When you are sailing your own medium sized trawler yacht upon a calm ocean, with nobody else around you for hundreds of miles, with only the soothing sounds of the boats bow as it cuts through the calm water, and perhaps the sound of the occasional sea birds as they fly over you on their own journey, and perhaps sometimes getting the occasional surprise marine-life visitor to share part of the journey with you, Whales, Dolphins, Turtles etc. and your everyday solitary life and routines just tick by slowly and peacefully, just as they should do, then life in those moments must be sheer bliss. Well that is until the sky and sea suddenly turns black, and you start to feel the bumps on the side of your hull, from the rising tumultuous and restless waves, as the sea buffets you from side to side, or pitches the bow skywards and it comes down with a bit of a thump, a timely reminder that you should never take things for granted, for things can, and often do, change with very little, if any, warning which, if you are caught unprepared, could otherwise spoil your day.
Just like that sailor on a boat, miles away from all the noise and hustle and bustle of everyday life, those calm and blissful routines can quite often be similarly conducted here on dry land, and like that experienced and confident sailor, who must possess the necessary skills and mental strength required to deal with unexpected situations, well, sometimes us landlubbers too must have similar skills and mental ability to be able to safely navigate their way through those occasional ‘Bumps In The Road’, for not every day is about pleasant walks along a sun drenched promenade, or sat in the shade enjoying lunches at a beachfront cafe/bar 🤷♂️ That is how I had thought about our own recent stormy waters, although the bump on the side of our car door was physically damaging, to the car, we ourselves were not in it when it happened and so were unscathed, and whilst being both frustrated and angry, we did eventually manage to navigate our way through that initial storm, our own turbulent waters had now, thankfully, calmed again and, although we continue to wait for the repair on the car to be conducted, the sun at last is once again shining, both physically and metaphorically speaking and our daily lives have returned to their normal more even keel. You do not always get advance warnings of when the next storm may arrive, although we know that it almost certainly will. It is all part of life’s journey and, like that sailor alone out on the Ocean, you have no choice, you have to deal with it and trust that you have the mindset, and the strength of character, to come out of the other side of those troubled waters.
So there I was, laying on my back in our communal swimming pool just staring up at the blue cloudless sky, the sun warm on my face, with only the sounds of the gentle rippling water as I moved slowly and effortlessly through it. It was mid-afternoon, which to be down at the pool at that time of the day had been somewhat of a rarity recently, due to the tourist hoards that had commandeered it over the last 10 weeks or so. However, here we both were, in the middle of the afternoon with only four other couples around our communal pool complex. We did not know those other couples, well not on a close personal level, but we recognised their faces as being some of our fellow permanent residents, whom we see from time to time throughout the year, either down at the pool, or as we pass each other going to and fro in the car park.
These other couples were just enjoying being sat on sun loungers, reading their books and magazines, or enjoying a blast of solar basting, but they each gave us an acknowledging smile or nod as we claimed our place under our selected wooden and straw hatted sun shade. If it had not been for the sound of the pools water filtration system bubbling away in the background, it would have been completely silent. If you could describe a Summer heaven it would be this exact moment, with the short but lush green grass surrounding the pool, the slightly darker green hedgerow bordering the area, the inner parts of the hedgerow with radiantly coloured pink, red and white flowers poking their heads out from in-between the close cropped branches, the blue ceramic tiles that filled the inner walls and floor of the pool, with the sun’s rays sparkling off the surface of the clean clear water, was a beautiful looking haven of tranquility, all that was missing were the Angels playing relaxing music on their Harps, which would have indicated that we had perhaps passed from one life to the next 😂 Although, on saying that, when I think about it, I suppose we actually had in a way, passing from the noisy hectic Summer life into the more peaceful and Tranquil end of Summer 😂 There was actually nobody in the pool itself, so after positioning our sun lounger’s and laying out our towels on them, we took off our flip flops and tee shirts and entered the refreshingly cool water, the air temperature was around 29 degrees(c) and the sun searingly hot, but the pool water, when you first get in, always feels a bit sharp, although not to the extent that it took my breath away, like it undoubtedly will in just a few weeks time, but it didn’t take too long, after immersing myself fully in the water, before it became pleasantly warm and it wrapped itself around me, like a comfort blanket.
Our own rising paranoia, which is real I hasten to add, not about whether we are ‘becoming’ ‘Grumpy old wrinklies’ but more about the fact that we may already have become them, was alleviated I am pleased to announce, after, quite literally just several days ago, Shazza seeing this post on one of her Spanish Social Media Forums, and when she showed it to me, we sighed with relief and gave each other a knowing smile for this just confirmed that we, after all, are certainly not the only one’s that feel this way…….(Apologies for the small print)
Although the front main balcony in our apartment still remains my most favourite place for conducting my periods of contemplation, but with the tranquility that has now returned to our pool area, this makes it my now very close second best place for conducting lengthy periods of ‘General’ contemplations although, the reality is that this particular place is on borrowed time, for the effective use of this area is limited by the pool water temperature and when a certain part of my bodily extremity takes emergency shelter ‘inside’ my body, then my pool season is most definitely over 🫣 Whereas, the sanctuary of the front South facing balcony is more of an ‘Open All Year’ sort of location. However, I may be about to experience a sudden surprise extension 😲 No !! Behave yourselves and stop that particular train of thought right here and now 😂 I mean an extension to the amount of time I may get to spend in the pool this year, for although, as you already know, I am always cynical about what I read in the media these days, and even more-so when the media and the ‘Works of Fiction’ combine to push out a joint article, but on this occasion, I am rather hoping that they may have got this one right this time 🙏
There is a very good reason for my cynicism on this occasion, it isn’t really to do with the actual temperatures they are quoting, more to do with their Geographical location abilities as to what area actually constitutes the ‘South’ of Spain. It appears, from reading numerous Spanish media articles, that ‘they’ fail to either know, or acknowledge, that the ‘South’ of Spain does not actually end at ‘Seville’, on the North West side of Andalusia, or even at ‘Malaga City’, on the Eastern Coast, but that in fact their is a further 65 miles (105Km) of Coastlines, Mountains, Villages and Towns below those two locations, an area which run East to West from the Mediterranean side to the Atlantic side (Or Vice-Versa). More often than not, the media’s next general reference point, after Malaga City, is usually when they mention Gibraltar which, for any of my reader’s who do not know, is actually a completely different Country, much like Canada is to the USA, or France is to Spain, Wales is to England and so on and so forth. Our part of ‘Southern Spain’ does, generally speaking, have its own unique weather patterns and climatic variations, so, I guess the question that we down here in the proper part of ‘Southern Spain’ are asking is, will we actually get these extended Summer temperatures that the media and ‘Works of Fiction’ are forecasting ? To be honest, it isn’t looking very likely when I look at the advance more localised forecasts for our area, which, personally speaking of course, would not be a bad thing, for 38 degrees(c) is just a little too excruciatingly hot for my liking 🥵, so I for one will be happy if they were to stay at their current level which is around 26-27 Degrees(c) which is much more bearable for lazing around a pool, or swimming in it, or for once again being able to enjoy a pleasant morning’s walk along the seafront promenade.
Now even given the forecast above, which can also often be inaccurate, so those daily high’s shown could still be 2-3 degrees higher, even so, I think that I can safely say that whilst those in and above Seville and Malaga may end up getting toasted to a crisp, down here we should be okay, and at the end of the day, with my selfish head on of course, that is perfectly fine by me 😂 BUT, it doesn’t end there as both the media and the ‘Works of Fiction’ have been in cahoots with each other once again, and whilst one minute they are forecasting that we are going to be roasted alive, in the next breath they create confusion by pre-warning us that we are also likely to get hit by this ‘Super El Niño ’, that is purportedly bringing Storm force winds, gallons of Rain and Hailstones and lots of Thunder and Lightening, although I guess we should be grateful that they have made no mention of starvation and pestilence, so perhaps it won’t be as bad as some of the more threatening biblical prophecies indicate. So, take your bets now, will we either get fried to a crisp by the upcoming Solar Blitz or drowned by the effects of the Super El Niño, Annihilated by World War III or will the human race be destroyed completely by Artificial Intelligence ?
Personally speaking though, I am hedging my bets, to escape the Solar Blitz I am going down to the pool everyday and learning to hold my breath under water for sufficient length of time until it has passed, although that, I have to confess, is not going as well as I would like it to 🙄 However, Shazza reminded me that we do still possess ‘Wet Suits’, and all of the associated paraphernalia to go with them, flippers, masks and snorkels, we purchased them year’s ago when we were going through our ‘Let’s sell up and go and live full-time in a Motorhome’ adventure period of our lives, but to be honest we never really got much use out of them. In those days we were perhaps a little slimmer than we are now (Actually, there is no perhaps about it), however, we both did try them on a couple of year’s ago, just to see if they still fitted, let me tell you that that event would have made a very good comedy sketch on ‘You Tube’ 😂 Have you ever tried getting in, and out, of one of those things when you reach a certain age, when your body is showing more of a ‘relaxed muscle’ tone physique, as opposed to the once, much younger, more athletic toned physique, okay, once again, personally speaking, I may even be pushing that description a little bit too far 🤭 No, once in the tight neoprene wrapper, which I have to tell you, was an exercise workout in its own right 😮💨 and I dread to think what the neighbours must have been thinking we were up to, in hindsight I guess we really should have closed the blinds first 🤔 Then, once in, try then to extract yourself from its clinging, almost suffocating grasp as you struggle to persuade another roll of relaxed muscle to lever itself out of the near claustrophobic constraint, believe me, you will only ever do it the once, especially after the embarrassment of having to call out the Emergency services to cut you free of it 😂
As for being prepared for the Super El Niño, well I now have ‘Kevin the Kayak’ on standby, although he appears to look a lot smaller than I remembered him being 🤔 However, I feel reasonably confident that he could still carry us both, not sure about three days worth of ‘Emergency Prepping’ provisions though.
The other downside is that if the amount of heavy rain that has been anticipated to fall in such a short period of time, actually does, then I think that ‘Kevin’ may fill up faster than I am able to bale him out 🤔
As for World War III, well we are doing our best to stay as far away as we possibly can from Andy Burnham (UK Prime Minister) and Donald Trump (We all know who he is right 😳), although I still fear that even the end of the earth from either of that pair still wouldn’t be far enough 🙄 I guess that at this point, with reading all about this modern form of warfare with the use of drones, I should also confess to getting a bit twitchy these days, every time I hear one of the Spanish Guardia Civil ‘Anti-Drug Smuggler’ Drones flying overhead I ask myself, is it one of our’sor one of Putins or Zelenski’s that has gone astray accidentally on purpose 😳 And then, as for the apparent imminent threat to Human Civilisation that we keep hearing more and more about in the media, which is purportedly coming from AI Bots and not Global Warming and Climate Change 🤷♂️ Well, as I am not too well versed in matters of technology, I am also not stupid, contrary to popular belief, so I of course used modern technology to assist me and so I have taken to consulting ChatGPT and Google Deep Mind as to what options are available to me, although they both just keep giving me the same answer, ‘It Is Futile To Resist, You Will Be Assimillated’ 🤔 Perhaps I should ask ‘Siri’ for a third independent opinion ?
Now if you will just humour me for a little bit longer, seeing that I have just mentioned the ‘Prepping’ of three days worth of essential supplies, albeit in a bit of a tongue-in-cheek sort of way. Now whilst this subject has been something that has very recently re-appeared in the UK News over the last day or two, where they are attempting to loosely reference it to being just a precaution, in case of some sort of Environmental or Infrastructure Emergency, and they just happen to mention it in the same sentence that makes reference to the anticipated arrival of this ‘Super El Nino’, I always thought that was a game with those funny little Italian looking character’s 🤷♂️ However, perhaps it would be reasonable to ask yourself why is it, that the rest of Europe were telling all of their citizens about ‘Prepping’, and even going as far as distributing advisory leaflets to every household, way back in March of 2025, when, at that time, there was no threat from a ‘Super El Niño’, or any of his brother’s 🤷♂️ Many European countries mainstream media publications, and Television News Channels have also, certainly within the last year, been making reference to re-introducing Conscription into all of their Armed Forces, is their a link 🤔 Now as you know, I am forever de-crying all forms of Media for the spreading of Alarm and Despondency, Scaremongering and trying to generally just make people feel depressed about how bad off they are, and I certainly do not want to join that brigade of soothsayer’s but, sometimes, not very often I have to admit, there are the odd bits that keep appearing in the media, a bit like a jig-saw puzzle where, the pieces on their own, all jumbled up, make very little sense, but when you start to put those pieces together, a picture starts to emerge, although sometimes they must put the wrong pieces in the box because mine never finish up looking like the picture on the front 🤔 Not so very long ago, here in Spain, Portugal and parts of Southern France, the Electricity supply was cut off for hour’s, even over 24 hour’s in some areas, that particular incident was blamed on the overloading of a Sub-Station although a few conspiracy theories also emerged 🤔 How many instances over the past year have their been of major Companies, Communications, Transport, Financial Institutions being hacked, What about the very recent massive Technical Issue with the UK’s Air Traffic Control System that resulted in major flight Cancellations and Disruptions throughout Europe, and on some Global routes and what about the public announcement, by one of the major AI developers, that foreign Scientists had been caught attempting to use AI to develop a bacterial weapon, now, is there a picture emerging or are these incidents, and numerous other’s, just coincidental coincidences🤷♂️ I have to confess at not paying too much interest in reading, in full at least, many of these media articles, or trying to formulate a doomsday scenario based on what could quite possibly just be sensationalist headlines or click-bait, that was until I saw this very recent article.
If the above had not have appeared in a BBC News article, then I probably wouldn’t have given it a second glance, or any credence, and, if it wasn’t for the fact that Government’s are notorious for not telling the public the truth, until it is too late that is (think back to the Covid Pandemic when we were told that it was nothing more than a really bad case of the Flu Virus and to just carry on as normal), only for a global pandemic to hit which went on and killed millions globally 😲 So perhaps we do need to heed the Governments advice and ‘Prep’ at least three days worth of emergency supplies, just in case of some sort of Environmental or Infrastructure disaster 😉 I mean what is the worst that can happen if this ‘Super El Nino’, or other disaster, Environmental or otherwise, does not materialise 🤷♂️ at least your next weekly shop would certainly be much cheaper 😁
Wow, that was a bit heavy Eric for what is supposed to be a Spanish Lifestyle ramble 😲 How about I try to lighten the mood again, if I can manage to catch you before you race off to the Supermarket that is to commence your own prepping activities 😂 Now let me see, what else has their been recently in the media that brought a bit of a smile to my face…………….
We are now in the part of the season where, although the bulk of the Summer tourists have departed and the temperatures are beginning to cool down a little, it is still shorts, tee-shirts and flip-flops weather, we have once again re-commenced our longer seafront promenade walks in the much cooler temperatures, although the sun still burns if you are out of the shade for too long. We are enjoying the occasional lunches out, and we still go out for dinner in the evenings, although that is only once or twice a week, but we can still sit outside the establishments and then, their is the additional bonus of still being able to enjoy the pool either in the mornings or now, even in the afternoon’s too. So in truth, we do have a period of around six weeks ‘before’ the Summer tourist rush, and the same again after they have departed, so I guess we shouldn’t really complain too much about the tourists 🤷♂️ The daylight hour’s are also reducing gradually, it doesn’t seem to be that long ago when we were talking about how nice it was to have daylight until a little after 10pm, now it’s around 8:30pm, when the sun drops behind the mountains, a sure sign that Autumn is just around the corner. Not that it makes too much difference to the nice evening temperatures here, more the fact that the Summer beachfront Chiringuito’s will all soon be stacking up and securing their sun-beds and umbrellas, along with the plastic tables and chairs from their sea facing terraces and then closing the wooden shutters on their doors and windows, until Easter 🙏 Then, shortly after the closure of the beach bars, the local council will come and remove the wooden beach boardwalks, and the bright yellow marker buoys that define the safe, boat prohibited, swimming areas along the seashore. The Autumn and Winter, more religiously orientated festivals, will once again commence. At the time of writing this we are only at the mid-point of September, but the Restaurants in the Marina are already advertising advance bookings for Christmas and New Year’s Eve parties, and then before we know it, yet another year will have passed and I will need to start gathering all the information to file my annual Spanish Tax Return, oh deep joy 😲
The regular ‘Looky Looky’ men who ply their goods up and down in the Marina, well they still remain, they are the officially licensed one’s who are here all year round, but their invading Summer competition has now departed. The numerous Cafe/Bars and Restaurants have a lot more empty chairs and tables outside and inside. The town, although a normal working ‘open all year’ location, has grown much quieter along the seafront promenade, although the main shopping street above it still remains pretty busy, but it certainly feels less hectic, the parking bays on the seaward side are once again available in abundance, there is no congestion in the aisles of the supermarkets, until the normal residents read this ramble about the ‘Prepping’ bit that is, then there will be panic buying and their will be nothing left on the shelves to buy anyway 😲 Perhaps I should think about delaying the publication of this particular ramble, well at least until Shazza and I have completed our own ‘Prepping’ trips 😂
Although the frequency of the Dolphin watching boat trips from the marina reduce slightly now over the quieter months, they do still operate until the sea conditions start deteriorating, usually around mid-October and I guess, although they obviously stipulate in the small print that they offer no guarantee’s, their is still a very good chance that you would get to see them out on a boat, where you can go much further out to sea, rather than being stood on, or sat on, the beach. However, if you are willing to trust to luck, and have a lot of patience, sometimes, you do not have to part with even one Euro to catch sight of the great number of marine wildlife that regularly swim close to shore along our stretch of the bay, we have seen several pods of Dolphins, Loggerhead Turtles, small Rays, large Tuna, lots of varieties of Jellyfish and, very occasionally the odd Shark turns up in a harbour, but I have only seen the photo’s of those particular species of marine-life in the local media.
Well that was certainly a wide variety of verbal Diarrhoea from me in this ramble wasn’t it 😁 However, do remember the philosophy about not wasting our very precious time on worrying about things that we are unable to control or influence, their are much more enjoyable ways of spending our time, whilst we still have it that is 😉 But the season is changing, a much quieter period is upon us, albeit that the ‘Purple Rinse’ brigade area already in evidence at the ‘Grab a Granny’ disco events along the seafront 😂 But they will arrive in much greater numbers in December, ready for their ‘Tinsel and Turkey’ parties, at least this lot are harmless and far quieter, in bed after their cups of cocoa and chocolate digestive at a much more respectable hour, I only know that because we have to shut our doors and windows much earlier, nothing to do with a chill in the air, more to do with the multitude of differing snoring noises. You have to see the funnier side of life at times, for laughter is always the best medicine 😁
Until my next ramble……………….
Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena
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