Much More Than Just Orange Jam

I have lost count of just how many times over the year’s we have said, after returning from somewhere, ‘It’s nice to go away, but it is good to get home again’ 🤔 a saying that I am sure many of you have said more than once throughout your lives, whether being out for just a longish day or perhaps, like us this time, having been away for very nearly a month but, this time in particular, it did feel really really good to be back home.

However, before we could get back into our more familiar routines, there were things that needed doing, unpacking our suitcases and rucksacks, putting things back into their usual places, something we hadn’t done when we had arrived home the previous evening. Of course Shazza’s priority was with wanting to catch up with the holiday laundry, then going out shopping to re-stock the cupboards, fridge and freezer with provisions, which would involve a little more than usual this time as we had guests arriving from the UK. Then there was the mail to sort through, although most of that was, as usual, more of the ‘junk’ variety, before then checking the bank statements, item by item, to ensure that the actual balance in the account was the same as the one I had calculated whilst being away, in order to just make sure that I hadn’t forgotten to deduct a payment or two for things that we may have spent on our return ferry and road journey, that last re-fuel stop, now did I pay cash or card 🤔 Yes, it always seems to take us a few days to get back into our normal routines, then of course, as mentioned in a previous ramble, we also had to deal with the water boiler replacement, which ended up being the waste of a full day rather than just a morning.

However, there was also an unexpected mail item which involved me having to deal with as a matter of urgency. A form from one of my UK Pension Providers requiring me to return it, signed and ‘witnessed’ as evidence that I was still Alive and Kicking and therefore still entitled to receive that particular Pension Payment 🤷‍♂️ This verification procedure only having to be undertaken by those who live ‘overseas’, so I guess they are assuming that anywhere outside of the UK is more dangerous, or unhealthy, environments to live in than the safe haven that is the UK, I wonder if any of those pale-faced administrative workers have ever left UK shores themselves and, from what I can glean from reading the UK media these days, where it appears to be far more dangerous just stepping outside of your front door, what with all the knife wielding, machete bearing, illegal immigrants flooding the streets, or the sex grooming gangs waiting to kidnap your children on their way to school 😲 Although in all seriousness, I can, and do, understand the need to check that I have not passed away and that Shazza is not surreptitiously and fraudulently continuing to receive and spend my monthly pension, of course not that this is something that has ever happened in the UK 🤷‍♂️

Unfortunately it wasn’t quite as simple as it sounded as this ‘Witness’ couldn’t be a partner (For obvious reasons), or a friend or neighbour, although why such people would have access to my bank account I do not know 🤷‍♂️ No, it had to be someone in a position of Authority or Senior Professional position, the kind of people that ‘generally’ would involve having to make an appointment to see, and then of course paying them a fee for the privilege of obtaining their signature. They of course helpfully provided a list of twelve such professionals, a Diplomat 🤔 Yup, everyone has one of those living just down the street, and even if I did, you can imagine the conversation when I knocked on their door “Good afternoon Guvn’r, stick your signature on this would you, there’s a good chap”, I would say, “Do you not know who I am ?” He would undoubtedly respond, “Don’t be silly, of course I do, you are a Public Servant and I pay your wages, so don’t dilly dally, I haven’t got all day to waste I have visitor’s to collect from the Airport don’t you know” 😂 Another option was a Surgeon or Doctor, have you ever tried getting an appointment with one of those this side of Christmas 😳 A Magistrate perhaps 🤔 and so on and so forth went this list of professions, far out of reach of most normal people so, another case of bureaucracy at it’s best yet again, why on earth they wouldn’t just accept a date and time-stamped photograph of me in my ‘budgie smugglers’ sipping on a Pina Colada, solar basting on the beach, an image I suggest you do not ponder on for too long 😂

However, you would have thought that in this day and age of modern technology, either a simple video call of me shopping with the missus in the local ‘Mercadonna’ supermarket, or phone call, asking relevant questions, that only I would actually know would surely have been much more cost effective and time efficient 🤷‍♂️ What made it worse, for me, was that they gave me 60 days to respond or they would stop my payments and, although their letter was dated 27 March, we hadn’t received it prior to going on our extended trip on the 10th April, so 14 days had already been lost, where had that letter been I had to ask myself, for we generally receive mail sent from the UK, or even from within other parts of Europe, within seven days 🤷‍♂️ Then we had of course been away for the best part of 30 days and now, we had visitor’s coming for the next 7 days so, out of the remaining 9 days within the timeline that they had given me to respond, six of them were also weekend days and their was no way I could have interrupted Sir Horace Wimpole-Bailey, my diplomat neighbour, whilst he was sitting on his John Deere ride-on mower cutting his acres of pristine green lawns, or his wife, Lady Penelope Wimpole-Bailey Belvedere, pruning her roses, even if I could have got through the outer fifteen foot high security gates and past their six Doberman’s, it is a dangerous world living overseas I will have you know 😳 I certainly didn’t need this additional pressure, talk about needing a holiday to recover from a holiday would be an understatement 😤 However, I am sure you will be relieved to know that I managed to find a suitable ‘Witness’ and meet their deadline, I think 🙄 for I have not, to date, received an acknowledgement that they received it, so only when my next pension payment is due will I know the answer to that one I suppose 🤷‍♂️……….. (since drafting the above, I am now very happy to report that said pension payment has now been received, it feels so good to know that I am now officially considered to still be Alive and Kicking, so time to go and get myself another Pina Colada and hope I still have my spot on the beach 😂)

I guess that we had been pretty lucky to have enjoyed a very unexpected three weeks of warm sunshine, whilst we were back in the UK, although it was quite chilly in the mornings and evenings, but even so, it was still nice to come back to the Spanish sunshine and heat, with the very much warmer mornings and evenings, with the morning temperatures at 18 degrees(c) and daytime high’s currently at 28 degrees(c) and rising each week 🥵 Soon it will be close to being unbearable, both day and night, and all the balcony and bedroom doors and windows will remain open twenty-four hours a day. How long I wonder before one of us starts to moan about the heat 🤔 But, the biggest luxury for us, after our extended trip, was no longer having to live out of our suitcases 🥳🥳

So, just three days after getting home ourselves, we drove to Malaga airport and collected our Family visitor’s. These particular family visitors have been coming out to stay with us quite regularly over the last ten years and so, over that period, they have more or less seen everywhere within our immediate locality. However, previously the majority of their visits have been during the Autumn and Winter months when we had restricted daylight hours and much cooler evening temperatures, which had reduced a lot of activities, so it was going to be a nice change for them to see everywhere ‘open for business’, the ‘Chiringuitos’ (Beach Bars), Restaurants, ‘Tourist Tat’ shops and of course the army of ‘Lookie, Lookie’ men with their ‘ASDA Price’ bargains. With the now much lighter nights and, the much warmer evening temperatures, we could all enjoy the holiday ambience when eating Dinner out on some evenings, either in the Marina or the local town. Although with our over indulgence on our own extended holiday, followed by a bit more during this family visit, we would, once they had departed, certainly need to get back on to our more healthier and disciplined regimes as a matter of urgency, otherwise we would be limited to what clothes we could still actually fit into, and that included all the new one’s that we had just purchased 😲 A two week ‘All Inclusive’ package holiday of over indulgence was not too bad to get rid of any surplus weight, but five weeks of it was going to be a mammoth struggle 🏊‍♂️🏃‍♂️🏋️‍♀️🥾😱

We spent most of the six full days with them in the local area, up and down the coastline, and when we were out somewhere just for the morning’s, when the temperatures were more conducive to walking, we would then return, have lunch and spend the afternoons just lazing around the pool and then going out for Dinner in the evenings. However, whilst our visitor’s had seen most places around our immediate area, there were still a few places that lay just a little further afield, but within a day’s visiting distance away, that they stated that they would like to visit, which was possible provided we departed a bit sharpish in the morning’s. One such place just happened to be one of our own favourite Cities in Spain, ‘Seville’, somewhere Shazza and I have been to ourselves on three separate occasions, although on all of those occasions we were living full time and travelling in our Motorhome, so the last time we had actually visited was probably seven or eight year’s ago.

The actual city of ‘Seville’ is just over a two hour drive away, but ‘Seville’ isn’t just a city but also a ‘Province’ here in Spain. It is probably best known by those in the outer world for the growing of ‘Seville Oranges’, which are primarily exported to the UK, for the production of ‘Marmalade’, to be enjoyed on hot buttered toast or as fillings in cakes, it is a product that, quite surprisingly, is not eaten by the native Spanish people, although it does appear occasionally on the breakfast tables for foreign guests at some hotels 🤷‍♂️ However, the Seville Orange itself cannot be eaten in its raw state, unlike most other oranges, as it is far too bitter, but it does have a high ‘Pectin’ content which makes it ideal for making the tasty orange Jam, but there is so ‘Much More Than Just Orange Jam’ to Seville 😉

We didn’t fancy doing battle with the extremely busy traffic in the city so, having done some prior research, we agreed to park just outside, in the small town of ‘Dos Hermanas’, where we could leave the car and then use the ‘Metro’ public transport system to travel into the heart of the city centre, just nine stops away. The parking was ‘Free’ 🤗 and it was located right outside the training ground facilities for the ‘Seville’ football team, which was only a short walk away from the small Metro Station on the opposite side of the road, but accessible via a footbridge. This ‘Metro’ public transport system was so efficient, running from early morning to late at night and, as we were to discover, it was also an extremely cheap form of transportation. It was a twenty minute journey, the service ran every fifteen minutes, amazingly it only cost us just €0.82cents each (£0.70p) for ‘return’ tickets 😃

Although we had visited Seville on previous occasions, we had either cycled in, from a nearby Marina where we had parked our Motorhome for a couple of night’s, or we had caught a local bus, so this was going to be a new adventure for us too as we had no idea how to use the Metro service, how to pay for our tickets, what stop to get off at etc. 🤗 Adventures come in all shapes and sizes and this one was a pretty small one, but so very easy.

The city is divided into several different districts, as with many large cities, however there are four main areas that are all close to each other, Santa Cruz, Macarena, Triana and Cartuja, two on one side of the ‘Guadalquivir River’ and two on the opposite side, but they are all within easy walking distance of each other, and several bridges span the river at various points. Although it is possible to do them all in one day, using the ‘hop on, hop off’ tour buses, in reality you would not be able to do each area any real justice in such a tight time frame, and so you should, realistically, allow ‘at least’ two or more days, within that you could also book to see a traditional flamenco show in the evening, complete with Dinner, in the Triana district. However, the very large and lush ‘Parque Maria Luisa’ which also houses the fantastic ‘Plaza de Espana’, is located in the Santa Cruz area, as is the Cathedral, Alcazar and the main Shopping areas. During our previous visits we had seen all of the sights, including the Flamenco Dinner Show, but we would have been more than happy to have done them again, if our visitors had wanted to that is, but they were not that bothered and just wanted to wander through some of the back streets and take a walk along the riverside promenades. In the much hotter Summer months, ‘Seville’ is known as the ‘Frying Pan of Spain’ with temperatures reaching up to 50 degrees(c) 🥵 Fortunately, at this time of year it was just 28 degrees(c) and, with plenty of shaded refreshment stops, very bearable.

The extensive grounds of the María Luisa Park and Plaza De Espana are ‘free’ to enter, and as impressive as the Plaza de Espana is, the surrounding grounds and walkways are equally as impressive, however our visitors, who in their defence are in their 70’s, were not too interested in spending too much time viewing them, it had been an early start and we all needed a coffee and to be honest, Shazza and myself had seen them before on at least three separate occasions, although we had thought beforehand that we may have spent a good hour, or longer, enjoying the grounds before the temperatures got too high 🤷‍♂️ When we had visited Seville previously we were able to just walk up to the ticket booths, at the entrances to both the Cathedral and Alcazar and then, having purchased our tickets, we had walked straight in. Both of these amazing places could have entailed spending a good hour or so looking around each of them in their own right, which we had also anticipated doing, however, on this particular day their were very long queues and our visitors we discovered, were even more of ‘History Heathens’ than ourselves, which neither of us ever believed was possible 🤭 but they also did not relish the thought of standing in the heat in a long queue for what could have been some considerable time, and doing so outside both locations. So we spent a bit of time just wandering through a few of the back streets, having a coffee then later a light lunch. The plan had been to spend all day sightseeing, with a few interventions for re-hydration stops 🍻🍷 and then to find somewhere to have a nice Dinner in the early evening before making our way back home. As it was, after a walk along the river, a brief stop for an Anti Covid Vaccine, we decided that we were all walked out and ready for home.

We made our way back to the Metro station, and the car, and returned home at 5pm, a lot earlier than anticipated. It was still 24 degrees(c) at 7:30pm, when we went out for dinner in our local Marina, followed by a night cap at a Cafe where we all enjoyed a spot of people watching, well it would have been so rude not to 🤭

We had walked every single day that our visitor’s had been with us and, I have to say that everyone but myself, seemed to be into this business of doing a minimum of 10,000 steps per day, which they all kept regularly checking on their wristwatch gadgets, what’s that all about 🤷‍♂️ These days these devices don’t just tell you the time, give you up to date personal health and fitness checks, but also act as mobile phones in which you can receive voice calls, text messages and Email’s, no wonder everyone these days look like CIA Agents on undercover surveillance, and, it gives a whole new meaning to ‘Talk to the hand, not the face’ 😂

Anyway, their time with us had once again come to an end, the week had just flown by, we drove them back to Malaga airport on the Sunday morning for their lunchtime flight back to the UK. They had enjoyed their holiday and, as usual, they were not looking forward to returning home, primarily because the ‘Works of Fiction’ were forecasting much cooler temperatures back in the UK and a week of rain, why they were upset about that fact is truly beyond me, I mean it is the UK after all, it is to be expected and one of the very good reasons for us no longer choosing to live there. But they shouldn’t really be complaining, they had just recently already had their designated three weeks annual supply of Summer weather, which we of course had very fortunately been there to enjoy with them and at least they were not going back having to worry about drought conditions and water restrictions, only a hosepipe ban at worst, if they were lucky enough to get another week’s worth of sunshine at some point 😂

As for Shazza and myself, well we couldn’t relax just yet, we had the usual post-visitor domestics to do, especially as we would be re-locating to the guest room facilities ourselves very soon, when the contractors came in to start the complete renovation of our en-suite bathroom. Before that though, on the Tuesday morning after our visitor’s had departed, we had another early start as we had to get our car to the dealers in Malaga for 08:30am, for its bi-annual service, it was just over an hour’s drive away, on a good day, but how long it would take to get there driving through the rush hour traffic of Estepona, Marbella and Malaga was anyone’s guess 🤷‍♂️

As it was we made good timing, opting to use the quieter toll motorways and, once booked in, we had almost four hours to kill before we could collect it again. Fortunately, having been here before, we knew of a Cafe just a ten minute walk away where we could get our morning coffee’s and Tostado’s. Then, just another twenty-minutes walk from there, we could get to the large ‘Plaza Mayor & MacArthur Glen’ Retail Park, Shazza had wanted to spend some of her Birthday money on a new handbag, why she couldn’t have purchased one off one of the ‘Lookie, Lookie’ men at our Marina heavens knows 🤷‍♂️ something about them being ‘fake’ she had said, something about them being ‘cheap’ I suggested 🤭 Anyway we spent all our time trudging in and out of every shop that sold handbags and finally she short-listed three that she liked, so back we went to those particular retailers, examining each one again, in finite detail, until eventually she selected the one she liked, ‘thank god’ I thought to myself, when she didn’t opt for the €400 one, that would have entailed her wanting a loan from me to cover the next three birthday’s 😳 We hadn’t even had time for a cool drink as we had to get back to collect the car and it was certainly going to be a harder walk back in the rising temperature 🥵 We had to wait ten-minutes whilst they finished washing and valeting the car, we didn’t mind as we hadn’t washed it since I had last done it back in the UK, so by now the exterior had started to look like a three-tone colour, Silver, Insect Black with splashes of blood red 😲 The car got through the service with no additional work needing to be done, other than the standard stuff of course, and we were surprised when they told us that they were knocking €40 Euros off the bill, and giving us a ‘free’ pair of sunglasses, which always makes my suspicious mind wonder what they had done to the car, hoping that we wouldn’t discover it later when they could deny all knowledge 🤔 As it was, I gave it a thorough check over once we got back home and all appeared to be fine, so I guess I should be less cynical and simply say thank you for the discount and gift.

So it has been quite a busy period for us, one way or another, we have almost three weeks before the turmoil with the Contractor’s begins and then, hopefully 🤞 by the end of June, once they have gone and we have re-decorated our bedroom, before re-occupying it, we can then properly relax and start to enjoy the bulk of the Summer months in this our little corner of Southern Spain. Of course, by then it should be the start of the main Fiesta season and with the knowledge that, our next pre-booked guest, Shazza’s mum, would not be arriving with us until the beginning of October, life should get back to some kind of normality.

There are only a few journeys that I personally intend taking over the next few months, one of no more than 50 metres down to our swimming pool, or a short five minute drive down to our favourite beach 😂 Let’s see if Shazza’s itchy feet, for travelling a little further afield than that, can stretch that long 😳

As I conclude this current ramble, I am just in the process of dealing with some more Bureaucratic nonsense, with both the Spanish and UK Tax Authorities, but I will save that story for another time. Until then………………………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena