Get Back On The Horse

Here we are, it’s Monday 26th October, the clocks went back one hour on Sunday, but probably, like most people, we actually put them back before we went to bed on the Saturday night, who in their right mind would get up at 2am on a Sunday morning to do it 🤭 Of course, in this digital technological world of our’s many of the electronic devices do it automatically, but some of us still have old fashioned battery operated devices or old digital technology that still requires manual human intervention. But at least it is back to being light once again in the morning, it is important only because I don’t have to sit in the dark on my balcony for over an hour anymore, waiting to watch the sun rise on another new day. Although, with us now being in Autumn (Otono) in this part of the world, it is beginning to feel a little cooler in the mornings with temperatures generally starting at around 16-17 degrees(c), which whilst still being relatively warm at this time of year is quite a drop from the temperatures of the Summer mornings that generally started at no less than 24 degrees(c), but even now, by mid-morning the mercury is still rising, along with the sunshine, and hitting the 20 degree mark and by mid afternoon it can vary, but again, generally it is still reaching between 25-27 degrees, a little higher if there is only a gentle breeze blowing, but that for us is now perfectly comfortable from the intense Summer heat we had been experiencing, fortunately it means that we can still remain in our Summer type attire of shorts, tee-shirts and flip-flops, well at least during the day’s and into the early evenings that is, although it will not be too long, perhaps only a couple of weeks, when it will be time to bring out the long trousers, or jeans, and a long sleeve shirt and perhaps a light sweater or hoodie during the evenings when we go out for a stroll or to have dinner. Why am I rambling on so much about the weather again 🙄 for these temperatures are not actually that unusual for this part of Spain, they are in fact quite normal, although our local media will have you think that it is something special, but then again they believe that Southern Spain finishes at Seville and Malaga 😂

With the main bulk of the tourists gone, our local area has now become much more tranquil, there are of course still the sun worshippers on the beach, but not in any great numbers, along with the usual array of walkers and joggers along the seafront promenade, the staff at the now much quieter Cafe/Bars and Restaurants chat to you as you walk by, making out as if they know you, “Hello, nice to see you again, how are you ?”, but we smile, offer a brief pleasant response and then walk on, we know the genuine one’s, the one’s that really do know and recognise us. But it does feel much more tranquil once again, with no crowds to do battle with, no need to search for an empty table at any of the Cafe/Bars and certainly no need to pre-book a table and any of the restaurants, either in the Marina or in the town, our usual choices of car parking spaces are widely available again, so life has certainly very much returned to normal. The one major difference is that our frequent swimming sessions in our communal pool have finished, for the water is far too cold to now get any enjoyment out of that Summertime activity, although our pool area does remain open all year meaning that the lawned garden area is still a nice place to grab a sun-bed to do a spot of solar basting in the afternoon’s, or to just relax and read a book or even to conduct a spot of personal contemplation, always best done with one’s eyelids in the down position, well it would be rude not to 😴

We had to get the car into the garage in Estepona on this particular Monday morning as finally, the damage that was caused to it at the end of July, is at long last going to be repaired meaning that we will be without it for an estimated one week period so our near daily walks will become longer, and more demanding as we will have to walk from the apartment down the hill to the village and then, all the way back up it again 😮‍💨 We had to get the car in to the garage by 09:00am, the usual time when you have to take car’s to garages to get anything done, routine servicing or repairs, even if the garage doesn’t necessarily start working on it at that time 🙄 It was only a fifteen minute drive to the garage, and then around ten minutes to complete the paperwork. From there we walked down the hill from the Industrial Area and on into Estepona town itself, a relatively easy twenty-minute walk, before making our first stop at a Cafe to have our typical Spanish breakfast (Desayuno), comprising a Vaso (Glass) of Cafe con Leche and a Tostado con Tomate (Two halves of toasted baguette, olive oil, liquidised tomato and a sprinkling of Salt). The Spanish traditionally have two Breakfast’s, the first between 07:00-09am, and it is very much a morning social event, never rushed, and the clientele vary from the manual and white collar workers who sit alongside both young and more senior aged people who are engaging in their morning constitutional walks, or out to get the shopping done early. We had not used this particular Cafe before, our more usual one on this route was closed for renovations, we ordered in Spanish, as we always try to do, although we know that our accent gives away that we are not actually Spanish, but the young waitress was very friendly and, even though the place was pretty busy, our hot coffee’s and Tostado’s arrived quite promptly. The Spanish ‘Second’ breakfast usually takes place between 11:00-12:00am with lunch (Almuerzo) between 14:00-16:00. Of course we English type people don’t do two breakfasts 😲 and some, like me, rarely do breakfast at all, but today would be an exception for me. It was nice to sit with the locals enjoying a bit of Spanish social culture and it was a good opportunity to conduct our people watching activities somewhere new, being a much larger and busier town than our own, there were a lot more subject’s to observe 🤭 My advice to anyone visiting Spain, at any time of year, is to avoid the more touristy Cafe/Bar establishments and find yourself a more typically Spanish establishment, they are easy to identify, for there are rarely any foreign languages to be heard, only Spanish one’s, and with the benefit of understanding at least some of the language it means that you can listen to all of the local gossip 😁 I guess the same principle applies to any other country that you may visit, with the advantage being that generally speaking, the local prices are much cheaper than the tourist one’s 😉

Now that I have painted you a lovely picture of Autumnal life here in our particular area of Spain, I think perhaps I should just add that all is not quite so rosy in the garden in other areas of Spain, and to be honest, this also applies to other ‘Provinces’ in our own much wider geographic area of Andalusia, especially up in the more mountainous towns and villages, for some areas have recently suffered with a lot of rainfall causing floods and landslides. Valencia Region and further North in Catalonia, Galicia and Asturias have been battered by storms and, whilst these weather conditions can deliver catastrophic conditions, these are actually quite normal seasonal weather activities in those particular areas, the only seasonal variation being in the intensity of such storms.

However, the scenes in the above photographs are becoming more and more frequent each year and, if you live in any of those areas, the impact can of course be truly devastating, but is it any different in other countries where geographical locations have varying weather patterns 🤷‍♂️ For us, we may have much better weather conditions for the majority of the year, but the trade off is that sometimes we can, and do, suffer with severe droughts, the last recent one lasted for two full years and was due to our area not experiencing any of the anticipated rainfall during the Autumn and Winter months, additionally, the Summer heat can be excessive which creates its own serious health issues, even fatalities, so the truth is, nowhere is ever completely perfect and so far, Shazza and I, have just learnt to adapt and cope with whatever nature, and the climate, has had to throw at us, what else can you do ? There is a saying, ‘The One Certainity Of Life Is, That Nothing Is Certain’ and that is so very true, so we no longer try to second guess it, which is almost impossible anyway with the consistent inaccuracy of the weather reporting 🤷‍♂️

It has been very nearly a month since I last published a ‘ramble‘, so you may well be wondering what we have been doing over the last few weeks, the truth of the matter is, not very much really 🤷‍♂️ Usually, between our Summer visitor’s departing, and Shazza’s mum arriving at the beginning of October, we would take a short holiday ourselves, sometimes just a few days locally, or perhaps even two or three weeks doing our own Spanish road trip, exploring and discovering other regions of Spain that we have not previously visited. Unfortunately, the car issue this year has made that impossible, as the damage made the wind noise coming in through the front door just too much to bear, too noisy to hold even a normal conversation even on the shortest of trips and, more importantly, the damage to the door meant that there was a slight gap so we cannot secure it properly, so the risk of it being prized open was far too great for us to feel confident in leaving it in areas we would be unfamiliar with. However, whilst a little disappointed at not getting our own short end of Summer break, we had to just accept it and so we have just enjoyed being in our own local area, enjoying much of our more usual routines, walks, long lazy lunches along the seafront at various establishments, taking the opportunity to try a few new one’s and occasionally going out for dinner in the evening’s or occasionally just a stroll through the town, where we discovered that the local social nightlife is quite active, the small Plazas with the corner Cafe/Bars were the places to be, a place where families would gather, the children playing in the Plaza’s whilst the adults engaged in general chit chat, merriment and laughter. We didn’t feel out of place and were often greeted by, what were stranger’s to us, with smiles and ‘Buenas Tardes’ (Good Evening), or more often the less formal version of simply ‘Tardes’. Without the Summer tourist crowds the town has a very relaxed and friendly aire to it, the bar owner’s and staff are not run off their feet and so can engage in more leisurely conversations with the customer’s, some of whom they know, but also with none regular customers, like ourselves. In the warmth of an Autumn evening we are discovering that their is another face to ‘our’ town which we now realise that we had been missing out on, so perhaps the car issue had actually served to provide us with a ‘positive’ outcome rather than just our perceived ‘negative’ aspect 🤔 The Plaza’s may be the place to be in the evenings, but during the day, the seafront promenade still has its own ambience, Cafe/Bars, Chiringuitos and of course the views, so this is still our preferred daytime location.

And so the day came, the time to collect Shazza’s mum from Malaga Airport for her annual two-week vacation with us. Her mum is nearly 84 year’s old but she still has all of her faculties and is ‘relatively’ mobile for her age, although her walking pace has slowed down considerably, but she does not need any mobility aids, and she refuses to use a walking stick albeit she walks with a bit of a limp due to the Arthritis in one of her knees. One of her son’s collects her and drives her to the Airport in the UK, but Shazza books her flight’s and now arranges ‘Airport Assistance’ for her, which means she gets pushed in a wheelchair, or driven on an electric trolley, to the check-in desk, through the Security Check area and to the Departure gate. The same ‘Assistance’ is provided for her when she arrives at Malaga airport where we then meet her, the same process is repeated at the end of her stay.

We had decided to take things easy with her for her fortnight’s visit with us, allowing her to have more relaxed days, and as she has been coming to visit us every year, for the last eleven year’s, she has now visited most places in the Malaga and Cadiz Province areas, However, ‘she’ still insisted on going out almost every single day, but only for coffee, or lunch, or dinner on some evenings, then straight home again 🙄 To be honest, the advanced ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts did not actually paint a very good picture for the majority of her stay with us, with the forecast for heavy rain and very strong winds for the duration, but we should have known better shouldn’t we, for they got that complete fourteen day forecast totally wrong too 😂 Almost every day we had blue skies, bright sunshine and temperatures of 27 degrees(c), although we did get one full day of heavy rain with some superb lightening displays and long heavy rumbles of thunder, but that was on her very last day, I am not sure who was more grateful for it, her or us, I for one certainly appreciated the rest day before an early morning drive back to the airport 😮‍💨

Under normal circumstances, Shazza and I do not celebrate Birthday’s or Anniversaries in any sort of flamboyant manner but, as Shazza kept insisting on reminding me that this year was a quite notable Birthday for me, and which her mother seemed to also enjoy rubbing it in just a little too much too, Shazza booked a more upmarket Restaurant in our local town to mark the occasion, but, I had insisted that this would be a low key affair, no pomp or ceremony, just a nice meal with the ‘three’ of us.

We arrived, Shazza confirmed the name on the reservation and we were escorted to a table, that had ‘Birthdays Balloons’ flying from it and a white tablecloth decorated in glitter. The balloons apparently having been ordered by my daughter in Germany, who was unfortunately unable to get the time off work to join the celebration. Now that would have been fine, I could have coped with that, but as we were shown to our table, other diners started clapping and wishing me ‘Happy Birthday’, the clue being that one of the balloons said ‘Happy Birthday Dad’ on it. I have to admit that the service we received was first class from all of the restaurant staff, the food was, as anticipated, delicious but the final embarrassment came at the end, my ‘Tiramisù dessert’ was brought out with a candle in it, thankfully just the one candle, I couldn’t have eaten a dessert the size that would have had to accommodate the correct number of candles 😲 But then the whole restaurant burst out into singing ‘Happy Birthday’ 🫣😲 Needless to say, I made Shazza carry the balloons all the way back to the car, past the numerous other restaurants and bars, with lots of calls of ‘Happy Birthday’ as we passed, fortunately they were aimed at Shazza as they couldn’t identify whose birthday it actually was 🤭 Yes it was a very nice evening but thankfully the next ‘biggy’ won’t come around for another decade, if of course I manage to make it to that one 😂

There has of course been a lot of ‘other’ stuff going on in the wider media during the last four weeks, both here in Spain and further afield, but I am sure that you would have read similar ‘Doom and Gloom’ media reports for yourselves, so in this ramble I am not going to highlight them, fortunately for us though their is one thing that has remained the same amongst all of the despondency, yes the lovely weather, it is still nice and warm and that looks like remaining for the immediate future, although we will not get too confident with what the ‘Works of Fiction’ predict.

Shazza’s mums departure, just a little over a week ago now, from which we have now both recovered, for it is hard work entertaining visitor’s, catering for them, finding places to go and maintaining small talk for very nearly 24 hours a day, for two consecutive weeks, so yes, I make no apologies for saying that it is actually very nice to be back into our own more normal routines once again. Our walks have got back to being at our normal pace, more exercise than sedentary, and we continue to enjoy our mid-morning refreshments with our ‘People Watching’ observations and a couple of leisurely lunches thrown in for good measure.

We seem to spend a lot of our time hosting family visitors, which we of course enjoy, and generally that entails doing the associated airport runs, to both collect and return them. But that got Shazza and I around to having a discussion between ourselves whilst enjoying a leisurely evening out. We reminisced about the times we used to enjoy our annual luxury getaways, the last being almost 14 year;s ago now 😲 Of course, since then we have had our Motorhome full-timing adventures, between 2013-2023 spending time travelling around the UK, as well as some areas of Europe and Morocco and, since coming to live here, we have conducted our ‘road trips’ in the car to various Regions throughout Spain. There are a multitude of reasons why we had stopped doing the longer-haul flights, some due to our own lack of enthusiasm and motivation, some because of more global security, health and safety concerns and some because we just didn’t want any of the inconvenience that goes hand in hand with such trips. BUT, during our casual discussions we both agreed that it is perhaps time to ‘Get Back On The Horse’, the travel horse that is, whilst we are both still able to do so. We used to enjoy travelling to destinations, such as Australia, Mexico, Jamaica, Malta, Egypt, Tunisia etc. and I have been lucky to get the opportunity to travel to New Zealand and through my time in the Military, to spend time in parts of the Middle East, although those locations were a long way from being for the purposes of a holiday 😳 We agreed that in the 22 years that we have now been together, we have not done any holiday travels or adventures for far too long, and especially as we now find ourselves in a much better position to be able to do so, although the word ‘Adventures’ may be a little misleading, for we are not talking about ‘Indiana Jones’ type activities and locations, more ‘David and Victoria Beckham’ type experiences, you know, the type we used to enjoy when we were both working and on reasonable incomes, the 5* All-Inclusive Resorts where we enjoyed a choice of Fine Dining at multiple on site Restaurant’s, the Swim-up Poolside bars, beach waiter service and watching the Sunsets from white sand beaches whilst eating dinner under the stars. We had briefly looked at some ‘SAGA’ holidays, not bad value, decent locations but then we disregarded them as they are always full of ‘Old’ people 😂

We have already made tentative arrangements to travel to Bologna (Italy) early next year, March/April, where we will be meeting up with our Daughter and Son-in-Law for a few days, before Shazza and I then travel on to some other Italian Towns and Cities and tick a few places off of our now very dusty ‘To Do List’. But we have decided to take a luxury holiday before that Italy trip, either before Christmas or just after the New Year, but we are still trying to decide on which location to choose to grace our presence with 😂 The horse has been fed and watered, the saddle placed on its back, now it just awaits us climbing back up onto it, Yippee-Kai Hay 😂

Until the next ramble …………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena