternoon before our stomachs reminded us that we had not eaten anything, so we went back and had a light lunch, knowing that we would be eating out somewhere later that evening.

Sunset here does not occur until around 10pm, so at 7.30pm, with the sun still high in the sky, and the temperature still in the high twenties, we set out in shorts and tee-shirts for Dinner, which would be followed by us heading towards the evening musical entertainment in one of the town’s main Plazas. It was nice to be able to get into one of the shirts that I had not worn for ages, due to my new look lack of bloated belly, and to be able to walk along the promenade not looking as if I was on my way to an anti-natal appointment. Although only time would tell wether on the return journey it would still be the same, dependent on what I selected to eat for dinner 😳 The beach nearest to where where we park our car was still pretty busy, in fact we were lucky to find a parking space, although it would be virtually empty within the next hour as people started to drift back home. We by-passed all of the Marina’s culinary temptations and headed straight to the seafront promenade in the town, even the beach there was still pretty busy, as were the majority of the restaurants. We had not pre-booked, we never really know what we fancy to eat until we go out so we knew that it would probably be more of a case of pot luck this evening, we could always fall back on ‘Burger King’ if all else failed, I started to salivate at the thought of a totally unhealthy, but very tasty, Double XL Bacon Cheeseburger and Fries 😋 Shazza doesn’t enjoy their ‘Vegan Burgers’ though, so I knew that that would most definitely have been a last resort option 😥 As it was, we ended up at an Italian Pizza/Pasta establishment, very Spanish eh ! 🤭 which was located on the seafront with perfect views of the beach, we had used this establishment on several previous occasions, although not for a year or two now, but it had never disappointed. We selected our favourite Pizzas, Shazza her ‘Veggie’ option and I went for the house special, the ‘Bella Italia’ with Bacon, Chorizo, Ham and vegetables, what else 🤷‍♂️ but in fact the only bad thing, as far as my new dietary regime was concerned, was actually the Pizza Base itself, but I was willing to risk the sufferance of ‘bloat’, this was ‘treat weekend’ dining. We could tell that these were home-made pizzas as they were not perfectly circular, in fact mine was actually more of a mis-shapen square than circular, Shazza’s was a mis-shapen circular one, but they were both very very large and in the end I just couldn’t eat all of mine, so left around a third of it, although I did eat most of the topping 😳 Shazza didn’t have any problems demolishing all of her’s 😁 We each had a ‘large’ glass of Anti-Covid Vaccine to wash them down 🍷 and at the end, the total bill, a mere €26 (£22). In comparison, our Indian meal the previous evening, with a starter and main course and Anti-Covid Vaccines was a total of €45 (£39), no wonder that some people living out here actually eat out every day, it really is good value for money, if you select the right establishments of course and, you are not worried about your weight or ‘Bloat’ 😉 After dinner we decided to take a walk along the promenade to the opposite end of the town where they had started holding the evening summer markets, different from the weekly Friday morning market with it’s food stalls, these were designed purely for the tourists, with all the usual ‘Tourist Tat’ but, it has to be said that we did observe quite a number of people parting with their holiday Euros. By now it was 9pm and the long stretch of town beach area was beginning to empty, just the hardiest sun worshippers milking every ray of sunshine that they could, the sea was almost as flat as a mill pond, a couple of yachts moored just a short distance off the beach, with the surrounding mountains making a beautiful backdrop.

We had walked off some of the effects of our meal and so headed back towards the town’s central Plaza to see if we could find a table to sit at, to watch the evenings musical entertainment. The local Community Council put on these events throughout the Summer months, they vary the Plaza’s where they are held so that all of the Cafe/Bars in each area get to benefit from the additional trade that they pull in, but each of these events are ‘Free’ to attend. We were lucky to find a table outside one of the several bars and it had a pretty decent view of the stage. It was still light so the actual stage lighting, for the duration that the supporting band were playing, was not really fully effective, but they were really really good, playing a wide range of 80’s top hits and singing in English, which was a very good bonus.

At 10:30pm, after the sun had set and the evening turned from light to dark, the main attraction took to the stage, a ‘Deep Purple’ Tribute Band called ‘Deeper Purple’ and they had the advantage of having all the stage lighting effects. However, in truth, even as a youngster when the ‘real band’ were popular, their particular musical ‘Genre’, which was ‘Heavy Rock’ was not really my style of music. It was very loud but several, let’s call them age related audience members, re-enacted their youth, with their specific type of dance moves, namely standing with legs apart, their bodies from the waist slightly bent forward, head looking down facing the ground and just shaking it up and down uncontrollably, as if they were bowing to the King, but in a much more sort of rapid succession 🙈 I turned to Shazza and shouted in her ear, “Have you seen all the oldies that are here ?”, she shouted back, “Like you, you mean” 😳

We didn’t stay to the end, some oldies now obviously needing their mugs of cocoa before bed 😂 but we had both enjoyed our evening, we probably would have remained longer it it had been the support band still playing, they were far better in our opinion, I asked the waiter for the bill, we had drunk between us, 4 x Large Vermut’s, 2 Coca-Colas and a Coffee, you can probably guess which of us had what, but the total bill only came to €16 (£14), so the total cost for Dinner, and our evening Entertainment, for the night came in at at just €42 (£36), I may even have been able to have splashed out on a dessert on the walk back to the car, an ice cream from one of the many ‘Heladerias’ (Ice-Cream Parlours) which stay open well beyond midnight during the Summer months, but as it happened, neither of us actually wanted one as we were both still full from our Pizza dinner. “Don’t think that this offer will remain open until tomorrow evening” I quipped to Shazza, who, as quick as a flash, responded with, “And don’t think that tomorrow evening I will let you have one, because don’t forget that ‘treat weekend’ started this week on a Friday, and not on the more usual Saturday” 😲🍦😳

We had both slept quite well, which was not surprising I suppose after the more than usual Anti-Covid Vaccines that were consumed the previous evening, well by one of us at least 🤔 But I think also because we have now got used to sleeping with all the doors and windows open again, at first we heard all the external noises, vehicles, late night revellers returning home, dogs barking, cats fighting and even early morning dog walkers who for some reason shout when talking on their mobile devices, but now it has once again just become recognisable normal background noise, so I think our brains just switch off to it. We started the morning in our usual lethargic state, although Shazza was up before me and had already made the coffee’s by the time I took up my normal position on the balcony, “What’s up, you wet the bed or something ?” I asked her, “No, I just slept well and didn’t want to lay in bed this morning”, she said, “Well, can I just say that it is nice to have your company on the balcony this fine morning my darling” and gave her a smile and a wink, she just laughed.

We both knew that it was going to be a much later evening and night out, with the actual festivities for the ‘San Juan’ fiesta not commencing until 10pm, the customary burning of the beach structure, which marks the ‘Official’ commencement of Summer, not taking place until midnight. However, the crowds, and I do mean crowds, unlike the previous evenings gathering which I suppose, in comparison, will probably have looked more like a small group of people waiting at a bus stop, but these crowds will start gathering well before the official start time, their are also side stalls and all types of kids entertainment going on along the full length of the promenade as it is a traditional big family event, all of the tables in the seafront restaurants will have been fully booked weeks in advance, and all the seafront bars, including some additional ‘Pop Up’ one’s to cater for the hoards, will all be knee deep with customers, we learnt that from experience at last year’s event so we knew what to expect this time around and to be completely honest there was a part of us that was dreading the crowds, but we decided we would go anyway. Last year we had managed to pre-book a table at a restaurant, but the memories of that were not the best, as my steak had gone off and they had to cook another one 😲 So, this year we decided that we would do things a little differently, we would eat Dinner at home and then go down a little later to just enjoy the ambience, probably retreating to a much quieter back street Cafe/Bar to have a drink and a sit down, to avoid the crowds the best that we could, until the main event commenced.

We didn’t leave home until 9:30pm and parked in our normal place in the village, unlike the previous night, the car park was fairly quiet so we did not have a problem finding a space. It was another pleasantly warm evening and so we were dressed again in shorts and short-sleeved shirts, as were the majority of other’s so we fitted in perfectly. We walked along the seafront promenade just to get a flavour of the evening, the anticipated crowds were not yet amassed, although it was much busier than a usual Sunday evening, so we we had no problems walking from one end to the other before re-tracing our steps and then diverting up towards the Plaza, where they had held the musical concert the previous evening. There was a pleasant ambience here, some of the Cafe/Bars had tables and chairs set up for a more formal Dining experience, under the external canopies, whilst other’s were just the normal Cafe/Bar set up, plastic tables and chairs, some under their canopies and other’s out in the open air. There was a wide range of age groups, from youngsters enjoying beers and chatting loudly, although there is never any loutish behaviour, family groups enjoying Tapa’s, and couples just enjoying the warm evening air, the whole atmosphere was one of casual relaxation. We sat at a table at the same Cafe/Bar we had frequented the previous evening and ordered a couple of ‘Vermuts’, which are a lighter and longer refreshing drink rather than a glass of red wine, we spent the time just chatting between ourselves, whilst also doing lots of people watching. The Cafe/Bars were all located next to each other, and it is not always obvious to distinguish which table and chairs belong to which establishment, there was lots of different chatter and laughter from the various mixed groups, the aromas of different culinary delights were constantly wafting in the air and, although we were not hungry, we were nearly tempted to order some Tapa’s as they smelt so good, but we did manage to restrain ourselves and just ordered another round of drinks. As the time passed we watched as the streams of people started to get busier and busier as they all headed towards the seafront promenade, then the Cafe/Bars started to slowly empty, we ordered a couple of coffee’s and sat just watching this mass influx before eventually electing to go and do battle ourselves.

With people stood static in groups, women with puschairs, young children grasping hands of parents, older people with walking sticks and even walking frames, lots of people with plastic tumblers of different beverages that got splashed as they were either jumping up and down to the music, or when they got nudged by the passing hoards, some people even had their canine companions with them on leads, which seemed a little irresponsible to me, what with all the loud bangs of fireworks that would be going off before and after the main event 🤷‍♂️ It was hard going as we made our way towards the beach, we couldn’t just head in a straight line, we had to weave our way through the masses, some of which were were just stood still, and then there were several lines of people all trying to walk in different directions, trying to seek out a good vantage point for when the beach structure was set alight, but eventually we found a position on the crowded beach and managed to get a good view. At the stroke of midnight the event commenced with a burst of fireworks that came out from the large ‘Fairy Tale’ structure, then we watched as the flames grew and grew, eventually totally engulfing the structure, the heat from it was quite overpowering and the crowds at the front started to push backwards, which meant it got to be a little panicky, we tried to escape but it was very very slow going, a reminder of just what we hated about it last year, perhaps now that we have seen it ‘close up’ for the last two year’s, if we decide to come again in the future we will certainly maintain a more respectable and safer distance 😲

We departed before the bands struck up, and which would continue well into the early hours, I certainly wouldn’t want to live in this part of town on such night’s, but I guess that if we did, then it would just be a case of ‘If you can’t beat them, join them’ 😂 The large crowds remained, and after leaving the beach area they just joined the rest of the throngs of people at the bars and in front of the stage area. Fortunately, once we were away from the main town promenade area, it all quietened down, people wise that is, although we could hear the ‘live’ music even when we got to the marina, which is a good twenty minute walk away. But we enjoyed the more leisurely walk home and, although the ‘Heladeria’ kiosk near the marina was still open, we both agreed not to stop for an ice-cream, like we had done the previous year, as we had gone past the desire to eat anything by that time 🤷‍♂️ We both really just wanted to get back home, me to the peace and quiet of my balcony, sat with my hot mug of cocoa Coffee 😉 Whilst Shazza retired to her own sanctuary of the bedroom. All in all though, it had been another good evening, and a relatively busy few days. We do like the fact that we feel completely safe here, even apart from the possibility of being crushed on night’s such as this 😲 However, there is never any bother at any of the Fiesta’s here, even with the copious amounts of alcohol that get’s consumed, and as I have said on several occasions over the year’s, we have never seen any loutish behaviour or drunken brawls, everyone is just so chillaxed and happy and we hope, long may that continue to be the case 👍

Although we had both had a couple of late night’s over this weekend, we were awake early and back to our normal routine the following morning, Shazza remaining in bed to enjoy her morning coffee this time though, whilst I enjoyed my usual ‘perch’ on the balcony. It was going to be another scorcher of a day, why I would anticipate anything being any different I do not know 🤷‍♂️ but it was a ‘Public Holiday’, we knew the beaches would be full to the gunnels and the Marina and the Town seafront would be much the same, so we elected to have a quiet day at home, we needed to save our energy for later that evening when Spain would play their last group match of the Euro’s, they were already assured of qualifying for the next ‘Knock Out’ rounds 🎶 Olay, Olay, Olay, Olay 🎶, pity that we cannot be so assured of England’s progress at the moment, they are due to play their final ‘bum clenching’ group match the following day, but would we be singing 🎶 Sweet Caroline 🎶 or perhaps once again at a major competition, it would be the more customary 🎶 We’re Coming Home, We’re Coming Home, Englands Coming Home 🎶 🤭 But let’s try and stay faithful for one more match, for England do at least, as it stands, still top the group and, even if they were to lose, we could still potentially qualify for the next round, even if we were to finish in third place 🤔 “It’s a funny old game” as one legendary English football player and commentator used to say.

We may have had a good weekend but, would this new week start off on a high 🤔 It was my second week ‘Weigh In’, I knew that I had kept to my new dietary regime for the five days prior to the weekend, however, over the weekend I had not kept strictly to it 🙄 But, in my defence, neither had I gone overboard, so perhaps with only two thirds of a Pizza consumed, and okay a few extra Anti-Covid Vaccines than would be normal, but surely those minor indiscretions would not see me suffer too much……………. 🤷‍♂️ WRONG !! So, two short weeks ago now I started at a weight of 74.2Kg, after the first week it was down to 73.2Kg but, this week, the scales reflected a very disappointing 74.3Kg 😲🤬 Surely the scales must be knackered, I protested to myself, I mean we had done quite a bit of walking, and I had done lots of swimming, I had not succumbed to any treats during the week and had only been eating a light lunch and a strict portion controlled evening meal 😳 “Shazza, we need to go and purchase some new bathroom scales” I announced emphatically, “Funny you should say that” she replied, “They showed that I too had put on some weight also over this last week” she said in a disappointed manner. We discussed the possibility that we were just doing what everybody does when the scales don’t reflect what you want them to, but the scales were actually behaving a bit erratically, for, on the previous Friday morning, I had done a quick sneak preview, but only so that I could see how much damage I had done over the coming weekend, the scales then showed a wonderful 72.5Kg, I was of course well happy with that, although to be totally honest, I was a bit sceptical, but obviously accepted it, as you do 😁 But come on, surely I had not put on 1.7Kg in just those two days over the weekend 🤷‍♂️ Anyway, there was only one way to be sure, and that was to go out and purchase some new bathroom scales before next week’s weigh in and, if they too were to reflect the same contentious result, then I would have no other choice, but to take them back to the store where I purchased them, and tell them their scales were faulty 😂

Until the next ramble……………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos (La Vida Es Buena)