After days and days of awakening to the usual clear blue skies and warm sunshine, it was a more overcast start to our morning, on the day that we decided to head out on a short mini-adventure. Now this trip had not been one of those spontaneous decisions, pre-empted with a morning conference call on the balcony with Shazza, no starting gambit by her of “What do you want to do today”, we hadn’t actually had any of those for some time now, what with Shazza these days more than content with her new life here, and of course with us no longer being on a strict ninety-day time schedule. So although there was no formal handing over of the baton ceremony, it would appear that the responsibility to take over the mantle of planning any ‘Adventures’ has been put onto my shoulders. Of course, there was no way that my OCD buddy would ever permit me to make spontaneous decisions, not that any of Shazza’s previous adventures were really that spontaneous, she had always planned them in advance and kept them to herself, the only short notice notification was when she decided to inform me of them. So, although over the last couple of months I have been actively researching and planning some future, more extended, travel itineraries, this particular ‘mini-adventure’ had also actually been on the cards for a good couple of weeks, only the weather, and ‘other’ domestic type priority commitments, had delayed this particular departure.

We have already travelled a lot of the Atlantic coast over the last nine years or so, both in Portugal and here in Spain, most of it during the course of our more nomadic Motor homing days, but we had also visited some parts of the Cadiz Province coastline on day trips, when we had come across to stay at our ‘Bolt Hole’ from the UK with our car. Much like the Mediterranean side of the coast, the Western Atlantic side, although more rugged, also has its own spectacular landscapes, with fantastic long golden stretches of sandy beaches along with the usual historic Villages, Towns and Cities and also several National Parks. However, the Atlantic coast is notorious for experiencing very much more wilder weather, battered frequently by storms originating many thousand of miles away and carried across on the Gulf Stream from the Eastern seaboards of America, so that meant that some consideration to the weather conditions along that coastline was an essential part of any trip planning. So, provided that the ‘Works of Fiction’ was to get its ‘forecast’ at least somewhere near correct, my fingers were crossed that I had selected the right day for our particular trip, with shorts and short sleeve shirts being the dress code for the day, and no picnic lunch required, as I had planed to find somewhere nice to have lunch.

Although we have already driven along the majority of this particular stretch of the Atlantic coastline, from Huelva in the North, right down to Tarifa in the South, we hadn’t stopped and visited every single location along that stretch of coastline and, as I particularly like coastline locations, there were still a number of places that I wanted to visit. I guess the same could be said of our own Mediterranean side, from Gibraltar right up to Malaga, however, the majority of locations along that stretch are primarily full of tourist hotels, private beach clubs, Villas, Private apartment complexes, numerous golf courses and of course campsites. But it is still possible to find the secluded bays, if you are adventurous enough, and prepared to traverse rough and uneven stone tracks, which are only really generally suitable for four-wheeled vehicles, although it has to be said that all types and sizes of Motorhomes, and Camper Vans, appear to always manage to find such hidden gems, if only they would learn to stop sharing such idyllic secret hideaways, then they may remain idyllic and secluded 😉

I have actually wanted, for some time now, to go across to look at the ‘Faro D Trafalgar’, a lighthouse, and you may well ask ‘Why’ ? Knowing by now that we are both self-confessed history heathens, but Lighthouses and Castles just hold a certain fascination for me, although perhaps not so much for Shazza, but if their is a chance of a lunch thrown in, that she has not had to prepare and cook, then she is generally up for a ride out in the car. This particular lighthouse was located almost directly on a beach, surrounded by sand dunes, as opposed to being hundreds of metres up above the sea and sat precariously on a cliff edge. Apart from the history of such places, I actually enjoy the romanticism of them, I find myself imagining what it must have been like to have lived in one, making sure that the lenses of the massive lamp were always clean and that the lights remained serviceable and of course lit, then sitting inside the thick brick walls listening to the raging storm outside, the storm force winds whistling and the raging waves banging on the doors and windows. Unfortunately these days, not many lighthouses are actually permanently manned. Most being automated and managed remotely, with only the occasional routine visits for maintenance purposes. So, for those of you that may be interested in the more historical related facts, I have once again enlisted the help of ‘Mr Google’ to supply a little bit of background for you, yes I know, you don’t have to say it, I am good like that 😁

During Roman times, it was the site of a temple dedicated to the god Juno. Many divers claim to have seen its remains and, in particular, its sacrificial altar, beneath the surface at Cape Trafalgar. Later on, in the ninth century, the Muslims built a settlement whose remains lie next to the lighthouse. In 1805, one of the most famous and bloody battles in history took place. French and Spanish ships clashed against the British fleet of Admiral Nelson, (he led them to victory in some six hours, although he died from a gunshot wound that same afternoon). During the battle, 60 ships bombarded and collided with one another, with some sinking to the bottom of the ocean floor on the Cádiz coast. With over 5,000 dead and 4,000 injured, the splendour of the Spanish navy was finally finished with.

In 1860, little over half a century after the famous battle, Trafalgar Lighthouse was erected in this place but long before the battle of Trafalgar, pirates of Berber origin used to attack the area, and, in order to defend against them, Philip II built a watchtower (whose archaeological remains can still be found). Nevertheless, they were not the first, as the Romans had already established a fish nursery and salting factory long before. 

So, as you all well know, road trips are not always about the final destination but more about the journey getting there. There were three potential routes to our destination, although there was only a difference of twelve minutes between the three of them and, as I would be doing the driving on the outbound portion of the trip, I chose the shortest, as far as Kilometres were concerned, although, contrary to what the map below may show, it wasn’t necessarily the quickest, but quite conveniently this route would take us through the central part of the ‘Parque Natural Los Alcornocales’. Unlike the two alternative routes, it would entail driving on more quieter rural roads, side by side with nature, which is far more enjoyable to drive than the often boring dual-carriage ways.

We had to initially take the A7 South towards Los Barrios before joining the dual carriage way along the A381, which is a very familiar stretch of road to us and one that, on another day, would have taken us as far as Jerez de la Frontera, before turning on to the A4 Motorway Northwards to Seville, then on up to the ferry ports at either Santander or Bilbao. However, this time we would only be going a short way along the A381 before turning off to go cross country. Although it had been 18 degrees(c) and a little overcast when we departed home that morning at 10:00am, by the time we reached the turn off on the A381 ‘the sun had got his hat on and was coming out to play’, the country road was ghostly quiet, very winding and undulating with no safety edges or barriers along the road, so their was no room for lack of concentration, misjudging a curve in the road could be disastrous, but it was an exciting route to drive and I thoroughly enjoyed it, Shazza on the other hand is actually quite a nervous passenger at the best of times, even on much wider and straighter roads, more to do with her not being in control than my actual driving abilities, and I had to smile to myself when I saw her leg keep pushing down on an imaginary brake pedal when we approached bends in the road 😂

Now I know that I may possibly be showing my ignorance here, but I have always associated Spain with traditional home grown produce such as, Olives, Oranges, Lemons, Apples, Grapes, Pomegranates, Almonds, Tomatoes, Peppers, well basically all of the fresh produce that you see growing around the normal Spanish countryside and which is all readily available on the supermarket shelves, the only exception to that being that in some parts of Spain they even grow the type of rice that is used for making the traditional Paella dishes. So what I am attempting to say is that I am more used to driving and seeing hectares of Olive groves, as far as the eye can see, or orchards laden with their numerous different fruits, from the brightly coloured Oranges that stand out amongst their surrounding deep vivid green leaves, or the citrus yellow of the Lemons, the green Apples and Pears. Additionally, driving through the more elevated areas and rockier outcrops we were pretty used to seeing Goats, seemingly just wandering unsupervised along the roadside or climbing up trees to feast amongst the leaves, buds and berries, although we knew that somewhere, not too far behind them, more usually following them under the shade of the trees, would be the shepherd with his canine companion who, upon command, would herd the seemingly disorganised rabble of animals and force them into the direction they needed to go. So as I sat driving along narrow winding roads, through the lush greenery of the undulating Natural Park, along roads lined with forests of tall Pines, all of which bore the most picturesque wide green canopied hats, providing us with shade from the heat of the now bright sunshine, I was surprised to see so much lush green landscape, especially when this part of Andalusia has been in drought conditions for well over a year. Now I don’t know if it is just me, but I do not usually associate Spain with Beef, or Milk, as most Beef you see advertised in Restaurants generally originates from outside the Country, Argentina and even Scotland, and the Spanish only usually consume ‘Long Life Milk’, the fresh cow’s milk is only generally available in the more tourist areas. Yes, you are right in thinking that the Spanish do make their own Cheese, but this is more often produced from Sheep or Goat’s milk, so, you can imagine my surprise to suddenly come across fields and fields of herds of Cows, from herds of pure white breeds, to the more usual tan brown colour, all of which, I hasten to add, had large threatening horns emanating from their heads, and yes, in case you think I am getting confused, they were cows and not Spanish Bulls, the gender difference is easy to spot, even with my bad eye 🤭 But that wasn’t the only surprise, I know that in the North of Spain, it is mainly Agricultural and so when we have been travelling to the Ferry Ports we have seen the fields of Wheat, and Corn, and other associated field grown vegetables, but I have never seen that sort of produce being grown this far South in Andalusia, well at least not until this particular day. Some of the wheat fields had already been harvested whilst other’s waited patiently, wafting their heads of fruit in the light breeze, just waiting their turn to be plucked from their stems. Seeing fields of square shaped straw bales made me smile, as it took me back to when I was a young lad and worked on a farm in the school holidays, loading these heavy bales on to a trailer, these days I am more used to seeing large round shaped bales, wrapped in metres and metres of different coloured plastic, just stood in fields waiting for a tractor to come, with a fork type mechanism on the front which would lift them onto the trailer, so not many Summer farm jobs for schoolboys these days I imagine. My god 😲 I can actually hear myself sounding old as I reminisce about those days, surely I cannot be at that time of life when everything was of course much better in ‘our day’ !!

Then, and to be totally honest, I saw something that ordinarily I would not normally get too excited about, in fact in the UK it was always the cause of much frustration and irritation when driving, on an almost daily basis. That frustration and irritation being caused by getting stuck behind tractor’s and trailers, or big combine harvesters, but I can confidently say that in ten years of driving here on Spanish roads this has never happened to us. However, on this day I saw three tractors, and all within less than ten minutes of each other, fortunately, they were all going in the opposite direction to us.

I was really enjoying my drive through this piece of rural countryside, driving for miles, rarely seeing another vehicle, let alone another human being, it seemed strange, because you would drive past the Olive groves, the Orchards, or even fields full of grazing animals, cows, horses, goats, but rarely did you catch sight of a farmhouse, although sometimes you could see them way off in the distance, but even though you couldn’t see them, you knew they were there, because at various points along this quiet country road you would come across tracks, which had two large ornate metal gates at the entrance, or a brick or stone entrance, and somewhere along that track you knew that eventually you would arrive at the farm and outbuildings. Because of the narrow winding roads I barely got above a speed of 40mph, but this enabled me to enjoy the scenery around me, this is the sort of driving that I enjoy the most, not the breakneck speeds that are travelled on the boring Motorways or Dual-Carriageway roads and, to be honest, it is what I enjoyed about driving in different countries in our Motorhomes, having of course the added advantage of having a more elevated driving and passenger position.

Speaking of Motorhomes, appearing out of nowhere, we had turned a corner and started to climb a hill, to discover in front of us a small German registered motorhome and, in front of that, a UK registered Campervan, with no room or long straight stretches for us to overtake them, not that we were in any hurry anyway, although my forward view was now somewhat limited, so we just sat behind them and remembered the not so distant days when that would have been us holding up traffic.

Eventually, we entered the lively town of ‘Benalup-Casas-Viejas’, to give it its Sunday name, any other time it is simply referred to as ‘Benalup’. There were lots of Yellow ‘tourist’ street signs, these can be seen in most tourist towns, advertising mainly the direction of Hotels and other local sightseeing Attractions, so this was evidence of it being a popular tourist location, albeit well off the beaten track. There were plenty of pedestrians, and vehicles, in the town, although it wasn’t crowded and the roads themselves were quite wide, enough space for vehicles like buses and lorries to pass each other comfortably. Our route was well signposted, well it was the only main road along this route so it wasn’t difficult and we soon found ourselves at the far end of the town, where the road quietened down again, although I still had my two escorts for company.

At the next slightly smaller town of ‘Vejer-de-la-Frontera’, which in this instance the main road actually by-passed, we came to a roundabout, here we would turn right and be on the road that would take us to our ultimate destination, you could almost smell the sea air. Just across the roundabout there was a nice looking Cafe with an external patio, we both needed a ‘Comfort Break’ and so decided that as we had not eaten breakfast before departing, it was just about the right time for our customary ‘Cafe con Leche y Tostado’ and by way of a bonus it would also enable us to allow our travel escorts to head off, with us no longer in their rear view cab side mirrors.

The friendliness of the Spanish still amazes me, you would think that we would be used to it by now, but even though we are strangers, whenever you walk in to Cafe’s, or small shops, anyone else who happens to be in there at the time all look and say ‘Buenas Dias’, promoting the same cordial response back. The same when people leave, they say ‘Adios’ or ‘Hasta Luego’ to the whole room as they leave and so of course, we returned the polite gestures, although using ‘Adios’ when we left, rather than ‘Hasta Luego’, as it was very unlikely that we would see any of them again soon. The elderly waiter arrived and greeted us with a smile, with the same friendly welcome, we ordered, in our bestest Spanish of course, with these particular Spanish words being very familiar to us by now, at least we will never go hungry or thirsty wherever we are in Spain 😉 Once we finished our later than usual breakfast, I went inside to pay the bill, this time a different elderly gentleman was stood behind the bar area, it was his duty to make the drinks, plate up the food and issue the bills. Anyway, he started to converse with me, in Spanish, this was going to be my first real test, and I have to confess that I only managed to get the gist of his conversation from some of the key words that I recognised when he spoke. I knew that he was enquiring wether I was a tourist and what Country I came from, so I was able to explain that I was English, that I now live in Spain and also explained whereabouts we live. He then asked where we were going and it became immediately obvious to me, from his facial expression, that he was familiar with the words ‘Faro de Trafalgar’, he then said that the town, ‘Vejer’, where this Cafe was located, was the bridge between the two coastlines of Malaga Province and Cadiz Province, I realised that he was speaking metaphorically as there wasn’t actually a bridge and we had entered the Province of Cadiz almost an hour earlier, as we actually live on the edge of the Malaga Province, just a couple of Kilometres from the border with our neighbouring province of Cadiz. This whole conversation had been spoken in Spanish and so I came away with a smile of self-satisfaction on my face, generally I am used to speaking smatterings of small conversations with some of the locals in our home town, but they also understand and speak English, so when I come across words that I forget, or do not know in Spanish, I can say them in English and so it still makes sense to them, but this was the first time that I had held a conversation, albeit still only a relatively short one, in Spanish, with a complete stranger, my day just kept getting better and better and we hadn’t even arrived at our destination yet.

Having checked Google maps beforehand, I knew exactly where the car park that we needed was located, it was behind a chain link fence and all the bays were clearly marked, although it was pretty much empty other than a couple of other vehicles. It cost us €3 to park there, but this was for ‘all day’ parking, which I thought was pretty good value for money, although had we have known, we could have easily have found a place on the side of the road which would have cost us nothing, but come on, in the UK, parking a few minutes walk from an expansive sandy beach, sand dunes and a Tourist Attraction, you would have been lucky to have seen any change from £10 !!

Around the perimeter fence a boardwalk had been erected so we had a stroll, admiring the views and the vast expanse of the surrounding sand dunes, it is quite amazing at the variety of grasses, flowers and shrubs that will grow in sand. There were of course 360 degree views and with the bay, beach and small village of Los Canos de Meca on one side (where we had parked the car), the town and beach of Zahora on the other, and with the for once quite calm Atlantic Ocean stretching out before us, what an idyllic location. Facing West, out to sea, many people come here in the evenings to watch the sunset, we wouldn’t be here that long though. Although there was a tarmac road up to the lighthouse, which was closed off to traffic of the general public, even so, the majority of it was covered in thick but soft golden sand and, with the lighthouse of course being erected on higher ground, walking uphill, barefoot in thick soft sand, it started to tell on the calf muscles, so it was a nice relief when we got to the top. We walked around the lighthouse building, although from outside the tall fence there was not a lot to see and then we decided to descend to the rocky shoreline below, initially via some wooden steps, and then using the crags and rock pools down to the shoreline where we had to zig zag a way around to the sheltered beach area in the bay. Of course we had to dip our toes and have a paddle, it would have been rude not to, but we soon discovered that the Atlantic certainly wasn’t yet at a comfortable swimming temperature 🥶

Now when I had initially planned this trip, this had been the ultimate destination, I had not scheduled anything else in to the itinerary, thinking that perhaps we may have found a ‘Chiringuito’ in which to enjoy a casual lunch, we had the sun chairs in the boot of the car, so we could have spent the remainder of the afternoon just doing a spot of sunbathing, before returning home later that afternoon, I really had not made any other plans. There were several hostelries available near the beach, however, neither had we scheduled a late breakfast stop into the proceedings so neither of us were now hungry, albeit it was now a little after 1pm. So, with my OCD buddy feeling quite relaxed we decided to risk conducting some further spontaneous travels, namely making our way 11 Kilometres further down the coastal road, to the seaside town of Barbate.

Barbate is located at the mouth of the River Barbate, along the coast east of Cape Trafalgar and within the La Brenda y Marissa’s del Barbate Natural park. Barbate has a long history of fishing stretching back to Roman times when fish salting was at its peak. Along with several other coastal towns along this coastal region of Cadiz Province, it is now renowned for its sustainable Tuna fishing heritage and unique technique of catching them. The town also has an interactive Tuna Industry Museum, but as is usual with us, it was closed at the time that we chose to visit it 🙄

We managed to find a small car park at the entrance to the town, it was ‘Free’ with the added bonus of it having a sun shelter over each bay. A quick look on Google Maps showed that the town had a long seafront promenade, so we just followed our noses and within a few minutes we were there. The beach was vast, the water a beautiful turquoise colour and the sand was once again of the soft and golden variety, but it was very very quiet, everywhere 🤔 Their were rows and rows of Cafe/Bars and Restaurants, and although open, most were empty, or at best, had a couple of people sat at just one table. Fortunately we were still not hungry, but we were beginning to get quite thirsty, so we made our way to the first available Cafe/Bar and with our two small ‘ice-cold’ Cruzcampo beers, we just sat, soaking up the sunshine and enjoying the tranquility of the place.

Now at this stage we had to decide what to do next as there was still more than enough daylight left ? Did we make our way back and have a late afternoon lunch back at our own Marina ? or perhaps we may find somewhere en route and stop there ? Shazza had volunteered to do the drive back and she opted to just return the same way we had come, we could even stop at the same Cafe where we had our late breakfast as they also served lunches, so decision made. However, just a few miles outside of Barbate, we (Shazza 🤭) had a slight misunderstanding with our Sat Nav and so instead of making our way back along the route we had come, we ended up taking the coastal road South towards Tarifa, although it was a much faster and better surfaced road and to be honest it wasn’t a massive deviation. As it turned out, and as we have often discovered during many of our previous nomadic Adventures, a ‘Swerve In The Road’ can sometimes turn out to be a blessing in disguise, we have always said that things happen for a reason ?

Just a little way out from Tarifa I saw a sign for ‘Bolonia’, now this dislodged a memory that had been stored somewhere in the deep recesses of my brain. Our Spanish neighbour, ‘Miguel’, had once asked, back in the days when we still had our Motorhome, whether we had ever wild-camped at Bolonia Beach, which as it turned out we hadn’t. He had told us how beautiful it was, the glorious beach, the turquoise coloured sea and a big sand dune that you can climb up. So, having reminded Shazza of that conversation she said, “Shall we go and take a look ?”, “Why not” I replied, and so that is how we not only discovered an exquisite tropical looking paradise (See Photo at top of this Page), but where we ended up having a lovely late afternoon fish lunch, washed down with a rather pleasant glass of Anti-Covid Vaccine 🍷 at a wonderful Chiringuito overlooking yet another gorgeous beach.

Well I guess that fate is till working its magic for us from time to time, for had we have not taken the ‘alternative’ route home, then to this day we still would never have visited Bolonia Beach, or found such an idyllic place to enjoy what was to be either a very late lunch, or an early dinner 🤔

We continued to follow the coast road, past Tarifa, where we could still see all the kite sails out on the water, then we turned East towards Algeciras and Gibraltar, this road now very familiar to us from several previous journeys along it, our journey ‘From The Med To The Atlantic’ was almost over, we returned home at just a little after 5:30pm having experienced a most wonderful day, even my OCD buddy had not been perturbed at conducting a number of unplanned deviations, perhaps he too is beginning to learn how to relax into this kind of lifestyle 😉

Until the next ramble……………………….

Hasta Luego Mi Amigos (La Vida Es Buena)

According to the local media, the Airport at Malaga is getting much busier now, not that it ever seemed to be not busy whenever we go there, our local campsite just five minutes down the road already has its ‘Site Full’ sign out at the front entrance 😲 Shazza and I have also observed that there are a lot more Motorhomes on our local roads up and down the Costa del Sol coastline, as well as the nearby AP7 motorway, which gives a fast link for the ferries for those going to, or returning from, Morocco. The car park spaces in our village and town are certainly much fuller than they were just a few short weeks ago and the prices in the Chiringuito’s, Cafe’s, Bars and Restaurants have all suddenly increased, so I guess that you don’t have to be a brain surgeon to realise that the 2024 holiday season has once again commenced. However, the seafront promenades, at least the one in our town and the one in Estepona, both still appear to be a little quieter than we had anticipated, but I am sure that that will change, as the temperatures begin to improve, from the chilly Winter 18-20 degrees(c) 🤭 climbing gradually towards the much warmer and hotter Summer 30-40 degrees(c) 🥵 Fortunately for us, as it would not have impacted on the tourists staying in Hotels or ‘Officially Certified’ holiday accommodations, both the storms we have had recently, the four day one swiftly followed by the seven day one, with the subsequent assistance of the ‘run offs’ from the mountains, has meant that the reservoir suppling our area has now reached just a little over 70% capacity, resulting in the Andalusian Government raising our personal domestic water usage allowance by 25%, from 160 Litres each, per day, to 200 Litres each, at least that will now mean we can save some money on not having to purchase as many wet wipes and deodorant sprays 😂 I did think about continuing to utilise my prayer mat to try and get a few more drops of the wet stuff to try and raise the reservoir capacity to 100%, but to be honest, I didn’t want to push my luck too far with the big man upstairs who had already generously answered my previous requests, BUT, just in case he is my ‘Anonymous’ subscriber to these rambles, a little bit more before the end of April would be very much appreciated 🙄

The decision, on whether our communal swimming pool will be allowed to be opened again, has now been delegated down to the local Mayors in each Municipality, so the jungle drums on our local social media forums are already reporting optimistic news for our locality. However, even if it were to be a favourable decision, it is still too early in the year to use unheated pools like our’s, as whilst the ‘air’ temperature may be reasonably warm, the ‘water’ temperatures are still pretty cold, which also includes the sea temperature. So, unless you come from Scandinavia, or other similar locations, and enjoy wild swimming in icy lakes and rivers, then for Shazza and myself it will probably be nearer the end of May before we dare to risk putting any of our lower bodily extremities into it 😲

We have however had yet another visit from the ‘Clima’, that orange coloured sand blown in from the Sahara, but this time the authorities issued a warning stating that the air quality was ‘Very Unhealthy’, last time it was only categorised as ‘Unhealthy’, so, and probably very much like ourselves, you may also be very well asking, “What makes the difference between the two categories ?” The answer to that is………………………..🤷‍♂️ However, that latest ‘Clima’ event only lasted for a couple of days before ‘Normal Service Was Resumed’ 😎

We have now submitted all of our documentation to our Solicitor’s so that they can now submit our residency permit renewal applications to the Spanish Immigration Authorities, for as we know, we are classed as ‘Immigrants’ in the eyes of the Spanish, and not ‘Expats’, as some of our fellow countrymen, and women, prefer to refer to themselves. Now whilst we continue to fulfill all of the criteria required, you cannot take it as a given that the renewed residency permit will be granted, for which some have already discovered when their renewal applications were refused, although they were subsequently successfully issued upon appeal 🤷‍♂️ So, until our solicitor’s come back to us stating that our applications have been approved, we are not taking anything for granted, so to quote the proverbial operatic themed saying, it is not over ‘Until The Fat Lady Sings’. At least if we are successful with our applications, then we will not have to go through this procedure again for a further two years 👍

Now you may also have to get used to a change in the title of our travel adventures, only by way of them becoming ‘Eric’s Adventures’ as opposed to what you previously knew as ‘Shazza Adventures’. I have recently planned what could be one extended road trip, within Spain, or what could probably become four or five shorter road trips of four or five day durations, which I think would be much more enjoyable and which would allow us to conduct them at a more leisurely pace with time to see a lot more things in each of the areas we intend to visit. Additionally I have a few single day trips planned, just to give us a bit of a change from our current more regular and routine daily schedules. However, these will have to be slotted in, between ‘other’ necessary personal upcoming commitments, and visitor’s that have already been scheduled into our diaries, but at least now the opportunity for us to travel a bit more is now beginning to open up and, once we get our residency permits renewed, we can then at least plan a lot further ahead and to then perhaps widen our travel horizons further afield 👍

Now you will know how I often complain about all the ‘Doom and Gloom’ in the news media publications, in all their forms, televised, printed publications or indeed, much more these days, on Social Media platforms. Interestingly enough I cannot remember when we last watched the U.K. News broadcasts on the television and even on my iPad I now only speed read through the headlines, ignoring the Political, Celebrity and even Environmentally focused ones and concentrate a bit more on any Financial one’s that may impact on us personally, Bank Interest Rates, Pensions etc. However, it isn’t just the U.K. press that are full of ‘Doom and Gloom’, Spanish media is just as bad and so what I try to do now is to seek out the more humorous, lighthearted or totally outrageous headlines, which tends to brighten my mornings. By way of example I have selected a few to share with you from the Spanish newspapers:

Now in our own little village where we park our car, in the mornings, we often see an elderly lady, probably in her 80’s, stood on the corner of the street in her dressing gown, just watching the world go by and waving at passing pedestrians and people passing by in their car’s, and yes, we often wave back, it would be rude not to. In the U.K. in Shazza’s mums village we have also seen women, not necessarily in their senior years, go to the Newsagent/Tobacconist in their ‘Onesies’. However I have to confess that I have never seen anyone go into a town hall on business in their nightwear, I suppose we should be thankful that they elect to put on some sort of clothing, as many people these days don’t wear any form of nightwear 🫣

I guess that if he had stuck to just wearing his Angel wings and guitar the worst he would have suffered from would have been candle wax burns. Thank goodness it wasn’t a female priest reading the sermon about the ‘burning bush’ 🤭

Now I am sure that we have all done it at some point whilst on holiday, purchased from the battalions of ‘Looky Looky’ traders, a cheap carton or two of cigarettes, some sort of headwear to shade ourselves from the scorching Spanish sun, perhaps even a handbag or purse etc. etc. and of course all at ‘ASDA’ or Walmart’ price no less. But now, and currently only in Benalmádena, although if successful could stretch right along the Spanish coastline, you could be fined for contributing to aiding and abetting illegal street crime 😲 It will be interesting to see how they manage to find the resources to police this latest initiative 🤔

And finally, I have saved the best till last as this my friends is no April Fool joke……………

Yes, public tax payers money has been spent on conducting a study on this 😲 Now if that isn’t reason enough to ask the question as to why tax payers money has been spent on this study, the other obvious question should be, who thought that it would be a good idea to publish this information, especially the map and named location of the safe locations because, from the limited zombie apocolypse movies that I, ‘for some inexplicable reason’ I hasten to add, have watched, the zombies always seem to be able to seek out the hiding places of the unaffected, but now someone has gone to the trouble of provided them with a map and names of the ‘safe’ hiding locations 🤷‍♂️ So my friends, an obvious piece of advice I know, but do not come to Spain if their is a Zombie Apocolypse, as they will already know where to find you, unless of course they are already waiting at the Airport when you land and they are dressed as Immigration officials, who all have that humourless look and brain dead appearance anyway 😂 The study did reflect that those who own Motorhomes, Campervans or Caravans, would actually have a higher life expectancy rate because they can be both mobile and self-sufficient, able to move quickly between locations seeking out food and water supplies and even other safe haven communities, damn it, I knew importing the car and selling our Motorhome was the wrong choice 🤬

Anyway, Shazza and I decided to get out before the Zombie Apocalypse arrives, when I say ‘get out’ I don’t actually mean leave Spain, I mean get outdoors and enjoy the current safe environment whilst it lasts, although, in all honesty it may also have had something to do with their being a ‘Classic Motor Scooter Rally’ being held in our local town 🤭 It was beautiful warm and sunny day, and yes the sky was blue and cloudless, the sea was a glistening shade of turquoise and blue, but you didn’t need me to tell you that really did you ? We wandered into the town mid-afternoon, although when we got there it looked and sounded a little too quiet, the music stage had been erected, the loudspeakers and amplifiers were in position, but there was a serious lack of presence of any people and no tell tale smells of two-stroke fuel or the noise of any hairdryers, sorry I mean Scooter motors 😂 Perhaps the Zombie Apocolypse had already commenced 😲But I was wearing my ‘Indiana Jones’ hat, purchased of course many years previously from one of those illegal ‘Looky Looky’ criminals, Shazza was dressed nin her leather cat suit outfit with whip, but I digress, that’s a story for another day 😂 so we both felt brave enough to continue walking along the promenade. We saw several people, who we adjudged not to be looking brain dead, although it was a close call with some of them, and we risked stopping at a convenient beach side hostelry to partake of a cold Anti-Covid Vaccine 🍺 to quench our raging thirsts. We continued to just wander along the full length of the promenade before then turning back via one of the back streets, to shade from the heat of the sun. We could hear music, live music, as opposed to the usual stuff emanating from the numerous bars, but it was too far away from where the Scooter Rally was gathering, so we just followed the noise and discovered a couple of back street bars in the ‘Plaza de Naranja’, an Irish Bar and a Spanish bar. The Spanish bar was pretty much full, although we found one table, in a corner of the small Plaza their was a stage and an elderly gentleman crooner singing, mainly Spanish songs, but with a few English ones thrown in. He was actually quite good and so we sat and enjoyed a couple more Anti-Covid Vaccines, as you do, and just enjoyed ourselves amongst our Spanish brethren. The Irish bar wasn’t anywhere near as busy but the handful of customer’s seemed to also be enjoying the late afternoon entertainment.

The afternoon turned to early evening and we both began to feel hungry, we had only eaten a light lunch at home, deciding to eat dinner out for a change, as it was the weekend. As we got back to the Motor Scooter Rally point the small square was crowded, this was where another one of our Spanish Cafe/Bars is located, and where we sometimes come to enjoy our morning Cafe con Leche’s and Tostado’s, there are actually four small Cafe/Bars in this square but they were all crowded, the music stage opposite was still empty, there was no music so we assumed it was going to be more of a late night event, but at least now their was a decent number of Motor Scooters parked up in one long line.

A brief look along the lines, just to remind me of my youth, although in those days I only ever had a 50cc moped which certainly didn’t warrant me worthy of being a member of such an elite club. We strolled back along the sun-drenched seafront promenade, even now at 6pm it was still hot in the sun, which would not set for another three hours, we headed back towards the Marina with it’s numerous eateries, although we had already decided that it would be ‘Pizza Night’, not something we eat on a regular basis, and we knew exactly what we would each be ordering, Shazza her ‘Veggie’ favourite and me my usual ‘Meat Feast’ washed down of course with another couple of Anti-Covid Vaccines, well you have to look after your own health these days and as always, it would have been rude not to 😉

We returned home an hour before sunset and sat for a while on the balcony just enjoying the view out to sea. It had been a very pleasant and relaxed afternoon, the sort of days we both enjoy, although we had no expectations beforehand of how that afternoon was to turn out, we certainly hadn’t anticipated the live music in the Plaza and being sat amongst the Spanish enjoying it, so it was nice to find something a bit different to do during one of our normal walks into the town. The Fiesta season hasn’t started proper yet, with the parades, the music, the fairground stalls and of course the crowds, but these will happen on an almost weekly basis very very soon, we both like the atmosphere of the Fiesta’s but not so much the crowds, I think it’s an age thing these days.

So there has not been very much going on, or exciting, to perhaps tell you about in this particular ramble, although as you know that never actually stops me, but for us, these are just our normal days now, and we like the freedom of it, some days, even if the sun is shining, we may choose to have a day indoors, sometimes out of necessity, cleaning, washing etc. but always confident in the knowledge that more often than not, the sun will be out the next day, and the day after that. It wasn’t that long ago when we would pay good money just to enjoy a couple of weeks of this, even our year’s of living full time in our motorhome, there was always the constant moving on, the time restrictions, but now we don’t have to worry about any of that. You may think that it is just a throw away line when I say that we both think ourselves very fortunate to now be living this lifestyle, but it is actually true and both Shazza and I do remind ourselves of our good fortune quite frequently in our conversations wether that be whilst sat on our balcony just enjoying the views, or sat at one of the seafront Cafe/Bars enjoying a morning Coffee and Toast, or an afternoon weekend lunch at our favourite seafront seafood restaurant, or dinner in the Marina overlooking the boats on their moorings or just walking along the Estepona seafront promenade, we didn’t need to win the Lottery to be able to come here and enjoy this lifestyle and you do not need to be rich to live here, in fact it is a lot cheaper when you compare it with the cost of living in the UK and you don’t even need to speak the language, although it has obvious advantages if you can at least converse a little in the local lingo. The truth is, you just need to want to give it a go, I will be honest, at first I did not want to but it was a combination of the impact of ‘Brexit’ and the ‘Covid’ Pandemic that was instrumental in me wanting to give it a go, Shazza has always wanted to live here. I realised that living here wasn’t actually a prison sentence, that we can choose to leave whenever we want to, but for now, we will stay for a little bit longer and, who knows, maybe we will never leave 🤷‍♂️

Until my next ramble…………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, (La Vida Es Buena)

I have to start this particular ramble with an apology, specifically to the people of ‘Athens’. Why ? You may well ask 🤔 Well you may recall that in my last ramble I suggested, that due to the rain, but more particularly, the thick dusty orange sand that we had been experiencing here in Spain for several days (The ‘Clima’), that the presenter’s of a certain UK TV Holiday Property Programme (That I just happen to keep mentioning), should perhaps seek out a different Country to focus their attentions upon, either Italy, Greece or Turkey, all of which were, at that time, experiencing a much more ‘Healthier Mediterranean Lifestyle’ than we were here in Spain.

So how was I to know that my particular nemesis, which as you well know by now, are those pesky ‘Dark Forces’, had surreptitiously signed up and ‘Subscribed’ to my Blog posts, then used my words as ammunition for them to then target other’s. Why do I suspect this, well less than a week after publishing that last ramble, I was conducting my usual morning review of the media headlines and I came across this………………… 😲🫣

Now I know that my ‘Rambles’ may not be one of the most popular Blogs on the global social media circuit (Understatement), but that does not mean that I welcome all, or even any, ‘Undesirables’ to ‘Follow’ my literary masterpieces just to make up the numbers. So, I checked my list of ‘Subscribers’ on my Admin Pages, a task that didn’t actually take very long 😂 but there was no evidence of any ‘Subscriber’ going by the name or title of ‘darkforces@******.com’, or any other similar prefix, although, funny old thing, I discovered that I do actually have one follower, subscribed as ‘Anonymous’ 🤔 So, as a consequence, Shazza and I may just have to take that trip to Rome, which is on our ‘Bucket List’, sooner rather than later, calling in to ‘Vatican City’, where I will request an audience with the Pope and ask him to conduct an ‘Exorcism’ on my Blog Account 😲

I do have some good news though 🤗 We have enjoyed a change of fortune, for it has rained continuously for several days now and as a consequence it has cleared away all remnants of the ‘Clima’, well we know where that went don’t we 🫣 and so the air is once again clear, people can now get out again from behind their locked doors and windows and enjoy the much healthier fresh air, although if they do they may very well catch ‘Pneumonia’ as a result of doing so, as they are likely to get soaked to the skin, as it is still raining rather heavily and this is expected to continue over the Easter weekend. But that in itself is good news, no, I do not mean about people contracting ‘Pneumonia’, but because all of our ‘Embalces’ are now beginning to fill up, more importantly for us, the one that directly supplies our area, ‘Embalce La Concepcion’, has increased its water level, from what was a dangerously low 25% just a couple of weeks ago, to now being very nearly 48% and, with these heavy downpours, over the next few days, and weeks, the ‘Run Off’s’ from the Mountain rivers, streams and storm drains our fingers are crossed that this figure will increase to, hopefully, somewhere nearer the 60% level 🤞 So even though the sky has been unusually sunless for this time of year the black and stormy clouds may themselves possess a Silver lining, as this should result in our current domestic water usage restrictions being eased, albeit they may not be totally lifted, as we do not anticipate our communal swimming pool ban being lifted just yet.

Before we came to live permanently in Spain, during the previous eight year’s that we have been coming here on our frequent ‘Schengen Shuffle’ trips, which sometimes happened to coincide with the Easter period, Shazza and I had joined outdoor religious Easter Mass services amongst the crowds in the square outside our local town church, although I didn’t go forward to participate in ‘Holy Communion’, and then afterwards, we joined the entourage of people following the ‘Holy Statuette’ and musical band that then paraded through the streets of the town, we had also participated in other similar processions and events during these Easter periods in some of our other local municipalities. These religious gatherings are an important part of the Spanish cultural heritage and lifestyle, as they are of course in many other countries too, and the planning and preparation for each event takes place months in advance. However, and almost as if by some divine intervention, generally the weather during this Holy Week had always remained dry and sunny. Unfortunately though it was not to be on this occasion, it was as if the numerous prayer’s for essential rainfall were actually stronger and far outweighed those who were praying for the better weather over this particular period. Due to the atrocious weather, and yes it was probably very close to being of biblical proportions, numerous events right around the country were either cancelled, or were held indoors in a much more confined space, where the numbers of those able to attend were severely limited. So I suppose we could say that this Easter period has brought us some ‘Mixed Blessings’.

Now, I am sure that a lot of people, like myself, have heard of the Actor, Antonio Banderas, but it is only over the last couple of years that I became aware that he actually originates from Malaga. Following the local Spanish Media, I have also discovered that he is quite heavily involved in lots of local issues and events, from the obvious areas of, Film, Theatre, Music, Arts, but also many other cultural and social events and he is truly loved here by the normal everyday people, not just the more privileged members of Spanish Society, not just within the province of Malaga, but also within the whole of the Andalusian Region. So it came as no surprise to me to see him appear in the local media during this ‘Semana Santa’ (Saint’s Week) period.

As you do know, I often criticise the media, in all of its forms, and usually for very good reason, not least for its habitual doom and gloom contents, but I do also have to confess that, at times, mind you it is only ‘At Times’, it can also reveal some quite interesting facts, although perhaps to some it may be considered as ‘Trivia’, as opposed to earth shattering revelations. By way of an example, whilst I did of course know that Antonio Banderas was Spanish, I did not know that he originated from just up the road from where we live in Spain, neither did I know that Michael Portillo (Journalist, Broadcaster and former UK Conservative Politician), or Anthony Paul Beke, better known as ‘Anton Du Beke’ (British Ballroom dancer, author and television presenter, probably best known for being a professional dancer and a judge on the British celebrity dancing show Strictly Come Dancing), both originate from Spain and have family still living here. Okay, I did say that these were not earth shattering revelations 🤷‍♂️ However, it raised my curiosity and so I decided to research on which other famous British people originated from Spain. However, did you know that ‘Mr. Google’ has a sense of humour, because when I typed into the ‘search’ bar, “Were any famous British Men or Women born in Spain ?”, the answer came back, “No, only babies” 😂 Okay, that it is an old joke I know, but I hope it raised a smile on your face. However, I did do a check and there was a very long list of people, dating way back in the annals of History to more modern times, the majority of names which meant nothing to me personally, which will not come as any surprise to you, me being a self-confessed History heathen, but, in addition to the two names that I have already mentioned (Portillo and Du Beke), there were four other names that stood out to me, Helena Bonham Carter  (English actress), Paloma Faith (English singer and songwriter), Gerry Halliwell (English singer, member of the pop group the Spice Girls) and Michelle Keegan (English actress). Sometimes, only sometimes mind you, just like the media, sometimes even my rambles can contain less than earth shattering pieces of trivia 🤭 Seeing that I am on the subject of historical events, or should that be ‘hysterical’ 🤔 Shazza and I have been together now for a little over 19 year’s, but today, Easter Sunday 2024, we celebrate our 17th Wedding Anniversary and quite honestly, and we do both agree on this, but it really doesn’t feel that long, the years have just sped by, which I suppose is good in one way, but in another, well it is quite scary at how fast time is ticking away 😲

So all that is left to say on this latest ramble is that both Shazza and I wish all our reader’s a very, Happy Easter, wherever you may be in the world.

Until the next ramble………………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, “La Vida Es Buena”

So you will have already gathered from reading my recent rambles, if you were not already aware that is, that down here on the Southern Eastern tip of Spain, that it is not wall to wall sunshine every day of the year here, but generally speaking, well it does tend to be pretty decent here when all is said and done. However, very recently in these rambles, if I am not talking about being hit with one adverse sort of weather condition, then I am talking about another, but it appears that it has just been one of those year’s when you could hardly call things ‘Normal’ and, for those of you, who like myself, watch a lot of the nature programmes on TV and Netflix, you will know that it is much the same for large parts of our world, so it isn’t as if we are special or anything.

For several days now, we have been experiencing a phenomenon known as the ‘Clima’, a term used here to describe the orange coloured sand that is blown in on the wind, across the sea from the Sahara Desert. This fine orange dusty sand quite literally covers everything in its path which isn’t under cover, buildings, pavements, roads, vehicles, outdoor furniture, everything, absolutely everything and as large swathes of Spain are known for their numerous white-washed villages and towns, well lets just say that it tends to make the ‘Clima’ a lot more noticeable, as you may imagine. But even this ‘Clima’ is not an unusual occurrence here, it just tends to vary year on year in its degree of intensity and this year it is by no means the worst that Shazza and I have ever experienced.

A couple of years ago when we were here, on one of our temporary ‘Schengen Shuffle’ visits, it had arrived in great quantities, but accompanied with heavy rain, so it rapidly turned into quite a thick sticky orange mud, which ended up taking several weeks to get rid of it from all the nooks and crannies it had secreted itself into within our car. This time, fortunately, there was no rain with it and so it arrived on the wind just as a thick layer of Orange dust, so for days we had been living in a continuous thick ‘smog’ like condition, throughout both the day’s and night’s, the air was thick with it and it reminded me of scenes that I had seen of London streets, in some of those old ‘Dickins’ Victorian era movies. My car was once again covered ‘head to toe’ in the stuff, or should that be ‘roof to tyres’ 🤔 It was pointless putting it through a car wash because, had I have done so, well it would have been just as bad again within minutes of driving away, so for now I will just have to wait until this ‘Clima’ has passed over, although it is still forecast to last for several more days and now, before it goes, another long spell of rain is also due, so who knows, that rainfall may just do the job for me and save a trip to the car wash 🤷‍♂️

The National ‘Works of Fiction’ have now also issued a colour coded map of the country, which shows the ‘Air Quality’ during this ‘Clima’ period, they are currently strongly advising anyone who resides in the ‘Red’ areas marked on the map, particularly those who suffer with ‘Bronchial’, or other serious ‘Breathing’ difficulties, to remain indoors with all windows and doors closed 😲

I hope you will forgive me, for as I sit here looking out upon the grey ‘orange tinged’ mist, and witness the first large raindrops fall on the pavement below, accompanied by the rolls of thunder and the flashes of lightning, I afford myself a smile as I think about programmes like ‘A Place In The Sun’ (I seem to be plugging that programme a lot lately, perhaps they will pay me some promotional commission 🤔), but they always make such a big deal about the amount of annual days of sunshine that this part of Spain gets, and they regularly promote ‘A Healthy Mediterranean Lifestyle’, although it conveniently neglects to mention the numerous annual Wildfires, Floods, Sandstorms and Droughts 🤭 So where are they right now I wonder, if they have any sense they will probably be filming in more sunnier Mediterranean coastal resorts like Italy, Greece or Turkey, which are not currently suffering with either this ‘Clima’ or the ‘Rain’ and where you may currently be able to enjoy a much healthier Mediterranean lifestyle.

As you may also well imagine, Shazza and I have not let this ‘Clima’ weather condition prevent us from getting out for our usual daily walks, for very fortunately we do not suffer with any breathing issues, although, now that I come to think about it, that is not strictly true, for sometimes my beloved, especially during the night, can be heard doing a particular farmyard animal impression 🐷 However, when she wakes up in the morning’s and complains to me that she had woken up in the middle of the night and could not breathe, I don’t own up to the fact that it may just have had something to do with me putting my hand over her face 🤭

So back to the humdrum of normal everyday life and there I was, one morning very recently, sat alone at the beach cafe next to the car park on our favourite stretch of beach, Shazza had gone for her appointment at her regular hairdresser’s in the village. There was quite a strong Easterly wind blowing in off the sea, whilst not only serving to dump even more sand on our location, it was also driving the orange sand even further inland, share and share alike, that’s what I was always taught as a child. The turbulent waves with their white frothy crests were crashing noisily up on to the shoreline, just a few metres away from where I was sat, there were no other customer’s, just me, sat with my mug of hot strong coffee, I got lost in my thoughts, mesmerised just watching and listening to the boisterous waves.

When Shazza was finished at the hairdresser’s we continued along the promenade and walked into the town where we stopped for a coffee, before returning to the Marina to enjoy a leisurely lunch, but under cover from both the wind and the sand. I think that we do tend to live a relatively simple, and certainly a much more relaxing lifestyle these days, apart from the rare occasions when we may have to deal with Spanish Bureaucracy that is, although, to be honest, it is not that often that we stop for leisurely lunches during the week, but we do enjoy the walks and, some days just a stop for a coffee will suffice 😉 I think that we both could enjoy taking leisurely lunches out every day of the week, as we currently rarely spend even half of our allocated monthly ‘personal expenditure’ budget. However, our decision not to, is more about wanting to maintain our healthier ‘Plant Based’ diets, at least during weekdays, as their are not a lot of ‘Plant Based’ options readily available in the majority of the Cafe/Bars and Restaurants in our neck of the woods, so it would get pretty boring if we had to just stick to using the establishments that do. Now the truth is that there is actually a lot of variety of food establishments here, both in the Marina and the local town, however, the majority of them serve more of the traditional type menu options, basically meat and more meat, deep fried or grilled but, to be fair, they will usually list a ‘Vegetarian’ option on the menu, but, more often than not, that generally just means salad 🤷‍♂️ We are also beginning to identify some dedicated ‘Vegan’ establishments in the wider area, but as yet, in this part of Spain at least, they are still pretty sparse and Shazza is not actually a ‘Vegan’, but those type of establishments, by their very nature, do of course offer a wider variety of ‘Plant Based’ options. Because of the limitations on ‘Plant Based’ options in our immediate local area, Shazza has compromised and she will now eat ‘some’ varieties of fish when we go out, and/or Goat’s Cheese. As for myself, well I am pretty easily catered for, as I do still eat all varieties of Fish, and even Meat. So we do tend to stick to eating out primarily at weekends, when it then becomes more of a treat for the both of us, but for me, the real advantage has nothing to do with menu options, more a case of weekends having much more people out and about, so the ambience is much better, as of course are the people watching opportunities 😉

The windy conditions were set to get stronger over the next few days, reaching 40-50mph which prompted the ‘Works of Fiction’ to issue yet another weather warning, this time for what they described as a ‘Coastal Event’, stretching right along the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca coastlines, with wave heights expected of between 3-5 metres. Now personally, I really do enjoy these sort of weather conditions, being able to see at close quarter’s, although not too close you understand, the raw power of the sea as it stampedes in and batters the rocks, watching as the tumultuous waves climb, and breach with ease, the outer harbour wall of the Marina, watching as the waves race along the beachfront and getting ever closer up the sand, even threatening at some points to breach the low promenade wall. Then there is the accompanying noise it brings with it, just one long continuous loud repetitive drone, much like the sound of the engines of aircraft getting ever closer, as they race down the runway, gaining speed before they lift into the air. I have also experienced these same conditions in the UK very many times in the past, at many different coastal locations in England, Scotland and Wales, although more commonly during the Autumn and Winter periods, the only significant difference being that back then, I would have been huddled in a thick warm outer coat, braced against the icy wind and cold weather nipping at my exposed skin, but here, it is very warm and humid, my thin outer jacket being more of a protection from the wind than the temperature which remains in the low twenty somethings. To think that in probably no more than a fortnight’s time, it will all change again and I will very probably be mentioning, in these rambles, all about the bright cloudless blue sky, the flat mill pond like sea conditions, and the crystal clear water, I certainly think that nature is truly awesome, it provides us with so much variety although, at times, it can perhaps also be a little scary.

Over the few days that followed, we continued to go out in these conditions, in the knowledge that, if the ‘Works of Fiction’ forecast was accurate, we could very possibly be confined to barracks for over a week 😲 We were not alone on our daily walks, the advance party of Easter holiday makers had arrived and although the beaches may have been pretty much deserted, the Cafe’s, Restaurants and Chiringuito’s were benefiting from this recent influx of tourist cash combined with these current adverse weather conditions, for whilst the tourists may not have been able to sunbathe on the beach, or swim safely in the sea, at least they could sit and watch it from behind the windows, or protection of the zipped up weather canopies, whilst they enjoyed their breakfast’s and lunches.

Shazza and I really can empathise with those tourists, who have probably been looking forward to coming here for many moths away from some of the much cooler northerly climates, having parted with their hard earned money which they may have been saving for months, and then spent it both getting here and also on their holiday accommodations, expectant of a sunny beach holiday for a week or two. Generally speaking, even Shazza and I much prefer the warmer sunnier weather, however, for us, now living here permanently, it is currently a double edged sword, for we also desperately need the extended periods of rain 🙄 It reminds me of that saying, “You can please some of the people some of the time, but you cannot please all of the people, all of the time”.

My feet are also now beginning to feel a little itchy, and no it isn’t a medical condition, before any of you ask 🙄 “I am beginning to feel the need to get back ‘On The Road’, to do some more travelling again“ so I say to Shazza one morning over coffee, “I am not getting any younger you know, so each hour, of each day, of each week is time that I am never going to get back so we need to start thinking about our travel agenda”. Shazza, is a little more circumspect about it and just says,“We still have plenty of time, there is no hurry”. I give her my indignant look, “That’s fine for you to say, but you’re almost a decade younger than me”. She just laughs, “But you are still a fit and healthy ‘old man’, and I am sure that you have a good few year’s left in you yet”, then she laughs again, more mischievously this time, and then gives me a wink of her eye. The cheeky bugger, I think to myself.

Talking about future travel, and I may already have mentioned this once or twice before in these rambles, we have a large family re-union event in Austria in August, many of our wider family members, who reside in many parts of the world, will all be gathering, from as far afield as Australia, to those a little closer who live in Germany, France and the UK, and which will also now include two very recent ‘new borns’, one in Germany and the other in France, meaning that Shazza and I have also gained new titles, ‘Great Aunt and Uncle’, as if ‘Nana Shazza and Grandad Eric’ didn’t already make us feel older than we would actually like 🙄 But in respect of that particular event, we have now pre-booked, and pre-paid, for everything necessary for that trip, Return Flights, Airport Car Parking, Hotel Accommodations in Munich (Our Daughter and Son-in-Law have paid for our three night Hotel accommodation in Austria) and we have also booked our Return Rail Tickets from Munich to the event location in Austria. I love it when a plan comes together, although special thanks must go to my ‘Carer’ who organised it all on-line in no more than fifteen minutes, there are some really good things about modern technology these days, so me, and my OCD buddy are well happy 🤭

We have also just had our Water Bill for the last three months usage, a little earlier than I had anticipated, but the good news is that we used no more water, during this billing period, than we did in the preceding three months, even though in this current billing period we had some family visitor’s for nearly a week and of course the recent Contractor’s and, I discovered that both of our last two bills were even less than the one that preceded both of them, which was a period when we were not on water usage restrictions, so we are at least getting it right and so when I receive the actual paper invoice, which always arrives a couple of weeks after we have paid our Direct Debit, I will be able to confirm our actual water consumption, so who knows, perhaps we will be able to have our family come stay with us in August as originally planned, instead of them having to stay in a hotel 🤗 So, for the time being, as far as we are concerned, “The Rain In Spain” can fall as much as it likes at the moment as long as it keeps filling those Embalces.

And just as a footnote to bring this latest ramble to an end, seeing as I started on the subject of the weather, I may as well end on the same note. Just this morning we awoke to the news that whilst we continue to have the Rain, just up the road from us, perhaps no more than an hour away, and all over the rest of the Andalusian Region, even up into the Alicante area, “It Is Snowing” 😲 Eventually when it melts, some of it may also find its way into the Embalces, so the good news just keeps on coming, well okay, perhaps just for some of us 🙄

Until my next ramble…………..

Hasta Luego Mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena (Life Is Good)

The weather, or more specifically, the serious drought conditions that we are currently experiencing here in our part of Southern Spain have, I know, dominated many of my rambles recently and upon reflection I guess that I really should apologise to you all, for continuously going on about the water situation, especially as ‘some’ of you will be on the opposite side of that divide, suffering with far too much of the wet stuff, but also, wherever else you may happen to be in this world of our’s right now, you too may even have your own ‘other’ issues to contend with, as one such example, those who currently live in Iceland and suffering with a fourth volcanic eruption in as many months so, why would, or should, you want to read about ‘our’ particular issues, which to be honest do pale into insignificance compared to what some other’s are going through right now ?

So okay, apology issued and, hopefully received in the quite sincere spirit it was intended. But for those who may still have some slight interest in our particular drought situation and, especially after reading my last ramble on the anticipated wet stuff, and therefore may have a couple of questions they would like answering, it would be rude of me not to.

So the first question, did we actually get those four consecutive days of rain and, were they of the biblically epic proportions which had been forecast by the generally unreliable ‘Works of Fiction’ ? Well let’s just say a resounding YES to receiving ‘some’ of the wet stuff, as I can confirm that it was wet at some period during all four of those days, but NO, it was not anywhere near being that of the biblically epic proportions and, at times, it was no more than just a prolonged period of light drizzle, which let’s be honest, is actually no good to man nor beast really. But our hopes were raised a little, as we did get some short periods of the really hard rainfall, the sort of stuff that can actually start to refill Embalces (Reservoirs) and make you wish that you hadn’t paid to put the car through the automated wash the day before it started. However, also throughout each of those four days, the wet stuff and dark overcast sky was interrupted with some much brighter periods, even as far as getting some lengthy periods of warm sunshine that, in all honesty, was a bit like one of those pantomime villains, turning up to spoil the party when their presence was not really desired. So, all in all, although we had assisted in preparing the ‘ARK’, by loading it with a huge cargo of live animals and then ‘stood to’, at full readiness, to slip our moorings at a moments notice. But alas, our rescue mission did not have to swing into action and so, unfortunately, we had to unload all the animals again, two by two, the unloading was a lot quicker though, as the buggers just raced off uncontrollably in all directions 🙄 it was like a scene out of the film ‘Jumanji’ (the original version with Robin Williams) what with the Zebras, Lions, Tigers, Elephants, Giraffes and Rhinoceros, to name but a few, now running wild through the streets of ‘San Luis de Sabinillas’, that was all apart from the Turkeys, Chickens, Pigs, Sheep and Cows, which I have to confess we did ‘save’, for ourselves, not that we have now become farmer’s, no, they are now sleeping peacefully, in meal size portions, securely stowed away in our Fridge Freezer, well it would have been totally irresponsible of us not to, as they do not have any road sense and could have just ended up as road kill from falling under the feet of the other much larger and heavier stampeding beasts 😲 So we felt that it was the only responsible thing to do, better to prevent that kind of carnage on what are already congested roads, the human animals can manage that sort of carnage quite well without any assistance from us 😂 And yes, I can already hear your confusion, but you are not alone in that respect, for I too was most surprised also, as I didn’t know that such African beasts also roamed amongst the vast Spanish wilderness, well you learn something new everyday 🤷‍♂️ or perhaps it is just the enclosures in the Spanish animal parks and zoo’s that are looking a little empty now 🤔

Secondly, did enough rain actually fall over those four days to top up the water levels in our Embalces ? Well the answer to that one is also both a YES and a NO. According to those in the know, namely the Spanish ‘Works of Fiction’ (AEMET), that four day rainfall added 3% overall to the water levels, whereas we actually required very much more. Now, In my best Michael Caine voice, not a lot of people know this, but there are in fact around 74 Embalces in the Andalusian Region alone, six of which actually serve our own Province of Malaga, however the primary one that provides the water to our particular part of the ‘Costa del Sol’ is the ‘Embalce de La Concepcion’. Before the recent rainfall that was at only 25% of its total capacity but, after the four days of rain it had risen to 28% and that 3% increase was as a direct result of the rain that fell into the Embalce itself, but even though the rain had stopped after the fourth day, the water levels have still continued to rise, and this is due, according to the experts in the know on this sort of stuff, to the run-off from the streams, rivers and storm drains flowing down from high up in the mountains and which will continue to flow down into the Embalces, potentially for up to a further three weeks.

So, the better news is that, at the time of ‘drafting’ this ramble the water level in our particular Embalce has now risen to 35% and, the water authorities have stated that we ‘should’ now have enough water to last us until May, provided of course that ‘we’ continue to stick to the current usage restrictions that are in place. So at least in the short term we will not be facing having to queue up for water at stand-pipes in the street’s 👏 Still on the good news front, but this time only for those planning on coming to Spain for their holidays, is that Hotels, and other officially ‘Certified and Licensed’ holiday accommodations, will have no water restrictions placed on them and guests can use the swimming pool facilities, additionally, Community Public Swimming Pools can also remain open, which means that the Spanish ‘Tourist Economy’ should not be impacted, as a consequence, no tourist sector industry or business should ‘Go Under’, no employees within those sectors will lose their jobs, or have their working hours reduced, so that too really is good news.

For permanent residents though, there is no change to the domestic water usage restrictions and we are still not permitted to use private community communal swimming pools 🤷‍♂️ As I have said previously, and purely from a personal perspective, Shazza and I are not bothered too much about not being able to use our communal pool facilities, we are after all only a five-minute drive from the beach and sea, but it will of course be good to get it available again, hopefully in the not so distant future, when the water situation permits. However, and still continuing on the good news theme, the water situation is now being monitored every two weeks, so you will forgive us if, and this isn’t anything personal you understand, that when the tourist hoards do arrive for their holidays, we permanent residents are hoping that it continues to rain at every opportunity 😂

The advance forecast, looking towards the end of March, shows some further optimistic news, several more days of rain, although it will not be continuous rain throughout the whole of those particular days, and of course we also already know how unreliable the ‘Works of Fiction’ can be, especially when they try to anticipate weather patterns that far in advance, but we have to remain positive, and of course optimistic, because every drop of the wet stuff that falls these days is a highly valued commodity and resource.

The timing of this last four days of wet stuff did actually have a bit of a silver lining to it though, well at least for Shazza and myself, because our kitchen contractors arrived first thing on a rather wet Tuesday morning, to commence the demolition of our existing kitchen, so it didn’t really matter to us what the weather was doing outside as we would be confined inside for the duration anyway. We obviously couldn’t use either the Washing Machine or Dishwasher, never mind the fact that we didn’t physically have either after the first couple of hours anyway, and it was pointless trying to do any cleaning, like mopping all the tiled floors, not whilst the contractor’s were in and creating a lot of mess, however, I am certain that we still didn’t save anything on our water usage over the week, what with the amount of extra water we must have used with all the additional Tea’s and Coffee’s that were being consumed on a daily basis by our temporary guests, and, as a consequence of probably making them too many refreshments, there was the additional usage of the guest room toilet facilities. Strange really because they flushed the toilet every single time they used it, I would have thought, being primarily Spanish, and aware of the current need to conserve water that they would have all been utilising the principle of “If its yellow then let it mellow, only if its brown do you flush it down” and just agree between themselves that the last one out, at the end of the day, would give the toilet a flush 🤷‍♂️ Anyway, we will not know how we have faired on our water usage until we receive the bill, which isn’t due until the middle of April, however, whilst we cannot legislate for what other’s are doing, Shazza and I will continue to keep minimising our own personal water usage as far is as reasonably practical, we currently still have plenty of wet wipes and deodorant 😉

For those that may be interested, I thought that I would provide you with a selection of images, some of which are of the old kitchen layout and colour scheme, then what the kitchen looked like during the demolition stage and finally, some of our newly installed kitchen, which was all completed (well very nearly 🤔) in eight days, although in reality it was seven, as one of those days was a Sunday, a non-working day.

So this is what our kitchen looked like on that first morning, before the demolition gang got their hammers and drills out…………….

BEFORE

Now if any of you are, or have previously been, viewers of the British TV property programme ‘A Place In The Sun’, then our old kitchen colour scheme, worktops and cupboards, will look very familiar to you. I think that no matter what area of Spain people purchased their property in, these kitchen fixtures, fittings and colour schemes, were all pretty much installed within the properties with the same bog standard kitchens, which, in the case of our apartment, was just over 20 years ago.

However, in our particular case, the previous owner, and there had only been the one prior to us purchasing the apartment nine years ago, had not undertaken any major internal structural changes, not even with the original appliances, he had only conducted, or had had done on his behalf, some not very good minor DIY, I wonder if his DIY expert was called Eric, as it was probably about the same standard as someone else with that name !! Although to be honest, had I have attempted to do any work on the electrics, which is extremely unlikely, I would certainly have made a much better, and safer, job of it. However, fortunately his DIY projects only extended as far as installing some sloping shelving on the back kitchen wall, although I am certain that they were not supposed to be sloping, and a lot of additional electrical extension sockets above, below and even out of sight behind wall units and cupboards, which also included four, self-installed, under cupboard unit strip lights which, as we were to discover to our horror, that he, or his ‘Cowboy Electrician’, had not made a very good job of any of it, I would even go as far as to say, the very crude connections running from the existing electrical feeds, and believe me, their were numerous, were all left in a pretty dangerous state, all hidden out of sight, until that was, our kitchen installer came to initially measure up and when he removed some of the kitchen appliances he revealed these fire hazards just waiting to happen 😲 It was only then that we discovered why some of the electrical ‘things’ had never worked since we had moved into the property, albeit they were minor items that we were not that bothered about, as they were not of any real practical importance during the short periods we had been using the property merely as a temporary ‘Bolt Hole’.

Fortunately, this is now all being rectified by our proper Spanish ‘Certified’ Electrician, who is rewiring the whole kitchen properly, and safely, and refitting new, and more modern, electrical sockets to where ‘we’ now actually need and want them. The other major bit of work is to the existing plumbing, as with our particular new kitchen design layout we are changing the locations of some of the items (Sink and Drainer, Washing Machine and Dishwasher), so the existing cold water inlet pipe, the internal hot water feed pipe and the grey water drainage pipe, all need to be either re-located or extended. The other change to the current layout is that on the large white tiled back wall, where there were just the two ‘sloping’ wooden shelf units, and the electronic security gate entry/exit system, we will now be adding a tall storage cupboard, to hide away things like step ladders, ironing board, mop bucket and brooms etc. and then next to that cupboard, running part way down the back wall, a breakfast bar with storage under, and then just above it, the old wooden sloping shelving will be replaced with two new, colour co-ordinated, off-set floating shelves. As the majority of the current appliances were certainly well over nine year’s old, like the Electric Hob and separate Oven, which were both quite literally on their last legs, the bulky Microwave (which we are considering donating to a museum), Washing Machine, Tumble Dryer and Fridge/freezer, I elected to just completely renew ‘all’ of the kitchen appliances, with one notable exception of course, that being Shazza, as she is still, ‘currently at least’, an irreplaceable kitchen appliance, but I may consider auditioning for the the latest new TV production of ‘A New Wife In The Sun’ 🤭 I can of course smile to myself as I write this, safe in the knowledge that I am not going to get a hefty slap around my head for that comment, as Shazza never reads any of my literary masterpieces ? No okay, you are probably right, we will stick with just calling them ‘rambles’ 😂 We have also opted to go for a more modern style of ‘integrated’ kitchen, which sounds a bit posh, but all that really means is that all of the free standing appliances will be hidden behind colour matched and connected cupboard doors, which will definitely mean I will now never be able to find anything, or that will be my excuse anyway 🤭 We have also chosen, what we believe to be, a fairly neutral colour scheme and, as we have no intentions of installing another new kitchen in our lifetime in this property, I suppose at some point, with changes in technologies and designs, it too at some point will begin to look dated, but I guess that ageing process comes to us all eventually.

Last year, once we had made the big decision to turn our ‘Bolt Hole’ into our ‘permanent’ home here in Spain, we had at that point both agreed that there needed to be two major projects conducted as a priority, the installation of a brand new kitchen, and then, a complete re-fit and modernisation of our Master En-suite bathroom. So this new kitchen installation is that first ‘project’ underway and, hopefully, we will also have completed the second project, the En-suite bathroom, before the end of this year. Additionally, and although we cannot really call it a ‘project’ as such, our third priority, once all the major messy stuff has been completed, is to fully redecorate the apartment again, we last did that when we initially purchased the property, so by the end of it all, we will feel as if we have put our own personal stamp and signature on the place and be able to then truly call this ‘Our Home’ 🤗

We of course knew, with all these kitchen works going on, that there would be a lot of noise, with hammering, electric drills and saws etc and of course, the unavoidable rubble and dust that is created. That meant that during the transition period, we would have no serviceable kitchen, Fridge/Freezer or cooking facilities, so we made the decision that for this interim period we would keep the old museum piece microwave, the bread toaster and our kettle, so that between the periods when the mains electricity was turned off, we were at least able to make something quick and easy for our lunches, and of course hot drinks for ourselves and our guests. So, our actual Living/Dining area became our temporary kitchen, food storage and preparation area, which added to the inconvenience, as we also had to utilise this limited space as a storage area, for the new worktops, splash backs, kitchen furniture and new appliances, whilst they were waiting to be fitted, we were effectively living in a building site. For the majority of the days, whilst the contractor’s were working, we were camped out on our balcony, looking at the lines of raindrops as they continually raced each other from the top of the french style glazed doors, to the bottom. At the end of each day, once the contractors had departed, we were able to then go out and eat a hot meal which, even in the wet and drizzly conditions, enabled us to get out of the four walls and away from the dust and to get some fresh air, more importantly, to exchange the constant noise of hammering and drilling, which was still ringing in our ears, for some more normal natural environmental sounds, the sound of the sea, the chinking of wine glasses, sounds of other people’s conversations and of course to enjoy a spot of people watching, the inclement weather did not stop people from going out to eat, thank goodness. It should also go without saying really, but we both felt the need to enjoy, and perhaps partake of a few extra, Anti-Covid Vaccines than we normally would, purely for medicinal purposes you understand, and of course, to clear all the dust from the builder’s rubble from our throats and my goodness, what a lot of dust there was to clear 😉

THE TRANSITION PERIOD

It only took the Spanish contractors, ‘Marco’, ‘Jose’ and ‘Brian’, (yes he was a Spanish ‘Brian’’ and not an English ‘Brian’) two full days to finish the demolition part of the task, (note to self 🤔: re-stock the medicine cabinet with headache tablets, ear plugs and purchase more Tea and Coffee). Then ‘Marco’ worked alone, for a further two full days, on the Electrical and Plumbing aspects and, by the start of day four, it was yet another change of contractor, ‘Sam’ a qualified Carpenter, who was British, and has lived here in Spain with his wife and children in excess of thirteen years, he had been tasked to complete the installation of our new kitchen and it soon became clearly apparent that he was a perfectionist. ‘Marco’, the electrician/plumber, returned again on the final day to check that all the appliances were working, that there were no leaks from the new plumbing installations and to finish off and tidy the electrical connections and any cables and wirings, however, at the beginning of this project we did not know exactly when that completion day would actually be, it had originally been allocated for a full two weeks worth of work. The only day there had been no work conducted was on the Sunday, which we were grateful for as we were ready for a peaceful day, and I imagine our neighbours were too !! However, on the contractor’s working days they started by 08:30am, which as you can probably imagine, meant that at least ‘one’ of us had to get up a lot earlier than usual, but mentioning no names, ‘She’ was not overly impressed at having to force herself out from under the duvet at such an ungodly hour of the day 🤭, however, I still dutifully delivered her morning coffee and iPad to her. Unusually, the Spanish contractor’s did not stop for lunch, so there were no typical two-hour Spanish ‘Siesta Periods’, so we were hopeful that they would be all done by the end of working day seven, on the following Tuesday 🤞

Then it would be our turn to get stuck in, to re-paint the kitchen ceiling and some other minor painting bits ‘n’ pieces, we then commenced a really thourough in depth clean of the whole apartment, not just in the new kitchen, so that we could get rid of all of the dust and grit which had accumulated in every nook and cranny in most areas of the apartment, even though we had tried to keep all the internal doors closed 🤷‍♂️ Then we needed to go and do a major shop as all the food cupboards, and Fridge/Freezer, were devoid of sustenance, before we could then, or perhaps more accurately, I should say Shazza 😉 could then commence the task of re-organising her kitchen drawers and cupboards, that could take a little longer than normal, as we would now have storage drawers and cupboards in different locations to where they had been previously. The truth is that even in the old kitchen I could never find anything, as Shazza has her own unique methodology when it comes to the kitchen storage solutions, which do not necessarily tend to match with what would have been my more OCD induced logically organised one’s 🤷‍♂️ But it works out quite well really, because when I say that I will prepare Lunch, or cook Dinner, but then, every two minutes shout through to her “Shazza, where do you store the mixing bowls ? Where is the blender ? Where do you keep the kitchen scales ? Which cupboard are the spices in ?” She would eventually just come through and say, “Oh, it will be quicker if I just do it myself 😤”. Oh well, that’s another cunning plan that appears to work quite effectively, I think to myself 🤭

The following Tuesday evening arrived and, ‘Joe’, the owner of the firm, arrived in person to check over the work and complete the handover of the finished project, well perhaps not quite fully finished, as we had discovered that their were some outstanding issues 🙄 The main issue was that they had delivered the wrong model of Fridge/Freezer, although they stated that it was an error by the supplier, but my question was, shouldn’t ‘they’ have checked what had been delivered to their premises ‘before’ delivering the appliances to us 🤔 Fortunately, all of the other new appliances were correct. The issue was that Shazza had specifically wanted, and ordered, a “NO FROST’ fridge freezer model, with the freezer part having ‘three’ large food storage boxes, but what arrived was an inferior ‘LOW FROST’ model, and with only two large freezer food storage boxes and a small ice maker tray. A new fridge was ordered and we were told that the correct model ‘should’ be delivered to us by the weekend, it arrived the following Monday afternoon. The next issue was that part of the new worktop was missing, although it was only a small part and would not prevent us from using the kitchen, but without that piece, they could not finish fitting part of the splash back either. Then, at the end of the breakfast bar, running the full width and height, from the floor to the wall there should have been a colour co-ordinated end panel, it was missing and so that too had to be re-ordered. Finally, we should have had a new double light switch fitted at the entrance to the kitchen, which would have had a switch to turn on the ceiling lights and a separate switch to turn on the under cupboard LED lighting, they didn’t have it and would need to go and purchase one, so they needed to come back another day to complete all of these outstanding tasks. We were told to use the incorrect Fridge/Freezer they had installed until the correct one was delivered, so at least we did have something to use however, to me, this felt like finally completing a jigsaw puzzle only to discover right at the end that pieces were missing, and although there was nothing too major, apart from perhaps not having the correct Fridge/Freezer, for me, and my OCD, it was an irritation I could have done without. Now I do have to say, that to his credit, ‘Joe’ did not to try a make any excuses, he put his hands up and admitted that the errors had been his and so, being a little forgiving, I adopted the stance that sometimes, mistakes happen, but these were not serious one’s and could be remedied relatively quickly.

Now to be totally honest, on the grand scale of things and notwithstanding these relatively minor issues, but from start to finish, the standard and quality of work provided by the actual on site Contractor’s, including the respect they gave to our property, as well as us, and the overall quality of their workmanship, well all I can I say is that, ‘It Exceeded Even Our Own Expectations’ and as an additional bonus, for which, I hasten to add, their has been no additional charge, we both had the opportunity to practice some of our limited Spanish speaking skills with our Spanish contractor’s, and of course, refreshing our own English language speaking skills with ‘Sam’ 😂

It had been quite difficult to visualise, even from the high quality computer generated 3D images provided to us beforehand, whether our chosen new kitchen layout, and colour scheme, would actually work, whether the remodelling of the kitchen layout would flow, as we had wanted it to, or whether the installation of an additional cupboard and breakfast bar on the back wall would make the kitchen appear smaller, but happily it didn’t, whether it was because we had chosen an ‘Integrated’ style of kitchen, so that visually it had smooth flowing lines, and/or the neutral colour scheme, I don’t honestly know, but we both agreed that our kitchen actually now looks and feels slightly more spacious than it had done previously 🤷‍♂️ although obviously it isn’t, and so we are both exceptionally pleased with the final product, so much so that we have now commissioned the same firm to draw up some design plans, and provide us with quotes, for our En-suite bathroom project which we hope to have completed by the Summer.

THE BIG REVEAL

Although it is not quite the complete finished product quite just yet, as there is some finishing off to do, by both the Contractor’s and then some personal touches by ourselves, but we love the new layout and we think that the new colour scheme works very well 👍

As a bit of an added bonus, well for me rather than Shazza, and seeing as we had a proper qualified Electrician on hand, I took full advantage of his presence whilst he was doing the last minute tidying up of the wiring bits and pieces. We had three loose, and badly fitted, electrical wall sockets, where the original builder’s of these apartments had made too large a hole, for the electrical socket and light switch in our bedroom to fit into properly, and also the same issue on two of the lower electrical wall sockets in the guest bedroom. Shazza had been mithering me for ages to look at, and of course rectify them, now I can proudly state that I had been quite pro-active with the ‘looking’ part of this task, and also with the scratching of my head and sucking my teeth, just like a proper contractor would do. However, I hadn’t to date spent very much time, well actually, no time whatsoever would be a more accurate statement, on the actual ‘rectification’ bit 🙄 Well, you should know me well enough by now, from some of my previous rambles, at just how enthusiastic and skilful I am at conducting DIY tasks, but do not judge me too harshly for I had gone as far as buying what I needed to commence the work, some thin sheets of wire mesh and some quick drying plaster, however, whether the tub of plaster would still be in date and usable now is another matter. But, as you will also already be aware, I never look a ‘Gift Horse In The Mouth’, especially when one conveniently presents itself right at my feet, so this was the perfect opportunity to finally get these outstanding tasks sorted, or perhaps more accurately, to get someone else to get them sorted for me 😉 What’s that old saying ? Something about ‘Not Buying A Dog and Then Biting Yourself’ 🤔🤭 So ‘Marco’ willingly came to my rescue and although he was quite insistent that he did not want any payment for his time and trouble, about fifteen minutes worth, and that included the head scratching and teeth sucking. However, he was most appreciative for the opportunity to now purchase some of his own chosen flavoured brand of Anti-Covid Vaccines 😉 So, if any of you are looking to buy, at a knock down price of course, some brand new, unused and still in its original packaging, sheets of thin wire mesh and, a small unopened tub of plaster, although the ‘Use By Date’ may now be illegible to read for some reason 🙄 then you of course know how to contact me, however, I am sort of making and educated guess that I will have to perhaps wait for quite some time to receive potential enquiries, especially as it is on a collection only basis 😂

So we now have our new, more modern, kitchen and we have completed this kitchen project by re-painting the ceiling and those horrible looking yellow tiles have now been re-painted ‘Grey’. The whole apartment has had a thorough Spring clean, moving all the furniture and cleaning behind and underneath it, all ceiling lights and wall fixtures and fittings, skirting boards, tiled floors etc. you name it, it all got cleaned, so we were both more than ready for a bit of a rest and to get back to our normal everyday routines. We have only around three weeks to fully enjoy this though, as the first week of April, just after Easter Monday, we have to start to get ourselves organised, administratively wise, to commence our first ‘Residency Permit Renewal’ processes and procedures, it is amazing, but gosh where did that first year go 😲 Although, in reality, it is actually only 10 months, but we have to commence the renewal process sixty-days in advance of our current ‘Residency Permits’ expiry dates on 13th June. Fortunately, these next ‘residency Permits’ will be valid this time around for a further two year’s, before they need to be done again, meaning that we will be free to concentrate on other, more exciting things, for the remainder of this year and throughout all of 2025. The other bonus, with being occupied with other things during this last year is, we have only used one week of our travel allowance in this our first year.

Just as a refresher, for those reading this who may be considering applying for the Non-Lucrative Visa (NLV), now or in the future, is that one of the requirements/restrictions associated to this particular NLV (Retirement Non-Working Visa) is that you are only permitted to travel, outside of Spain’s Borders, for a total of 10 months in the first 5 year period. Now you can break that ten month period down any way you like over those five years, taking longer periods one year and a shorter period in another, but if you want to apply for ‘Permanent Residency’ at the end of the five year ‘Temporary Residency’ period, you cannot have exceeded the ten month restriction and, very importantly, the onus is on you to prove that you have not exceeded that ten months and not for the Spanish Immigration to prove that you have.

For our own purposes, Shazza and I have just simplified it down to considering ourselves to basically having two months per year, to travel outside of the Spanish Borders, within our own particular ‘Temporary Residency Periods’, (which commence each year on 13th June). However, and in addition to that two months travel outside of Spain, we can of course still travel, Internally within Spain, which includes the Balearic and Canaries group of Islands, as often as we like without any restrictions. So with us having a rather lean travel period in this our first residency year, that will mean, as from 13th June this year, we will be carrying a surplus of seven weeks over into our second ‘Residency Year’, so we could, if we so choose, travel outside of Spain for a period of just under four months, now that opens up a lot of potentially viable extended travel opportunities 🤔

So just as my mind starts to drift into the potential vast list of destinations around the globe we could travel to, I hear the dulcet tones of my beloved, “Are you making the Dinner this evening ? You really need to familiarise yourself with where everything is in the kitchen cupboards and also with the use of the new Induction Hob and the Oven and Grill”, damn it, another ploy that hasn’t worked I groan to myself 🙄 Oh well, until the next ramble………….

Adios mi Amigos, ‘La Vida Es Buena”

During our previous eight year’s of visiting this part of Spain, before we took up full time residency here in June of last year and, usually by the end of February, but certainly by the first week of March at the latest, it would have been time to point our Motorhome North towards the ferry port at either Bilbao or Santander, as we would once again have been at the end of yet another one of our ninety day ‘Schengen Shuffle’ periods, reluctantly having to then return to the UK. Always just as everything here was beginning to prepare to open up, ready to commence another new tourist season, even now that feeling of disappointment at having to leave at the end of those 90 day periods is still very much emblazoned into our memories, as we were always disappointed at the feeling of being forced out, not just of Spain but out of Europe. It is something that Shazza and I were chatting about very recently, as we were strolling along the Promenade on one of our regular morning walks, but happily, here we now are, back at the point where we would normally be having to leave. Once again we were watching our small corner of the Costa del Sol waking up, as it began to once again shed the remnants of its Winter coat, but this time we smiled at each other, for it is now a nice feeling, knowing that we no longer ‘have’ to leave and so not having that feeling of disappointment. This is now, what will quite probably remain, our forever home, although we don’t risk saying that out too loud, for we never know if, or when, our feet will start getting that certain familiar ‘itch’ to travel and start another adventure again. Although however, the years do now appear to be flying past, far too quickly for my liking, and I am not certain that I would really want to go through all of the upheavals of selling up and re-locating elsewhere again, we certainly have no desire to return to the UK, other than for short breaks to visit family that is.

Easter is now just around the corner, a period on the Spanish Calendar which doesn’t just mark the start of the ‘Fiesta’ season, commencing with all the Religious parades and festivals that will take place all around the Country, from the smallest of Villages to the largest of Cities, but it is also the period when the first real influx of holidaying tourists start to arrive. Now although our town is an open all year location which, unlike some other tourist resorts, means that it does not actually close down or feel like a ghost town during the Winter for those five or six months of the year, life here just tends to go on as usual, just not quite as busy with the additional temporary residents although, there is still a significant change in the ambience as many, although not all, of the Chiringuitos (Beach Bars) do tend to close up for the Winter and, some seasonal type ‘tourist tat’ retail outlets also use that less busy period to pull down their shutters to enable them to go and take their annual vacations, but with everything else, well life just goes on regardless really. Now that we have acclimatised here we do feel the drop in the Winter temperatures so we do both find that we tend to miss the heat of the Summer, the frequent Fiesta’s, the Medieval Markets and of course the light nights, but we certainly do not miss the crowds.

Although we have been here now for nine months, on a full time basis, we are still continuing to settle in, to what is still in some ways, our new environment, and as our Spanish vocabulary improves, although at a much slower pace than either of us would really have wanted, because we did not really anticipate, in advance of coming to live here, that we would be amongst a community where the primary language spoken, even amongst the majority of Spanish people, is English. However, like a lot of things in this life, there are advantages and disadvantages to everything, so we just continue to do what we can and attempt to seek out the mainly Spanish speaking venues, like our small Spanish seafront Cafe where we continue our Spanish education by practicing our words in still very much disjointed conversations, but also by trying to understand the subject’s that are being discussed from the words that are spoken by the other primarily Spanish customer’s, words that we are now beginning to recognise, but this is still a little harder than we had expected, as learning the words is one thing, but picking them out from the sentences that are delivered at quite a rapid pace is quite another, it is quite a different challenge but we get a certain satisfaction when we actually understand what is being said on the surrounding tables. Little by little we are beginning to converse more and more within the small Spanish enclave in which we mingle which, other than for practicing our own general conversational skills, also has other benefits, in that it enables us to discover little snippets of information about the wider Spanish way of life. In one such conversation we discovered, to our surprise, that the majority of Spanish people do not actually venture very far, globally speaking, when they take their annual holidays, many choose to stay within this their own country, visiting relatives or friends who may live elsewhere in the many other different Regions and Provinces of Spain, or some just head to the Spanish Balearic or Canary Islands for a change of scenery, few, it would appear, take flights to the longer haul tourist destinations such as the Carribean. I guess with a Country the size of Spain, already surrounded as it is with its vast variety of beach locations along both its Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines, with different Mountain ranges that stretch from the North to the South of the country, providing numerous opportunities to either hike in the Summer or Ski in the Winter, to wander and explore through its vast number of Nature Parks or its Lakes, Rivers, Waterfalls and numerous old Towns, Cities and Villages that are filled with history. Spain also has varying geographical climates throughout the year, from those that tend to be much cooler in the North and Central areas, to the searing heat of the South. When we thought about this it did provoke us to ask the question to ourselves of ‘Why would you actually need to travel to other Countries if you have all of this variet already on your doorstep ?’, But for us, our wider travels are due to our wanderlust and a personal desire to go and visit many different Countries to experience their differing cultures.

In the main though, it would appear that the majority of the Spanish people are just quite happy with their lot, and so they are more than satisfied to remain within their own Country. However, their is also another possible answer, perhaps it may also be just a simple matter of individual personal economics for, generally speaking, the Spanish income levels from employment are very much lower here than in a lot of its other neighbouring European counterparts and, with a few minor geographical exceptions, this is a country with very good, and inexpensive, public transport systems, so travelling throughout Spain to each of its corners, North, South, East or West, either by Road, Rail or Bus, it is not a major drain on a families limited financial resources.

The road network, throughout the length and breadth of Spain, we have found is also exceptionally good and, unlike some other European countries, the majority of the motorway networks are generally still mainly all ‘Toll Free’ here, but those that do incur a charge to use them, well to be honest, they are not that expensive in comparison to say France or Italy. We often used to travel from the Northern most Coast of Spain, Bilbao or Santander, to right down here in the South, almost 700 miles, using all Toll free motorways. However, unless you are in a particular hurry, the exceptional ‘N’ roads, many of which run parallel to the Motorway routes, take you through some amazing landscapes and pass through towns and villages that you would otherwise not get to see, we are certainly looking forward to doing much more exploration of the whole of Spain, and as we will not be in a hurry we may, on some of those occasions, elect to leave the car at home and let the Bus or Train take the strain 👍

On yet another one of our morning walks recently, again it was a nice sunny Spring morning, which is nice as it does enable us to sit outside at one of our favourite seafront Cafe’s and do a spot of people watching as we sit and drink our coffee’s and eat our Tostado’s, but this sort of weather is doing nothing to help fill the reservoirs 🤷‍♂️ However, no good going on about it, we have no control over the weather and hopefully, sooner rather than very much later, Mother Nature will sort herself out 🤞 We couldn’t help but notice the numerous very industrious council workers, they were certainly out in force, the beaches were being cleaned of the debris that had floated in, not just the seaweed but also the man-made debris that had been discarded, although to be honest they do tend to do these beach cleans quite regularly, often on an almost daily basis and even during these quieter Autumn and Winter months, but now all of these long stretches of sand have been levelled, and groomed, and are looking immaculate. We had also observed, over recent weeks, that even the promenade planted areas had been spruced up, some of the old brick edged borders having been totally renewed with more attractive looking stonework borders and now, due to the continuing drought conditions, they have been re-planted with much hardier plants that require much less water. Along one stretch of the promenade, between the small village of ‘Castellón de la Duquesa’, located on one side of the Marina, and the place where we generally park our car next to the beach, the brightly coloured bench seating which was decorated with nautical scenes, made up from small pieces of painted mosaic tiles, were being repaired where pieces had fallen off, either due to the ravages of the weather or human interventions (Kids jumping on them or footballs kicked at them). This repair work looked to be a very slow and painstaking task, we stopped to admire the workers handy work and could see that each piece was being re-applied with much care and attention. On the Promenade on the opposite side of the Marina, which stretches to our small town of ‘San Luis de Sabinillas’ the beachfront Chiringuito’s had also started to get themselves ready to re-open, the straw topped sun umbrellas had been put back out, in their neat regimented rows, many of them bearing new straw hats, the sun beds had all been washed down and gleamed white and blue, we didn’t question where the water may have come from for this purpose, we gave them the benefit of the doubt, seeing as there was lots of crystal clear salt water just a few metres away 😉 but once washed they were placed underneath the beach umbrellas outside their respective establishments, new canvas sun shades were in the process of being installed above the bar terraces and, where necessary, external areas were being re-painted. Even the flag poles were now sporting new clean flags, the Spanish National one, The Andalusian Regional Flag, the Malaga Provincial Flag, the Blue European Union Flag and of course, some may even say the most important one, the flag that proudly reflected yet another year’s award of the prestigious “Blue Flag Beach Status’ for the water quality.

Although it is never really completely deserted here, as there are always a steady stream of temporary visitors throughout the Autumn and Winter months, from those who stay on the local campsite in their Caravans and Motorhomes (No Tents on this particular site), and those who either own, or rent, properties in the area, so that they too can enjoy the Winter Sun and temperate climate of the Costa del Sol, but their is still a distinct change in the ambience between the Winter and Summer months and now, for us, to have experienced spending our first four combined seasons of the year here, instead of just two ninety day chunks of it, it does feel a little bit special to have actually witnessed these changing seasons for ourselves and yes, we do still continue to enjoy those ‘Pinch Me, Am I Dreaming’ moments and remember the days when we used to make these very same walks and would often say “Wouldn’t it be nice if we actually lived here”, and now, look at us, here we are, which puts a slightly and more positive twist on what is generally accepted as being more a statement of caution, ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’, or the other popular one, ‘Better the Devil you know’.

Now I may have mentioned, in one of my earlier rambles, that on 16th December last year, we were out and about somewhere, when Shazza received a telephone call from our local Health Centre, informing her that her State Healthcare Card had arrived. When we applied for them, back in July last year, as part of our initial residency process procedures, we were told that we could be waiting for up to a year to get these, as their was a massive backlog, so this was good news getting them after only five months. However, when we went to pick up the card, the same day as getting the phone call, we discovered that it was actually only Shazza’s card that had arrived, mine hadn’t 🤷‍♂️ I waited until mid-January before going back to check on the status of mine, but it had still not been received and, when the receptionist checked my medical database records, it reflected that my card had actually been issued and sent out by the Andalusian Health Authority on the 23rd November 🤔 The receptionist told me to give it another month as it may be stuck in the Postal System, what with there being Christmas, New Year and the ‘Three Kings Day’, although it did still seem odd that Shazza and I had both applied for our Health Cards at the same time and she had received her’s before Christmas 🤷‍♂️ Anyway, I gave it another month and went back to check again towards the end of February, but alas still no sign of my Health Card. Now I had done some on-line research in between time and discovered that if my Health Card had not been received, within a month of it being issued, then I needed to report this to the Issuing Authority, via our local Healthcare Centre, and using a specific form. However, the receptionist tried to tell me that I would have to just make another new application for a Health Card. However, sometimes you have to just get firm with some of these people and so I politely informed her that this was not the correct procedure, that it needed to be reported on a completely different form stating that it was ‘No Recibor’ (Not received), so that they could then cancel the original card, in case it had been intercepted and being used illegally by someone else. The Andalusian Health Authority, upon receipt of this form, would then issue me a new card, but simply submitting another ‘initial application form’ for a Health Card would possibly only have created confusion, more questions from them but even more importantly, adding to the already long delay. I could tell by her body language and facial expression that she was disgruntled that I was actually telling ‘her’ what she actually needed to do, however, seeing that my own body language and facial expression and change in my tone of voice, she soon realised that I was not going to leave, so she went to speak to another member of the back room staff, who looked over her glasses in my direction, I then saw her typing into her computer. The receptionist came back and told me that the form had been sent, I enquired as to how long she thought it would take for me to receive the new card, she responded in the usual fashion, palms of her hands turned upwards, her arms raised to shoulder height, she raised her shoulders a few inches, just to add to her ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude, and with the facial expression that said “Who Knows !!”. So I left the Health Centre wondering wether I would ever receive my Health Card. Now in the grand scheme of things it wasn’t really a major issue, practically speaking, as I was already in possession of a paper form, which acted as my ‘Temporary’ authorisation to receive free State Healthcare, should I require it, but you know me and my OCD, I should have an ‘Official’ plastic Health Card, Shazza had her’s and so I wanted mine, otherwise I didn’t feel that my residency documentation or status was, as yet, quite fully complete. Although I didn’t really hold out much hope of receiving it promptly, it had taken 5 months for Shazza to receive her’s 🙄 But sometimes even I can get pleasantly surprised by the rare efficiency of the Spanish bureaucratic processes, for it was just one week later that the newly issued Health Card arrived, this time however, it would appear that even the issuing authority hadn’t trusted sending it directly to our local Health Centre, but instead they had sent it in the post directly to me at our home address. So now, thankfully, my OCD has once again calmed down and that is it, I now feel complete, just in time to commence the first annual renewal process of our Residency Permits 🙄

Fortunately the renewal process is a much more simplified procedure than the initial application and, things like our Health Cards and Driving licences do not need renewing, the majority of the administration will be processed by our Solicitors, we basically just have to provide the documentary evidence that proves we continue to meet the annual Financial Income aspects (€36,000 net per year). Once we have completed this upcoming renewal procedure, we will not be required to conduct any further renewal actions until the end of March 2026 which will then take us to March 2028 which, at that point we can then start the process to obtain our ‘Permanent Residency Permits’ 😁

After my last ramble, where I mentioned the continuing and worsening drought conditions, well it would appear that even with some of the prolonged periods of the wet stuff, four consecutive days of it has been forecast to arrive, but still, the news coming out from the Spanish Meteorology Agency (AEMET) ‘Works of Fiction’ is still not looking very positive.

So you may, or perhaps you may not 🤔 be asking the question about how the lack of water will impact Spain over the Summer months, especially with the huge influx of temporary additional residents during what is a continuing and worsening drought situation. Well for the Government it is going to be something of a double edged sword really, for whilst us permanent residents will still have to legally comply with the drought restrictions and limitations to how much water we can use on a daily basis, and still not be able to use our private communal pools during the scorching Summer months, what is creating much discontent is in the announcement from the Government, who have just recently given assurances, that ‘tourists’ will not be effected, Hotels will still have access to water, for their guests to take baths and showers and flush their toilets, they will also be able to use the hotel swimming pools, although I am not sure how this will impact on privately owned rental villas, that still all seems to be a little confusing at the moment with no clear guidance having yet been issued by the powers that be, and with differing rules, not just between Regions, but also local Councils within the same Province the discontent is becoming much more vocal 🤷‍♂️ Now of course, there have been lots of murmurings of discontent from ‘permanent’ residents here, and I don’t just mean from those within the International Expat communities, but the much greater and larger number of permanent Spanish Citizens, whose complaints are, ‘Why do they have to suffer restrictions when the Tourists won’t ?’ Now from a purely personal perspective, Shazza and I would rather have drinking water coming through our own domestic water taps, rather than having to collect it on a daily basis from Stand Pipes in the street and, not having the use of our communal swimming pool is also not really that much of an issue for us, as there is a very big, and wide, bathing facility just a few minutes down the road, and it comes complete with it’s own beach 🤭 Whilst we can certainly understand the feelings of the local Spanish population, the reality is this, one of Spain’s most lucrative incomes, after the exporting of Fruit and Vegetables, is via the Tourism Sector, so if the large number of Tourists who would generally visit Spain each year, were to find themselves being restricted to their water usage whilst here, and not being able to use swimming pools, then quite simply, those tourists would quite possibly elect to go elsewhere for their holiday, where those facilities were readily available, which for Spain, would not just have an impact on the lack of incomes from the Holiday Accommodations, the Hotels and Rental properties, but also the wider hospitality sector that supports the tourism industry, Bars, Cafe’s, Restaurants, the wide range of tourist attractions, including the Coach and Boat Tour companies, Car Hire and Taxi companies etc. etc. So the wider risk is that some business, without the crucial incomes that they receive from the influx of seasonal tourist cash, is a very realistic risk that, much like the lack of tourism that occurred during the Covid Pandemic, many businesses could risk going under, which of course would then mean growing unemployment, so it certainly is one of those Catch 22 situations with no easy or quick solutions, other than to get some unseasonal prolonged periods of rain. But these are the realities of our world today, dare I use those words ‘Climate Change’, but this is just one of the many consequences of that, and of course not having heeded the warnings over recent decades, whilst we here in Southern Europe are not getting enough rainfall, other countries are getting too much, globally the Volcanic Eruptions, Earthquakes, Floods and Fires are ever increasing in their frequency, the ice caps continue to melt at a phenomenal rate and the sea levels are rising but still, the World’s Governments continue to do what they have always done, business as usual “Stay Calm And Carry On”.

But the weather is a strange beast at the best of times so you can never trust in what the ‘Works of Fiction’ predict and what we are actually going to get.

It really does feel strange at times, just a little over two hours drive North from us, still in our region of Andalusia, but in the Granada Province, on Sunday 3rd March, up in the more mountainous areas, they have very recently experienced temperatures of -14.5 degrees(c), whilst, at the very same time, down here on the coast, we had temperatures of +22 degrees(c), quite a massive 36 degree difference between two different areas which, distance wise, are not really that very far apart. Just a pity that the harsh frost was not actually deep snow because at least when it melted, and flowed down from the mountain rivers and streams, at least that may have brought a little relief and have helped, even if only a little, in starting to at least provide some top up to the water levels in the Embalces.

Now I am not usually one who would get overly excited at potentially being held a prisoner inside my own four walls for what could be several days, however, in light of the current water shortage problems, we can only hope and pray that for once, the ‘Works of Fiction’ do actually get it right 🙏⛈️ Our local forecast reflects the wet stuff starting to fall during the night on the Wednesday, and then not letting up until the early hours of the following Monday morning, yes, four whole days of rain, brilliant 🤗😄 But of course, what is actually forecast and what we will actually get could be quite two different things and, to be perfectly honest and realistic, even four consecutive days of the wet stuff would not really be sufficient to make a huge difference in the water levels in the Embalces, but let’s show a bit of positivity here Eric, at least its a start, a little is better than nothing and after that, well all we can do is hope for even more ‘unseasonably’ wet weather over the coming weeks, so my Prayer mat is still out but, being out of practice with its use, and knowing my luck, we may just end up with ‘Fire and Brimstone and a plague of Locusts’ 😂

I do have to make a bit of a confession, as it won’t just be the rainfall that will be keeping Shazza and I housebound over this anticipated rainy period 🤔 On the Tuesday morning, before the rainfall of hopefully biblically epic proportions arrives, our kitchen demolition team are due to arrive to commence ripping out the old one, before hopefully, a few days later, installing our completely brand new kitchen furniture and appliances, so the confession is that we would have been housebound during this period anyway so not just as a consequence of the weather. However, more about how those things develop in my next ramble, in relation to both the weather and the new kitchen. So please, ‘Works of Fiction’, hear my prayers and bring on the wet stuff in torrents, totally selfish of me I know and, as much as I would like to take credit for coming to the assistance of our new home Country and its water shortage issues, I unfortunately actually have nothing to do with the timing of these weather conditions, just in case any of you were actually wondering. I know that I may often use the word ‘God’ or ‘Jesus’, but just perhaps not always in the most appropriate of circumstances, but then again, who knows, perhaps I do have a direct line to the big man, or of course woman, we have to be careful these days with what may possibly be construed as sexist statements 🤭

So, as you can see, Shazza and I are just getting on with our daily lives, our only real concerns at this time being whether the Supermarkets over here will soon run out of, ‘Bottled Water’, Wet Wipes’ and ‘Deodorant’ 😂😂

Until my next ramble,

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, “La Vida es Buena”

It only seemed like yesterday when we had returned from our short sunny Spanish mini-break just up the coast in Nerja and then publishing my last ramble about it, but as I commence drafting this latest masterpiece it was a bit of a shock to discover that that was actually thirty-one days ago 😲 Somehow we find ourselves on the cusp of entering the month of March, so although this last month had 29 days in it, what on earth happened to the month of February we find ourselves asking 🤷‍♂️ Now if we had been busy doing lots of exciting things or Shazza cajoling me into more surprise mini-adventures then perhaps I could understand the time flying past, but that has not been the case. The reality is simply that we have just been getting on with our normal everyday lives, you know the sort of usual stuff, the walks, sometimes in our own local neighbourhood and sometimes, just for a change of scenery, we would take the short twenty-minute drive to Estepona and walk along their very nice promenade, but overall nothing worth writing about really.

We collected our first visitors of the year, from Malaga Airport, on Thursday 15th February, Shazza’s Aunt and Uncle from the UK, this was their fifth visit to us so they were coming primarily to enjoy the warmer Spanish weather, the UK being its usual cold and wet self at this time of year, rather than them coming for any major sightseeing purposes, they had done most of that on their previous visits to us. So we made no real plans, other than on the Friday evening, we had pre-booked a table at the ‘La Bodega’ restaurant in the Marina where they had some entertainment, it was to be a ‘Motown Night’, which fitted well into the style of music for our particular age categories. For the remainder of their six day visit to us, Shazza and I decided to just leave it up to them if they wanted us to take them anywhere in particular.

The following morning, which for three people in particular, commenced a little later than for myself, but our guests decided that they wanted to go and take a look at the small village of Manilva, a short drive inland up the mountain, why I do not know, as their is very little of interest going on at this time of year, it is primarily a wine production area but the vines had not started producing any of their fruits just yet so their were no associated fiesta’s. We parked up and took them to a Cafe that we know, which has a large panoramic window overlooking the countryside, and the surrounding mountains, with views of other whitewashed villages and towns in the distance.

One of the smaller more famous towns is Caceres, which is probably the most photographed in this area, and so I was somewhat surprised when they told us that they had not visited it on any of their previous visits to us, so of course, with it being literally on our doorstep, that, we agreed, would be our next port of call. Sharon and I have been to Caceres a few times now, it is built on the side of the mountain and the streets are on various levels, mainly narrow and cobbled streets and walkways, it would certainly test our guests stamina and fitness as they are both a little older than myself, but added to that, Shazza’s uncle had undergone replacement knee surgery a couple of years ago and it has never been right since. However, we had pre-warned them both but they were still keen to go and take a look, on our own previous visits we had never quite made it to the top of the village to the Church that sits at the peak alongside the remnants of the old castle, perhaps today we may make it if we took it at a steady pace 🤔

I had driven us up to Manilva, but Shazza elected to do the drive to Caceres, only because she had researched the parking availability and decided to go into the small town, to a subterranean multi-storey car park right in the centre, which required concentration and careful negotiation of the small and narrow cobbled roads. Since suffering with my detached retina in 2022, the focus in my right eye is not perfect, and never will be, so whilst it is good enough for me to drive on, or through, towns with normal road widths, I do tend to over compensate on distance to anything within my field of vision on the right hand side, so as their would be little, if any, margin for error driving through Caceres, she had demoted me to the co-pilots seat. As it turned out this was a good decision, for even she had wished she had worn her brown trousers that day 🤭 On our previous visits we had parked just outside the town which, as it turned out, would have been the better option on this occasion too, what is it they say about hindsight 🤔 However, credit where credit is due, Shazza got us safely in, and out, without gaining any go-faster striping down the sides of the car or any unwanted dents, with the added bonus that we both lost a few extra pounds from the amount of sweating we did, and that had nothing to do with the physical excursions of walking up and down steep hills just lots of close quarter manoeuvring in the car !!

It was a nice warm and sunny day and the tourists were out in force, meaning that we couldn’t find even one empty table at any of the Cafe/Bar establishments, so we wandered up and down the narrow streets until we saw a sign pointing upwards towards the ‘Castle Cafe’. We got about two thirds of the way up the narrow winding cobbled alleyways until eventually Shazza’s Aunt and Uncle declared that they needed a rest before they could go any further, I said I would continue a little further to see whether I could find the cafe, but the narrow walkway just continued to twist and climb, so I knew they would not be able to make it to even the point that I had got to, although disappointingly I knew that it could not have been much further to the top as I could now see the top of the church spire, perhaps Shazza and I will finally complete it ourselves on another day 🙄

We drove back down to our local town of Sabinillas, via a different route, where our guests got to see some other tremendous panoramic views of the coastline as we descended. After a wander along the sun drenched promenade we stopped at several hostelries for much needed Anti-Covid Vaccines, well it would have been rude not to 🤭 and then we went to our local Indian Restaurant for a very pleasant, albeit well overdue, lunch. We spent the rest of the late afternoon, and evening, sat on the balcony just chatting, Shazza had made a large jug of rather potent Sangria, which we all enjoyed, accompanied with an assortment of nibbles, that was followed by her deciding to show her recently acquired skill (I use that term ‘Skill’ very loosely) at producing several of her different alcohol flavoured cocktail concoction’s. I don’t think any of them noticed that I was happy to just sit with my one glass of Sangria. Now both Shazza and I very rarely drink alcohol when we are at home, I enjoy my couple, or three, glasses of red wine when we are out, and Shazza her small beers, but Shazza likes to be sociable when we have guests staying, so there will be no prizes for guessing who didn’t wake up with a headache the following morning 😂

The next morning, which for some further alcohol related reason was another very relaxed start to the day 🤭 our guests said that they would like to revisit Estepona. Since their last visit the seafront promenade had changed considerably, what was once a road has now been reformed into a much wider and full length pedestrian and cyclists promenade. There is now a new Social and Cultural Centre which, on the top, has a 360 degree viewing platform. I have mentioned this in previous rambles and provided photographs, but for our current guests, this would be a first. It was yet again another sun drenched day, with temperatures in the low twenties and so another chance to get back into our more comfortable attire of Shorts, Tee-shirts and flip-flops, My carer (Shazza) had given me permission to drive, so I parked the car in the usual place, for free, at the Northern side of Estepona, opposite the large Carrefour supermarket and then we crossed the road and strolled along the long seafront promenade, enjoying the sea views and the new look pedestrianised area. Just before we got to the Marina was the social and cultural building and, for just €1 each, we took the lift to the top, when we had first come here it was free, but we were not complaining it is worth every Euro 👍

After a gentle wander back we headed into town, through the nice shaded shop lined street and into one of our favourite Plaza’s in Estepona, the ‘Plaza de Flores’. Our intention was to take our guests to a lovely Tapas restaurant that we often frequent whenever we come to the town, but we had left it too late and all the tables were full and their were queues of people waiting for one to become free. There is another Tapas Restaurant in the opposite corner ‘Avocado Tapas & Vinos’ and we were fortunate to claim the last free table. Now we had used this one on several occasions in the past, and it was very nice, the service had been very friendly and all the tapas were very good. However, it had been closed for many months, whilst it was being re-furbished and it was also now under new Management. We were served our drinks pretty promptly, considering they were very busy, but at the time of ordering our drinks we had also asked for a menu and whilst the drinks were forthcoming the menu’s were not. After the third time of asking, around ten minutes later, we eventually got our menu’s, we each selected what we wanted and then we waited for someone to come and take our order, I told one waiter as he passed that we were ready to order, but he never came back to us to take it, some minutes later I attracted the attention of a female waitress and informed her that we were ready to order, she signalled that she would be with us in one minute, that minute came and went as did the next five minutes, I attracted the male waiter’s attention once again and he nodded in acknowledgement that he had seen me, however, yet again he too failed to materialise to take our food order, although we saw him attend to other tables with people who had only recently sat down after us. We gave it a further five minutes, finished our drinks and as the male waiter passed we all stood up and I asked for the bill. He returned a couple of minutes later with the bill and said ‘Is that all you want ?’. I replied, “No, we wanted to eat but we have asked three times and none of you came to take our order, so we will give our money to someone who may appreciate our custom”. Needless to say I didn’t leave a tip but when we were sat at our next bar I did leave them a much deserving review on ‘Trip Advisor’, I prefer to use the much more effective principle of, ‘Don’t get angry, get even’. I suggested to Shazza and our guests that we could drive back to our own town and go for a very nice lunch at our favourite Indian Restaurant, where, funny old thing, we were warmly greeted and the service and food, as always, was excellent.

The following morning we drove back to Estepona for a walk around the Sunday Market held at the Marina. To be honest, it is not something we tend to do very often these days, having done it numerous times over the last nine years when we had visitor’s, and to me, one ‘tourist tat’ market is basically just like any other. Although Shazza’s Aunt and Uncle have been before, they wanted to go again so, as we had nothing better to do and it was only just down the road, why not. However, we needed to be back to our own Town by 1:30pm as I had pre-booked us a table at our favourite seafront promenade Fish restaurant. We wandered up the long row of stalls, and back down the opposite side, not one of us actually bought anything though. As we were there and the Bullring was not far away, a five minute walk, and they had a Sunday ‘Flea Market’ on, we took a wander across but again our wallets and purses remained firmly in our pockets. I do not believe that Estepona hosts any actual traditional bull fights there anymore, given the poor state of the ring, with the grass and weeds and flaking paint. The growing much younger ‘Animal Welfare’ community have a strong influence these days, and so there are very few venues around the Country that continue to hold these historic and traditional events, although that said, their are still many strong Traditionalists in varying regions around the Country, albeit primarily in the North, where bullfighting is still a popular and regular event on the Calendar, both for locals and tourists alike. Shazza and I have visited several bullrings on our travels, even sleeping outside some of their doors in our Motorhoming days, but as yet we have not attended an actual bullfight, whether we would or not is a question yet to be answered, if or when, the occasion or opportunity were to arise.

The weather was remaining kind for our current guests, another warm and very sunny day, the few days prior to their arrival we had felt a big dip in the daytime temperatures and experienced mainly grey and overcast skies, with some small amounts of drizzle, we had pre-booked this sunshine but were told at the time of ordering that we could only have six consecutive days, so we had reserved these six especially for our visitor’s, we are good like that 😉 We made it to our lunch reservation in plenty of time. Although it is possible, and totally acceptable, to just choose your dish as an individual to eat yourself, Shazza and I usually just do the more traditional thing and order a combination of two, or sometimes three, types of fish, two salad items and a basket of bread to share between us, so this is what we all agreed to do and on this occasion, with their being the four of us and with the wide choice of fish on offer, we could each choose our particular favourite and whether we wanted it Fried or Grilled. We ordered a large plate of large sweet Tomato’s, topped with fresh finely chopped garlic and a large plate of olive oil marinated Red peppers, topped with White Onions, Tuna, Boiled Segmented Eggs and a basket of warm bread, as our accompaniment’s, our guests ordered a bowl of french fries, not something we normally tend to have when we come here on our own but why not, they were available on the menu. I have said this many times before, so forgive me for repeating myself, but I like the Spanish dining experiences, once you have booked your table it is your’s for as long as you want it, their is never any rush to get you to finish, pay the bill and then get you out to prepare the table ready for other customer’s, if other prospective customers arrive, who have not pre-booked, they are told that they can wait if they wish, to see if a table becomes available but with no guarantees on how long that may be. On occasions when we have finished our meal and our drinks and we see a couple waiting, we will often tell them that we are about to pay the bill and leave, which is appreciated by both the awaiting customers and the restaurant staff. The other thing I like, at this particular restaurant, is that the food does not all arrive at once, the salad is not treated as a starter, although it does generally come out to your table first, with the bread, but it is also eaten alongside the fish courses which they cook fresh to order, so each dish comes out as and when it is ready.

Once we had finished our lunch we sauntered back towards the Marina and stopped at one of the bars on the lower level that overlook the boat moorings, where we enjoyed an extra couple of Anti-Covid Vaccines, whilst people watching, as you do 😉

On the Monday, our guests last full day, they decided to just have a more leisurely day, do I need to give you the daily weather briefing 🤔 No I didn’t think so. We parked the car at our usual place by the beach in the former fishing village and walked through the Marina and on into the town. We walked the full length of the promenade then re-traced our steps, stopping at one of the Cafe/Bar’s for refreshments before returning to the Marina, where instead of turning right we turned left and walked to the outer harbour wall, where we got a better view of the larger moored Motor Yachts, we looked back at the hills with their whitewashed residences towering over the Marina, they each had spectacular views out to sea and would be far too expensive for my short pockets. We strolled back and enjoyed a light lunch at one of the Cafe/Bars in the Marina, then returned home for a leisurely afternoon and evening. Shazza had decided to roast a chicken and serve it up with a variety of different salad items she had prepared herself, beetroot and orange salad, Greek salad, Hummus, Sweet Potato and normal oven roasted potato with chunks of freshly baked home made sour dough bread, she always puts on a good spread does my Shazza. That evening was the first time in five days that we had turned on the TV, we introduced them to the excellent six season ‘Netflix’ series “The Good Doctor’, although we had already watched all seasons of it, we still enjoyed watching the first few episodes again, our guests were hooked and said that they would be continuing to watch it when they returned home. We dropped our visitor’s off at Malaga Airport around lunchtime on the Tuesday and then returned home, after a quick stop at Fuengirola ‘Miramar’ retail shopping mall. The following morning we awoke to a grey overcast sky and a strong Easterly wind, our fine weather booking reservation had expired 🤷‍♂️

As usual, during these Spanish Winter months, generally our daily and even weekly activities are dictated to by the ‘Works of Fiction’, as at this time of year the weather often changes without giving any advance notice to the meteorological authorities, which really creates havoc with their already highly contentious ten day weather crystal ball ‘guesses’ forecasts 🤭 But we are now used to these changes in the weather conditions, shifting regularly between periods of dry, warm and sunny days, followed by two or three cloudy, chilly and quite windy one’s, there has been some of the wet stuff to add in to the mix but certainly not in sufficient quantity to make any significant difference to the water levels in any of the ‘Embalces’ (Reservoirs) and so not easing the major drought crisis in the Country as a whole. Up until recently, in this small corner of the Costa del Sol coastline, we had been fortunate not to have to endure the full water restrictions that had been put in place in other areas of the Country, or indeed in some of the other areas in our own Province of Malaga.

However, the day after our visitor’s had returned to the UK, on the 21st February those drought restrictions had now changed for us, for unlike some other areas, until now, we had not suffered from having our domestic water supply cut off for 10 hours each night, however, we have now received official notification that we are now limited to 160 Litres of water each, per day, with immediate effect, and the water pressure will be reduced between midnight and 06:00am. The consequences of exceeding these limitations is a hefty fine and for us, like the majority of properties whose water supplies come from the mains supply, we are on a water meter so our usage can be checked, which I suspect will be conducted at the end of each quarterly billing period. The actual reduction in water pressure, during the early hours, will have no real adverse impact on us personally, but it does on those who live on the higher levels of High Rise apartment blocks who, even under normal circumstances, already suffer from low water pressures, but also those who work in the tourist hospitality sector, as many of the Cafe’s, Bars and Restaurants do not close until after midnight, so for those going home after long shifts to take a shower after working in hot, greasy, smelly kitchens they are the one’s who will suffer the most.

Now although we had not previously been under any mandatory water usage restrictions, we had still been trying to be responsible and doing our bit by not wasting water, or over-using this essential resource. However, we had never before given any real thought to just how many litres of water, as individuals, we each use per day, I knew that taking a shower was more water efficient than filling a bath, but now I have discovered that even one ten minute shower can use between 100-150 Litres of water, then there is toilet flushing, how many times do we flush the toilet ? how many litres of water does it take to refill it ? This is not something that we had previously given any thought to whatsoever, but even washing up the dishes in the sink, or casually rinsing off breakfast or lunchtime pots and pans and crockery, or using the Washing machine or the Dishwasher, or just filling the kettle for our morning, afternoon and evening cuppas, filling the water filter jug for our fresh drinking water, leaving a tap running whilst brushing teeth or when rinsing hands, and then the water we use for our weekly cleaning of bathrooms and the mopping of all the tiled floors, we don’t have carpets and, although many of these things may not all be daily events, it all has to be included and averaged out from within our 320 Litre a day allowance. This new regime of water monitoring has made us realise just how much water we each use without thinking about it, so my OCD has now gone into overdrive and I have put battery operated cooking timer devices by all the water taps (only joking, but who knows, that may actually have to also become a reality 🤔). So now, when you read my rambles and I say that we keep praying for long periods of heavy rain, I am actually being quite serious, because there is a real risk, if we do not get the much needed rainfall to increase the water levels in the Embalces, that we may have to go to purchasing bottled water, and I am sure that there will now be a run on that commodity too and if things really do not improve soon, we may even have to fill containers of water from stand pipes in the street 😲

Now who would have thought that all of our years of living full time in a Motorhome that that lifestyle would become both practical and beneficial to us now living back in a more conventional lifestyle ? Yes, in the days of living in a plastic box on wheels we had been used to constantly having to be careful with our water usage, restricting our washing up to just once, at the end of each day, we were also accustomed to taking marine type showers (wetting down, soaping up, rinsing off) and using the Australasian principle of toilet flushing, which, if you are not familiar with that system, is remembering a simple rhyme, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow, but if its brown, flush it down”. We were surprised however to discover that it is in fact more economical to use a dishwasher once a day than it is to fill a kitchen sink or washing up bowl, I am all in favour of that particular water saving measure 😁 So now it is time to be a lot more considerate when enjoying, what until now has just been one of the simple life pleasures and one’s that we have just taken for granted, but now, if we want to continue to have these essential domestic facilities in our home, and not have to resort to filling bottles from stand pipes in the street, it is ‘Time To Pay The Piper’ as the saying goes. When we were looking at all the Pro’s and Con’s of coming to live here permanently, this certainly was not something that was on our radar, so there really is no such thing as a ‘real paradise’.

So, unless the rains come, and soon, and for extended periods, we may also have to make other sacrifices and that is with having any other guests staying with us. We may get away with our Daughter and Son-in-Law from Germany visiting in the middle of July, they have already booked and pre-paid for their flights, but their visit to us is just for 5 days and then, within a couple of weeks of them returning to Germany, we will be travelling to Austria for a week, so we may be able to manage our water usage before they arrive and also whilst they are with us, and then of course we will not be using any whilst we ourselves are away. However, unfortunately we have had to tell our Son and Daughter-in-Law NOT to book any flights from the UK for their intended two week visit to us in August, for with them and our three grandchildren there would be no way we could justify or manage the additional water usage for five extra people. If that scenario happens then we have already decided that, although we had not planned a return visit to the UK this year, we will perhaps do an extended road trip, where we could go and visit them, but also use the trip to do some touring through France, it will be just a case of working out the logistics, something else that we have the benefit of having had to do, often at short notice, in our former nomadic lifestyle when living full time in our Motor Home. It really is true that, throughout life you never stop learning and some of the experiences you encounter can potentially prove beneficial in later life 😉

We had a notification from the Tax Consultant that we met with back in November, part of our Solicitor’s firm, that we needed to submit our Tax Returns by the end of March. So, as we have asked them to do this on our behalf, we arranged another meeting to find out exactly what information they require to submit to the Spanish Tax Authority, and also to confirm that all of our UK Government Pensions are subject to the ‘No Double Taxation Agreement’ between Spain and the UK, meaning that we will continue to pay tax in the UK and not here in Spain. However, apart from those Government Pensions, any other Worldwide Assets (Property, Vehicles, Boats etc.) or Financial Incomes (Interest Payments on Bank Accounts, Shares, Investments, Insurances etc.) are all subject to being taxed in Spain. Now for us, as we do not have any other property or Shares etc, it is actually a relatively simple process, although we do have to declare any interest we have received on our UK Bank Savings Account, which in our case is not a Kings Ransom. We were asked to complete a Form declaring all our Worldwide Assets outside of Spain, you only need to do this once and not annually, unless the value of any assets, existing or newly acquired, and outside of Spain, exceeds €20k of the value already declared. We also needed to provide a spreadsheet of all our Incomes, including our Government Pensions, and Interest on our Savings for the 2023 Financial Year, the Spanish Tax year runs from 1st January to 31st December. As I already keep a detailed record of all this information for my own benefit, I had that Spreadsheet completed and returned to the Tax Consultant within an hour of having this second meeting. They need the Gross Value of all of our Incomes only so as to be able to place us into the correct tax band category, as the total value of our incomes will decide how much tax we pay on our Interest Savings, which could be anything between 24% and 60%. Unlike the fairly straightforward UK Tax Band Categories, in Spain their are numerous tax income levels and so we have asked our tax consultant to calculate wether it would be more financially beneficial to submit individual tax returns or a joint return.

Fortunately for us, we sold our UK property over 10 years ago, so we have no property assets outside of Spain. It would be a little more complicated for those who sold their UK properties in the same financial year they came to live in Spain. Or, if someone continues to own a property asset outside of Spain and also earns a rental income from it. It is certainly something that people need to take into consideration when thinking of applying for a Residency Visa here in Spain, or indeed any other Country. For those who have been following my rambles for a few year’s now, you will probably now understand a little better why it took us so long before we took the decision to actually make the move here, we both spent a lot of time doing our own research and then, cross-checking each other’s understanding of what each of us had read. My advice is, for what it is worth, is that whilst it is good to hear of other’s experiences, you need to check the ‘Official’ guidance and rules, as no one persons circumstances and situation are the same so, what you may read on a forum, or hear from a friend of a friend, may not be accurate or applicable to yourselves. It isn’t actually that complicated, provided you are methodical in your research and take a step-by-step approach, and of course, something really beneficial in this instance is having someone in the partnership who suffers with OCD 😂

Now, I may sometimes be a little cynical about social media forums but, they can also be advantageous, for amongst the gossip, the individual opinions, scaremongering and having to separate the ‘wheat from the chaff’, occasionally you come across really useful snippets of information. By way of an example, Shazza had learnt from one of her local Ex-pat community forums that the England Women’s National Football Team (Lionesses) were coming to Spain at the end of February to play two friendly matches against Austria, and then, just a few days later, Italy. Both games were to be played at the same stadium, which just happened to be, not a large City stadium in Malaga, Valencia, Madrid, Barcelona or Sevilla, but a very small all seat stadium with only a 7,000 capacity. Quite fortunately, the location of that stadium was just a short 30 minute drive from us, so Shazza got onto the Spanish stadium ticket office website and booked us tickets for both games, Austria on the 23rd and Italy on the 27th, the total cost for the four Tickets €44 (£37.60). The supporters seating is all raised with good views over the playing areas and she got us seats on the front row overlooking the half way line, I started practicing my lines a week or so before the first game 🎶 Sweet Caroline, So Good, So Good, So Good 🎶

It was a good game and the Lionesses went in 3-0 up at half time, at the end of the game the girls came away 7-2 winners over Austria but I felt a little sorry for the opponents, for every time that England scored a goal, the loudspeaker would rock out with music that all the English supporters sang along with, with plenty of gusto, but when Austria scored their was no musical celebration from the grounds sound system, although we did clap in appreciation of their efforts. At the end of the game the whole England team, including substitutes and coaching staffs, all came over to applaud the England supporters

It was a similar format for the next match against Italy four days later, we were sat in almost the same seats, just a couple further along. No disrespect to the previous opponents but I anticipated that the Italians would provide much stiffer opposition, in the end they didn’t, we came away winning 5-1 👍 As with the previous match, there was musical celebrations from the ground sound system every time the Lionesses scored, but not when the Italians did, which to me wasn’t very sporting as both games were just friendly International matches but I guess there really is a much closer bond between the Spanish and the English 😉 Both of the games were televised on the UK ITV channels, you may have heard me if you were watching, I was the one who was verbally coaching the Lionesses every pass and move, well someone had to as the coach just sat in the dugout having a cuppa, and perhaps I may also have commented on some of the decisions made by the match officials, but if I am totally honest and upon reflection, maybe they didn’t really need to go and have their eyes tested 🤭 but, I do have to say that on one occasion, the referee did listen to my advice to dish out a yellow card to one of our opponents after a rather meaty challenge 😂

At the start of next week they are coming to dis-assemble and remove our old kitchen and appliances, and then commence installing our new one and all new appliances, which is scheduled to take a fortnight to complete, although they have indicated that it shouldn’t take the full two weeks 🤞

So today is Andalusia Day, a Regional holiday, but no fiesta to mark it, well not in our small town at least. It seems odd to be saying this, but unfortunately it is yet another warm and very sunny day, if only we could have at least a weeks worth of the wet stuff, the real bad ass rainfall, but alas there is none forecast in the immediate future 😢 So until my next ramble, I hope you enjoy standing under your shower’s, with unrestricted lashings of water raining down upon your heads, rather than like us having to resort to using ‘wet wipes’, although we are lucky that the beach and sea is only a five minute drive away, if you don’t mind suffering with a bit of hyperthermia in the process of getting a wash and, I hope you appreciate the luxury of being able to flush your toilets as often as you ‘want’ to 🚽😂

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, “La Vida Sigue Siendo Bastante Buena Aqui”(Life is still pretty good here) 😉