Had I Actually Backed The Wrong Horse !

There are times in our lives when we have to make hasty decisions, based entirely on only the information that you currently have at hand at that particular moment in time. Gambler’s will ‘generally’ take the higher risk decision, in order to reap the ‘potential’ reward linked with that decision, financial or otherwise, whilst those, like myself, who are much more risk averse, will tend to choose to take the safer bet.

For a little over a week, we have enjoyed being back in the comfort of our own home, enjoying walking out in the gloriously warm sun-filled days, rather than be in a potentially wet and soggy France, worrying about where our next tank of Diesel fuel may come from. After taking the decision to cut short our road trip through France, and just out of curiosity, I continued to keep checking the ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts and I began to question myself on that particular subject ‘Had I Actually Backed The Wrong Horse’, as the ‘Works of Fiction’ now revealed that, whilst not exactly sun-drenched, most of France, especially the Regions that we would have been driving through, were relatively dry, albeit cloudy and overcast. Then, with what would have been just one week into our French road trip, the media headlines reported that the ‘Strait of Hormuz’ had re-opened, fuel would still be readily available and the prices were decreasing. However, that in reality was a short and very fragile ceasefire agreement which looks, if recent media reports are to be believed, is not going to last, with reports that both Iran and the USA have broken that agreement. So perhaps the fuel issues will continue to rumble on for some time yet, who knows 🤷‍♂️ To be completely honest, initially I was more than a little frustrated with myself, for not taking the gamble and sticking with ‘Plan A’, but as I now reflect on that decision, if we had, would we have been able to fully relax whilst on our road trip or would we have been continually looking over our shoulder having to worry about fuel availability 🤔 However, like any form of gambling, you place your bet, you roll the dice or turn the card and then sit and await the outcome 🤷‍♂️ Fortunately, my gamble did not result in any financial loss, indeed, as I searched to try to find some sort of a positive outcome for my decision, I consoled myself with the knowledge that we perhaps did benefit, financially at least, as we had returned home with more money than we would have done if we had have completed the full duration of the trip, although somehow, even armed with that knowledge, it certainly didn’t make me feel like fist-punching the air in celebration, for it still felt like a lost opportunity to me. But on another positive note, whilst Shazza may not have celebrated her birthday in a ‘French’ Restaurant in France, we did still get to celebrate it with a very pleasant Spanish lunch, under the sun canopy of one of her favourite Spanish Restaurant’s in our own home town, then we followed it up just sat, relaxed and enjoying the sea views, with a spot of good old people watching, from the shaded terrace of a Beach Bar for good measure🍹🌴 We both say quite often these days that we do not actually feel our ages, but much younger, by as much as twenty or so more year’s, so with that in mind, I sang Shazza a ‘Birthday Song’……………..

🎶 Enjoy Yourself, you’re older than you think,

Enjoy Yourself whilst you still have the ability to think,

Enjoy yourself, Enjoy yourself, you’re older than you think !! 🎶

Of course, I braced myself for the physical and verbal assault that would surely follow 🫣 However, she saw the funny side of it and said, “Best I order another couple of cocktails, then I can blame the memory failure on the alcohol” 😂

The weather, since we have been back, has been …… well quite normal for this time of year in this part of the country, ‘Hace calor, pero no demasiado’ as we say here in Spain, (It is warm, but not too hot) with the average daily high’s of between 22-24 degrees(c), sun high in the sky, barely a cloud and just a gentle warm breeze blowing in from the sea, so it is certainly back to wearing our much more preferred clothing of shorts and tee-shirt (Cortos y camiseta) 😎

We had only been away for just a little over two weeks, but in that time there had been a few subtle changes, mainly the number of seasonal beach bars and touristy type shops that have re-opened, or on the brink of re-opening, the latter just adding the last few splashes of paint here and there, washing down the plastic tables and chairs, all that sort of stuff. There was definitely an extra buzz in the town as the early bird tourists also appear to have arrived, beginning to replace the silver rinse brigade ahead of the main holiday crowds, but without the increase in the number of the much younger ‘Little Darlings’ in tow 🤭 Although that seasonal element may soon be arriving in greater numbers, subject of course to how much Aviation Fuel the holiday flight tour operators still have, but if, or when, they do arrive they will once again swarm the promenade, beaches, ice-cream parlours and take up all of the car parking spaces, which is the non-official announcement that the annual Summer holiday season has once again commenced 🙄

As you may imagine, on returning home we quickly settled back into our usual daily routines, but we also had to start thinking about a more immediate priority, the administrative preparation required to commence the renewal of our Non-Lucrative Visas (NLV) and to what would be the last renewal of our ‘Temporary’ Residency Permits. It should be quite a straightforward process, we have already been through this process twice now in the nearly three year’s we have lived here, our Solicitor’s, who do all of the ‘official’ stuff on our behalf, have most documents on file and hold our ‘Digital Certificates’, meaning that they can access official databases to get any necessary updated official documents and make all the necessary on-line applications, we just have to provide up dated financial information which have to first be ‘Officially’ interpreted, strange but I thought numerals were written the same in most European languages, 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. but there you go, in Spain you learn something new everyday 🤷‍♂️ We will of course have to attend the Immigration Office in Estepona in person, twice in fact, once to submit the applications in person to renew our ‘Residency Permits’, which involves them taking our fingerprints yet again, then the second visitation is to collect our new Residency Permits, which will again be valid for a further two year’s, which will take us up to our 5 year point when we can then apply for our ‘Permanent Residency Permits’, although they too still have to be renewed, but every 5 year’s, instead of the current 2 year periods.

The only issue that I could foresee was in there being a major delay in the administrative processes, due to potential blockages created by the Spanish Governments recent controversial announcement that, with effect from 16th April, it is opening up official residency applications to grant half a million, or perhaps even more, ‘Undocumented Migrants’ who are currently already living and working in Spain, the opportunity to gain ‘Legal Residency’.

I broached the subject of the ‘potential’ delay in our own renewal process with our Solicitor’s, however, they stated that there ‘should not’ be a problem as the ‘Undocumented Migrant’ processes are being conducted under separate database processes. Although, it has been reported in the local media that there are no additional Immigration Staff being employed, so I am not sure how delays are not going to become inevitable, but we can only wait and see how things turn out 🤷‍♂️ Our own current Residency Permits expire in the middle of June, but we cannot actually physically go to the Immigration Office to submit the forms to renew them, until the actual date of expiry, if we can get an appointment on that date that is, we then have to wait for them to re-check our submitted documentation before they make, and then issue, the new Residency Permits, which effectively means that we will not physically get our new permits until some point in July, at the earliest 🤷‍♂️ This is not really a major issue for us, provided that we do not need to leave the Country, but if we did, in say a family emergency in the UK for example, well that would involve another quite separate administrative headache.

For people reading this who may be considering re-locating to Spain thinking ‘Oh my goodness, that sounds complicated and too much hassle’, all that I would say is that in reality, this renewal procedure is to gain a two year ‘Temporay’ Residency Permit, and so it is only a few weeks of slight disruption and officialdom, short term pain for long term gain, as the saying goes. After the last two year renewal, then it is every five year’s between renewals on the ‘Permanent Residency Permit’ and that process then comes with much less administrative requirements, and do not entail the restrictions that come with holding the ‘Temporary Residency’ permit. Additionally, if you use authorised professionals to do the majority of the Administrative requirements on your behalf then, in reality, it isn’t that cumbersome, but it does give us Brits something else to have a good moan about 😂

There appears to have been a lot of changes happening in respect of Migration this year, the introduction of the EES system for ‘third country’ citizens wishing to enter any of the EU Schengen Zone Countries, that has brought about its own well documented issues with long delays at various ‘Ports of Entry & Exit’, with people ‘allegedly’ queuing for hours and some even missing flights because of it. Now, another Immigration process here in Spain, to register ‘Undocumented Migrants’ already living and working here illegally, and provide them officially with ‘Legal Residency’ status, then, in July, when Gibraltar officially becomes part of the Schengen Zone, which if I recall correctly, a certain British Government Minister said would never happen 🤔 which then means the EES procedures will also be adopted at the ‘Ports of Entry & Exit’ in Gibraltar, although there will no longer be any land border, but again this will only effect ‘Third Country’ nationals arriving, or departing, via Gibraltar then, as if that wasn’t enough to be going on with, purportedly, towards the end of the year, the EU are introducing the European Travel Authority (ETA) procedure, who wants to take any bets on whether the date of introduction of that will not be pushed back yet again. So what may come next is anyone’s guess, perhaps an identity and global locator chip placed under our skin ? ‘Many a true word spoken in jest’ Eric 🤷‍♂️ Anyway, as I am not the official European Tourist and Travel Information Service, enough about any and all of that, I am sure you are capable of reading associated media articles, or ‘Official’ information websites, on any of these subject’s for yourselves 😂

By way of a change to our normal daily routines we opted, on yet another warm Sunnyday (Yes it was actually sunny, and it was a Sunday 😁), to drive the relatively short distance into Estepona. We had read that there was a ‘Ruta de Tapas’ event on, between the 17th-19th April, so this was to be the last day. This annual event is where a large number of Cafe/Bars, I think around seventy-four, offer a specific Tapas and one drink for a set price (€3.50) and each establishment provides a different type of Tapas 😋😋 The event is combined with a market, held in one of the main streets, where the stalls offer tastings, and of course sell, Spanish Wines and Vermut, a whole range of Spanish Cheese, Hams, Chorizo’s, Bread and Pastries and their was one stall where there was a competition for the best leg of ‘Jamon’ slicing, which is a very serious specialisation here in Spain with National Competitions being held around the country so, of course it would have been rude not to attend such a local event.

It was a beautiful day, but we had forgotten that, being a Sunday, it was also the day of the weekly market held in the Estepona Marina, which is where we had decided to park 🙄 It was crowded when we arrived at midday, although there is a large piece of waste ground utilised as overflow parking so we managed, only just mind you, to find an unoccupied piece of hard dried uneven mud to leave the car. We have actually attended this market on numerous occasions, although these days, usually only to bring our visitor’s here, who seem to like buying ‘stuff’ that they didn’t know they needed, then get it home and realise that they didn’t 😂 As it was, on this occasion, with no visitor’s in tow, we just by-passed the row on row of ‘Tourist Tat’ stalls and took a slower than usual walk from the Marina into Estepona Town. I have to say that whilst we could feel the increased buzz of people in our own town, here in Estepona we could actually see it, for it was very busy, probably a combination of the sunshine, weekly market and the special weekend events that brought out locals and tourists alike out in their droves. The first thing we needed when we reached the town was somewhere to re-hydrate, but not at any of the seafront hostelries at their inflated prices. We headed slightly uphill into the back streets, not far out of the main town, and found ourselves, a new to us, Argentinean owned ‘Bodega’ with tables and stools positioned outside and, quite coincidentally as it happened, discovered it was one participating in the ‘Ruta de Tapas’ event, so of course, it would have been rude not to enjoy a tasty morsel with our refreshments 🤭

It was such a pleasant environment and the ambience was good so we stayed and enjoyed another drink, but we were both being good and enjoyed ice cold ‘Toasted non-alcoholic Cervesas’ with me foregoing my more usual Anti-Covid Vaccine. We then pushed down back into the town and located the market stalls, as you may imagine, it was crowded, not just with those perusing the stalls but the street was lined with Cafe/Bars so there was plenty of people watching going on, although this time we were probably the victims of the people watchers, fashion police and body beautiful judgementalists and, after our recent over indulgent period in the UK, well the body beautiful judgement panel would have had a field day 😂

They say that ‘A change is as good as a rest’ and certainly making these occasional variations to our daily routines does make a difference, for no matter how much we like our own environmental bubble of tranquility, the seafront, marina and town, sometimes following the same routines can get a bit boring. With the mid-afternoon temperature in Estepona peaking at 26 degrees(c), we had one more re-hydration stop on our walk back to the car and we both agreed that the time is rapidly approaching, when we will have to soak ourselves in sun cream before going out, and we may also need to start to wear sun hats as the Summer is well and truly on the horizon, although I cannot say that we are looking forward to June, July or August, when the daily temperatures will undoubtedly rise towards the 40+ degree mark 🥵🥵 We returned home late afternoon and spent the evening on the balcony, Shazza reading a book on her Kindle device whilst I commenced drafting this latest ramble, the sun keeping the balcony pleasantly warm until well after it got dark at 9pm.

The following morning and ‘Forrest’ revealed to me that yet another sun-kissed day was in store for us, although Shazza was slower this particular morning at peeling herself from under the lighter summer weight duvet. When she did, I proffered a number of suggestions for her to ruminate over, whilst she drank her coffee, 1) a sunbathing day down at the pool, swimming not compulsory though, 2) perhaps a day on the beach, or 3) just our normal daily walk routine. She looks over the top of her mug of coffee at me, “Can we have a day off today ?” She says, with puppy dog eyes. I let out a chuckle, “Every day is a day off for us isn’t it ?we can do whatever we choose to do, and that includes choosing to do nothing at all”. Although I knew that unlike myself, Shazza couldn’t sit still for two minutes, so her day off comprised off re-organising her wardrobe, bringing out Summer clothes and storing her heavier winter one’s, changing the bedding, pottering around in the kitchen making something or other, her day off just actually meant not walking anywhere outside in the searing heat, we had both done enough of that over the last week. Sometimes it is just good to be able to sit with your feet up, and be thankful for where you are and for what you have, or then again, you could just sit with your feet up 😁

So, as we enter yet another new week, where on earth do they go to I ask myself yet again 🤷‍♂️ However, we have no specific plans, other than trying to progress a little further if we can, administratively at least, with our VISA and Residency Renewal procedures and, of course, we will continue with our walks, although they may soon have to be shared with days around our pool, as this activity does also provide us with an alternative ‘Exercise’ regime, however, the water temperature, at least for my liking, still isn’t quite ‘Crown Jewels’ safe just yet 🥶 Although, there is certainly no good reason why we cannot just grab a sun-bed and commence replenishing our fading sun tans for it has been a very long, cold and wet Winter period this last few months. And, as we discovered late yesterday evening, it is also looking likely that we may have some short notice family visitors arriving, for a week’s stay with us, within the next fortnight, although I guess there may still be a possibility that some third parties, who are located in countries much further away, may yet still have an input into whether that visit does actually materialise 🤔 But as far as we are concerned, it will be what it will be, we have no control over those sort of things so we will continue to just take each day, week and month as it comes 🤷‍♂️ It seems that everything that is going on in the world today is actually in the hands of a self acclaimed ‘God’, you know what ? he actually looks familiar, now where do I know him from 😂😂

Until the next ramble……………….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena