“Long To Rain Over Us”

On the evening we returned from our day trip to ‘Vejer’ the ‘Works of Fiction’ had forecast that our area and the whole Costa del Sol coastline, were in for some rather nasty ‘wet stuff’, commencing in the early hours of the morning right through until the following afternoon, so we made the decision that we would make it a ‘rest day’ and just stay in. That worked fine for me because it was a Saturday, which meant that from 1:30pm, right through to around 7:30pm, I could sit and watch ‘Live’ English League football on the TV for the majority of the afternoon and early evening so, the ‘Works of Fiction’ had better get this one right, I thought to myself, although to be honest, Shazza wasn’t that bothered about going out for another walk as we had done plenty the previous day so she too was happy to have a more relaxing day. However, I should confess to being a little sceptical, because the ‘Works of Fiction’ rarely get their forecasts accurate but, it had been correct, thankfully, about the nice sunny weather for our day trip, but what were the chances that it would actually get two, back to back, weather forecasts correct 🤔 However, it did and so that left me to conclude that the belated Christmas gifts, of their new ‘Crystal Balls’, must have finally arrived, there can be no other explanation other than just pure good luck on their part I suppose 🤔

Before my afternoon and evening in front of the TV though, we did do something productive, albeit that too also required very little physical effort on both our parts 🤭 We both sat down, me with Google Maps open on my iPad, Shazza with her ‘Booking.com’ App on her’s. We planned our route to Santander for our upcoming trip to the UK, which is in only around five weeks time and, after studying our proposed route we both agreed on where we would stop to both break the journey and do a spot of sightseeing and indulge ourselves in a couple of further mini-adventures, well it would be rude not to. We do tend to stick to one of two main routes up to the North coast of Spain to catch our ferry, either the Seville or Madrid routes, but it is getting more difficult these days to find new places to stop along those routes as we have already stopped in most of them over the last ten years, we prefer not to visit the same places twice, although that is not strictly true as their are a couple of exceptions to that self-imposed rule. So, and with some required minor deviations from those normal main routes, we both agreed on the destinations that we would stop at, we selected the hotels within those locations that had on-site secure parking, as we would have luggage and perhaps other stuff in the car boot, and we wanted accommodations within walking distance of the main centres so that we would have a break from driving. Once we had agreed on the suitable hotels, Shazza went ahead and booked them and we had the confirmations within a few minutes, although we don’t have to pay in advance, only when we actually arrive at the hotels themselves. However, whilst I am sure you would like to know the locations that we have selected for those mini-adventures, I am not going to disclose them to you in this particular ramble for two very good reasons, firstly, that would spoil the rambles that I will be publishing later about those destinations and, secondly, you know what we are like, we could have changed our minds between now and when we go 😂 That is another good thing about the accommodation booking ‘App’, we can cancel the bookings up to a few days before we are due to arrive, and their are no cancellation charges, but it is not something we generally tend to do anyway, I don’t think that my OCD Buddy could cope with such short notice changes so it would only be if it were an emergency.

As I have probably already mentioned in a previous ramble, we had already pre-booked our return ferry crossings a good couple of months previously, so now, with the outbound leg of the trip all sorted, as well as the return ferry crossing pre-booked and pre-paid, all we have to do now is wait until it is time to hit the road and head Northbound. We have not yet decided on any stops that we may make on our ‘return’ trip through Spain, we will decide on that later, we may just want to get back home after being away for what will have been close on a month living out of our suitcases 🤷‍♂️ So, the only other important thing we have to do now, before we depart on our UK trip, is to submit our annual Spanish Tax Return, but that is already in hand as I have already spoken with our tax consultant, who submit this on our behalf as the Spanish Tax Forms are quite complicated, now I bet that comes as no surprise to you 🤭 But, as you may already have guessed, myself, and my OCD Buddy, have already got all of the relevant financial information ready so all I have to do is to send it to them when ‘they’ request it, which they have told me will not be until the beginning of April, so that is another administrative task nearly sorted, although the actual tax bill, once calculated, does not need to be paid until June, we will be back well before then 👍

Each year around this time our Residents Community holds its annual AGM, which is conducted in both Spanish and English, so the meetings can become quite elongated at times, dependent on the number of items on the Agenda to be discussed and voted upon. Shazza and I don’t always attend every annual meeting, but we did this time around as we had a few points to raise on some ‘minor’ aspects of the Communal Areas that we think needed addressing, fortunately the committee, and other residents present at the meeting, agreed with our comments and suggestions and so we felt happy to have had a positive contribution. We tend not to usually get too involved, the residents committee President is Spanish and he manages the place extremely well and to be honest, all of the residents here tend to ‘generally’ get on quite well with each other, the majority, like ourselves, just want a harmonious very simple community lifestyle without too many rules, just the common sense and necessary one’s, with ‘tolerance’ and ‘mutual respect’ being the two highest important values 👍 The most important aspect of the meeting, for the majority, was the state of the finances and whether we would need to increase the individual annual community charge, however, once again, for probably what is now the third successive year, it was agreed that the annual charge will remain the same, which of course was music to all our ears. So, although it has actually felt as though it has been a somewhat uneventful period since my last ramble, it has actually been quite a productive one for us, in one form or another.

We are beginning to see the changes, from the transition from the Winter to Spring, with the sunrises each passing day getting earlier and earlier, it will not be long now and the sun will be up well before me, but also, the sunsets too are getting that bit later each evening, which is nice because that means that the daylight hours are a little longer, it does not get dark here now until around 7:30pm and so, in a little less than a month, when the clocks go forward again to officially mark the start of Summertime, we should have daylight until somewhere near 9:00pm 😁 But there are other visible signs that the season is changing, the lifeguard platforms on the beaches are now once again being erected for the upcoming season, flowers and plants are being re-planted in the public areas, buildings and road markings are being given a fresh coat of paint and the Chiringuito’s are showing the first signs of coming out of from their Winter slumbers. The first of the Carnivals are, or by the time I publish this ramble, may already have taken place which is a religious one, but this one marks the official start of the annual ‘Fiesta’ period, some of which we may, or may not, grace with our presence again this year 🤭 Motor and sailing yachts are coming out from their winter storage facility and are now filling up the Marina moorings once again. All of these things reflect that we are nearing the commencement of the annual population explosion, which means the roads will be full of traffic so the toll road fees will double, the promenades, beaches, Cafe/Bars and Restaurants will all be crowded and of course they will start to adopt the customary ‘tourist price’ increases, which apply equally to everyone, tourists and locals alike, unless of course you know the one’s the tourists don’t know about and where the prices remain the same 😉 Some of these things, although of course not all, have a certain advantage for us too, as they will soon provide us with more opportunities to do ‘People Watching’ and take up our unofficial roles as the ‘Fashion Police’ but probably more importantly, it provides the local economy with much needed income, of course though, that is only if the tourists actually arrive this year 😲

Yes, the British Media still continue to pedal their propaganda about Spain being Anti-Tourist against ‘Brit’s’, no other Nationality mind you, just the ‘Brit’s’ and, even though the position on Tourism has been clarified, the British Media will still have you believe that, from this year, their is a ‘Tourist Ban’ in force 😂 Now I am sure that if they keep publishing the same old story, that there will be some people out there who will actually start to believe it, now I am sure that you my reader’s already know not to believe everything that you read in the newspapers or on Social Media these days, but you may know some who do and who may well be thinking about cancelling their holiday arrangements, so please feel free to share the below articles with them 😉

Now I know that it is rare occurrence, but in the Winter months, even in this part of Spain, we do have quite a lot of grey overcast days, although they are not always accompanied by the wet stuff, and to be honest, for every grey day in those Winter months (Jan & Feb), we generally get four or five consecutive sunny one’s, which are the sort of odds that I am all in favour of 😉 So, it came as no surprise, after the one day of rain, to once again awake to a bright blue, almost cloudless sky, the sun was already up and there was only the merest hint of a breeze so I didn’t need Shazza to inform me that yes we ‘would’ be going out for a walk 🤭 We do however have a bit of a dilemma, is it warm enough yet to get the shorts, tee-shirts and flip-flops back out 🤔 We agreed that it was still probably a little too early for that, for whilst it is fine when you are moving, it can still be a little chilly if you are static for too long, especially in the shade and when the wind is blowing in off the sea, so, whilst short-sleeved shirts, even tee-shirts are fine and carrying a light hoodie top as a precautionary measure in case the wind gets up, which is common during the afternoons here, but shorts would still be just a step too far right at this moment but, we are optimistic that we are only a couple of weeks away from that major landmark in our calendar year 🤗 Of course, we already know that just when we can get back into our favourite more leisurely attire, we will again have to revert to much more warmer protective clothing for our return to the UK, but it will be our first return visit since we departed in June 2023 so I will try not to grumble about it too much 🙄

We were already hot by the time we had walked the short distance from the car to the Marina, but we would not be stopping there on this particular day, not even for a refreshing cool drink, for we knew that if we did, that would be it, one drink would become two, then possibly three, then more than likely lunch and that would be as far as we would get that day, which, between you and me, I certainly would not have had a problem with 🤭 So we by-passed all the temptations and headed along the promenade towards the town and, I just know that you will be sick of me for continuously saying this, but the views are still amazing, no matter how many times we walk this self same route, they are just so good for the soul. The sounds of the sea just gently lapping onto the shoreline, the people on the beach sunbathing, yes they are obviously the tourists from some more northerly climates 😂, the blueness of the sea is stunning and the contrast with the blue of the sky and then, the view of the mountains in the background, well it just never gets boring. I remember writing in one of my earlier rambles, nearly two years ago now, when we had just obtained our first year’s residency permit and had commenced living here on a full-time basis, I asked myself the question, how long would it take for that ‘Wow’ factor to disappear, well it still hasn’t and now I don’t believe that it ever will.

We made our first stop at our usual seafront little Spanish Cafe/Bar and were fortunate to get a table right at the front, in the shade, but with unobstructed views across the beach to the sea, just casually watching the passing boats and other leisure craft, our view only interrupted by the usual passers by, which was actually a bonus as they served to provide us with plenty of people watching opportunities, and of course our judgemental ‘Fashion Police’ duties but, now that we have become proficient in both of those roles, we needed to add a little extra to our talents and so we have added a new dimension to the role, that being one where we, being body beautiful individuals ourselves of course 🤭 we now also conduct observations whereby we critique, quite discreetly of course, those who pass by and, well let’s just say, are quite obviously a little less ‘dietary disciplined’ 😂😂😂 This is of course, as you may well imagine yourselves, extremely thirsty work, so although we started with the mandatory ‘Cafe con Leche’, and thankfully they have got used to us now and always bring us strong one’s, for some reason they serve tourists really milky ones 🤮 But after that Shazza reverted, temporarily, to her more usual ‘Agua con Gas’, with ice and lemon of course, she still has standards I’ll have you know 😂 whilst I enjoyed a nice cold ‘Alhambra Especial’, although a little disappointed that they brought me a ‘Victoria Malaga’ branded glass to drink it out of, whatever next, a butter knife to eat my steak 😲

Now it would have been very easy to have just remained where we were, but Shazza had begun to make the right noises about beginning to get hungry, I just hoped the people on the tables around us couldn’t hear her gastronomic rumblings 🤭 We could have eaten where we were, they do serve a small variety of options, but we knew of an even better place, one that has become our favourite informal eatery over the past few weeks, yes I know, our list of ‘favourite’ places just keeps growing 🤭 this one has an extensive menu, anything from sandwiches, full individual meals, including if you want it, a ‘Menu del Dia’, or our particular go to favourites, Tapa’s 😋😋 Sometimes we do just come here for our morning coffee’s, when it is particularly windy and blowing in off the sea, for this is well sheltered from the wind and a right sun trap, but we also sometimes come here for a coffee or a beer, if we have done an afternoon walk instead of our more usual morning one’s, but we come here now mainly to enjoy their wide selection of Tapa’s. The couple that run it are Spanish but they do speak good English, they know we like to try and speak Spanish so that is how they greet us, and communicate with us whilst we are there, they are extremely friendly and very sociable, but when we do get stuck, or do not understand something, they help us with the Spanish words or revert to English. The food is always excellent and very tasty and the portions are more than plentiful. It makes a nice change from the other regular establishments we frequent in both the Marina and here in town, and of course, on this occasion, seeing as we were here and it was lunchtime, it would have been rude not to 🤭

Now usually we would just walk back to the car and go home, and yes, perhaps, on getting there we may both occasionally engage in that afternoon tradition known as ‘Siesta’, well, ‘When in Spain’ as they say 🤷‍♂️ However, on this occasion we didn’t even make it all the way back to the Marina, for the ice cream hut on the promenade was open, it was quite hot by this time of the afternoon and the tubs of deliciousness on display proved to be just too much of a temptation. Now you may wonder what on earth has happened to our healthy daily ‘Plant Based’ diets, well we do, although not often, perhaps once or twice a week when we come out, sometimes take a day off from them too 😉 So, after viewing the vast array of flavoured ice-cream choices, there must have been at least thirty, we each made our personal choices, took a seat next to the beach, and then just sat and savoured each mouthful, even our people watching went out of the window at this stage, we needed to concentrate on eating the ice-cream before it melted 😲

As we approached the Marina, we elected to take the less public route around it, which meant walking down the street behind the row on row of Cafe/Bars instead of in front of them, well after such a nice lunch and yummy dessert, we just didn’t know how many ‘Body Beautiful’ Police there would be, sat sipping their afternoon cocktails, and on the lookout for passing bulging waistlines 😂

So we had enjoyed a whole week of beautiful warm and sunny weather but the ‘Works of Fiction’ just have to have the last hoorah don’t they 🙄 They are now forecasting, and when I say ‘they’, I do mean all of the different ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts that we consult on a daily basis, but ten, yes ten consecutive days of rain 😲 some light and some much heavier periods with thunder and lightning ⛈️⛈️ So, as I write this, we shall just have to wait and see what actually arrives because as you already know by now, forecasting it, and actually getting it, can be two completely different things here 🤷‍♂️ But seeing that much rain in the forecast did make me feel a little patriotic, all I could think of was that one line in our English National Anthem, the one that says, ‘Long To Rain Over Us’ 😂😂

So we have resigned ourselves to the possibility that we could be confined to barracks for a rather long period of time but we are prepared, we have got ‘Kevin’ our inflatable Kayak on stand-by, for when we may have to paddle out to recover the Emergency food drop parcels from the helicopter, Shazza has pre-ordered and scheduled deliveries every three days of vital vegetable and fruit supplies, floods or no floods the healthy ‘Plant Based’ dietary regime must prevail 😂 I can just picture it now, the packaging on the food drop parcel breaking open as it hits the water, me paddling frantically with one hand, whilst holding on to Shazza’s feet with the other, whilst she leans over the edge of the kayak trying to recover the potatoes, onions, avodaos etc, before they float away in the torrent of water, down the hill and out to sea 😲

Looking on the positive side, at least it will serve as a reminder of what we are likely to get on our upcoming trip to the UK, so we can start to psychologically prepare for it 🤭 and of course, if that much wet stuff does actually materialise, the capacity in our Embalce should continue to increase dramatically, so not only do ‘we’ benefit but, the tourists that are actually planning on coming here for their summer holidays will not have to worry about whether the swimming pools or beach showers will be open, so ‘A Win-Win Situation For Everybody’ isn’t it nice to read something positive these days 😂

Until the next ramble…………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena