Still Very Much A Work In Progress

Yes I know, it has been quite a while since I last published one of my rambles, well at least it seems that way for me, although, in reality, it has only actually been a month, or thereabouts, however, personally for me, a month really does seem a very very long time 🤔 Now my more regular reader’s will surely be aware, that for anything to have prevented me from writing my verbal diarrhoea and publishing it, on my usual much more frequent basis, there must surely have been a very good reason, or reasons, and of course, knowing me very well, as you do by now, you would be correct.

So let’s get this much over due ramble started and first things first, so let’s get the ‘Works of Fiction’ stuff out of the way shall we, it would seem rude and remiss of me not to do so. Yes, and somewhat not unsurprisingly, the month of July down in this little corner of the Costa del Sol brought the usual anticipated increase in the heat, with daytime averages now varying between 35-42 degrees(c), fluctuating to the higher end of that scale with the addition of the strong ‘Terrell Wind’, which isn’t an unusual occurrence in these parts and so, the introductory photo image at the start of this ramble sums up its effect very well, for yes, even in the shade everybody is still ‘melting’, metaphorically speaking that is 🥵🥵 Even the holiday makers in the communal pools in the areas around us, who would normally be quite happy to just sit around those pools for most of the day, we noticed were also retreating indoors from around midday, only venturing out again for an evening dip between 6pm-9pm, so there is the visual proof, if any were needed, that if those holiday sun worshippers were seeking protection from it, well it must really be hot 😂 Although, the exception to that rule appeared to be those that were down on the beaches, albeit we only saw them when we were forced, somewhat reluctantly, to venture out ourselves during the heat of the day, generally only to do essential shopping, which of course is when we also took the opportunity to stop at one or other of our regular seafront Cafe/Bars, it would have been rude not to and it also enabled us to get a break from what had started to feel like enforced confinement starting to reveal evidence in the both of us of it turning into cabin fever 🤪😜 We risked going out one evening for a walk, but also to have a dinner out, which has been somewhat of a rarity these days, we had anticipated that it would have at least been a little cooler down on the seafront and so much more bearable, but we had somehow misjudged that terribly, for even at 9pm, with the ‘Terrell’ wind still blowing, the temperature was 38 degrees(c), it was both hot and extremely humid and neither of us found it a very pleasant experience 🙄

Now, as you already know by now, because I have told you this very many times, we generally keep all of our doors and windows open, twenty-four hours a day during these hot Summer periods, although normally by this stage of the Summer we would have started to keep closed ‘some’ of the South facing external ‘slatted shutters’ throughout the day, although all the other doors and windows we would still keep open, in order to try and keep some sort of a cross breeze flowing through. However, ‘under normal circumstance’, when the inferno that is the ‘Terrell’ wind is blowing, we have no option but to close ‘all’ the doors and windows and turn on the air-conditioning, which would then make it very very comfortable inside. But, you will note the use of the words, ‘Under normal circumstances’, which brings me nicely on to the second part of this ramble update.

So again, as my regular reader’s will be aware, we have been in the process of having our master bedroom en-suite bathroom completely renovated, although the start date should have been on the 7th June, with an original schedule of ten working days for it to be completed, well, as you know, from a previous ramble, that original start date didn’t materialise 🙄 The contractors did eventually arrive to commence the work, on Tuesday 8th July, but I am now happy to report that, on the 28th day after commencement of the work, at 15:30 precisely, which I know because my OCD Buddy had told me and he keeps a detailed audit on such finite details 🤭 the last contractor (Sam) departed for the final time, bathroom project finally complete. Now if I were truly Spanish, it would be an excuse to hold yet another grand party celebration 🥳🥳 Now, and in an effort to be completely transparent with you, yes the start and finish dates are accurate, as I have quoted them, but, the Contractors were not here throughout that whole 28 day period, in fact, at one point they were not here for a consecutive five day period, and there were a few other odd days here and there when there were delays in obtaining stuff from their own ‘third party’ suppliers, all the usual sort of stuff associated to most projects, large and small, which delay progress so, calculating only the working days when the Contractors were physically ‘on site’, it only actually equated to them working 17 days but, in the days they were not here, we were of course still unable to use the new facilities for one reason or another, but I will not bore you with all the why’s and wherefores or our personal frustrations with being confined to barracks for what were extended periods in that time, which also included the first thirteen days when they worked two consecutive Saturday’s 🙄 But hey, suffice to say that it has now all been finished and, to the standard and quality that we had come to expect from them, as it was the same firm that did our kitchen project the previous year, so we would certainly recommend them to other’s in our area. We are both exceptionally pleased with it, as sometimes, what you visualise in your mind, or see on computer drawings, well let’s just say the finished product and your perceptions can sometimes be two quite different things, but no, all credit to them, the finished project is exactly as we visualised it. Although even that isn’t strictly true is it Eric ? There have been some ‘minor’ additions, one’s that we were neither expecting, or had even discussed at the initial planning stage, but these additions did not add to the initial cost quote and so, the estimate we were given right at the start remained the same and everything came in smack on budget.

However, removing all the old bathroom furniture, including the bath, a glass brick dividing wall, knocking another wall down, to accommodate the fitting of a new ‘Pocket’ style door, stripping all the old floor and walls of tiles, relocating plumbing pipe work, installing and repositioning of new electrical cabling and sockets, cutting new tiles to size (the new one’s are much larger than the normal sized bathroom tiles), rebuilding the wall to conceal the new door and then plastering it, well suffice to say, all of this created a lot of noise, and I mean a lot of noise and all the associated rubble and dust, which, no matter how hard we attempted to contain it, found itself encroaching into every other room, shelf, corner and crevice within the whole apartment and so not just confined to the one area in which the Contractors were working 🙄

So, in order to alleviate some of this dust, all the external shutters, doors and windows needed to be kept open, believe me when I tell you that it was very much cooler outside, in the shade, than it was in our apartment so perhaps, upon hindsight, we should have postponed this project until the cooler Winter months, however, had they have commenced the project on time, at the beginning of June, and finished on schedule, two weeks later, when the average daily temperature was much less at between 25-28 degrees(c), it would have been far better 😳 I should just say that our team, of mainly Spanish workmen, Robert, Jose, Brian, Marco and then Sam (our English Carpenter who came in at the end to fit our new cabinetry), all of whom we were familiar with, from our new kitchen project completed the previous year, were all superb, very careful and respectful of all our furniture, as they conveyed tools, equipment, and everything else, backwards and forwards through our living/dining room, from the front door into the inner hallway between the two bedrooms and bathrooms, but also, they were very friendly, sometimes, when there are language difficulties it can feel a little awkward. We actually found ourselves having much better conversations with them this time around, but this time it was primarily in our own much improved ‘Spanglish’, although a couple of them did occasionally attempt to use their rather limited ‘Pigeon English’, but they all seemed pleased and very appreciative of us speaking to them in their language, apart from Sam that is, who although he speaks fluent Spanish, he chose to automatically I guess, speak to us in English, but to be honest it did give our brains a bit of respite, as it is still difficult for us to first think about what we want to say, in English, and then in our heads, convert it into Spanish 🤷‍♂️ However, we were actually pleased to get the opportunity to practice some speaking in proper full Spanish sentences, rather than just using the odd Spanish words here and there, filling in, as we did in our earlier days, with arm movements and gestures 😂 although we do acknowledge that we do still have a very long way to go so it is ‘Still Very Much A Work In Progress’.

We had anticipated that they would re-decorate the new outer wall of the bathroom, the one that they had re-built after fitting the new concealed ‘Pocket’ door, but to be honest we hadn’t actually confirmed that, however, they did but, unexpectedly, they even redecorated one of the other bedroom walls for us, as they had marked it when they stood bricks, and bags of cement and plaster, against it. Now, had they have been able to get to the other two walls, I would have willingly given them a few Euros, to put in their back pockets, to complete the re-decoration of the whole room, however, we had our bed and other bedroom furniture stacked up against those two other walls so, unfortunately, we haven’t escaped the task of doing those ourselves at some point in the future ☹️

The additions to the new en-suite bathroom that I mentioned, were as I say only minor, but they were actually quite useful one’s. In our new walk-in shower, they had built a recessed alcove (as planned) where we can stand our shower gels and shampoo’s, instead of having to perch them on the edge of the bath as we used to have to do, well this has actually been fitted with a rather smart looking LED light border within it, of course sealed from any water ingress and thereby preventing any nasty shocks, and yes, I am way ahead of you here as I am sure you are already thinking of witty comments about other shocks you may see in the shower 🫣 Another addition, even improvement, albeit not requested, is the installation of a new ‘electric’ extractor fan, which they have put into the ceiling, there are no windows in either bathrooms in the apartment, and both just had a ventilation cover on one of the side walls, which to be completely honest are ineffective and worse than useless, so now, the ceiling lights, shower alcove lights and the extractor fan all operate in unison when you turn on the ‘main’ bathroom light switch. The other addition is above the new mirrored cabinetry, basically a ‘night light’, but this is operated on an independent switch, which is actually very useful especially when one, or other, of us needs to use the bathroom at night, rather than putting on the much brighter ceiling lights and having the noise of the extractor fan whirring away. Originally, we just had the one ‘standard’ two pin electrical socket in the bathroom, with no separate razor socket, and to be honest that socket was not ideally located as it was directly above the old style toilet cistern, with no convenient shelf above to put things on, so we had wires to charging units (Toothbrushes and Electric Razor) stretching across to the hand wash basin, and we also had to take it in turns when charging our devices 🤷‍♂️ So although this next addition was actually requested, all I had had asked for was a ‘double’ electrical socket, a standard one, and the other a USB port, however, what we have been provided with and, hidden discreetly now inside one of the new cabinets, is a double standard electrical socket but one of the them also has two USB connectors on it (a normal USB port and one to accommodate a USB ‘C’), with a shelf to stand our tooth brush (Standard two pin) and razor (USB) chargers on 👍 Possibly, in a future ramble, if anyone is actually really that interested in looking at photographs of a bathroom, and why would you 🤷‍♂️ I will include some photographs, which will just really highlight how different, and modern that it now looks to the original bathroom (and indeed the current guest bathroom). However, we have both now agreed that, other than perhaps some future changes to the wardrobe doors, in both bedrooms and, new internal doors throughout the apartment, this bathroom project ‘should’ be the last ‘major project’ that we will undertake on this our current home.

So, “What else has been going on ?” I hear you ask, a very good question because yes, unlike us, our part of the world has not just stood still, whilst Eric and Shazza have had their bathroom project completed 🤭 But before I do highlight some of those events, let me just say that because a lot has been happening here during the last few weeks, and with myself, quite unusually, not even starting to draft parts of this ramble in advance of publishing it, I may not necessarily get all of the events in the correct ‘chronological’ order that they occurred 🤷‍♂️ However, I am sure you won’t really care about that but, if you do, and you want particular dates of events, well that is just ‘one of the reasons’ for having a ‘Comments’ section 😉 Also, whilst I may give you a flavour of all the stuff that has been going on recently, do not take that as a given that we actually physically attended every single one of those events, because we didn’t.

Most villages and towns in Spain, although perhaps not every single one, have a ‘Saint’ associated to it, for example, in our own town we have ‘San Luis’, hence the official name of the town ‘San Luis de Sabinillas’, although it is always referred to as just ‘Sabinillas’, Saint’s Day for our particular town being celebrated each year on the 25th August, so we still have that to look forward to. However, just up the road, a little further inland, approximately only a five or ten minute car journey away, is our ‘official’ main town of our particular ‘Municipality’, and so, a bit like in the UK where Lincoln City, is the main town in the county of Lincolnshire, or Oxford Town in the county of Oxfordshire etc. so it is with our town of Manilva, (Although by English standards it is more the size of a village), and it is very much smaller than our town of Sabinillas, but ‘Manilva’ is the Administrative hub for the ‘Manilva Municipality’, and so it is where the official Town Hall and Mayor’s office is located. So, the town of Manilva of course have their own ‘Saint Ana’, although the town isn’t known, officially or otherwise, as ‘San Ana de Manilva’, and no, I don’t know why, it’s obviously a Spanish thing 🤷‍♂️ but she, the Saint, does of course have to be celebrated once a year, it would be very rude not to, and of course, if they didn’t, it would then mean missing out on another excuse to have a party 🤭 Now these events all start off as ‘Religious’ festivities with a Church Mass (Everybody is welcome irrespective of religious denomination), which is then followed by a marching band and parade through the streets, with the carriage of the particular large Saintly statue leading the way on the shoulders of twenty-three men, generally all of a similar height to each other, for obvious reasons, I mean it can be hard enough walking along some of these cobbled streets without having a heavy statue on your shoulder. The parade meanders through several streets before returning to the starting point, where the statue is then locked away until it is required again for other annual Religious celebrations, which Spain has many of throughout the year. Many onlookers line the streets, locals and tourists alike who cheer or clap as the parade passes by. Once the religious event has concluded the rest of the day, and night, is spent doing what the Spanish always do very well, and that is ‘Party Time’ 🥳🥳

So, whilst I am on the theme of ‘Saintly’ and ‘Religious’ events, in numerous Spanish coastal communities, the most prominent festivity of the year is the maritime procession, where the statue of the ‘Virgen del Carmen’ is paraded through the streets before being placed, somewhat precariously I have to say, on an appropriately decorated boat, which is then followed by a flotilla of other vessels out to sea where blessings are made, for those fishermen (and women) who have lost their lives at sea over the preceding year, and to bestow a blessing for the safety of those venturing out into the wild blue yonder during the coming year. But things are done a little bit differently in our local area, because we do not have one, but two, ‘Virgin del Carmen’s’, one in the town of Sabinillas, and one in the former fishing village of Castello de Duquesa, only a short walking distance away between the both of them. However, both locations hold their own individual Masses, in their own respective churches, followed by the usual street procession and the accompanying marching bands. The Sabinillas ‘Virgen del Carmen’ is then walked down to the beach and loaded on to a small local fishing boat, the boat then proceeds, followed by a vast flotilla of ‘other’ craft, towards the Duquesa Marina. Whilst this is all going on, the ‘other’ Virgin del Carmen’ is paraded from the village church, along the seafront promenade, yes still with marching band and all the other usual hangers on, and into the Marina, where it meets up with the Sabinillas ‘Virgin del Carmen’, now hopefully you are all still with me at this point. The second statue of the ‘Virgin del Carmen’ meets up, with the one already on the boat from Sabinillas, and it too is loaded on to another small local fishing boat, then they both depart out of the Marina, along with the flotilla of other vessels (Small motor powered boats, inflatable dinghies, jet-ski’s, Paddleboards, basically anything that floats) and they travel a short distance further along the coastline where the blessings are then conducted. The boats then return to each of their respective starting locations and the ‘Virgen del Carmens’ are once again returned to their storage facilities. Now this event starts during the early evening, around 6pm, and once the ceremonial stuff is finished, yes you have guessed it, once again it’s ’Party Time’ 🥳🥳

Now I will forgive you for looking at the above photo’s and thinking that perhaps a ‘blessing’ should have been conducted ‘before’ either of these small ‘overloaded’ boats departed their respective locations. However, you have to put this event into some sort of perspective, because in some ‘other’ coastal areas 🤔 there are very much smaller overloaded inflatable craft that travel much greater distances, across much more dangerous seas and commercial shipping lanes, often at night, so I guess there is no real need for anybody to get overly concerned over these particular local participants safety during this annual event. For me, the immediate thought that entered my head are the lyrics from the 1973 pop song, sung by the ‘Hues Corporation’, “Don’t Rock The Boat Baby, Don’t Tip The Boat Over” 😂😂

Also, again in a ramble published earlier this year, I mentioned the annual festival of ‘San Juan’ where they spent a week building a huge structure on the beach and then, at midnight, they set it alight, although for a very good reason I hasten to add and not just for some sort or ‘Arsonistic’ or ‘Pyromania’ gratification. Well following that event, it was of course another reason for holding another ‘Party Time’ 🥳🥳. So, a few weeks later, on the 11th July they held the annual ‘Fiesta de la Luna Llena’ (Moon Festival) otherwise known as ‘La Noche Blanca’. Now let’s be totally honest here, this was not even close to being any kind of a ‘Religious’ event, albeit, if you are a ‘Druid’, I guess there is some correlation with the actual date of this annual event and a particular phase of the moon 🤷‍♂️ However, the reality is, that it is just yet another excuse to hold another massive street ‘Party Time’ 🥳🥳 which lasts from early evening to very nearly sunrise 😲 I guess you are beginning to see some sort of pattern arising by now, not that the Spanish need any real excuse to party and one does have to admit, they do tend to do them exceptionally well 😁

These events are not just ‘Adult Only’ parties, they are all, without exception, family orientated, with plenty of activities for all age groups including bouncy castles (strictly for the use of only the ‘little’ kids) fairground rides and side stalls, rental of kids electric powered cars etc. and, even now, although witnessing it every year, we still comment to each other on how great it is to see whole families out enjoying themselves, from toddlers in pushchairs to grandparents, all out well beyond 11pm. As I may have mentioned in numerous previous rambles, the Spanish (and many other Mediterranean Countries) tend to eat much later at night than most other Northern European countries although, these days, late night dining is more at Weekends than during the week, but all the Cafe/Bars and Restaurants welcome children and large family groups and it just adds to the generally very relaxed and friendly ambience.

Now just in case you think that it has already been busy enough here over just this last month, well the truth is that it didn’t just stop with the events that I have already mentioned above. There was also the Annual week long fair just up the road in Estepona.

I have already mentioned, in a previous ramble, on how our local community celebrated the number of International residents and cultures living in the area, by holding a large International weekend event around the ‘Castello’ but, in addition to this ‘All Inclusive’ event also, throughout the year, there are several other events that celebrate individual Countries represented in the local area and in July it was the ‘Belgian’ weekend festival, all residents being welcome, Belgian or otherwise, it isn’t just the Spanish who like to party 😉. Having also mentioned in this ramble, the annual Estepona fair, it would be remiss of me not to mention that our Municipality of Manilva also holds its own annual fair and this is about to commence within the coming week.

I do have to smile to myself a little bit because the popular Summer Medieval Market, which as I draft this current ramble has just finished. But we tend to take two bites of the apple, for it either has a week in Sabinillas first, before then moving just a little further up the seafront promenade, where it then spends just short of another full week outside the Castello (or vice versa). So, if you miss it first time around then you get a second chance, or perhaps you bought ‘ye olde tourist trinket’ upon impulse, well yes it happens 🤷‍♂️ but now, once you have awoken from possibly an alcohol related stupor, and realise it was just more ‘Tourist Tat’, which, at the time, well it seemed to be a good purchase, but now would like to possibly try to take it back and redeem your unwisely spent holiday cash, good luck with that then 😂

Now I could go on and on and list quite a few more events that have, and still are, going on in our local area over the coming weeks, and I know what you are thinking, why change the habit of a lifetime Eric, but I guess you all get the picture now, it’s Summer Season ‘Party Time’ 🥳🥳 which, like a lot of other places throughout Spain, means that even our little corner of the Costa del Sol really does come alive and so of course it brings with it the usual hoards, of both Domestic and International tourists (Irrespective of what some of the mainstream Media Publications will have you believe 🙄), I know this may come as a shock to some, but there is actually more to Spain than just Ibiza, Mallorca, Tenerife, Marbella and Benidorm, although the ‘less desirable’ temporary residents who often seem to frequent those places, well let’s just say that I will be quite happy for them to continue to visit those places, or, are those stories just negative Media Publications again 🤔

Now to be honest, I can imagine that perhaps some of you my reader’s, after reading how lively the Summer months are down here in our neck of the woods, may well be thinking by now that this all sounds just a little too hectic for your liking and yes, even for us, at times, especially not being big fans of being in crowded environments ourselves, so yes it does sometimes seem to be that there is always something going on, crowds, noise, traffic, no parking spaces etc. But to be honest, one of the best parts of living here, and by that I mean in the particular neighbourhood location where we actually have our home, for by pure good fortune, rather than any advanced pre-planning or research, our home just happens to be situated conveniently far enough away from the central hub of the activity, so we are not directly in amongst it, yet we are close enough, within a reasonable driving distance (5 minutes), or even walking distance (20 minutes) to join in, if and when we do want to. So yes, we do still have the option of having the best of both worlds.

I remember, when writing my rambles during our more nomadic travelling periods, that I used to tell you that I always enjoyed keeping several ‘Options’ open and available to us, in my ‘back pocket’ so to speak, well although those number of available options may now have reduced somewhat, due to our own recent lifestyle choices and yes okay, perhaps even due to our advancement in year’s, but even so, we do still keep a few ‘Options’ in our back pockets, well you just never know when you may need one 😉 Sometimes, adapting to the lifestyles and Seasonal changes here can just be a simple state of mind, so when the temperatures do seem to be getting far too hot for us, or the crowds and traffic get a little overwhelming, that is the time when we just put our more positive heads on (Yes, even the slightly ‘Pessemistic’ Shazza) and we remember that, as from the middle of September, when the bulk of the holiday makers depart, and the Spanish kids return to school and the temperatures do fall to a much more bearable level, when it is still swimming pool or laying on the beach weather, the seafront promenade and the beaches empty of the Summer crowds, car parks suddenly have plenty of spaces available and we realise that we will then have the best part of the next nine months of the year to enjoy the relative peace and tranquility, whilst maintaining the warm climate, and of course, still the odd Spanish Party thrown in here and there, albeit under the guise of other ‘Religious Celebrations’, but always followed with ‘Party Time’ 🥳🥳 which I am sure is just to prevent the Spanish, and okay, perhaps a few other Expat Nationalities, from suffering with too many Summer withdrawal symptoms 😂

So although we have been forced into a lot more restrictive confinement, rather than our own voluntary confinements, over the last month and, even with the Contractor’s presence and those ‘Terrell winds, we have still managed to take opportunities to get out, and get some mobility exercise, albeit mainly in the evenings at the moment, although Shazza uses the word ‘Exercise’, in my Spanish dictionary, evening exercise sessions translates to having an opportunity for the ‘mandatory’ Cafe/Bar stop, when the more usual morning ‘Cafe con Leche’ is replaced, with perhaps a small ice-cold cervesa, or a glass of Anti-Covid Vaccine, or perhaps even both, but I guess that we do walk there and back again, so yes, ‘Exercise is a useful word to describe our activity 🤭 We have also, on the days the contractors were not present, spent 2-3 hours of the morning down at our pool and then of course, there have been the essential shopping trips, with of course the pre-shopping Cafe/Bar stops, it would have been rude not to, so perhaps, everything considered, perhaps the last month hasn’t been quite as bad as it had sometimes felt 🤔

And in other news………………….

Well I cannot not mention the Lionesses, with their recent victory against the Spanish in the Women’s 2025 Final of the Football European Cup Tournament, although you will perhaps understand why I didn’t shout about it too loudly from our balcony, surrounded as we are with a fairly large contingent of local Spanish residents 😂 It couldn’t really have been much better for us, a Final that involved both England, our ‘home’ country, and Spain, our current adopted home country, so whatever the result, we at least had a 50/50 chance of celebrating a winning team 😂 But yes of course, when all is said and done, we are English, and so we were obviously rooting for the English victory. In all honesty though, I do have to say, having watched every single game of the tournament (Sad I know), Spain were the best team throughout the whole competition, however, I think that the manner in which the Lionesses won could, and perhaps should, be taken as an inspirational and motivational life lesson. No matter what the odds there may seem to be against you, no matter what your level of ability is, compared to perhaps some other’s, you need determination, a whole lot of self-belief and a desire to achieve what it is that you want, and so, armed with those personal skills and qualities, you stand a much better chance of attaining your own life goals.

Although I tend to continue to live my life by the philosophy of not worrying about things that are not within my own control, so as you know, I have virtually stopped reading most of the mainstream media headlines, apart from the UK Sport pages and, I generally very rarely interact on most other Social Media Platforms other than ‘You Tube’, where again I am selective on what I watch, mainly just Travel Related topics. I do use some other ‘Apps’ but just to communicate with immediate family and friends located in different parts of the world. However, I do occasionally venture into some of the articles that appear in some of the other European Media publications. Sometimes, but only sometimes these days, I come across the odd articles that cheer me up no end. You may remember from one of my rambles back in November 2024, I wrote about ‘The Fear Of Getting Old’, particularly in relation to living as a foreigner here in Spain and, within that ramble, I questioned just who it is who defines the age in which you are considered to be old, the general consensus of opinion, in many Countries, was that you were considered ‘Old’ on the date that you commenced receiving your ‘State Pension’ so that, in most Countries cases, was for people in the 60-65 years age group 😲 So, seeing the below headline, just around a week ago now, in a non-Spanish media publication, well let’s just say that it sparked my curiosity.

I won’t go into the details of the article, but the result of a ‘Poll’, which, yes I know, it is not exactly the most accurate or scientific approach, but like all facts and figures presented to you, if it coincides in any way with your own belief, then it is more likely to be accepted by you as being true. So I was very pleased to read that the anticipated Life Expectancy, with obvious exemptions for genetic issues or other major health considerations, for those living in Spain, was 85 years, although to be honest, it didn’t say how long you had to have lived in Spain 🤷‍♂️ So, obviously, I cast that fact aside, as it suited ‘my’ purpose to do so 😂 Personally speaking, I am certainly hoping that I will manage to get well beyond that age, considering the ‘healthy living’ regime my beloved has us both on and, provided at least that I am not run over when jogging along the seafront (as if 🤭), by someone on an E-Scooter 🤭 However, the interesting bit, which I am obviously in full and total agreement with, is that people living in Spain are not considered to be in the ‘Old Category’ until they reach the age of 73 years, another reason perhaps for the Spanish to celebrate, ‘Party Time’ 🥳🥳 So it would appear that I can now put an official ‘middle finger’ sign up to the UK Government and celebrate the fact that I do have a few extra year’s to go, before the Spanish consider me to be ‘Old’, which, for some reason, suddenly put an extra spring in my step, although, and rather stupidly I must admit, I suggested to Shazza that perhaps we should spend a little more time on trips to the Fruiterias, purchasing and devouring perhaps even more ‘Plant Based’ goodies, but only because it may then enable me to attain the ‘Possibility Of Reaching A ‘Blue Zone’ Category’’, which, in case you don’t already know,is a category of people, in only a few small areas around the Globe, who have achieved the age of 100 years, and often, well beyond 🤔 Although, for some reason, when I announced my personal goal to attempt to attain that Blue Zone Category to Shazza, she suddenly appeared to lose the spring in her step 😂

That piece of excellent news made me read a little further and I came across another article, which made me think about people’s perceptions of things, and yet another subject that I have often mentioned in my previous rambles, the difference between wether you are an ‘Optimist’ or a ‘Pessemist’ 🤔

We have been quite lucky really, with living over here in Spain but still being able to see our family quite regularly, in the last year we had actually managed to have seen our Son, Daughter-in-Law and three Grandaughter’s on three separate occasions, and the same number of occasions with our daughter and Son-in-Law who live in Germany and of course visits to us by other family members and friends, even Shazza’s mum in her 80’s still comes out for her annual two-week holiday. However, our son had said that they probably wouldn’t be coming over to visit us this Summer, as has been the usual routine over the last couple of year’s ☹️ But just last week, Shazza received a phone call from Chris, starting with the sentence “Mum, can I ask you something ?”, the next words came from Shazza and they were not asking what the question was, instead she just said, “Yes, no problems, how long for and when ?”, from the one sided conversation that I could hear, I guess his question was “How did you know what I was going to ask before I asked it 🤷‍♂️”, she just replied, “You started your sentence with the word ‘Mum’ and not ‘Hiya’ 😂 So, although it was very little notice, we had nothing else planned in our otherwise hectic schedule 🤭 and at least the Guest bedroom and bathroom will now be available once again and so, our unexpected five Summer visitor’s will arrive on Wednesday 13th August for seven days and so, for some reason, Shazza immediately regained that spring in her step 😉

So, for us at least, it does seem to have been a very topsy turvey sort of a month, and what has appeared to have been an inordinately long month, primarily due to the ‘friendly’ invaders into our personal space knocking us out of our more usual daily and weekly routines. However, on the other side of that same coin, we have also been left wondering whatever happened to the month of July which, as we now rapidly approach the end of the first week in August, July just appears to have disappeared into the ether 🤷‍♂️

So, with our world now having righted itself again, we can start to get back into our more regular routines, but funny old thing, actually things haven’t changed that much 🤷‍♂️ Okay, we don’t have strange people in our home at the crack of sparrows each day, or the associated noise or the dust, but we do still have the high temperatures. Going for morning walks is still pretty much off the agenda, unless we are lucky enough to get a cloudier start to the day, I won’t hold my breath on that one, but we are able to use the pool as and when we want to and, if the evening temperatures permit we will go out for some, we’ll let’s call it ‘Exercise’ shall we 😂 Our own Summer fair starts this weekend and then, next week, as just mentioned, we have a few visitor’s arriving for a week 🤗 Later, towards the end of the month, we can perhaps join in the town’s ’Saints Day’ celebrations and of course ‘Party Time’ 🥳 Then, very shortly afterwards, yet another very happy event, we reach the month of September and we can wave a fond goodbye, okay perhaps just ‘Goodbye’ 🤭 to the majority of the holiday makers and their ‘Little Darlings’.

What I am really enjoying though, is being able to sit on an evening in my usual chair, on the balcony, enjoying the relative peace and quite of my surroundings, with, at that time of the evening, a cooler breeze blowing. Often I sit just staring out on the changing landscape as the sun drops slowly in the sky, leaving behind the most beautiful sunset’s. Sometimes I sit and ponder on our life in general and what we have done with it, all I can say is that I always end up feeling grateful for being able to have enjoyed the lifestyle I have had so far with Shazza, and right now, in the here and now, I have no desires, or itchy-feet, to be anywhere else.

I can only apologise, to you my reader’s, if you had the fortitude to get this far in the ramble, for it being quite a long one. However, in my defence, I have had pent up verbal diarrhoea for some time now, it had to be released at some point 😂😂

Until my next ramble……..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena