Simple, Practical And Extremely Efficient

I cannot use the excuse that it had crept up on us and had taken us by surprise, I mean the one thing about the Summer weather here in Southern Spain is that it is as regular as clockwork. There is no doubting whatsoever that on most days of the Summer, the sun will shine from dawn to dusk, although sometimes the much warmer season can start as early as April and go on right through until early October, with little, or no respite in between, so it isn’t as if any of this is a new experience for us. However, no matter how much we long for its arrival, after the slightly cooler Winter months, why are we never quite ready for it, I honestly cannot offer any logical explanation 🤷‍♂️ Now I don’t specifically mean my comment to refer specifically to the ‘Summer’, but more to the excessive heat that it brings with it, and if we think that it is hot right now, in the middle of June, god help us when we come to July and August 😲 We have of course already implemented our ‘Summer Strategy’ and that works fine, or should I perhaps say that it does up to a point, but there are still times when no matter how much we may want to stay in the shade, we just can’t, as we do have to venture out into the burning furnace of the day, either to do the shopping or perhaps other domestic necessities, but the excessive heat rapidly diminishes our energy levels and so with that comes the distinct lack of any real motivation to actually want to venture outside or do anything 🤷‍♂️ I can certainly understand people who come here for the almost annual sunshine, but then they quickly realise that there is sun and then there is the associated Spanish heat which go hand in hand with each other, and so they soon long to be somewhere a lot cooler. However, for now, Shazza and I are managing to cope with it and so we will continue maintaining the British tradition of moaning, well at least Shazza will, about it either being too cold in the Winter months, when actually, come on my love, it really isn’t, or too hot during the Summer months, when actually, yes I do tend to agree with her, because it really is 🥵

So it did come as a very pleasant surprise when we awoke recently to discover that instead of the more usual bright sunshine, we were greeted with thick cloud and an overcast sky, not black rain threatening clouds, just a sheet of white, enough to prevent the sun’s searingly hot rays from piercing through them, and with it came a very welcome light Easterly breeze blowing in from across the sea, so thank you weather gods for hearing our prayers 🙏 It was 24 degrees(c) at 08:30am and, although the sunshine was absent, the humidity level was high at a little over 73% meaning that there was a sticky clamminess in the air, but it made our morning walk a little more bearable. The usual views were also missing as the ever present heat haze completely shrouded the coastal view across the bay to Estepona, the mountain peaks were concealed in low cloud and the more usual multi-coloured sea was now more of a light grey than the usual green and blue’s, instead of the mill pond like conditions out on the sea, the light wind was producing what nautical folk would call ‘light swells’, rather than actual waves, but they were providing a little more audible noise than usual as they broke onto the sandy shoreline. Apart from the odd dog walker the beachfront was virtually an empty canvas, no multi-coloured sun umbrellas or sun worshippers, no boating activities and the sea haze had totally obliterated any chance of seeing any large vessels chugging away on the horizon. The line of Cafe/Bars along the promenade were still busy enough though, the tourists still wanting their usual breakfast’s, ‘Eggo and Bacono’ or the French their ‘Croissant’s with Preserve’ or the Dutch and Germans with their ‘Bread Rolls with Cheese and Cured Meats’, some of the Spanish locals too, but that was more the traditional ‘Tostados or Churros’, but no problem, they provide it all here, unlike in Greece apparently, where a British Pensioner made the National News recently complaining about not being able to get ‘English Food’ at her Greek Package Holiday Hotel. I mean come on Greece, what are you playing at, at least our British Hotels and B&B Establishments serve ‘Tostado con Mermelede’, although in the UK we refer to it as Toast and Jam, I have also seen on some British buffet breakfast bars, Orange Juice, Bread with Philadelphia Cheese or a nice bit of Cheddar, Boiled Eggs and some lovely slices of supermarket boiled ham, so if we British can make the effort to provide International breakfast cuisine then surely the Greeks can go the extra mile 😂

We used this welcome glitch in the weather as an opportunity to extend our more usual morning walk, by sauntering along the promenade towards the Northern periphery of our municipality, where we stopped at the bridge that marked the end of our boundary, we were rewarded for our efforts by being able to stand in the centre of the bridge and look down onto the river and watching the turtles, who themselves had taken the opportunity to get out of their thick sun shaded reeds to enjoy a morning swim with their offspring, the ducks taking a detour out of their way if they saw them approaching, apparently these turtles can be aggressive little buggers if they feel threatened 😲 We stood and watched them for quite some time, it was a peaceful spot here in the centre of the long wooden bridge, on one side of us the river emptied into the sea and, on the other, up river, the direction from where the river source flowed from, were the mountains, in between was just pure nature, the ducks, turtles and even colourful damsel flies flitting from reed to reed, “If only I had brought my new pocket camera out with me”, I casually said to Shazza, “That really would have ruined the peace and quiet with your constant ‘Click, Click’” she said. Not quite a ‘David Attenborough’ is my Shazza, I thought to myself 🙄

This wasn’t a day for walking at our usual exercise pace, our tee-shirts already bearing the unsightly darker patches created by the sticky humidity, we could feel the beads of moisture trickling down our backs and so it was nice to feel the breeze as we sauntered back towards the seafront, it was one of those days when we didn’t have to visit the fruiterias up in the main part of the town, so we stopped for another drink in our usual small Plaza, before heading back towards the marina and then on to the village seafront car park, where we could put on the air-con in the car whilst we took the short five minute journey back home, simply opening the windows to cool us down would not have worked, it would have been more like the effect you get when turning on a hairdryer up to full blast 🥵

The large tiled marble floors of our apartment is one big advantage during these Summer months, with the sun, when it is shining, being much higher in the sky, so it does not shine directly into the apartment, so it remains relatively cool compared to the outside world and with all the doors and windows open, the through breeze feels so very very nice, we haven’t, as yet, had to revert to the closing of the outer blinds to keep the heat of the day out, that will come soon enough though when it will be back to living in a dark cave again. We remained inside for the rest of the day just idling away our time, Shazza pottering as is her want, preparing whatever delicacy she would be serving up for our Dinner that evening, then reading or doing something or other on her iPad. As for me, well I can spend hours just sat on the balcony with my mind wandering from one thing to another, occasionally interjected by my beloved informing me of some news article that she had been reading, I try to sound interested and would occasionally engage in a short discussion on whatever the subject matter happened to be, before returning to my own much more interesting world of day dreams. As a form of escapism, and with constantly enjoying the sea views from my balcony seat, I would watch various boating related channels on ‘You Tube’, imagining that it was us on those yachting adventures, but in the knowledge that that was one dream that would never ever become a reality, but that was the advantage of dreaming, I never had to actually face the potential danger’s of risking life and limb on stormy seas, only the enjoyment of the adventures that these people were having as they explored hidden coves and bays around the worlds oceans.

We enjoyed a second consecutive day of similar overcast sunless sky and high humidity, so it was a simple case of ‘rinse and repeat’ of our previous day’s less than energetic activities, ‘Groundhog Day’ perhaps, but another very pleasant one. On one of the days we did both speculate on the possibility that, had we not have sold our house in the UK all those years ago and not commenced our nomadic adventures, on Summer days we would more than likely have had our garden to potter about in and, had we have taken the same ‘Plant Based’ dietary route as we had done five or so years ago, we would have had plenty to keep us busy at this time of year, as instead of Patio Decking, lush green well mown lawn and a few flower beds, we would certainly have invested in at least a couple of greenhouses and several raised growing beds to fulfil our self-sufficiency lifestyle which, as somewhat of a bonus, would not have entailed the frequent trips to the fruiterias, as we do now, Hmmmm ! 🙄 However, had we have done so, we both agreed that we would have missed out on so many of the experiences and adventures that we had encountered over the last twelve-years, the ‘Grass is always greener on the other side’ as the saying goes, but it doesn’t stop you from sometimes wondering about the ‘What If’s’ occasionally does it 🤔

The following morning we discovered that normal service had been resumed, the sun was back, high in the sky, so whilst the humidity had decreased, the temperature had gone the other way and risen dramatically again 🥵 Before the afternoon temperatures reached the 35+ mark, we elected for a change to our more usual daily scenic walking routine and, as we had not visited ‘Estepona’ for quite a few weeks now, that would be our destination for this particular morning’s walk. Parking in their marina car park and then walking along their much longer promenade into the larger seaside resort town entailed a much longer walk than our usual one, and with little shade all the way from the marina and along the seafront, once we did reach the outskirts of the town, we elected to walk along the more shaded back streets where there was a mixture of two-storey typically Spanish style houses, the outsides decorated with masses of brightly coloured flowers in floor and wall plant pots, then there were the row on row of eight-storey high anonymous looking apartment blocks, with their small barely there balconies, the ground levels generally occupied by various small retail outlets making these suburban areas little local street communities within a much wider and larger town community.

When in Estepona we usually frequent a Cafe/Bar right on the seafront promenade, mainly because it has lovely expansive views out to sea and of the bay, which looks back across to our own smaller town but also, because of how Estepona is positioned, we can also see both the outcrop of rock, known as ‘Gibraltar’ and then, just beyond that, the mountains on the coastline of Morocco, so with that and the people watching opportunities it is usually our first stop. However, on this occasion, we were on the what ‘we’ still call the newer pedestrianised part of the promenade, although in truth it is no longer new, but by doing so we quite fortunately fell upon what Shazza refers to as an ‘Old Man’s’ cafe/bar, a small hostelry run by, well yes actually, two elderly gentlemen and very friendly they were too. Whilst Shazza took a seat outside under the shade of an Umbrella I went inside to order our ‘Zumo de Naranja y Agua con Gas’. An elderly gentlemen was sat at a small table just inside the doorway, his small dog asleep at his feet, “Buenos” he said as I walked past him, “Buenos Dias” I responded as I stepped over his dog. I noticed that the narrow building ran along to a door at the opposite end, which led out onto another adjacent street, there were a couple of other customer’s inside and of course, as I approached the small counter of the bar area they all said ‘Buenos’ without even looking at me, once again I acknowledged their greeting, this, as I have probably said many times before in these rambles, is pretty much common place in small hostelries such as this, although not that common in the more touristy establishments, until you perhaps become accepted as a regular customer. I ordered our drinks and was told that they would bring them out to us.

From our table we could not see the ‘older’ part of the promenade so had no sea view, but we did have a very pleasant outlook on the most wonderful array of coloured flowers that stretched both left and right of us along this newer pedestrianised area. Although the long promenade, both the ‘old’ bit and the ‘newer’ bit are actually all one, the flower borders do create a sort of segregation and although I am sure that it isn’t actually a reality, it appeared as if the ‘Tourists’ were on the seafront side and the ‘Spanish’ on this ‘newer’ side. The only reason for me saying that is that all the people passing by our table, well at least whilst we were, were all speaking in Spanish, not any other languages, English, German, Dutch etc. and all appeared to be of a more senior age group, we laughed as we both said how so ‘At Home’ we both felt here 🤭 From the angle of the photo above, it may look as though we were alone, however, this was not the case as just to the side of us were lots of other occupied tables and chairs, which we ascertained from our usual ‘People Listening’ observations, were all Spanish, although they may have been domestic tourists, as this is a popular holiday location for the Spanish too. Additionally, looking at the photograph, you will see what looks like two large inverted funnel style structures, well these are exactly what they look like, for apart from providing some shade from the sunshine, with bench seats below them, they actually gather rain water which is stored in underground storage tanks and this is used to irrigate the flower beds, ‘Simple, Practical And Extremely Efficient’, which actually are similar words that I have heard Shazza say to her mum on occasions when referring to myself 🤔

We could have remained exactly where we were for a lot longer and believe me we were sorely tempted, but even just sat there for the half an hour or so that we had, we could feel the rapidly increasing temperature and knew that it was quite a long and unshaded walk back to where we had parked the car. We decided to remain in the shade of the back streets, we had no shopping to do, no fruiterias to visit and neither of us are interested in just wandering around shops and, being pretty much as familiar with Estepona, as much as we are with our own town, there was nothing of any particular interest for us, so we headed back to wards the Marina. It was lunchtime by the time we reached the Marina and we both knew the perfect little Cafe/Bar to get a spot of lunch, away from the main enclave and with a view over the working part of the Commercial Port and the boat yard, where luxury yachts had been hoisted out of the water for whatever maintenance they required and we also had a partial view of the row on row of sailing yacht masts moored in the large Marina complex.

Shazza settled for her usual bottle of ‘Agua con Gas’ but I went for a small cervesa (Beer), it would have been rude not to 🤭 But we stuck, albeit a bit loosely, to our current healthy eating regime and we had a favourite here, their ‘Nordic Sandwich’, just smoked salmon, and plenty of it, in a nice honey and mustard dressing, with lettuce, tomato and cucumber and a few fried thinly sliced potatoes, which look a lot like ‘Quavers’ (the cheesy snacks) and the same size and shape, but not cheesy of course, these came as standard with the sandwich, so perhaps with the beer and fried potatoes, maybe not as healthy a lunch as it could have been 😂

When we arrived back at the car, not being parked in any shade, it was like a furnace inside so we opened the doors and stood outside for a few minutes, just to let some of the heat dissipate a little, it would take several minutes of the engine running before we got the lovely chill of the air-con. It was around 2:30pm when we got home, the BBC ‘Works of Fiction’ had reflected the temperature to be 30 degrees(c) at this point in the day, our own more accurate thermometer reflected that it was already 34 degrees(c) and this still wasn’t the hottest part of the day 😲 There was nothing for it, after a nice hot mug of ‘brick builders’ tea, although green herbal tea for Shazza, we got changed and spent a couple of hours of the afternoon down at the pool, with several swimming sessions and a few periods of personal contemplation 😴 well, after so much exercise in one day who could blame me but, overall, it had turned out to be quite a pleasant and fairly relaxing day.

Also quite recently there was another one of Natures spectacles to observe, something called a ‘Strawberry Moon’ which, according to Shazza, we would be able to see on the evening of 11th June at around 9:45pm, if we went down to the seafront promenade. Initially we said that we would go and take a look but when the moment came we just couldn’t be bothered, lethargy had struck again 🤭 “What is the point ?” I proffered to her, “We would be able to see the full moon from the balcony windows anyway, so why bother going out and, if we did it would only tempt me into perhaps partaking of a strawberry coloured Anti-Covid Vaccine 🍷 to celebrate witnessing the event 🤷‍♂️”, I said to her, “There would be no perhaps about it and, I may be tempted to join you with a Strawberry flavoured Gin & Tonic” she replied, so we convinced ourselves that going out and looking at the moon may not have been the healthiest option, although we did both ‘howl’ with laughter. Did you see what I did there, howling and moon, okay never mind it was like a joke, just not funny 😂

Later that night I did look at the moon from my balcony window, however, it was more of the usual Cheddar Yellow colour rather than a Strawberry Red, so where, or when, the above photo was taken, well your guess is as good as mine 🙄

Just a day or so later, in the late evening after we had enjoyed a nice refreshing Tuna and Sardine Salad, with one of Shazza’s latest new mixed bean and lime salsa dressing concoctions for dinner, yes I know you don’t have to say it, she really knows how to spoil me 🙄 Anyway, we were watching something or other on the TV when we saw the flashes of light in the night sky, it went on long after Shazza had retired to her bed so I sat on the balcony and watched this impromptu display for a good couple of hours. There was no thunder, no rain, just a spectacular continuous light display but, the following morning, the local media was full of reports of where, in other areas of our Province and throughout more Northern areas of Andalucia, their had been torrential rain and even some localised flooding 🤔 Even after all of the time we have owned our property here, it still seems a little strange that being wedged in between the Straight of Gibraltar, and the more popular Northern areas of the Costa del Sol coastline, we seem to have our own separate micro climate here 🤷‍♂️

However, whilst the lightening display is always nice to observe it is not exactly a unique event, we have seen equally spectacular events in numerous places, whilst on our many previous nomadic adventures, although, sitting in a plastic box on wheels close to trees was probably a little more exciting, but for all the wrong reasons 😳 I also noted that a few days after our event there was a similar, but much larger one, that paled our mediocre lighting display into insignificance.

The following morning we both felt quite lethargic again, although I had heard Shazza mention the previous evening, somewhat reluctantly I should say, that we perhaps needed to go out and do the ‘weekly’ shop, although the word ‘weekly’ should not be taken too literaly, as it must have been at least ten days since we had done our last ‘weekly’ shop 🤔 I did suggest that if there was little left in her food larder or freezer we could perhaps cobble something together like Baked Beans on Toast with a Fried Egg on top, then we could leave the shopping for another day, Shazza had an alternative suggestion, “I was thinking we could just go out and eat” she said with a laugh. Now often, without saying a word to each other, our minds are finely tuned machines, what you may consider as us being naturally ‘Telepathic’, as we often think exactly the same thoughts, but obviously, on this occasion that fine tuning was perhaps far from being perfectly synchronised 😂 In the end we bit the bullet and went shopping, at least the supermarket had an underground car park out of the heat of the sun. After lunch it was back down to the pool, well we had missed out on our walk that morning so we did need to do a bit of exercise and, as for dinner, well let’s just say it was neither Baked Beans on toast or eating out, Shazza had got her supply of Fruit and Vegetables so ‘Stir Fry and Tofu’ it was then 🙄 But on a positive note, at least when I do eventually pop my clogs I will have the satisfaction of knowing that I will probably be the healthiest corpse in the cemetery 🤭

There appears to be quite a lot going on, outside in the wider world, or so Shazza keeps insisting on telling me as she ploughs through each and every media article each morning. I rarely read the International Media these days, although I do still speed read some of the headlines but continue to skip all of the bad stuff, and the celebrity news, and the health alerts, like the New Covid, Typhoid, Measles, Western Nile Disease, Hep A, Diabetis etc. etc. perhaps a Nuclear War may actually be the global cleansing that we require and, we may actually be closer to that than we may think, what with what’s going on between Russia and the Ukraine, and Isreal and Iran, well according to my beloved that is, who has taken to stocking up on her tinned goods and dried Legumes. I on the other hand am more concerned on who is going to have to eat all of that stuff if Nuclear Devastation doesn’t happen 😲 Anyway, by me skipping the reading all of that doom and gloom media sort of stuff, well it doesn’t leave much of anything else to read really 🤷‍♂️ just the football news perhaps. So, to be perfectly honest with you, it doesn’t take me very long these mornings as, like the ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts, where I have adopted an alternative weather forecasting methodology (The ‘Forrest Gump’ approach), well I have now also adopted a similar alternative to all the doom and gloom in the world that is consistently being reported upon in the media each and every day………………

Now I know that some of you may be wondering how we are finding the time to actually go out at all, what with having our en-suite bathroom totally renovated and contractors in the apartment all day and, I am certain that you will all be interested to hear how pleased, or not, we are with our new bathroom renovation so far, as it should be nearly at the fully completed phase of the project. Unfortunately I am unable to provide you with that information just at the moment, as at the time of publication of this particular ramble they were nowhere near completing it by their scheduled date of 20th June 🤷‍♂️ But there was a good reason for that, the fact being that they hadn’t even arrived to start the renovation work on the 9th June as had been scheduled months ago 😲 The day after I published my last ramble I received a very apologetic Email from the owner of the firm, just one week before the scheduled start date, advising me that due to ‘Staffing Issues’, Illness and ‘Personal’ issues 🤷‍♂️ there would be a delay of three weeks and the project would now not commence until the 30th June 🙄 Other than us being obviously a little frustrated, I mean you tend to mentally prepare yourself for the disruption, and for having contractors in your home for days on end, but in reality it wasn’t really a major issue, for there was nothing wrong with the current en-suite bathroom, other than it being the original bathroom that had been installed over twenty-years ago, so it was more just a case of it being a little outdated, but it was actually still fully functional so we still had the use of it and, fortunately, we had no visitor’s due to arrive over the new project dates which could potentially have created a bit of an inconvenience. So we found ourselves with three weeks on our hands with no plans, we did momentarily consider taking a bit of a holiday getaway somewhere, but then we both agreed that our lives are already just one big permanent holiday, in a holiday location and, with Military Aircraft, Drones and Missiles occupying diminishing air space that is already filled with busy Commercial Air Traffic, we both agreed that it was probably safer just to stay at home for the time being. We could have gone on a road trip more locally within Spain, or even Portugal, but have I mentioned how searingly hot it is over here at the moment ?

In other news, you may remember that whilst we were back in the UK we took the opportunity on the 1st May to have four brand new tyres fitted to the car and, these particular brand were in a promotion where we would receive a discount of £100, which would be returned into our UK Bank Account within twenty-eight days. Well at the end of May, having not seen such a credit to our account I emailed the company, they responded immediately and confirmed my eligibility to receive this refund and stated that it would be credited to my bank the following week 🤷‍♂️ Now it isn’t a lot of money in the grand scheme of things but, remembering of course that we are now just poor ‘Pensioners’ 👴👵 one hundred smackeroonies is not something to be sniffed at, I mean that amount of money, in my world, is the equivalent of €120, which even more importantly is the equivalent of ‘at least’ forty bottles of my favourite Anti-Covid Vaccine 😲 which actually equates to around 160 glasses of this extremely important health medication, oh okay, perhaps 80 glasses as I always tend to over medicate, or as they say in McDonalds, ‘Go Large’ 😂 Anyway, you can wipe away those tears of concern for us, as the good news is that said Anti-Covid Medication funds did finally appear on the 6th June, although, with us both still continuing on our weight loss regimes it also meant remaining on the self-imposed limitations on the frequency of such medications, so with the current minimal weekly consumptions of just two glasses, that is not far off being a year’s supply, although, in truth I do not expect our current regimes to last anywhere near as long as that and ‘Normal Service’, to my own personalised Anti-Covid Vaccine health regime, should, hopefully, re-recommence in the not too distant future 🤭

So whilst I had not anticipated writing another ramble until after the renovation work was complete, I thought it best just to write a ‘brief’ ramble 🤭 to keep you up to date with what we have been up to over the last couple of weeks. I mean I didn’t want you to think that we had gone overboard on our weight loss regimes, to the extent where I had insufficient strength to tap the buttons on a keyboard 😂

So, until the next ramble……………….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida es Buena