A Silver Lining In Every Cloud

It took quite a while to get back into some sort of a routine once we had returned from our road trip, normally, after being away, getting back into our normal routine would only take a day, or perhaps two at the most, but not this time. Once Shazza felt something like normal after her unidentified illness, within a couple of days we did venture out in the car, although that was only to do the weekly supermarket shop, however, neither did we go on our regular ‘daily’ walks, just a couple of times a week within that first fortnight of being back, although, to be honest, there was no real reason for us not doing so, other than our own complete lethargy, we felt that we had done quite a bit of walking whilst we were away, although one of us perhaps more than the other 🤭 so we convinced ourselves that we must surely have had some walking credits left in the fitness bank 😉 Neither did we have our usual ‘treat weekends’ within that fortnight, we ate dinner at home every evening, Shazza making up for all the ‘Plant Based’ goodies she had missed so much during our trip and of course, being the very supportive husband that I am, I joined her, for the reality was that I too had missed my regular intake of vegetables so, once we were home we only ate out the once and that was towards the latter end of that two-week period. Even then, Shazza stuck to her healthy dietary discipline, with a Moroccon spiced Med Veg Wrap, as for me, okay I have to confess that I finally succumbed, you can have too much of a good thing you know, so I had a Moroccan spiced Lamb Wrap, with patatas frites, and no, I cannot tell a lie, because by god it tasted so damn good 😋 but I wasn’t totally undisciplined as it did still come with a small side salad, which I ate, just to keep my conscience clear 😂

This rare bout of illness with Shazza, did result in us agreeing on making another decision though. Under our NLV we are entitled, and receive, free Spanish State Medical Health treatment and are registered with our local health clinic, not that we have had any cause to utilise those services since becoming resident here. However, I have used the Spanish state healthcare system twice, prior to becoming a resident, once for a kidney stone incident and the last time, in March 2022, when I had the detached retina issue, so we cannot personally give an opinion on how long we would now have to wait to actually get routine appointments with a Doctor at our local health clinic, or for how long it would take to get a doctor’s referral appointment at a hospital, should we ever need one 🤷‍♂️ However, down here on the Costa del Sol, I am not sure if they have similar services elsewhere in Spain, but there is another 24 hour a day, 365 days a year, medical service that you can subscribe to (Annual joint subscription for €495), which is a home doctor service.

We are fortunate enough to have such a facility within a couple of minutes drive from where we live, if you are walking wounded you can make appointments to go and see medical professionals but, the bonus of being subscribed to this particular service is that they will come out to you at your home, in a fully equipped ambulance, a para-medic and two qualified nursing staff who will check you over, provide any immediate medical care and, if necessary, issue prescriptions. However, if they are unable to provide any specialist care that you may need, they will transport you to the nearest hospital in their ambulance where, upon arrival, you will not have to wait in an A&E to be seen, but be taken straight into the treatment rooms. Unlike the UK, over here in Spain, and other than for some life threatening medical emergencies, you do have to pay for an ambulance to come and take you to hospital, but this is not the case if you are covered by the ‘Helicoptero Sanitarios’ subscription. Now I have to be honest with you, we have known about this service since we first bought our property here over nine year’s ago, and as we are both generally fit and well and suffer with no pre-existing medical conditions, we were always covered for emergency treatment under our E111 health cards so didn’t see the value of it. After Shazza’s recent illness whilst we were away, and her reluctance to go and see a doctor, we agreed that this would now be quite beneficial. I mean who feels like having to wait day’s, or even week’s, for an appointment at a health centre when you are feeling pretty bad, or to have to get out of bed, get dressed, travel to a health centre and then sit in a waiting room, with probably lots of other people suffering with god knows what, let’s face it, in the main you are not likely to find healthy people in such places are you 🤷‍♂️ We did also consider the fact that, as we do get older, and that may have had something to do with me recently celebrating yet another birthday, although still currently a ‘Sexagenarian‘, and no that doesn’t mean that I am on a ‘peadophile register’, but it does mean that I am now uncomfortably closer to becoming a ‘Septagenarian‘ 😲 Which is a number where, when people ask your age, they start to consider you to be more of a ‘geriatric’ rather than a fit and healthy individual who could quite possibly have another 30+ years before shuffling one’s mortal coil. However, being realistic, it is also quite a distinct possibility that we, although Shazza’ contests the use of the word ‘we’ and says quite adamantly not to include her in relation to this subject 😂 But yes, in the future, we may ‘both’ need to utilise medical services much more than we do now, being so fit and healthy as we currently are, although I did take the opportunity of reminding her of ‘her own’ recent rapid and unanticipated demise in respect of her health 🤭 But it isn’t just for health issues, what if she was to cut her head open on the rocks when she is out snorkelling, or burns herself badly when making her sour dough bread or stir fry’s, or I accidentally reverse over her in the car whilst she is putting shopping in the car boot, accidents do happen you know 😂 So, for the relatively small financial outlay, it seemed a sensible course of action to take, especially as there is no limit as to how many times you can call them out. We of course checked out the Terms and Conditions and read the small print, just to ensure we were not missing any if’s, but’s or maybe’s, then went to our local facility and signed up and now, like any sort of Insurance, even if we don’t use it over the next few month’s or year’s, we do have that peace of mind cover.

Shazza’s mum arrived at the very beginning of October, she likes to come out at either the end of the Summer, or in the Spring, when the temperatures are generally a lot cooler, but this last year has not seen normal seasonal weather, around the globe let alone here in Spain, so it was a little warmer than she would have liked it to be, but at nearly 82 year’s young she wasn’t likely to be wanting to race around anywhere anyway. She has been coming out here every year for the last nine year’s so she has done nearly all of the touristy sightseeing trips during that time, so this time she just wanted to stay local so we just stuck to taking her down to our own Marina, and the one at ‘Sotogrande’ just a ten minute drive away, into our own local town, one visit to Estepona and Shazza also took her to a shopping mall on the outskirts of Malaga as she wanted to buy a new ‘Tablet’ whilst she was here, only so that she could get Shazza to set it all up for her before she returned home. If the truth be known, we took her out I think on all but one day whilst she was here, at her own request, I am not sure who was more in need of the rest by the time she went home 🥵 She stayed for a full two weeks and thoroughly enjoyed herself, but we are not certain how long she will continue to make such trips out to us for, whilst she doesn’t look anything like her age, and is quite independently mobile, each year we see her physically slowing down and her walking, although unaided, is painfully slow.

Shazza herself reaches a benchmark birthday next Easter, and I know that her mum would like to be with her to celebrate it, she has mentioned about booking to come back out to us over that period, before any other family members do. However, after seeing her this year, I am not certain that she will be up to the travelling again, so although Shazza’s birthday is still some six months away, me and my OCD buddy have already made some tentative, but quite detailed, plans to possibly return to the UK for around twenty-five days, taking in visits to her mum, over Shazza’s birthday, but also encompassing visits to Chris, Sarah and the granddaughter’s down in Wiltshire, also to visit my own mum in her care-home in Lincolnshire if, god willing, she is still with us, but to also to allow some time for us to take our own short break, doing family visitations around the country can be quite tiring, so for maybe 2-3 days I would like to go and visit the Yorkshire Coast, to a town that I have never actually ever visited before. In my provisional plans I have also allowed for an overnight stop, en-route to the ferry, and an overnight stop just outside Portsmouth when we initially arrive in the UK, as it is an evening arrival and then, once we have returned to Spain and on our way home, to do a 2-3 day stopover in a city, South of Madrid, that we have also not visited before, although as I write this, I have not as yet confirmed exact dates, or made any confirmatory bookings as I will of course need approval from the boss first who, as you already know, prefers to not make advance plans and to just ‘Go With The Flow’, look at how that last trip turned out using her methodology 🤭

We have also finally got around to replacing all of the cushions on the balcony furniture that we originally bought some nine year’s ago, whilst the outer cushion covers are still in good condition, the inner filler cushions had lost their support, they were more like sitting on, or leaning back on, nothing thicker than digestive biscuits 😖 Fortunately, even after all this time, the large garden furniture store in Estepona, where we originally purchased them from, had our original order, so they knew the design, model, sizes etc and, although they didn’t have the original colour of the cushions, they did have a slightly darker shade, but what was even better, whilst we had anticipated having to wait potentially week’s to get the new one’s, we were told that if we wanted to collect them ourselves from the storage warehouse, which was also very conveniently located in Estepona, we could have them that same day, so we ended up ordering, and driving home, with our new cushions all on the same day.

We are still under drought conditions here, although our individual water consumption allowance restriction had been increased slightly, but now that the end of the tourist season has come around, the private and communal swimming pools have all been closed again, to preserve the water, and the powers that be are deliberating once more over wether to reduce our daily water allowance again 🤷‍♂️ Now it wasn’t very long ago that we ourselves were ‘Tourists’ here, just visiting for two ninety-day periods each year. We didn’t pay much attention to what was going on in the normal everyday Spanish world, locally or nationally, as it had little impact on us and I guess that is the same wherever you may spend your holidays. But things change when you become a permanent resident, because things that are happening both locally and nationally can possibly make a difference to your lives, lifestyles and sometimes your finances, although not necessarily always in a negative way. So we can now understand why, throughout Spain, there is perhaps a lot of animosity towards Tourists by some of the Spanish population. I guess most reading this, either from what I myself have written in previous rambles, or through other media resources you may have seen or read, will have heard of the widespread Spanish anti-tourist protests that have been going on, primarily focused on the lack of affordable housing available for local communities, but it actually goes much deeper than that and so now, as residents ourselves, we can understand a little better as to why these grievances are being aired more vocally and much more frequently. It does appear that everything, wether that be in individual municipalities, provinces or regions, are being provided primarily for the benefit and advantage of the temporary visitor’s, rather than the actual residents themselves and it isn’t just about the shortage of permanent affordable accommodations available to the Spanish citizens. It does appear that the majority of new build properties, and land purchases, are being being utilised for Air BnB type facilities, private villa and apartment rentals or more and more large complexes being built purely aimed at attracting foreign investors, and not priced to facilitate the local resident population. Within our own immediate area, a complex of private villas have just been completed, with starting prices of €280k, another area is about to erect nine luxury villas, with pools, starting price €850k and literally, within only the last few days, another hoarding board has gone up announcing that another area of land will have five new luxury villas with pools built on it. This is the same picture along the whole of the Costa del Sol coastline and whilst in some respects that is actually positive news, as property prices in the Malaga Province have all gone up by an average of 4% over the last year, adding to the previous year’s of property price increases, so if we do ever decide to sell up we should make a handsome profit on our original investment. However, these new build luxury properties are well out of reach of the pockets of the locals, wether renting or purchasing, but it also brings about other issues, everyday facilities like water usage which are not restricted from the start of the tourist season, but re-implemented at the end of it, is now becoming quite a fractious issue. There has been a serious drought here in Spain for nearly two years, although historically, over very many years, droughts are not an uncommon occurrence here in Spain, but with Climate change they are becoming more frequent with less and less rainfall each year. The water capacity in the existing Embalces is not sufficient, even when they are full, to cope with the current demand, yet they are still issuing licences to build more and more domestic properties, but providing no information on where the additional demand for essential services will come from, which includes the additional Water required to service these new properties, never mind the water required to fill all these new individual property swimming pools and what about the additional demand on Sewage disposal, Electricity, Road and Transport infrastructures 🤷‍♂️ So whilst the economy of the Country improves year on year, from taxes obtained from land purchases, the issue of building licences, income from property purchase taxes and annual property tax by individual owners who are not permanent residents, there have been no published plans on how they intend to improve all of the the supporting infrastructures that will be required. So without doubt there will be a price to pay, for everyone, if the Government do not invest in these essential infrastructures or indeed, build many more affordable properties for the local population.

Now of course there is a solution, and that is for the usual seasonal weather patterns to return, which involves rain during the usual Autumn and Winter months, even in this area of Southern Spain, the ‘Rainy Season’ is only generally two or three continuous days of heavy rainfall per month, October through to February, which is currently sufficient to keep the Embalces virtually full to capacity, so, at the next Annual Meeting I will suggest that all community residents invest in undertaking weekly rain dance rituals, but you watch, some miserable bugger will start to complain about the noise or that they have just washed their car and it is now rain marked again 😂 So okay, as I have mentioned many times in these rambles, it may not always be a complete paradise over here, but then, there are certainly worse places we could be living in right now and when I think about it, there are also certain advantages to having these enforced water restrictions 🤔 “Shazza, you ready for our shower together ?”, Save water, shower with a friend, that’s what I say, or even your neighbour, but of course only if you get on with them quite well and they have consented to you actually being in their bathroom with them whilst they are taking a shower 🤭

For the past couple of weeks the ‘Works of Fiction’ have been promising storms, lightning, thunder and heavy rainfall and, at times, the colour of the gathering clouds have looked to be quite favourable for this much awaited event, sadly, these threatening clouds just continued to pass over us without releasing one single drop of their precious cargo 😢 Our local supply of water in our particular Embalce at one point, before the tourist season commenced, showed that it was at 75% capacity, but now, after the tourist season, it has diminished to just 37% and with no rain the outlook could become quite bleak.

We awoke one morning and checked the ‘Works of Fiction’, more in hope than anything else and yes, the forecasters crystal ball reflected that once again the storms, which hadn’t materialised the first time, were again headed our way and, if we were very lucky, they would last over our particular area for at least four days, but this long awaited promised event was not due to start until lunchtime, so we decided to risk it and get out for our daily walk whilst we could, especially if we were to then be confined for several days thereafter.

As we walked along the seafront promenade towards the marina, the sky was its usual blue, their were only thin white wispy clouds above our heads and the sun was shining, it was a very pleasant 24 degrees(c) which is actually the normal temperature for this time of year, it will drop to anything between 15 degrees(c), on a bad day, to 22 degrees(c), on a good day, when we get to December and January. Several of the beach ‘Chiringuito’s’ had already put their beach sunbeds and umbrellas back into storage and had their doors and windows securely shuttered. The council workmen were starting to lift and collect the wooden beach decking boards and it wouldn’t be long before the boat would be out to collect the yellow marker buoys, the ones which mark the beach areas for launching pedalo’s and other such water toys and to keep boats out of the swimming areas. I actually prefer this time of the year, although of course it is the turn of the temporary ‘Silver Rinse’ brigade to return for their winter sun holidays, when the kids have all gone home, but they are not in the huge numbers of the Summer tourists, so the place has more of a calmer more peaceful aire about it, the seafront promenade, pavements and streets are no longer crowded, so you can always get a table at any of the Cafe/Bars or Restaurants that remain open during the Autumn and Winter months, without the need to pre-book. Un-noticed by many, other than tight fisted Yorkshiremen that is, there is the subtle drop in the prices on menu boards, now more than ever do these establishments need to keep their winter trade of locals and temporary residents. As our local town is a Spanish working town, and not primarily just a Summer holiday hotspot, all of the usual high street retailer’s remain open throughout the year, the regular Friday morning market continues, although the supermarkets, who were permitted to remain trading on Sunday’s during the height of the summer season, now have to close on the sabbath once again. It seems a bit strange that you can go and get as pissed as you like on a Sunday, in the numerous bars that are permitted to remain open, but you cannot go and purchase a bag of potatoes from a supermarket for your Sunday lunch 🤷‍♂️ However, for us, there is really very little change, apart from the drop in the volume of both people and traffic, and of course the reduction in our daily allowance of domestic water usage 😉

As we were walking and enjoying the sunshine, blue sky and glittering Mediterranean Sea, I turned to Shazza and said, “You wouldn’t guess that it was going to piss down later would you ?”, she laughed but then pointed ahead, towards the dark clouds that were looming over and across the mountains in the distance, “Do you think we will have time to stop and have lunch” she asked, “Only if we stop and eat in the Marina and we don’t walk all the way into town” I responded, I knew that that would seal the deal 😉 I also knew that if it did start to rain that we would then decide to just remain under cover wherever we were dining, until it eased off, sufficiently enough to get back to the car without getting too much of a drenching, but that would mean that to kill some time I would perhaps have to partake of one, or two, more Anti-Covid Vaccines, you see my friend’s, there is always ‘A Silver Lining In Every Cloud’, no matter how stormy they may look, but this was a thought that I of course kept very much to myself 🤭 It was doubtful that Shazza would partake of more than one Anti-Covid Vaccine, which always meant that she would drive us back home, but if on this rare occasion she did decide to partake of more than just the one, which very occasionally she does, then we could always get a taxi home and collect the car later, when the weather permitted, even if that happened to be a few days later, it would be safe enough, provided the floods didn’t carry it off that is 🤔

Sod’s Law, it didn’t rain and so I didn’t have any excuse to partake of anymore than the one Anti-Covid Vaccine, what the bloody hell happened to that silver lining 😡 Lunchtime came and went, Dinner time came and went, not one flash of light, rumble of thunder and not one drop of rain fell on the scorched earth below my balcony window, the only darkness being due to the fact that it was actually night-time 🤷‍♂️ It was 3am when we were awoken to the sound of heavy rain beating on the slightly raised security shutters, as it was still quite humid at night we still tended to leave the French windows open in the bedroom to let in the cooler morning air, but Shazza got up and closed them before any of the wet stuff could find it’s way in, as it was fair bouncing off the Juliet Balcony. I always find rain beating on windows, or in this case, security shutters, rather soothing and the rhythm helped me drift back to sleep, it doesn’t have the same effect for Shazza who told me that she had tossed and turned most of the night, apparently there had been loud cracks of thunder, suffice to say I hadn’t heard a thing, if we were ever to get burgled it would have to be left to Shazza to see them off, I would sleep right through it 🤭 The following morning she said, “I can’t believe you slept all the way through that, what if someone had broken in and demanded that I had mad passionate sex with them” she smirked, “Enjoy it, you may not get too many more opportunities” I responded, I guess I deserved the slap around the head that followed 😂

The rain that was supposed to be heavy and last for four consecutive days didn’t of course materialise, although the dark clouds continued to threaten but with no real substance. We got several intermittent periods of rainfall, some heavy, some just very light, over the following few days until normal service was again resumed, but at least the level of our particular Embalce had gone up, to 42.16%, still to nowhere near enough to save us from the drought committee decision, which we were still awaiting upon, but with no more anticipated visitor’s this side of Christmas, it would have no real impact on us as we did not use our daily individual allowance even when it was at it’s lowest allowance and to be honest, our unheated communal pool would be too chilly now, to go and take a swim, although we still had the nearby beach and sea, where the temperatures always remained a little higher at this time of year, but not for too much longer, although it would remain warm enough to take the sun chairs down and sit on the beach and do a spot of people and boat watching, there was always something to keep me occupied.

on one of our most recent daily walks we stopped for a light lunch at one of our smaller favourite establishments in the Marina, I asked wether they would be closing over the festive period. Mario, the owner, told me that they didn’t close until February, then only for a month, so that they could have a holiday prior to re-opening again for the full season. I asked if he would be open on Christmas Day and he said that he would, but not in the evening as he was doing a Christmas Dinner at the lunchtime, which prompted me to ask wether he was fully booked. Long story short, he wasn’t, we perused the list of proposed three-course menu items, four choices in each course, a glass of Cava upon arrival and a bottle of wine per couple. Shazza gave a nod of agreement as their was a vegetarian option in each course, we paid a deposit and hey presto that was this year’s Christmas Day dinner sorted 👍

So there you have it, nothing very exciting for you to read about this time around, just a case really of being back to our normal routine and getting on with everyday life here in Spain, of course Shazza is now fully fit and well again, thank goodness and, as for myself, well as long as the sun is shining, I can partake of the occasional Anti-Covid Vaccines now and again and do a spot of people and boat watching then everything is always perfect in my world. We both continue to keep abreast of UK and other world events, habit I suppose as it isn’t of any real interest to me and to be honest, the only consequence of reading, what is generally speaking, all doom and gloom in the world, is that it serves to re-enforce the feeling that we both do have a relatively comfortable and peaceful life here, although, as mentioned elsewhere in this, and previous rambles, nowhere is ever truly a completely perfect ‘Nirvana’, but it will do us, for now 😉 The only outstanding decision that we have to yet make is, when to initiate ‘Project 2’ on our home modernisation plan ? Which is, if you recall, the total renovation and modernisation of the Master En-suite bathroom, but that decision will keep for another day, there is no rush, mañana, mañana, as the they say here in Spain 🤷‍♂️

So, until my next ramble………………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena