A Very Happy And Pleasant Chap

I cannot remember what day it was, too much water has passed under the bridge since then, quite literally, but by the powers of deduction, it was obviously at some point between publishing my last ramble, and publishing this one, 🤔 However, I can confirm that it would have been on a rare non-rainy day, so now I come to think of it, as we hadn’t had many of those, I remember that it was Friday the 13th February, we were sat in one of our favourite seafront Cafe/Bars drinking our Cafe con Leche’s, nothing new there then, but thinking back, Tina Turner was crooning away in the background, 🎶 I Can’t Stand The Rain 🎶 and we both commented on just how appropriate that song was at that particular time. However, what I remember most about it was how it felt so good, to once again feel the warmth of the sunshine, and the warming breath of a very mild westerly breeze, on my face. Shazza and I used this time to each sit in silence, well we had done a lot of chitter chattering the whole way along the first part of our walk that morning, so we agreed that we had probably both used up our allocation of words for that morning 😂 So we were each able to just sit, gazing out upon the vast wide and empty expanse of shoreline that stretched out in front of us. The sea, having worn itself out after such a long period of turbulence, was now a picture of serenity once again, with its calm turquoise greens and blues just sparkling away in the sunlight. The scars, wreaked from the havoc created by the seemingly never ending storms, had now all but gone from the beaches, although some work was still in progress, repairing the damage to underground water drainage pipes that had been displaced, along with the tons of sand, such had been those extreme forces of nature. However, the extremely efficient army of local council workers had now very quickly removed the mountains of debris, the co-ordinated teams had scraped, raked and manicured the whole foreshore, bringing it back to looking a lot more like its more normal ‘Blue Flag’ award standard. These are unsung heroes in my book, they barely get noticed by passers-by as they toil relentlessly under the sun in their green ‘high-vis’ uniforms, conducting what must be a very monotonous task. But I for one noticed them, for there is absolutely nothing that evades my prying eyes constantly seeking out ramble worthy content. Not even the dog walker on the beach who allowed her dog to crap on the beach before hurriedly scampering away, without cleaning it up, did not escape my scrutiny and which got her a very much deserved loud ‘tut’ from your’s truly I can tell you, she was lucky that she was too far away to be vocally admonished, it is dog owner’s like her that give responsible owner’s a bad press, I thought to myself. There will of course be those who will spring to her defence with statements like “It will wash away with the tide”, and yes, hopefully it will, at some point, although perhaps not before another unsuspecting beach walker, or jogger, finds it adhered to the bottom of their flip-flop, or trainers 🤷‍♂️

It had been good to get out for a longish walk, and to see other’s out in abundance once again too, all taking the opportunity of another, albeit brief, respite in the weather, not having to rush around between torrential raindrops, or walking, bent over double, protecting themselves from the gale force wind, eyes fixed firmly on the ground directly at their feet, so as not to step in lake-sized puddles, or dog crap. Now they, and we, were able to just saunter, making the most of every valuable second of this unexpected change in the weather. These few dry hours of the day had truly been totally unexpected, because the ‘Works of Fiction’ had actually predicted, forecasted, or probably more accurately, just used the less technological ‘Madame Zelda’s Mystic Fortune Telling Service’ and guessed, that we were once again supposed to have wall to wall rain again on this day, dawn til dusk, which would continue for ‘at least’ the next forty-eight hours, well I suppose they did have a 50/50 chance of getting it right 🤷‍♂️

The Cafe/Bar was not as busy as it often can be, probably because we had arrived slightly later than usual that particular morning, but all the usual suspects were still there, including the German expat couple we had come to know, for not even the weather, good or bad, can interfere with the mandatory leisurely Spanish morning coffee routine. Upon arrival we of course engaged in the traditional round of pleasantries with our fellow customer’s, as well as with the two lady owner’s who, on this particular morning, were both stood side by side on the steps at the entrance, “Dos Cafe con Leche” one of them simply said, “Si Gracias” I responded, and within a minute or so our ‘Vaso’s’ (Glasses) of piping hot coffee were delivered to our table, by the more elderly of the two lady owners, whom we engaged in a brief conversation with, primarily about this unexpected, but very much welcomed weather, well it would have been rude not to have at least acknowledged this moment of rare sunshine and warmth.

I was well overdue a haircut so, after our leisurely coffee’s, we bid ‘Hasta Luego’ to our fellow customers, many of whom were now indulging in slightly stronger beverages 😲 well I suppose the sun was very nearly over the yard arm, to quote a nautical expression, depending on which direction you were looking at that yard arm I suppose, but it was far too early for either Shazza or I. Whilst I called in at my usual Moroccan barbers shop, Shazza wandered off up into the town’s Main Street, you won’t need many guesses at to which shop she would almost certainly be stopping off at 😂 Although, as you read on, the question is, could this be the beginning of the end of us giving our routine custom to this particular favourite trading post 😲 When I was finished having my hair cut, and feeling a little more lightheaded 🤭 I found her sat in the sunshine, on the wall overlooking the beach, my barber’s was just around the corner and she had already informed me where she would be waiting. Neither of us were in any hurry to walk back to the village to where the car was parked, so we discussed finding somewhere for lunch, we wanted nothing too heavy though, so we spent a few minutes trying to decide whether to stay in town, or whether to walk back to the Marina. We agreed that it was too early for the Spanish lunch time, which would have meant us being sat at a table in an empty establishment like a couple of ‘Billy No Mates’, and we certainly didn’t want to try and kill another hour and a half just waiting for more diners to appear so as to create a better dining ambience.

We sauntered back towards the Marina, allowing us more time to soak up every ray of golden sunshine, whilst looking out at the gorgeous sparkling colours of the sea, it is amazing at just how the feeling of warming sunshine can make you feel so happy. We were just casually chatting about this between ourselves as we walked and talking about just how relaxed we both felt right at that moment, “Neither of us really needs a lot to make us happy and content these days do we ?” Shazza commented, and she was right, for generally speaking, we now find ourselves just being happy with our lot, even our previously intense ‘Itchy Feet Syndrome’ has quelled somewhat these days, leading her to ask, “Do you think that we are both just getting old ?”. Mmmmm 🤔 I didn’t like the sound of that word ‘Old’, so I paused for a moment before answering, “Well yes, it is a fact that we are both getting more ‘Senior’ in years, one of us a little quicker than the other, but”, I paused again, before finishing my response, “I actually truly believe that we have now found the ‘sweet spot’ in our lives, no longer needing to seek out the next adventure, just being content with what we have in the here and now”. She half muttered an agreement, but not convincingly then, after a few moments I saw the scowl appear on her face, “But that doesn’t mean that we cannot still have some travel adventures if we want to, does it ?” She said. “Of course not” I replied, for it is true that we do still have those moments when the ‘Itchy Feet’ return and we find ourselves having to scratch them, when we do, we generally go somewhere and do something, whether that be going somewhere different, either for a day, or even a few days on a Spanish mini-break, or sometimes a longer extended holiday break like we are going to do in only a few weeks time, however, in the main, nowadays, it would be true to say that we tend to just relax and enjoy the moments we have here, in this small corner of the Iberian Peninsular, although, we will see just how true that last statement is in a few months time, when we are once again dealing with Spanish bureaucracy, applying to extend our residency permits once again 🫣

At least in the Marina complex it was much busier than on the seafront in the town, with the usual menagerie of International Expats, who tend to eat lunch much earlier in the day than our Mediterranean cousins. Of course, us being us, we wanted to sit outside, and not just because of the sunshine, regular readers will know our particular reason for that 😉 However, with the sun shining, the very calm water in the Marina sparkling alongside the shiny white hulls of the different sized boats, which were sat quite sedentary on their moorings, everybody and their dogs, and I mean that quite literally about the dogs, also wanted to be sat outside at tables in the sunshine and yes okay, who could blame them I suppose, and so, as a consequence, our choices were somewhat limited.

The last time we ate at the ‘Mexican’ Cafe/Restaurant in the Marina, which happened to be a good couple of year’s ago, we found that, unfortunately, they did not cater very well for Shazza’s more ‘Plant Based’ palate, or indeed for anyone of a more Vegetarian/Vegan persuasion, unless you wanted a basic Salad. However, on this occasion, with it being one of the few establishments that had an outside table that was free, and right at the front and immediately overlooking the Marina, we stood and perused the menu board that was attached outside, this time Shazza identified a whole host of things that she could eat, they had obviously had a change to their menu options since our last visit and not one menu item mentioned the words ‘Goats Cheese’. We both ordered ‘Burritos’, Shazza a Mediterranean Vegetable and Black Bean one, myself a Chilli Beef one, which also came with both black and red beans, lots of them, I guess this is why Mexicans always seem so jovial, they are always ‘Full of Beans’ 🤭 Both came with Mexican Rice and three bowls of dips, Sour Cream, Guacamole and a very spicy Chilli Salsa 🥵 Shazza settled for her more usual bottle of sparkling water but for me, finally, after weeks of incarceration with no dining out, I finally got to treat myself to a very nice (large) glass of Anti-Covid Vaccine 🍷 Should I really still be calling it that I wonder ? In truth we do ‘occasionally’ open a bottle of wine at home, where we will both have a glass (or two), but that is, in all honesty, a very rare occurrence, for some inexplicable reason 🤷‍♂️ Although we always have plenty of bottles of the stuff on the wine rack, it is my emergency fluid supply, just in case of another drought, although not much chance of that happening this year. Somehow though, drinking wine at home just never seems to quite taste the same, not like the stuff you quaff when you are out in public, perhaps because it always tastes better when combined with a spot of ‘People Watching’, or when conducting our moral duties of ‘Fashion Policing’ or ‘Body Beautiful Observations’ 😂

It was mid afternoon when we drove back into our small residential complex, our slightly younger Spanish neighbours, Miguel and Katya, who are probably in their late forties or very early fifties and who live directly above us, had followed us in through the gates in their car, we have not seen them for several weeks, partly because of our incarcerations due to the weather, but also because they both still work on a full-time basis. We stopped and passed the usual pleasantries and chatted, just about general stuff, as you do and, although they both speak excellent English, we always try to converse with them, initially at least, in our stumbling erratic Spanish, they acknowledge the fact by giving a warm appreciative smile and they never criticise us, or make fun of us, when we occasionally get some of the words not quite right, or in the wrong place in a sentence, or when we have to slip back into our own mother tongue, which I do have to say, is getting less and less. I remember a few years ago when Miguel had told me, in a casual conversation, how it irritated him that a lot of other ‘International Expats’, not just British I hasten to add, and who have resided in our small community in excess of 10 years, still do not speak the most basic of Spanish words which, I guess subconsciously at least, is probably why we always attempt to speak to them both in Spanish, and to be honest, after three years here, I guess that is the way it should be, even if it isn’t perfect. It reminded me of an answer to a question I had seen about whether, in these more touristy areas, you really do need to speak Spanish.

It is warm enough now, well on some days, to spend the afternoon and early evening on the balcony, the daylight hours extending now to a little beyond 7:30pm, and in just a few more weeks, when the clocks go forward by one hour on to European Summertime, it will be more like 9:00pm as the sunsets get progressively later 😁 One evening, whilst we were sat on the balcony, the sun had just begun to disappear behind the thickening night clouds, although there were still some flickers of hazy blue sky obstinately hanging on, the calm sea reflected a much softer blue now, no longer were there any sparkling turquoise greens. I could hear the Gulls circling noisily overhead, above the foreshore, the evening dinner bell must be close to sounding I thought to myself as the evening tide made its way inbound. The freighter’s on the horizon were becoming more of silhouettes, they were getting much harder to distinguish through the descending veil of light grey haze and then, the next time I lifted my eyes from the book I was reading, the horizon had disappeared altogether, making it impossible to distinguish it from the natural line that separated the sea from the sky. As I sat just looking out upon the various landscapes surrounding my elevated observation post, the lights in the grounds of the neighboring complex came on, albeit dusk had still not yet fully arrived, but I noticed that the earlier much lighter breeze was beginning to turn into more of a stronger wind, the heavy leaves on the palm trees starting to sway rhythmically with it, and beginning to make much more noise, the temperature also started to fall quite rapidly as the sun disappeared behind the mountains. Shazza had already retreated into the living room by this time and had turned on the three bar halogen heater, and it wasn’t long afterwards that the orange glow of the fire tempted me inside too. I sighed a contented sigh at what a very enjoyable day it had been, amazing how just a little bit of sunshine and warmth can physically, and psychologically, do to brighten up your day’s.

There is a saying that goes, ‘Enjoy each and every day whilst you can’, well that saying is most definitely true at the moment, for whilst we had enjoyed that previous days weather respite, during the very early hours of the morning, I heard the now familiar tap tap tapping on the external window shutters, and the wind blowing outside had certainly picked up and both lasted well on into the night, I lay awake listening to the gentle rhythm of the rain and wondered what the daylight of morning would bring, for right now it is more like a ‘Lucky Dip’ and certainly much like that famous Forrest Gump line, “You just don’t know what your gonna get”.

What is that other saying ? the one about ‘Giving with one hand whilst taking away with the other’. The ‘Works of Fiction’ had at least got one prediction correct, the previous warm and sunny day had only been a ‘very brief respite’ and what followed was to be another forty-eight hours of incarceration 🙁 As I skimmed through the usual array of ‘Doom and Gloom’ articles in the morning’s media over those following two days, it did serve to remind me that it wasn’t just Spanish people that were rapidly growing webbed feet, for many parts of Europe were suffering their own, not so pleasant, meteorological events, some suffering more than other’s and it reminded me to be grateful for the fact that, at least in our particular corner of Southern Spain, that we had in fact been extremely fortunate in the grand scheme of things.

We do not have to count down the number of weeks it is before our first vacation of the year, because our Grandchildren are already doing that for us, it is the very first thing they say to us on our weekly video chats with them, followed by, “Will you take us bowling again ?”, “Can you take us to the Park ?”, “Can we go to the Pizza Restaurant ?”, they each reel of a long list of the things they want us to do with them, each one making sure they include something different to what their sisters have asked, to which we of course just simply reply, ‘Yes’, in the full knowledge that we will not be able to fulfil every single one of their requests as we only have so much time to spend with them, but ‘Yes’ is much easier than trying to explain the ‘Adult logical reasons’ why not everything will actually be possible, within the time frame we have with them. However, it also serves as a timely reminder to the two of us, that we only have a few weeks remaining to up our stamina levels, in readiness for what will certainly be a full body and mental wellness workout 😲 So, our current, more sedentary exercise regime, will be totally insufficient for the demands of three ‘very active’ grandchildren, our fingers are crossed that, hopefully, the weather will soon change and we will be able to extend our walks a little more, and of course up the pace 😮‍💨 as their will be no opportunity, when we are with them in a little under five weeks, for me to grab my more customary afternoon Siesta’s 😲 “Shazza, as you are the younger, perhaps you may consider having some dedicated Girlie time with them for an hour or so 🤔”, reply unprintable, “No, I didn’t think so 🙁”

The weather did eventually change for the better, we were now, once again, awakening to the much more desirable blue skies and sunshine and, although the different ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts were still squabbling with each other, like a bunch of school kids in the playground, over how warm the daily temperatures would be, or the strengths and directions of the wind, it really didn’t matter to us, as long as we saw that sunshine symbol in the forecast, that was all we needed, so confident was I that there would be no more rain in the next ten days or so, hopefully much longer than that, I even let ‘Forrest Gump’ go on vacation for a while, although I do have him on speed dial just in case he is required at short notice 😁

I won’t bore you with the details, suffice to say that not only had the meteorological conditions resumed their normal sunny service in our part of Spain, but so did our normal daily routines, we went out ‘every single day’ on our usual walks, occasionally extending them but not, if we are honest, for any reasons of upping our stamina levels, more a case of having been incarcerated for so long we just wanted to enjoy most of our time outside of the confines of the apartment.

Shazza informed me one morning, whilst enjoying our first coffee of the day, taken now back in my happy place on the balcony, that she had discovered an Organic Fruit and Vegetable Farm just on the outskirts of Estepona, on the Northern side of the town. Obviously the reason she was informing me of this was because it was more her way of telling me where we would be going that morning, that was as soon as I got my arse into gear and got washed and dressed 😂 The ‘Works of Fiction’ predicted the afternoon temperature to climb to 24 degrees(c), it was already 18 degrees(c) at 10:00am so they may just have guessed correctly this time around. I put the route into ‘Google Car Play’ and off we went, it didn’t take long before we remembered that we needed to re-set the Air-Con system in the car from warm to cold 🥵 The location was a little further outside of Estepona than it had initially looked, but not that far. Now it is not often that you get personal service from a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a firm, unless of course you are from a more entitled background and the chauffeur drops you off at the door 💵💰🤑 and to be honest, we didn’t know that we were at the time. The sales area was a metal shipping container set at the entrance of a large field, we waited for the only other customer to be served and then a very friendly youngish chap, early to mid thirties I guessed, dressed as you would expect a land worker to be dressed, introduced himself in perfect English, “Hello, I am Carlos, Is this your first time here ?” he asked, when we answered ‘Yes’ he said, “Okay, it is quiet this morning so let me show you around my farm”. We chatted as we walked and we learnt about Carlos, his previous life and how he came to own this farm, his family was originally from up in the hillside town of ‘Antequera’, before they then moved to ‘Cordoba’, he had left home and worked in the ‘Science Based Agricultural Industry’ in Northern Europe, before returning to Spain and starting this farm just three year’s ago. He was ‘A Very Happy And Pleasant Chap’ and we both took an instant liking to him, he was very enthusiastic about his farm and his plans for the future and was keen to confirm that all of his produce was grown without any chemicals or pesticides, 100% Organic he proudly stated. There was not much produce on the hand-made wooden racking in the container, but he explained that the rain and flooding had taken it’s toll on the ground and crops, but he had plenty out in his fields that had survived and ready for cultivating, so out we went back into the fields stopping to cut handfuls of fresh ‘Kale’, Bright Green and Dark Purple varieties. As you may imagine, we came away with two plastic carrier bags full of different fruits and vegetables and he said that if we wanted anything specific that he didn’t already have available, just to let him know and he would grow it, Shazza suggested Fresh Ginger and he said that he already had plans to grow it as part of his expansion plans. As we left he gave us his card, so that we could contact him if we had any other suggestions for produce that he didn’t already grow, but to be honest he already grows such a wide range and much more than there is on our local supermarket shelves, but that is when I noticed his official title of ‘CEO & Owner’. I chuckled and said that I had never been dealt with personally by a CEO before, he laughed, “Nothing but personal service here’ he says, and then thanked us for our custom.

Now okay, for Shazza this farm produce location was a major discovery for her, she waxed lyrically about it all the way back to Estepona and I knew from that, that this would not be our last visit, and that it would probably now extend the distance we travel on our weekly shopping trips 😲 For me, somewhat of a ‘Plant Based’ heathen in her eyes, I wasn’t convinced that I would be able to tell any difference in taste between these fruit and vegetables, from the the ones that we have been eating from both the Supermarket, or the Fruiterias, in our local town 🤷‍♂️ Although, some of the local produce in the supermarket has been seen to contain labels stating country of Origin in countries as far away as Peru, not very local eh, considering that much of the same produce is actually grown here in Spain 🙄 So at least she will know that by purchasing from the local farm, that we are actually supporting the local Spanish economy, now that cannot be a bad thing can it 🤷‍♂️

We parked on the waste ground in Estepona, opposite the large Carrefour supermarket, and walked into the town along the seafront promenade and, in the rapidly rising heat it felt a long walk, but we were definitely not complaining. The first stop was my E-Cigarette supplier, the last time I had visited to re-stock my supply of vape fluids was nearly six months ago, and as we do not have a ‘Vape Store’ in our own town this is the nearest, so I ensure that when I come here I purchase in bulk. The shop is at the top end of the town but just around the corner from it is a very pleasant Plaza, with a couple of ‘Taperias’, so just right for a nice ‘Vermut & Tapas’ lunch, yes of course we did, it would have been rude not to. Estepona is such a vibrant place and we love coming here, although, even though it is only a twenty-minute drive from home, we probably do not come as often as we could, not only was it a very productive day, but it also made for a nice change of scenery.

And In Other News……….

Perhaps the reporter for the European Weekly News (EWN) had some insider information that the other Global Tabloid Press do not have, for when reporting on the Supreme Courts ruling in the USA very recently, it would appear that, according to the EWN this is, and not a case of you saw it in Eric’s ramble so it must be true, that TRUMP is now the ‘Former’ President 🤔 Perhaps this could just be a ‘typo’ ? or perhaps a case of CNN and FOX News being a little slow off the mark ? Or perhaps…………. the Iranians got to him first 🤷‍♂️

Until my next scintillating ramble, from what is now a Sunnier part of Spain, wherever you may be in the world right now, stay warm, stay dry or just enjoy the sunshine, but ultimately, stay safe 😉

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena