Had I Just Been Dreaming ?

It arrived without warning, as these sorts of things often do, it was the early hours of the Wednesday morning, I was having my usual late night quiet period before bedtime, when I must have inadvertently suffered an unanticipated period of ‘Personal Contemplation’ 😴 However, I was startled back into full consciousness mode by the strangest feeling, one that made me believe that the whole room had just moved, my initial thought was, no surely not, ‘Had I Just Been Dreaming ?’, but that brief thought came to an abrupt end when Shazza, who had already gone to bed two hours earlier, came rushing through and said, “Did you feel that ?”, so it must have been quite some movement to have awoken her from her sound sleep. I looked out from the balcony windows, just to see if there was anything obvious that may confirm our suspicion that we had perhaps just suffered a ‘tremor’ from an earthquake, for example, my balcony window being a lot closer to the seafront than it had been when the sun had gone down that evening 😲 However, fortunately everything looked quite normal, the street lights were still on, but their were no other people looking out of windows, or standing out on the streets, and so we were still not quite sure what it was that we had just experienced, we waited to see if there would be any other ‘tremors’, one’s that would alert us to the need that we may just have to gather some clothes, and other personal items, in case we needed to evacuate the building 😳 However, nothing had actually moved inside the apartment, furniture was still in its usual place and nothing had fallen off the walls, it appeared that it had only been the actual building that had been given a bit of a shake, so we chose not to panic and agreed that it probably wasn’t such a big deal, although it had been a weird feeling all the same. These sort of events are not uncommon throughout Andalucia, so it was more just a case of it being a first experience of such an event for us personally. We felt no other movements, so we just decided to go to bed, on doing so I turned to Shazza, “Well on this occasion the earth did really move for you my love” and laughed, “Yes, and I can tell you this, I certainly didn’t like it very much” she replied. ‘Oh well, I suppose that put and end to any realistic hopes that may have entered my head, about the possibility of any further, more natural, earth moving opportunities occurring during the remainder of the early hours’, I thought to myself 🙁

I have commented, several times in my previous rambles, about other villages and towns, in our Region, experiencing tremors from minor earthquakes, even as close to us as Estepona, but this is the first in our own particular immediate local area and, with the increasing frequency of these incidents, I somehow do not think that it will be the last. The following morning was one of the few occasions where I was in a bit more of a hurry to check the local ‘News & Gloom’ media reports……..

However, what is probably a little more concerning is that the Earthquake that caused this tremor, happened, not inland, but out in the ‘Alboran Sea’, for it is these type of oceanic events, although at much greater magnitudes I hasten to add, that can create ‘Tsunamis’. After considering that thought for a few moments I turned to Shazza and said, “I hope we live high enough up this hill”, she hadn’t reacted to that comment as I anticipated that she would, she just said, in a rather nonchalant way, “Let’s hope we never have to find out”.

On the Thursday morning, and quite separate from the previous nights incident, we received an advanced ‘Orange Weather Alert’, notifying us that ‘Storm Theresa’ was now on its way and was anticipated to reach us on the Friday, I suppose we should be grateful that it wasn’t ’Saint Theresa’, as that may have had other wider Biblical connotations to it 😲 Although, I mused to myself after having that humerous thought, that all of this ‘Armageddon’ hypothesis is now getting to be a lot like that old fable, the one about ‘The Shepherd Boy Who Cried Wolf’ too many times until one day it happened, but he was ignored and got eaten by Wolves. One day this ‘Armageddon M’larky’ will happen, but you will ignore my soothsaying and those ‘Dark Forces’ will wreak their almighty havoc upon you, remember then, if you have the time for such thought’s, that you heard it here second, because another popular publication just happened to mention it first, very many year’s prior to me commencing these ramblings, damn it, always the ‘Best Man’ and never the ‘Groom’, although when I think about it, that is probably correct 😂

On the Thursday night, we suffered two power outages, one at 10pm and another at midnight, but each hadn’t lasted that long, only five minutes or so before the power was restored but, was this the early indications that the storm had made landfall I asked myself ? Storm Theresa had already severely battered the Canary Islands and was travelling North, hitting the Western Andalucian coastline first, although it seemed strange that we were on the Eastern side but were still being warned of major coastal events, it must be one hell of a wide storm I remember thinking, before then seeing a photograph of the dark clouds in the papers on the Friday morning, now tell me, you reader’s out there, that you cannot see a pack of Wolves heads poking out of those demonic clouds 😳

We were both awoken again, during the early hours of the Friday morning, to the sounds of the gale force winds, and the heavy rain battering the external window shutters, although we are quite familiar with these sorts of noises now 🤷‍♂️ But then, just a little later later, due to normal early morning bodily function requirements, if you know what I mean, I had to force myself out from the warm hug that the duvet had been providing me with, and so, as I was already up, I thought that I may as well go and put the kettle on for our morning cuppa, if the electricity was still available that was 🤔 It was, so I sat on the balcony, as usual, and observed the scene being played out in front of me. The heaviest of the rain, that had persisted throughout the early hours, had all but disappeared, well for now at least, although the sky still looked black and threatening and the latest weather picture reflected that we hadn’t, as yet, been hit by the main storm front. However, powerful gale force winds were still battering the Palm Trees outside and, from the balcony windows I could see the white stallions galloping in waves on to the shoreline, battalion after battalion they came relentlessly, but these were not Tsunami like conditions, although in truth I have only ever seen a Tsunami on TV or disaster movies 🤷‍♂️ but it became clearly obvious to me that I had to make the sensible decision, which was to inform Shazza that we should cancel our normal daily walk for that day, but for some reason neither of us had felt a deep sense of disappointment at that decision. The wind screamed and whistled and we could, quite clearly, hear the tumultuous waves as they crashed onto the shoreline below, but we felt extremely safe in our hilltop sanctuary, provided that there wasn’t another earthquake tremor bad enough to force us to evacuate, I mean come on, it really would have been a disgusting sort of day to have had to go and stand outside 😂 I also had to smile a little sarcastically when I considered the ‘Civil Authorities’ advice in Earthquake and After-Shock situations, ‘Go Outside And Stay Clear Of Buildings’, Mmmmmm I thought 🤔 “And if you live in an area surrounded by tall buildings ?”, I was waiting for a gruff voice from the sky telling me that then, I would just have to ‘Suck it up” 😂

The weather has certainly been very unpredictable over the last three months or so here in our part of Spain, and I guess elsewhere too, but I cannot speak with any confidence on what it has been like in those other areas. But, saying that, over the last week here, it has been beautiful and very warm, dare I even mention out aloud the words, ‘Shorts and Tee-Shirts’, so we have of course been able to go on our usual regular local daily walks, but in addition to those we have also had another day out in Estepona, and yes, just in case you were wondering, including the drive to the Organic Farm, and as Shazza informed me, rather sarcastically in my opinion, “Well it would have been be rude not to” 🙄 In that same week we had another day out, but this time in the opposite direction, to the town of La Linea, which as I have mentioned previously, is the Spanish town that is quite literally just across the road from Gibraltar and a short hop, skip and jump from Morocco (See Photo at top of this ramble). However, more recently we have partaken of our normal daily walks into our own local town again, enjoyed our usual coffee stop and on the way back we made the impulse decision to partake of lunch in our favourite Moroccan Cafe/Bar/Eatery, in the Marina. On that walk back from the town we had seen the arrival of the large trucks and trailers with their Fairground Equipment, they hold several fairs here throughout the year but, rather unusually, we hadn’t seen any advance signage of this particular event happening 🤷‍♂️ There is no particular relevance of me telling you that, other than, as I sat on the balcony on that stormy Friday morning I thought to myself, no way would you get me on a ‘Big Wheel’, or any other of those elevated fairground attractions, in any type of weather, but especially not in these current conditions, it’s bad enough trying to keep upright on terra firm in high winds but, also being soaked through to the skin, and suspended a hundred feet or so in the air, come on, where is the enjoyment in that, I may be getting more senior in years but I certainly haven’t lost all my marbles, well not just yet 😂

However, then I had a more serious thought, one where I hoped that this latest storm had best hurry up on its journey North, as in just a little over one weeks time, we would be on a 27 hour overnight ferry journey, crossing the notoriously bumpy ‘Bay of Biscay’, it can be bad enough under normal sea state conditions, I certainly didn’t fancy it under storm force conditions 🤢🤢 Having also looked at the advance ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts for Bilbao, for over the 72 hour period prior to that ferry journey where we would be in Bilbao sightseeing, but it certainly didn’t look too promising, weather wise, at least not for the actual ‘outdoor’ sightseeing part of the visit we were hoping to do, so we may just have to consider a much more extensive ‘wet weather’ itinerary I thought to myself, with a bit of a smile on my face 😁

Although that happy thought soon came crashing down to earth when Shazza informed me that during her own pre-visit research, she had identified a handful of more ‘Vegan’ style Cafe/Bars and eateries, that soon wiped the smile off my face I can tell you 😲

Now whilst I may have somewhat inadvertently wandered into the territory of, pictorially at least, indications around the consumption of Anti-Covid Vaccines 🍷, it seems quite appropriate for me to then perhaps just to mention yet another media article I read, on that rather wet and dismal Friday morning, one which actually brought a bit more happy news, and if I am honest, perhaps even brought a bit of a smile back on to my face, although for other’s, it may well be dependent on your opinion on the particular subject.

Now I did briefly mention this subject in a previous ramble, but just to refresh your memories, if this stricter law had come into force, then even as little as just one small glass of beer, or wine, or any other alcoholic beverage, would have meant that you would have been ‘over’ the drink-drive limit and subject to a fine and points off your licence (The points rule is slightly different here in Spain but I won’t go into that now). Personally speaking, for us it would not really have actually created a problem, if the proposed new limit had have been introduced, as Shazza rarely drinks alcohol and, on the very rare occasions when she does, and we both want to have a drink, then we are fortunate enough to be close enough to the Marina, and Town, to walk to the different watering holes, then walk back or get a taxi. I do acknowledge though that there are very good reasons for such laws, but, I ask myself, why not just go to a ‘zero tolerance’ as the legal limit is already quite low at just 0.5grams, but that level does at least allow for being able to have one drink ? Unless of course, there were other more ‘compelling factors’ involved in the decision making process, yes I do have my cynical head on again. By just dropping it to 0.2grams, would very likely catch out even ‘responsible’ drinkers who may not be fully aware that, just the one drink, that they may have had with their lunch, or dinner, would actually take them over the legal limit, meaning that even they would have ended up, if stopped and checked, with being fined, which, apart from the ‘Safety’ concerns, would then of course have included the procurement of very much more money into the ‘Coffers’, but for whom…… Police ? Councils ? Government ? 🤔 Now if the whole premise around this, was solely focused on road safety and saving lives then, surely the ‘zero tolerance’ approach would have been the way to go and made a lot more sense 🤷‍♂️ And to be honest, those who regularly drink to excess, and still choose to drive, will continue to do so, so who was this proposed new law aimed at targeting 🤷‍♂️ However, that said, I personally believe that the reason that this proposed new law was actually voted down, was not, for any ‘practical’ or common sense reasons, but more to do with ‘Political’ manoeuvre’s, for here in Spain whilst there is a two party ‘Coalition Government’, it relies on support from several smaller ‘Regional’ and ‘Minority’ parties to maintain its Parliamentary majority, so in the end it is much the same as many other Governments around the world, more a case of ‘You didn’t scratch my back so I am not scratching your’s’ 😉

Anyway, I hadn’t intended to publish another ramble until after we had commenced our upcoming road trip, and truly I really hadn’t intended to, but I would not have remembered most of this recent stuff during or after that trip, so I followed the common practice of most Government’s, and made a ‘U turn’ on that earlier decision, you however should consider it in a more positive perspective and consider it as a bonus ramble 😂 I may just have to close my eyes for the next week, until we depart on our extended road trip, for if I don’t, you know what will happen, something else will happen in the meantime that I will feel the urge to write about 🤔 Now we cannot have that can we 😉

As far as any other Earthquakes, After-Shocks, Tsunamis or survival of this current storm goes, if you are reading this then you know that we survived, well at least long enough to press the ‘Publish’ button 😂

Until the next ramble ……………….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena