Author: Eric and Shazza

It doesn’t take long to get back into the normal flow of things, especially after adverse weather events, which I know that I said that I wouldn’t talk about in this ramble so I will keep it brief, but the weather was thankfully now back into its usual Winter routine, cooler mornings of between 16-18 degrees(c), and warm afternoons that reach between 21-23 degrees(C), although the daily temperatures are beginning to decrease gradually bit by bit and when the strong winds blow they bring a chill with them, not so bad when we are walking but we can certainly feel it if we remain stationary for too long. The nights too are getting darker much earlier now, with the sun setting at around 6pm and by 6:30pm it is black outside, apart from the glow of the street lamps and, although the only view out to sea, are the lights that shine from the various freighters as they pass to and fro on the horizon, even from my balcony vantage point with the French windows closed, more so when the wind is blowing from the East, I can quite clearly hear the waves as they break onto the seashore below, sometimes slow and quite rhythmically, other times they just crash violently, but whatever the mood of the sea, I always find that it provides a calm sort of tranquility, additionally, the noise from the heavy leaves on the palm trees that surround us, well they too just add to the nightly audible ambience. Fortunately, although it is rapidly approaching the end of November, we have not, as yet, had to turn on our small three bar electric halogen heater in the living room, we have been known, in some previous years, to have had to use it from as early as October, so not having to use it as yet should save us some money on our next electricity bill, a thought that, unsurprisingly, provided me with yet another happy thought, I enjoy ‘saving’ money almost, but not quite, as much as I like the word ‘Free’ 🤭

On the Monday, after the usual relaxed coffee morning routine, Shazza announced that she wanted to go and do a ‘big’ shop at the Estepona Mercadonna supermarket 😲 which is the one we have now started to use on a regular basis over the last few months, it isn’t that much further away from the one we used to use, but that one now has lots of new residential buildings being constructed around it, so the parking situation, due to shopper’s and convoys of construction vehicles, is getting much more difficult, anyway, the Estepona one is larger, the aisles are wider and the parking area is larger, so it is a slightly less stressful event. We used to do a regular weekly shop, but with Shazza now purchasing most fresh fruit and vegetables in our local town every two or three days, or as and when we need them, the actual need to do the supermarket trips, for the larger and heavier items, are now down to every 10-14 days and she also has started to buy extra’s to stock up, I think she is already preparing for when Russia attacks the West, which according to her, could be any day soon 😲 I have told her not to worry though, as I am too old to be conscripted, although, she could still be called upon to return to the UK to work in the munitions factories, or perhaps to become a ‘Land Girl’ working in the fields, which surely would be a dream come true for her, what with her dreams of a self sufficient lifestyle 🤭 No, she didn’t find me funny either 😂

With trailing around shopping aisles, then hauling five heavy shopping bags from our car park up to the apartment, we considered that activity to be sufficient exercise for the day, so we spent the rest of the afternoon in the apartment, just pottering around passing the remainder of the day until it was time for Dinner, and then we sat and watched whatever there was on the TV, or Netflix, or You Tube, for the rest of the evening.

It was around 7:30pm on this particular Monday evening, and there I was, engrossed in a new, well new to me at least, ‘You Tube’ Video Vlog that I had just started to binge watch. I had discovered one about a London couple, who I was guessing were in their mid-thirties, who were starting a new full time Narrowboat Lifestyle cruising on the canals and rivers of the UK, giving up on their costly London rental property, whilst continuing to work in their professions as ‘Digital Nomads’. I always thought that such people earned this type of living whilst conducting a more nomadic lifestyle, e.g. in a Motorhome, Boat or even whilst Backpacking, generally people on the move 🤷‍♂️ the clue I thought was in the title ‘Digital Nomad’ but, apparently, this is no longer the case as anyone who works on a digital device, away from a traditional working environment, is classed as a Digital Nomad, but there you go, the world has moved on and is leaving my understanding of it further and further behind 🙄 Just digressing a little bit, regular readers of these rambles will know that once upon a time, in a land far far away, Shazza and I once had a yearning for living a full time life on a canal boat, but then we elected to choose the Motor homing lifestyle, primarily because we already owned a Motorhome and knew nothing about driving 50-60 foot long ‘Canal Boats’ or operating ‘Canal Locks’. In all reality, and with the rose tinted glasses well and truly off, that particular lifestyle has all but passed us by now, but we still enjoy watching other’s doing it.

Anyway, Shazza pipes up, right in the middle of one episode, “Should we get away for a couple of days ?”, I felt confident that she wasn’t going to suggest hiring a Narrowboat in Spain, simply because there aren’t any 🤭 “Sounds like a good idea” I muttered half heartedly, “Where are you thinking of going ?”, half expecting her to come up with several, possible maybe, sort of suggestions, that would require further and later discussion, but hopefully not until after I had finished watching my programme. ‘Carmona’ she says, “That sounds good, when do you want to go ?” I asked, with one ear still tuned in trying to listen and watch the video Vlog, “I thought we could go tomorrow” she says, as casually as you like, I immediately pressed ‘Pause’ on the TV Remote………………………😲

Now my regular readers will of course already know that Shazza never, and I mean, never, just comes up with her ‘Shazza Adventures’ spontaneously, she has usually mulled them over for a few days, if not weeks, beforehand, and has also been known, on occasions, to add in a bit of pre-planning and devious persuasion, in fact I would go as far to say that she has become somewhat of a master of her art, in both respects. So let me start first with why the ‘devious’ aspect of her plan……………….

Several months ago now, we had watched a series of documentary travel programmes by Michael Portillo, on his travels within Andalusia, which I have to say were quite Interesting. Now during these programmes we learned that in fact he, Michel Portillo, a former very prominent member of the UK Government and later a regular TV travel documentary presenter, who has lived the majority of his life within the UK, is actually of Spanish descendancy, and he still has Spanish family living in Andalusia, we also discovered that he in fact owned a property in ‘Carmona’, a large town just East of the city of Seville and, although we didn’t see much of the town in the programme itself, the little we did see made me interested in wanting to visit it at some point. I had in fact originally planned, unbeknown at the time to Shazza, to make it a two night stopover on our return from our recent road trip to Galicia, but that trip, as you may recall, was cut short rather abruptly by Shazza’s mysterious illness. So, Shazza was not selecting a place out of thin air just off the top off her head, she already knew that I would be more than up for a short road trip there, although me and my OCD buddy would normally have allocated a little more time at the planning and preparation stage, although Shazza obviously already had, she just hadn’t allocated too much time for either the discussion or agreement stage 🙄 Now you may also consider that I was doing the same to her on our Galicia trip, but, in my defence, Shazza had wanted ‘that trip’ to be done without any pre-planning, just ‘Going with the Flow’, so I had decided that on our homeward bound leg of that trip we would just have happened to have ‘Flowed’ into Carmona 😂

Now Carmona is in the Northern part of Andalusia, although just three hours or so North of us, does tend, with it being quite close to the ‘Sierra Nevada’ mountain ranges, to see a dramatic drop in temperatures over the winter months, certainly much more than down here in our part of the Costa del Sol, so she had informed me that having ‘pre-checked’ the advance weather forecast, the ‘Works of Fiction’ had indicated that the next couple of days would be the best of the weather and that thereafter, it would deteriorate quite rapidly 🤔 “Okay, let’s do it” I said, and faster than a robbers dog she pre-booked us two night’s accommodation in a hotel in the ‘Old Town’.

We had a choice of two routes, either a three hour journey up through a generally more scenic mountain route, or a faster, two and a half hour less scenic route, along the toll free motorways. Given the recent floods with damage to villages, towns, roads and bridges, I was reluctant to use the mountain route, a diversion up there could involve a lot longer travelling time, so we agreed that the safer more reliable option would be via the slightly faster toll free motorways.

Although the AEMET ‘Works of Fiction’ forecast (Spanish State Weather Forecasting Agency) had provided no pre-warning, we awoke to light rain, but little more than a heavy drizzle really, so we got up, packed our individual overnight bags with not much more than a change of clothing, toiletries and electronic gadgets and at 10:30am, we commenced our journey. Fortunately, the wet stuff stopped falling shortly after departing home and the sun came out, providing us with a rather pleasant drive. We stopped briefly to re-fuel, had I had known beforehand that we were going on a road trip I would have re-fuelled when we went shopping the previous day 🤷‍♂️ Shazza had already eaten breakfast before we departed home and I certainly was not ready to eat at that time of the morning, so, after an uneventful journey we arrived at the hotel at 1pm, an hour earlier than the official check-in time, fortunately our room was ready and so, after securing the car in the ‘underground car park’, and with fingers firmly crossed that there would be no more heavy rain, which would have involved us having to snorkel to it when we left 🤿 We got settled into what was a very spacious room, although somewhat disappointingly, it had no view from the window other than overlooking the internal courtyard and swimming pool, which was closed now until next year. Personally, I would have preferred to book a room at the rather luxurious ‘Parador’ hotel, which was located right next door to an old fortress which we could have visited for ‘Free’ if we were residents at that hotel, but, at over €200 per night (not including breakfast), Shazza had decided otherwise 😢

We were both ready for lunch, so after unpacking our bags we went on a familiarisation walk of the area and in the main square we found several bar/cafes, so we chose one and, in the lovely warmth of the afternoon sunshine, we enjoyed a very relaxed ‘Tapas’ lunch. We had not intended doing too much sightseeing, just really a walk to get our bearings, but being such a lovely warm afternoon we found ourselves walking through several areas of the old town and then part of the lower, more modern part, of the new town area.

Prior to this particular trip, and purely coincidentally, we had both watched a ‘Netflix’ documentary on a brief history of the ‘Moors’, as in the Islamic race of people who had occupied much of Southern Europe prior to being ousted by the ‘Christian’s’ during the crusades. We had only really gained an interest in this when we were researching more on the history of the ‘Knight’s Templar’, but it was to become a very useful bit of knowledge during this trip, more so with the Architectural styles of the buildings. For Shazza and I, as pretty much self-confessed ‘history heathens’, this was to become a revelation to us as we began to notice the ‘Moorish’ influence in many of the buildings, normally we would just have said, “They are nice buildings, what lovely arches and what pretty looking tiles” 😂

The ‘Works of Fiction’ had got it’s forecast spot on, it was a really hot sunny day, around 22 degrees(c), we had gone out in shorts and tee-shirts but had taken light hoodies just in case, and to be honest, in the shade, they were needed as we could feel the chill in the air.

After having implemented our recently acquired knowledge on Moorish Architecture, people watching and just having a general good nosey at everything going on around us, we took to wandering quite aimlessly through the narrow cobbled streets, there may have been ‘Ruta Turistica’ arrows to guide us, but we don’t follow organised routes, it is so much more fun just wandering at our leisure and getting lost 🤭

Although we had not planned on leaving the ‘Old Town’ area, wandering aimlessly along maze like narrow cobbled streets sometimes means you have no choice where you end up, yes of course we had a tourist map, but no, of course we didn’t refer to it, how much fun would that have been. This after all was a Shazza & Eric Adventure, not an official guided tour 🤷‍♂️

We had somehow found our way at the main gated entrance to the ‘Old Town’, the ‘Seville Gate’ as it is known, there are several smaller gated entrances located around the old town, who knows, we may just happen to stumble across them over the next couple of days 🤭 But we decided to leave the walls of the ‘old town’ and wandered across a road into the more modern part of town to see what it was like.

We continued to explore the main high street until we came to the end, of the shopping street that is, the road thereafter just went on up towards residential housing, so we turned around and explored down some side streets on the opposite side of the road, it is amazing what you sometimes find. We stumbled upon a road that had a fountain, decorated with six stone lions, which I have to say looked more impressive from a distance than when we actually got close up to them, not even worth a photo. On one corner of the street was a Cafe Bar, appropriately called ‘El Liones’ (The Lions), but it was closed, on the adjacent corner, another bar, and not to be outdone by its neighbouring competition, was called ‘Bar Leo’, but that too was closed. However, right opposite both, was a gated park, there were no flower beds, it wasn’t that kind of garden park, or perhaps the lack of any was more due to the time of year 🤔 but each side was lined with trees and between them some beautifully ornate bench seating. We later discovered, when I did finally decide to read some of the ‘Tourist Information’ brochure that was folded in the back pocket of my shorts, that this was the ‘Alameda de Alfonso XIII’, there was only the one entry/exit point so we walked it’s full length and then back again, as we had nothing better to do or any other place to be 🤷‍♂️

We wandered back towards the old town, on our way we came across the ‘Convent of La Concepcion’ with a statue of a monk outside with one of his hands gesturing downwards, “Go on Shazza, give us a pose, offer up your hand to him” I instructed her, somewhat reluctantly she agreed.

She was only gone for a couple of minutes, although it seemed longer, then she re-appeared again looking a bit shaken by her Saintly abduction. “Was it a heavenly experience ?” I asked her, “I don’t really know, I had no idea where I was, but it felt hellishly hot” she replied 😂 Okay, I made that bit up, as if you hadn’t already guessed that 🙄

Instead of walking through the gate, back into the old town, I wanted to see if we could get up onto the turreted walls so we followed the outer wall and came to a flight of steps that looked promising, however, it was not to be, it just led us up to a cobbled road with lots of stone houses and beyond that, a steep hill that we didn’t fancy exploring, we were getting a little leg weary by then.

As we walked through between the outer and the inner walls, we noticed a very modern glass fronted ‘Tourist Information’ Office, on the outside we saw a sign, with an arrow, that pointed to the access point to the upper walls, we decided to return the following day on Part Two of our voyage of discovery. We had entered the ‘Old Town’ via a different side so we were walking along an unfamiliar cobbled road, but it was fairly busy with people and vehicles so we gambled upon it leading us back to the central square, from there we would know our way back to the hotel. We decided to stop at a very convenient Tapas and Wine Bar where we both enjoyed a tall glass of ice cold, late afternoon, ‘Vermut’, well it would have been rude not to 😉

We had actually walked very much further than either of us had intended, but it had been enjoyable, we returned to the hotel and collapsed on the large double bed, I can neither confirm, or deny, whether we took a late afternoon siesta of our own, but when we next opened our eyes, it was dark outside 😂 We agreed that we did not fancy walking back into the old town to seek out somewhere to eat Dinner, so we just went to a Bar/Restaurant that, although a separate business from the hotel, was attached to it. We ate in the bar, rather than the restaurant, as did everybody else, where we consumed far too many ‘Vermut’s’, but it was good that neither of us had to worry about being the duty driver and that was the end of Day One of our two day trip.

To be continued………………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

It was 11:00pm on a Tuesday night, we had just finished watching something or other on the TV and Shazza was getting herself ready to go to bed, I, as usual, had gone through to the balcony, ready to enjoy my period of quiet contemplation. I had just sat down in my seat and was gazing into the darkness outside the windows, when suddenly a very loud noise made me nearly jump out of my skin, it took a second or two for me to realise that it was coming from my mobile phone, then the same loud noise sounded on Shazza’s mobile phone in the living room and she came running through from the bedroom, even without first looking at the message we both spoke in unison,“It’s a Flood Alert” we exclaimed, and we were proved correct.

When we first bought our property here in Spain, our Spanish neighbours informed us that between October and January it was the rainy season, with the month of October generally being the wettest. However, over the following few year’s that we had been coming here, on a regular basis over those Winter periods, it had never really materialised, occasionally we could get three or four consecutive days of rain, the normal sort of downpours, but then it would go back to the more normal Southern Spanish Winter’s, long dry days with plenty of sunshine. That was of course apart from the occasion eight years ago, in November 2016, when the little Village at the bottom of the hill, the Marina and town of Sabinillas was affected by a major flood, created by an extended period of heavy rain which also coincided with an unusually high ‘Spring Tide’. However, over the last two or three year’s we have had barely any rain and, as you know from these rambles, we have suffered quite badly with a long period of drought and were constantly praying for the wet stuff. So now I suppose you could say that we should be careful of what we wish four, with the recent ‘DANA’ producing the equivalent of a month’s worth of torrential rain in just eight hours and then the rains continuing to fall for days afterwards 😲 However, in our little bubble in this corner of Spain, even that recent tumultuous and catastrophic storm had not affected us, at least not to the same degree as it had in other areas of Spain, we were shocked by the impact this latest storm had had on several areas throughout the whole of Spain and considered ourselves extremely ‘lucky’ to have been left totally unscathed.

As is our usual habit, we check the ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts on a daily basis although, as the recent flooding in Valencia confirmed, due to either the historical inaccuracy of these forecasts, or the fact that they have tended to cry ‘Wolf’ too many times, people now tend to mistrust them and no longer take them at face value. As a consequence of the fatal tragedy, and havoc, that had ensued from that storm only a short two or three weeks ago, Shazza and I had been prompted, by a local media article, to register both our mobile numbers on the AEMET Alert System, which is not just for flood related incidents, it is supposed to give warnings about other dangers to life, whether they be from Wildfires, Earthquakes or indeed any other sort of Environmental danger.

We had been following all of the ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts, between us we check four separate forecasts, even the BBC, and then we try to predict what the weather is more likely to be. It may not be very scientific, but then again, it appears that neither is the official ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts 🤷‍♂️ However, on this occasion all were forecasting yet another ‘DANA’ storm, this one though was being forecast to hit ‘all’ of the Eastern Coastal side of Spain and even some Western coastal areas too, including our own. The local Media publications were reinforcing the same warnings too, but was this an over reaction, as the Spanish Government could not afford to have a repeat of the International attention that the recent disaster had attracted, let alone the public outcry from its own citizens.

Now you would be forgiven for not realising that many other parts of Spain, both North, South, East and West, had also suffered with floods, each area suffering their own catastrophes, rivers bursting their banks and flooding streets and homes and businesses, cars washed away, damage to roads and other infrastructures, although fortunately without the fatalities. We, as in our immediate local area, had been spared any major problems during this first ‘DANA’ storm, although of course we did have some torrential rain, but even that had not caused our nearest river, the ‘Rio Manilva’ to overflow on this occasion. For several days after that storm had passed, things had returned to normal for our community, we could enjoy going out again on our daily walks, the sun was shining, the sky and the sea was blue and people were just going about their normal daily lives, we even enjoyed some nice lunches either in the town or the Marina, sat outside enjoying lovely warm sunshine. Shazza and I commented on this whilst enjoying one of those lunches, we both stated how surreal it was that, whilst many were currently struggling to reclaim their homes, and their livelihoods, with many now having to also cope with the grief of losing loved one’s, many other’s, just like ourselves, were just getting on with our normal daily lives as if nothing had happened 🤷‍♂️

However, now, our whole area had been placed on a ‘Red Alert’ on that Tuesday night, that area being the whole of the Malaga Province, although the alert message had stated that this was not effective until 10:00am the following morning. However, looking at the actual forecasts, the ‘Works of Fiction’ weather map reflected that our immediate area would not start to get any rain until the middle of the following night, and that the worst of the storm’s torrential rain, and gale force winds, would not actually arrive with us until the Wednesday, and then continue for the next two days, if they were to be trusted that is 🙄 I do have to say that whilst I don’t want to come across as being callous, or flippant, to the dangers that other’s may find themselves exposed to, but for us, there was little that we could do to prepare for these anticipated floods due to our location, we were at the top of the hill and our apartment is ‘at least’ 10 metres above the level of the road and pavement, even if the water level on the road below was to rise by 2 metres it would then overflow the wall of the neighbouring community which sits below us, so the reality was that we were not in any sort of real extreme danger, although of course, high water could flood the ground levels of our community apartment blocks, but both ground floor apartments in our small block were currently unoccupied.

That following morning we awoke to a cloudy morning, but it wasn’t a grey cloud and it was actually quite bright, so we decided to get out whilst we still could, we decided on a change to our routine and drove to Fuengirola, which is just short of an hours drive away on the other side of Marbella, it was the place for the nearest ‘Holland & Barrett’ store where Shazza could stock up on her specific brand of herbal tea and we also wanted to stock up on a few extra provisions if we were to be confined in the apartment for another three or four days. Our priorities differed, Shazza had a list of fresh fruit and vegetables, whilst my list had just one item on it, Anti-Covid Vaccines 🍷🍷🍷 The clouds had parted to reveal some blue sky, and that all important yellow ball of warmth, we could see the mountain ranges quite clearly, they are usually shrouded in low grey clouds when the weather begins to move in, but it was 23 degrees(c) and so we both wondered whether the ‘Works of Fiction’ had got it wrong, again 🙄 On the way back we called in at the ‘La Canada’ shopping mall at Marbella and had a very disappointing ‘Tapas’ lunch, the food was barely warm and, compared to what we were used to paying in our own Cafe/Bars and Restaurants, it was bloody expensive and a waste of money 😲 We took a stroll around the ‘Marks & Spencer’ store on the upper level of the large shopping mall, to see what Christmas gastronomic goodies they had on offer, although it was too early to buy any, we were just doing a bit of a recce. We had also decided this year, unusually for us, to treat ‘ourselves’ to Christmas presents, I needed to replace my pocket camera after dunking it in the sea this Summer, it wasn’t a waterproof one 🥺 and so I had identified a new one that was much better, better technical features to enable better landscape photography, and importantly, it was waterproof, up to a depth of 15 metres which would be good for snorkelling, although hopefully I wouldn’t be needing that attribute during the current anticipated forthcoming weather conditions. Disappointingly, the particular electronics store within the shopping mall vicinity, that was listed as having the particular camera in stock, unfortunately didn’t. Shazza also wants a new ‘Kindle’, she didn’t want to purchase it just yet and so activate the Warranty period before she started to use it, after Christmas 🤷‍♂️ So we have now made an executive decision and decided to wait until we return to the UK around Easter, we will pre-order both items and, any appropriate accessories, from Amazon and have them delivered to Shazza’s mums where we will be staying, oh well, we may have nothing to open here on Christmas morning, but at least when we do eventually get our Christmas presents it will make a nice change from Easter Eggs I suppose 😂

We got home and prepared ourselves for another few days of being confined. We recalled that It was November 2016 when our local area, the Marina and Town, last suffered a catastrophic flood, we had been here on one of our Winter Sun visits and had friends from the UK staying with us, fortunately, due to our location at the top of the hill, we had been in no real danger, the roads outside our apartment had been more like rivers, as the drains could not cope with the deluge of water in such a short space of time, but as water runs down hill the worst impact was at sea level, where storm drains overflowed adding to the mayhem, we wondered if it would be the same this time or whether they would be better prepared with the advance ‘Red Alert’ warning.

On the Tuesday, we waited, and we waited, and we waited, the sky got greyer and darker and much more threatening, but the sea remained visible. I remember opening the balcony French windows and finding it eerily quiet, the sea was flat and completely calm, in places it looked like a sheet of glass, there was not a breath of wind, no road noise, no human voices, not even the chirping of the birds, this was my first ever time of truly witnessing ‘The Calm Before The Storm’, but throughout the day and early evening there had been not one single raindrop. We kept checking the Local Media, ‘Works of Fiction’ and Social Media Forums and discovered that reports were coming in of areas just twenty minutes to the South of us, and those just twenty minutes North of us in Estepona, which had started with the rain, also further up the coastline, Marbella, Fuengirola, Benalmádena and Malaga, and towns and villages in-between, including those further inland, had started to suffer with torrential downpours, and rivers and streams had started to fill to dangerous levels, people were being evacuated from their homes.

What was really strange was that as yet, our small area, in our little geographical bubble, had not had one drop of rain, let alone torrential, it was as if we were being protected by some sort of invisible guardian, whilst all around us were bracing themselves against the inevitable, we were ‘Sandwiched Between Two Storm Fronts’ but not suffering the effects from either, how could that be, it didn’t make any sort of logical sense to us 🤷‍♂️

It was around midnight when I saw the first, quite short, flash of lightening, although it was smothered above the thick grey clouds so did not offer a spectacular display, as it had done previously, it was followed some time afterwards by a weak low rumble of thunder, perhaps this was part of the storm passing to the South of us I thought to myself 🤔 After an hour, just as I had decided to go to bed myself, their was a long and bright lightening strike, swiftly followed by a loud crack of thunder, then I heard the first drops of rain hit the outer security shutters, slowly at first then the pace began to increase. In bed, with all the external shutters closed I could not see any lightning, but the loud thunder cracks grew longer and louder as if they were right overhead, the rain was now hammering on the shutters, driven by gale force winds that had suddenly picked up, and so it went on, well into the early hours until eventually I drifted into a deep sleep, the duvet tucked up over my shoulder’s, even though it wasn’t cold, but as if it was an added layer of protection between me and the monster storm outside my windows which was beating on the shutters trying to get in.

I awoke at my usual early hour, Shazza was half awake, with the shutters closed it was dark and I switched the light on in the kitchen to make the usual morning coffee’s, so at least I had confirmed that we still had power, that was a bonus 👍 I took her’s through to the bedroom, with her iPad of course and then took up my usual position on the balcony. According to the ‘Works of Fiction’, Wednesday was supposed to be the day when our area would experience the worst of the storm, but the rain, whilst it was still falling, had decreased in intensity, to me it was just a normal rainy day, their was no lightening, or thunder, but was this just lulling me into a false sense of security for what was to come. During the rest of that day and into the evening and night the rain was constant, but it kept varying, one minute it was torrential, then it would ease off before turning into just long periods of drizzle, before another burst of torrential rain, this was a pattern that was repeated throughout the day and into the night. We kept checking the local forum chat groups, these would always be the first to report on any flooding, or damage, in our immediate locality, but there was nothing.

The following morning when I took up my normal lookout position, it had stopped raining, although the sky was just a mass of dark grey cloud, it looked threatening, as if there could be another deluge at any moment, but it never arrived. I checked the local, national and International media reports on my iPad to see how other areas had been affected and discovered that it wasn’t just Spain that had suffered extreme adverse weather conditions, Albufeira (Portugal), on the Southern Algarve coast had flooded and across the other side of the Mediterranean, Sicily too. Our area had now been downgraded from ‘Red Alert’ to ‘Orange’ and then later in the day ‘Yellow’, although further North up towards Malaga City, the ‘Red Alert’ remained active.

PORTUGAL

SICILY

Shazza and I already knew how lucky we, and our immediate local area, had been yet again, but seeing the above images (and a lot more), of the devastation that this second ‘DANA’ weather event had wreaked, not only in Spain, but elsewhere in Europe, certainly reinforced that feeling. These ‘DANA’s’, as they are called, are certainly nothing new, but it is their increasing intensity and frequency that the Meteorologists are concerned about and blaming on ‘Climate Change’. But the reality is, these extreme weather phenomonons are actually occurring all over the Globe, whether it be Floods, Tornados, Hurricanes, Cyclones, Wildfires, Earthquakes, Volcanic Eruptions etc. and I guess they will continue to occur. Shazza reminded me that actually, if you go back in history to the Ice Age, the changing weather systems are a continuing cycle of events, so she asked me the question, “How do we know that these weather events are not just part of that natural cycle ?” I looked at her with a blank expression on my face, and with my eyes glazing over 🤷‍♂️ “Ask me one on Sport” I responded 🤭

We never did get any more rain, although on the Friday, it was still very windy and a bit cloudy, but quite bright, so we decided that it was safe enough to risk venturing out, the kids were back at school, and the clean-up operations had commenced. As we walked along the seafront promenade the waves were tall, around 2-3 metres in height, they were pounding in quick succession onto the beaches and we could see all of the debris that they had brought in with them, lying strewn just above the water line, the army of council workers were already out, cleaning it up. There were the usual faces sat in our favourite cafe/bar, but there were no tables free, so we walked a little further to our second favourite and sat with our coffee’s watching, and listening, to the sounds of the waves and the screeching of the gulls, also to the conversations being held on nearby tables, it seemed that most were having the same similar conversations, ‘Mucha lluvia pero ningún daño a qui’ (A lot of rain but no damage here). The Spanish lady owner asked if we had been alright, we of course said that we were and asked if she had suffered any damage, she said that her property had not been flooded but a lot of the plastic tables and chairs had to be recovered from along the promenade after the gale force winds had carried them away, I did wonder how she knew which were her’s, as most of the Cafe/Bars have the same white plastic one’s, but I didn’t ask her, although, when I thought about it, they do have different brands of beer embossed on them. After our coffee’s and impromptu practice Spanish lesson, we walked into the main town to just pick up a few groceries, fruit and vegetables primarily, these days I don’t wake up with a ‘bed head’, more of a ‘Brocolli Head’, and I have told Shazza that if my grey hair starts to turn ginger then it’s time to cut down on the Carrots 😂😂 The town was its usual busy self, everyday life here was as usual, just normal. There was no evidence of any flood damage, no remnants of sticky mud on the streets or pavements, everything just looked quite normal 🤷‍♂️ As we walked back towards the Marina, and then onward towards the Village, where the car was parked, the sun came out and even in the wind it still felt quite warm. As we got into our car and started to pull away we noticed a car pull up and park, horizontally to the sea wall, we wondered why it had parked that way when there were plenty of bays free to enable it to park vertically, between the lined bays 🤔 Then we saw the waves breach the wall and spray the car roof, the person inside put on the windscreen wipers and cleaned their windows, cheaper than taking it to the car wash I suppose, but with Salty sea water !! 😲 Oh well, I thought to myself, they probably have a good supply of rust remover they need to get rid of 🤷‍♂️

You know how I like to take an optimistic view, well I have a little bit of good news to round off this ramble, some weeks ago I mentioned the drought and how they were going to make an announcement on whether to decrease our daily domestic water allowance, and I showed the level of our particular Embalse (Reservoir), which, at that time (28th October) reflected that it was at 41.69% capacity. Well, and rather unsurprisingly, I have to say, no announcement has been forthcoming, to be honest they have probably been involved in much more important meetings recently 🤔 However, I do not think the ‘Drought Committee’ will be having any meetings anytime in the near future as, just three weeks and two ‘DANA’ events later, the level in our Embalse is now at 61.02% But the more important statistic is that we have nearly 150% more capacity than we had at this time last year, and that will continue to keep rising a little for the next few days, due to the run off from the mountains. So sometimes, out of disaster and tragedy, you do have to pick out these little glimmers of good news, and with both England and Spain men’s football teams winning their recent International games towards the latter end of this week, well, what can I say, except that the end of the week has certainly been much better than when it started, now all I need is for them to sing my favourite hymns on ‘Songs of Praise’ on Sunday and I will be well happy 😂

Worthy of note, the above AEMET Agency weather forecast for our immediate area, it shows todays weather (Saturday November 16th) and the next three days, to be cloudy, yet I am sat here on the balcony doing the final draft on this ramble, in beautifully warm sunshine, looking at blue sky, so let’s hope that they get the weather forecast wrong again a week on Monday 🤭

Let’s hope that when I pen my next ramble, it will be about something other than the weather eh 😂 So, until next time……………………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

When we were initially considering coming to live in Spain there were of course numerous questions that needed to be answered, before we made the ultimate decision to take the plunge, although it wasn’t a dive into the complete unknown, we had after all owned our ‘bolt hole’ here since 2015 and spent two ninety-day periods each year living here for the last few year’s. The biggest question for us was undoubtedly the financial aspects, for we knew that we would be dependent solely on our pensions as our only sources of income, with no absolute guarantee of the amount of annual increases we would get on them, but knew that the annual costs of living would also more than likely outstrip any such increase, year on year, so we had to look into the future and not just the present. We also needed to confirm the Tax situation and just how the ‘No Double Taxation’ Agreement, between the UK and Spain, actually worked and, as we were to discover, whilst the UK Government do not ‘Directly at least’ take any tax on our State Pensions, the Spanish Tax Authority do, as it does not fall under the ‘No Double Taxation Agreement’, although you can claim it back off the UK Tax Authority retrospectively, but it is not a straightforward process. We already had a pretty accurate idea on the general everyday costs of living in Spain, although there were some things that we knew would change if we were to live in Spain permanently but, fortunately, for us, they happened to be to our financial advantage, the biggest savings being on no longer having to pay for two return ferry crossings each year, and the reduced cost on the amount of fuel (Diesel) that we used, not having the costs associated to owning two vehicles (Insurance, Tax and Annual Servicing), we would no longer have to pay the Annual ‘Property Tax’ that holiday home owner’s had to pay in Spain, and some other minor cost savings, but it all added up to being much more economical to live permanently here in Spain than it did to live in the UK.

Okay, so my regular reader’s already know most of this already, as I have mentioned it before, in much more detail, in previous rambles, and I will be doing a ‘Cost of Living’ breakdown for our first ‘full year’ here in Spain in a future ramble, for those that may require a little more meat on the bone. However, forgetting the important financial aspects, there were two other considerations, one was whether or not we wanted to make this our ‘forever’ home and spend our ‘Twilight Year’s’ here, I rather like that terminology, it sounds so much better than ‘Old Age’, or, would we discover that Spain wasn’t all it was cracked up to be and decided that we didn’t actually want to live here permanently, perhaps choosing to re-locate somewhere else within Europe, or even return permanently and live out those ‘Twilight Year’s’ back in the UK 🤔 The other consideration, and a less savoury topic, should we decide to make this our ‘forever’ home, was the fact that in all likelihood, one of us would pass away before the other, all things being equal that would probably be me due to the age difference between the two of us, although that wasn’t necessarily the only determining factor, so, apart from the more practical issues that came with that, such as funeral arrangements and burials, which is a little different here in Spain, but what would it be like, for either one of us, if, or more likely, when, we found ourselves living here alone 🥺

Now initially, it was difficult to answer some of those questions, in particular the one about living here alone so, Shazza and I just agreed that, if at any point in our lives here, wether that be just due to no longer being happy here, or due to ill health, and we wanted to return to the UK, that we would both return together with no if’s, but’s or maybe’s. Obviously, at this point in our lives, we could not know with any certainty, just how either of us would feel, in the future, when one of us had passed away, and it wasn’t a subject that either of us, at this stage at least, wanted to dwell upon too much, especially as we are both relatively fit and healthy with no pre-existing ‘serious’ medical conditions or mobility issues, that said, it is a subject that we have both discussed quite openly with each other and, for the time being at least, both of us agree that neither of us have a ‘Fear Of Growing Old In Spain’.

Now there are lots of things that both Shazza and I absolutely love about living here in Spain, not just Spain per se, but our particular location in this particular part of the country. Of course in top spot on the list of things we love is the ‘generally’ good all year round temperate climate, which I have to say is probably the best part of living here in this part of Spain, albeit that it does suffer with occasional weather extremes like Floods, Wildfires and even Earthquakes. You are of course already aware of how badly several areas of Spain have been hit with severe flooding and the resulting catastrophic consequences, and now we have received advanced warning, from the National State Weather Agency, of another similar ‘DANA’ weather event fast approaching Spain, with another four days of anticipated heavy rainfall 😲 Additionally, over the last two weekends, our own Province of Malaga has suffered ‘minor’ Earthquakes, fortunately with no fatalities or structural damage, but these are becoming more frequent.

Not wanting to sound as if I am downplaying such events, but Spain is not the only country to suffer these kind of things, so we do have to put it into some sort of perspective and Shazza and I often ask ourselves the question, is there anywhere, in the World, let alone Europe, that is completely safe from, either extreme weather events, or indeed undesirable issues that are created by us humans, such as Crime, Violence, Political Unrest, Armed Conflicts etc 🤷‍♂️

However, I am once again beginning to digress from my intended subject for this particular ramble, ‘The fear of growing old in Spain’. Now it may also seem to you my reader’s to be a bit of a strange topic for me to be writing about, far away from my normal lifestyle ramble topics, but there are generally good reasons that dictate why I write specifically about some of the things that I do, and this is no exception. Some of you may think that this is due to the catastrophic events that occurred recently in Valencia, the fatalities and people still missing, and who knows, that may have been laying there somewhere in the dark recesses of my subconscious, but no, the answer is far simpler than that, it was all due to an article that I read in a local media publication, not directed at foreign residents in particular, more the general feeling of fear that ‘some’ people may have about growing old.

It was basically an article where a journalist conducted an interview with a female Psychologist on growing older, not that her gender had anything to do with it, this subject interested me and after reading it, subsequently prompted another deep and meaningful discussion between Shazza and myself 🤭 Once again, I am not going to re-print the whole article but to give you a flavour here are two key elements of the interview taken from that article.

The other reason that I have decided to choose this particular subject to write about is, I know that I have reader’s who only started to follow my ramblings when we applied for our Non-Lucrative Visa, who intended, or were interested, in doing a similar thing and remained interested in what it was like actually living here on a permanent basis. One of the many things that may deter people, of a certain age group, from actually taking that leap, is a fear of growing older in an unfamiliar country, so I hope that this ramble may stimulate them to think about it, and it may, or then again, may not, alleviate some of the doubts they may have, or indeed confirm in their own minds that this would be a reason for them choosing not to make that lifestyle change. I am writing it from a purely personal perspective, so the kind of things that Shazza and I sometimes discuss and our own personal perspectives on facing our ‘Twilight Years’ here in Spain but also, just some of the things that I tend to mull over, generally during the quieter late night hours whilst sat alone on my balcony, seemingly just gazing out upon the black abyss, but in reality the cogs in my brain are spinning whilst I have silent conversations, sometimes even debates, with myself.

So the cogs started churning and, after reading the contents of this article in full, it initially raised another question in my mind ? ‘At what point in our lives do we actually change from being considered as ‘middle aged’, to then be considered as being in our ‘Old Age’ and, who the bloody hell actually makes that decision 🤔’ Although some of you may say to me, Eric, it commences when you have to start to ask that very question in the first place 😲

As for myself, after just very recently celebrating my 68th birthday, although I am not sure that the word ‘celebrating’ is factually correct, more just a case of gratefully acknowledging that Shazza remembered and then swiftly moving on to treating it as just another day. I do have to say though, that I certainly still do not feel anywhere near being that age, in fact, if it were not for the date on my birth certificate confirming the year of my birth, then I would say that I feel ‘at least’ ten year’s younger, if not a bit younger, just a pity I suppose that the mirror in the bathroom doesn’t reflect that, so I may just elect to do without a mirror if, and when, we choose to do our en-suite bathroom upgrade 😂

Of course, as I am sure you will expect from me by now, I do also have my own personal philosophy on this subject, and that is that age is just a number at the end of the day, a number that quite simply defines how long, each of us, as individuals, have actually spent living on this earth since the day we were brought into it, how long we continue to live is determined by many other factors, some within our control, other’s perhaps not so. But, other than possibly ‘personally’ marking the anniversary of that day on an annual basis, that number appears to be more relevant to other’s, rather than ourselves, and is something that is used by other’s, to mark certain events or points in our live’s, for example, the age when we start and finish school, when we become ‘legally’ responsible for our own actions, when we can cast our own vote in Parliamentary or Local Government Elections, when we can obtain a ‘full’ drivers licence, open a Bank Account or obtain Credit Cards or enter into Loan Agreements, more importantly the age when we have to start paying Income Tax on our earnings, and paying contributions into Social Services, and then, much later in life, when we can ‘officially’ stop working and are entitled to receive a State Pension etc. etc. etc. the list goes on and on, so it appears to me that that number is much more important to some other’s, more so than ourselves. But, having thought about that, it prompted me to ask myself another question, which meant that it was going to be a long night 🙄

Does reaching the official retirement age, at whatever age you reach it, because that age can differ on several factors, wether you are male or female or even what country you live, but irrespective of those things, does reaching the official retirement age automatically move you out of the category where, up until that point, you were considered as being ‘Middle Aged’ but on attaining that ‘official’ retirement age, then moves you unceremoniously into the category where you are then considered as being of ‘Old Age’ 🤔 So, is it actually the Government that decides when you are considered to be an ‘Old Person’, I actually, for once, cannot put the blame for that on their shoulders and I will tell you why.

I remember an occasion, just after I had turned 60 years of age, going in to a Chemist in the UK to get a prescription filled for something or other, I got my wallet out, ready to pay the usual prescription charge, and was informed that there was ‘no charge’ now that I was 60 years of age. Now of course, me being me, I was very happy at the news, as I have always liked the word ‘Free’, although I was quite surprised as I obviously wasn’t, at that time, at Retirement age or in receipt of a State Pension, indeed I was still some 6 year’s from that point in my life ? However, I didn’t question it, you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth now, do you ? But was I now getting ‘free’ prescriptions because, at the age of 60, I was now, in the opinion of the NHS, considered to be an ‘old’ person 🤔

Another thing I began to notice as soon as I reached that magic number of 60, suddenly I started to be constantly inundated with completely unsolicited letters, and leaflets, encouraging me to take out Life Insurance Policies for the over 60’s, in order to provide financial security for the loved one’s that I would leave behind 😲 ‘Leave Behind’ I thought to myself, but I hadn’t made any plans to go on any trips, had they got me mixed up with somebody else ? Not only that, and probably more importantly, who had told these people who I was, how old I was, and provided them with my contact address, could this be considered as a Data Breach ? could I sue someone and add to my pension savings pot 🤗

Bit it didn’t stop there, after continuously receiving these unsolicited communications for a further period of five year’s and, quite literally just after celebrating my 65th birthday, in addition to all of the other leaflets, I then started to be inundated with further unsolicited Leaflets, Emails and even Advertisements on my social media accounts, about Funeral and Crematorium Plans ⚰️💀

‘Come on’ I thought to myself, I am only 65 years old for goodness sake, fit, healthy and in the prime of my life. But it didn’t stop there either, even though I was still one year away from the ‘official’ retirement age, and still not in receipt of my State Pension, once I hit that magic ‘65’ number, letters from the National Health Service (NHS) started to drop on the doormat, they apparently having made pre-designated appointments for me to attend something called a ‘Well Mans Clinic’, for ‘blood tests’, ‘cardiograms’, ‘diabetic checks’, ‘blood pressure’ and a whole host of rather nasty sounding checks where they would insert ‘objects’ internally into some rather personally sensitive areas of my body 😲 Now up until that point in my life, I had never even heard of a ‘Well Mans Clinic’, but you know what the scariest bit was ? Here they were, a whole host of faceless people, trying to sell me age related Insurance Policies, Funeral and Cremation Plans and, what I suspected to be the NHS looking for serviceable parts of my anatomy to harvest when I gasped my last breath, and attempting to brainwash me into the belief that, at only 65 years of age, I was just about ready for the knacker’s yard and ready for departing this world.

But was this the actual point whereby even the National Health Authorities were telling me that I was of an age where, officially, I was now also classed, not just as being ‘Old’ but also in the ‘Vulnerable’ category 😲 Because now I was apparently also entitled to ‘Free’ Flu and Covid Booster Vaccinations. Well I can tell you now for nothing, even though I generally like the word ‘Free’, this was one particular gratis service that I was more than happy to decline.

At one of these ‘Well Mans Clinics’ appointments, that I did decide to attend, but more out of curiosity than being worried about my health, I asked the question, “What is in this flu jab that I keep being offered”, of one of the nurses, “A combination of ‘Three’ of the most common and virulent strains of the Flu virus” she said, in quite a matter of fact sort of way. I was shocked and stunned, they actually wanted me to willingly let them inject into my body, three different ‘active’ flu viruses, in order to ‘try’ to prevent me from getting a Flu virus 🤔 “But what if I get infected with a different strain of flu virus” I asked, “Then, unfortunately, you are more likely going to suffer with the flu” she replied 😲 She then went on to ask wether I had received that year’s flu vaccination and, if not, would I like to have it whilst I was there !! Needless to say, I told her, very politely of course, where she could stick her combined Flu and Covid Booster jab, and that it certainly would not be in me.

So, I have come to the conclusion that, when we reach the age of 60 years, irrespective of our individual health and fitness, the ‘System’ has already decided that we are considered to be ‘Old’ and on the slippery slope. However, if you are lucky enough to survive for another 5 years, much to their disdain I would imagine, then, at the ripe old age of only 65 years, you become, not just ‘Old’, but also ‘Vulnerable’, even though I still had one year to go until I could officially retire and claim my State Pension, it didn’t take me too long to work out who would benefit the most if I were not to reach Pension Age 🙄 So I guess, upon reaching the ripe old age of 65 years it is then just a matter of time, as to how much longer you will survive, especially after having being vaccinated with lots of active viruses to help you on your way, which prompts yet another question, just how long does it normally take to research and discover a new vaccine, how long does it usually take to test them, then get them approved by an ‘Independent Regulatory Authority’ before distributing them as fit for use on humans 🤔 So just how quickly did it take to produce the Covid Vaccine 🤔 Fertile grounds here for me to present a ‘Conspiracy Theory’ I think, not that I am going to, there are plenty of other’s out there, including scientist’s, who are already vocalising their own concerns on this very subject, so I am not going to join that long list. I am not an Anti-Vaxxer, as I do realise that, historically speaking, some vaccines have proven to be global life savers, although I do have to say that I will continue to have my own personal doubts on the mass initial Covid Vaccination Programme, but of course I will reserve judgement on the long term health and safety attributes, or dangers 🤔 Why do I continue to see and read about so many people who are suddenly getting illnesses that they have never suffered with before, and only since being administered with the Covid Vaccine, or dying of things where there is no genetic history, can all of these be just coincidental 🤷‍♂️

However, this ‘Old Age’ brainwashing continued, even when we moved across to living in Spain, for when we first obtained our residency permits here, shortly after registering with our local health clinic, I received an unexpected phone call at home, from my ‘assigned’ practitioner nurse at our local health centre, after the usual brief pleasantries, and in perfect English, “Are you feeling well today ?” She asked, “Yes” I replied, “How are you feeling”, I responded out of politeness , but she didn’t provide an answer, she just asked another question, “Do you live with someone who can take care of you if you are unwell ?” she asked, “Yes” I again responded, but in truth I was getting a little worried at this point, I mean what did she know that perhaps I didn’t 😲 Now of course, and in all seriousness, it was of course nice to know that someone from my local health centre was acknowledging that I was on their books and was checking up on me, even though I was a recent new Immigrant into their country, a ‘Legal’ one, but then why has Shazza never received such a telephone call, do they not care about her 🤔 Or were they too considering me as being old, possibly even vulnerable ? Because not long afterwards, I received a letter of invitation to go for an annual Covid Booster vaccination, but again, Shazza didn’t 🤔 I of course refused their generous offer. But now, one year on and having recently celebrated yet another birthday, and 8 years further on from the age where all this ‘Old’ question started, should I be seriously worried 😲 To be perfectly honest with you, I am just waiting for the knock on the door from the undertaker, wanting to measure me up for my coffin 😂 But now at least, I can be thankful for each and every day that I do actually wake up in the morning, in my bed and not sat on a cloud playing a Harp 😂

Okay, I know, I sort of digressed a little bit, again, but it bore a little bit of relevance to the main subject of this ramble, didn’t it 🤔

Shazza and I have already had discussions about the aspects of the both of us growing older over here in Spain and what, due to the age difference, the limitations that that ‘may’ bring, as to what we want to do, or indeed what we will be capable of doing, as the year’s pass us by. Like an ageing vehicle, which can of course last for very many year’s beyond its anticipated normal life expectancy, even with regular maintenance, care and attention, eventually the parts do still wear out and replacements no longer become available. Well we are under no illusions that the same principle applies to the human body, no matter how well you look after it, eventually it just ages and the parts wears out, and with their currently at least, being no confirmed, medically tested and approved, anti-ageing remedies, no ladies, not even your re-vitalist face creams or body lotions 🤭 eventually the body stops working effectively, then ultimately it stops working altogether. So we are certainly under no illusions, we can keep eating a healthy diet, we can keep maintaining our mobility and general health, but we cannot prevent the ageing process so at some point our bodies will become worn out, and that is the realistic facet of life.

It is not a discussion that we actually shy away from, and we have had the discussions on whether either of us would want to remain here when, one or the other of us, does in fact pass away. I understand that to some reading this, that may sound a bit morbid, but we don’t view it that way, in fact we believe that it is a sensible discussion for couples, of a certain age group, to have, sooner rather than later, rather than keep kicking that particular can down the road, as that road continues to get shorter as each year passes, irrespective of one’s health, fitness and mobility.

Neither of us actually see any practical differences in wether we live out our ‘Twilight Years’ here in Spain, or in the UK, other than in the UK being much closer to family that is, although our immediate family members are spread out, either in other countries across the globe or indeed even internally within the UK. Here in Spain we are settled, we know where everything is that we need, the local walks, the Cafe/Bars and Restaurants, Shops, Bank, Post Office, Health Centre, Fuel Station and Car Wash etc. In fact everything that we require in our normal every day lives in which to live a comfortable existence, whether that be now, as a couple, or in the future when we are not. We also have our home, with everything that is familiar to us, we both know how things work, the appliances, where the fuse box is located, the water isolation valve etc and we feel very secure. We know our neighbour’s within our community, some obviously better than other’s and, albeit we are a multi-national bunch, they all fortunately speak English, should we require their assistance. Would we feel comfortable going to the places that we frequent now, but on our own, for coffee, Lunch or even Dinner, of course the memories we would have of frequenting those places together, could initially cause us some pain, but given time that pain would ease but, the main point is, would we feel comfortable living here without each other when that time eventually arrives, we both believe that practically speaking we could, but in reality, well we wouldn’t really know until that time arrives 🤷‍♂️ But we both agreed that it would be much the same wherever we were living which includes the UK.

So, although we certainly have no ‘Fear Of Growing Old In Spain’, whilst we remain fit and healthy, the other question we have to confront is, would we want to remain here if we became less fit and healthy and reliant on the Spanish Medical and Social Care facilities ? As far as the medical facilities are concerned, whether that be our local Health Centre or the Hospital facilities, we certainly have no concerns whatsoever, the standard of care that we have so far experienced is, or should I say that I have experienced, as Shazza has not as yet had cause to require those services, are in my personal opinion, exceptionally good. But their are some disadvantages, Spain has no similar ‘Public’ social care services, as in ‘Home Help’, as there are in the UK, and the same applies for public locally funded ‘Nursing and Care Homes’, so if you need assistance at home, you have to pay for a private service, and the same for Care Homes, both of which are limited in their availability, and where they are available, they are very expensive. The advantage for Spanish citizens is that they have families who look after them, as in a lot of other countries, so they become their carers for as long as is required, we would not have that luxury 🤔 However, on a more optimistic note, who is to say that either of us would suffer any illness, or would become immobile to the extent where we needed support, I for one plan, when the time comes, to go to bed one night and just wake up sat on a cloud playing my Harp, waiting for Shazza to join me, blowing her own trumpet 😂😂

So, as is becoming more frequent these days, another long winded ramble from me 😮‍💨 I have tried to lighten the content with some tongue in cheek comments, however, there are obviously some more serious aspects that do need some consideration before choosing to live your ‘Twighlight Years’ in a foreign country. Shazza and I do generally live by the philosophy that age is actually just a number, living life to the full is more about how well you keep your body in good health, but neither is it specifically about a ‘healthy diet’, although knowing what is better for you, and what your body requirements actually are, can be extremely advantageous, but it won’t prevent you ageing or from the parts eventually wearing out. Maintaining a decent degree of mobility is also important, but as you age, so too is being careful in not putting too many demands and strains on it, whilst the adage of ‘Use it or lose it’ is a good motivator, so too is ‘Everything in moderation’, it’s a matter of finding the right balance and to a certain degree, just plain old luck, that the ‘Dark Forces’ don’t come and hit you with any unanticipated surprises 😉

Personally speaking, I am just glad that at the moment I still feel ‘Middle Aged’, and glad that I have not, as yet, reached that ‘Old and Vulnerable’ stage in my life, even if there may be ‘others’ out there, including the bathroom mirror, trying to convince me otherwise 😂

Until the next time, stay fit and healthy my friends …………….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida es Buena

Had I have been able to predict the catastrophic devastation that was to face the people in the Valencia Region just a few short days after publishing my last ramble, then, of course, that ramble would never have been written, let alone published. But of course, nobody could have predicted the tragedy that was about to unfold, considered to be the worst flood disaster in Europe in recent times, as far as the number of fatalities are concerned, and the worst floods in Spain for decades. The reality is that Spain, like so many other countries, does historically suffer with floods and wild-fires on an pretty regular annual basis, albeit with not the same devastating consequences as those that have just occurred. As you may have already anticipated, there are already questions being raised, even though the search for missing persons and a major clean-up and damage repair programme is still currently in progress, as to why this catastrophe happened, I think that if the Government authorities conclude their investigation and analysis with the words ‘Lessons Learned’, there could very well be a massive public revolt, for we all know, irrespective of the Country or the Issue, that these two words are used as a constant ‘Strap Line’ to try and get, Governments and Corporate Bodies off the hook for tragedies that occur, usually from corporate negligence, short-cuts, economic savings etc. etc. Of course, blame has already started to be attributed, rightly or wrongly, on the State Meteorology Agency (Aemet) and of course on the Local, Provincial, Regional and National Government’s for their failures in both responding quickly enough prior to, during, and after, this disaster.

We all know that the force of nature can be both harsh and cruel, irrespective of whether that be from Wind, Rain, Fire, Volcanic Eruptions or Earthquakes. I am not certain however as to how many people do realise that the actual rising frequency, and intensity, of all such ‘Natural’ events are as a direct consequence of ‘Climate Change’ which itself is due to ‘Global Warming’. But I am not going to jump on the bandwagon and beat the drum on that particular subject, you either know, or you don’t know 🤷‍♂️ You may believe that the Earth is warming up, or choose to disbelieve it 🤷‍♂️ I am certainly not going to get into an argument with anyone on their Freedom to voice their personal ‘Opinions’ on the matter, which at the moment we do currently still have, ‘Freedom Of Choice’ to aire one’s personal opinions that is, although you may want to utilise that right whilst you do still have it 🤔

Regular reader’s of my rambles will already know of course that, for very many year’s now, in my rambles, probably from the very first day I commenced writing them, the ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts Agencies have often become a target of my frustration due to their consistent inaccurate weather forecasting abilities. But how spooky is this, in my last ramble, due to them forecasting two four day storms, that both failed to materialise, I compared them with the story of the little boy who cried Wolf too many times. Well a representative from the Spanish State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), within the last couple of days, was answering questions about the Valencia Floods and of course was quick to point out that Aemet did issue a ‘Red flood warning’.

Now of course, he is right, people should respond to weather alerts, if they don’t, then further tragedies like the one in Valencia will continue to occur. But, on the other side of that same coin, many people, due to the habitual inaccurate weather forecasting, tend not to believe or rely on them, especially when they, the ‘Works of Fiction’, have falsely cried ‘Wolf’ on so many previous occasions 🤷‍♂️ So perhaps this is just one of those areas where lessons certainly have to learned, as undoubtedly, it is the constant inaccuracy of the weather agency which has to bear some culpability for the number of fatalities during this tragic and catastrophic event 🤔

Such catastrophes also bring out the ‘Extreme Sides Of Human Nature’ as whilst some, albeit thankfully only a small minority of individuals, opted to use this tragedy solely for their own personal gain, by looting retail premises, although not for food and water, which, under the circumstances would have been both understandable and acceptable, but no, they targeted other commercial type stores (Jewellery and Electronic Device stores amongst other’s). However, reflecting the much better side of human nature, hundreds, if not thousands, from nearby neighbourhoods, villages and towns that had been fortunate enough to have not suffered the same amount of devastation, went, many armed with brushes, mops, shovels, buckets etc. to help clean up properties of complete stranger’s, the victims of the flooded houses, business premises and their mud filled streets. Regions all over Spain, even those areas that themselves had suffered storm damage, but less destructive, got together and started raising money through emergency flood donation collections, realising that many had lost everything, clothes, furniture, domestic appliances so leaving them with only the clothes they stood up in. Many other’s donated water, clothing, blankets etc. which were then transported and delivered to local collection points in Vans and Lorrie’s up to the stricken areas, this public army had mobilised literally within hours of hearing of the scale of the devastation. It just proves that although the media is always full of doom and gloom, there are still more good people than bad in our world today 🙏

But amongst the obvious despair, occasionally the media would give a positive news update that a survivor had been discovered, however, such hope for many, in respect of those still missing, is now rapidly beginning to dwindle as each day passes.

Even as the clean-up and damage repair continues in Valencia, which will take days, weeks, months and, with some aspects of infrastructure, perhaps even year’s, the storm that brought this Region so much catastrophe has now moved further North along the Eastern Coastline, Mallorca suffered over the weekend but now it is the turn of the Catalonia Region (Tarragona, Barcelona) to face the floods.

I am sure that many of you who read my rambles will also have read for yourselves, or seen the images on the National and International TV News Channels, of the floods here in Valencia, so there is no need for me to show you any more images, you will have got the visual picture by now. My final comment on the matter, in this ramble at least, would be to say that whilst the Valencia Region has, so far, suffered the biggest catastrophe and loss of life as a consequence of ‘Storm Dana’, it was by no means the only area affected, there has also been major flooding with loss of houses, business, properties, land and essential infrastructure and services all over Spain, in the South of the Country, on both the Atlantic and Mediterranean Coastlines and in other inland Central Regions.

If you are reading this ramble, then you will have already surmised that Shazza and I are both okay, indeed very much more than okay compared to lots of other people, not just those elsewhere within only an hour’s drive, in our own Province of Malaga, but those in other areas throughout Spain, but thank you for those that did send messages through both of our individual Email accounts and our individual Social Media Channels, checking on our Welfare, it really was very much appreciated 🙏🙏 Yes, we were confined to barracks for four days, yes we experienced torrential rain and very strong winds, but thankfully, all of our local area’s flood defences held up, so we think ourselves very fortunate to have had a home, our own home, to be confined in, but to say anymore would sound like gloating, in the face of those who did not have their homes any longer, and many who still are suffering other major losses at this time.

So, in other news………………

Our Marina accommodated seven additional visiting vessels sheltering from ‘Storm Dana’, but their were two that really caught the eye due their size, one of them, a Trimaran, which looked more like some sort of very sophisticated Alien Spaceship, the other, a 70 foot long Sunreef Catamaran, very nice, very very nice 🤗 The other temporary visitors, in comparison, were just run of the mill 😂 And just for those those not in the know, a normal yacht (Sail or Motor) that has one hull is known as a ‘Mono Hull’, a yacht with two hulls, a ‘Catamaran’ and yes, you are already ahead of me here, a yacht with three hulls, a ‘Trimaran’, educational this ramble isn’t it 🤭

Finally, we have booked our return ferry tickets, to go back to the UK next year, for a period of 24 days, although Shazza and I are still discussing our itinerary, or more accurately, Shazza is telling me what we will be doing and I am nodding my head in agreement 😂 We will be doing a fair bit of travelling, up and down the country, so it is a good job we will be in our Spanish Registered car, and so will not have to pay the UK ‘by the mile’ car tax to get around all of our family visits 😲 Although, why they couldn’t all just live in one place I don’t know, it would have been much easier as we could have then just flown in and out over a long weekend 😂😂

Until the next ramble, stay safe…………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

Well at last, the ‘Works of Fiction’ finally got a forecast somewhere near accurate for a change, and we were grateful for it, although they still managed to hedge their bets a little, but we forgave them for that on this occasion. When the first real deluge arrived late into the evening, that first night was a spectacular performance to behold. Before the heaviest of the rainfall arrived, the lightning display commenced and what a display it was, the night sky lit up for several seconds at a time, more than just brief flashes, shades of blue and white, and it repeated this lighting show performance every thirty seconds throughout the night, even through the partially open slats in the window shutters it lit up the bedroom. Like a well managed orchestral performance the percussion section, the thunder, joined the visual entertainment, initially starting with long but low rumbles, gradually building in its duration and volume, until it became just one massive crescendo of noise, the strength of the rain increased with such force and intensity, driven by the strong winds, so much so that the combined performance was almost deafening at some points, it slammed against the closed metal security shutters on the windows, the heavy palm tree leaves acted as the back-up musicians accompanying the display throughout the full concert performance, the large heavy raindrops leapt high into the air, bouncing off the roads, pavements and tiled window sills of our balcony like a brigade of Olympian trampolinists. This continued long into the first night, although by the early hours of the morning there were brief intermissions whilst this mixture of meteorological performers each caught their breath, permitting us to also snatch brief periods of sleep.

(Photographs courteousy of SUR Media)

The supporting acts took over the responsibility for the entertainment during the first part of the following day, although, with the lack of darkness from the blackout curtain of the previous night, the light shows were nowhere near as spectacular or impressive, so it was left to the turn of the thunder, and rain, to take front and centre stage. The road below our balcony window had become a flowing river of water, the water drains not able to cope with the speed and volume of the watery deluge, the river of water separated occasionally, much like a biblical event, only this time it wasn’t ’Moses’ but the cars that managed to part the water and navigate their way through it.

Unexpectedly, during the latter part of the first morning, after the initial storm, it was like we had gone deaf, the whole performance ceased in its entirety, no lightning, thunder, wind or rain, it became eerily still, there were some periods where the dark clouds opened and let through some brighter light which reflected upon a strange looking and extremely calm sea, the view across to the horizon were so clear that I could once again watch the line of freighters slowly ploughing their way back and forth, East to West and vice versa, whilst glimpses of whiter cloud and strips of blue sky became visible, this I guess is the complete opposite of the saying, ‘the calm before the storm’. We checked all of our ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts again and, as we have become accustomed to, they now all showed variations in their forecasts. Our local one, which actually shows the weather for our specific town, rather than the other’s that show the general wider geographical area, appeared, from visual confirmation looking out of our window, to be the most accurate, reflecting this period of calm and dry weather. However, like the other’s, it forecast just a short respite and for the rain to return later that day so we just hunkered down again. It was a little frustrating, because we could have actually got out for a walk, as there was no more rain forthcoming during the rest of that day or evening, so for now, we do not know the effect this deluge has had on the lower coastal area, the Village, Marina or our local town 🙄

The ‘App’ on my iPad, that shows the water levels in the Embalces, disappointingly reflected very little change from the previous day’s level, although I knew that it does take a lot of rainfall to show any real increase and it can also take a couple of days before the additional run-off from the mountains makes any additional noticeable difference. We would still need a lot more rain over the coming days to make any real difference, the ‘Works of Fiction’ were all showing more on it’s way, but would it materialise was the big question 🤷‍♂️ We decided that if we awoke to dry weather the following morning we would look at the sky and possibly risk getting out for a walk.

It appeared, having perused the local morning paper the morning after that first storm, that it had not actually arrived until much later into the early hours further up the coastline, into Malaga City, but they had received even more than we had in our area, and as well as torrential rain they were also hit with golf ball sized hailstones 😲

It was 1am in the morning, and as was usual, Shazza had gone to bed much earlier, around 11pm, after staying up to watch what to turned out to be yet another miserable performance by the women’s England national football team. Once the TV had been switched off, and the table lamp in the living room turned off, I retreated to my sanctuary in the peace and quiet of the balcony, sat just with my own thought’s, on nothing in particular, but I find it a good time to have a sort through all of the million and one things that were in my head, and then have a brain dump of all the irrelevant stuff that had accumulated in it over the last twenty-four hours or so, which was probably around 80% and is probably why I felt a bit lightheaded when I stood up 😂 It was then that I heard the second ‘wave’ of wet stuff start to arrive, please note, this time the pun was actually intended 😉 The heavy rain was not accompanied by any other performers this time around, no lightning, thunder or strong winds, even the heavy palm leaves were at slumber. Shazza awoke as I tip-toed into the bedroom, “It has started again then” she said, in a semi-conscious tone, “Yup, I have inflated the Kayak just in case you fancy going out for a paddle tomorrow” I said, but she didn’t respond, she just pulled the duvet up, tightly around her shoulders and drifted back into her dreamland.

As the torrential rain threw itself relentlessly against the shutters, I tried but couldn’t sleep so, after around thirty-minutes of tossing and turning I gave up trying, got up and stood at the balcony windows just staring out into the blackness, the rain coming down in sheets and reflecting in the street lamps as it did so, I wondered just how much would be falling into the Embalce, would it be enough for the authorities to declare that the water restrictions could be removed, we still had not heard the results from their last meeting, perhaps they had postponed it, not making any decision until this current storm period was over.

The following morning I awoke as usual at 7:30am, it doesn’t seem to matter what time I go to bed, I always seem to awaken at the same time 🤷‍♂️ I could still hear the rain on the shutters and it still sounded very heavy. I made myself a coffee, Shazza hadn’t shuffled or grumbled when I got out of bed so I didn’t bother making her one just yet, she wouldn’t have appreciated it. As I looked out of the balcony windows it was difficult to establish what was the sky and what was the sea, the thick cloud of dark grey just merged into one, the rain was still relentless, wether it had stopped at any point during the early hours I didn’t know, but if it hadn’t, then I knew that by now that it would be creating havoc on many of the roads for the early morning traffic.

Whilst for some of us, this period of rain was quite a welcome and much needed event, spectacular even, but when I started to read the local papers that morning, it became evident that this had turned into a tragedy for many other’s, which didn’t just include those a little further up in our own Province, but also further North through several other Regions of Spain, as far up as Valencia.

On reading these tragic headlines and reports, I felt a pang of guilt about the sense of enjoyment that I had felt when viewing the spectacular visual effects that this storm had brought just a night earlier. We had seen similar sorts of aftermath after previous heavy downpours of rain, but not on this sort of scale, yes we had experienced floods in our own Marina and Town several year’s ago, and we had seen news reports from floods in other area’s over the following year’s since, cars being washed away, rivers breaking their banks, houses and business premises being flooded, but never before, after such a relatively short period of rainfall, had I read about so many deaths in just one day 😲

At times, nature can be such a wonderful thing to behold, in all of its forms, but sometimes it can also be devastating and cruel. One minute it does not supply enough water and so creates drought’s, that themselves can cause major fatalities around the globe, then it provides the much needed water, but in such large volumes in such short periods of time, that that also creates fatalities. Should we put the blame on nature itself for these weather extremes ? should we put the blame solely on the effects of Climate Change ? At what point do we actually start to acknowledge and put the blame on us Humans for being responsible for the creation of many such global events and subsequent tragedies 🤷‍♂️

Hasta Luego mi Amigos

We parked the car in our usual beachfront car park in the village, but as we opened the car doors we noticed that there was a strong smell of the sea, it was particularly noticeable to us because this quite unique scent is not something that is normal here, the more normal noticeable thing for us is the actual differing sounds of the sea, in the form of the noise of the waves as they break onto the shoreline and, dependent on the direction and strength of the wind, it can be either a gentle, rhythmic, barely noticeable sound, much like it is on this particular day, or a loud crashing noise as they break onto the shoreline but it was certainly the scent of the seaside that was today the predominant factor. Now whether that was because there was barely a breeze blowing, the flags on the three tall flagpoles that stand in front of the children’s play area and basketball court are our usual visual guide as to what direction the wind is blowing in, but they were just hanging lifeless and limp, the sun was shining and so it would be another very pleasant morning for our walk, however, there was no obvious explanation as to why the scent of the sea was so strong on this particular day but it was enough for us to feel the need to both comment on it 🤷‍♂️

Although it was rapidly approaching the end of October and now Autumn, we also commented on how we were both still quite comfortable going out on our daily walks still wearing our Summer attire, shorts and tee-shirts, but knowing that that situation could change at any moment. It is this time of year when the tourists from the more Northern European countries stand out, as whilst they like us are also enjoying being in these temperate Spanish Winter temperatures, wearing of course their shorts and tee-shirts, they stand out due to their paler skin tones, it wasn’t that long ago when that would also have been us too, but now we are more of a ‘Cafe con Leche’ sort of shade, rather than bronzed.

The Spanish media are already starting to encourage the elderly, and the medically vulnerable, a category for which I obviously do not fit into just yet, irrespective of what the date imprinted on my birth certificate may indicate 🤭 to make appointments to get the annual flu vaccinations, which of course still includes the new and revised Anti-Covid vaccine, but Shazza and I will respectfully continue to decline those, opting instead to maintain our own Anti-Covid Vaccine and healthy ‘Plant Based’ dietary regimes which appear, in our case, to still be quite effective, Shazza still of the belief that she did not contract Covid during our recent road trip and that it was more a case of ‘Gastroenteritis’, but we will never know the medical truth about that will we my beloved 🤷‍♂️

On this particular day we would, as is usual, walk all the way into the town, although there are days when we are not really up for it, so we would just stop either in the Marina, or at a Chiringuito on the other side of it, have our usual coffee’s and then turn around and go back to the car, but not today, today we would go the distance. Since getting back from our road trip, we no longer partake of the late breakfast ‘Tostados’, Shazza has reverted, somewhat to my surprise, to getting up a little earlier and eating a much healthier breakfast at home, her usual bowl of Oats, Mixed Berries and Nuts, although it is far too early for my stomach to entertain food and anyway, we didn’t have any bacon in the fridge to enable me to make a lovely unhealthy, but extremely tasty, bacon roll 😋 So generally I just wait and when we return from our walk, we both sit on the balcony and have a light lunch. Shazza, earlier that particular morning, had made a home-made Minestrone soup for our lunch but just needed to finish it off, so we would make a stop at our usual ‘fruiteria’ on the high street to pick up some Spinach to add to it, ‘lovely’ I thought to myself 🙄 She obviously glimpsed my facial expression, “You know it’s good for you, with this particular soup you actually get ‘eleven’ of the ‘thirty’ healthy and nutritional ingredients you need each week, all in one go” she said, very enthusiastically, “Great, so that should mean that if I have a bowl for the next three day’s lunches then I can eat whatever I like for the next four days ?” I replied, with a big smile on my face, she just tutted at me and gave me one of her disapproving scowls 🤭

We had really clear views along the whole length of our walk that morning, with the different colours of the sea, from the turquoise green close to the shoreline, turning to a sparkling light blue and then much deeper blue as it got deeper further out and towards the horizon, on this particular day the sea was flat and very calm with barely a ripple, we could see for miles, in all directions. The mountains and their peaks were all clearly visible too, the whitewashed villages and towns that flowed down the sides of the mountains towards the coast, then the green forested areas between and above them, which eventually gave way to the sparse and empty grey limestone and granite rock faces towards the top. There were several mountain peaks and these would continue, albeit out of our sight, right up and beyond Malaga until they almost reached the Sierra Nevada mountain range. It is the combination of these mountain areas that protect us from the Atlantic storms that blow across from the Cadiz Province in the West, and also from the worst of the storms that blow down from the North through the Granada Province, we are also afforded some limited protection from the nearby mountains that stretch along the coast of Morocco, just across the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar, however, we are totally exposed and have no such protection from the occasional wild Winter storms that blow across the Mediterranean Sea from the East and once again the ‘Works of Fiction’ were forecasting yet another storm, which was due to hit us within the next day or so, but whether that one would materialise was of course another question, just how they can get these things so wrong with such regularity truly amazes me 🤷‍♂️ I think that because we really do need some long periods of persistent rain, conversations about the weather are one of the primary topics discussed by everyone here, the difference being that in the UK it was always about having too much too often, whereas, here it is about not having enough of it frequently enough 🤷‍♂️

I have to say that these ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts are getting more and more like the fairy tale about the little shepherd boy who each night kept crying ‘Wolf’, when there actually wasn’t one, but on one particular night when he, and the flock he was keeping a watch over, were attacked by a pack of wolves, the people in the nearby village just ignored his cries for help 🤷‍♂️

Anyway, the weather, and the amazing views, gave us something to talk about whilst we enjoyed our coffee’s, and on this occasion, because the weather was so nice, and we were not in a hurry to actually be anywhere else, with no rush to return home for anything in particular, other than the large bowl of nutritious loveliness awaiting me 😂 we ordered a second coffee and talked about a whole host of different topics, just putting the world to right’s, as you do. I often say in these rambles that I always speak the truth and tell you both the good, and the not so good aspects, of living here in Spain, although I am not certain whether you actually are all that interested. But for those that are, I have decided that for this ramble, as to be honest there is little else for me to ramble on about as we are not actually doing very much, that I would highlight some topics that have been in our local news recently and which will I think show how some aspects of life here are not much different to anywhere else 🤷‍♂️

And yet another…………

We often hear the complaint about what Government’s says, and what they actually do, as being two quite different things so, having seen and read the above articles, it would appear that there is quite a lot of land available to build all of these new ‘luxury’ properties 🤷‍♂️ So what do the Spanish Government have to say about addressing the issue of building ‘Affordable’ properties ?

Now obviously I have not re-published the whole articles of each headline and, as a foreign resident, who purchased a property here a little under ten years ago, I have no particular axe to grind, but reading these news articles just out of a general interest, and with speaking to locals in my immediate area, it just seems to me to be a little confusing, as there is, it would appear, to be sufficient land available to issue licences to build ‘luxury’ properties for foreign investor’s, but there is no land available to build ‘Affordable’ housing for the local Spanish population, so apart from Profit for the corporate land developers and, the advantages to the Government and the Countries economy as a whole, what am I missing here 🤔

So are there any other similar issues here in Spain that exist within other Countries, either in Europe or elsewhere in the world 🤔 What about the state of the Spanish health system ? I have to say that in all honesty, both in the UK and here in Spain, whenever I have personally needed to access the healthcare systems, in either country, I have never had an issue and been very well looked after but now I am reading that it isn’t all rosey in that particular garden either 😲 I am unable to verify wether there is an issue, as neither myself or Shazza have had any reason since becoming residents here, since June 2023, to access any of the State Medical Facilities, either the local health clinic or attendance at a hospital for Emergency or Consultancy reasons.

Generally speaking, the health situation here is much the same as it is anywhere else in Europe, as far as the usual associated issues there are with Colds, Flu and Covid is concerned, however, there is one issue here that I have never heard of, let alone come across before, in any part of Western Europe and that is the ‘Western Nile Virus’ (WNV), but that of course may be purely down to my own ignorance. Whilst I am quite familiar with ‘Malaria’, contracted via Mosquito bites, it seems that currently here in Spain, these wee beasties are also responsible for the spread of this WNV 😲

For some reason we do seem to have been less troubled with Mosquitoes in our own local area this year than in previous years, during the Summer months we usually have the mosquito net over our bed for the full period, primarily just as a precautionary measure, but this Summer we have managed to survive without it, Shazza, who is the one who they tend to like the taste of, says she thinks she heard one, although she has not suffered with even one bite this year 🤷‍♂️ Perhaps that is because of the positive results of the spraying in these other mosquito infected areas, or perhaps just the fact that we have suffered with this severe drought in our particular locality this year 🤷‍♂️ Mosquito larvae grows in stagnant water and there hasn’t been much of that this Summer.

So as I continue to scan the local media for other similar issues with our neighbouring countries, I came across an article about the ‘Illegal Immigration’ issue they are having in the Canary Islands. We do occasionally see reports of Immigrants being apprehended in dinghies just off the Costa del Sol mainland too, but not as many as there are in the Spanish Islands just off the Western Coastline of Africa.

You will also be forgiven for thinking that the subject of ‘Brexshit’ has all but disappeared these days, consigned to the annals of historic records, well not here, this very serious subject still continues to rumble on and it still has some serious implications for both the residents of a small but strategic town in Southern Spain (La Línea) and for those residents on the small Island that is Gibraltar.

Wherever you may live in the world, reading this my latest ramble, you will probably each have your own unique issues that you have to contend with, either personally or just by being resident in that particular Country, but you may also be experiencing many of the similar issues that we too experience over here in Spain. So this ramble isn’t a ‘Woe is me’ self indulgent moan or groan, just my way of documenting that, whilst living here, for us, is very nice what with being in a good all-year round temperate climate, with nice local beaches, access to everything that we personally need to enjoy and be comfortable in our lives here and, generally speaking, not effected that much with what is going on around us, but Spain has, much like anywhere else in the modern world, its own every day issues, wether it be Political, Health and Social Care, Environmental, Migration, both Legal and Illegal, etc. and so, as I have said many times, you have to ask yourself the question as to wether you, as an individual, can influence, or change, anything that is going on and, if not, then don’t spend too much time worrying about any of it. We all need to be aware of what is happening around us which is obviously quite a sensible thing to do, but for each day you waste worrying about the things you cannot influence or change, is a day of your life wasted, preventing you from doing something in your life that you can enjoy 😉 Because I have more time on my hands these days, I can afford to use some it familiarising myself with what is going on around me, so I don’t see it as wasted time as I don’t get too involved in it, and sometimes, just sometimes, I can even manage to find some glimmers of positivity whilst reading some of this stuff.

Of course, over here our financial day to day dealings are all in Euro’s, so why, reaching its lowest level against the Pound, would that give me a reason to be happy 🤔 Quite simply because all of our income is generated from within the UK, which means that each month we need to convert Sterling into Euro’s, so at the moment we are getting a very nice conversion rate at around €1.20 to the £1, but we also know that that could change again just as quickly, so we are careful not to become too smug about it 😉 And the next bit of positivity, and this takes me nearly all the way back to the beginning of this particular ramble, the subject of the weather.

As I start to finalise this rather elongated ramble, I am sat on the balcony looking out of the large, but closed, glass French style windows, the heavy leaves on the Palm trees are thrashing away in the strong wind that has finally hit our shoreline, the sea is a charcoal colour with large areas of white tipped turbulent waves, thick grey clouds fill the sky and are now just beginning to unload their watery cargo, although I do have to say, not in the quantity that we are anticipating, but that deluge is forecasted to arrive a little later this evening. Their is a very noticeable drop in the temperature which means that we are now both wearing long cotton fleece lined jog pants, with a lightweight hoodie over our thin tee-shirts, but we are not miserable, this is what we have been praying for, for months, let’s hope that it lasts for the forecasted next six days 🤞 Alas, the track record of the ‘Works of Fiction’ is not the best so we are not allowing ourselves to get too jubilant just yet. Who would have thought that English people could actually be so happy about it raining 😂

This last weekend of October, when Summertime officially ended and, like many other Countries, we put our clocks back, daylight returned at 7:30am and I am now able to see much more in the mornings, quietly observing the awakening world in front of me, however, it is now also dark by 7pm, even sooner on days like today, which does tend to make for much longer night’s with little for me to sit and observe from my balcony lookout post. For now at least, I can still utilise the enclosed balcony but it will now be very much dependent on the daytime temperatures, perhaps the time is coming where I will need to bring the heater in although, in the evenings we are already starting to close the internal patio doors that lead from the living room to the balcony and we just hunker down in front of the TV. It is only a temporary situation, well as far as the dark days and rainy weather are concerned, for the sunshine will again return during the day, that is virtually guaranteed and then who knows when we will get some more of the watery stuff 🤷‍♂️ but as long as this period of weather fills the reservoir then that is really all that matters.

As ‘Another Winter Season Looms’ it will not be long before the more religious themed ‘Fiestas’ commence as we approach the Christmas festive period and, although, as I draft this latest ramble, it is still only the end of October, the local council are already out in force putting up all the street decorative Christmas lights, although they will not be officially turned on for several weeks yet, but seeing them makes us realise at just how quickly that another year is coming to an end.

So, until the next time…………………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

It took quite a while to get back into some sort of a routine once we had returned from our road trip, normally, after being away, getting back into our normal routine would only take a day, or perhaps two at the most, but not this time. Once Shazza felt something like normal after her unidentified illness, within a couple of days we did venture out in the car, although that was only to do the weekly supermarket shop, however, neither did we go on our regular ‘daily’ walks, just a couple of times a week within that first fortnight of being back, although, to be honest, there was no real reason for us not doing so, other than our own complete lethargy, we felt that we had done quite a bit of walking whilst we were away, although one of us perhaps more than the other 🤭 so we convinced ourselves that we must surely have had some walking credits left in the fitness bank 😉 Neither did we have our usual ‘treat weekends’ within that fortnight, we ate dinner at home every evening, Shazza making up for all the ‘Plant Based’ goodies she had missed so much during our trip and of course, being the very supportive husband that I am, I joined her, for the reality was that I too had missed my regular intake of vegetables so, once we were home we only ate out the once and that was towards the latter end of that two-week period. Even then, Shazza stuck to her healthy dietary discipline, with a Moroccon spiced Med Veg Wrap, as for me, okay I have to confess that I finally succumbed, you can have too much of a good thing you know, so I had a Moroccan spiced Lamb Wrap, with patatas frites, and no, I cannot tell a lie, because by god it tasted so damn good 😋 but I wasn’t totally undisciplined as it did still come with a small side salad, which I ate, just to keep my conscience clear 😂

This rare bout of illness with Shazza, did result in us agreeing on making another decision though. Under our NLV we are entitled, and receive, free Spanish State Medical Health treatment and are registered with our local health clinic, not that we have had any cause to utilise those services since becoming resident here. However, I have used the Spanish state healthcare system twice, prior to becoming a resident, once for a kidney stone incident and the last time, in March 2022, when I had the detached retina issue, so we cannot personally give an opinion on how long we would now have to wait to actually get routine appointments with a Doctor at our local health clinic, or for how long it would take to get a doctor’s referral appointment at a hospital, should we ever need one 🤷‍♂️ However, down here on the Costa del Sol, I am not sure if they have similar services elsewhere in Spain, but there is another 24 hour a day, 365 days a year, medical service that you can subscribe to (Annual joint subscription for €495), which is a home doctor service.

We are fortunate enough to have such a facility within a couple of minutes drive from where we live, if you are walking wounded you can make appointments to go and see medical professionals but, the bonus of being subscribed to this particular service is that they will come out to you at your home, in a fully equipped ambulance, a para-medic and two qualified nursing staff who will check you over, provide any immediate medical care and, if necessary, issue prescriptions. However, if they are unable to provide any specialist care that you may need, they will transport you to the nearest hospital in their ambulance where, upon arrival, you will not have to wait in an A&E to be seen, but be taken straight into the treatment rooms. Unlike the UK, over here in Spain, and other than for some life threatening medical emergencies, you do have to pay for an ambulance to come and take you to hospital, but this is not the case if you are covered by the ‘Helicoptero Sanitarios’ subscription. Now I have to be honest with you, we have known about this service since we first bought our property here over nine year’s ago, and as we are both generally fit and well and suffer with no pre-existing medical conditions, we were always covered for emergency treatment under our E111 health cards so didn’t see the value of it. After Shazza’s recent illness whilst we were away, and her reluctance to go and see a doctor, we agreed that this would now be quite beneficial. I mean who feels like having to wait day’s, or even week’s, for an appointment at a health centre when you are feeling pretty bad, or to have to get out of bed, get dressed, travel to a health centre and then sit in a waiting room, with probably lots of other people suffering with god knows what, let’s face it, in the main you are not likely to find healthy people in such places are you 🤷‍♂️ We did also consider the fact that, as we do get older, and that may have had something to do with me recently celebrating yet another birthday, although still currently a ‘Sexagenarian‘, and no that doesn’t mean that I am on a ‘peadophile register’, but it does mean that I am now uncomfortably closer to becoming a ‘Septagenarian‘ 😲 Which is a number where, when people ask your age, they start to consider you to be more of a ‘geriatric’ rather than a fit and healthy individual who could quite possibly have another 30+ years before shuffling one’s mortal coil. However, being realistic, it is also quite a distinct possibility that we, although Shazza’ contests the use of the word ‘we’ and says quite adamantly not to include her in relation to this subject 😂 But yes, in the future, we may ‘both’ need to utilise medical services much more than we do now, being so fit and healthy as we currently are, although I did take the opportunity of reminding her of ‘her own’ recent rapid and unanticipated demise in respect of her health 🤭 But it isn’t just for health issues, what if she was to cut her head open on the rocks when she is out snorkelling, or burns herself badly when making her sour dough bread or stir fry’s, or I accidentally reverse over her in the car whilst she is putting shopping in the car boot, accidents do happen you know 😂 So, for the relatively small financial outlay, it seemed a sensible course of action to take, especially as there is no limit as to how many times you can call them out. We of course checked out the Terms and Conditions and read the small print, just to ensure we were not missing any if’s, but’s or maybe’s, then went to our local facility and signed up and now, like any sort of Insurance, even if we don’t use it over the next few month’s or year’s, we do have that peace of mind cover.

Shazza’s mum arrived at the very beginning of October, she likes to come out at either the end of the Summer, or in the Spring, when the temperatures are generally a lot cooler, but this last year has not seen normal seasonal weather, around the globe let alone here in Spain, so it was a little warmer than she would have liked it to be, but at nearly 82 year’s young she wasn’t likely to be wanting to race around anywhere anyway. She has been coming out here every year for the last nine year’s so she has done nearly all of the touristy sightseeing trips during that time, so this time she just wanted to stay local so we just stuck to taking her down to our own Marina, and the one at ‘Sotogrande’ just a ten minute drive away, into our own local town, one visit to Estepona and Shazza also took her to a shopping mall on the outskirts of Malaga as she wanted to buy a new ‘Tablet’ whilst she was here, only so that she could get Shazza to set it all up for her before she returned home. If the truth be known, we took her out I think on all but one day whilst she was here, at her own request, I am not sure who was more in need of the rest by the time she went home 🥵 She stayed for a full two weeks and thoroughly enjoyed herself, but we are not certain how long she will continue to make such trips out to us for, whilst she doesn’t look anything like her age, and is quite independently mobile, each year we see her physically slowing down and her walking, although unaided, is painfully slow.

Shazza herself reaches a benchmark birthday next Easter, and I know that her mum would like to be with her to celebrate it, she has mentioned about booking to come back out to us over that period, before any other family members do. However, after seeing her this year, I am not certain that she will be up to the travelling again, so although Shazza’s birthday is still some six months away, me and my OCD buddy have already made some tentative, but quite detailed, plans to possibly return to the UK for around twenty-five days, taking in visits to her mum, over Shazza’s birthday, but also encompassing visits to Chris, Sarah and the granddaughter’s down in Wiltshire, also to visit my own mum in her care-home in Lincolnshire if, god willing, she is still with us, but to also to allow some time for us to take our own short break, doing family visitations around the country can be quite tiring, so for maybe 2-3 days I would like to go and visit the Yorkshire Coast, to a town that I have never actually ever visited before. In my provisional plans I have also allowed for an overnight stop, en-route to the ferry, and an overnight stop just outside Portsmouth when we initially arrive in the UK, as it is an evening arrival and then, once we have returned to Spain and on our way home, to do a 2-3 day stopover in a city, South of Madrid, that we have also not visited before, although as I write this, I have not as yet confirmed exact dates, or made any confirmatory bookings as I will of course need approval from the boss first who, as you already know, prefers to not make advance plans and to just ‘Go With The Flow’, look at how that last trip turned out using her methodology 🤭

We have also finally got around to replacing all of the cushions on the balcony furniture that we originally bought some nine year’s ago, whilst the outer cushion covers are still in good condition, the inner filler cushions had lost their support, they were more like sitting on, or leaning back on, nothing thicker than digestive biscuits 😖 Fortunately, even after all this time, the large garden furniture store in Estepona, where we originally purchased them from, had our original order, so they knew the design, model, sizes etc and, although they didn’t have the original colour of the cushions, they did have a slightly darker shade, but what was even better, whilst we had anticipated having to wait potentially week’s to get the new one’s, we were told that if we wanted to collect them ourselves from the storage warehouse, which was also very conveniently located in Estepona, we could have them that same day, so we ended up ordering, and driving home, with our new cushions all on the same day.

We are still under drought conditions here, although our individual water consumption allowance restriction had been increased slightly, but now that the end of the tourist season has come around, the private and communal swimming pools have all been closed again, to preserve the water, and the powers that be are deliberating once more over wether to reduce our daily water allowance again 🤷‍♂️ Now it wasn’t very long ago that we ourselves were ‘Tourists’ here, just visiting for two ninety-day periods each year. We didn’t pay much attention to what was going on in the normal everyday Spanish world, locally or nationally, as it had little impact on us and I guess that is the same wherever you may spend your holidays. But things change when you become a permanent resident, because things that are happening both locally and nationally can possibly make a difference to your lives, lifestyles and sometimes your finances, although not necessarily always in a negative way. So we can now understand why, throughout Spain, there is perhaps a lot of animosity towards Tourists by some of the Spanish population. I guess most reading this, either from what I myself have written in previous rambles, or through other media resources you may have seen or read, will have heard of the widespread Spanish anti-tourist protests that have been going on, primarily focused on the lack of affordable housing available for local communities, but it actually goes much deeper than that and so now, as residents ourselves, we can understand a little better as to why these grievances are being aired more vocally and much more frequently. It does appear that everything, wether that be in individual municipalities, provinces or regions, are being provided primarily for the benefit and advantage of the temporary visitor’s, rather than the actual residents themselves and it isn’t just about the shortage of permanent affordable accommodations available to the Spanish citizens. It does appear that the majority of new build properties, and land purchases, are being being utilised for Air BnB type facilities, private villa and apartment rentals or more and more large complexes being built purely aimed at attracting foreign investors, and not priced to facilitate the local resident population. Within our own immediate area, a complex of private villas have just been completed, with starting prices of €280k, another area is about to erect nine luxury villas, with pools, starting price €850k and literally, within only the last few days, another hoarding board has gone up announcing that another area of land will have five new luxury villas with pools built on it. This is the same picture along the whole of the Costa del Sol coastline and whilst in some respects that is actually positive news, as property prices in the Malaga Province have all gone up by an average of 4% over the last year, adding to the previous year’s of property price increases, so if we do ever decide to sell up we should make a handsome profit on our original investment. However, these new build luxury properties are well out of reach of the pockets of the locals, wether renting or purchasing, but it also brings about other issues, everyday facilities like water usage which are not restricted from the start of the tourist season, but re-implemented at the end of it, is now becoming quite a fractious issue. There has been a serious drought here in Spain for nearly two years, although historically, over very many years, droughts are not an uncommon occurrence here in Spain, but with Climate change they are becoming more frequent with less and less rainfall each year. The water capacity in the existing Embalces is not sufficient, even when they are full, to cope with the current demand, yet they are still issuing licences to build more and more domestic properties, but providing no information on where the additional demand for essential services will come from, which includes the additional Water required to service these new properties, never mind the water required to fill all these new individual property swimming pools and what about the additional demand on Sewage disposal, Electricity, Road and Transport infrastructures 🤷‍♂️ So whilst the economy of the Country improves year on year, from taxes obtained from land purchases, the issue of building licences, income from property purchase taxes and annual property tax by individual owners who are not permanent residents, there have been no published plans on how they intend to improve all of the the supporting infrastructures that will be required. So without doubt there will be a price to pay, for everyone, if the Government do not invest in these essential infrastructures or indeed, build many more affordable properties for the local population.

Now of course there is a solution, and that is for the usual seasonal weather patterns to return, which involves rain during the usual Autumn and Winter months, even in this area of Southern Spain, the ‘Rainy Season’ is only generally two or three continuous days of heavy rainfall per month, October through to February, which is currently sufficient to keep the Embalces virtually full to capacity, so, at the next Annual Meeting I will suggest that all community residents invest in undertaking weekly rain dance rituals, but you watch, some miserable bugger will start to complain about the noise or that they have just washed their car and it is now rain marked again 😂 So okay, as I have mentioned many times in these rambles, it may not always be a complete paradise over here, but then, there are certainly worse places we could be living in right now and when I think about it, there are also certain advantages to having these enforced water restrictions 🤔 “Shazza, you ready for our shower together ?”, Save water, shower with a friend, that’s what I say, or even your neighbour, but of course only if you get on with them quite well and they have consented to you actually being in their bathroom with them whilst they are taking a shower 🤭

For the past couple of weeks the ‘Works of Fiction’ have been promising storms, lightning, thunder and heavy rainfall and, at times, the colour of the gathering clouds have looked to be quite favourable for this much awaited event, sadly, these threatening clouds just continued to pass over us without releasing one single drop of their precious cargo 😢 Our local supply of water in our particular Embalce at one point, before the tourist season commenced, showed that it was at 75% capacity, but now, after the tourist season, it has diminished to just 37% and with no rain the outlook could become quite bleak.

We awoke one morning and checked the ‘Works of Fiction’, more in hope than anything else and yes, the forecasters crystal ball reflected that once again the storms, which hadn’t materialised the first time, were again headed our way and, if we were very lucky, they would last over our particular area for at least four days, but this long awaited promised event was not due to start until lunchtime, so we decided to risk it and get out for our daily walk whilst we could, especially if we were to then be confined for several days thereafter.

As we walked along the seafront promenade towards the marina, the sky was its usual blue, their were only thin white wispy clouds above our heads and the sun was shining, it was a very pleasant 24 degrees(c) which is actually the normal temperature for this time of year, it will drop to anything between 15 degrees(c), on a bad day, to 22 degrees(c), on a good day, when we get to December and January. Several of the beach ‘Chiringuito’s’ had already put their beach sunbeds and umbrellas back into storage and had their doors and windows securely shuttered. The council workmen were starting to lift and collect the wooden beach decking boards and it wouldn’t be long before the boat would be out to collect the yellow marker buoys, the ones which mark the beach areas for launching pedalo’s and other such water toys and to keep boats out of the swimming areas. I actually prefer this time of the year, although of course it is the turn of the temporary ‘Silver Rinse’ brigade to return for their winter sun holidays, when the kids have all gone home, but they are not in the huge numbers of the Summer tourists, so the place has more of a calmer more peaceful aire about it, the seafront promenade, pavements and streets are no longer crowded, so you can always get a table at any of the Cafe/Bars or Restaurants that remain open during the Autumn and Winter months, without the need to pre-book. Un-noticed by many, other than tight fisted Yorkshiremen that is, there is the subtle drop in the prices on menu boards, now more than ever do these establishments need to keep their winter trade of locals and temporary residents. As our local town is a Spanish working town, and not primarily just a Summer holiday hotspot, all of the usual high street retailer’s remain open throughout the year, the regular Friday morning market continues, although the supermarkets, who were permitted to remain trading on Sunday’s during the height of the summer season, now have to close on the sabbath once again. It seems a bit strange that you can go and get as pissed as you like on a Sunday, in the numerous bars that are permitted to remain open, but you cannot go and purchase a bag of potatoes from a supermarket for your Sunday lunch 🤷‍♂️ However, for us, there is really very little change, apart from the drop in the volume of both people and traffic, and of course the reduction in our daily allowance of domestic water usage 😉

As we were walking and enjoying the sunshine, blue sky and glittering Mediterranean Sea, I turned to Shazza and said, “You wouldn’t guess that it was going to piss down later would you ?”, she laughed but then pointed ahead, towards the dark clouds that were looming over and across the mountains in the distance, “Do you think we will have time to stop and have lunch” she asked, “Only if we stop and eat in the Marina and we don’t walk all the way into town” I responded, I knew that that would seal the deal 😉 I also knew that if it did start to rain that we would then decide to just remain under cover wherever we were dining, until it eased off, sufficiently enough to get back to the car without getting too much of a drenching, but that would mean that to kill some time I would perhaps have to partake of one, or two, more Anti-Covid Vaccines, you see my friend’s, there is always ‘A Silver Lining In Every Cloud’, no matter how stormy they may look, but this was a thought that I of course kept very much to myself 🤭 It was doubtful that Shazza would partake of more than one Anti-Covid Vaccine, which always meant that she would drive us back home, but if on this rare occasion she did decide to partake of more than just the one, which very occasionally she does, then we could always get a taxi home and collect the car later, when the weather permitted, even if that happened to be a few days later, it would be safe enough, provided the floods didn’t carry it off that is 🤔

Sod’s Law, it didn’t rain and so I didn’t have any excuse to partake of anymore than the one Anti-Covid Vaccine, what the bloody hell happened to that silver lining 😡 Lunchtime came and went, Dinner time came and went, not one flash of light, rumble of thunder and not one drop of rain fell on the scorched earth below my balcony window, the only darkness being due to the fact that it was actually night-time 🤷‍♂️ It was 3am when we were awoken to the sound of heavy rain beating on the slightly raised security shutters, as it was still quite humid at night we still tended to leave the French windows open in the bedroom to let in the cooler morning air, but Shazza got up and closed them before any of the wet stuff could find it’s way in, as it was fair bouncing off the Juliet Balcony. I always find rain beating on windows, or in this case, security shutters, rather soothing and the rhythm helped me drift back to sleep, it doesn’t have the same effect for Shazza who told me that she had tossed and turned most of the night, apparently there had been loud cracks of thunder, suffice to say I hadn’t heard a thing, if we were ever to get burgled it would have to be left to Shazza to see them off, I would sleep right through it 🤭 The following morning she said, “I can’t believe you slept all the way through that, what if someone had broken in and demanded that I had mad passionate sex with them” she smirked, “Enjoy it, you may not get too many more opportunities” I responded, I guess I deserved the slap around the head that followed 😂

The rain that was supposed to be heavy and last for four consecutive days didn’t of course materialise, although the dark clouds continued to threaten but with no real substance. We got several intermittent periods of rainfall, some heavy, some just very light, over the following few days until normal service was again resumed, but at least the level of our particular Embalce had gone up, to 42.16%, still to nowhere near enough to save us from the drought committee decision, which we were still awaiting upon, but with no more anticipated visitor’s this side of Christmas, it would have no real impact on us as we did not use our daily individual allowance even when it was at it’s lowest allowance and to be honest, our unheated communal pool would be too chilly now, to go and take a swim, although we still had the nearby beach and sea, where the temperatures always remained a little higher at this time of year, but not for too much longer, although it would remain warm enough to take the sun chairs down and sit on the beach and do a spot of people and boat watching, there was always something to keep me occupied.

on one of our most recent daily walks we stopped for a light lunch at one of our smaller favourite establishments in the Marina, I asked wether they would be closing over the festive period. Mario, the owner, told me that they didn’t close until February, then only for a month, so that they could have a holiday prior to re-opening again for the full season. I asked if he would be open on Christmas Day and he said that he would, but not in the evening as he was doing a Christmas Dinner at the lunchtime, which prompted me to ask wether he was fully booked. Long story short, he wasn’t, we perused the list of proposed three-course menu items, four choices in each course, a glass of Cava upon arrival and a bottle of wine per couple. Shazza gave a nod of agreement as their was a vegetarian option in each course, we paid a deposit and hey presto that was this year’s Christmas Day dinner sorted 👍

So there you have it, nothing very exciting for you to read about this time around, just a case really of being back to our normal routine and getting on with everyday life here in Spain, of course Shazza is now fully fit and well again, thank goodness and, as for myself, well as long as the sun is shining, I can partake of the occasional Anti-Covid Vaccines now and again and do a spot of people and boat watching then everything is always perfect in my world. We both continue to keep abreast of UK and other world events, habit I suppose as it isn’t of any real interest to me and to be honest, the only consequence of reading, what is generally speaking, all doom and gloom in the world, is that it serves to re-enforce the feeling that we both do have a relatively comfortable and peaceful life here, although, as mentioned elsewhere in this, and previous rambles, nowhere is ever truly a completely perfect ‘Nirvana’, but it will do us, for now 😉 The only outstanding decision that we have to yet make is, when to initiate ‘Project 2’ on our home modernisation plan ? Which is, if you recall, the total renovation and modernisation of the Master En-suite bathroom, but that decision will keep for another day, there is no rush, mañana, mañana, as the they say here in Spain 🤷‍♂️

So, until my next ramble………………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

Shazza was still in her dreamland when I awoke, it was early but I had slept well and felt quite refreshed, I got out of bed and tip-toed around, trying to not wake her, I decided to get my shower first as that meant I would not have to put any lights on in the bedroom area, which I would need to do when I made the coffee. By the time I had finished in the bathroom and went back into the room Shazza was awake, “Did you sleep okay ?” I asked her, “Not really, I woke up a couple of times in the night, but at least I didn’t need to get up, but my whole body just ached and I was sweating quite a lot, did you find it hot last night ?” she said. I told her that I didn’t feel overly warm but that the temperatures are still pretty high at night, around 22 degrees(c) so I was surprised that she didn’t get up and put the Air-con on. She said that it is quite noisy and so she didn’t want to wake me. I asked her how she was feeling and she said a bit tired from the lack of sleep and still a bit achy but she would probably be able to walk that off, but at least the other symptoms appeared to have finally stopped 🤮💩 I asked her if she still felt up to visiting the Alcazar and she said that she was actually looking forward to it, and to just get out of the hotel room.

“I’m making a coffee, do you want me to make you one too, or would you prefer one of your herbal tea’s ?” I asked. She said that she hadn’t had a coffee for several days, and now that her stomach seemed to have settled she really fancied one. Whilst she drank her coffee she went on to her iPad and then informed me that we had to purchase our tickets to visit the Alcazar from the Tourist Information Office first, but that was in the Central Plaza, so whilst there we could ask for directions to the main official entrance. “At least you will get a chance to see something in this place rather than just furniture in a hotel room” I said, and gave a little chuckle, “I know, it has been a bit of a nightmare for both of us these last few days” she replied.

We both agreed that this whole trip had not really lived up to our expectations, although we did accept that the reason for some of that had to actually come down to some of our own choices. If we had made an actual plan of where we wanted to be, we could have, and should have, pre-booked Air BnB self-catering accommodations, instead of hotels, but there you go, hindsight is brilliant eh 🙄 Had we have done that we could have shopped for ourselves, at least most grocery stores had our sort of readily available ingredients so we would have been able to cook the type of meals that we normally both enjoy. The different places that we then chose to visit would not have been an issue, as far as finding suitable places to eat. But Shazza did finally concede that had we have done a bit of advance research we could have identified suitable locations and accommodations which we could have used as a base, for several days at a time, and then used that base on a daily basis to visit different locations for either our more preferred type of hikes, or sightseeing. Once we had covered a certain area we could have then moved on a bit further, to a slightly different area and then done the same again 🤷‍♂️ However, all good in theory, but even had we have done things differently, that would not have changed anything in respect of Shazza’s sudden unexplained illness, although I would have been in a much better position to have looked after her, certainly very much better than I had been able to do in a hotel room. So we both agreed that we had learnt from our mistakes but, at the end of the day, we cannot turn the clock back, but I think that Shazza may now be a little more accepting of my OCD tendencies, and convinced her that whilst it can sometimes be irritating for her, perhaps a bit of OCD may just sometimes have some distinct advantages 😉

Shazza has always been a good researcher and organiser, so usually, once we have agreed a plan, or a direction to head in, I generally take the responsibility for planning the routes whilst she looks at things to do in each area we intend to visit, boat trips, visitor attractions, hiking routes etc and then she would go ahead and, where necessary, pre-book any tickets that we may require. So, historically, especially during our nomadic adventures, jointly we have always been a good team, so why hadn’t it worked on this trip 🤷‍♂️ I think we finally agreed that ‘Going With The Flow’ works much better when you have the ability to travel with a lot more independence, a bit like having transport that is also a home that you take with you, something like a caravan, camper-van or even a Motorhome perhaps 🤔 which generally allows you to travel for as long as you want in a day, and also to stop when you need to, wether that be for a coffee, a bite to eat, to sleep or even to change direction to chase better weather condition’s, okay you already know where I am going with this 🤭

Shazza then went to get a shower, I was just generally scrolling through my iPad when I heard the sound that I didn’t expect, or want to hear, ‘wretching’ noises coming from the bathroom 🤮 When she came out she was ashen faced with watery eyes, “Oh no !” I said, “The bloody coffee, it can’t be anything else, I haven’t eaten anything” she said. “Let’s wait for half an hour to see if it persists, but time to pack up our stuff and head home, you are definitely still not right” I told her, “But you were looking forward to looking around the Alcazar, and I was too, maybe it will settle as there can’t be anything left in my stomach now” she said, “Look, let’s be honest, there is no way you are up for it and I just need to get you back home now, sooner rather than later, really we should have just gone straight back when we left Vigo” I said, but in a sympathetic way, it wasn’t her fault that she was not very well, just bad timing really. She lay on the bed whilst I started to get our stuff together, I packed her case for her, although she remonstrated with me for doing so, “I can do that for myself you know, you don’t have to do it for me” she said, “I know you can, but I’m not doing anything else” I said. I told her to stay where she was whilst I took the cases and rucksacks down to the car. Then I walked with her to the car before returning to reception to ‘check-out’, explaining to the receptionist that we were leaving a day early as Shazza was not well, I didn’t expect a refund and so I wasn’t disappointed when they said, very apologetically, that they couldn’t give me one, although they didn’t charge for that day’s parking

At least it would only be a four and a half hour drive, I had planned to make only one brief stop to re-fuel and a quick comfort break, but that would be dependent on how many stops Shazza may need. We didn’t actually need to re-fuel, we could have made it all the way back on what we had, but we would have been close to empty by then, I never like to get that low. I was happy to do all the driving again, I actually enjoy it and I was very familiar with the route, it was all ‘toll free’. Shazza was better than she had been on the previous journey, she remained awake and relatively chatty, but she persisted in apologising for spoiling the trip, no matter how many times I kept telling her that it wasn’t her fault and that it could so easily have been me with one of my kidney stone incident’s, or me being the one that had whatever it was that she had gone down with 🤷‍♂️

I took a more positive view on the trip, and relayed to her everything that we had actually managed to do, from our very first stop at ‘Jerez de Los Caballeros’ where I discovered a lot more history pertaining to the ‘Knights Templar’, then we had a visit to ‘Badajoz’, The stop at ‘Lake Sanabria’ on our way into Vigo, the walk to the ‘Fortelesa and Stately Home’ in Vigo, the two walks we had taken just outside Vigo, and the wonderful exploration that I had just taken around ‘Trujillo’. For Shazza she could only think about how many days she had not been well but then, when I had recounted everything, she realised that, actually we had done quite a bit and although the food aspects were probably not as envisaged, we had both enjoyed our two ‘Mexican Fusion’ experiences. I reminded her that it is all to easy to look on the negative side of things, then poked a bit of harmless fun at her saying that it was good that one of us was an ‘Optimist’ rather than there being two ‘Pessemists’ in our family 😂

For me, as the driver, the journey actually went quite quickly, we only stopped the once, for the refuel, but I could visibly see a deterioration in Shazza, she became much less chatty and she began to look very tired again, when I asked if she was still okay she occasionally complained of a slight, but not excrutiatingly painful, stomach cramp which I suggested may have been more to do with hunger. To be honest I didn’t really consider the Mexican dishes, the Pizza, Calamari or Salads that she had been eating, as proper ‘nourishing’ meals, so she hadn’t really had a proper meal since we had left home. You can last without food for much longer than you can live without water, but in my opinion she was now close to suffering from serious malnutrition, another reason to get her home and back on to our more regular ‘Plant Based’ dietary regime 😲 I suggested we call in to the A&E department at our local hospital on our way home, but she was again adamant that she just wanted to go straight home 🤷‍♂️ I think if she had been in the same condition she had been in when we had departed Vigo that I would not even have given her an option, but she had certainly not been as anywhere near as bad as that and had actually perked up a bit over the last couple of days. However, we had depleted the fridge/freezer before we came away, thinking at that time that we could be away for up to a month, so I suggested that we stop at one of our local supermarkets just to buy some immediate essentials to get us through the rest of that day. She said that she still didn’t feel hungry and would rather go straight home, there was enough in the cupboards for me to cobble myself a meal together, sometimes it’s good to be a ‘Flexitarian’ 😉

It is such a nice feeling when you get home from a trip, but even more so this time, for obvious reasons. I told Shazza that I would bring our cases and rucksacks up and that she just needed to get into the apartment, by the time I had done the second run from the car back up to the apartment, I came back to find her already in bed saying that she just needed to sleep. Although I was obviously concerned, I knew that although Shazza can be very obstinate at times, that she was not stupid, so if she had believed this to be anything more serious (the ‘C’ word) then she would have told me herself that she needed to get to the Hospital, or our Health Clinic, before going straight home.

I was more concerned by the duration of her not being well, in my personal experience, Gastroenteritis, doesn’t usually last longer than a few days until the worst symptoms start to subside. I sat down and googled the differences between it and the new strain of Covid, known as Covid FLiRT 2024, and became more convinced upon reading the differences that, actually I do genuinely suspect that she had contracted Covid, which can take 3-4 days for the external symptoms to materialise, and which generally then lasts for around 10 days, or was I just manipulating the information to fit in with my own theory 🤔

Based on this information, and the amount of time she had started to display the early symptoms, I decided, although I had not voiced this to Shazza, that I would give her a few more days before demanding that she let me take her to the hospital. If it was Covid, and she wasn’t displaying more serious life threatening symptoms, they certainly wouldn’t want her anywhere near other more vulnerable patients. But, if after 14 days she has not shown any sign of recovery, and has not eaten, then it would be time to seek medical intervention. I could not explain why, being in such close proximity of each other, that I, so far at least, had not been displaying any similar symptoms myself, so was it Covid ? Was it Gastroenteritus ? Was it something else 🤷‍♂️

The following morning I was back into my usual routine, up early, sat on the balcony with my mug of coffee watching the sun rise, the cars driving past with their occupants on their way to work, the kids with their rucksacks going to school, watching the boats passing to and fro, I have to admit, it felt really good to be back to some sort of normality and to be in familiar surroundings. I checked on Shazza, she was still asleep, so I got my shower, got dressed and started to formulate a shopping list, enough to see us over the next four days and the sort of meals that I was happy to put together for the both of us, a lot of the Plant Based stuff that Shazza regularly cooks is beyond my ability, due generally to the amount and variety of spices she uses, and the exacting measurements which just come as second nature to her, but I knew what she liked as far as Salads were concerned, on top of the normal salad suspects she also liked Avocado with Feta, or Mozarella, a jacket potato, and sometimes a bit of fish, Prawns, Tuna or Sardines and then, if need be, and by way of a change, a Vegan Burger with home cut oven cooked fries and some Baked Beans, they may not be worthy of a Michelin Star, but they would be nutritious and flavoursome 😋 I would also get some bread, eggs and cheese for myself, so for lunches I would have several options just by using those three products if need be. Not being certain as to how often Shazza would eat initially, I would get in a couple of tins of Heinz Chicken Soup, always the number one choice when you are feeling under the weather and have not got much of an appetite, but for those items I would need to visit a different store, one in the Marina that sold typical popular British products and which also stocked bottles of Lucozade, a glucose drink that we also associate to drinking generally only when we are ill 🤷‍♂️ So that, I think, would do very nicely to tide us over for a few days, with of course a variety of fresh fruit.

Shazza still didn’t eat anything at all that first day and remained in bed, but as the coming days progressed, she started to eat small amounts, starting with the bowls of soup, by the weekend she had gradually built up to eating both a light lunch and then dinner. She spent more and more time up and about and sat with me on the balcony, or watching some TV in the evenings, at first just for an hour or so but then longer and longer during each day. I started to see an improvement in her physically, she was still a little paler than usual, but not as gaunt and by the Sunday evening she was back to her usual pottering, burning my ear about not being able to find things in the normal places in the kitchen cupboards 🤭 and making long shopping lists of stuff she needed to make her sour dough bread, her spicy red lentil soup, cheesy broccoli soup, stir fries, med veg dinners, pasta dishes etc. it was good to have my Shazza back 😘

We never did discover what it was that Shazza actually suffered from, but I think in the end we both agreed, based on the symptoms and time frame, that she had more than likely contracted the Covid FLiRT strain of the virus. I firmly believe that the busy period we had, prior to going on the road trip, had already left her tired and exhausted, and that may have contributed to her becoming more susceptible to picking up bacterial infections, but the honest truth is that we will never know 🤷‍♂️ The important thing is that she has fully recovered 🙏 and this experience has provided us with an opportunity to now re-think how we manage and plan similar future adventures 😉 Unfortunately, although putting it forward rather strongly as a potential option, I have been otherwise informed, that this will in no way involve the purchase of another Motor Home 🥺😭

Until the next ramble, whenever that may now be…………………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena 👍

Shazza had not had the best of night’s sleep, due to the small quantity of Prawns, that she had eaten the previous evening, making their bid for freedom during the early hours of the morning 😲 She had not woken whilst I made my early morning coffee so I just left her to sleep, when she did finally awake she said that although tired, from the lack of sleep, strangely enough she actually felt a little better than she had done over the previous couple of days. This made me strongly suspect that she was actually suffering from some kind of stomach bug, rather than anything much more serious, although of course this didn’t explain her earlier symptoms of loss of appetite or fatigue 🤔 We both came to the conclusion that perhaps she should have starved herself for a little longer, her last meal being the Pizza, consumed just 24 hours earlier. “Do you feel well enough to take another longish car journey ?” I asked, “Where to” she asked, “Home” I said.

I should just say at this point that Shazza and I have never argued, I think that we had both learned, from our former lives and relationships, before we got together, that it actually serves no beneficial purpose. Don’t get me wrong, we are not Saints, we do have differences of opinions on a multitude of topics but, generally speaking, they are more often about things that are going on elsewhere and which do not directly involve ourselves or our lives, so external issues rather than personal matters, and on those occasions we usually just agree to disagree and leave it at that. Shazza is the first to admit that she tends to often be a bit more ‘Radical’ in her views and opinions and can often respond to things she see’s, reads or hears with ‘knee jerk’ decisions and personal opinions on matters, I on the other hand tend to be a little more ‘Contemplative’ and tend to think a little more about both sides of an issue before voicing a judgement or opinion 🤷‍♂️ I am of the belief that Governments, and Individuals, can always manipulate facts, figures and other information to support their own Agenda’s so, in my mind, you need to have access to ‘all’ the information in order to be able to make an ‘informed’ decision on whatever the subject matter happens to be. However, on this occasion I have to confess that I found myself losing a bit of patience with her, it reminded me of a statement several of my former military senior Officers had said about me in several annual appraisals, ‘Eric doesn’t suffer fools gladly’ and the truth is, twenty-two years after retiring from the military, I still don’t. I could not understand Shazza’s rationale in relation to her blatant refusal to get the professional medical advice or treatment that could identify her ill health and get some immediate treatment for it 🤷‍♂️ So, after a sensible discussion we came to a compromise, I would give her the next twenty-four hours and, if she didn’t get any better, or indeed, if her condition deteriorated, she agreed that we should seek immediate medical intervention, if she did not improve, but did not get any worse, we would go home from here where we would re-assess her condition and take any necessary appropriate medical action.

The thing was, Shazza did not feel strong enough, or confident enough to be very far away from bathroom facilities, to go out exploring the town or visiting the Alcazar, or even just relaxing around the pool area out in the fresh air, which I could certainly understand, and to be honest I would probably feel the same if the boot were on the other foot. I on the other hand couldn’t stay confined in a hotel room all day, so we agreed that I would go out by myself to explore these historic streets and alleyways, it would have been a shame not to now that we were here, but I said that I would leave visiting the Alcazar, in the hope that she would be fit enough so that we could do it together the following day. However, whilst I didn’t anticipate being out the whole day, I didn’t want to leave Shazza without some fresh supplies of bottled water, so I went to the supermarket first, about a ten minute walk away, she had given me specific instructions not to get her anything else, she probably correctly anticipated that I would buy her one of those pre-prepared salads that I know she quite enjoys, but in addition to the sparkling water, which is her personal preference, and some still water, I also purchased a mixture of some soft fruits, just in case, and which I would always eat if she didn’t.

I didn’t have any plan, in fact I didn’t even take the street plan, I had a tongue in my head if I needed directions, but half of the fun of exploring these historic old towns was getting lost. I just made my way towards the Plaza Mayor and would follow my nose from there. Initially, it did feel odd not having Shazza alongside me, making those constant ‘tutting’ noises every time I stopped to take a photograph, I afforded myself a smile, as she would certainly have been a doing a lot of tutting on this particular day 🤭

From the central Plaza there were lots of directions that I could have headed off in, but as I scanned the area, I saw a narrow road leading uphill, past the large church and equestrian statue, I thought that whilst my legs were still fresh, I would do the steps and uphill bits first.

Once inside the main part of this old town’s narrow cobbled streets it was just a maze of streets, around every corner there was another street, another view, another hill to climb, but I appreciated the shade that some of them provided. I did not see a lot of people, either residents of the houses or other tourists, just the odd one here and there, but everyone that I did come across were friendly enough, either with a verbal greeting, nod of the head or a smile. Sometimes I wasn’t sure wether I had already walked up, or down, the same street, but I just kept wandering and, wherever possible, walked in an upward direction, my logic being that I would have to come to the top at some point 🤷‍♂️

I kept walking, and clicking away, there was just so many beautiful and characterful streets and old buildings, churches, towers, thick walls, it didn’t take much for my imagination to start running riot, I could see this medieval fortication and its crowded busy streets, people, carts, horses and other livestock making their way to and from the market stalls in the central Plaza, I could feel the history ouzing out from every nook and cranny, what a story this walled town could tell me from over the centuries that it has existed, that is if I had the patience and was not a history heathen and so took the time to research it 🤔 but I do so like visualising my own version of events.

I finally reached the top, well the top of at least one part of this old town, for It was only when I started to wander, what I thought was downwards, did I begin to truly appreciate the vastness of this place, and soon was taking in an upwards direction again but I realised that I still had not, as yet, found the entrance to the Alcazar itself, which would have been the interior area of the castle fortress. I didn’t feel tired at all, in fact I felt exhilarated, this had got to be one of the best old medieval walled towns that I have ever visited and explored and this place would certainly take some beating and, as I was to discover, I hadn’t seen anywhere near all of it yet. I felt a little sad, because I knew that Shazza, if she had have been fit and well, would have really enjoyed this experience too, she may not be overly enthusiastic about visiting crumbling castles, but a medieval town that was still being lived in today, well she would have certainly thoroughly enjoyed wandering through the narrow cobbled streets and archways, the memories we would have taken away together from this place would have been very different from the one’s that sadly we will now actually have 🥺

By this time I began to realise that I was totally disorientated, I didn’t know which way I had come, or which way to head next, I just kept wandering up and along different cobbled streets, so I decided that if I just started to follow roads that went downhill that, at some point, I would get back to the central Plaza, again it seemed a logical deduction. But, what I had omitted to remember was that to get to the Plaza in the first place from the hotel, I had to walk in an upward direction, a fact that became quite evident a little later on 😳 Where was a local when you needed one, in fact, where was another human being coming to that, I hadn’t seen, or heard, another person for quite some time when I began to think about it 🤷‍♂️

I had been walking downhill for at least twenty minutes and still not reached the central Plaza, I was going to just keep walking downwards, it seemed the natural thing to do, but ‘Fate’ thankfully intervened, in the form of a woman with a full shopping basket who had appeared from an alleyway behind me. I asked her for directions to the Plaza Mayor and she pointed back, in the direction I had just walked from 🥺 I obviously looked confused so she gestured some directions with her hands, take a right turn then another right and I would find it. I thanked her, more than once, turned around and followed her directions.

The Plaza Cafe/Bars and restaurants were fairly busy and as I passed one, that had been closed the previous evening but was now open for business, I stopped to look at the menu that had been placed on a table at the pavement entrance. I became quite excited as amongst the starters it listed a cold tomato soup, one of Shazza’s favourites, and then amongst the selection of mains, under ‘Vegetarian’ options, it listed a selection of grilled vegetables, ‘Yes !’ I heard myself shout under my breath, finally, a proper ‘Plant Based’ meal for Shazza to enjoy, if and when she was up for it. It was busy with people eating formal type lunches, rather than Tapas or Sandwiches, so I made my way across to the Cafe/Bar where we had eaten the previous evening, as I just wanted a nice cold beer after my long walk and explorations, I hadn’t really thought about food and, although I hadn’t eaten since the previous evening, I wasn’t actually feeling hungry, but that was quite normal for me, god knows what I would be eating for dinner this evening, I thought to myself, that would depend very much on how Shazza was feeling I suppose 🤔

Sometimes, unless you sit and take time to observe your surroundings, you can miss some nice intricacies of what is actually around you. So whilst I was partaking of what I truly considered to be my well earned refreshments, and unexpected but very tasty Tapas snacks, I was doing a spot of people watching, as you do, and my eyes also started to scan around at some of the buildings positioned around the Plaza.

Sat, alone with my thoughts, I realised that I still hadn’t found the ‘official’ entrance to the Alcazar on my explorations, I would need to check Google Maps once I returned to the hotel. Then, as if the word ‘Hotel’ had rang an alarm bell in my mind, I started to feel a little guilty about having left Shazza alone for so long, I had been gone for a good three hours, maybe even a little more, what if she had taken a turn for the worse whilst I had been out enjoying myself ? What if she was too ill to call for help ? She had asked me to put the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on the room door as I had left so that the cleaner would not go in ……….😲 I finished my glass of wine, paid the bill and made my way back to the hotel with a bit of a pace in my step, all the while my mind playing worst case scenarios in my brain.

”Did you have a nice time ?” she said, as I entered the room. She was dressed and sat up on the bed with her iPad. “How have you been ?” I asked, “I have had a shower but I felt a bit dizzy” she replied. I told her that that was probably due to a combination of spending a lot of time laying down and also not eating. She told me the Diarrhoea and Sickness had quelled and she had been drinking a lot of water but hadn’t risked eating anything. She was certainly a lot more conversational although she obviously still looked pale and gaunt, I told her about finding the restaurant with the menu that offered something that she could eat, if and when she felt up to eating again, but she said she would probably not risk eating anything now until the following day. “Do you think you may be up just for a little walk a bit later on, just so you can have a bit of fresh air and stretch your legs ?” I asked, “Maybe’ we will see” she responded, although not very convincingly. “The England men’s football team are playing an International qualifying match tonight and it is on TV” she announced. Now that was a positive sign, we both like watching the football and if she was up for watching it she must be feeling a little brighter I thought to myself, I have to admit, I felt hugely relieved as she did seem to be showing the first proper signs of being on the mend. However, during my explorations I had also had plenty of time and space to think, and I had decided to scrap any of my plans about travelling anywhere else when we left here on the Thursday, other than just getting Shazza home that was. I made myself a nice hot cuppa, Shazza didn’t want one, and I spent the next half an hour or so burning her ear about what I had seen, she laughed when I told her about getting lost a couple of times and having to ask for directions and me still not finding the entrance to the Alcazar. “Don’t worry, we will work it out before ‘we’ go, there will be an official entrance where ‘we’ have to buy the tickets” she said, which was a really positive sign as I picked up on the double use of the word ‘we’ in her sentence 🤗 As the afternoon moved to early evening, I didn’t want to push her on the going out for a walk and she didn’t mention it, so I said that I would pop back out to the supermarket to get myself something to bring back and eat in the room, she just said “Okay”, so that had answered the question that I hadn’t asked 😉 I returned with a couple of small baguette sized rolls, a pack of ham, cheese slices, tomato and pack of crisps, and some extra bottles of water to replace the one’s she had consumed. I also purchased a bottle of Coke for Shazza, now wether it is just a myth I do not know, but many years ago someone had told me that if you let it go flat, then drink it, it replaces the ‘electrolytes’ that your body has lost when you have suffered with excess loss of bodily fluids, it was worth a go I thought to myself 🤷‍♂️

In our hotel room we had a small two-seat settee and a small round table, so I sat there, prepared my rolls and ate them, I did ask Shazza if she wanted some, although I already knew the answer, but I felt a bit guilty of eating in front of her. Later, we sat together on the bed and watched the football on my iPad, it was a good result for England, which always makes us feel good too, but by the time the game ended it was nearly 11pm so Shazza got back under the covers and went to sleep. I sat up and just scrolled through stuff on my iPad, it was far too early for me to go to sleep, but I felt a lot more settled and relieved now that Shazza appeared to be on the mend.

To be continued…………….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos

Shazza and I have been together as a couple for the best part of twenty years, married for eighteen of them and, as you will know by now if you have read my rambles from the beginning, we have been virtually joined at the hip for the vast majority of our lives together, especially living in a Motorhome, on a full time basis, for ten of those year’s. We have always done everything together, although we do have our own individual interests, but they don’t involve us spending any lengthy periods of time away from each other, other than perhaps separate rooms, which, for some reading this, may seem a little bit of a claustrophobic relationship, but it continues to work for us. So, as you may well imagine, we know pretty much everything there is to know about each other, our individual likes and dislikes, quirks, habits, irritations, the ability to read each other’s non-verbal communications like body language and facial expressions, and certainly when one or other of us is not quite firing on all cylinders 🤔

For several days now I have known that Shazza hadn’t been quite herself, some things were blatantly obvious, her lack of appetite was the most obvious and most concerning, Shazza would normally eat Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner and would certainly let me know in no uncertain terms, especially when we were living our mobile nomadic lifestyle, if we went past any of those key timelines in the day, although more recently, since living here in Spain, with her enjoying a more leisurely start to most days, Breakfast and Lunch have become combined into ‘Brunch’, although she would still normally have a light snack, usually a piece of fruit, in the afternoon, just to put her on until Dinner 🤭 Another thing that had concerned me was that she became ‘fatigued’ much quicker, Shazza is generally a bundle of energy, always doing something, never sitting still for a moment but, on this trip, she has run out of steam very quickly when we have been on our walks, although I had put some of that down to either some of the uphill walks we have undertaken, Shazza isn’t good with long steep ascents, but also the heat and sometimes the distance we had walked which were probably also contributory factors. Shazza has a tremendous amount of personal grit and determination, driven primarily by the fact that she thinks that because she is nine-years my junior that she should be able to match, or sometimes, even better, whatever I can manage to do physically, silly woman, she should know by now that she could never outmatch a Super-Hero like me 😂

Anyway, as you know, on this trip and for several days now, I have been consistently asking her if she is okay, knowing something was obviously not quite right with her, and that wasn’t down to just a gut feeling, but because I know her so well (cue for a song there somewhere 🤷‍♂️), but she kept insisting that she was fine, I could tell by her tone of reply that she was beginning to get irritated with me continually asking the same question every single morning, afternoon and evening, but of course, that didn’t deter me from keep asking the question on a daily basis 🤭

So, when she said to me, “Before we plan a route I need to talk to you”, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up on end 😳 The long and the short of it was that Shazza finally admitted that all was not well with her, in my mind I heard myself saying, “No shit Sherlock !”, however I refrained from saying it out aloud, and after she had told me the issue I certainly don’t think it would have helped matters if I had have done 🤔 Although she said that she did not actually feel unwell, as in she did not have cold or flu or any other immediately obvious condition. She explained that she had not only lost her usual regular appetite, but to make matters worse, when she did eat anything substantial she could not keep it in 🤮💩 So that explained why she had not been wanting to stop and eat when we were on our long drives, and more recently on our walks. Even when we did go out and eat in the evenings, she had been uncomfortable and glad to get back to the room, knowing that the contents of the meal would not remain in her stomach for very long. Additionally, she had not been sleeping well most nights and so had been waking up tired, so she had been quite happy when the rainy day we experienced kept us confined in our room for the majority of the day. She said that she thought that it was just a stomach bug she had picked up at the start of the trip and that it would resolve itself after a couple of days, but so far it hadn’t, and the combination of things had started to leave her quite fatigued.

I have to confess that I was a little annoyed, not angry, perhaps more a case of irritated rather than actually annoyed, that she had not said anything on all of the occasions that I had asked her 🤷‍♂️ Had I have known I would have just amended what sort of activities we did and ensured that we were never too far away from the ‘facilities’ she may have required at short notice, or to be honest, just cut the trip short and done it another time 🤷‍♂️ She said that she was hoping that by not eating for a couple of days that it may have passed, quite literally I assumed 🤭 and that all would have been well in her world again. However, she also didn’t want to spoil the trip as she knew that I had been looking forward to it for quite some time. I could sympathise with her, we have all been there at some point with a ‘Delli Belly’ and, when we have, the best place to be is close to bathroom facilities, and preferably our own. My immediate reaction once she had finished her ‘Confession’ was to place my hand on top of her head and say “Bless You My Child”, and then send her away to say seven Hail Mary’s, but I really didn’t want her anywhere near the ‘font’ in her current condition.

However, in all seriousness, my immediate reaction was to get her to a doctor, just so she could get checked out and to make sure that it wasn’t anything more serious or complicated, and to perhaps get her some medication to relieve the symptoms, but she was having none of that. Shazza has always been an obstinate so and so when it comes to going to Doctor’s, in fact the last time she went to see one was when we lived and worked in Ilfracombe in Devon, when she had a ‘Thyroid’ issue, we left there four year’s ago. So my next suggestion was to get her straight back home, we could be there within 8-10 hours, I would do the driving and we could stop whenever she needed to, but, she was also extremely reluctant to do that, saying she would probably be okay in a couple more days 🤷‍♂️ She also said that she would feel guilty about bringing our road trip to a rather abrupt end, especially if within the next day or so she got better. I told her that Galicia, Asturias and the Picos de Europas were not actually going to go anywhere in the near future, well to the best of my knowledge that was, unless we get a stray drone from Russia or missile from Iran 😂 But neither were they at the other side of the world, but within only a relatively short ten hour, or even less, drive away, so in all reality we could come back here anytime we wanted, there was no ‘Use By’ date on when we could, or could not, do this particular road trip. In the end I decided to let her make the decision for herself, to tell me what it was that ‘she’ wanted to do. She suggested that rather than head any further North, we could make a start East, the way we had come, back towards home, but depending on how she was feeling, maybe even stopping at the Picos, if the weather was good. “Are you saying that you would risk doing a hike in the mountains ?” I asked, already knowing what her answer would be, “Probably not” she sheepishly replied, “Well I don’t want to go on a hike in the mountains without you, we have always had our adventures together and I am not changing that now” I said, in a tone that told her that the subject was not up for debate. She must really have not been feeling that well as she offered no argument, I must remember to also put that verbal ‘victory’ in my diary 😂 I told her to go and drink her coffee and read her book and I would sit down and come up with a plan for her to consider and agree.

Although I may have sounded a little unsympathetic, even flippant, in my earlier comments in this ramble, in truth, I was really quite concerned because Shazza rarely takes ill, it is me that is generally the ‘Sick Note’ in this relationship, what with recurring Kidney Stones and the Detached Retina, although, in my defence, I have been trouble free, well medically speaking at least, for over two and a half year’s now, so let’s just hope that the ‘Dark Forces’ are not currently within listening distance 🙄 So when I planned the route, which was certainly going to be heading in a homewards direction, a mere ten and a half hour drive away, in the knowledge that we have covered these sort of distances many times in the past without any problems whatsoever, although that travel time was not taking into consideration any stops en-route, but I also wanted to take into consideration Shazza’s comfort, a long drive in a car is not ideal at the best of times, if only we still had the ‘Little Fokker’, I thought to myself, which as you know, was not for the first time on this trip 🙄 Not only could Shazza have spent the journey in the comfort of the rear double bed, if she so required, and yes !! I do know, that that would be illegal by the letter of the law, but what the eye doesn’t see and all that stuff and, the unwritten rule of ‘you do what you have to do’ in such circumstances 🤷‍♂️ Plus, we would have had the added convenience, if you will excuse the pun, of having readily available, our own on-board bathroom, although come on, I am not that sympathetic, as I would have made her be the one to empty the toilette cassette at the end of the journey 😂

However, and being the eternal optimist that I tend to be, and based on the fact that she was more ‘Uncomfortable’ with her situation, rather than being at death’s door, there was the possibility that in fact she could start to get better if it was just a tummy bug. I knew that if she did, she would have felt really guilty at cutting the trip short, so I looked at potential opportunities on the route where we could perhaps stop, either for a night, or perhaps a little more. The problem was of course, that sticking to the fastest main routes, all ‘Toll Free’ motorways, meant that the places we would pass where locations we had previously visited 🤷‍♂️ The more I researched the route, the further South I began to look, that meant the longer that leg of the drive would be 😤 How many times have I said in my rambles over the year’s that patience is a virtue, and well okay, although even the route I had planned may have involved driving a little longer than I would really have liked for Shazza’s sake, six and a half hours, and would involve a thirty or forty minute detour off the main route, but, thinking positively, if Shazza were to start feeling better then, the place that I had found, would be of interest to the both of us and actually would probably also be a great way to end this rather unexpected road trip 🤗

Day 8 – Vigo – Trujillo

Trujillo is a town in the Province of Caceres in Western Spain. The Castillo (Castle or Alcazar) a medieval stone fortress, sits atop a hill overlooking the town centre. The ‘Coria Museum’ has displays on the regional links between Spain and Latin America. The life of conquistador ‘Francisco Pizarro’, who conquered the Inca Empire, is traced at the ‘Casa Museo de Pizarro’ his former home. An equestrian statue dedicated to him stands in the Plaza Mayor.

Thank you for the above Mr Wikipedia 😴 Actually, looking at numerous on-line images of the town actually got me quite excited, this looked like a really old historical place, narrow cobbled streets and alleyways to get lost in, a large central Plaza Mayor with a wide assortment of Cafe/Bars and Restaurants, Lots of Churches, Museums and this time, an impressive ‘Alcazar’ that actually looked worthy of looking around, even though this one had an admission fee, that fact alone probably was a good indication of it being very worthwhile to visit, but you can be assured that I will let you know if it wasn’t 😁 And for those of you reading this who are Motorhomers, there is a serviced Aire located at the Bullring and within easy walking distance of the town which also has, two Supermarkets, ELequerc and a DIA.

Shazza was still awake by the time I had finished making my plan and so I briefly ran through it with her, she gave me her nod of approval and asked if I wanted her to seek out some nearby accommodation. “Aha” I said, in a smart ass sort of way, “I have already found somewhere, it is within ten minutes walking distance of the ‘Plaza Mayor’, it is a former Convent and it has a small splash pool with sunbeds. The only downside though is that each day at 6am you have to attend morning prayers and an evening mass at 7pm” 😂 She grinned, “I am sure you will enjoy being amongst all those dirty habits” she said, with a chuckle 😳 humour huh, she can’t be feeling all that ill, I thought to myself. She went on-line and pre-booked the hotel for a three night’s stay, without any why’s or wherefore’s, so another ‘victory’ entry for my diary me thinks, best I take full advantage of this situation whilst I can 🤭

I awoke early and having packed my bags the previous evening, apart from my wash bag, I was raring to get going after my morning coffee. Shazza didn’t look so good though, probably the worst she had been on the trip so far, she looked quite pale and gaunt in her face, I guessed that the lack of nutrition was beginning to take its toll, I was actually quite worried about her, so much so that I suggested perhaps going to reception to see if we could stay an extra night and to enquire as to the location of the nearest Doctor or Health Clinic, at least we were covered these days under the Spanish State Healthcare system, however, Miss Obstinate was still having none of it, “Give me half an hour to get myself sorted and then let’s get off” she said 🤷‍♂️

Our timing to depart Vigo turned out to be just right as the weather had turned, no sunshine, just a sheet of grey everywhere, so it would likely be a slow journey out of Galicia, fortunately at Trujillo it was forecast to be between 27-30 degrees( c) by the time we arrived later that afternoon, but I had already decided in my own mind on a Plan B, if she kept deteriorating, and that was to just head towards home in the knowledge that the Costa del Sol public hospital, our main local hospital, was on our route 🤔

In all the time we have been together, and all the road journey’s that we have been on together, short or long, in a car or the Motor Home, Shazza has never once fallen asleep whilst being the passenger, or whilst being the driver I should perhaps also hasten to add 🤭 So I knew she was not feeling at all well, for as soon as we had driven out of Vigo and had got on to the Motorway, she reclined her seat, curled up and fell fast asleep, I did mention she was actually not driving didn’t I 😂 The roads were, as usual, generally very quite and the miles just passed by, my head was full of thoughts, wondering what could be the cause of Shazza’s sudden turn of bad health, could she have contracted the new strain of COVID ? That was very possible and we know that it is still out there, throughout Europe, although nowhere near as bad as during the pandemic, we have been using elevators in hotels and we don’t know how well the hotel rooms are being cleaned these days 🤷‍♂️ However, it could also be a bad case of Gastroenteritis ? The general symptoms are pretty much the same. But then again, I was okay, so surely, as we had been together, eaten much of the same, I too would have suffered similar symptoms ? My mind then wandered into a thought where I didn’t really want it to go, the worst case scenario, there was a history of Cancer, Shazza’s mum, having suffered twice with Bowel Cancer, the latest as recently as 2021, she had fortunately recovered, but I knew that this would also be playing on Shazza’s mind, and it was the sudden and quite prolonged periods of fatigue that were of concern, although neither of us had mentioned it. I attempted to clear such negative thoughts from my mind and attempted to focus on the destination I was heading towards, but that dark thought remained irritatingly at the back of my mind 🥺 We are both very conscious of the fact that we are ageing, and that in itself brings about the bodies own natural progressive deterioration, and reduced levels of immunity to bacterial infections, but we know that we cannot prevent that. However, these days we do try to maintain a healthy diet, although Shazza is much more disciplined at that than myself, we both try to keep ourselves physically active and relatively fit and just generally try to maintain a good lifestyle, although we also realise that no matter what we do, there is no magic bullet to prevent the natural ageing process. We also know that there are things outside our own influence that we just have to accept as a risk to our own health, we cannot wrap ourselves up in cotton wool, so normal everyday activities bring you into contact with other’s, supermarket shopping, having coffee’s or meals in public establishments, visiting public venues or events, so in all reality we just have no way of knowing who we come into contact with may be suffering, knowingly or otherwise, with bacterial infections, cold’s, flu, covid etc. I am smiling inwardly to myself as I am writing these words, for it is now many days since I had those silent inner thought’s in the car whilst I was driving, it’s amazing the directions that your mind can take you in especially when you are confined and have no other means of distraction, like a passenger chitter chattering away 🙄

Periodically Shazza would awaken, as she shifted to get comfortable in her seat, “Are you okay” she would ask me, “I’m fine” I would respond, and give her what I hoped was a reassuring smile, “But how are you doing ? Do you want me to stop at the next services ?” I asked, but the response was always “No, but, if you need to” before she drifted back into, what I was guessing, was probably only a semi-conscious state. I had left the A52 motorway behind, and had already travelled along the A631, passing the village Cafe we had stopped at on the way through to Vigo nearly a week ago, and then finally, after around three hours, I got on to the very familiar A66 motorway which would take us all the way South. So deep in my thoughts had I been, that I do not remember when the sun had actually come out, we were heading South, a little more inland now and running parallel with the Eastern border of Portugal towards Central Spain. The views of the surrounding countryside opened up and I could once again see for miles in all directions, it helped to give me other things to focus my attention on which I was grateful for, I made one stop for fuel and took the opportunity to take a brief comfort stop, Shazza also took the opportunity to use the facilities and stretch her legs, but she didn’t want anything to eat or drink so I just continued to drive on. To be honest I don’t tend to eat very much, I will have a Tostado when we make a stop on our usual morning walks when we are at home, but then I generally do not eat again until my evening meal, or, if we do occasionally have a proper lunch, instead of dinner, then I don’t generally eat anything else in the evening, perhaps a biscuit or two with my evening cuppa. Some critics will say that is not healthy, but I have been like that for many years, I eat generally only when I feel hungry, or if something really tantalises my taste buds and, so far, I haven’t withered away yet 😁 I had a bottle of water in the car so that I could remain hydrated, but all in all, I was quite enjoying the actual drive and, at times, it did take me back to the days that we did this very route, going both South and North, in our Motor Home, and that unlocked memories of the many places we had visited and parked up, places where we had wild-camped or stayed on Motorhome Aires, it all seemed an eternity away from where we are now and the lifestyle we are currently enjoying.

It was nice to see the appearance of the name of the city of ‘Caceres’ on the road signs, although still a good hour’s drive away, but I knew we were getting closer to our destination. Even though we would deviate from our Southerly direction to travel further East and inland, it would be on another toll free motorway, the A58, which would take us to within 2Km of Trujillo.

I remember saying ‘WOW’ out loud when I got my first clear view of our destination, Shazza woke from her half slumber and all I could say to her was “Look at that !”, she sat up and looked at the view, “Very Nice” she said, in a less than convincing tone. “Do you want to pull over and let me drive in to the town” she asked. I knew she would be a little concerned about me driving through potential narrow streets, “Well you have done all the driving so you must be tired” she said, I knew it wasn’t the tiredness that concerned her but more the slightly depleted vision in my eye. “I think I will be okay I said, I will just take it slowly and anyway I don’t think you are well enough to drive anyway ?” I replied. She said she was feeling a little better and that she needed something else to concentrate on, so I pulled over and we changed positions. As it was, traffic in the small town was quiet and the hotel was easy to locate.

The old gentleman receptionist greeted us warmly and got us checked in quite promptly before advising us how to get around to the rear hotel garage parking area, where we had pre-booked a space.

Although much of the interior had been modified for its use now as a hotel, it was still quite evident that it had been a former Convent, it had that old religious look about it, the rooms were not as modern as the one we had left in Vigo, but it was perfectly clean, their were two wide beds, side by side and we had a nice en-suite bathroom, a large window that overlooked the pool area, air-conditioning, a mini-bar with soft drinks, an LCD TV and free Wi-Fi, everything that we needed.

Shazza actually looked much better than she had earlier that morning, so I made us both a nice hot cuppa and whilst she checked her iPad for any Emails, or messages on her Social media accounts, I relaxed on the bed from the long drive, it had taken us just a little over 7 hours with just the one re-fuel and comfort stop, but now my eyes began to feel really heavy, it was 4pm, and I could feel a ‘Siesta’ coming on 😴 I only dropped off for an hour and when I awoke Shazza was reading a book on her kindle, she still looked gaunt and pale, but certainly a lot better than she had done, “You must be starving by now” she said to me, “I am getting ready for some dinner, but it’s a bit early yet, will you be up for going out a little later to find somewhere to eat ?” I replied. “I am a bit hungry now, but I still feel a bit cautious about eating” she said, “But I will come out to get some fresh air and I also need to stretch my legs, but you need a proper meal today”, she said. We agreed that we would not spend too long out this evening, just a bite to eat then back, and then, hopefully, after Shazza had got what I hoped would be a restful night’s sleep we would do some exploring of the town the following day, but we did now have two full days, so we didn’t have to rush around, we could just take things easy to see how she got on, and hopefully she would be able to start to eat something more nutritious and substantial again, even if it was a Coffee and Tostado to start with in the morning and then perhaps just something light for her lunch.

We both got showered and changed, the receptionist had given us a street map and given us directions towards the Plaza Mayor, although to be honest their were eateries all over the place, hidden amongst the maze of narrow streets, but the Plaza Mayor was where the majority were clumped together. Although when we first drove into the town it was along a modern street, our hotel was right on a corner that led directly into the old part of town and so, as we walked out that evening, we were soon dwarfed in the narrow streets by tall old stone built buildings, lots of the buildings in these streets were still residential houses, or apartments, but some of them had also been renovated and converted into modern day shops, but without losing that external ambience of that older period. Even with the aid of the street map we got confused, their were just too many alleyways and twists and turns which were not always reflected on the map by the person who drew it 🙄 I didn’t want to wander around aimlessly this particular evening for Shazza’s sake, as some of the narrow roads were on a bit of an incline and I could see her struggling, so I attempted to enlist the assistance of Google, but in these narrow streets the GPS was struggling to pinpoint our exact location, so I just stopped somebody and asked them which direction to the Plaza Mayor. It was literally a couple of minutes walk away from where we were, but had we have kept going in the direction we were headed we would have missed it as we needed to take a right turn 🤷‍♂️ the pavement Cafe/Bars and Restaurants were fairly busy, but not crowded, and after quickly looking at a couple of establishments menu’s we made our selection and were shown to a table. Once again though, there was little choice for Shazza’s palate, why do none of these places serve Vegetable dishes ? Of course she could have ordered another Salad, but where are the Jacket or boiled potatoes, the Broccoli, Cauliflower, Green Beans, Carrots etc. which are widely available from all the supermarkets and independent grocers, I mean Spain is a major exporter of all of this type of produce. Anyway she settled for a dish of Prawns cooked in Garlic and Olive Oil, I had a much wider choice and went for the ‘Beef Cheeks’ in a red wine sauce 😋😋 we also ordered a basket of bread. Whilst mine came with a side order of chips, although I would have preferred mashed or boiled potatoes, Shazza’s came with no side dish whatsoever, which, as it turned out, was a good thing on this occasion as she only managed to eat less than a quarter of her meal, about four smallish prawns 😲 I wasn’t complaining, I devoured my own course, and the whole basket of bread before finishing off her Prawns 🤭 Shazza had also settled for bottled water, but having seen her suffering over the last few days, I of course needed no excuse to maintain my strict regime of Anti-Covid Vacinnes 🤭🍷🍷 I of course knew that Shazza had only come out with me that evening so that I would get a proper meal, had she have decided not to, she knew that I would have just called in at a local shop and grabbed a sandwich, or something quick, to take back to eat in the hotel room, I could of course have gone out by myself for dinner, but who wants to eat out alone and be sat like a ‘Billy No Mates’ 🤷‍♂️

Shazza seemed fairly ‘chirpy’ as we wandered back through the streets to the hotel, compared to how she had been, so I was hoping that she was now coming through the other side of whatever it was that had made her feel so ill, so at least now she would be able to have a good couple of days rest here to build her strength up again before we decided what we were going to do next, we still had a couple of weeks in which to head elsewhere if we wanted to, that was if she was feeling much better. Now I have to confess that at this point, with Shazza looking and sounding a lot better, I couldn’t help myself, this ‘Going With The Flow’ business just does my head in, so that night whilst Shazza slept, I got my head back into the route maps and started formulating some alternative options 😂 There were lots of ways we could go with lots of places to explore, however, I decided on three options.

We could continue to head East, although that would also involve heading just a little North again, to the town of ‘Toledo’, somewhere that Shazza had previously said she would like to visit, from there we could stay on the Eastern side of Spain and just head South, through the Sierra Nevada National Park on our way home. Alternatively, we could head West, cross the border into Portugal and head for the town of ‘Elvas’, which is another place we have not as yet visited. After that we could travel South, following the course of the ‘Rio Guadiana’. The Guadiana is an international river defining a long stretch of the border between Portugal and Spain, effectively separating ‘Extremadura’ and ‘Andalusia’ on the Spanish side, from ‘Alentejo’ and the ‘Algarve’ on the Portuguese side. The river’s basin extends from La Mancha and the eastern portion of Extremadura to the southern provinces of the Algarve; the river and its tributaries flow from east to west, then south through Portugal to the border towns of ‘Vila Real de Santo Antonio’ (Portugal), which is a lovely town that we have stayed in several times during our motorhoming days and which looks across the river to ‘Ayamonte’ (Spain), another lovely town that we have visited on several occasions, you can take a small ferry between the two (15 minutes), then the river flows out into the Gulf of Cádiz. Following the route of this river would take us through some beautiful scenic landscapes, wine growing regions and a whole host of small Portuguese villages and, whilst we have done some parts of this route in the Motorhome, we had not followed it all the way South to the Eastern Algarve. From there we would cross the border back into Spain and head, from the Atlantic side of the coast, to our home on the Mediterranean side, only a couple of hours journey. The third and final option was the least appealing one, which was to just leave Trujillo and head straight home 🥺 I decided though, that for now it would probably be best to just keep all of these alternative plans to myself 😉

To be continued…………………………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena