It’s Just The Modern World In Which We Now Live

So there I was, still enjoying my period of behaving like the proverbial Ostrich, with my head buried in the sand, no longer wanting to consistently fill my head with the mountains of Doom and Gloom that I had been consistently bombarded with when speed reading and reviewing the wide variety of media publications, and I do have to say that, for a while, it had been working quite well but, there is one major disadvantage with doing this, for whilst my head may have been buried in the cool dark sand, other parts of my anatomy were still above ground and exposed, and they suddenly began to feel very much warmer than usual, which had nothing to do with the continuing, and quite normal, high Summer temperatures 😳

Now I certainly do not want to appear disrespectful to any of the victims, or to any of those involved with the dangerous job of fighting the recent spate of catastrophic Wildfires, whether they be the Professional Firefighter’s, the numerous Volunteers or any of the vast amount of other people who are providing other forms of assistance and relief, wether they be in France or Spain, or indeed with any of the less publicised devastating fires that are currently burning elsewhere throughout the continent of Europe or even wider afield. However, I am not going to focus this particular ramble on those catastrophic events, and my reasoning for not doing so is quite simple, I actually only know as much as any of you do, so I would just be regurgitating what most of you are probably already aware of for yourselves. Shazza and I, probably much like many of you, view these often horrific images and read the associated reports, but then, like many other’s, we just finish watching, or reading about them, and then we get on with our normal daily lives, which is the principle displayed in this particular ramble’s leading photographic image, for in reality all we can do is watch from afar, what else can anyone do 🤷‍♂️

But of course, what happens when you do raise your head above the parapet and return to perusing what else is contained within the pages of the ‘Doom and Gloom’ media 🤷‍♂️ This time, the other major News story was one for all ‘Conspiracy Theorists’ to get their teeth into, whilst donning their tin helmets wrapped in tin foil and heading into the hills as fast as they could run, or drive.

Now, if like myself, you are a person within a certain more senior age group reading this, you will also have probably watched many of the associated Sci-Fi movies, where Aliens, Robots, or Rogue Computers, try to take over the world, but then, and just in the nick of time, people like, Arnold Schwarzenegger (Terminator), Bruce Willis (Armageddon), Will Smith (Independence Day, Men in Black) or Keanu Reeves (The Matrix) come to our rescue. Well it looks like we are going to need them all to once again come and do battle for us, although I am not sure whether ‘Arnie’ or ‘Bruce’ will be up to the task these days, So, just in case some of you still have your heads stuck firmly in the sand, the big question is who, or what, is attacking us now ?

Now I am guessing that most of us will have heard the term AI, but don’t know exactly what it is, although we all probably use it every single day, the abbreviation ‘AI’ refers to ‘Artificial Intelligence’, basically Computer Programmes, that now manage most of the Technologies that we use in our everyday lives, wether that be for Communications purposes, via Mobiles, Laptops, iPads, Gaming Consoles and even Digital Watches, in newer vehicles, keyless ignitions and internal electronics, Sat Nav’s and engine monitoring systems, but also in our everyday Digital Banking processes and procedures, including ‘Apple Pay’, Debit and Credit Cards, then the extremely long list of On-Line Shopping Services, and let’s not forget ‘Alexa’ in our homes (Or other similar gadgets), Google Search (and other on-line search engines) and a whole host of other Digital Technologies, far too many to list. In truth, most of us do not ‘generally’ give any of these things a second thought for, ‘It Is Just The Modern World In Which We Now Live’, whether we like it or not. However, given this latest major breaking news story, and the huge response to it from other’s in the Digital Technologies World, Cyber Security Specialists and Government’s, the big question is, ‘Should we mere mortals actually be concerned ?’.

Now from a purely personal perspective, here’s the really coincidental thing about this recent ‘Breaking News Story’. Shazza and myself are in the process of watching the start of Series 3 of our current ‘Netflix’ box set series, ‘Person of Interest’, which was first aired back in 2012. It is, generally speaking, just a relatively modern American police crime drama, very easy watching and very entertaining and it involves a ‘Super Computer’ which is used to identify people whose lives are in danger. Now you do have to remember that this is a ‘fictional drama’ from some fourteen year’s ago, but the technologies are pretty much what we are all utilising today in both our personal and business lives, although these days they have advanced very much further. So of course, watching this programme at the same time that this current AI Cyber Security Breach was very publicly announced, led us to discuss between ourselves wether or not we ourselves should be concerned, or should we just accept that actually we have absolutely no ‘Control or Influence’ over it, should we immediately go and ‘delete’ lots of the ‘Apps’, that we rarely use but keep active on our electronic devices ? We both agreed that that would be much like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, for nothing is truly ‘deleted’ by just pressing the ‘delete’ button on the keyboard 🤷‍♂️

So enough of all of that stuff, let’s not get ‘Paranoid’, although that isn’t to say that there isn’t something out there watching and listening to us 😂 Okay, time I think to get this ramble back to the less scary topic of ‘La Vida Es Buena’ in the here and now, a place where we all, currently at least, just co-exist quite happily alongside the more helpful, informative and user friendly side of AI.

Now that the month long FIFA World Cup football tournament is over, our small area of Spain has returned to it’s normal more laid back and leisurely mode of lifestyle, that we have most certainly become well accustomed to now, and at least that month long football event did at least provide another excuse for the whole of Spain to hold another, albeit un-scheduled, Fiesta, which does tend to take one’s minds off, for a short period of time, what is going on in the big bad outside world 😁

I guess I should also get the ‘Works of Fiction’ subject out of the way too whilst I remember, it would be rude not to 🤭 Yes, and much like the rest of Europe at the moment, it is still very hot here, although probably not quite as hot as some other areas further North from us at this moment in time, for obvious reasons 🙄 We have just waved goodbye to the extended period of ‘Terel’ winds, knowing that they will undoubtedly return several times again before the Summer season ends, but there is no respite, for they have now been replaced by a similarly hot ‘Levante’ wind, these blow up and across from the the African continent, but as well as the additional heat that they bring, they also carry with them the Saharan Sand (Calima) which just literally covers everything in their path.

However, let’s get back to talking about much nicer topics, yes more ‘Fiestas’, as they continue to come thick and fast especially in our surrounding locality. Just a few short weeks ago it was the big celebration in our local town for ‘San Juan’, that was swiftly followed by celebrating the Patron Saint of Fishermen and Sailor’s (Virgen del Carmen). Last weekend, 25-26th July, it was another ‘Religious’ celebration, which of course involved the mandatory inclusion of merriment, parades, music and of course the imbibing of much liquid refreshments that carried on well into the early hour’s. However, that event was not held in our own town but up in the small town of ‘Manilva’, which is a little further inland, 5km North of us and around a 10 minute drive and that event was in celebration of the town’s female Saint (Santa Ana).

But this small hillside town of Manilva and its surrounding area, have more to it than first meets the eye, it produces its own wine (Nilva) and holds tour’s and wine tasting events throughout the year, and during the grape harvest in September they celebrate it with a ‘Wine Festival’, well of course they do, it would be rude not to. But it isn’t just the wine, for if you visit the town and look down from several of the outer streets or viewing points you may be surprised to see green lush, well maintained land, which produce very much more than just vineyards, for this is an area that also produces a lot of fruit and vegetables and yes, before you ask, they even have a festival to celebrate that too 😁

The Wine Festival (2025)

Now I had not intended to make this a tourist promotion ramble for this small whitewashed town, however, after reading back through the previous paragraph’s, it does tend to sound very much like I am writing an article for the Manilva Tourist Board. Perhaps I should speak to the Mayor and if this ramble creates an increase in Manilva’s tourism revenue then perhaps a little bit of ‘Financial Commission’ may be in order 😂 But the real reason for writing about Manilva was more to do with my own conscience, for whilst I often write about our local area I tend to stick to things in and around our own ‘immediate’ area, that being the former fishing village, the Marina, the town and even Estepona, so I thought that I may be portraying a more dismissive attitude to our close neighbours, so I thought that it was time to give them a little piece of the spotlight in this ramble, job done I think 😉

Now although we have had quite a busy ‘Fiesta’ period during the last month or so, there was still one more to come this coming Friday (31st July), or by the time I publish this ramble we would have just had that, but more about that a little bit later.

Now during the week building up to that Fiesta, Shazza and I actually had to break our now, more usual, daily ‘Summer Schedule’ routine of confining ourselves either to exercise sessions in the pool, or remaining out of the heat in the cooler cave-like conditions of the apartment. So, what used to be our daily walks, had become much less frequent and, when we do need to go into the town, we drive directly into it, as opposed to parking up at our more normal beachfront location and walking in, but now, with the much increased tourist hoards, we do now unfortunately also have to play ‘Hunt the Parking Space’. These town visits are only generally conducted when absolutely necessary, we both had separate dental appointments on different days and, unfortunately, they were both after lunch when the temperatures were climbing rapidly into the nearly ‘Unbearable’ category. So, with the temperatures already well into the thirty degree(c) somethings, we elected to combine one of those day’s with our weekly shop, killing two birds with one stone as it were, although we did still manage a stop, on both of those days, for our mandatory refreshments, well it would have been rude not to really wouldn’t it 😁. I genuinely cannot even begin to express to you the luxurious feeling of ice cold cervesa on the back of one’s throat, it was like throwing cold water onto hot coals, yes you could hear the customary ‘hissing sound’ as ice cold beer hit the back of my throat 😂 but we know for certain when it is considered to be ‘excessively’ hot here, for even the locals who live and work here also complain about the temperatures, although daily life for them has to continue. It was a bit of a strange week as we ended up having to go out on four of the five days, one of them requiring an early drive into Estepona, without knowing how long we would have to remain there, it could have been a few hour’s or, for most of the day, but more about the reason for that in a future ramble ?

We do still try to get out from the confines of our apartment and pool area at least one night a week, although usually that would be on a Saturday to go out for dinner, however this week it just happened to be the ‘Fiesta de la Luna Llena’ (Full Moon Festival) on the Friday night, this was an annual event and to distinguish it from the scores of other fiestas throughout the year it is advertised as a ‘Cosmic Beach Party’ with some specific traditions, so our weekly night out would take place a day earlier so that we could enjoy the festive ambience.

The dress code of all white was not mandatory, and many didn’t, but Shazza and I went with the tradition. We knew that as we had not pre-booked a table for Dinner that there would be no way that we would get to eat at a seafront promenade establishment, but we were happy to go to the large Plaza a couple of streets back, which we knew would be relatively tourist free and where we could guarantee getting a table in one of the several Cafe/Bar Eateries. The Plaza was less chaotic than the seafront and we were happy to sit, eat and drink amongst the local Spanish and also to enjoy the abundance of people watching opportunities that we were provided with. We have attended these fiesta numerous times so we didn’t plan on staying and participating in the event into the early hours, although it was nice to be amongst it and, for those who have never witnessed this kind of thing before, it is quite a spectacle, for us though, most of these annual events become much of a muchness.

As darkness fell at around 9:30pm, we wandered back to the seafront promenade to join the ever increasing growing numbers, the full length of the promenade was awash with lights from the additional, and numerous, ‘Pop-Up Bars’ that we had watched being set up when we took our much earlier morning walk that day (disguised as an essential fruiteria shop by you know who ?), their were street vendors selling their assorted ‘themed’ trinkets, food trailers selling fried ‘Buenellas’ (Dinky Donuts), Candy Floss and other assorted sweet treats, the lights emanating from the terraces of the seafront restaurants, the flames from the beach ‘wood fired’ grills, the lights from the children’s bouncy castles and other fairground like attractions and of course the noise of the musical entertainment and people talking very loudly trying to have conversations over the top of it, made it feel like a party ambience. The one major noticeable lack, was the presence of any Police, we saw just two, on foot patrol, enjoying banter with the people as they strolled amongst them, for all of these events are enjoyed by everyone, of all ages, from the very youngest to the much more senior and of course, the full moon must have got delayed in all the traffic as it once again failed to appear to an event organised in its honour, but I don’t think anybody missed it 😂

So there you have it, just another couple of weeks in our life down here in our small corner of the Costa del Sol. For us, well there is no rest for the wicked as they say, as we have just one week before the arrival of our Son, Daughter-in-Law and three Grandaughter’s, they will be with us for a full two weeks, so another couple of busy weeks ahead of us, but very enjoyable one’s. Whilst the twins are here they will celebrate their 11th Birthdays, they have been coming here to see us every year since we have owned our apartment, from when they were only 6 months old, where does the time go to 😲

Although there is a lot of ‘not so nice’ stuff going on all around various parts of the world today, I feel almost certain that there are also lots of places where, just like here, normal daily life and lots of good stuff also goes on and so, I think that it is very important that we must each remind ourselves, when we see, or sit and read about all of the ‘Doom And Gloom’, that, if these media publications didn’t fill their pages with all of that kind of stuff then they just might have to concentrate on writing about much more happy news, and I am sure there is plenty of that if they took the time to look, but then who would bother taking the time to read it, for we would all be far too busy just getting on and enjoying our lives. And here is another thought that I will just leave you with, Artificial Intelligence (AI) certainly had a big part to play in assisting me with writing, researching, editing and publishing this ramble 😉

Until my next ramble…………………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena