My Freedom Of Speech Is Being Taken Away !!

Although it seems a lot longer, surprisingly, it was actually only two weeks ago that we were in the Spanish town of ‘Carmona’. Since our return we have not really done anything too interesting, well probably nothing that you, my reader’s, would be overly excited about, in fact the truth is that I had no intention of writing another ramble due to that fact, well at least not until perhaps my usual pre-Christmas and end of year festive ‘ramble’, which I am sure you are all looking forward to with eager anticipation 🤗 But there is a very good reason for me writing, and publishing, this unintended particular ramble, but I will get around to that a little bit later, but, seeing that I do find myself at the keyboard, well I may as well make the most of it, it would be rude of me not to 🤭

So for those of you who have little, or no, experience of Spanish Winter’s, it really does depend very much on which part of Spain you choose to visit, or live. Spain is a vast country and so there are varying climatic conditions, both during the Summer and Winter months, in fact, in the North of the country, and Northern Central Belt, you will see and feel the changes between Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn, although further South, in our neck of the woods, the difference between Spring and Summer and Summer and Autumn is unnoticeable, we have just two seasons, ‘Very Hot’ (Summer) and ‘Not so Hot’ (Winter).

During the Winter months, further North, it is very much cooler, actually it can be damn cold, with lots of those areas suffering with rain, fog, ice and snow, although the Winter periods are generally not as long as some of the more Northerly European Countries. Further South though it is a different picture, especially along the Coastal Areas, although they too can differ dependent on whether you are on the Atlantic (West) or Mediterranean (East) coastlines.

As I mentioned in my last ramble, we found it a lot warmer once we had returned home from our mini break but, even here at home the weather was certainly changing. After having spent several several Winter’s here since 2015, we have got used to the variations which, during the Winter months, can vary from one week to the next, but more importantly, after living here in Spain now on a ‘Permanent’ basis for the last eighteen months, we have certainly acclimatised and so we feel the temperature changes much more than we did when we were just ‘Temporary’ visitors.

When we were just temporary visitor’s, travelling down from the generally much cooler Northern European climate, down to this part of Southern Spain, it really was bliss, leaving behind the cold, near arctic, conditions of the UK to the warm sunshine on the Mediterranean, to the more usual 18-20 degrees(c) in November and December, barring the occasional freak storms and heavy rainfall. But it is amazing how different those temperatures feel to us now, certainly after enjoying temperatures that were constantly ranging between 35-40 degrees(c) during the long Summer months, that often stretch from May-October, to now when those temperatures have dropped by 18-20 degree(c), December and January are generally the coldest months, where daytime temperatures can drop to as low as 15 degrees(c) and down to as low as 9-10 degrees(c) at night 🥶 but, this is not for continued periods of time and we are often switching between shorts and tee-shirts to Chino’s and long-sleeved shirts 🤷‍♂️ We don’t rely on the ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts, they are seldom correct, we just get up each day, look out of the French windows, check the wind direction, and strength, and then decide what to wear on that particular day.

In the first few days that were back, albeit it was the back end of November, we were very happy to still be wearing our shorts and tee-shirts, there was very little wind, occasionally a light breeze blowing and, although blue sky and sunshine, the heat of the sun no longer burnt our exposed flesh as it does in the Summer so it was pleasant to be out walking and sat enjoying a cool and refreshing Anti-COVID Vaccine, just watching the world go by, where we would enjoy our favourite hobby of ‘people watching’, although there are now fewer people to observe since the main tourist season came to an end. Likewise, there are rarely any leisure boats to sit and admire, albeit we do still see the odd paddle-boarder, kayaker and odd crazy person taking a dip in the rapidly cooling sea. We have been quite fortunate to also get glimpses of pods of dolphins as we sit enjoying our drinks, not too far from the shoreline, rounding up shoals of fish and then feasting upon them, briefly breaching the surface of the waterline before disappearing again leaving the tell tale white splashes, then they chase the escapee’s further along the coastline and round them up again. The gulls that fly low over the pod are our visual indicator of where the dolphins are, as the dolphins move quite quickly, the gulls wait for their opportunity to dive into the sea and pick off the remaining victims who are still laying stunned just below the surface.

This pleasantly warm weather only lasted a few brief days before turning yet again again, it was followed by several days of thick grey overcast skies which the sun was unable to penetrate. The wind had turned from a light breeze to very strong and blustery Easterlies, or Westerlies, some mornings they even had a cold bite to them, morning temperatures dropped to 15 degrees(c) which, for us at least, is starting to get a little chilly, although we have not experienced any more rain since the two bad storms that wreaked havoc in many areas of Spain, although we were lucky. Now we awake to no more than heavy morning Dews which still manages to keep everything looking green and fresh.

There were days when we did stay in and took a brief respite from our daily walks, we used the opportunities to do Domestic chores, everywhere in our apartment got hoovered, dusted and as all our floors are tiled, they all got got mopped too. Even the guest bedroom and bathroom got cleaned again, even though it had been done quite thoroughly after Shazza’s mum had departed which was not so very long ago. But we did not stay in every cloudy day, there was grocery shopping to be done, Christmas Cards to post and a few other minor bits and pieces to be purchased. For those outings we had to resort to going back to wearing heavy jeans, long-sleeved shirts and a light hoodie top, although we noticed that the actual indigenous locals were now donning scarves, heavier coats and even gloves 😲 It wasn’t that cold. The Winter tourists that are now here, the silver rinse brigade, stand out in their shorts and tee-shirts with their lily white legs and arms 🤭 Shazza and I do still laugh at each other when we find ourselves complaining at the Winter weather here, as back in the days when we were in the UK living in the van, from October through to March, sometimes even longer, jeans would be our normal everyday clothing, along with the long-sleeved shirts and jumpers, and most definitely thick coats, scarves, gloves and hats.

But this grey, gloomy and chilly weather didn’t last long, perhaps only 2-3 days when, once again, the grey leaden sky changed again to blue with partially clouded white wispy clouds, the sun shone brightly and the temperature’s raised, although now it still remains cool in the mornings, but by the mid-afternoon’s it is up to 22 degrees(c). The shorts, and the short-sleeved shirts were once again the order of the day, this is a pretty bog standard Winter weather pattern in this part of Spain and it will remain changeable like this until the end of January or early February, it is what it is 🤷‍♂️

We had not eaten out for a little over a week when we returned from our mini-break, but we had more than made up for that during this past week 😲 A lunch one day in town, a lunch one day in the Marina and, one evening we decided to change our routine of just curling up together on the Sofa glued to the TV screen and we went out on what I told Shazza was a ‘Date Night’ 😂 We had Dinner at a nice Portuguese style restaurant in the Marina.

Even though it is the non-tourist season, there are always people about, either other International ‘Legal Immigrants’ (Expats) like ourselves, a few Spanish locals and a small handful of ‘Temporary’ Winter visitors, Camper Vanners who either wild camp locally, or stay on the local campsite, or those who rent properties for long winter sun vacations, usually from the silver rinse brigade category. So the place isn’t completely deserted, but compared to the busier Tourist periods, it feels a lot calmer now, there is no requirement to pre-book a table, we can just choose to eat at wherever takes our fancy, and of course, with less customer’s, the waiters and waitresses are not running around frantically so the service is exceptional, the Chef’s not having to deal with a rolling escalator of food orders have the time to cook everything perfectly, dress the plates and serve ‘Hot’ food, so Shazza and I like these Winter periods, which is probably just confirmation, if any were needed, that we are getting older 🙄

One day we decided to change our routine and drive into the nearby slighter larger town of ‘Estepona’, it is only a short twenty-minute drive and it is where we now go to do our Supermarket shopping. We have always liked Estepona, but we could not afford to buy a property there back in 2015, we certainly couldn’t afford to buy one there now, in fact we could not afford to buy the property we currently live in, if we were buying now, as prices have now doubled and are not slowing down, which would be great news if we were planning on selling, but we are not, we are more than happy here, well for now at least, who knows what tomorrow will bring 🤷‍♂️ So we are glad that we got it when we did, although it had been ‘Fate’ that had brought us here, so more a case of being in the right place at the right time 🙏

Usually we would drive to the opposite side of the town to park, which is only a short walk along the seafront promenade into the town, but it was a beautiful sunny day, just the barest breath of a breeze, so we decided to park at the Marina and walk into the main part of town from there, a much longer walk than our usual daily walks but it was nice for a change of scenery. There were a couple of things that we needed from the local shops, which were not provided in our own town, so we did have a purpose on this particular visit, although that isn’t always the case when we come here. On our way home we wanted to call in to the newly rebuilt ‘ALDI’ store, just to see what more European delicacies they had, in the way of Christmas gastronomic goodies. We no longer celebrate Christmas like we used to, it isn’t the same without family or children around us, we still have not purchased a tree and I doubt that we will now, much to Shazza’s delight, let’s just say that these days she is more ‘Bah Humbug’ than ‘Festive Elfette’ 😂 We do have some Christmas festive ornaments that she will tolerate me putting out nearer the time, and we do like a few festive foodie treats, I draw the line at decorative broccoli and snow coloured Tofu to celebrate Christmas 🤭

So, remember the ‘Title’ of this ramble ? Yes I know, it seems such a long time ago since you read it well, are you sitting comfortably or do you need to stop for a comfort break and a three-course dinner 😂 One afternoon recently, on our way back from one of our usual local walks, completely out of the blue Shazza just pipes up and says “Are you going to write a Christmas Blog Post this year ?”, now Shazza rarely mentions my rambles, in fact to be completely honest, she rarely reads them, which is why I can get away with often telling you about how awful she always treats me 😂 Anyway, a bit suspicious of why she would raise this topic, “Yes, of course, I am certain that my reader’s would revolt if I didn’t, it would be like Santa not distributing his gifts on the 25th December, totally unacceptable” I responded. She laughed, “Yeah right, I am sure not receiving one of your blogs would leave them heartbroken” she says. See, didn’t I just tell you how awful she is towards me 😲

Anyway, that served as a reminder for me to start to think about commencing to piece together my festive draft so, once we got home, I sat in the balcony in the late afternoon sunshine and started to pen a few thoughts. But I soon discovered a problem, once I had written my first paragraph and re-read it, I wanted to make a change, but my keyboard disappeared off the screen and I could not get it back. I had to close down my writing ‘App’ and re-open it, but even then, whilst the keyboard returned it would not let me back into the pre-written paragraph to make changes and I could not even open a new paragraph ‘block’ 😲 You will be pleased to hear that I won’t be going into every last detail, just accept that everything that I tried, failed to resolve the problem, so my frustration just grew and grew. Eventually, after over half a day later, the penny dropped 🙄

Everyone who has followed my full series of blogs knows that, as I do not pay a subscription for the use of the service, and have not done so now for a little over 11 year’s, well you know just how much I love that word ‘Free’ 🤭 The problem with these ‘Free’ one’s is that they only allow so much storage space for Data, Images etc and so when I run out of space I have to start a completely new blog site, with a new title and you, my loyal reader’s, have to go to the new re-directed blog site, it is a pain in the proverbial for both you and me. Well, I discovered that this current blog had been going now for over a year, a lot longer than normal, which I know, should have been my first warning sign especially as I had managed to publish 53 Rambles in that time, but now I had run out of space !! Usually I am good at keeping a track of just how much space I am using and what space I have left, I know when to write my last blog post and prior to that, would have already selected a new ‘Free’ blog template, selected a title and new site address to direct you to, written a first ramble and then be ready to go again, but not this time 🤷‍♂️ Okay, my OCD Buddy was saying to me, so just do what you do normally Eric, go back to the Blog provider’s site, select a new ‘Free’ template and start again with a new one, the way you have always done things 🤷‍♂️ But it wasn’t quite as simple as that, not this time 😡

Each year, usually much sooner, whenever I run out of space, I discover that the blog template that I am currently using, and have got used to using all of the associated formatting tools, either no longer exists, or worse, it now comes under a ‘Payed Plan’ which I have to upgrade to, if I wish to continue to use it 😡 However, the limited ‘Free’ Plans that are available are extremely basic, boring and with limited functionality. So if I want to change the font size or style, that has to be part of a ‘Paid Upgrade’, if I want to change the colour palette, that too has to be part of a ‘Paid Upgrade’, if I want to include a ‘Subscribe to Blog’ box, or a ‘Comments Box’, yup, you’ve guessed it, now part of a ‘Paid Upgrade’, these are all basic functionality processes that even the most basic of Blogger’s require, this is the way the Blog Template Providers are trying to corner me into finally paying to write and publish my blogs 🤷‍♂️ Now don’t get me wrong, I fully understand that these sort of Service Provider’s are a business at the end of the day, and not a charity, and that they only offer ‘Free’ plans to initially entice you in, once snared, then comes the reel in. For some blog writer’s this is not a bad way to dip your feet in, to reach a target audience and then, if it proves popular with thousands of readers, subscribers and follower’s alike, then they can expand from there and many use these sort of Platforms as a way of generating some income, fair play to them. However, for people like me, who just enjoy writing for pleasure, more of a hobby, certainly not for any sort of income, it now seems to me that ‘My Freedom Of Speech Is Being Taken Away’ 🤷‍♂️

So let me come clean with you, at this point, after a whole day and a half of trying to find suitable ‘Free’ templates, trying to format each one of them in turn, to use just the basic of functions to a layout that I liked, I failed miserably. I was so frustrated that I now have to go for an appointment at the hospital to have new hair implants 😲🤭 I actually contemplated just giving up altogether with this whole blogging lark, I convinced myself that I had had a bloody good run at it, and to be fair I had managed with the ‘Free’ system for just over 11 years now. Perhaps this was just my old friend ‘Fate’, just giving me the hint that this was the time to end this particular journey. Although I didn’t feel right about just disappearing into the ‘ether’ without signing off properly, but what could I do, I literally had no space to even write a short post to say farewell and thank you, perhaps though, I also had to be honest with myself, in that it wouldn’t really matter, there were lots of other blogs out there, I was just a very small one with a very small readership in comparison with the thousands of other’s. My main concern was that I enjoyed this writing, it had become a hobby and it used up time which I would otherwise have spent twiddling my thumbs, I would need to find a new one or Shazza would be the one to suffer, big time, ‘Idle hands make for devil’s work” as the saying goes………….

The following day, as usual, we went out for our daily walk “You are quieter than normal, is anything wrong?” Shazza says. “I’m alright, just trying to think of a new hobby to fill my time” I responded. The conversation led from there and I explained what problems I was having with the Blog. Now Sharon has nothing to do with actually contributing to the blog in a practical way, other than letting me include photograph’s with her in them, and she often get’s frustrated when we are out and about, and I keep stopping to take photo’s, which she knows are specifically for inclusion in my rambles. “So, if you pay to upgrade, can you keep your current blog template ?” She asks, “Yes, but I could also tweek it a bit and make some changes to the base template” I reply, “Is it expensive ?” She says, “Not really, an Annual Subscription is about the same cost as one lunch in the Marina” I respond, “Then just do it, it’s a hobby you enjoy, and let’s face it you have got away with not paying for it for all these year’s” she says. “Look at it this way, I buy books for my Kindle on a regular basis, that is my hobby, so what if you have to pay for your’s ?”she says. After picking myself up off the floor, dusting myself down, and having to get over the shock by consuming many extra Anti-Covid Vaccines 🤭 I asked her if she was alright, “Why ?” She asked, then quickly latching on to what I was about to say she squinted her eyes playfully at me and said, “Think very carefully about what you were about to say, I may just change my mind”, we both laughed but I also now knew that she cannot any longer complain about me writing my blog, or stopping to take photo’s to include in it, but I will keep quiet about that until I need to use it 🤭

So, for you my current blog ‘Subscibers’, their is good news and that is that you will now not have to go to a new blog site address or re-subscribe, I will be using this same site although the domain name is now “ournewlifebeginspart2.com” (as opposed to ‘ournewlifebeginspart2.wordpress.com). However, I have altered the base template a bit, changed the ‘Colour Pallete’ and ‘Font Style’, but hopefully it will not impact on you receiving, reading, liking or commenting, on this or any of my future rambles. However, if you do encounter any issues, put a ‘Comment’ on the last post and I will try and sort out any teething problems.

So, in the words of Mel Gibson (Braveheart), ‘They may take away my FREEdom to write, but they will never take away my Ramblings’, or words to that effect 😂 So, I had better get working on that festive ramble eh 🤔

Until next time………….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena