Another weekend had arrived, although their were no ‘Fiestas’ in our particular immediate local area, however, on this particular morning, just like the previous one as it happens 🤔 neither was there the usual blue sky or sunshine to greet me, only a mixture of white and light grey cloud. There was also a strong breeze blowing in, through the french windows on the balcony, but to be honest it wasn’t really strong enough to be classed as a ‘wind’, but it was enough to create some swaying momentum on the leaves of the tree’s outside the windows. It was 8:00am, and the thermometer was already registering 25 degrees(c), however, it was more humid than hot, but that would all change a little after lunch, when the clouds would finally part, blue sky would start to appear and the sun would break through to bring, by late afternoon, the now more regular daily 30 degree(c) temperatures. It was quiet and peaceful, I found myself flitting between perusing stuff on my iPad and drifting into a sort of semi-hypnotic state when I would find myself just staring out of the windows at the views, and listening to the chitter chattering of the birds, whilst drinking my coffee. It was only a couple of weeks ago that the ‘Works of Fiction’ had forecast that we would get seven days of 43 Degrees(c) temperatures, you may recall that I had scoffed at that in my last ramble, and rightly so for, as I had correctly predicted, it had only reached a rather uncomfortable 35 degrees(c), well at least down on this particular part of the Costa del Sol coastline and that, for us, is hot enough thank you very much 🥵 So these last couple of more overcast mornings, have actually been very welcome.

We are in a bit of a ‘lull’ mode at the moment, not really doing very much to be honest, in fact the bare minimum possible in the current temperatures, and we know that it is only going to get hotter and hotter, although we have been out on some walks during the mornings when the heat is more bearable. We could of course, if we had really wanted to, have gone out on some extended road trips, we have a couple of free weeks before our daughter and Son-in-Law arrive from Germany. But of course, being Summer, the prices of accommodations have sky-rocketed so, out of Yorkshireman’s principle, we will not pay that kind of silly money, we are not rich tourist’s you know 🤭 Or perhaps it could be just that we already live in a perfectly good holiday location, in rent free accommodation and with all the facilities that we need.

During the previous week we had used our swimming pool on an almost daily basis, and had had it all to ourselves, however, over this last week we had not made use of the pool at all, for we were either just too lethargic in the mornings or we had other more essential things that needed doing. By lunchtimes, the pool is now busy with small groups of children and their parents, although not exactly inundated, but noisy enough to be less than peaceful. Why is it that females, of all ages, always seem to scream, either in excitement, joy or distress 🤷‍♂️ whilst the males, of all ages, have to show off their ‘macho’ side by running at, and then somersaulting into, the pool to see how big a splash they can make, albeit there are signs that state that both are prohibited 🤔 as, I may add, are water toys like inflatable novelty chairs and air beds, which take up lots of pool space, especially after the owner’s have got out and left their toys floating aimlessly around. Swimming is pointless, and nigh on impossible, as is laying on a sunbed trying to read whilst doing a spot of sunbathing, no the time has now arrived when it is either get up early and get to the pool, before the ‘Little Darlings’ have been awoken from their slumbers and eaten their breakfasts, usually just before lunchtime, or just admit defeat until the first week of September when they all return from whence they came, I sound just like that ‘Victor Meldrew’ chap of that comedy TV series ‘One Foot In The Grave’ 😂 Usually, the permanent residents here, would have had the pool all to themselves up until the tourists or visiting families arrive, which is probably from around the beginning of May, for although our pool is an open-all-year one, apart from when there are drought restrictions that is, the water is not warm enough to swim in before May, and generally after the end of October. However, this year, due to those drought conditions, our pool was not re-opened for use until a few short weeks ago ☹️ But you know what they say, if you can’t beat them, join them, and so our own ‘Little Darlings’, namely our three excitable and ‘loud’ granddaughter’s, will soon join that throng around the pool and, if any one of those permanent residents complain, then they must just be grumpy old codgers who need to get a life 😂

Now I have to just tell you that the ‘Works of Fiction’ are not actually having a very good couple of weeks, well not as far as their ‘Crystal Balls’ are concerned, so apart from the 43 degree heatwave that thankfully never materialised, they had also, very recently, put in force, for the whole of the Malaga Province, an ‘Amber’ storm warning. Now it isn’t that unusual to get the odd, maybe one or two, Summer storms here in Spain, but generally speaking they are quite brief events lasting for no more than a day or two.

The night the ‘forecasted’ heavy rains and thunderstorms were due to commence I sat on the balcony, waiting in eager anticipation, because I do like to hear a good thunderstorm with awesome lightening displays and watch the large raindrops leaping off the roads and pavements below. However, whilst I did see some electrical storms, they were well above the thick sheet of night clouds, and a very long way out to sea, so there were just sporadic glows of white and orange and I watched them as they drifted slowly towards the African coastline. But they were not accompanied by any thunder, or rain, of any description, light or heavy, so I felt disappointed, even cheated out of my evening’s entertainment, although I guess that I should know by now not to rely on what ‘any’ weather agencies forecast, as none of them have a very good track record 🤷‍♂️ However, in their defence, they were not totally wrong, just geographically a little off piste, for their were floods and exceptionally strong winds in Madrid, which just in case you are not familiar with its location, is actually in Central Spain, far closer to the ‘Costa del Ajahar’ than our own Costa del Sol, and it is a little over six or perhaps even seven hours away from us, but to be completely fair, neither did they get it completely wrong about Malaga, albeit the Province of Malaga is quite a large area, however, Malaga City itself, did get some heavy rainfall, but this inclement weather once again stayed well North of us.

But I will give this particular ‘Works of Fiction’ some due respect, as normally, when they do get their forecasts wrong, they usually just come out with the statement that ‘Meteorology’ is not an exact science 🤷‍♂️ So it is indeed rare for ‘any’ Government Agency to actually ‘publicly’ admit when they do get things wrong 🤔 I guess in these not so good global economic climates, it would be no good me suggesting that they ditch their old forecasting technologies which they appear to be currently using (Crystal Balls) and invest in some more twenty-first century alternatives, like perhaps weather satellites and associated AI technologies 🤭

As I was commencing the first ‘draft’ of this particular ramble, it sprung to mind that in my last ramble, and now in this one, I have mentioned some of the Spanish ‘Costas’, but like myself I suppose, well at least until very recently that is, I too had heard of many of them by name, but I certainly did not know what every ‘Costa’ was called, or indeed their exact locations along the three areas of the Spanish coastlines, so, as a bit of what some may probably consider to be useless information, I am going to include a map (below) which shows them all by name and location, its okay, you really don’t have to thank me, ‘Mr Google’ actually did all the hard work 😂

Now you may also recall, from my last ramble, that we were having a bit of an issue with our bathroom scales, the problem being that after our ‘Fiesta Weekend’ celebrations, they were rather inconveniently not reflecting the weight’s that we actually wanted them to show us, so Shazza and I both agreed that they must have been faulty 🤷‍♂️ So, we decided to replace them and, before the end of that same week, we did go out to purchase a new set. Now I had expected to have been offered a wide selection, we only wanted a basic set, one that would just reflect our weight, nothing more, nothing less. So I was surprised to find that, in the particularly large store that we were in, which sold ‘everything’ on the domestic front, fixtures and fittings, for every room in the house, even the garden, to only discover ‘one’ make and model of bathroom scales 😲 But hey ho, at the end of the day we only needed one, but this particular one had ten different functions, yes ten 🤔 Although not a setting to ‘adjust’ the weight reading, to the one we would have preferred it to show 😁 The problem was, this all singing and all dancing model had to be set up with individual ‘personal profiles’, via an ‘Application’, that we had to download from the Interweb thingy on to our mobile phones. For goodness sake, we only actually wanted a basic one, one that we could stand on and it would tell us what we wanted to see that would make us feel good about ourselves, not one that reflected that we were coming close to becoming overweight ‘Fat B******s’, now was that really too much to ask 🤷‍♂️ Anyway, we couldn’t be bothered hunting around town just for a set of scales, that in itself could have excaserpated the problem because we may have ended up having to stop at any Cafe/Bars we passed for refreshments, Anti-Covid Vaccines and perhaps even a few Tapas, just to quench our thirsts and keep our energy levels up in all this heat 🤭 So we took what appeared at the time, to be the sensible option and purchased this one available model of bathroom scales. Well, when we got it home and unpacked it, installed the batteries, and then started reading the instructions, it directed us to a ‘QR Code’, fortunately we did have a QR Reader App already downloaded on our mobile phones, but, when we scanned it, a message informed us that this ‘QR’ Code was no longer available 🤔 We both set about checking the Internet to see if we could obtain this ‘App’ via an alternative method, but alas, it appeared that the ‘App’, for this particular model, no longer existed 😡

Well I won’t go into specific details, as I am sure that you can already imagine the number of expletives that were by now emanating from the both of us. “How can a ******* shop sell a ******* item that can only be operated by a ******* ‘App’ that no longer ******* exists ?” Do I need to mention that we were not best pleased, probably more so because that was our joint week’s worth of allowance on using any expletives being used up in just one two-minute outburst, but at least it had put some extra ‘coffers’ in the swear box 😂 I lost count of how many times we both kept making that same statement over and over again and, to make matters worse, we would now have to go to the trouble of re-packing this useless piece of 🤬🤬🤬, and then take it back to the store in Estepona and try to explain, in Spanish, why we were returning it !! I have to say though, that we have never seen our swear box fill up in such a short space of time 😂 We considered not bothering taking it back and just throwing it in the bin, or better still, selling it on EBay 🤭, but it had cost us €50 bloody Euro’s and I wasn’t going to lose that kind of money, that was more than the total cost of a two-course meal, for the both of us, including an Anti-Covid Vaccine each, at a local restaurant, so this was serious ‘treat weekend’ money that we are talking about here, after all, we are a couple who are just living off our pensions incomes out here and, if we do not stop making such stupid purchases, we may both end up selling copies of the ‘Big Issue’ along the seafront promenade to make ends meet 🤭

Now I am sure that you already know the feeling that you get inside when you build yourself up for an argument, already anticipating meeting some resistance from the store, for attempting to return a faulty product, and trying to get your money back and not a credit note. This of course can be bad enough in your own native language, in your own country, never mind in a language, where the particular language course that we were using, didn’t teach us the necessary essential vocabulary for incidences such as this 😳 Well, thankfully, we needn’t have got ourselves all into a lather about it, as when we showed the ‘Customer Service’ girl our receipt, showed her the picture on the box showing the mobile phone and ‘Bluetooth’ symbol and said, in our bestest Spanglish of course, that it didn’t work. It was as if she already knew the issue, perhaps she had experienced a lot more ‘Returns’ of this particular product, anyway, she just simply scanned the product information off the box, and then issued us with our Refund, without any fuss or bother, she even apologised for the inconvenience and smiled, although perhaps the smile was more of a “Damn it, another customer who hadn’t thought that it was their own stupidity, or lack of IT know-how, for being the reason that they could not get it working”

In the end, we kept the money and just decided that we would stick to our original bathroom scales, as it appeared, somewhat miraculously, a few days after our weekend of over indulgence, and after us once again taking up our much more usual and healthier dietary regimes over the following week, that they actually appeared to be working normally again, in that they were once again reflecting the weight that we wanted them to show 😂 It had taken a few days for my weight to gradually, bit by bit, come back down again, from the shocking 1.7Kg increase it had reflected on that disastrous Monday morning weigh-in, but, just four days later I was down to 72.7Kg, so I said to myself, give me one good reason as to why I would choose not to believe it 🤷‍♂️ But by now it was also the time of the week for our next ‘Treat Weekend’ and just before another ‘official’ weigh-in day, oh dear, I thought to myself, this may not end well again 😲 So we had a conference, no not me and the bathroom scales, me and Shazza, and we both agreed, that perhaps it would make more logical sense to conduct our weigh-in sessions at the end of the week, or better still, on the Saturday morning, which would then give us both time, after our ‘treat weekends’, to spend the next five days on our normal dietary regimes, which would give us time to rectify any ‘temporary’ discrepancies that may have occurred. Of course, the motion put forward by the members, all two of us, was carried unanimously 😁

I am still no nearer to finding the cause of the ‘bloat’ though, as whilst my ‘Middle Age Spread’ has shrunk a little, which is actually great news, as it was the primary reason for my dietary regime change and not the actual weight loss aspect, although obviously, the two are linked. But one morning, having not eaten anything for breakfast, which is a usual occurrence for me, we went on our walk into town, whilst it was still relatively cool, we of course stopped for our usual coffee, but no ‘Tostado’, however, as we were walking back I could feel my stomach starting to bloat, it was enough for even Shazza to notice, although to be fair it was not as bad as it has been on previous occasions 🤷‍♂️ However, I have decided to maintain ‘my’ amended ‘Plant Based’ diet, as it is certainly contributing to the current weight loss and, in truth, I would be more than happy to still lose another couple of Kilograms. But I am also trying to eliminate potential causes of the bloat myself, so in this last week I have once again started to eat just very small quantities of Shazza’s home-baked sour dough bread, happily with no unfavourable results 👍 My next action will be to cut out the bread again and this time try eating some potatoes, either french fries over our treat weekends, or baked potatoes with my salads during the week, just to see what, if any, effect that has 🤷‍♂️ If that doesn’t provide the answer then I shall seek to try to eliminate other foodstuffs like Rice, Pasta’s, Legumes etc. Of course it could very well be that it is not just one thing that is causing the issue, but a combination of eating all, or at least some, of them together 😩 But, at some stage, I will not want to continue on the weight loss path as that can then potentially bring about it’s own ‘other’ health issues, I have certainly well and truly gone past the stage of wanting to be the next ‘size zero’ glamour model 🤭 So, ‘After Weighing It All Up’, I have but one simple goal, one that see’s me just being able to fit into, and then remain, comfortable in ‘all’ of my shirts, I have just the three stubborn one’s that I continue to do battle with 👕🤺 And, if in that process, I can lose just a couple of extra Kilograms, then that would suit me very nicely but of course I already know that taking off weight is one thing, but keeping it off is another and there is no way that I am going to give up our treat weekends 😳

And in other News 🤔………………..

Well it looks as if the next seven days are going to be quite interesting, and all with potential impacts to some degree or other, first, we are awaiting the results of two very important events, yes the Euro 24 football games involving both our teams, England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 and Spain 🇪🇸, although they are playing different teams and not each other so at least we have a 50/50 chance of at least one of them progressing to the Quarter Finals 👍 Secondly, there is the first vote in the French Elections and, according to the pre-election Polls, Macron’s Party is not looking good down in third place. Then, later in the week, there is the UK General Election to see which party have been telling Bigger Lies than any of the other’s, and be the one’s which will convince the general public to vote for them. However, I fear that the only losers in this particular election will actually be the British General Public once again, for none of the parties, if and when they get to come to run the country for the next five year’s, will have the financial resources in the Treasury Coffers to be able to do anything about the state of the country, for perhaps even another decade, and how do you get that money, Borrow, Sell off National Assets (to foreign buyers) or Raise Taxes, or, as I strongly suspect, a combination of all of them 🤷‍♂️ Then to just round the week off, we have the second round of voting in the French Elections, a final result that ‘could’ have serious consequences on the EU as a whole, not least the value of the Euro against all other global currencies. So perhaps it is a good time, if you haven’t already done so, to take a holiday, whilst you still can, but don’t forget to take your TV’s, as at least the football may provide some excitement in what could be an otherwise dull week. Then again, you could always ‘Stop worrying about things that you have no control or influence over and spend your time more proactively on the types of things that you can influence or control’ 😉 On that note, let me just go and have another stand on those bathroom scales, I may have lost a Gram or two in the time I have been bashing away on this keyboard 🤭

Until my next ramble…………………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, (La Vida Es Buena)

Early Warning Alert !! : You will definitely need to prepare a substantial picnic lunch and large drink before commencing to read this current ramble 😲 And Dougie, I know you will read this first, so tell Avril to save it until she attends her next appointment, she may just have finished it by the end of her next session 😉

There are often times when I have my contemplative moments, these are more usually when I am sat on the balcony and just staring out of the window at the views, but on one particular morning we were down at the pool, Shazza was solar basting and reading her book whilst, somewhat surprisingly, I had gone straight into the water for a swim. Now I say surprisingly because, as many of you will already know, I used to find swimming in the pool quite boring, just monotonously swimming from one end to the other, whereas now, especially as the Summer has started and it is warm enough to go swimming in the morning’s, it has become my ‘go to’ means of exercising, and I have found myself quite enjoying it, even more so than the walking, especially in the Summer heat. Although I have to say that I am still rather competitive, even against myself, so I try to do more lengths during each daily session than I had done on the previous daily session. Anyway, there I was, in my usual ‘oblivious’ mode whilst I went from one end to the other, counting off the lengths as I completed them, and with the sunshine and only the sound of the water filter pumps operating around me, I found my mind wandering and beginning to wonder where we would be now if we had not left the UK to come and live here in Spain, and of course, had that have been the case, we would have not sold the Motorhome. But what part of the country would we have chosen to put down our roots ? Although the reality of that would have been more a case of where we could have afforded to purchase a property 🙄 But what would we be doing now, this very day, on a Saturday morning ? That I guess, being in the UK, would also have depended primarily on the weather conditions. If it had been a dry day, would I have been doing some gardening, whilst Shazza did the washing or ironing ? Yes, I thought to myself, we would have definitely bought a house with a garden. Perhaps I would be passing the day hand washing the car and/or the Motorhome ? Although to do both would have been a two day task. Perhaps we would have gone and done the weekly Shopping at the local Supermarket ? Or, perhaps would we have been away somewhere in the Motorhome, either somewhere within the UK or, even across the Channel into Europe using all, or just part of, our 90 day ‘Schengen Shuffle’ allowance ? Although, to be completely honest, these were questions that were not really that easy to find answers to, because we had never actually been properly retired in the UK before we came to live here, so we had not got into any of the retirement routines like we now have here. Apart from the obviously much better, and much longer, annual periods of warm sunny weather that we do have here, I wondered wether our lives, and routines, would have been so very much more different to what we have, and do, here 🤔 But when you are living somewhere, on a permanent basis, you do get used to things like the weather, the changing seasons, the local environment that you live in, the available facilities, it is something that I guess you just accept without really thinking about it, so you just tend to do the things that are appropriate to your environment and circumstances. It is much the same here in Spain, I mean we live by a wonderful coastline with beaches galore quite literally on our doorstep, but to date, apart from just the one occasion last Summer, we have not spent any time on any of the beaches near us in the last year, but when we used to come here, for our shorter ninety-day periods, we spent lots more time on the various beaches, perhaps it was because back then it was more of a novelty 🤷‍♂️ We do also have our daily/weekly routines, much as we would if we lived in the UK, so in the end the only real difference, for us, is I suppose the warmer all year climate which provides a better outdoor lifestyle, and I guess some of the more favourable economical aspects, for we certainly find it much cheaper to live here in Spain than it appears to be in the UK, and I say ‘appear’ because quite honestly we have not actually lived in a house in the UK for nearly eleven years, so we cannot personally accurately do comparisons with things like the cost of Utilities (Water, Electricity, Gas), WiFi and Telephone Bills, TV Licences, Household Buildings and Contents Insurances, Council Tax, Groceries, Dining out, Associated Transportation costs etc. etc. the only information that we do get is either from people that we meet, who do live permanently in the UK, or from the media articles that we read, and we know how biased they can be. I guess the mantra should really just be, no matter who you are, or wherever you may live, to just try to live and enjoy your life the best way that you can, within whatever constraints that you may have, to live ‘in’ the moment and not ‘for’ the moment, and to not look at what you have not got, but actually what you actually do have, and that doesn’t just refer to financial aspects, but also to the friends you have around you, the family you have and, hopefully, the good health that you have, as I have said several times over the year’s within these rambles, this life that we have is not a dress rehearsal, you really only do get one chance at it, so make the most of it, whilst you still can and before something, or someone, comes along to take those freedoms of choice away from you 😉

I did not actually have any answers to any of the questions that were drifting in and out of my mind, but they had certainly been enough to keep me occupied until I decided, after completing my thirtieth length, that that was quite enough for my first session, I was not sure at that point wether I would have the motivation to conduct a second, or even a third one, like on the previous pool session a couple of days previously when I had then managed a total of forty lengths, although I knew of course that I would still need to do a lot more than that, before I could even consider competing at the Olympics 🤭

I lay outstretched on my towel on the sun bed to dry off before commencing starting to read a brand new book on my Kindle device. That in itself is a rarity, I don’t tend to read a lot of books these days, although I have dozens saved into my device library, I would get through them eventually though, the one that I had just read had taken me a year to finish 😲 It wasn’t as if I had not enjoyed reading it, as most of my favourite books are about real life boating adventures, either on the Canals and Rivers in the UK, or Europe, or crossing Oceans in Sailing Yachts, either Monohulls or Catamarans, and even Motor Yachts, but I generally have to have complete silence when I am reading, no distractions whatsoever, but there is always something to distract me when I am sat on the balcony. Shazza on the other hand is always reading a book on her Kindle and she is constantly adding to her already vast library, she reads every single day, morning, noon and night but she enjoys mainly ‘Fiction’. What I cannot understand though, is that she can stop reading any of her books at any time, even part way through a Chapter 🤷‍♂️ Whereas I have to finish a Chapter once I have started it and, after finishing a book I cannot then immediately start reading another, like she does. Which then made my thoughts drift towards wether, as individuals, do people’s personalities, and behaviours, reflect in their personal habits. Shazza is more of a spontaneous sort of character, she can start, or finish, things in the blink of an eye, whereas, myself, and of course my constant OCD companion, need to have a plan, a start and a defined finish point, we cannot stop mid-flow, no that would never do. I never did go back into the pool that day, I must have tired myself out with all of this trivia that I had whizzing around my head 🤭

We are quite fortunate really, with living this far down on the Eastern coastline of Spain, as it is very close to the Gibraltar straight, the advantage of that, is that it can get quite breezy along this lower section of the Costa del Sol coast, as the weather systems blowing in from both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean clash and are squeezed between the narrow 7.7 nautical mile channel that separates mainland Spain from Morocco. This means that during the Summer months in particular, whilst it does undoubtedly get hot here, it dos not get as ferociously hot as some places further North, or even a bit further Inland, unless that wind is of the scorching ‘Terrell’ variety so, generally, apart from the odd day here and there, the temperatures do not get much higher than 35 degrees(c) during the day, although, in the height of the Summer, it is regularly 24 degrees(c) throughout the night and well into the early mornings, when it then starts to heat up again 🥵 But, with all of our doors and windows open, the constant breeze makes sleeping quite bearable really, although we do then tend to sleep on top of the duvet, rather than underneath it. However, within the last week, the Spanish National weather forecast agency has issued a warning that the temperatures, for a week or so, are likely to hit 43 degrees(c) 🥵, but in reality when ‘they’ actually say Southern Spain, they are generally referring to areas such as Seville, Cordoba, Granada and Malaga and not as far South as where we are located, so we shall just have to see if that forecast does actually materialise down our particular stretch of coastline 🤔

At the time of publishing my last ramble we had still not heard from our Solicitor about an appointment to go to the Police Station to ‘apply’ to get our new replacement TIE residency cards, albeit, several weeks earlier, we had received confirmation that our renewal applications had been approved so, after sending frustrating Emails back and forth, with no positive news about securing an appointment date and time, we decided to just stop worrying about it, although, in truth, Shazza wasn’t worrying about it at all, and I guess that in truth I wasn’t actually ‘worrying’, at least not in the real meaning of the word, it was just my OCD buddy who kept constantly reminding me that it was, as yet, still an outstanding item on my ‘Not Yet Done List’. But I had no choice in the matter, as there was nothing that I could actually do about it and they, our Solicitor’s, I knew couldn’t just conjure an appointment up out of thin air 🤷‍♂️ So perhapsthose ‘Dark Forces’ who had been lurking in the shadows, could sense my new more nonchalant attitude and had decided to go and pester somebody who did actually give a damn, whatever it was it had worked, because shortly afterwards it came as an unexpected and very pleasant surprise when I received an Email on the Thursday morning (20th June), to tell me that we had finally got appointments, for the following morning, at the Estepona National Police Station, although I had to afford myself a little smile when our Solicitor asked wether we would be available to attend these appointments, were they being sarcastic I wondered 🤔 or did they really think that I would possibly respond with a “No, we are not available on that day”. So, as you can probably imagine, I responded immediately with a resounding ‘Yes’ and, although we knew that even after attending that appointment, that it would still actually take a further 5-6 weeks before the new TIE cards would be ready for us to go and collect, that didn’t matter, just knowing that we would have actually attended the appointment, and submitted our TIE Card applications, was the last piece of the formalities. The nicer thought though was that once we did receive those new TIE Residency Cards, we could then sit back, for a further two year’s, before having to go through all of this Spanish bureaucracy again. It also served as a reminder to us that in our first year we had only been out of Spain for one week, so we now had an additional seven weeks to add to this year’s eight week travel allowance 🤗 In all probability we wouldn’t even use all of that, but it is nice to have it available in our back pockets, just in case we ‘need’ to go back to the UK at some point for extended periods, as we both do still have elderly parents living there, or perhaps we may even take some time on an extended holiday during the cooler months here, the ‘Over The Water’ Villas in the Maldives still remain un-checked on my personal travel ‘Bucket List’, if only I could convince Shazza to give me the combination code to ‘my’ wallet to get access to my Credit Card 😂

We had separate appointments, mine being at 11:00am, Shazza’s just fifteen minutes later and, because parking around the Police Station area can be a bit of a nightmare, we had arrived early, but parked at our usual parking area at the Northern end of the town, which is just on the outskirts, although it was probably no more than a gentle thirty minute stroll away from the Police Station. As we had plenty of time before our appointments, we went for a coffee in one of the many Spanish Cafe’s in the back streets, near the Police Station but away from the tourist hub where the costs are astronomical. Morning coffee’s are a bit of an institution here in Spain, more of a social gathering, a time to meet up with friends, or extended family and catch up with all the local gossip, so it was a nice ambience, although there were far too many conversations going on to really hear and focus on any one of them, but it was good opportunity for a spot of people watching.

We turned up for our appointments ten minutes earlier than scheduled, Silvia, from our Solicitor’s office was waiting outside, she is a lovely Spanish lady, who speaks excellent English, probably in her early fifties, and she always greets us as if we are friends rather than clients, but I suppose after nine year’s it has turned into more of a friendship as well as a business relationship, we chatted about what we had each been up to since we last saw each other and some chit chat about our respective families. Inside the Police Office, there was a row of around eight desks, but separated into categories, some dealing with Spanish Citizens Passport Issues, Some with Foreigner’s Visa extensions and Work permits and then our area that dealt with both Initial, and Renewal, TIE Card applications, it hadn’t changed in appearance since we came here last year. The actual normal day to day Police Station side of the business is located elsewhere in the two-storey building but there were plenty of gun toting Officers, male and female, constantly coming in and out of the building. Only three of the desks actually had any staff working at them 🤷‍♂️ although the actual waiting area was busy with people waiting to conduct whatever business it was that they had to do. We took a seat and waited for our names to be called, however it was 11:45 when I finally got called to the cubicle with the middle aged stoney faced female Officer, so much for appointment times I thought to myself 🙄 I made it my personal mission to make the woman smile before I came away from the desk, it was not an easy task I can tell you, the female officer that I had seen last year, when we came here to submit the applications for our ‘Initial’ TIE Residency Cards, was far more personable. But finally I got a breakthrough, we had to take updated Photo’s for our new Identity Cards, but the stoney-faced woman, looking at my records on her computer screen, told me that she didn’t need it as I had not changed in appearance since last year, “Si, Sigo Siendo Tan Guapo” (Yes, I am still just as handsome) I said, and a broad grin broke out on her face, she looked at me and responded, in English, up to that point she had only spoken in Spanish and via our Solicitor, “Yes, but you will have to bring new one’s when you come back to renew again in two year’s time”, I smiled at her, her face now back to stoney-faced mode, “Crees que no seré tan guapo entonces?” (You think that I will not be as handsome then ?) I said, with a smile on my face, she smiled again, knowing I was being a bit mischievous with her, but she made no response this time. I wished her a nice weekend and she responded “Gracias, Igualmente” (Thank you, you too). Yes ! I had actually succeeded in my mission, and not once, but twice, I thought about fist punching the air in celebration but didn’t want to push my luck 🤭

Fortunately, Shazza was next in the queue and so just fifteen minutes later, after our paperwork had been submitted and our fingerprints taken (yet again), the three of us exited the building and said our farewells, Silvia returning to her office in Sabinillas whilst we headed back into Estepona to have a bit of a wander. Although Estepona is no more than a twenty-minute drive away from us, we do not often come here, unless of course we need something that our own town has not got, which is an event that is as rare as hens teeth, so generally we only pay a visit when we need a change of scenery, or there is a Fiesta or something going on. Estepona was busy, which is pretty much usual, we walked through the town and in the shade, as far as was possible, and then we headed towards the seafront promenade, just really to take a look at what their ‘San Juan’ themed structure looked like, but disappointingly they didn’t have one, at least not one that we could see along the long stretch of beachfront 🤔 Although, we did both recall having read somewhere that the residents of Estepona make there own, personal smaller structures, and they take them down to the beach to set alight at midnight on the 23rd June, but it doesn’t really matter what size the structures are, for the Spanish need little excuse to hold a ‘Fiesta’ and I guess, the smaller the structures are the quicker they burn, so then they can get back to the bar’s 😂 We stopped at one of the seafront cafe/bars for a cooling Anti-Covid Vaccine, as you do, it of course would have been rude not to, then we returned to the car. By this time it was around 1:30pm and the temperature was already at 28 degrees(c) and still climbing, so we both just wanted to get back home, open up all the doors and windows and chillax.

As it was the start of the weekend, which to be honest is getting harder to delineate from just any other day of the week, we decided that we would go to our local Indian Restaurant for Dinner, they do a nice Sizzling Tandoori Chicken and Vegetable dish, which stays within the principles of my new dietary regime, without the usual Garlic Naan Bread or Rice ☹️ Although, as it is a double-header ‘Fiesta’ weekend on both the Saturday and Sunday, I may well not be as strictly disciplined with my dining choices over the next couple of days, so my ‘Official’ weigh in, on the Monday morning, may well see any weight loss that I may have achieved during that last week, get totally decimated. Well, ‘You Cannot Party Wearing A Straightjacket’ now can you 😂

Although we are not doing our usual daily walks as regularly these days, due to the heat, we do still occasionally have to go into town. I had gone for my usual haircut, an event that my OCD buddy has me doing every six weeks 😂 and although Shazza and I have both now ‘temporarily’ stopped having morning ‘Tostados’, we did still stop for our usual coffee’s, which turned out to be a bit of a bonus, as right in front of the Cafe was where they had built the structure for our town’s ‘San Juan’ Fiesta, and they had now finished it. It always seems such a shame with all the effort that must be put in to making these large structures, when it is just going to go up in flames at midnight on the Sunday, when it will then, very shortly afterwards, just become a heap of ashes. Now, as some of you may remember, last year’s theme was ‘Alice In Wonderland’, this year they have stuck with the ‘Fairy Tales’ theme, so I have taken a photo of it for you (Below), but you do not need to be able to understand Spanish, the actual Figuirine Character’s provide the clues to the respective fairy tales, so how many can you name 🤔 (You may need to zoom in to the photo)

Just to give you some idea on how high this structure actually is, the white sign at the front stands over eight feet tall. Similar events to this do take place throughout the whole of Spain, not just on our beach in our particular town, although I am not sure how they get on in places where they do not have beaches 🤔 Although, I guess it must be similar to the UK when they hold their annual ‘Bonfire Night’, on the 5th November, although those UK bonfire piles are not quite as artistic as they are here in Spain, well come on, they wouldn’t be now would they, you should know by now, especially as I do keep reminding you of just how ‘everything’ here in Spain is always so much better than in the UK 🤭😉 Unless of course we had selected to live elsewhere, France, Italy, or Greece, then of course, it goes without saying, that everything there would have been far superior to the UK 😂

Saturday arrived and we had another casual sort of morning sat on the balcony with our coffee’s, before going down to the pool once again, which we still had pretty much all to ourselves, although we know that now the Spanish schools have just closed for their long Summer break, this peacefulness will not remain for much longer, with the members of our Spanish community having their children at home during the day and supplemented in numbers with their own visiting families ‘Little Darlings’. We remained at the pool until mid-afternoon before our stomachs reminded us that we had not eaten anything, so we went back and had a light lunch, knowing that we would be eating out somewhere later that evening.

Sunset here does not occur until around 10pm, so at 7.30pm, with the sun still high in the sky, and the temperature still in the high twenties, we set out in shorts and tee-shirts for Dinner, which would be followed by us heading towards the evening musical entertainment in one of the town’s main Plazas. It was nice to be able to get into one of the shirts that I had not worn for ages, due to my new look lack of bloated belly, and to be able to walk along the promenade not looking as if I was on my way to an anti-natal appointment. Although only time would tell wether on the return journey it would still be the same, dependent on what I selected to eat for dinner 😳 The beach nearest to where where we park our car was still pretty busy, in fact we were lucky to find a parking space, although it would be virtually empty within the next hour as people started to drift back home. We by-passed all of the Marina’s culinary temptations and headed straight to the seafront promenade in the town, even the beach there was still pretty busy, as were the majority of the restaurants. We had not pre-booked, we never really know what we fancy to eat until we go out so we knew that it would probably be more of a case of pot luck this evening, we could always fall back on ‘Burger King’ if all else failed, I started to salivate at the thought of a totally unhealthy, but very tasty, Double XL Bacon Cheeseburger and Fries 😋 Shazza doesn’t enjoy their ‘Vegan Burgers’ though, so I knew that that would most definitely have been a last resort option 😥 As it was, we ended up at an Italian Pizza/Pasta establishment, very Spanish eh ! 🤭 which was located on the seafront with perfect views of the beach, we had used this establishment on several previous occasions, although not for a year or two now, but it had never disappointed. We selected our favourite Pizzas, Shazza her ‘Veggie’ option and I went for the house special, the ‘Bella Italia’ with Bacon, Chorizo, Ham and vegetables, what else 🤷‍♂️ but in fact the only bad thing, as far as my new dietary regime was concerned, was actually the Pizza Base itself, but I was willing to risk the sufferance of ‘bloat’, this was ‘treat weekend’ dining. We could tell that these were home-made pizzas as they were not perfectly circular, in fact mine was actually more of a mis-shapen square than circular, Shazza’s was a mis-shapen circular one, but they were both very very large and in the end I just couldn’t eat all of mine, so left around a third of it, although I did eat most of the topping 😳 Shazza didn’t have any problems demolishing all of her’s 😁 We each had a ‘large’ glass of Anti-Covid Vaccine to wash them down 🍷 and at the end, the total bill, a mere €26 (£22). In comparison, our Indian meal the previous evening, with a starter and main course and Anti-Covid Vaccines was a total of €45 (£39), no wonder that some people living out here actually eat out every day, it really is good value for money, if you select the right establishments of course and, you are not worried about your weight or ‘Bloat’ 😉 After dinner we decided to take a walk along the promenade to the opposite end of the town where they had started holding the evening summer markets, different from the weekly Friday morning market with it’s food stalls, these were designed purely for the tourists, with all the usual ‘Tourist Tat’ but, it has to be said that we did observe quite a number of people parting with their holiday Euros. By now it was 9pm and the long stretch of town beach area was beginning to empty, just the hardiest sun worshippers milking every ray of sunshine that they could, the sea was almost as flat as a mill pond, a couple of yachts moored just a short distance off the beach, with the surrounding mountains making a beautiful backdrop.

We had walked off some of the effects of our meal and so headed back towards the town’s central Plaza to see if we could find a table to sit at, to watch the evenings musical entertainment. The local Community Council put on these events throughout the Summer months, they vary the Plaza’s where they are held so that all of the Cafe/Bars in each area get to benefit from the additional trade that they pull in, but each of these events are ‘Free’ to attend. We were lucky to find a table outside one of the several bars and it had a pretty decent view of the stage. It was still light so the actual stage lighting, for the duration that the supporting band were playing, was not really fully effective, but they were really really good, playing a wide range of 80’s top hits and singing in English, which was a very good bonus.

At 10:30pm, after the sun had set and the evening turned from light to dark, the main attraction took to the stage, a ‘Deep Purple’ Tribute Band called ‘Deeper Purple’ and they had the advantage of having all the stage lighting effects. However, in truth, even as a youngster when the ‘real band’ were popular, their particular musical ‘Genre’, which was ‘Heavy Rock’ was not really my style of music. It was very loud but several, let’s call them age related audience members, re-enacted their youth, with their specific type of dance moves, namely standing with legs apart, their bodies from the waist slightly bent forward, head looking down facing the ground and just shaking it up and down uncontrollably, as if they were bowing to the King, but in a much more sort of rapid succession 🙈 I turned to Shazza and shouted in her ear, “Have you seen all the oldies that are here ?”, she shouted back, “Like you, you mean” 😳

We didn’t stay to the end, some oldies now obviously needing their mugs of cocoa before bed 😂 but we had both enjoyed our evening, we probably would have remained longer it it had been the support band still playing, they were far better in our opinion, I asked the waiter for the bill, we had drunk between us, 4 x Large Vermut’s, 2 Coca-Colas and a Coffee, you can probably guess which of us had what, but the total bill only came to €16 (£14), so the total cost for Dinner, and our evening Entertainment, for the night came in at at just €42 (£36), I may even have been able to have splashed out on a dessert on the walk back to the car, an ice cream from one of the many ‘Heladerias’ (Ice-Cream Parlours) which stay open well beyond midnight during the Summer months, but as it happened, neither of us actually wanted one as we were both still full from our Pizza dinner. “Don’t think that this offer will remain open until tomorrow evening” I quipped to Shazza, who, as quick as a flash, responded with, “And don’t think that tomorrow evening I will let you have one, because don’t forget that ‘treat weekend’ started this week on a Friday, and not on the more usual Saturday” 😲🍦😳

We had both slept quite well, which was not surprising I suppose after the more than usual Anti-Covid Vaccines that were consumed the previous evening, well by one of us at least 🤔 But I think also because we have now got used to sleeping with all the doors and windows open again, at first we heard all the external noises, vehicles, late night revellers returning home, dogs barking, cats fighting and even early morning dog walkers who for some reason shout when talking on their mobile devices, but now it has once again just become recognisable normal background noise, so I think our brains just switch off to it. We started the morning in our usual lethargic state, although Shazza was up before me and had already made the coffee’s by the time I took up my normal position on the balcony, “What’s up, you wet the bed or something ?” I asked her, “No, I just slept well and didn’t want to lay in bed this morning”, she said, “Well, can I just say that it is nice to have your company on the balcony this fine morning my darling” and gave her a smile and a wink, she just laughed.

We both knew that it was going to be a much later evening and night out, with the actual festivities for the ‘San Juan’ fiesta not commencing until 10pm, the customary burning of the beach structure, which marks the ‘Official’ commencement of Summer, not taking place until midnight. However, the crowds, and I do mean crowds, unlike the previous evenings gathering which I suppose, in comparison, will probably have looked more like a small group of people waiting at a bus stop, but these crowds will start gathering well before the official start time, their are also side stalls and all types of kids entertainment going on along the full length of the promenade as it is a traditional big family event, all of the tables in the seafront restaurants will have been fully booked weeks in advance, and all the seafront bars, including some additional ‘Pop Up’ one’s to cater for the hoards, will all be knee deep with customers, we learnt that from experience at last year’s event so we knew what to expect this time around and to be completely honest there was a part of us that was dreading the crowds, but we decided we would go anyway. Last year we had managed to pre-book a table at a restaurant, but the memories of that were not the best, as my steak had gone off and they had to cook another one 😲 So, this year we decided that we would do things a little differently, we would eat Dinner at home and then go down a little later to just enjoy the ambience, probably retreating to a much quieter back street Cafe/Bar to have a drink and a sit down, to avoid the crowds the best that we could, until the main event commenced.

We didn’t leave home until 9:30pm and parked in our normal place in the village, unlike the previous night, the car park was fairly quiet so we did not have a problem finding a space. It was another pleasantly warm evening and so we were dressed again in shorts and short-sleeved shirts, as were the majority of other’s so we fitted in perfectly. We walked along the seafront promenade just to get a flavour of the evening, the anticipated crowds were not yet amassed, although it was much busier than a usual Sunday evening, so we we had no problems walking from one end to the other before re-tracing our steps and then diverting up towards the Plaza, where they had held the musical concert the previous evening. There was a pleasant ambience here, some of the Cafe/Bars had tables and chairs set up for a more formal Dining experience, under the external canopies, whilst other’s were just the normal Cafe/Bar set up, plastic tables and chairs, some under their canopies and other’s out in the open air. There was a wide range of age groups, from youngsters enjoying beers and chatting loudly, although there is never any loutish behaviour, family groups enjoying Tapa’s, and couples just enjoying the warm evening air, the whole atmosphere was one of casual relaxation. We sat at a table at the same Cafe/Bar we had frequented the previous evening and ordered a couple of ‘Vermuts’, which are a lighter and longer refreshing drink rather than a glass of red wine, we spent the time just chatting between ourselves, whilst also doing lots of people watching. The Cafe/Bars were all located next to each other, and it is not always obvious to distinguish which table and chairs belong to which establishment, there was lots of different chatter and laughter from the various mixed groups, the aromas of different culinary delights were constantly wafting in the air and, although we were not hungry, we were nearly tempted to order some Tapa’s as they smelt so good, but we did manage to restrain ourselves and just ordered another round of drinks. As the time passed we watched as the streams of people started to get busier and busier as they all headed towards the seafront promenade, then the Cafe/Bars started to slowly empty, we ordered a couple of coffee’s and sat just watching this mass influx before eventually electing to go and do battle ourselves.

With people stood static in groups, women with puschairs, young children grasping hands of parents, older people with walking sticks and even walking frames, lots of people with plastic tumblers of different beverages that got splashed as they were either jumping up and down to the music, or when they got nudged by the passing hoards, some people even had their canine companions with them on leads, which seemed a little irresponsible to me, what with all the loud bangs of fireworks that would be going off before and after the main event 🤷‍♂️ It was hard going as we made our way towards the beach, we couldn’t just head in a straight line, we had to weave our way through the masses, some of which were were just stood still, and then there were several lines of people all trying to walk in different directions, trying to seek out a good vantage point for when the beach structure was set alight, but eventually we found a position on the crowded beach and managed to get a good view. At the stroke of midnight the event commenced with a burst of fireworks that came out from the large ‘Fairy Tale’ structure, then we watched as the flames grew and grew, eventually totally engulfing the structure, the heat from it was quite overpowering and the crowds at the front started to push backwards, which meant it got to be a little panicky, we tried to escape but it was very very slow going, a reminder of just what we hated about it last year, perhaps now that we have seen it ‘close up’ for the last two year’s, if we decide to come again in the future we will certainly maintain a more respectable and safer distance 😲

We departed before the bands struck up, and which would continue well into the early hours, I certainly wouldn’t want to live in this part of town on such night’s, but I guess that if we did, then it would just be a case of ‘If you can’t beat them, join them’ 😂 The large crowds remained, and after leaving the beach area they just joined the rest of the throngs of people at the bars and in front of the stage area. Fortunately, once we were away from the main town promenade area, it all quietened down, people wise that is, although we could hear the ‘live’ music even when we got to the marina, which is a good twenty minute walk away. But we enjoyed the more leisurely walk home and, although the ‘Heladeria’ kiosk near the marina was still open, we both agreed not to stop for an ice-cream, like we had done the previous year, as we had gone past the desire to eat anything by that time 🤷‍♂️ We both really just wanted to get back home, me to the peace and quiet of my balcony, sat with my hot mug of cocoa Coffee 😉 Whilst Shazza retired to her own sanctuary of the bedroom. All in all though, it had been another good evening, and a relatively busy few days. We do like the fact that we feel completely safe here, even apart from the possibility of being crushed on night’s such as this 😲 However, there is never any bother at any of the Fiesta’s here, even with the copious amounts of alcohol that get’s consumed, and as I have said on several occasions over the year’s, we have never seen any loutish behaviour or drunken brawls, everyone is just so chillaxed and happy and we hope, long may that continue to be the case 👍

Although we had both had a couple of late night’s over this weekend, we were awake early and back to our normal routine the following morning, Shazza remaining in bed to enjoy her morning coffee this time though, whilst I enjoyed my usual ‘perch’ on the balcony. It was going to be another scorcher of a day, why I would anticipate anything being any different I do not know 🤷‍♂️ but it was a ‘Public Holiday’, we knew the beaches would be full to the gunnels and the Marina and the Town seafront would be much the same, so we elected to have a quiet day at home, we needed to save our energy for later that evening when Spain would play their last group match of the Euro’s, they were already assured of qualifying for the next ‘Knock Out’ rounds 🎶 Olay, Olay, Olay, Olay 🎶, pity that we cannot be so assured of England’s progress at the moment, they are due to play their final ‘bum clenching’ group match the following day, but would we be singing 🎶 Sweet Caroline 🎶 or perhaps once again at a major competition, it would be the more customary 🎶 We’re Coming Home, We’re Coming Home, Englands Coming Home 🎶 🤭 But let’s try and stay faithful for one more match, for England do at least, as it stands, still top the group and, even if they were to lose, we could still potentially qualify for the next round, even if we were to finish in third place 🤔 “It’s a funny old game” as one legendary English football player and commentator used to say.

We may have had a good weekend but, would this new week start off on a high 🤔 It was my second week ‘Weigh In’, I knew that I had kept to my new dietary regime for the five days prior to the weekend, however, over the weekend I had not kept strictly to it 🙄 But, in my defence, neither had I gone overboard, so perhaps with only two thirds of a Pizza consumed, and okay a few extra Anti-Covid Vaccines than would be normal, but surely those minor indiscretions would not see me suffer too much……………. 🤷‍♂️ WRONG !! So, two short weeks ago now I started at a weight of 74.2Kg, after the first week it was down to 73.2Kg but, this week, the scales reflected a very disappointing 74.3Kg 😲🤬 Surely the scales must be knackered, I protested to myself, I mean we had done quite a bit of walking, and I had done lots of swimming, I had not succumbed to any treats during the week and had only been eating a light lunch and a strict portion controlled evening meal 😳 “Shazza, we need to go and purchase some new bathroom scales” I announced emphatically, “Funny you should say that” she replied, “They showed that I too had put on some weight also over this last week” she said in a disappointed manner. We discussed the possibility that we were just doing what everybody does when the scales don’t reflect what you want them to, but the scales were actually behaving a bit erratically, for, on the previous Friday morning, I had done a quick sneak preview, but only so that I could see how much damage I had done over the coming weekend, the scales then showed a wonderful 72.5Kg, I was of course well happy with that, although to be totally honest, I was a bit sceptical, but obviously accepted it, as you do 😁 But come on, surely I had not put on 1.7Kg in just those two days over the weekend 🤷‍♂️ Anyway, there was only one way to be sure, and that was to go out and purchase some new bathroom scales before next week’s weigh in and, if they too were to reflect the same contentious result, then I would have no other choice, but to take them back to the store where I purchased them, and tell them their scales were faulty 😂

Until the next ramble……………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos (La Vida Es Buena)

In all honesty I was not actually expecting a marching band, a group of dancing girls, a celebratory cake or even a visit by the Mayor, although to be honest any one of those four would have actually been quite a nice gesture 🤔 No, Thursday June 13th turned out to be just like any of the previous 365 days that had just flown by, but for me, and my OCD buddy, this particular day, highlighted, as I am sure you would expect, on my calendar because, well for me at least, this marked a very special day, it was the first day of the start of our second year of residency here in Spain 🥳 However, that morning, when, as usual, I took in her ladyship’s morning coffee and iPad, her head barely poking out from under the duvet, and I know it is the light Summer one but, how on earth can she sleep underneath that thing in these temperatures 🤷‍♂️ Anyway, as I put her coffee mug and iPad onto her bedside locker to a somewhat muffled sound of gratitude, it is amazing what living with someone twenty fours hours a day can do with communication skills, as I can now decipher her various grunts and groans by their tone, no words need to be spoken 😂 I just happened to mention this special day to her, now I think that it was reasonable of me to at least expect some sort of upbeat reaction from my beloved, although I know her well enough by now not to have expected her to jump out of bed and do cartwheels, disappointingly, those sort of days have all but disappeared 🤔 However, I do have to confess, I was left more than a little deflated when the only muffled response that came from beneath the cover was “And…”, Oh well, I thought to myself, we can’t all wake up in the morning feeling bright-eyed and bushy tailed now can we 🤷‍♂️ I went back on to the balcony and stared out of the french windows, watching as the orange glow of sunrise started to slowly filter into the more usual blue daylight colour. I watched the silhouette’s of the freighters as they moved both slowly and silently, in opposite directions across the horizon, they always look to me as if they are going to collide with each other, however, in reality they are probably miles apart from each other. I sat silently, with my mug of hot coffee cupped in my hands, and thoughtfully asked myself the searching question, “Why is it that it is only me that felt excited about this particular day ?” I never did come up with an answer, so I guess, that it was, after all is said and done, probably just another ordinary day 🙄

There was also another first that happened later that day, now whilst our communal pool had actually re-opened on the 1st June, Shazza and I had not, until more recently, used it, I am not sure why when it is literally just a two minute walk from our front door and especially with the searingly hot daily temperatures which are now regularly between 28-35 degrees(c). Although, if you are in the UK, reading about the weather down in our neck of the woods, at least one of the British media publications would have you believing the complete opposite about our weather 😲 Perhaps it’s a UK Government ploy to try to prevent people from leaving the country, so that as many as possible will be available to vote in the upcoming General Election, although that could actually prove to be yet another costly miscalculation by this current UK Government 😂

Perhaps the ‘Reporter’, who wrote that particular article, was not familiar with the Spanish eastern coastline, for although the ‘Costa del Sol’ does stretch for some 150Km (93 miles), meaning that different areas along it, can have hugely variable weather patterns, but if you had happened to have read that particular article you would have noted that they stated that these ‘Torrential Rains, and ‘Floods’, had actually occurred in the ‘Region’ of Murcia 🤷‍♂️ Now for those of you that are not familiar with the numerous ‘Costas’ that run down the Spanish coastline, like that newspaper reporter obviously isn’t, the Murcia region coastline is actually on the ‘Costa Calida’ and not on the ‘Costa del Sol’ and, between these two ‘Costas’ there is the Costa de Almeria (217Km long) and the Costa Tropical (75Km long). The long and the short of it being that we, here on the Costa del Sol, have not had ‘any’ rain, of any sort of significance, since the two big storms back in March, so a torrential downpour here would most certainly have been more than gratefully received, just to top up the Reservoirs a little bit, as they are now, as anticipated, beginning to lose small amounts of water through the evaporation process, but nothing for us to get concerned about. But it does just just re-enforce the fact that the Media will not let the truth, or accuracy, get in the way of a story 🤷‍♂️ So don’t rush to cancel your flights to Spain, unless of course you are heading towards the ‘Costa Calida’, although I suspect that even in that location the wet stuff would have disappeared by now and the sun will be shining again, as bad weather generally doesn’t last very long in Spain, and as another saying goes ‘The rain in Spain falls mainly on…the UK’ 🤭

However, when we did finally make it down to the pool, where we have been enjoying some rather pleasant swimming, even if it is purely for exercise purposes as opposed to just being for fun, and of course we have been doing a spot of sunbathing, well it would have been so rude not to 😎 However, and somewhat surprisingly, for most days we had the whole pool area all to ourselves, so it did make us wonder where the holidaymakers were, even the pool in the residential complex which is adjacent to us, which I can look out upon from our balcony, and with that particular complex having quite a lot of holiday rental apartments in comparison with our own, but even that has been unusually quiet for this time of year, not completely deserted you understand, just quieter than it would normally be 🤔 I remember that at around this time last year, just after we had arrived to commence our first year of residency, our pool was quite busy every single day, from lunchtime right through until 8-9pm, which is why we always used to go down there for two or three hours in the mornings, when it was very much quieter and we did not have the pleasure of all the ‘Little Darlings’. I do have my own particular theory on why there may be a lack of holidaymakers this year, and it is this, with the serious drought conditions that we have been experiencing here, and which we still are to a degree, it was well publicised in the media, both here and also in the UK media, that all ‘Private’ pools were closed, with no date provided as to when, or if, they would be reopening. So I think that those holiday makers, that would normally have pre-booked their holidays well in advance of their arrival in the ‘Privately’ owned apartments, would have read these articles, or as we have witnessed, asked the question about Pool opening dates on several local community Spanish forums, but didn’t receive very positive responses, so they made the decision to book to go to other summer sun countries for their holidays, somewhere where they had no such pool restrictions and, to be honest, who could blame them 🤷‍♂️ Although, they have not totally deserted us, as there are ‘some’ holiday makers here, as we have seen an increase in the number of beach umbrellas and sun chairs, although even they are not in the usual large numbers for this time of year.

Now usually, within these rambles, I do try exceptionally hard to stay away from getting into any really serious or deep and meaningful conversations around Politics, although, and I am sure that many of my readers will already know that, in the past, when I have had the odd nibble at the subject, it has mostly been of a more ‘tongue in cheek’ nature, with perhaps the odd bit of sarcasm thrown in just for good measure, unfortunately for me, ‘Bumbling Boris’ has been exiled, so a lot of the wonderful material that he used to provide me with, has subsequently disappeared too ☹️ But yes, I cannot tell a lie, occasionally I have also been known to have a bit of a rant, but to be honest that was primarily only over the subject of ‘Brexshit’, and only because that really did have a huge impact on our personal lives and retirement plans. However, it has been eight years since that disastrous ‘Referendum’ was held, and it is now three and a half years since ‘Brexshit’ was officially implemented, and so now it has very little, if any, impact on Shazza and myself and is just ‘water under the bridge’, as another saying goes. On the now rare occasions when I do go back and reflect upon that dark time, I now actually find myself being grateful for ‘Brexshit’, yes, I actually said words I never thought that I would utter like, ‘grateful’, who would have thought it eh 🤷‍♂️ So a big thank you is in order I suppose to all of you Brexiteers, for, if Brexshit had not have happened, then Shazza and I probably would not be living here in Spain now, enjoying the very nice lifestyle that it is providing us with. Strange how after all these years, this ‘fate’ business just continues to keep working in our favour, I do so like it when, what at first appears to be a ‘Negative’ actually turns out to be a ‘Positive’ 😁

Although we no longer glue ourselves to the TV screen at 7pm (6pm UK time) on a Monday through to Friday evening, just to watch the BBC half hour ‘Doom and Gloom’ show, we both do still read the news in the media publications on our iPads, not just with what is happening within the UK but also the rest of Europe, and even the rest of the World, as it pays not to bury one’s head too deep in the sand so that we can at least have some sort of advance notification of what may be on the horizon, and to make preparations if need be, just in case any of that ‘Doom and Gloom’ may ultimately have an impact on us. However, generally speaking, I do generally only really ‘speed read’ the headlines and don’t get too bogged down in the detail or the in-fighting, wether that be with Politics, Religion, Sport or even the ‘UK Royals’. Much like many other Countries, Spain also has a Royal Family, but they certainly are not in the National spotlight on a daily basis, and rarely make an appearance in the media, so perhaps the UK Royals, including those members who ‘chose’ to withdraw themselves from it, could learn something from them, stop ‘Washing your dirty linen in public’ 🤔 Whilst I am mentioning the UK Royals can I just take this opportunity to say, ‘Happy Birthday to his Royal Highness’, sorry for not sending a card, I suppose that’s the Knighthood gone then for providing 34 years in the service of my Countries security and safety. Perhaps I should have participated instead in ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ or been the Manager of our National Football Team that, until now, has failed to actually win anything since 1966 🤷‍♂️ Perhaps it would have made a difference in me getting my renewed TIE card much quicker, if the application form had stated ‘Sir Eric’ on it, although I very much doubt it 😂

However, as much as I try to ignore anything too political, not even I could fail to notice that there has been quite a lot going on recently, on the political fronts that is. Much nearer to home, that of course being our now ‘current’ home, rather than our Country of Birth home, the European Elections to allocate new MEP’s has recently taken place, and that has created one hell of a maelstrom, Europe wide, with the so called ‘Far Right’ Parties winning many more votes than anyone could have anticipated, even themselves I suspect if the truth were known. The unexpected outcome of these Elections has resulted in the Belgian Prime Minister announcing his resignation, President Macron of France now calling an unexpected snap Election, which is playing havoc with the value of the Euro against UK Sterling, so my tip, if you happen to exchange Euro’s for your holidays, then get them ‘before’ the French Elections take place and you will more likely have much more holiday money than you had expected to have 😉

The same Election Fever is of course gripping the nation in the UK, although to be honest I have probably exaggerated and over egged it a little bit with the use of the word ‘Gripping’ 😂 It will still probably be a two horse race between the Conservative and Labour Parties, although if the hype in the media is to be believed, and with the Conservatives continually shooting themselves in the foot, I don’t know wether they will be able to actually ‘Race’ to the finish post, it is looking more likely that they will barely be able to Limp’ to it 🤭

Now being outside of the UK self-destruct zone, Shazza and I can look in from the outside and feel extremely fortunate that we did actually manage to get out when we did. So I do have to say that it is a little bit entertaining to now watch all the pre-election shananagans that are going on, although I don’t think that either ‘Sunak’ or ‘Starmer’ may view it as entertaining, more as a much unwanted irritation, like a bad case of Haemorrhoids. Yes, ‘Farage’ is back in his milkshake adorned suit and, much like Marmite, you either love him or hate him, but come on, he always tends to brighten up these Political ‘Muppet Shows’. However, his re-emergence on the mainstream political scene may not actually be good news for ‘any’ of the other political parties either, as I am sure that they will all lose ‘some’ votes to this ‘Reform Party’ who, it is generally believed, are unlikely to gain sufficient votes to see them actually win the election outright and to form the next Government, but I for one wouldn’t rule anything out in this current political climate 🤷‍♂️

I am perhaps a little guilty for leading you to believe, within these rambles, that Spain, is a land of milk and honey and doesn’t have any issues, everything is so idyllic over here all the time. Okay, perhaps I should address ‘The Elephant In The Room’ and talk a little about this vast land of sunshine, wonderful beaches and warm sea, what issues could ever disturb the harmony and bliss of such a Paradise like this, well apart from the same old, same old Political discord, which is always in the news here in Spain, oh yes, and there are the occasional Wildfires, Earthquakes, Floods and Droughts, and perhaps the odd ‘Anti-Tourism’ protests here and there 🙄 I am certain that many of you reading this ramble will already have seen all the media coverage about the ‘Anti-Tourism’ protests that have been taking place in Spain, although primarily it is confined to the Balieric Islands (Mallorca and Menorca) and the Canary Islands (Tenerife and Lanzarote), although not exclusively, as there have also been some similar, but smaller, protests in several of the Regions and Provinces here on mainland Spain, ‘Valencia’, ‘Madrid’ and ‘Malaga’ to name just three. But the UK media will have you believe that these protests are actually targeted at only the ‘British’ tourists, which is actually again not true, a tourist is a tourist, irrespective of the Nationality of those tourists, and the protests are in respect of ‘over tourism’ and not ‘tourism’ per se. Primarily though, the underlying grievance by the protesters is how it has created unaffordable housing within the local communities with all the ‘non-official and un-licensed’ rental properties as well as the ever growing holiday companies like AirBnB to name but one, but there are dozens more of a similar nature. But this is nothing new, it is very similar to what is also going on in many UK top tourist destinations, where second home purchasers, and large corporate Holiday Property Rental Companies, have priced out locals from purchasing homes within their local communities. The difference, as I see it, between the UK population, and those in Europe, is that in most of the European nations, if they are unhappy about anything with their Governments, they do not sit in their armchairs and just moan about it, they actively get up and take action, usually by hitting the streets in massive numbers where they cause mass disruption. In these Spanish Islands, tourism accounts for around 45% of the annual GDP, so any major disruption to this tourism industry, like for example, a Volcanic Eruption or a Pandemic, or several massive ‘Protests’ on Mass tourism, hits the Government where it hurts most, in their treasury coffers 😲 But it can also have a ‘sting in the tale’ for the protesters, if the tourists read, or hear, on the news channels, about these disruptive events, that then may discourage them from booking their holidays there which doesn’t just impact on the Government, but also within the Tourism Sectors itself, which could lead to business closures and lack of job opportunities. In truth, the issues behind these protests are very complex and, as usual, there are always two sides to every story and not all Spanish people are against Tourism, so you may be pleased to hear that I am not going to go into them in this ramble. Now whilst I cannot pass comment on how Tourists are being treated on the Spanish Island resorts, I can however say that here in our part of the Southern ‘Costa del Sol’, and I guess the same is true for the majority of this long stretch of our coastline, all tourists are made to feel very welcome, this area exists financially because of tourism so if, at this current moment in time, you do not feel confident about going to any of the Balearic or Canary Island resorts, but you still want to enjoy the Spanish sunshine and beaches, then there are lots of areas here in Andalusia where you can be assured that tourists, of all Nationalities, and their holiday money, will be made to feel very welcome, just as long as you don’t all come to our swimming pool 😂

Now in my best and poshest BBC news presenter voice……………… “moving on to other news”

Over the last couple of weeks we have not really done anything that is of any real significance, although very recently, as in that start of this week (10th June), I have been enticed to wander off our more usual ‘Plant Based’ dietary regime, but, I hasten to add, only for Health & Safety reasons. Well to be completely truthful, not for my own actual personal health & safety, more for the safety of the wider general public 😲

Now I don’t have any real problem with my actual weight, it has remained pretty much the same for very many year’s, dating back probably to my mid-thirties, and since then it has only varied slightly, bouncing between 74-75Kg (although using the word ‘bouncing’ is probably an unfortunate choice of word to use in this particular context 🤭). Men in particular, when they reach a certain stage in their lives, tend to store surplus body fat on their bellies, more commonly referred to as ‘Middle Age Spread’ or ‘Beer Belly’, although never having been renowned for being much of a beer drinker, I would therefore suggest that the ‘former’ description best applies in my particular case 🤭 However, over the last couple of years my ‘Middle Age Spread’ has developed a bit of an issue, one that can see it ‘Inflate’ uncontrollably during the day, from starting off, well, for the sake of a better word, let’s just call it ‘normal’, first thing in the morning, to then just increasing as the day goes on, but the worrying bit is, although I do not generally eat breakfast, this ‘inflation’ can start to happen before I have actually eaten anything 😲 But it came to a head a couple of weeks ago, one weekend, when we were getting ready to go to our favourite fish restaurant for lunch, I tried on six different shirts, all of which I had, up to then, been able to get into quite comfortably, but they were now all extremely tight around my belly and I had serious concerns that once I had eaten, the threads holding on the shirt buttons would be under so much pressure that they would snap, sending small projectiles hurtling towards other diners and potentially taking someone’s eye out, or landing surreptitiously in their food, then them choking on it 😲 And, just before you suggest it, no my increasing girth is not why I entitled this post “The Elephant In The Room’ 😂

That was it, I was forced into conducting some serious research on ‘You Tube’ and discovered that I was more than likely suffering with a condition referred to as ‘Bloat’, but, as usual, according to all the dozens of different ‘Experts’ on the subject there could of course be more than just the one reason for it 🤷‍♂️ After reviewing a lot of the videos, by people with either the title ‘Doctor’, or ‘Professor’, in their titles, although no confirmation as to wether they were ‘Academic’ or ‘Medical’ qualifications, Shazza suggested that I should look at one that she had confidence in, which she discovered whilst she was doing her own previous research around the ‘Plant Based Diet’. Now with her having a professional background and University degree in Science, more specifically the ‘Biology’ aspects in this instance, and so she was pretty good at being able to sort the ‘Wheat from the Chaff’ on the accuracy of the ‘Scientific blurb’ that a lot of them were spouting, the majority of which went way above my head, so I took her recommended advice. However, whilst this particular ‘Expert’ in the field did appear, from the specific symptoms that I had been encountering, to identify my particular issue, the cause tended to conflict with some, albeit not all, of the Plant Base produce that we had been consuming within our ‘Plant Based’ dietary regime, which brought me to the realisation that actually, this was all Shazza’s fault, because it was she that got us on to this so called healthy ‘Plant Based Diet’ in the first place 😂

Whilst the information that I was reading, and listening to, pointed towards me eating too many Carbohydrates and Sugars (Bread, Potatoes, Pasta, Legumes and Fruit), what I hadn’t really understood, or knew, was just how many Carbohydrates and Natural sugars actually exist within all of these items, all of which are the key ingredients to a ‘Plant Based Diet’ 😲 So I have started a ‘trial’ period which involves cutting from my daily diet, all Bread, including Shazza’s own home-baked sour dough bread, Potatoes, Pasta and Rice, additionally I have now also managed to identify the particular vegetables, and fruits, that also contain the highest levels of Carbohydrates and Natural sugars. Now although this particular ‘Dietary Expert’ promotes the ‘Keto’ diet, with ‘Intermittant Fasting’, which for those that do not know is mainly a ‘carnivorous’ no carbohydrates diet, but with some selected low carb vegetables, but I didn’t want to go down that particular route totally, and so I have sort of adapted it to try to continue to maintain the principle of staying on our ‘Plant Based’ diet wherever possible. But to be honest, even as part of the ‘Plant Based’ diet we are on, I have always eaten Chicken and lots of Fish, so no changes would be required on that score and, as is our usual weekend routine, we generally eat out and use it as our ‘treat’ days, so that will remain too, ‘all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’, as another saying goes 😉 So I will still continue to occasionally eat some ‘Red’ meat over those weekends if I want to, as I generally have been doing anyway, Burger (although now without the bun), or the Lamb and Med Veg Wrap and Moroccan salad (with a portion of French Fries). However, I do draw the line at risking my own health, so any suggestion that I should not continue with my Anti-Covid Medications will immediately fall upon stoney ground, there are still some things that are ‘Sacrosanct’ 😂

So, within the first week of being on this ‘amended’ dietary regime, my stomach has not bloated once 👍 I started at a weight of 74.2Kg and at my first weigh in, a week later, the scales showed 73.2Kg so, although this new regime is not primarily about weight loss and more about the ‘bloating’ issue, I am quite happy with the result so far. However, I am not fooling myself that this new amended dietary regime is the complete reason for the weight loss, as we have both been doing quite a lot of swimming recently, which is in addition to our normal walking regime, so this has almost certainly been a contributory factor in the result thus far. More importantly, ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’, to state another well known saying, so I can also confirm that after just one week I can now get back into ‘most’ of my shirts again, but, there are still a couple that require just a little more ‘breathing space’, perhaps 1Kg more of breathing space 🤭

I have committed to staying on this new regime for at least another week, just to see how it continues to pan out and I will of course let you know my progress in future rambles 😂 Our ‘Plant Based’ diet, which Shazza is sticking to, and my ‘Amended’ version of it, do not actually vary too much but, as my new diet has involved introducing me to some additional healthier options, like fermented vegetables (Sauerkraut, Kimchi) and also natural supplements like Cod Liver Oil, this has meant that Shazza has also been able to extend, and vary, her own dietary regime too, so we both do still eat much of the same Plant Based vegetables and fruits with some variations of course for myself as I now have to stay away from Potatoes, Carrots, Parsnips, Beets, Corn and Peas and most of the Legumes (beans). However, as I have discovered with lots of similar dietary advice, what may sound healthy for one person may not be right for everyone, for example, this amended diet recommends eating lots of leafy greens like Spinach, but this is actually definitely a no no for me, due to my historical Kidney Stone issues, as it is high in ‘Oxalates’, for some reason my body lacks the chemical to break these down sufficiently 🤷‍♂️ I can certainly understand why lots of people cannot be bothered with all this dietary stuff, because you need to know so much about what Vitamins, Fats, Sugars and Carbohydrates etc etc there is in each food group type and what your own body can and cannot process, it is a minefield really 😤 Fortunately, whilst I enjoy writing my rambles, reading books or watching Vlogs on boating, my beloved enjoys reading and watching Videos and Netflix documentaries about Food and Nutrition so she has done most of this current necessary research for me. Although, she has tried to kill me off early once, should I really be giving her a second opportunity 😲

Some of you may have noticed that the Euro 2024 football competition has now started, although I appreciate that some of you won’t give a damn, but Shazza and I like our football, so we are fortunate that we now have two teams to support in this competition, England, of course, and also, for obvious reasons, Spain. However, you may be wondering wether we will have a dilemma, if both teams end up playing each other at some further stage of this competition, perhaps even in the Final 🤔 Well of course not, because it will be a win-win situation for us 😁 If England win, we celebrate in one of the many (English) bars in the Marina, 🎶Sweet Caroline🎶 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 But, if Spain were to win, then we celebrate in one of the many (Spanish) bars in our local Town 🎶Olay, Olay Olay Olay” 🇪🇸 And if both get knocked out of the competition, then it will not matter where we commiserate and look forward to only having to wait for two years, until the World Cup takes place and as the football commentators would say, “we go again” 😂

Now in one of may last rambles I mentioned the Fiesta season and provided you with a list of the dates, well they have just started building on the beach in readiness for the ‘San Juan’ Fiesta on the 23rd June, which marks the official start of the Summer, however, we noticed two structures being built instead of the normal one, but one of them looked more like a stage. The theme last year was ‘Alice in Wonderland’ but, as yet, we had no idea what theme they would choose this year, so it will be interesting to watch over the coming days as the structure starts to take shape 🤔 Our curiosity was raised over this second stage like structure so we asked the Spanish lady in our seafront Cafe, she told us that it was for the band during the ‘Gay Pride’ celebrations, which was happening over the weekend (15-16th June). This was not something that had been advertised on the ‘Official’ Council list of events and I cannot recall ever seeing, or hearing, about similar events being held in our particular local town during previous year’s, but it does now at least explain the recent re-painting of one of the ‘Pedestrian Crossings’ in the town.

We did not attend the event ourselves, but from the photo’s in the local media, it looked like we missed a pretty good Fiesta ☹️ The following weekend we have a bit of a double header coming up, another ‘Fiesta’, that is not on the ‘Official’ list, is a ‘Deep Purple’ Tribute Band concert in one of the main Plaza’s on the Saturday night, followed by the ‘San Juan’ on the Sunday night, so party season has certainly started again ‘🎶 Here we go, here we go, here we go 🎶’ and this time the chant has nothing to do with the football 😁

We have now switched to our Summer routines, so unlike the tourists, we will, wherever possible, be staying out of the searing heat of the sun from midday to early evening, the daytime temperatures are now reaching, and sometimes exceeding the 30 degree(c) mark, this last Sunday it reached 35 degrees(c) 🥵 the nights and early mornings though, although cooler once the sun has set and darkness falls, still remain in the low twenties, so all our doors and windows are now open once again for virtually 24 hours, although, as yet, we have not had to resort to keeping the external window security shutters closed during the day, which keeps the internal areas of the apartment cool, but that time is also fast approaching. We may also have to resort to turning on the Air-Con in the apartment at night, usually for about an hour before Shazza goes to bed. Of course, at times we do still have to venture out and do some shopping, the busiest times in the shops are early mornings or during the evenings, but it is better for us to go when everyone else is on the beach, or when the locals are at work, but at least we can go from a nice cool air-conditioned car straight into an air-conditioned supermarket and we don’t hang about, in, out, and back home again. Of course we will be spending a lot more time now at our communal pool, as this has now taken over as our main daily exercise regime, from the more usual walks into town, but when we are not in the pool swimming we keep under the shade of one of the provided sun umbrella’s, or at least one of us does, the other still enjoys solar basting, now I wonder if you can guess which one of us that is 🤔 Trips down to the Marina, or our local town, are now generally only at weekends, which we have now changed from going out for our more usual ‘treat’ lunches, to going out in the evening for ‘treat’ Dinner’s, or of course whenever there is a Fiesta going on 😁 and whilst in the evenings the humidity increases, the temperatures do tend to drop down into the low twenties which is actually quite nice. There is of course ‘potentially’ an additional bonus to this stifling heat, and that is that I may be able to sweat off a few extra Kilograms from my belly 😂

Until the next ramble………………….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos (La Vida Es Buena)

I can start this current ramble with the good news that our Residency Permit Renewal applications, which we submitted seven weeks ago, have been approved 🥳 However, let us not get too carried away or ahead of ourselves just yet, because if we had believed that with those approval notifications, we would have automatically received our new biometric identity cards (TIE), then that would of course have been a very silly assumption for us to have made, for, as we have already come to learn here in Spain, Bureaucracy reigns supreme, and with this bureaucracy comes the opportunity, or excuse, for them to just continue to keep making a little extra money from foreigners who have taken the decision to come and live here, and in order to justify the payment of this additional money, they of course need you to submit even more paperwork, so yes, there was now even more form filling as an essential requirement of the renewal process, before we actually get issued with our renewed TIE Cards, but hey, you just have to do what you have to do 🤷‍♂️ It won’t be long before they introduce an application form, with an associated fee of course, to apply for an application form, but I better keep that thought to myself, just in case they realise that they have missed a trick 😲

So, now that we do have ‘formal’ notification of those extended residency approvals, the next stage is for us (Our Solicitors) to make an appointment to attend the Estepona Police Station, which is also the Immigration Office, with the additional paperwork required, which comes in the form of individual applications that we need to submit in order to actually physically obtain our new biometric TIE residency permit cards, a process which also includes the requirement for us to provide new updated photographs, even though we have not changed our appearance over the last 12 months, apart I suppose from having a bit better sun tans of course 🤭 and, whilst we are at that appointment, we also have to have our fingerprints taken, yet again, well I suppose it is remotely possible that Shazza could have solar basted for a little longer than she should, or I could have had an accident with the Barbecue, and we had both suffered badly burnt fingers, so the fingerprints that they had taken last year would be no longer any good to confirm our identities. The bureaucracy doesn’t finish there though, oh no, that would be far too easy so, after that appointment, we will have to wait, for anything between 5-6 weeks, until they notify us that our physical TIE cards are ready for collection, at that point we (Our Solicitors) then have to make yet ‘another’ appointment to go and actually collect them, although, believe it or not, that will not encounter any further daylight robbery 🤗 but, your guess will be as good as mine as to how long that may then take, to actually get yet another appointment date 🙄 Now I guess you could look at it from the perspective that we have nothing better to do with our lives, now that we are retired and just dossing around on a day to day basis, taking things easy just living this life of leisure, whiling away our days drinking coffee and eating tostados, taking leisurely lunches, with of course using some periods of this leisure time to fill in various application forms for numerous bureaucratic processes, which of course will inevitably require having to obtain more supporting documentation, which may, or may not, require translating into Spanish by an ‘official’ translator, at an additional cost of course, albeit that these documents are probably already held by these authorities anyway, from all of our previously completed bureaucratic process. But I suppose the question that I should be asking of anyone reading this, who may be considering taking up residency themselves here in Spain, is ? Have I sold this lifestyle to you yet 😂😂

Now okay, to be completely honest with you, this actual residency renewals process, from start to finish, has not really been that cumbersome in the grand scheme of things, the biggest anxiety is probably the ‘waiting game’ to find out wether the applications to renew the Residency Permits have, or have not, been approved. It cannot be considered as a done deal, just because you may have lived here for the first year and still meet all the requirements for the next two years of residency, no, it is not something that can just be taken for granted, as some who have already gone through this renewals process and, to their horror, had their ‘Renewal Applications Rejected’, have already discovered, which then entailed them having to go through an ‘Appeals Process’, which, yes you have guessed it, entails even more bureaucracy, cost, appointments and waiting time, let alone the stress of not knowing wether at the end of it they may still not get approval and have to re-pack their bags and return from whence they came 😲 However, and fortunately for us, on this particular occasion at least, the ‘Dark Forces’ had elected to bugger around with some other people’s lives for a change and not our’s, so that is worth a small celebration.

The only downside of the whole renewals process for us, is that we were, and currently still are, unable to make any concrete plans to go anywhere else, well at least not for any extended periods of time, as we really did not know how long we would have to wait for each part of the process to be completed or, like now, when appointments will become available and, as they are currently like the proverbial ‘Rocking Horse S**T’, you daren’t risk not being available to attend them when they do finally materialise 🙄 I guess we should have had a little more forethought about timelines when we were considering applying for our initial NLV Visa and Residency Permits, and then we would not have ended up commencing our Spanish Residency, and subsequent renewal processes, over the Summer months, which are periods when we would be more likely to want to go travelling to some other warm parts of Europe, and not have to have had our movements restricted by waiting for bureaucratic processes and procedures to be completed 🤷‍♂️ But of course, at the time, we had no knowledge, or experience, of just how slow Spanish Bureaucracy really was, so I guess that in hindsight we should accept the fact that it probably really is all our own fault 😂

Now when we did our initial Residency Applications last year, we were fortunate enough to get an appointment at the Police Station in Estepona within a week, but not so this time around, as currently there are no appointments available, our Solicitors, who have been doing some of the administrative process on our behalf, have to go on to the Immigration Department Database every morning, to check to see if there are any available appointment dates, but so far, after trying for the past week, their are still none available in the foreseeable future 🤷‍♂️

The unavailability of appointments are primarily due to the upcoming new European EES/ETIAS system, which is now scheduled to come into force at the back end of this year (6th October), although it was scheduled to come into force a couple of year’s ago and has consistently been postponed, time and time again, due to ‘Technical IT issues’, so it has never actually materialised, so we will not hold our breaths, as there is still no real guarantees that it will happen this time either 🤷‍♂️ This EES/ETIA process is a similar system to the one also being introduced by the UK, the UK one being called the ETA system, which is also scheduled to come into operation on the same date as the European EES/ETIAS.

So, okay, as this new EES/ETIAS process will not directly effect us, as we are now official residents of Spain and have Biometric TIE Cards, you may well be asking yourselves, why then would this have any impact on us ? Well, under normal circumstances it wouldn’t, but, prior to that ‘gift that keeps on giving’, and yes I do mean Brexshit (Who would have thought that I would still be using that disgusting terminology after nearly two and a half years 🤔). Anyway, I won’t get into that subject again, so quickly moving on, for those who had opted to take permanent Residency here in Spain, prior to that Brexshit nonsense, they were not issued with the Biometric TIE Cards and at that time, were issued with Green paper documents, which do actually serve exactly the same purpose as the biometric cards and they do still remain valid legal identity and travel documents. However, once the new EES scheme does come into operation, apparently those paper forms ‘may not’ now be accepted by ‘other’ EU Border Force Countries Immigration Authorities 😲 I do now have to allow myself a bit of a wry smile because I thought that all these EU member countries were now supposed to be a joined up community, but apparently not it would appear 🤷‍♂️ So, as a consequence, both the British, and the Spanish Governments, have issued the advice that those in possession of the old paper forms, should apply to have them replaced with the new Biometric TIE Cards, and so, as you may well imagine, this is now creating a huge backlog in the appointment systems.

There is nothing that we as mere mortals can do about it, we just have to sit and patiently wait until an appointment date/time becomes available and, if that is not before the expiry date on our current TIE cards, well, in theory at least, that shouldn’t be an issue as we will be able to produce a copy of the letter from the Spanish Immigration Authorities stating that our Residency Permit Renewals have been approved, although, I have to say that it does beg the question, will any of these ‘other’ EU countries Immigration Authorities also actually accept that official Spanish piece of paper either 🤷‍♂️ You really couldn’t make any of this stuff up could you, this really is a ‘Real Life Comedy At It’s Best’, although it is also actually a bit scary, because if any of the people making these sort of decisions had an ounce of intelligence, they could end up actually being bloody dangerous. I mean it isn’t as if we don’t already have enough ‘Loony Tunes’ already running various Countries and Governments around the world as it is 😲 But realistically, at least for the time being, or in the very near future, I do not think that Shazza and I anticipate travelling back to the UK so not having our updated TIE Cards is not an immediate concern. If and when we do decide to return to the UK on family visits, we too may now have to be registered on the UK ETA system, which is probably good news for me as it provides another good reason for not having to return 🤭

Now is it just me or does anyone else remember when travelling anywhere around the world, although perhaps not Eastern Bloc countries, used to be quite a simple and straightforward affair as long as you had a valid passport 🤔 Now we are rapidly moving towards all aspects of our lives being dictated by Artificial Intelligence (AI), having to book transport on-line, having to print boarding cards on-line, having to pre-book luggage on-line, having to have on-line facial, or fingerprint, recognition protocols, double protective security password procedures, all which rely on mobile technology that also relies on you being able to gain a signal to actually gain access to these protocols 😤 Bring back the horse and cart so that we can just go back to quite literally taking care of our own horse s**t, that’s what I say 😁

You know what, us Dinosaurs used to be quite happy just getting on with our own lives, sleeping when we wanted, going for walks, afternoon naps, doing a spot of foraging when we got hungry, nobody else caring wether we did any exercise or wether we were overweight or unhealthy, it was more a case of jungle survival, survival of the fittest, but these days everybody just seems to want a piece of you, to know everything about you, to control you, and to dictate the way that they want you to lead your lives, sometimes I have to wonder wether ‘Progress’ is really the healthy option 🤔

However, after digressing slightly 🤭 Notwithstanding the above, it is actually a rather nice feeling to now know that we can ‘officially’ remain here as ‘Legal Immigrants’, even without our horse and cart, well for another two years at least, before we have to again go through these renewals process and procedures to then apply for what should be our last 2 years extension on our ‘Temporary’ residency status. Then, and only then, if we still want to, we can apply for our ‘Permanent’ residency permits which, thereafter, are only renewed at five year intervals. After being a resident for a minimum of 10 years we could, if we so wanted, apply for ‘Spanish Citizenship’, which then totally negates the requirement to keep renewing our five year residency permits. That process however does involve a lot more bureaucracy and is also dependent on attaining a higher, more formal level, of Spanish. But, I hasten to add, ‘Citizenship’ is not a mandatory requirement after being a resident for ten years, as we could, if we wanted to continue living here, just keep renewing our residency permits at five year intervals 🤔

So moving on to other things, and another piece of good news for us, is that at long last, finally our kitchen installation, which you may recall that we had done at the beginning of March, is now all complete. We did have some minor ‘snagging’ issues and were just waiting for replacement parts to be produced, and delivered, by the external suppliers to our kitchen Installation company, which has taken much longer than expected. So, although at the time of the installation completion we had still been able to use 99% of our kitchen space, and the majority of the appliances, it is now nice to see the final touches and replacements all completed. We ended up with an upgraded Fridge/Freezer and a better quality side panel to the new breakfast bar, at no additional cost to ourselves, and the Kitchen Installation Firm gave us a discount on the final installation payment, by way of a gesture for their delay in the completion and our patience.

We are now entering the much busier Summer season over here, a period when lots of ‘Fiestas’ and ‘Carnivals’ will be taking place all over Spain, whilst some ‘Fiestas’ are celebrated Nationally, other’s are just localised events held within certain ‘Regional’, ‘Provincial’ or ‘Municipal’ communities. So, just by way of potential interest to some of you, I have listed below some of the events that are being held within our own local municipality, although it doesn’t list the additional Medieval Markets that will also be held in the former fishing village and our local town of San Luis de Sabinillas, however, those dates have not yet been publicised. Additionally, although Shazza and I consider the likes of Estepona (20 mins), San Pedro de Alcantara (30 mins), Marbella (40 mins) and even Malaga (60 mins) to be pretty local to us, and within our ‘Province’ of Malaga, they are not within our Municipality so they have their own calendar and schedule of events, which we currently do not have but, if last Summer was anything to go by, should mean that almost every weekend of these ‘official’ Summer months there will be something or other going off in our neck of the woods, although I am not certain that we will attend all of them again this year 🤔

As it conveniently works out, there is an event on whilst Stacey and Dean are with us for a week, in July and, fortunately, neither do we miss out on anything during the period that we are away in Austria at the beginning of August, also in mid-August, there are events on during the eleven day period that Chris, Sarah and our three grandchildren are staying with us 👍 So, as you may imagine, I am very pleased that I had the forethought to give our local Mayor an advance copy of our busy Summer Itinerary, so that he could organise the event dates to fit in with our own upcoming hectic schedule 😂

Our communal pool is accessible once again, as are all the other’s in the neighbourhood, and so all the sun beds are out, there are the associated sounds of people enjoying being out in the hot sunshine and once again enjoying the cooling water, our ‘residential’ community, and the one adjacent to us, are not large, so the noise from the pool areas is not intrusive, although I do have to confess that we have not actually used our own pool facilities yet 🤷‍♂️ Both the day and night temperatures are now such that we keep the french style doors and windows open both day and night, so the ‘Mosquito Net’ is now up over our bed again, although there are no signs, or sounds, of them just yet, but better to be safe than sorry 🙄

Now I know that it may also sound a little bit strange for me to say, as we live here all year and so are used to the sun shining and having warm temperatures most of the year, but even for us, it does now actually feel that the Summer proper has arrived, with all the associated holiday ‘vibes’ that come with it. Although we have spent many Summers here in the past, albeit only on a temporary basis, and although last year was our first full Summer here, we did seem to miss out on a lot of it, with being distracted by all the initial residency stuff which dragged on and on, and then getting the car imported, so by the end of it all we found ourselves at the start of the Autumn months, although, now that I reflect upon that period, we did actually manage to attend several ‘Fiestas’. Now though, we can actually enjoy and fully appreciate the transition, from the much quieter months, as we see the place coming to life with tourists of all Nationalities. The Spanish holiday makers, who also flock here in their droves from the north of the country or further inland, will also arrive here soon too, many of them living away from coastal areas. The Schools in Spain close their doors for summer around the 24th June and do not re-open them again until around the middle of September. The more popular ‘Costa’ resorts, a little further up along our coastline, will be very much busier than us of course, but it is all relative really and we are pretty grateful that we are further away from the more rowdy holiday ‘clique’, we don’t have the Nightclubs, Casinos or the ‘all night’ Bars, although during the Fiesta’s the revelry does tend to go on until the early hours, but if I were to do a comparison with the UK seaside resorts then I would certainly say that here it is a much more family orientated and civilised affair, ‘More Like ‘Bournemouth’ than ‘Blackpool’ if you know what I mean 🤭

But this year I am going to be a little more prepared for the hot Summer months. I need a hat to protect me from the heat of the sun, I do not suit Baseball style caps, or those straw type hats or even the linen hats that a lot of people here seem to wear, my Winter cap is far too heavy for Summer use. Last year I made a hasty purchase from one of the Medieval Market Stalls, and no it wasn’t a suit of armour before you ask, it was one of those trilby style hats, in a nice shade of blue, which, initially, I thought looked okay, but you know what they say “Act In Haste And Repent At Leisure”, fortunately the price I paid for it didn’t leave me in tears when I threw it in the bin. So I have been on the hunt for a hat that may suit me, a proper hat this time, quality as opposed to ‘Tourist Tat’ and doing some research I found myself drawn towards the Panama Hat, which comes in several different styles. Now you know by now what I am like for ‘History’, but whilst looking at the different styles on several different on-line resources I read a little about its origin, which, strangely enough, was slightly interesting. It originally became popular during the Gold Rush in 1849, when it was worn by people whilst crossing the Isthmus of Panama, and although it is referred to as a ‘Panama’, it actually originates from Ecuador. It is described as a ‘practical’ but ‘elegant’ form of sun protection, although I already know that neither of those words can actually be used to describe myself 🤭 It is completely hand woven from 100% natural fibre, renowned for its fine weave, strength but also its lightness, a straw which is made from the bleached leaves of the ‘Toquilla Palma’ 🤷‍♂️ Well, I was looking for something practical and hard wearing so the description sold it to me, just what I was looking for, rather than one of those awful ‘Kiss Me Quick’ things, or other hats that one may mistakingly purchase off Medieval Market Stalls 🙄 I discovered that there was a local hat shop in Estepona, and one in the rather plush Marina complex at ‘Sotogrande’, that sold ‘Panama Hats’, so my quest commenced, although it was cut short prematurely in Estepona when we discovered that the shop had closed down. Would I have a little more luck in the plush Marina Resort of Sotogrande ? Of course I would, a place that accommodated multi-million pound Motor Yachts, a place that personified both ‘Quality’ and ‘Elegance’ by the bucket-full, but the question would be, would they let us in with our non-designer short-sleeved shirts, shorts and well worn flip flops 😲

The elegant elderly lady in the shop was very nice and extremely patient as I started to search, for not only the right style of Panama, but also the right colour, and of course size. I trusted Shazza’s opinion and so, as I tried each one on, if she said that I looked like a “Twat In A Hat” then that was good enough for me and it was instantly discarded. It came down to just two styles and colours but we both agreed on the same one. “Do I look like our man in Havana” I asked, as I preened myself admiringly in front of the large mirror, she laughed, “More like the man from Del Monte” she quipped 😲 So it was, the decision was taken and the man from Del Monte, he say ‘Yes’ 😂 (Only people of a certain age group will remember that particular TV Advertisement)

Mission accomplished and we spent some time enjoying looking at the wonderfully expensive and shiny Motor Yachts on their moorings, now if only I could have finished off the perfect day by walking up the boarding ladder, wearing of course my new ‘Panama’ hat, onto my very own ‘Bering 65’, or ‘Nordhaven 60’, its what dreams are made of 😉 Instead we promenaded through the Marina complex, stopped for a coffee amongst the elite and then, before the security guards could catch us and throw us out, we returned to the car, drove to a cliff top restaurant, overlooking the beach and sparkling blue waters and enjoyed a very pleasant lunch accompanied with a rather pleasant Anti-Covid Vaccine, well it would have been rude not to 😉

Until the next ramble,

Hasta Luego mi Amigos (La Vida Es Buena)

We had returned home from our Granada trip to some much awaited good news, and although the drought conditions here in Andalusia are still very much in place, our area of the Malaga Province has now been downgraded to ‘Moderate’, as opposed to the ‘Severe’ conditions that we had previously been under. This is as a consequence of the two storms that we had back in March, both of which had provided our Province with some much needed rainfall to start to refill the Embalces, although they are still not to 100% of their capacities and with the hot Summer months creating some loss through evaporation, and with the additional demand on the water supply, with the increase in population over the busy summer tourist season, these current water capacities will again start to reduce, although the authorities have stated that they estimate that we currently have sufficient to last for 8 months. So, the good news for us came in two parts, first, with effect from 1st June, our personal domestic water usage allowance has been raised again, from what had been an allowance of only 160 Litres each per day, to then, very recently, an increase up to 200 Litres each per day, however, as from 1st June, that will now be increased yet again to a new ‘daily’ individual personal usage allowance of 225 Litres 🤗. To be completely honest with you, Shazza and I have not really been affected too much, even with the 160 Litre limitation, we just had to change our water usage habits slightly and, in reality, even with this increased usage allowance, we will still continue to try and reduce our water usage (Wastage) wherever possible, although, we cannot deny that it is now very nice, especially as the temperatures are now also continuing to rise on a daily basis, that we can now take a shower on a daily basis again, instead of just every other day. The second piece of good news for us, although in all honesty it does tend to pale a little bit into insignificance against the very much more important rise in the ‘domestic’ water usage allowance, but, also effective from 1st June, we will be permitted to once again use our private communal swimming pools, so we are really looking forward to daily life beginning to start to smell a little bit sweeter again 😂

Although we did not know about it beforehand, a week after we had returned home from our mini-break, during the weekend, there was an ‘International Families Day’ event being held at the ‘Castillon’ (Castle) in the former fishing village. Previous events of this nature had been relatively small affairs, but the event has grown so much in popularity over the last couple of years, that it now occupies a much larger area, on the public road that encircles the castle and into the adjacent public park. I guess that it reflects the different Nationalities that now reside in this area, it came as a bit of a surprise to us, we were obviously aware of the large European, American and Canadian Expat presence, but we were certainly not really that aware of the large presence from the much wider Asian and South American countries. We certainly cannot recall us ever attending any of these events over the last nine years or so, which is surprising as Shazza and I like these type of local community events. Perhaps they were held during the ninety-day ‘Schengen Shuffle’ periods when we had to exit the EU 🤔 Well at least that is now no longer an issue for us.

This International Families Event continued over two full days, and nights, with ‘live’ bands performing well into the early hours, fortunately, whilst we live only a few minutes drive away from where it is held, it is also far enough away for us not to be disturbed by the night’s revelries 😉

After our mini-break and doing our own touristy stuff in Granada, once back at home we effortlessly slipped back into what are now just our ‘normal’ more relaxed daily routines. However, although we had only been away for a few days, we noticed a bit of a change when we went on our first daily walk along the seafront promenade and into the town. All the beachfront Chiringuitos were now open, with their beach frontages and sun loungers looking pretty busy with customers, the wooden boardwalks, leading from the promenade down onto the beach had been laid, to stop people from burning their bare feet on the scorching sand when making their way down to the sea, but more noticeable were the amount of people actually on the beach with their sun chairs, sun umbrellas, cool boxes and paddle-boards and the towns seafront Cafe’s were certainly far busier than they had been, so although the school half term holidays had not yet officially commenced, it looked as if ‘It Was All Beginning To Kick Off’ now, the tourist season it would seem has arrived, albeit a couple of weeks earlier than anticipated, but it is nice to see the place starting to come alive again, we may not like crowds but boy does it give us plenty of people watching opportunities 😁

I had thought that back in February, when I had submitted our Income Tax related forms to our Tax Consultants, that that was it, in respect of the payment of our Income tax for the last 2023 Financial Year, and that we would just have to wait to be advised of the amount of the tax bill. So I was a little surprised when I recently received another Email from our Tax Consultant asking me to submit even more Tax Forms 🤔 I obviously questioned this, only to be informed that the financial information that I had previously submitted was just to enable us to be formally registered, as individuals, with the Spanish Tax Authorities who would then allocate and issue us with our Individual Tax Reference Numbers (in reality those reference numbers would be sent to our Tax Consultants who do all the formal stuff on our behalf). Fortunately, this registration process and procedure only has to be done the once and not annually. However, now that we are officially tax residents, in May each year we are required to submit our formal Income Tax Declaration Forms, for all our incomes received over the previous Fiscal Year, in Spain the Fiscal Year runs from 1st January-31st December, the tax due has to be paid in June, failure to do so results in a fine, although, if you wish, you can elect to make split payments, 60% in June and 40% in November. Now I cannot go into the complexities of the Spanish Taxation System, as I am not qualified to provide such advice, and especially as individuals will have their own income sources and financial circumstances, but I will offer this one piece of advice, do your research before you elect to make the move here, as the tax system may be very different to what it is in your own home country and, if you do choose to come and live here, unless you are professionally qualified, it is a good idea to employ the services of a ‘reputable’ Tax Professional to submit your annual tax declarations on your behalf, they know the in’s and out’s of the Spanish Taxation System and will also be able to advise on wether it is more financially advantageous for you to submit either ‘Individual’ or ‘Joint’ Tax Returns. However, below I will provide some current basic tax information just to give you some idea, but this is all readily available on-line by doing a search on ‘Google’ 👍

The other thing to be aware of is that ‘All’ income you receive Globally is taxable in Spain, unless the country you originate from has a ‘No Double Taxation Agreement’ in force with Spain. This means that ‘some’ Incomes that you receive may be ‘Exempt’ from paying Spanish Tax e.g. Government Issued Pensions (Military, Civil Service, Police, Fire Service, some Teacher’s Pensions) which, under the agreement, remain taxed at source, unlike the majority of ‘Private’ Pensions, which ‘generally’ do not fall under the exemptions of the ‘No Double Taxation Agreement’. However, and particularly relevant to know for individuals coming from the UK, is that the UK issued State Pension IS subject to being taxed in Spain, so in this instance you have to apply retrospectively to UK HMRC, for a refund of the tax paid to the Spanish Tax Authorities (There is a form on the UK Government website to enable you to do this), also note that there are Tax Professionals here in Spain who can assist with this procedure. Also worth noting are two other things, first, ‘everyone’ who is ‘registered’ as a ‘Tax Resident’ of Spain, has to submit an annual tax return, even if that is a ‘Nil’ return e.g. Dependents under pension age who may have no independent personal income sources themselves (Spouses or Partners), secondly, even if some incomes are ‘Exempt’ from Spanish Tax (Under the ‘No Double Taxation Agreement), they still have to be declared on the Spanish Tax Forms.

Now this may all sound very complicated and may even deter you wanting to come and live in Spain, but provided you are aware of the tax requirements in Spain in relation to your own Financial circumstances, especially what incomes that you have that are, or are not, exempt from Spanish Tax, then it is not as complicated as it may at first sound, once you get your head around it. As you will probably imagine, myself and my OCD buddy have always maintained detailed personal financial records, even when we lived in the UK, so I had all the information required to complete the tax declarations for both myself and Shazza, including our latest annual P60’s and any other official financial administrative records. So, within only a couple of days of submitting this information to our Tax Consultant, we received confirmation of what this year’s tax bill would be, we were pleasantly surprised, and happy in the knowledge that we will get ‘some’ of this tax back, refunded from the UK HMRC, albeit that involves even more form filling, although we strongly suspect that getting money back from the UK Tax Authorities, at the speed they deal with refunds, may actually take some time to receive back 🙄

The only other commitment that we had to do this month was to get our car serviced, or so we believed !! So back in January I had pre-booked a service on-line, through the main KIA Espana website, to have my car serviced at the ‘Malaga’ Dealership, I received a confirmation Email that this had been booked. I had selected the Malaga dealership because I had used them on two previous occasions when I had issues with my car and they proved to be extremely helpful and efficient, regular readers of my rambles will already be aware of those issues. However, the dealership is a one hour drive away so it would entail and early start to get the car delivered to them in the morning, and then having to spend the best part of the day waiting for it to be finished. Fortunately, it was only an easy thirty minute walk from the dealership to a large shopping mall at ‘Plaza Mayor’, which has recently been extended and now also accommodates a large ‘McArthur Glen’ retail outlet, so although neither of us are really shoppers, at least we could pass our time whilst we waited for the call to tell us our car was ready to collect.

When we arrived we were greeted by a very friendly male receptionist who spoke a reasonable level of English, certainly much more fluent than my Spanish, and he proceeded to check the car in. He noticed that we had already had two Services conducted, both in the UK, one in 2022, after the first year of ownership, and another in 2023, he queried as to why we had had two services conducted, when they are only required every 20,000 miles or at two year intervals, whichever came first, so we should not have had the first service until 2023 and the second would not have been due until 2025 🤔 Now in hindsight I should already have known this, it was the same principle for the Motorhome, in my defence I can only think that things had got confused with the major engine issue that we had with the car in the first year that we had it and, irritatingly, the KIA Dealership in Doncaster had not informed us when we took the car in, for what we thought was the first service due date, in May 2022, that in fact it was not due a service until 2023, but neither did they tell us this when we took it for its second service the following year that it was now not due a service until May 2025 😡 It isn’t as if they were making any money from us, as under the 7 Year Warranty, the first two services were ‘Free’ 🤷‍♂️

Anyway, ‘Luis’ the dealership service receptionist in Malaga, did tell me that the car did not require another routine service until next year, which was a bit of a bonus as I had budgeted for it being done this year, and so, to my complete joy, I had now unexpectedly saved some money, or at least that had been my initial happy thought until a couple of hours later that day……………….🙄 There were still a couple of Administrative and Technical things that I needed to have done with the car, now that it has been imported into and registered in Spain, and a possible technical issue that I needed them to check out, which would involve them putting it on their diagnostics machine. So we still needed to leave the car with them and then wait until he called us to say that it was ready to collect, which he informed us could be anytime up to 4pm. However, we had planned for a full day out and had nowhere else we needed to be 🤷‍♂️

When we had left the car in this dealership, on the last occasion we were here, we discovered a nice little Cafe, and conveniently it was on our walking route to ‘Plaza Mayor’, we decided to stop there again for a Coffee, and okay, yes I confess, we also had a Tostado with it, but come on now, it would have been really disrespectful not to 🤭 It seems a little pointless telling you that it was yet again another nice warm day, however, it was not as hot as we had anticipated that it was going to be at only around 23 degrees(c), over the last couple of days in our local town, just a little further down the coastline, the temperatures had been a searingly hot and humid 28 degrees(c) 🥵 so we had rather expected much of the same here.

As I may have mentioned a few times in these ramblings, neither of us are shoppers but, for our upcoming large family three day event in Austria in August, on the second day, the Saturday, it is a little more formal, a smart, but casual, sort of affair, so whilst Shazza had already got her dress sorted, she of course needed some new shoes, and of course a matching handbag, to go with her outfit 🙄 However, I cannot put all the focus of attention on her for all the additional expenditure, but I also can neither confirm, or deny, that I too ‘may’ also have taken the opportunity to make a ‘few’ clothing and footwear purchases myself, albeit in truth mine were not really absolutely ‘necessary’ purchases for the Austria trip 🤭 but the long and short of it is, between the pair of us, on this particular day, we spent very much more than what the actual car service would have cost us. I think the really scary thing about it though was, especially for a usually much more very thrifty Yorkshireman, we had both agreed that we had actually enjoyed this rare retail therapy session and, if the truth be known, perhaps just a little bit too much 😲 Fortunately, two hours earlier than anticipated, we were saved from any further decline to our rapidly diminishing bank balance, by the phone call from the garage telling us that our car was ready for collection. However, on our way home we also called in at another large shopping mall, the ‘Miramar’ at Fuengirola, only because that is where there was a ‘Holland & Barrett’ herbal health type store which sold the Herbal Teas that Shazza likes, and as we rarely go there she always like to buy a batch of them to last a couple of months. We had planned to have a proper lunch whilst at ‘Plaza Mayor’ but, because of the earlier than anticipated collection of the car, that lunch did not materialise and so now we were both beginning to feel a little hungry, so we decided that whilst at the Fuengirola mall we would have a late lunch, or as it turned out, an early dinner, and settled for a very nice Italian restaurant. It had actually turned out to be a really enjoyable day out, not a completely wasted trip either, in respect of the car not requiring a service, as the dealership did now have us registered on their database with all the Spanish registration details, including our Spanish Address and Telephone numbers and, the Diagnostics checks that they had conducted, had revealed no issues whatsoever with the car, which was a relief, as when it went through its ITV Test (equivalent of MOT), as part of the importation process, they had said that their was an error code which related to a serious fault with the Engine Compression, albeit no warning lights had come up on the dashboard display and I certainly had not experienced any lack of performance when driving the car, but these sort of things tend to weigh on your mind a bit, but not any longer. The KIA dealership made no charge for the time spent on conducting these diagnostic checks and also, when we went to collect the car, they had offered to put it through a car wash before we drove it away, free of charge and a normal part of their customer service, but as we had put it through a car wash the previous day we declined their generous offer.

We have no other mini-breaks, or day trips, planned for the coming weeks, although that of course does not guarantee that Shazza will not spring one of her spontaneous one’s on me 😂 We have no other ‘known’ commitments now until the middle of June, we are just awaiting confirmation that our Residency Permit renewal applications have been approved, and an appointment date to go and collect our new TIE Residency Cards, however, we know that they will not issue them before 13th June when our current one’s expire. But we are quite excited at the prospect of not having to go through this residency permit renewal process again for a further two years, in June 2026.

So, until my next ramble, wherever you may be, if in the Northern hemisphere, enjoy the start of your Summer, or if in the Southern hemisphere, get wrapped up for the commencement of your Winter.

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, “La Vida Es Buena”

After having such a long second day, it wasn’t surprising that we both had another excellent sleep, we had awoken reasonably early again and fully refreshed, thankfully with no adverse effects in our legs. The sun was once again already high in the sky rapidly warming the cooler overnight mountain air, the ‘Works of Fiction’ had forecast yet another 27 degree(c) day, by mid-afternoon, and I have to say that it had been pretty much accurate with it’s predictions over the last couple of days, so fingers crossed that there are no blips on what was to be our last full day here in Granada.

When we had first arrived at the hotel, and had been given the tourist street map by the receptionists, I had enquired about what the area was like around the ‘Puerta Romano’ bridge over the river ‘Genil’, which I had seen photographs of when I was doing some pre-visit research, it looked quite a nice area with a tree lined riverside walk, however, they had been less than enthusiastic about that particular part of town, stating that it was quite a long walk to get to it, and intimating that there was little of interest there, so, in their personal opinions, it was not worth the effort. However, for us, it was now the only district that we had not visited, so we both agreed that we would still go and take a look and, if their was not much to maintain our interest, then we would just return to the Centro area, have another very pleasant lunch and then return to the hotel and perhaps finish the afternoon by the pool. We also agreed that after enjoying another buffet breakfast, and seeing as it may be a long walk to our intended destination, that on this occasion, instead of walking down into the city and then on into the ‘Realejo’ district, we would take the fifteen minute bus ride into the city centre and then walk from there. I had already checked out the route and memorised some landmarks but, to be quite honest it looked a pretty much straightforward route, or it would be unless of course we did our usual trick of deviating off it, to explore side streets and alleyways, which was always a possibility 🤔

Fortunately there was a bus already at the stop when we arrived outside the Alhambra, and it was pretty much devoid of passengers, so it made a nice change to be able to look out of the windows and see some different views over the city as we descended. On our journey down we discussed the fact that, even if we had have managed to obtained tickets to view the Alhambra Palaces and Gardens, which would have entailed us spending a lot more time at the Alhambra, we still both felt that three full days here was sufficient for us to see and do what we had wanted to do. Although, I should say that those who are much more into the historical, architectural or even the religious aspects of the city, then you could of course spend very much longer here, additionally, it was a good base to explore a lot more of the surrounding villages and towns, and tour around the beautiful landscapes that lay within the ‘Sierra Nevada National Park’.

We got off the bus, at the same stop in the city that we had been getting on it each evening to return to the hotel. This stop wasn’t at the actual central bus station, which funny enough, although they do have one, we had not actually come across it on any of our meanderings 🤔 We needed to head South down the Main Street, until we came to a large crossroads junction, at that point there should be a large Correos (Post Office) building on the corner, then from there we would bear left and head East onto a long pedestrianised tree lined walkway and then just follow it, until we came to a large fountain, across from that, the park, bridge and the riverside walk. It looked simple enough and as it happened, with no deviations taken, intended or otherwise, it was 👍

It had taken us no more than twenty-minutes from getting off the bus to getting to the river bridge, and it was a flat walk conducted at a leisurely pace, so we concluded that perhaps our two receptionists were not people who enjoyed walking very much. From the ‘Puerta Romana’ bridge we elected to turn left, away from the more built up areas of that part of the city, to just take a stroll along the very pleasant tree-lined riverside walk, although we could have opted to walk through the very nice park that ran adjacent to the riverside path. Their was a reasonable flow of water in the river but it was unusual, because it did not have the appearance of a natural river but more like a Canal, it had a concrete base and side walls, and every 100 metres or so their were, what we guessed were flood barriers. As we enjoyed the sunshine, and the views of the snow capped mountains, we could not understand why our receptionists didn’t think that their was anything of interest here, probably because it was not laden with retail outlets, cafe’s or restaurants, but to us it was so peaceful, the manicured park had various statues, mini water fountains, flower gardens and shaded benches under the trees, whilst the riverside walk provided both shade and colour too, with the gentle sound of running water that gave it such a tranquil feeling, a nice change from all the hustle and bustle of the city.

We continued walking for quite a while, but we started heading further and further out so we decided to turn back and to go and explore what was on the other side of the ‘Puerta Romano’ bridge, to be honest we were now ready for a late-morning coffee and their wasn’t very much on offer walking in our current direction. Once back at the bridge we crossed on to the opposite bank, along a much wider area that, on the map, looked as if it was another Plaza, but in reality it was just a large concreted area, with a few trees here and there, with a large open air sports area and beyond it a large Ferris Wheel, that wasn’t actually in operation, again we speculated and thought that this was perhaps the area that would house the Circus or Fairground attractions when they came to town 🤷‍♂️ Their were quite a few large Commercial type buildings, car dealerships etc but primarily it was a residential urbanisation comprising of mainly old style apartment blocks, it had the look and feel of being perhaps in the less affluent area of the city, although it wasn’t scruffy or dirty and we certainly didn’t feel unsafe, it was just an ordinary area were the local people lived which didn’t have nice flower lined roads or fountained Plaza’s. But we did find a small pavement Cafe so we stopped for a very much overdue ‘Cafe con Leche’ and you could tell immediately that this was outside the tourist enclave, the cost of two very nice coffee’s were half the price of anywhere else we had been during the last couple of days. But we probably had a better understanding now of why our receptionists had said that there was nothing of interest here, tourist wise that is, unless of course, like us, you enjoy the peacefulness and tranquility of walking in nice parks or along a riverside walk. So, suitably refreshed, we headed back in the direction we had come, towards the hustle and bustle, we were both beginning to look forward to getting home again now as we were all ‘citied’ out.

When we got back to the junction with the ‘Correos’ building on the corner, instead of just following it straight up, we crossed the road and did our usual thing, we disappeared into a labyrinth of narrow alleyways, for no particular reason other than we could, and knowing that we would be in the shade and out of the now stifling heat of the sun. When we had first arrived in Granada centre on our first afternoon, it had looked quite vast, the tourist map also made it look as if the different districts were much farther apart, however, as with most cities, once you have familiarised yourself with them, they actually become quite small really, it is mainly only the residential buildings that make them appear to be a sprawling metropolis. So it wasn’t long before our back street wanderings through maze like alleyways started to become familiar to us and we soon found ourselves back in the long and cobbled, pedestrianised street which, on both sides were full of the more familiar International branded stores that you find in every single city throughout the world. We now knew which alleyways to take to get towards the many small central Plazas which were adorned with Cafe/Bars and Restaurants.

We found a Cafe that we had not used before, and at first we thought that it was a new Plaza that we had just fallen across, we sat and enjoyed the traditional Spanish pre-lunch aperitif of ‘Vermut’, which is basically very similar to Martini Rosso, and enjoyed another period of people watching, well it would have been rude not to. However, once we had finished our drinks it was time to try and seek out a preferred establishment in which to partake of our final lunch here in Granada, which is when we actually discovered that the Plaza we were in was not actually a new one, but just the opposite end of one where we had previously enjoyed a ‘Menu del Dia’ lunch 🤷‍♂️

On one of our previous days explorations, we had fallen across another row of pavement Cafe’s/Restaurants, there were probably four or five next to each other, where we had enjoyed a couple of cooling drinks, whilst being serenade by a young lad playing a tune, first on a Saxophone and then another on a Clarinet, which made a change from the more usual guitar players or those with a microphone and Karaoke music box. We had both commented on how good he was, confirmed by the huge applause he had received from the patrons of all the Cafe’s when he finished, needless to say he was well rewarded for his musical talent. What we began to realise was that each ‘Busker’ only gave a maximum of two renditions before packing up and quickly moving on, this was probably because they didn’t have a street licence and if caught ‘in the act’ so to speak, could be arrested, or more likely to be formally cautioned, by the Police, we had actually witnessed a couple of entertainers stopped mid-flow by uniformed officers, whilst we were having lunch on our first day.

The thing about these particular establishments was that they were up more of a side side street than being in a Plaza, which made it more peaceful, apart from them being on the route where the actual ‘Tourist Train’ stopped to drop off and pick up passengers, but that ended up being entertainment in its own right. So this is where we decided we would try to get a table and partake of another leisurely lunch, if we could remember which side street it was on that is 🤔 Fortunately we did, but this time we selected a different establishment to honour our presence with, only because we preferred the menu selections, although this time our selection would not be one from the ‘Menu del Dia’ options. The young male waiter was very friendly and chatty, we said that we would be eating ‘Almuerzo’ (Lunch), but first we wanted to enjoy a drink and just look at the menu, “No problem, take your time, 15 minutes, 30 minutes an hour, no problem” he said, with a smile on his face. We ordered two ‘Vermut’s’ and with them came two Tapas on a plate, consisting of a slice of Baguette with a tomato paste spread on it and topped with a quite a sizeable piece of grilled pork fillet 😋 Sharon obviously declined her portion and said that I could have them both, “Are you sure, I could take the meat off the top and let you have the bread and tomato” I offered, “No that’s all right, you have them both” she said, well I didn’t need to be told twice 😁

After looking at the menu options, and there was loads that we could have both selected to suit our individual preferences, but we decided that we would order two mains dishes and share them between ourselves, but we delayed ordering as we wanted to stretch out our leisurely afternoon, enjoying being serenaded by the ‘Buskers’, we ended up with three or four during the lunch time period that we were there. Our friendly waiter was quite observant, seeing that our glasses were empty he looked across and gestured as to wether we wanted two more, with a nod of my head he came across to confirm what we wanted, this time we ordered two cold beers and when he returned with them, this time he brought a large bowl of ‘Patatas Bravas’ (Small roasted potatoes covered in a spicy sauce), Shazza was the fortunate recipient this time as I don’t like the spicy sauce, so this Tapas would be all hers this time. We did consider not ordering lunch off the menu and just keep ordering more drinks, if they kept being served with various Tapas, but as we couldn’t guarantee what sort of Tapas food items would come out, there was a strong possibility that as well as ending up very inebriated, one of us could quite possibly end up hungry, because the Spanish tend to like their meat products, so I wonder who on earth that would have been 🤔 I don’t actually drink a lot of beer so, when we did finally order our lunch I switched to my more normal Anti-Covid Vaccine 🍷 whilst Shazza stuck to beer. We ordered a ‘Tropical Salad’ (Rocket, Tomatoes, Avocado, Orange, sliced Strawberries and Feta) and Tuna Skewers on a bed of Potatoes (which actually turned out to be French Fries). We expected the two dishes to be served together, however, a huge bowl of Tropical Salad came out first, accompanied by another round of requested drinks 🍷🍺😲 well it was a very hot day and they just seemed to be evaporating ever so quickly 😳 Then out came the Tuna Skewers and French Fries, there were six ‘fully loaded’ skewers and piles of chips and to be honest, I just couldn’t manage more than two of the skewers and a few chips, well I had also devoured two grilled pork fillets beforehand, so I left the rest to Shazza to polish off which she did. I needed another Anti-Covid Vaccine to assist in washing it all down but Shazza opted for a bottle of water on this occasion, and considering that normally she rarely drinks alcohol these days, but when she does, she rarely has more than two beers, but today she had already had two large ‘Vermut’s’ and three ‘Beers’ 😲 So I am not sure wether it was as a result of the heat of the sun, or just that Shazza had enjoyed her day so much that she was in an usually over friendly mood, but for some reason she had begun to give a ‘Royal Wave’ to all the passengers on the tourist trains that passed by, and she accompanied her wave with a bout of churlish laughter and then sat with a rather inane grin on her face. I quickly gave the waiter an urgent glance, “La Cuenta, Por Favor” (Bill Please !!) before it got too messy 😲

Now we don’t generally eat more than one proper full meal per day and, when at home, that would usually be dinner in the evening, but here we had been having breakfasts in the hotel and then lunches out, but by early evening we still generally just needed a snack, a bag of crisps or some biscuits to have with our evening cuppa’s, probably due to all the calories we had been burning off. However, on this our last day, when we were enjoying our first ‘Vermut’, prior to lunch, in the Plaza, I couldn’t help but notice two small artisan stores, one that sold a variety of ‘Empanadas’ (Similar shape to the British Cornish Pastie) and a ‘Pasteleria’ that was advertising slices of ‘Baileys’ flavoured cheesecake, so when we left our lunchtime restaurant, we made our way back to that Plaza and purchased some tasty treats for later that evening, that was if either of us were to actually awake from our alcohol induced late afternoon siestas 😂😴

How, I do not know, but we did manage to maintain a dignified stature back through the town, to the bus stop and through the hotel lobby, well we didn’t want to get categorised as being typical ‘Brits Abroad’ now did we, or worse, have the locals protesting outside the hotel with Placards saying ‘Tourists Go Home’ 😲

I should just confirm that actually we did enjoy a rather extended ‘Siesta’ that particular afternoon and we never actually made it to the hotel’s swimming pool, no surprise there then. However, I can also confirm that later that evening our ‘snacks’ were absolutely delicious but, after this trip, we may both delay our getting on the bathroom scales for perhaps a week or two when we return home 🤭

The following morning we packed our cases before going for our final buffet breakfast. I was pleased that we had agreed beforehand that I did the driving on the outward journey, and that Shazza would do the driving on this return trip, so that I could enjoy the scenery. Initially though we had entertained the idea that we would do a stop on the way back at a small village, about an hour South East of Granada, called ‘Soportújar’, better known as the ‘Witches Village’, however, whilst it was a good idea at the time, now we just wanted to get back home and agreed that we could do that visit as a day trip visit at some point in the future.

It is nice to get away sometimes and see different places and landscapes, wether that be for just a day or, like this trip, just a little longer, but it is always nice to return home again, not just to the comforts of our own bricks ‘n’ mortar, but to the familiarity of our own territory. National Parks with their mountains and forests are absolutely wonderful but for us, well there is nothing better than descending back down to sea level, looking out upon the sparkling blueness.

It wasn’t long before we reached those sea views, as we turned off the A44 from Granada and on to the A7 towards Malaga, and then beyond to our home, but we still had around a two hour drive ahead of us.

We had both enjoyed our short trip to Granada, I had certainly enjoyed it more than I had initially expected to, and sometimes you do just need to get away, to explore new areas, those right on your doorstep and other’s further afield. However, going away also serves another purpose as it makes you appreciate the area where you already live. I often said in my earlier rambles that I wondered just how long it would take, now that we had moved here permanently, before the ‘pinch me’ and the ‘WOW’ moments would stop. Well after almost one year of living here I think I can say that the ‘Pinch Me’ moments have stopped, although occasionally we do still have those ‘WOW’ moments. I guess we are now at the stage where we have fallen into the trap of just taking for granted where we live, and what we have on our doorstep, it had become our normal and so, whilst going away and visiting new places, new regions and even new countries, is a good experience, it also takes going away, even if just for a couple of days, to then returning, to make us appreciate once again this wonderful location, and the lifestyle that we are now very fortunate to be able to enjoy.

Until the next ramble…………….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos (La Vida Es Buena)

We had both had a very good night’s sleep and awoke at 7:30am, refreshed and ready to commence Day 2 of our mini-adventure in Granada. On our way down to the restaurant, for our Buffet breakfast, we stopped at the reception desk, as after checking the reviews for the different Flamenco trips the previous evening, we opted to book for the one that departed our hotel at 9:15pm later that evening. Shazza and I had agreed a sort of loose plan for our second day, so after breakfast we would spend the rest of the morning visiting the grounds of the Alhambra, that was of course if we could have a little more success than the previous afternoon in finding the right gate to get in to it 😂 After that we would take the forest path, a different one to the one we took the previous day, down to the City where we aimed to cover some of the ‘Albaicin’ and ‘Centro’ districts of the city, but with our record of getting lost it would be interesting to see how that turns out 🤔

As we stepped outside of the air-conditioned hotel entrance the sun was already high in the sky, it was pleasantly warm but not yet stifling hot, it seemed strange to be looking over the nearby snow capped Sierra Nevada peaks whilst dressed in shorts, short-sleeved tops and our comfortable walking shoes. Although it was still relatively early, the tourist groups were already amassing at the Alhambra main entry ticket gates, we weaved our way through them and headed for the Information Centre, more in hope than actual expectation, to see if we could purchase any ‘Day Tickets’, unfortunately there were still none available. We walked a little way past part of the outer walls and started to follow a path towards the forest, although this time not taking the first path that we came to, as we had done the previous day, and a short couple of minutes walk later we came to a large stone tower with an archway, we went through the arch and then a small door, set in a much larger set of wooden doors, a walk uphill and finally there we were, in the extensive inner grounds of the Alhambra, this was where we saw, with our own eyes and not from photographs, just how large this inner sanctum area really was, I guess it had to be, to accommodate not only three separate Palaces but so many more buildings of quite epic proportions, it was more like the size of a small town.

The name ‘Alhambra’ has its origins in an Arabic word meaning “red castle or vermilion”, perhaps due to the colour tone of the towers and walls that completely surround the hill of La Sabica, which under the light of the stars is said to be of a silver colour, but in the light of the sun it acquires a golden tone. Created originally for military purposes, the Alhambra was initially a fortress, a palace and a small medina, all at the same time. Over the years, with many different conquerors and rulers, more palaces and gardens were constructed. However, if you need to know more on the quite extensive history of the Alhambra I will just respectfully request that you check out ‘Mr Google’ for yourselves as it has quite an interesting, but lengthy, history, and yes, I did actually just use the words, ‘Interesting’ and ‘History’ in the same sentence 😉 Alternatively you could just search out either, or both, of the TV programmes I previously mentioned, ‘Michael Portillo’s Andalusia’ and ‘Anton and Giovani’s Spanish Road Trip’ 👍

We had already witnessed the large number of tourists waiting to enter the Alhambra grounds, but inside there were already quite a few tourist groups doing the rounds, encircled around their tour group leaders who were reeling off their obvious well versed rhetoric’s on the history of the place, in numerous languages, it would have been easy enough I guess to have found an English speaking guide group and just tagged on to the back of the group, I don’t think that anybody would have noticed 🤔 However, being the history heathens that we are, we would have soon got bored and our eye lids would have started to glaze over, so we preferred the freedom of just wandering around under our own steam. Of course, this being a major tourist attraction, modern day capitalism and the historical aspects now sat side by side, so their were Cafe’s and Gift Shops spread around the different areas in order to entice the visiting hoards to relinquish even more of their tourist Euro’s, their was also a very plush ‘Parador’ Hotel within the walls, with a Cafe/Bar that the general public were permitted to use, separate to the hotel residents area of course. They were definitely on to a loser with Shazza and I though, as we had already eaten a hearty breakfast, and we don’t do ‘Tourist Tat’. As former Motorhome full timers we already know how to seek out the more authentic value for money establishments when we need them, so we decided to wait until we got into the back streets of the city.

We were now mixed amongst ‘all’ the visitor’s to the Alhambra, those who had parted with money to obtain tickets, and freeloaders like ourselves, the only difference being that their were locations around the grounds that had boundary markers to enter the ‘Ticket Only’ areas, much like the one’s you find at Airports to shepherd people into the correct check-in lanes, or through the security control x-ray machines, some entrances even had manned ticket booths where you had to physically show your entry tickets, so certainly not accessible to the likes of us. In reality, it isn’t that expensive to purchase tickets, when they are available that is. Now we may sometimes be considered ‘thrifty’ with our money but we would have been more than willing to purchase tickets for ‘unguided’ access, to do all the areas, for a cost of €35 each, although the prices do vary and are dependent on wether you want to do a guided or unguided tour, or wether you want to do a private guided tour during the day, or one at night, there are actually lots of options and the costs vary, from access to only one Palace area at €19, up to €150 for the ‘Full Monty’. However, at least we did get to go inside the walled grounds and had the opportunity to wander around many of the areas at our own leisure.

There were lots of huge buildings inside the grounds, and one that we could enter, and have a wander around, was one that also housed the Art Museum. It was a deceptive building because from the outside it looked like a square building, but once inside we found ourselves inside a large circular courtyard with an upper level, so we just wandered around both levels looking at the impressive decorative stonework and large ornately carved doors, although, unfortunately many of them were locked ☹️

There were lots of differing levels to wander around, from the upper inner walls down to lower outer walls, some with garden areas, some with archaeological remains still being uncovered, we spent a good couple of hours just leisurely exploring every nook and cranny that we could, and trying to imagine what it must have been like to live in such a place.

When we had exhausted all the parts of the Alhambra that we were permitted to, it was time to head down towards the city. The temperature had risen enormously since we had left the hotel earlier that morning, so we were glad to get into the shade of the forest, which also had lots of other paths to explore, but not for us on this day. the question we asked ourselves was wether it would be worth us coming back to Granada, at some point in the future, to visit the actual Palaces and Gardens and do a few more of the forest trails 🤔 However, we both agreed that we probably wouldn’t, a case of seen it, done it, but didn’t bother buying the Tee-shirt, but for those who have never been here before, then it is certainly worth the visit, just make sure you purchase your tickets for the Palaces and Gardens well in advance 😉

The twisting walk down the hill was no less strenuous on the calf muscles and knee joints as it had been the previous day, but there was lots to look at on the way down and so it was quite pleasant. As we walked down we could see the other forest paths, winding their way up to other areas, the map also reflected that there were other attractions, statues, fountains, flower gardens etc. but going back up to explore them was certainly not going to be an option that we were going to choose, at least not today.

We were attempting to take the mandatory ‘selfie’ when another couple asked if we would like them to take the photo for us, they didn’t look the type to run off with my camera so we thanked them, and of course returned the same gesture for them, as you do. We actually didn’t have much of a clue as to where we were at that point, the street map wasn’t that detailed, so we just walked in what we thought was generally the correct direction then, as is our way, we would stray off the natural track to explore pretty alleyways, climbing up narrow steps between residential buildings, it gave us a different aspect of the city, the everyday life, and as we did so we discovered, tucked away in one of the quiet streets what, from the outside, just looked like one of the many other houses on the street, but looking closer, on a sign attached to the wall next to the door we discovered that inside was actually where they hand made guitars.

We just continued to wander aimlessly, some streets were maze like so we lost our orientation, but nevertheless we continued to just keep wandering, we were in no hurry to be anywhere in particular and eventually we knew that we would come across a main thoroughfare, provided of course that we didn’t start walking uphill again, as we knew that the centre was in a downwards direction.

Suddenly, without any sort of warning, we emerged into a back street that was as if we had been transported to another Country, it reminded us of places such as Egypt, Tunisia or Morroco and it was like walking through a ‘Bazaar’, there were little shops on either side of the long narrow cobbled alleyway selling trinkets, leather goods, clothes and brightly woven jumpers and coats, and the smell of aromatic spices filled our nostrils, mixed in were the usual Arabic type restaurants, not one Chinese restaurant did we see but there were a couple of Indian one’s, several Syrian along with Kebab and Halal retailers, yes we had wandered into the Arabic quarter. However, and unlike when we were on holiday in those other destinations, we were not hassled, nobody standing outside the entrances trying to usher us inside with phrases like “Good price, ASDA price”, it was all a rather pleasant experience, the people we did see sat inside the different shops just smiled, some must have guessed that we looked Northern European and said “Hello”, other’s the usual “Buenas Tardes”, as it was now afternoon and not morning.

Purely by coincidence, rather than by our navigation technique, we managed to find ourselves out of the back street and on to quite a busy main road, although there was no handy street sign so that we could check the street map to establish exactly where we were. We turned Right, for no good reason, but rather fortuitously, or perhaps by some divine intervention, after only a few paces, Shazza saw a Religious looking building across the other side of the road, which turned out to be the Monasterio de San Jerónimo, one which she had read about when she had been researching Granada.

Shazza likes Religious type buildings, Churches, Cathedrals, Convents, Monasteries etc. so we went to take a look. Now as I may have previously said, other than the Cathedral there are also absolutely loads of Churches, Convents and Monasteries within the city, let alone those outside of it, but she had been drawn to this particular one for no reason that she could explain. As with a lot of these places these days, there is an admission fee, but it was only €3 each, and she said that she would like to go inside and take a look so, inside we went. Now I do not mind visiting Religious buildings, they are not at the top of my particular ‘must see’ visit locations, but some of them can be quite interesting and Convents and Monasteries in particular do tend to have nice external grounds and inner courtyards. Once inside we wandered first around the lower square quadrant that had an Orange and Lemon orchard in the middle, there were several rooms off to the side, some housing religious Artefact’s or Paintings, others were different prayer rooms and then we arrived at the main church. I let Shazza have her moment alone just wandering around, she lit a candle and then continued to wander. I sat myself on a Pew at the front, just really so that I could rest my walk weary legs until she had finished her reflective period. As I sat there in the calm and tranquil surroundings I started to let my eyes wander, as you do, and what became evident to me was the lack of the amount of Gold that I have seen in other churches, but the architecture in here was truly magnificent, in the stonework around the sides, in the central knave and in the ceiling, were small hand carved, and painted, figurines which must have taken year’s to complete. I don’t tend to ‘gush’ over most religious buildings, ‘Seville’ and ‘Burgos’ Cathedrals were the only two that actually stand out in my mind, but I do have to confess that this Monastery church was actually quite beautiful and more than worth the small entrance fee.

Now that we had a reference point, once we left the Monastery we were able to start to navigate our way back towards the main area, we still decided to do the back streets and alleyways and eventually we came across a nice corner Cafe, overlooking a Convent, although when I asked Shazza if she wanted to go and take a look at that, after our Coffee stop, she said that she was having ‘Nun’ of that 🤭

It wasn’t long and we found ourselves in the centre, amongst numerous Plazas, some tucked away in little corners, other’s in grand floral squares, but they were all pretty close to each other. We wandered through a couple of them, occasionally just sitting down on a bench, soaking up the sunshine and doing a spot of people watching, until our stomachs began to remind us that it was gone 2pm and a long time since we had eaten breakfast, so off we went in search of somewhere in which to enjoy a leisurely lunch.

It had been a long walking day, we had certainly seen a lot, what with the Alhambra in the morning and then the streets of Granada in the afternoon, but we were aware that even when we returned to the hotel, at around 4pm, that our day was not over, time for perhaps a short ‘Siesta’, showered, change of clothing and then a 9:15pm appointment with a coach, a walking trip and a Flamenco show 😳

Our coach party consisted of twenty-two people, five of which needed picking up at a different downtown hotel. However, that actually worked out pretty well for us, as our final area to visit the following day was going to be the ‘Realejo’ district, located in the South East of the city and exactly where the other hotel was located. So we had an unexpected familiarisation bus tour of the area beforehand, funny though how things just work out sometimes because, in addition to that, and although earlier in the day we had walked through the lower parts of the ‘Albaicin’ district, we had not walked through the uphill part of that area, but once again, and very conveniently, our coach route would take us up and through that area, and also to the only other area that we had not visited, the ‘Sacromonte’ district, where we would have a ‘guided’ walking trip and where our Flamenco venue was located.

A very brief history of the Sacromonte District of Granada

The Sacromonte district is located on the Valparaiso hill of Granada and borders the north-east side of the Arab El Albaícin district. In the 15th century, a large group of Roma, or the Spanish gypsies (the Gitanos) situated themselves here. They created houses by making cave homes in the hills; the Sacromonte district owes its fame to these houses. In the 15th century, the Valparaiso hill received the status of holy mountain, because people believed the caves in the hill contained the remnants of the city’s patron saint, San Cecilio. The literal meaning of Sacromonte is therefore holy mountain. The Gitanos have a long-standing tradition with the flamenco, the typical Spanish dance and music. They mixed the traditional Spanish flamenco with Arab belly dancing. During the day, the Sacromonte district is often deserted, but at night, the quarter comes to life.

Now here is another coincidence 🤔 If any of you reading this ramble have watched either the ‘Portillo’ or the ‘Anton & Giovani’ programmes, the episodes where they visited Granada, the Alhambra, and the Flamenco District, you may have noticed that they both actually visited the same Flamenco Cave House and took part in the same show. But this is not the only Flamenco show in town, however, we too arrived at this very same cave house, with the very same group members of Flamenco dancers 😲

Now I have to be perfectly honest with you, ‘Flamenco’ ? I just don’t get it, I really don’t 🤷‍♂️ To me it is just a lot of really loud banging noise, wailing in a language that doesn’t even sound Spanish, not that you can actually understand any words anyway, then the clapping of hands and stamping of feet to such a crescendo it gives you a headache. Now even though we went to a show in Seville, that was in a large room, we were sat at a nice table with comfy seats and had a three-course meal before it started, the performers sat on an elevated platform so that the whole audience could see them and the most important part, the feet movements, but even then, I still didn’t get it 🤷‍♂️ Nobody explained a story line, it was more like the ‘walking dead’ performing at Eurovision and even then they would have scored more points than the UK 😂 But here, we were not in a large room, there must have been at least fifty of us packed in like sardines in to a relatively small cave house that didn’t have any air-conditioning, we were sat on very uncomfortable wooden stool like chairs, it was hot, loud and uncomfortable and the performers were not on a raised platform in order that you could see their feet. When the first group of performers had finished, after around half an hour later, I was relieved, until that was that they announced that their would be a short break and then another different younger group would begin their half hour performance 😳😖 However, at the end of the day, which in reality it actually was, this was not about me, Shazza had wanted to see a proper traditional Flamenco, performed by authentic ‘Gitanos’ and so now she has, and she said that she had enjoyed it, so that is all that really matters.

We returned back to the hotel at around half past midnight, it had truly been a very long day, the question was, would our legs be up to another walk on our final full day in Granada 🤔 Neither of us mentioned it, we both just collapsed into bed and were asleep before our heads even touched the pillows 😴

Until the next, and final part, of our mini-adventure to Granada…………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos

The city of Granada is a little under a three hour drive away from us, located in the North Eastern Andalusia Region within a part of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. We already knew in advance that our three day trip would not enable us to visit certain areas of the famous UNESCO World Heritage Site that is the ‘Alhambra’, as all the tickets had been sold out and there were none available for several weeks, but there were other areas inside this massive hilltop enclave that we could have a wander around, and which did not require us to pay an entrance fee, so that suited my wallet very nicely thank you very much. As it was, I didn’t feel particularly disappointed at not getting tickets to see the three main Palaces or Gardens, as I already felt that we had seen these on numerous occasions anyway, after already watching several ‘Netflix’, ‘You Tube’ and television travel related programmes about visits to the Alhambra, the two most very recent ones being ‘Michael Portillo’s Andalucía’ and ‘Anton & Giovani’s Spanish Trip’ and, to be completely honest, after now having actually been there and witnessing the hoards of organised tourist groups that visit on a daily basis, literally crowds of them occupying every bit of space on the internal pavements and roads with even more alighting from tourist coaches every couple of minutes, just serving to expand this already gigantic mass of bodies, backpacks, walking poles and camera bags, no I was not particularly disappointed at all, although I think Shazza would have liked the opportunity to have said that she had actually been inside at least one of the Palaces. To be completely honest, we had probably already had a much better view of these Palaces and Gardens from watching the television programmes anyway although I guess it cannot replicate actually being there yourself and viewing it with your own eyes 🤷‍♂️ Even before the Covid Pandemic, neither Shazza or myself particularly enjoyed being in over crowded environments, but probably now even more so since that Pandemic.

As you may imagine, the Alhambra attracts visitor’s from all over the world and from what we saw, and the crescendo from the multitude of loud voices, they were predominantly Asian and American, although their was a reasonably sized presence too from European countries. In our hotel we discovered people from Turkey, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Poland as well as the more usual French, German, Dutch and of course British and Irish contingents, it was more like a United Nations gathering for some sort of Global Conference, if only Putin had known, he could have taken a large chunk of the Western Population out with just one strike, although I was rather hoping that he wouldn’t, well not until after breakfast on Thursday morning when we would have departed the City.

We had a simple travel plan, although we hadn’t told my OCD buddy as we would be attempting to leave him behind on this trip and just trying to go with the flow, rather than having a pre-prepared and timed itinerary. We we would depart home at around 9:30am and, as we were in no particular hurry to arrive in Granada, as we could not check-in to our pre-booked hotel until 2pm, so on this outward leg of the journey we would take the AP7 (Toll Road) to Malaga, then North up the A46, where we knew of a decent stop to get our usual late breakfast of ‘Cafe con Leche y Tostado’. From there we would then head East, along the A92 which would take us through the spectacular and very scenic mountain ranges before finally dropping into Granada from the North down along the A44, arriving at our hotel at somewhere close to 13:30pm, didn’t I just say that we didn’t have a timed plan 🤭 This is actually another one of those routes that is very familiar to us, having driven along it on numerous occasions over the last nine years or so, in both the Motorhome and the car, when driving North, via Madrid, to get to the ferry port in Bilbao, by way of a change from the Seville route. But we should of course know by now never to make plans, it was just a matter of complete luck, and good fortune, that for some reason before departing home that morning, I had decided to check the route on ‘Google Maps’ on my iPhone, where I discovered that a part of the A92, heading East, was completely closed due to motorway improvements, so we went to Plan B, which we quickly hatched and was to just stay on the A7, the Coastal route, all the way to ‘Motril’, where we would then turn off on to the A44 and head North into Granada, although that now meant that our mid-morning breakfast stop, between Malaga and Granada, would now have to be a ‘Pot Luck’ sort of affair, as we were not as familiar with the service stops along this particular coastal route.

I am not sure wether the ‘Works of Fiction’ for our part of the Costa del Sol was trying to tell us how sad it was that we were once again leaving it behind, but once again, after days and days of the more usual awakening to Sunshine and Blue sky, the morning of our departure was rather overcast, the same as it had been when we departed on our day trip to the Faro de Trafalgar just a week or so ago 🤔 However, it was still warm, a very pleasant 20 degrees(c), Granada, albeit in the mountains, was forecast to hit 28 degrees(c) by mid-afternoon 😎 I had elected to do the first stint at the wheel, although for you my reader’s that may not have been the best decision as Shazza, as you already know by now, does not have a very pro-active camera clicker finger and, as it happened, there also ended up being no breakfast stop either, resulting in no change of driver, so unfortunately there are no photographs of our outbound trip through the snow capped mountains ☹️ But as you will discover, I more than adequately make up for that 😉

Having no stops and with pretty much clear roads all the way, we made good time and arrived at our hotel at 12:15pm, so we were not sure wether we would be able to check-in early to our room. As it was, it turned out that our timing was perfect, not only was our room available but we also managed to obtain the last available secure parking space at the hotel, otherwise it would have been a case of parking across the road in the extensive, but insecure, Alhambra car parking area. In the hotel we were greeted by two very friendly and personable ladies at the reception desk, Susana and Ines, now wether it was because we spoke to them in our bestest Espanol and produced our Spanish Residency permits, instead of British Passports, I do not know, but they seemed to go out of their way to provide us with lots of information such as the best entry gate to use to get into the ‘Free’ areas of the Alhambra grounds, the location of the bus stop, with relevant bus numbers (30 or 32) to get us in and out of the City, they also highlighted the walking routes through the well paved, and lit, forest paths in case we preferred to walk in and out of the city, also some ‘personal’ advice on Cafes/Bars & Restaurants to steer clear of in and around the Alhambra, and also within the central parts of the City, which they told us were expensive, not good quality or not particularly tourist friendly, although in truth, as far as we knew, it could just have been a case that the establishments they were recommending were actually owned by family members, or friends, or is that just a case of the more cynical side of my nature 🤷‍♂️ Although they marked some of their ‘Recommended’ establishments on the street plan that they had provided us with, we would just leave it to chance to discover the good, or the bad, for ourselves once we went on our explorations, what is it they say about ‘One man’s meat is another man’s poison’, well I for one certainly hope we don’t come across the latter 😲 it won’t matter to Shazza as she doesn’t eat meat. They also asked if we were intending visiting any ‘Flamenco’ venues, although we have already been to a Flamenco show in Seville, we had done some research on the different venues that there were in Granada as I knew Shazza would quite like to go to one, there were numerous venues all around the city which came with some very mixed reviews, some where you paid over the odds for a one hour show, inclusive of one drink, for upwards of €50 each, I would expect Shazza to get a dance lesson thrown in for that price 😲 We told them that we were considering it, they then told us that they could book us a trip if we wanted them too, or we could just do it ourselves. The cheapest and most basic that they offered being €28, which meant finding your own way to and from the venue, alternatively, one that included transport which didn’t depart the hotel until 9:15pm and combined a short walking tour of the ‘Sacramento’ area, which is the traditional historic area of the city where the Flamenco originated, the tour also included a visit to a ‘Mirador’ that had the best views of the Alhambra at night (See photo at beginning of this Ramble), then we would be taken to a traditional Cave House where we would see a Flamenco show, which included a drink of our choice, and then the transport back to the hotel, this would cost €35 (each) which actually sounded like good value, or a final choice of a 7:15pm departure by bus to a Restaurant, where we would have a 3 course Dinner, followed by a walking tour, the Flamenco show and then transport back to the hotel, at a cost of €65 (each). We said that we would let them know, which would give us time to check out the individual tours, and all important reviews, online 😉

Shazza had pre-booked us a Standard Double Room with a Terrace and had requested a ‘Quiet’ area of the hotel, we were given a room on the 5th floor right at the end of a corridor, away from the three lifts, and positioned on a corner of the five-storey building. When we entered the large room we saw that there was one massive double bed and a single bed (I allocated the single to Shazza 🤭), there were the usual en-suite facilities, a fridge, tea and coffee making facilities a flat screen TV and free WiFi, generally all the usual stuff provided by a four star hotel and the room was immaculately clean and, as we were to discover during the period of our stay, our room was serviced every morning whilst we were enjoying the very nice self-service buffet breakfast, which catered for all dietary requirements. I went to look at what view we had and to see what size of terrace we had, expecting one of those small Juliet style balcony affairs, so you can imagine my surprise when I discovered a large very sunny balcony, with a table and chairs with views over part of the pool area with far reaching views overlooking the snow capped mountains and on the other side, a view over an extensive orchard sweeping down over the valley, very nice, very nice indeed.

By the time we had parked the car, checked-in and settled in to our room we were beginning to feel a little hungry, having not found a convenient stop en-route in which to partake of our usual late breakfast. As the hotel was only a short walk to the Alhambra, no more than five minutes, we decided that for the remainder of the afternoon we would first find a place for a coffee and a snack and then we would explore the areas of the Alhambra that we were permitted to, leaving us two full days to then concentrate on exploring the City itself, from the map we were issued with, the layout of the City looked like most other’s we have visited, being divided into separate quarters, but it looked vast so how much of it we would get to explore we didn’t know. We discovered a nice Cafe opposite the Alhambra main entrance so that was our first stop. Now we are both usually pretty much accomplished at deciphering tourist street maps and finding our way around, I say ‘usually’ because on this occasion we got it totally wrong and so, instead of finding our way to one of the two ‘Free Entrance’ gates that led into the Alhambra grounds, we ended up on one of the many forest paths that lead in a steep downward direction towards the City, the clue of course should have been that the Alhambra is located at the top of the hill and we were definitely going in a downwards direction. We would need to do a little more detailed familiarisation of the map I think 🙄

However, it was quite a pleasant scenic walk, once we reached the bottom where our calf muscles and knees could be heard sighing in relief. The very narrow streets were crowded, with both people and traffic, the narrow cobbled roads did not have enough space for more than one car width, so when a car, or a shuttle bus came along, pedestrians had to stand with their backs to building walls, taking in a deep intake of breath, some more than other’s 😂 or dart into doorways, it was a bit of a battle to make much headway at first until we got closer to the city centre and to the much more spacious pedestrianised areas and Plaza’s.

Now I have to just say that this visit to ‘Granada’ was one that was on Shazza’s ‘To Do’ List and not mine. Don’t ask me why, but it is one place that has never actually appealed to me, probably because I had seen it on so many television programmes and apart from the Alhambra, wasn’t that impressed and whenever we had looked down on it, from the Motorhome or car as we passed it on the A92 when we were travelling towards Madrid, it didn’t shout out at me ‘That looks a nice place to visit’. BUT, Shazza and I have always agreed that if one of us wanted to do something, or go somewhere, and there was no good reason for the other person not to do it, then we would do these things together. Let’s face it, how many Castles, or Lighthouses, have I dragged Shazza around over the last twenty-years 🤔 So, she had wanted to do this visit and there was no good reason why I couldn’t or shouldn’t, so here we are.

Now our usual method of exploring large Towns or Cities is to just not have a method and to just wander aimlessly up and down streets, getting lost, several times, finding somewhere to have a drink or getting something to eat, whilst perusing the street map in order to find our way back in the general direction of where we wanted, or needed, to be. And so it was that after wandering through numerous maze like, narrow cobbled streets and alleyways, that tended to all look very much the same, although they all had some amazing building architecture, apartments built in stone that still looked much like they would have done when they were first built, very ornate stone, small balconies, wooden window shutters, iron railings garnished with colourful plants and shrubs. They certainly have lots of Monastries, Convents and Churches in this City, on almost every street, and it was whilst we were wandering along one of these narrow cobbled streets that we came across the very small but pretty ‘Plaza Trinidad’. There was a small ‘Kiosko’, which sold a variety of soft drinks and snacks, however, in one corner of the Plaza there was a little pavement Cafe nestled under some Orange trees which shaded it from the heat of the sun and, as luck would have it, there was one unoccupied table, that very quickly became occupied, by us !! We were appreciative of the shade as we sat with our cold beers, from the local brewery of course, ‘Alhambra Especial’, what else ? Although we discovered this particular brand in a Promenade Cafe down in our own local town on the Costa del Sol and I have to say that we prefer it to some of the other’s on offer. We spent some time just enjoying the calmness of what was now fast becoming the late afternoon, with a spot of people watching thrown in for good measure, well it would have been rude not to 🤭 There were lots of Backpackers scurrying around with their heavy loads on their backs, maps in hand, probably attempting to seek out cheap overnight hostel accommodations, and they were of all age groups and not just youngster’s, there were men and women in suits dashing to and fro, probably on their way back to their work locations after their 2 hour ‘Siesta’ lunch periods and of course lots of tourists, like us, clearly obvious with their tourist street maps in hand and stopping briefly to check and orientate themselves as to where they were, even here their were the ‘Lookie, Lookie Traders’ going from table to table, or park bench to park bench, attempting to sell their ‘Tourist Tat’ and then, just as prolific, were the street buskers, some not so good as other’s, but it all added to the ambience.

We orientated ourselves with where we were on the map and then made our way back towards the main central area of the City, to where all the main food Plaza’s were located with their vast array of Restaurants, many offering very good ‘Menu del Dia’ options, at, I have to say, very good value prices, a drink (Wine, Beer, Sangria or Soft Drink) with a small tapas, followed by three courses, each of which had multiple options ranged in price between no more than €15-€18 which was not bad for a major tourist city. We were now hungry again and needed something a little more substantial than a snack, but also somewhere that would also fulfil Shazza’s ‘Plant Based’ dietary requirements, although, with her palate now accommodating a wider variety of fish and cheese products, even she had quite a wide choice of available options. She has always said that whilst at home she will stick to her more disciplined ‘Plant Based’ regime, and when at home we do ‘both’ tend to eat the same ‘meat free’ meals, however she is more flexible when we are away from home on our ‘mini-adventures’, and as for me, as you well know by now, I just eat whatever I fancy, I felt as if I had already done my healthy bit by devouring several bowls of ‘Plant Based’ Olives with my Anti-Covid Vaccines 😋

After a delicious meal we were both beginning to wilt, a combination of having full stomach’s, several Anti-Covid Vaccines throughout the day and the searing heat, so we made our way towards where we would hopefully catch our bus back to the hotel. When I say bus it was more a mini-bus that could accommodate twenty passengers, a larger vehicle would not have been able to wind its way through the narrow twisting cobbled roads and up the steep hills, so as you may imagine there were lots of these public mini-buses racing around the city. We found our bus stop, there was quite a queue, but the buses ran every 10-15 minutes so if we were unable to get on one we would not have long to wait for another. Fortunately though we managed to put our Covid fears aside and ‘squeezed’ ourselves, standing room only, on to the first one that arrived and so, after a short fifteen minute journey, we were back outside the main entrance to the Alhambra and a very short walk away from our hotel.

Although we had very good Air-Conditioning in the room, we preferred to just keep the balcony doors open, and a large side window, so there was enough cross breeze to keep us cool, it seemed a shame to lock all the doors and windows on such a beautifully warm evening, and with sunset now not happening until well after 9pm, it was nice to be able to wander out on to the balcony into the cooling air and listen to the chitter chattering of the birds whilst still being able to look out upon the mountains and the valley. Of course, not being at home with access to all of the English speaking TV Channel’s, or ‘Netflix’, we only had the BBC World News channel on the TV, so we found ourselves watching the Spanish ‘Andalusian’ TV Channel, which had news from around all of our Provinces, including our own, but there were also some quite interesting programmes, some similar to the ‘U.K. Countryfile’ nature programme, some on regional travel locations which provided us with some new local travel ideas, their was coverage of the drought situation, which is still quite bad in some Provinces of Andalusia, unlike our own where we now have 75% capacity in our Embalse (Reservoir) which has enabled us to now have an increased ‘daily’ allowance of 200 Litres each for domestic usage, and with the news that the opening of our communal Swimming Pool is likely to be permitted from June 22nd, so things are beginning to look good for the Summer months when the temperatures will be nearer the 40 degree(c) mark 🥵 The best bit though was that we were now both able to sit, watch, listen and understand much more of the Spanish speaking TV channels, not every word mind you, but we are getting there ‘Poco Poco’ as they say in Spanish (Little by Little).

So in the end our first day, although not going strictly to plan, had actually been quite productive and given us an idea of the layout of the City, but we were able to be quite flexible on what we decided to do over the next couple of days as it appears that my OCD buddy had not managed to stow himself away in the boot of the car before we left home 👍

As I still have two more days activities to ramble about, and photo’s to include, I have decided to divide these rambles into separate parts, so until I get around to writing Part 2………………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos (La Vida Es Buena)

It is funny when you sometimes look back on your life at just how much not only life changes, but how your personal ambitions and goals in life sometimes change too. I remember thinking, probably when I was around my late thirties or very early forties, that my own personal success in life, when I finally reached retirement age, would primarily be measured by how much money I had managed to save in the bank in which to comfortably enjoy those retirement year’s, with the goal of being able to retire mortgage and completely debt free, owning my own house, bungalow or cottage outright, located somewhere where I actually ‘wanted’ to live, not just where I could only afford to live, with of course the metaphoric roses around the door, the nice conservatory and sun drenched patio, for lazing away the warm sunny days looking upon the perfectly mowed and manicured green and weed free lawn, with perhaps a small greenhouse and potting shed tucked away at the bottom of the garden, full of ripening red tomatoes. Naturally there would be the nice brightly polished car on the driveway, for taking us out on day trips, or to a country pub for Sunday lunches or to use to go and visit the children and grandchildren and perhaps even great grandchildren. That was how I was brought up, believing that this end goal was the ‘only’ purpose for working the best part of fifty years of my life.

Now you may be thinking ‘What’s wrong with that ?’, that actually sounds pretty much perfect, and yes, I cannot deny that it does, and I would probably have been perfectly happy if that was how my life had ended up. But life often has the habit of kicking you in the ‘crown jewels’, putting numerous obstacles in your way in an attempt to prevent you from attaining that retirement bliss. I certainly could never have imagined that only one year after celebrating my Silver Wedding Anniversary, that I would quite suddenly find myself divorced, there were no obvious warning signs that my then wife would have an affair with a man ten years my junior, I mean I was still only 47 years old at the time, but there I was, suddenly faced with looking after two daughter’s, a 12 year old, and an 18 year old who had only just left home to commence her University life, but who still needed both emotional and financial support, I was fortunate enough to be able to keep the marital home, but had to get into more debt to pay my ex-wife her half share of it’s value, half of the contents of the Bank balance and half of our meagre savings, my life, my ambitions, my dreams and my long term financial plan had suddenly just crumbled before my very eyes. I was never one to believe in ‘Fate’ or ‘Serendipity’, however, three years later, and then over the next twenty-years, I was to come to believe that both those things did actually exist, and that ‘things do sometimes happen for a reason’ and to discover what real happiness looked and felt like.

During the period, living full time in the Motorhome, Shazza and I both had big plans to travel, although on a very limited, but doable, budget, initially we would travel throughout Europe, but then wider afield, perhaps shipping the van to the USA or Canada and perhaps even to Australia and New Zealand, travelling until such time as we had either done it all, got fed up, or until we were forced to stop due to other reasons. Now circumstances, some of which were totally beyond ‘our’ own control, and other’s through decisions we ourselves were to make, or through family medical issues, prevented those initial much wider travel dreams from coming to fruition, but we had by then both developed ‘Itchy Feet’ syndrome and so the ‘Wanderlust’ remained. Although we had a rough direction of travel, I was more than happy for Shazza to come up with the destinations where we would stop, wether overnight, or for a few days or sometimes even longer, she was always very eager to plan a sort of loose itinerary for the places that we would visit and would spend hours looking at maps and researching guide books for the areas that we were in. But yet again fate was to intervene, although at the time we didn’t know just how big an impact that particular piece of fate, purchasing a ‘Lock and Leave’ property in Spain, was to have on our future lives. Anyway, I have already documented that part of our our lives in my numerous previously published blogs.

However, back to the here and now. It would be fair to say that the processes and procedures of obtaining our Retirement Visas (NLV) to come and live here in Spain on a more permanent basis, was a little more protracted than we had envisaged, although in truth, part of that additional time was the process and procedures for importing our car from the UK, but basically our ‘Itchy Feet’ for some wider travels had to be put on hold, although we have still managed, in our first ten months of living here, to conduct some shorter more localised trips, which you will already be familiar with from the associated rambles I published about them, but I was now beginning to look forward to being able to start to think about planning, and fulfilling, some of our ‘Bucket List’ travels. I have said many times previously in these rambles at just how lucky we feel to have, through ‘Fate’, managed to find ourselves living in a perfect property, in this perfect coastal location in Southern Spain, with everything we need within an easy walking distance, or only a very short drive away, a swimming pool, several beaches, chiringuito’s, shops etc. all quite literally on our doorstep, and it is a location which is very similar to many of the holiday destinations that, in our past conventional lives, we had payed a lot of money to fly out to for a short two-week holiday.

What I had not anticipated was that Shazza would become so content with our location and lifestyle here, that she would not feel the need, or desire, to want to be or go anywhere else, even for a holiday, she feels that living here is just like being on one permanent holiday. Now I fully understand how she feels, to a degree, as I too thoroughly enjoy where we now live, but for me, well what is that saying about ‘Familiarity Can Breed Contempt’, routines can bring ‘boredom’ for me, and so, whilst I do really enjoy this lifestyle and location, I do however still get ‘Itchy Feet Syndrome’, so I still want to travel to see new places, both here in Spain and also much wider afield, not necessarily typically tourist towns, cities or attractions, as I much prefer landscapes and nature, but there will certainly come a time when, for whatever the reason, wether it be age, health, mobility or even just financial constraints, we will not be able to do the sort of travelling that we are still currently able to do 🤷‍♂️ I am also very conscious that I am nearly nine years older than my beloved, and whilst I am still currently very healthy and relatively fit, that age difference ‘may’ start to become more apparent as our future years together progress, a topic that we have discussed between ourselves quite openly several times. However, currently being equally as fit and healthy as Shazza and very much motivated and excited for new travel adventures doesn’t currently help my argument in respect of my potential future geriatric state or for my desire to do things sooner, rather than later 🤔

So, as mentioned in my last ramble, It appeared that I would now have to take over the initiative for getting us ‘both’ out of our ‘Comfort Zones’, planning either day trips locally, like the last one I wrote about, just being within a couple of hour’s drive, but very enjoyable, but also for some wider more extended duration travel trips, to take at some point in the future. Now, wether it be because she is concerned that such trips will be to locations that are completely of my choosing, or because she fears that it may re-ignite the more organised side of my OCD, which she believed she now had under some sort of control, but anyway, whatever the reason, thankfully, and to my complete and utter surprise, the old Shazza suddenly re-ignited.

We were sat on the balcony, it was Wednesday afternoon, just a week after returning from our recent day trip to the ‘Faro de Trafalgar’, when she suddenly blurts out without any kind of pre-warning, “How do you fancy going to Granada ?”, now this has always been a location on our travel ‘To Do List’, “That sounds good, when do you want to go ?” I respond, “On Monday, and we can stay until the Thursday as the Hotel prices are reduced doing the week” she says very excitedly, she had obviously already planned this and looked at the hotels in advance of her sudden announcement to me, as is her more usual modus operandi As soon as I had agreed she was straight on to the on-line accommodation booking site and job done, Yes ! That’s the Shazza I know and love, welcome back, I thought to myself. The rest of that afternoon we both spent looking at ‘Google’ maps, on our own respective iPads, checking out the hotel and its proximity to some of the other places that we had both identified that we wanted to visit in and around the city. Unfortunately, there are parts of the ‘Alhambra’ that require the purchase of tickets to get into, but these are booked up months in advance, however, we discovered that you can still possibly visit various other areas of the extensive grounds without the need to purchase tickets and, with the added bonus of our selected, and now pre-booked hotel, being only a few minutes walk away, so it would be one of the first places that we would visit 👍 Shazza also then got on to one of her ‘You Tube’ foodie channels and has loosely planned a ‘Tapas Route’ in and around the city, listing some of the recommended establishments, and she also identified the area of the city most associated to the origins of the ‘Flamenco’ culture, with some of the renovated traditional cave houses providing hourly shows. So mi amigos, you now you know in advance of what my next ramble after this will be all about 😉

The following morning we just conducted our normal daily routine, a leisurely morning for me on the balcony with my coffee, Shazza in bed with her’s, as usual, but unusually that morning, we were both washed and dressed and out on our daily walk slightly earlier than normal. It has to be said that it was a beautiful morning once again, but with the added bonus that the recent strong winds had subsided, so it was now more of just a very gentle breeze. Whilst in our local town, and after partaking of the now obligatory ‘Cafe con Leche y Tostado’ at our usual Spanish cafe on the seafront promenade, I went to get my haircut, an event that takes place every six weeks or so, I cannot wait to go bald, that will save a few sheckles 😂 Shazza went to the ‘Fruiterias’ to get a few bits for our salad dinner later that evening, our timings were impeccable as just as I had paid for my haircut, Shazza arrived at the door having finished her mini-shop. We never have a plan for how long our walks will take, we can be out for just a couple of hours, other times it can be sometimes four or five, it depends a lot on the weather and our mood. On this particular morning we were both quite excited with the thought of our upcoming adventure to Granada, and that was the subject that monopolised our conversation, so we stopped for another coffee in the town at another one of our now favourite Spanish Cafe’s, a couple of streets back from the seafront promenade, before heading back towards the Marina. Sometimes, if we are just enjoying being out, we will stop at the Marina and have a lunchtime drink and Tapas and, on other occasions we just walk straight through to the village, where we usually park the car, and then we return home. On this particular day neither of us was ready to return home, we were enjoying the sunshine too much, but we were not hungry, so we just stopped and whilst Shazza enjoyed a small cold beer I sat and enjoyed a rather pleasant ‘copa de vino tinto’ (glass of red wine), we practiced our Spanish together by conducting short general conversations with each other, we were both quite pleased with how we have progressed, but we also enjoyed listening in to other people’s conversations at the tables around us, which was easy to do on this occasion as the majority of the customer’s in this particular Marina Cafe were also British, so between that and the usual spot of conducting our ‘Fashion Police’ duties on what people who were passing by were wearing, with just some general people and boat watching thrown in for good measure, which of course would have been so rude not to 🤭 so we easily passed another hour of our not so busy day before returning home. On another day we would have conducted very similar activities, but perhaps in the nearby town of Estepona, just by way of a change of scenery.

So I guess that looking back on our lives, our ambitions, our dreams, there was an acceptance by the both of us, that it is now no longer a case of us continually searching for something, although neither of us really knowing at the time what that something really was, but now we have both found a certain contentment in discovering that, what we once thought that we ‘wanted’, has actually turned into an appreciation of realising what we both already now ‘have’. There is actually no need to rush around from place to place, or even country to country, as contrary to my sometimes unnecessary age anxieties, we do still have plenty of time to conduct many of our travel adventures, or is that just her excuse for keeping me on a healthy plant based diet 🤔 In reality, the truth of the matter is that Shazza prefers her travel adventures to be conducted on a more spontaneous basis, whilst me and my OCD buddy just sometimes need a little more time to formulate a plan 😉 It reminds me of the Nursery Rhyme….. Jack Spratt could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean, so between the both of them, they licked the platter clean…….

Until the next ramble……….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos (La Vida Es Buena)