Devastated Today, But Back Tomorrow

For those of you who are not really too interested in reading about the recent visit of our family, which I of course can, and will, completely understand 😉 please just scroll down to the section, ‘And In Other News’ 👍

I remember it as though it were only yesterday, it was October 2020 when Shazza and I finally decided to turn what had been our seven year semi-retirement lifestyle into the proper Full Monty. At that time we both genuinely believed that the days, weeks and year’s would begin to slow down quite a lot with us no longer having the daily routine of getting up to go to work. Our children had already all grown up and flown the nest, so we had already become ‘Free Agents’, to do with our lives whatever we chose to do. However, as Shazza and I discussed very recently, we are just coming up to five years now, since we actually retired properly, and neither of us can understand where those five year’s have actually gone to 🤔 My pessimistic side, which very rarely rears its ugly head to be honest as I am generally a very optimistic sort of ‘glass half full rather than half empty’ sort of character, tends to want to persuade me to believe that it is a ‘bad’ thing, because, looking back over those five year’s, well in my initial opinion at least, personally I do not think that we have taken many of the opportunities that we have had, to do some of the things that we had said that we were going to do over these last five years, mainly on the travelling adventures side of things that is. Although, Shazza, and very unusually for her it has to be said, as she has generally more of a pessimist outlook on life, but she thinks, looking back on it, that we have actually done quite a lot, all things considered, and given everything that we have had to do, organising starting a new life in a new non-English speaking country (at least non-English speaking on the Bureaucratic side of things) and then once here, getting ourselves sorted ‘officially’ and, due to our particular ‘Non-Lucrative Visa’ conditions, which have placed certain wider global travel restrictions upon us, we have been a little cautious, but she was also quick to remind me that we have also had several family commitments in that time, some of them good events, and other’s not so. So okay, I had to concede, as she listed many of the travels that we had actually achieved, that perhaps it was just me being a little impatient in not having conducted any of the wider global ‘bucket list’ activities on our individual lists. “It isn’t as if we have a time limit to do any of these things do we ?” She said to me, although I reminded her that she is almost 9 year’s younger than myself so, in the grand scheme of things I will, in all likelihood in the natural course of events, probably have less time on the Lifeline Clock than she has, which wasn’t me being morbid, just realistic 🤔 She confessed that she hadn’t really considered my age into the equation as I was just as physically fit as she is and, she considers that in some aspects, walking up steep inclines for example, probably even more so, so she never really ever considers the age difference. Anyway, after our discussion we agreed that we should both really dust off our individual ‘Bucket Lists’ and make more of a concerted effort to tick a few of those travel adventures off the list over the next couple of year’s 👍

The catalyst for this discussion had been pushed to the forefront of my mind on the same day that our family visitor’s had departed after their week’s holiday with us, they had departed at 06:30am to return their hire car and then catch their mid-morning flight from Malaga back to the UK, but it had gone so quickly, in what had appeared to be ‘In The Blink Of An Eye’. The Grandchildren were growing up so quickly, it had seemed like only yesterday when we had first had them come to visit us here in Spain, although Orla, the youngest wasn’t even a twinkle in Mum and Dad’s eye at that time, but she turns seven year’s old in a couple of weeks time, the Twins were a little under one year old when we collected them all from Gibraltar Airport but now they were ten year’s old 😳 Here they were, sitting with us on the balcony having full on proper conversations with them and answering their numerous questions about our life here in Spain and why we chose to come and live here, rather than remaining in England, it was genuinely lovely to see them absorbing the replies, before squinting their eyes whilst formulating their next question but, my goodness it didn’t half serve to make the both of us feel our ages 😲

Our day’s with them did get into some sort of a routine, starting with Shazza at breakfast, feeding five extra mouths, boy can the three of them girls eat 😲 breakfast was followed, every single morning, with three hour’s down at the pool, before returning to the apartment for lunch, with Shazza again catering to their different ‘individual’ dietary likes and dislikes 🙄 In my childhood year’s it was a case of, either eating what was put in front of you at meal times, or you went hungry, and when I mentioned that to them they just said that they thought that that was so cruel 😂 After a post-lunchtime rest, the afternoon’s were spent back down at the pool for a second Session, another three hour session, although I have to confess, I didn’t make it to the majority of those second sessions, instead I took the opportunity to partake of that other ‘mandatory’ Spanish custom, well for those of a certain age at least, yes the ‘Siesta’ period 😴

As if the two swimming sessions a day were not exercise enough, after Dinner we would then all go for a walk, when the temperatures had cooled a little, although I use the word ‘Walk’ extremely loosely, as it was more a case of just parking the car and then sauntering to the large kids playground for an hour, once we had managed to find two car parking spaces that is, we rarely found two in the same location as the town and beaches were literally packed to the gunnels. After the kids had had enough of the play park we then headed to the ice cream parlour and then, mainly for the adults, we would find a Cafe/Bar to partake of a cooling beverage (or two) before finally returning home. Everyday of those seven days were long one’s and extremely active, so it had come as a bit of a shock to our more normal lethargic, more sedentary, retirement lifestyle sort of days 😂

What has now become a customary arrangement on their visits to us is that we ‘volunteer’ to let Chris and Sarah have some time to themselves, so they pre-book a local hotel, generally just outside Estepona and have themselves a thirty-six hour mini-break, to be honest, and as with all parents with young families, they get very little time to themselves throughout the rest of the year and it also provides us with some quality time with the three grandchildren, and of course the opportunity for us to spoil them rotten, as is the privilege of grandparents, and without the need for them to first seek the approval from mum and dad 🤭

The week had flown by and it had finished on a high with the icing on the cake coming on their very last day on their last swimming session when, with a bit of encouragement from mum and dad, ‘Orla’ finally parted ways with her armbands and started to swim, non-stop widths, from one side of the pool to the other, now all three of the girls can swim, and they had all learnt to do it over the last two year’s, here in our communal pool in Spain, now there will be no stopping them wanting to visit 😂

Okay, I know, why on earth would you be interested in reading a ramble all about our time with our family 🤔 although in my defence, these rambles are about our lifestyle here in Spain and that will ‘occasionally’ include visits from both family and friends. But, yes I feel your pain so, for those who have persevered and managed to get to this point, I applaud and thank you, those that didn’t, well you will have had the advantage of reaching this point in the ramble far quicker, so I will now swiftly move on to other, more general things so…………………

In other news………………….

Let me start with an update on my Spanish/UK tax affairs 🫣 As you may recall, from my last ramble, I had posted the package on 12th August and, according to the package ‘Tracker App’ that they had provided me with, and of course respective reference number, I could see that the package had reached the UK, and that it had gone out for delivery on 17th August, which I thought was pretty quick. I kept checking the tracker app everyday, just waiting to see the box ticked that showed that it had been ‘Delivered’. However, on the morning of Friday 22nd August, I received a text message on my mobile from ‘Correos’ (Spanish Post Office) stating that they had attempted ‘Unsuccesfully’ to deliver the item on two occasions, and they now required me to confirm the address they wanted me to return the package to 😲 I couldn’t understand it, surely the UK HMRC couldn’t have moved to new premises, could they, will they do anything not to refund me my two years worth of taxes 🤔 I of course rang HMRC, after making myself a flask of coffee and a picnic, as this could be a long wait, perhaps hour’s, even day’s waiting for them to answer 😲 but, to my surprise, I only had to wait 15 minutes before a human voice, not an AI one, answered. I explained the situation, after they confirmed some personal security details with me, then they actually informed me that there records confirmed that ‘they had’ indeed actually received my refund application form, and that was on the 18th August, and it was now in the queue to be processed, which they did just take the opportunity to re-confirm that that could take up to 6 months. To be honest I was just happy to hear them confirm that they had received my refund application form at that point, and only 6 days after I had posted it. Needless to say I sent a message back to ‘Correos’ with this information but have had no response from them, as yet. The problem is obviously an administrative one between ‘Correos’ here in Spain and whoever they contract in the UK to make the delivery, Royal Mail, Parcel Force, DHL 🤷‍♂️ So it would appear that whilst the postal system from Spain to the UK is very efficient, the electronic tracker service isn’t 🤔 It could mean of course that the package was delivered without the person delivering it obtaining a signature, just shoving it through a letter box, but then why the text message stating that they had attempted to deliver it twice, but unsuccessfully 🤷‍♂️ A mystery that may well remain unanswered, but ask me if I care 🤭

As you may imagine, that text message did not start my day off too well, not initially at least but, after confirming that my package had actually been received, at least my anxiety levels subsided, although as it was to turn out, my day was just about to get a whole lot better.

I hadn’t mentioned in a previous ramble that, on 12th August, the day before our family visitor’s had arrived, we had gone to our local supermarket in town to do a ‘big’ shop. When we went in I hung my sunglasses on my shirt, as you do and as I have done several hundred times previously, okay, probably a slight over exaggeration, but you get my drift. Now these are not ten-a-penny normal sunglasses, but quite expensive normal ‘Bi-Focal’ reading glasses, but with a permanent dark tint (not reactolites). However, once we got out of the car at home I realised that they were no longer hung on my shirt. Obviously we searched the car, the car boot and all the shopping bags, just in case they had dropped inside whilst loading/unloading. We telephoned the supermarket immediately, they took our contact number and stated that they would phone us if they were handed in, no phone call was forthcoming and one pair of quite expensive glasses gone 😡 After sorting out the Tax Form business on the Friday morning (22nd August), we then went to do another shop in our usual supermarket and, on the off chance, I asked whether anyone had handed in my glasses, I was taken to a Private Staff Office by a supermarket supervisor, she opened a drawer that was full of a variety of glasses and she invited me to look through them all, and lo and behold, me and my expensive glasses were re-united 🥳🥳 So, whilst that morning may not have started all that well, by lunchtime, it had turned into an unexpected ‘Very Good Karma Day’ 😁 I celebrated when we got home with a glass of Orange juice and two chocolate chip cookies, only because I had already partaken of a ‘Cafe con Leche’ and ‘Bacon Roll’ in one of our favourite Cafe/Bars before we went to do the shopping 🤭

Now how about a coincidence for my next piece of this current ramble. So, in one of my recent ramble publications I had mentioned about the average life expectancy here in Spain (85 year’s), and made mention of ‘Blue Zones’, which are places throughout the world where people often attain the age of 100 years or older and for which I ‘hope’ to attain 🙏 So it felt a little bit spooky, and it got me to wondering wether the content of my rambles are being monitored (play spooky X-Files music 👽) for, since publishing that particular ramble content, this much more recent article has been published 😳

Now you may think that I am becoming Paranoid, probably having been out in the sun a little too much 🥵 But within many of my previous rambles I have also made mention of the disparity between the UK, and some other European Media Publications, and their perspective on the lack of tourists that are now coming to Spain, and the devastation it is creating to the Spanish Economy, since the ‘Anti-Tourism’ protests, and what it is actually like here in Spain. Now of course, I cannot speak with any factual knowledge or accuracy, about any other area’s in Spain, other than our own Region of Andalusia, but we have seen little evidence that the number of ‘Tourists’, either local Spanish domestic tourists or wider International Tourists are any less than in previous year’s but, to add to my paranoia about someone monitoring the content of my rambles, the following media articles have also just recently appeared in the media…….

So I have to ask at this point of the ramble, “Have I cured Your Insomnia Yet, Or are your Eyes still open ?” If your answer is ‘No’ to the first bit and ‘Yes’ to the second, I will continue 😂

Spain still continues to party, throughout the whole country but probably the largest party of the ‘Fiesta’ season in our area is the ‘2025 Malaga Ferreira’, an event that encompasses the whole city, from the actual large Fairground where numerous events take place and not just the traditional fairground attractions, many of the city’s Plaza’s and streets are just one massive party stage, from dawn to dusk, for a whole seven days, the local Spanish dress up in traditional costumes whilst the tourists just turn up in their Summer attire, but all are welcome to join in the revelry

Well of course, the Summer heat always makes the headlines, I don’t know why, for it is always hot here in the Summer, wether it be 30 or 40 degrees (c), that is normal so why is that news 🤷‍♂️ Probably because those normal temperatures have risen to 45 degrees, and even this far South, those temperatures are certainly not normal and so, with the added issue of the ‘Terral’ winds paying us yet another visit of the Summer, not just with the additional heat that they always bring, but also with the strength of the gale force like winds, which are continuous, day and night, the prolonged heatwave continues 🥵🥵

So, naturally of course the major topic that is on the front pages in the local news headlines, as well as appearing in National and International news media channels, every single day for more than a week now, are all the Wildfires burning throughout many parts of Europe, Although for many Countries, including Spain, these wildfire events are a normal and frequent annual occurrence but, it would appear, from the statistics that are being published, that this particular year has probably been the worst for Wildfires since records began.

However, and somewhat quite surprisingly, at least here in Spain, the majority of the worst fires have actually been in the Northern areas, not in the more usual ‘hotspots’ down in the Central and Southern parts of the Country, albeit they are of course still occurring in those Southern areas, but certainly not on the scale as elsewhere 🤷‍♂️

Now ‘some’ of these wildfires are obviously occurring as a consequence of the extreme heat, and ‘some’ as a result of Lightning strikes on the tinder dry trees and scrubland, but what is shocking to read is that a great deal of these fires have, from investigation, been attributed to people actually starting them deliberately 😲

I really cannot comprehend what is going through the minds of some of these people, to do it deliberately entailing the loss of lives, thousands of hectares of land, people’s livelihoods, homes and livestock and not to mention the thousands of gallons of essential water in the attempt to put these fires out. I mean throughout the majority of Spain, we have just come through two year’s of devastating drought conditions, the ‘Embalces’ (Reservoirs) have only just recovered. Not all wildfire locations are near the sea, so that means that water has to be obtained from these Embalces, essential drinking water for thousands upon thousands who rely on these resources 🤷‍♂️ As for the hectares of land that are consumed in the flames, yes it is sad to see the catastrophic toll, but as Covid proved, if you leave Nature alone, it will eventually start to heal itself, ‘Devastated Today, But Back Tomorrow’, but that cannot be said for humans or animals, when they have been maliciously incinerated, all that is left is the grief of those who managed to survive…………..

As I sit on my balcony drafting this latest literary masterpiece and looking down upon all the people lazing around, and swimming in, the communal pool opposite and, after having been out this morning ourselves, sat on the seafront in the sunshine looking out upon a white sandy beach, adorned with multi-coloured sun umbrellas, sat amongst the crowds of locals and tourists alike, enjoying just another routine day getting on with normal life, watching the jet-ski’s and sailing yachts on the sparkling blue sea, and perhaps doing some people watching, it would be rude not to, I now find myself sat pondering on just how ironic life sometimes is, for whilst some, all over the world in many differing situations, live in daily fear of potentially losing their lives, or lives of loved-ones, homes and businesses, other’s, like ourselves are, generally speaking, oblivious to all of that until we see the news reports on the TV, or read about them in the various media channel publications. Not that we can do anything about these things of course, but still, it does sometimes feel to me that this world that we live in, can be a sad old place at times.

Anyway, let’s not end this ramble on a sombre note 😉 Let me mention something that I have only recently become aware of myself, and that is in relation to the ‘Camino de Santiago’, and I will make an educated guess that those interested in these sort of Pilgramage Walks will be aware of what I am talking about. The most popular route, and one which you will find many people making ‘You Tube’ video blogs about, starts from San Sebastián on the French/Spanish Border, to the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, located on the North Western side of Spain, there are of course several alternative routes, one of which follows the coastline of Portugal. However did you know that there is also a route from Malaga ? Well actually no, neither did I 🤔 Shazza and I, in our more nomadic days, once had an ambition to do the Northern route of this particular pilgrimage walk, but like a lot of things Shazza and I ‘intend’ to do, we never actually got around to doing it 🙄 So now may not perhaps be the best time to consider doing this route, what with the very extreme heat and the Wildfires in those Northern areas and, just before you even consider asking such a stupid question, one that I know you are already formulating in your minds, let me just say this, we both have a struggle with getting the motivation to do our 4-6 Kilometre walks along the seafront promenade, so how on earth do you think we will find the motivation to do a walk in excess of 1,400 Kilometres, that I think will answer your question before you even ask it 😂

As for Shazza and myself, well we have finally got our apartment all ship shape again, after the departure of our family visitors, we have re-provisioned the fridge and cupboards, Shazza has washed and ironed all the ‘guest room’ bed linen and towels, and we have thoroughly cleaned the bedroom and bathroom, in advance of our next visitor arriving, Shazza’s mum, but she does not arrive until the beginning of October. Before then, we have the car to take in for its bi-annual mandatory safety inspection, but that isn’t for a couple of weeks. There is a ‘Van Gogh’ Exhibition in Estepona that Shazza would like to go and see, why I do not know 🤷‍♂️ she has never shown any interest whatsoever in any Artists, past or present but, in accordance with our life together agreement, ‘If there is no good reason for either of us, not to do something that the other wants to do’, so we will choose a day to get out and do that I guess 😳 But for now, we will just slot back in to our normal daily routines and look at some potential ‘travel locations, both here in Spain, for some shortish trips (3-4 days) once the tourist season is over, around mid-September, for there are still so many places in this our new home Country that we have yet to see. You may also be pleased to know that I have already started to research some wider global locations to visit, for at least one of our ‘Bucket List’ trips for next year, okay so it may be one that is on ‘my’ own personal bucket list, but hey, I had to start somewhere 😂

Until my next ramble, enjoy the rest of your Summer, or Winter, dependent on which part of the world you are reading this 😉

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena