Better The Devil You Know

We were enjoying the calm of the morning, sat at one of our usual favourite seafront Cafe’s, silently looking out at the views before our eyes, there were three different colours on the almost flat calm sea with the bright sunshine emphasising the differences between them, turquoise green, light shade of blue and then the deeper darker blue, as the depth of the water increased and prevented the sun from reflecting off the seabed below. There were the usual array of freighter’s ploughing up and down along the horizon, some sailing yachts a little closer and the usual paddle-boarders, kayakers and swimmers much closer to the beach and there were the early bird sun worshippers with their variety of different coloured beach umbrellas dotted along the wide expanse of beach. The sky was more of a hazy shade of light blue, rather than a brilliant bright blue, the haze created by the heat and hugging the contours of the coast, but with fine white whispers of cloud just adding some variation to the otherwise blue canvas. Above the beach and the sea were the mountain ranges, all of which vary in their height, shape and colours, but these giants all sloped down to where they appeared to meet the sea below and so becoming the final pieces that made up this beautiful panoramic landscape jigsaw.

Around us we hear the numerous conversations that are going on amongst the other adjacent tables, in several different languages, although the overriding one is an elderly British woman on the phone to someone, it wasn’t a case of us purposely listening in to her conversation, more a case of us not having a choice in the matter 🙄 There was also a lot of activity along the promenade on this warm, but not yet searingly hot morning, but we felt comfortable, hidden under the shade of the large sun umbrella that was positioned perfectly above our table, with a very light breeze blowing in from the sea. We remained sat with our sunglasses on, as we discreetly conduct our own usual ‘People Watching’, ‘Fashion Police’ and ‘Body Beautiful’ activities and we had a wide choice of subject’s, the dog walkers, joggers, cyclists and other people, just getting on with their daily lives, totally unaware that there movements were being closely monitored by our concealed prying eyes 😎 We both feel very relaxed at long last and are in no rush on this particular morning to leave these idyllic surroundings. We do this similar routine most mornings, although the Cafe’s we frequent alternate, due to them having differing closing days, but it gives us the opportunity to vary the different angles of our seafront views, and of course different ‘People Watching’ opportunities.

On one particular morning we also had a purpose, well several actually. First we had to go to the Post Office located in the upper much busier part of the town, to post a letter back to the UK, then we needed to stop at a small local card shop, as Shazza had a couple of relatives Birthdays on the horizon and this particular shop sold ‘English’ one’s, then a walk to the opposite end of town and up a slight hill, to our Solicitor’s small local office, (Yes, the Spanish Tax Administrative Bureaucracy continues 🙄) then, finally, we only had the weekly shopping left to do, in the large air-conditioned ‘Mercadonna’ supermarket in the town, before returning home for lunch, and then another afternoon in, and by, the pool, all part of our revised exercise regime 🚶‍♂️🏊‍♂️ 🏋️ To finish off, at some point later in the day, I would have a mini-session using my resistance bands, just to stretch some more of those middle body and side muscles, to give them some added strength to support my belly fat, which itself was providing a lot of its own resistance in decreasing, or at least not at the rate I would have liked it to 😂

Speaking of exercise, it seems a little humorous to us for our particular walking method, technique, call it what you will, has not been one that we had studied, we just adopted it naturally, via the ‘common sense’ principle. We know that if you up the intensity of ‘any’ physical activity that it has many health benefits, cardiovascular, muscle strengthening, joint mobility, fat burning etc. etc and we have been doing this for many years, even during our former nomadic lives. We generally start off at a normal walking pace, chitter chattering as we do, then at a certain point we agree to up the pace, when any conversation then ceases to exist between us, then, after 10-15 minutes or so, we will slow down again for another short period before upping the pace once again. Our normal daily walking sessions are generally for a period of around two hours a day, with a stop in-between, for rehydration, and all told we usually cover between 4-6 miles dependent on our selected route, enthusiasm and personal motivation, on some days it is just at a complete strolling pace, otherwise the enjoyment of our walks start to diminish. So we both found it quite humorous to read an article recently, in the main stream media, announcing a similar technique to what we regularly adopt but they described it as being a ‘New Exercise Trend’ 🤷‍♂️ But of course, for those who hate any form of exercise, but do just want to lose weight, I suppose these days we could all just inject ourselves with this miracle product that has hit the streets, ‘Ozempic’ 🤔

After a light lunch we went to the pool, with its bright sapphire blue tiles, the sun sparkling off the top of the clear water, the white tiled surrounds, the lush green manicured lawn, nine tall palm trees divided into groups of three, all surrounded by the bright and clean white-washed small groups of four-storey apartment blocks, overlooked by the afternoon’s cloud free azure blue sky, this always makes it feel as if we are on a permanent holiday here. I have mentioned it several times previously in these rambles but, we both do quite regularly agree that we consider ourselves extremely fortunate to be now living this life, we very often discuss all the different paths that we have taken, over the last twenty-year’s or so that we have been together, for neither Shazza or myself were youngster’s when we first met, but we have no regrets over anything that we have done up to reaching this point in our lives, for each of those different paths provided us with new adventures, new experiences and, a whole host of lasting memories. Back in those earlier year’s we always seemed to be searching for the ‘next adventure’ but we now no longer look towards ‘tomorrow’, we are both happy and content here, and very much enjoying ‘today’.

We both love this place, not just for the Cafe Culture, the wide choice of Bar’s and Restaraunt’s, the beaches, the views, the people watching, the Fiesta’s and the general overall relaxed pace of life, although it is a combination of all of those things that make this location the perfect place to which we now call our home, well for us at least, it probably wouldn’t be everybody’s cup of tea. Although nowhere is ever really perfect, there is one slight imperfection, that one murky grey cloud that hangs over us, that is of course the infamous ‘Spanish Bureaucracy’ but, even that, when we put it into some sort of perspective, is just part of the character of living here in Spain, we know it will never change, or go away, it is something that we just have to accept, no matter how illogical and often frustrating it can be, but what is the alternative ? Moving somewhere else, even back to the UK perhaps 😲🫣 but other Countries also have their idiosyncratic natures, which you generally only discover once you are there, so for us now it is very much a case of ‘Better The Devil You Know’.

‘And So It Begins’………… As we turned the page of the Calendar and wave goodbye to the Month of May, and welcome in the month of June, although the sun has still got his hat on, now it has turned up the thermometer by several notches and, along with those rapidly increasing daily temperatures, so too comes the increasing number of holidaymakers from all over Europe, and indeed many other parts of the world. With half term school holidays varying from region to region, and country to country, there are now an ever increasing number of chocolate, or ice-creamed faced, sun-creamed bodies of ‘Little Darlings’, all noisily excited to be splashing around in the swimming pools, or on the beaches and playing in the gentle waves of the now much warmer Mediterranean Sea. The ‘Lookie, Lookie’ trader’s are out in force too, there are the regular’s who remain all year round and then there are the additional seasonal one’s, who arrive from who knows where, all of them wanting to get their lion’s share of this sudden influx of tourist cash. Fortunately, for us, the headline above does not directly apply to us, well not according to AEMET, the Spanish State ‘Works of Fiction’ Agency, who do not list our particular area as one that will reach the 40+ degree figure, although, to be honest with you, it may very well be a close run thing, for whilst they are only forecasting a maximum of 35 degrees(c) for our particular area, they are, as you already know, more often that not, wrong, by ‘at least’ two or three degrees in their forecasts, so we may still very well see the mercury rise to that 40 degree mark, last year at this time it made it all the way up to 42 degrees(c), on this occasion though I do hope they get their forecast right 🥵

For those of you that do not know, the warmest parts of the day down in this part of Spain, Summer or Winter, is usually between 3pm and 6pm, but during these Summer months that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be prepared for the effects of the heat before those times as, by midday, it can get up to 28-30 degrees(c) and that light offshore breeze can be very deceptive.

However, and irrespective of the tourist hoards, it is always a nice holiday atmosphere here, not once in ten years of either visiting, or the two year’s that we have now lived here, have we witnessed brawls of any description, alcohol influenced or otherwise, it just doesn’t seem to happen, thank goodness, for this is a seaside resort for everyone, there are a full age range of holidaymakers here, even though for the younger element there is a distinct lack of Nightclubs, Casinos or Amusement Arcades. although that cannot be said of some other popular tourist hot-spots in Spain.

Our small corner in Spain is primarily what you would consider a more old fashioned typical Seaside resort, where sun, miles of sandy beaches and the sparkling waters of the Med are the feature attractions, with other facilities like water parks, nightclubs, casinos, etc. etc. being found just a little further up along the coast road in Estepona, Marbella, Calahonda, Fuengirola, Benalmadena, Torremolinos and Malaga. For those ‘British’ holidaymakers, who still want a flavour of the UK, Gibraltar is just a thirty-minute drive in the opposite direction, and although Shazza and I very rarely go there these days, if you have never been, it is well worth a day trip to see the sight’s, and of course to do a bit of ‘Tax-Free Shopping’, but be careful of what you purchase, ‘food wise’, from the ‘Morrisons’, or other food markets, as their are still restrictions on what you can bring back across the Frontier Border and, because of the long ongoing territorial dispute between the UK, Gibraltarians and Spain, the Spanish Border Guards are very keen with their searches, so be aware or you may end up not just losing out on the goods you have purchased, the money you spent purchasing them but also, potentially, a fine. Yes ‘Brexshit’, the gift provided by the British, to themselves, continues to keep giving 🤭

However, come mid-September, once the families have departed, with their sun kissed lobster skinned ‘Little Darlings’, and with the cheaper flight’s and ferry crossings coming back into play, it is the turn of the ‘Purple Rinse Brigade’ who, although they may arrive in much lesser numbers than those in the Summer, these groups of people often remain for much longer periods than just two or three weeks, in fact they often arrive and book into long term ‘rental’ properties and stay up to, and often beyond, Christmas and New Year and why not, after all, the Winter climate here is far better for those suffering with ageing arthritic bones than in some more Northern areas of Europe.

Initially, Shazza and I disliked the summer crowds here, a remnant of the Covid periods perhaps 🤷‍♂️ but to be honest, neither of us have ever really liked bustling cities, which had nothing to do with a fear of catching a whole host of diseases, infections or from becoming victims of crime, pick pockets, muggers, scammers etc, no, we just do not feel comfortable battling our way through large numbers of people, whether that be on a pavement, driving on roads or travelling on Public transport. But we do know that we cannot wrap ourselves up in cotton wool and we do not want to stop travelling, sightseeing and doing things, and so, their are times when we do have to compromise and put ourselves into environments that are often outside of our personal comfort zones 🤷‍♂️ However, that said, we have now become ‘accustomed’ to the Summer crowds, and the risks that they ‘may’ bring, we are also becoming accustomed to the intense heat of the Spanish Summers, and implement our own strategy in which to enjoy them. We now get our slightly more sun tanned glows more gradually throughout the year, we do not race to get them, like we used to do on our short two week package holidays, and we certainly have no need to show them off to anyone in order to justify the expense undertaken in getting them. If the truth be known, even with a sun tan here in Spain, in comparison to the more native population, we probably still look pretty much pale skinned anyway, so suffering heat-stroke and painful sunburn would be pointless anyway 😂

Now I made a brief mention of that ‘Covid’ word, although, for many, the impact of that Global Pandemic, back in 2020, has probably long since been forgotten, albeit that in truth it has remained with us ever since that time, lurking in the background but not anywhere near as devastating, or fatal. However, one day very recently, in four quite separate media articles, I came across news reports that a new strain has been reported in several countries 😲

Now hold on just a minute whilst I once again put my cynical head on. If you have kept an interest on this subject, as we do, not that we are paranoid or anything 🤭 but you will also have read, over the last year or so, that, in many countries globally, including here in Spain, they are constantly reporting that the number of people taking up the Annual Covid Booster vaccinations has fallen dramatically. So yes, this could of course be one obvious reason for that rise in infections but, think about it, this lack of vaccination take up must be really bad news for the ‘Big Pharma’ companies too, who must be watching in horror as their profit margins tumble significantly. So here is my own personal conspiracy theory, ‘Big Pharma’ fund a lot of the world’s Governments, through lobbying of Politicians, funding Research projects and offering financial incentives to different health agencies to purchase and prescribe their products, so, would it be beyond the realms of reality to consider that they may perhaps be resorting to inciting scaremongering tactics within the media for, in all reality, who would be the biggest financial beneficiary if the world suddenly needed to stockpile ‘Vaccinations’ again 🤔But only time will tell I suppose, as if you recall, Government’s around the world failed to take action prior to the first pandemic, believing it to be just a bad strain of Influenza, so although the warning signs were there they ignored it and look how that turned out, so the question in our minds is, is this fake news or a reality 🤔 Funny don’t you think that you rarely, if ever, hear ‘Big Pharma’ promoting healthy eating or exercise, or just getting out in the fresh air on a regular basis, the simple things that actually naturally improve and strengthen your bodies health and immune system and not suppress them, like many medications do 🤷‍♂️ However, let’s face it, having a larger population of much ‘healthier people’ is not really in their financial interest is it 🤔 Anyway, enough of that, I need to get off my soapbox and get back to the less controversial subjects within our daily lives 🤭

We both knew that our ‘personal’ weight loss missions were going to be a bit of a slog, but we also knew that we had to pay the price for those five weeks of over-indulgences. I found myself asking, ‘how can such a relatively short period of personal pleasure finish with so much ‘purgatory’ (‘A state of purification from remaining sins and imperfections’), well okay, perhaps not ‘purgatory’, but only because I haven’t got the time for all of that purification for ‘all’ of my remaining sins 😂 It wasn’t just the getting back to eating our primarily ‘Plant Based’ diets, for the truth is that we had, whenever and wherever possible, continued with them as much as we could whilst we were away, and also whilst our guests were with us, but with all the ‘socialising’, eating and drinking out, well that is what really has taken it’s toll, or was that just my lack of self-discipline again 🙄 But now we are back on the straight and narrow as it were, and with that comes the frequent visits back and forth to the fruiterias, although I guess that those trips should really be included under the fitness regime 🤭 But it wasn’t just the dietary regime, but also a ‘temporary’ halt to my own very important personal health regime, that being the frequent self-administering of my Anti-Covid Vaccines 🍷, I use the word ‘frequent’ as opposed to ‘daily’ as I don’t want you to think that I am an alcoholic or anything, and let me set the record straight, I just attend those weekly AA meetings as a form of social interaction and integration into the Spanish community 😳 My biggest fear though is that without this ‘frequent’ medication, the ‘Dark Forces’ would I am sure be waiting to pounce if I were to let my guard down on this ever present health risk, but it was a risk that I now had to take for I had a choice to make, not taking my anti-covid medications and suffering a potential early death from contracting this new strain of Covid, or continuing to eat and drink as I had enjoyed doing and suffering a potential early demise from Obesity 🤷‍♂️ Now let me once again be totally honest with you, my personal choice would have been the more pleasurable one, death from alcohol and food induced Obesity and from imbibing too many Anti-Covid Vaccines, rather than risk contracting Covid 🤭 However, Shazza said that death from Obesity would entail her having to purchase an extra large bin bag, to put my body into when the time came, but there was no way that she was prepared to take unnecessary funds out of what would have been her inheritance pot, so there it is, the decision, once again, taken out of my own hands 😢

By the end of the first seven days with no eating Lunches, or Dinners, outwith our own humble canteen facilities, or the consumption of any form of alcohol passing our lips, we had both seen an improvement, although, as yet, not visually to the naked eye, as my shirts and shorts still bear the stretch marks when I put them on 😳, however, on the digital readout on the bathroom scales, they were a little more forgiving, well they had at least stopped screaming at me to ‘Get Off !!’ 🤭 It would of course be ungentlemanly of me to reveal any details of my beloved but, for me at least, well I had managed a loss of 1.2kg, she for some reason had managed to lose a little more 🤔 but irrespective of that, if I could withstand this torture discipline for a further seven days, with a similar weight loss, then personally I would be exceptionally happy and, be more than happy to suggest to my beloved that we reward ourselves with a table reservation for Dinner, at one of our favourite local Italian Restaurants with perhaps a glass (or perhaps two) of Anti-Covid Vaccine 🍷🍷 What harm could that possibly do 🤷‍♂️

Of course, hand in hand with any weight loss regime there has to be some form of exercise, and as you already are aware, in our particular case that means walking, which as I stated earlier, in this growing ‘War and Peace’ ramble, is generally between 4-6 miles per day and, over that first week we had walked every single morning, no day off at some point in the week, as we would usually do. Sometimes we do our seafront promenade walk and, occasionally, by way of having a change of scenery, we do the ‘Environmental’ walk. But we no longer stop and drink our more usual morning ‘Cafe con Leche’s’ but instead, ‘Zumo Naranja and Agua con gas’ (Freshly squeezed Orange Juice and Carbonated Water) and definitely no Tostado’s or Churro’s 😢 Unless of course…………. 🤔 I could somehow convince Shazza to go to the fruiteria without me, whilst I waited at the Cafe for her to return 😋 Yup, you are right, that didn’t happen either ☹️

However, with the morning temperatures now up to 20-22 degrees(c), with full searingly hot sunshine, and mid-afternoon temperatures hitting 30+ degrees(c) 🥵 the alternative fitness regime is now the morning walks with the addition of post-lunchtime sessions in the swimming pool 😳 Half an hour in the pool, swimming as many lengths as we could, then half an hour rest with a spot of solar basting, it would of course be rude not to, and we repeated that 3 times in those sessions, with a final one hour session of just solar basting and reading (Shazza) and, perhaps the odd moments of personal contemplation, in the shade under the Sun Umbrella thrown in for good measure (Me), well it is damn hard work all this exercise I will have you know, but my beloved tells me that it is making a noticeable difference and that I don’t look a day under 70 years old 🤗 Hang on just a minute, I am only 68 year’s old the cheeky so and so 🤔

The Summer festivities are also beginning to take place, here in our little neck of the woods and although the much larger events, such as the ‘San Juan’ and ‘Lunar’ Fiesta’s don’t happen until around July and August, with a few impromptu one’s thrown in just for good measure in between times, we have just had the annual ‘International Day’ Festival, but a bit more about that below…………..

This annual event attracts both ‘Residents‘ (Spanish and Foreign) as well as ‘Tourists’, but not one ‘anti-tourist’ poster or demonstration did we see, everyone just enjoying themselves, young and old alike, with performers doing traditional dancing, stalls of all descriptions native to the Countries being represented, associated food and in the evening came the music from a couple of ‘live’ bands, which went on until the early hours of the morning, not that Shazza and I remained until such an ungodly hour, we had seen it all before anyway.

Coincidentally, just prior to this ‘Annual International Day’ event, just a couple of days earlier, it was interesting to read an article on just how many ‘foreigners’ live in Spain as a whole, and also within our own small Province of Malaga, this being actual ‘Legal Residents’ not ‘Refugees or Tourist numbers’.

It would be interesting if they were to do to a similar comparison for Annual ‘Foreign’ visitors (Tourists), and whether the recent media reports over ‘Anti-Tourism’ has in fact had any detrimental impact on the Spanish Economy 🤔 Although, from what we are witnessing in our area, there does not appear to be any impact on the numbers of tourists coming here, so quite obviously, there are lots of intelligent people who do not believe everything that is written in the media.

Now, although we sold our Motorhome in 2023, bringing an end to those type of adventures for us, even so, after 25+ years of owning and travelling in Motorhomes, we still take an active interest on observing them when we pass them whilst driving around, or looking at those that are parked up, looking at the registration plates to get a feel for the number of different Nationalities who are still enjoying this lifestyle. Now of course this is only a small sort of individual survey but, something that we have noticed just recently is, that by far the largest proportion of Motor-homers (Including Camper Vans of all shapes and sizes) are Spanish, whereas in earlier year’s they were in the minority There are of course the usual ‘foreign’ registered one’s, mainly French, German, Dutch and UK, but not in such huge numbers as previous year’s. When we went out for our ‘Environmental’ walk recently we observed a total of seventeen ‘Vans’ parked up together, on a makeshift beach parking area, mainly German and French and, whilst there were two quite prominent ‘official’ signs prohibiting both ‘Vans’ and ‘Caravans’ from parking there, these signs were ignored by them, so it never surprises us when see articles like the one below in the local media.

Away from the more Coastal Areas lots of Motor-Homers prefer to stay a little more discreet and Wildcamp in less popular areas, we did this ourselves many times on our travels and, personally speaking, if you obey the rules about what is considered to be ‘Camping’ then what harm are you doing 🤷‍♂️ But both the Spanish and the Portuguese are now increasing the areas where such activities are not permitted, mainly National Parks. However, when you consider that both Countries have expansive areas of National Parks, Protected Coastal Areas and Environmentally Protected Areas, the opportunities for Wild-camping are decreasing substantially year on year. So once again, and on reading the next media article, at around the same time as I read about the ‘Evictions’ in Tarifa, I believed that it sort of sent out a subliminal message to Wild-campers.

The question I ask myself, both now being a resident of Spain, and someone who still enjoys being able to visit these Natural Parks and Environments, even if now it is only for a day, but also as a former Motor-Homer, who also spent time in such Environments, wild-camping in a responsible manner, is whether these moves are primarily concerned with the protection and maintenance of these areas (Fire Risks, Litter, Water Contamination of Streams, Rivers, Lakes, Protection of Animals and Insects, flora and fauna), or is it for more Economical reasons, by driving the large number of Motor-Homes on to ‘Official’ Campsites and ‘Aires’ 🤷‍♂️ Just visit the Eastern and Western Coastlines of Southern Spain and see how many car parks, small and large, or the vast areas of wasteland, that are occupied by literally hundreds of ‘Motorhomes’ and imagine how much income the Spanish would generate if current ‘free-campers’ had to pay for the privilege of doing so 🤷‍♂️ So I can certainly see both sides of the argument and, for what it is worth, my personal opinion is, that as long as ‘All’ Motorhomes obey the ‘Camping’ and ‘Environmental’ rules, and don’t congregate in such huge numbers, then what harm are they doing. But unfortunately, as we witnessed numerous times during our own travels, and now as we pass some of these ‘Illegal’ parking areas, it only takes the minority to spoil the ‘Status Quo’ for the majority. If you were a resident having to look out from your windows over dozens of Motorhome rooftops, an ‘Unofficial’ Campsite if you will, then perhaps I can see their point too 🙄 But, when you get a gun carrying Law Enforcement Officer knocking on your van door at ‘stupid O’clock’ in the night or morning, telling you to ‘move on’, then best not to argue as what may start off as an inconvenience could, if the situation were to escalate, result in a hefty fine, or worse, the confiscation of your home and transportation 😉

Although for you, my readers, it may only have been a week or so since I last published my previous ramble, as I publish this latest one, it has actually been four weeks since we returned from our extended trip, where does the time go 🤷‍♂️ It has been two full weeks where we have not eaten out once, breakfast’s, lunches or Dinners and not one sip of alcohol has passed our lips, but by ‘mutual’ agreement we booked a table at a local Portuguese restaurant for the Saturday evening, we both felt that we deserved it 🤗 We have one more week to go before the ‘Bathroom Contractor’s’ arrive, they have given us a timeline of ten ‘working days’ to complete the work, although they hope to have it completed in around seven days but to be honest, it will take as long as it takes and, as long as they make as good a job of it as they did our new kitchen we will be happy, as it is the same firm doing the work 🤷‍♂️

Whilst we may continue to enjoy the heat of the new Summer season, for others, the continuing impact of global warming has brought about yet more devastation, I of course am talking about the village in Switzerland that has recently been evacuated, and will probably never be able to be inhabited again, due to the disintegration of part of a large Glacier that crashed on to it, just one of many continued alerts to what is happening to our delicately balanced planet. Large areas of the once beautifully coloured coral that surround our shores continues to suffer from bleaching, with it the loss of aquatic species that once thrived on it. We must enjoy our environments whilst we can, for one day soon we will wake up, and they will have disappeared forever, for whilst we fail to heed all of the warnings that Nature is alerting us to, we are also failing to take sufficient actions to slow this erosion, or prevent it, so let us just be grateful for what we do have today, things that our grandchildren may not be be so lucky to be able to enjoy tomorrow 😢

Until my next ramble………….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena