Change and more change

It seems a long time since my last visitors left. Graham and Sadie had a long weekend around the middle of March, and

it is hard to believe that they picked a very chilly weekend, actually harder to believe that Graham insisted on a choc chip icecream in an open cafe We had a good time walking up to the lighthouse, chilling out in the square, and eating out at night, with great views over the harbour I gave up the apartment on the 31st of March, and have spent a couple of weeks winding up the exercise class, saying goodbye to friends in Albir/Altea, and going to the occasional do This was a 70th birthday where fancy  dress was appreciated! We left for a trial run in the campervan before Easter, and had a great time watching the young spanish groups putting up their tents, and gathering in the evenings for paella, music and dance. The loudness of the music just added to the atmosphere, and families, old and young just all mixed in. We met an Australian couple, who were playing at camping, having just bought a tent to save money on their hotel bills. They were very fit having tented and run and walked and kayaked competitively for several years. They were both in their late 50’s, we spent a couple of evenings offering them shelter from the rain, and swapping stories of adventures in Thailand, India and NZ. We have an open invite to Australia, so who knows!

Easter Sunday was lovely. I went to church  in my favourite tiny chapel before heading off on a tour of campsites further down the coast. This was Calpe beach, only 5 minutes by bike from the camp site, This is Javea, where we watched the surfers coming in on the waves. Again the beaches were sandy and safe for children. There will  be so many places to take visitors next time! I hardly scratched the surface.

 

The journey up the coast is spectacular with mountains and gorges, and trees in blossom, frangipan and mimosa.

I currently have my clothes in 3 bags, one for camping, one for the journey home, and one for when I get home. This is stretching my packing abilities,I shall be glad in  lots of ways when I finally land , and stay in one place for a while.I shall upload this in an internet shop, when we arrive in Calpe tomorrow. Hasta luego!

AND MORE FAMILY……………

During the last 5 months I have probably spent more quality time with more family and friends than during a year back in England. That does not hold true for all friends and family, but it has been great having a week at a time to relax with people, and do the tourist bit  . and share the delight in sunny days and flowers in

February Here is Bren with the fabled orange trees. The weather was warm enough to have a picnic, but the odd shower threatened. The next day was glorious and walkers joined the odd nudist sunning themselves on the beach. No we didn’t take photos! Here a somewhat chilly walk by the castle walls in Villajoyosa.It seems that if there is a cool day, then a sunny one follows. Today was meant to be the Friday walk but when I arrived there were just 2 people looking bemused, they went home, so I had a day to do what I wanted. I parked the car by the beach, and walked along watching the waves, but glad I was in walking gear, as there was a wild wind. Decided to have a haircut, a bit brave this , as the last time 8 weeks ago I had an extreme cut. However it was great this time, so I even bought a top in the chinese shop to enhance my evening outfits.

Walking up the steps provided the daily exercise, and just look at the views of the sea and flowes on the way up to my house Anyway had more pressing matters to attend to like contacting inland revenue who are insisting I haven’t sent in my tax return. I did sent it online on 22jan, so a letter has to be sent appealing against the decision BAH! I was several washes behind, so it was a pleasure to catch up on domestics, and do a bit of cooking for when I dont want to. Today was the day of repairs. This is an old house, and the plumbing gets bunged up. so the kitchen taps were replaced today, and the shower fixed ( sorry Bren) but am delighted to wash up in hot water without having to put on the patio tap to get enough pressure.( too much information here!)

It has been a delightful surpise that suddenly my wifi laptop is picking up the internet signal from someone’s internet server, and so I can send emails in the comfort of my home. How good is that! The signal is sometimes a bit weak but in the main it works very well. This is unlike my car which continues to play up, and I am very wary of it cutting out on roundabouts or traffic lights. The journey home is going to be interesting. Ferry is booked now, so the present end is definitely in sight. I have to say this 6 months has been on of the best decisions I have made, the exercise group is small and has definitely taken second place to visitors from home.Will have to see what the next 6 months brings.

to be continued……..

meet the family

The last week has been very memorable.Paula and children arrived on the Sunday, and Nina and her two on the Monday. The cousins were delighted to meet up again and explore the delights of sea and sand and playgrounds on the beach

We had some pretty good picnics on the beach , and in a campervan, which they found a novelty while their mums had a more relaxed time on the beach. Paula and Nina even had a night on the town, while grannyann worked magic back home with the Mama Mia DVD.

one of the highlights was the flamenco dancing night, when Esperanza was enchanted by an influx of little girls wearing flamenco dresses, and leotards . She smothered them in kisses, and was rewarded by their delighted imitation of her dramatic fan waving, and swirling of skirts. Katy aged 3 was in her element whirling round and kicking her legs up By the end of the session we were dancing flamenco, rhumba, pasadoble like there was no tomorrow. In fact this was sadly the last day, we had all had a great time, and the general consensus was for a return trip

 

sunbathing in February   YES!!!!!  Adios hasta la vista

ONLY 2 MORE MONTHS?

A few things happened recently which gave me food for thought. A letter came from one of my exercise groups, saying how glad they would be to see me back, the couple who are renting my house would be interested in buying it, my electricity bill for 3 months was £50, I am watching blizzards and deep snow in England and also parts of Spain, while experiencing bright sunshine, spring flowers, almond blossom, and lunch al fresco, and I have already planned to stay an extra month, and do a bit of touring round Spain, especially Seville during Semana Santa.

So the question is what next and why? I did feel that the experience of being in Spain would change me, and that I would not know how I felt until I had spent the time here, and then gone home. I had also felt that I might miss my home, not to mention my family and friends( which goes without saying). Not only have I not missed my home, I have felt OK about other people living in it. Previously I have always come back to the pleasure of familiar bed and kitchen and bathroom, almost like the house was an extension of  me, particularly since I had the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom makeover. I like entertaining, I like family coming to stay, I like the garden and the views, and the wood at the end of the cul-de-sac. I still do not know how I shall feel when I go home, but I now feel, as I had started to feel before I left home, that there is more to life in retirement than comfort, indeed the comfort can seem like a trap, the comfort trap. I am fortunate to own my own house, when many people are struggling. It has taken a long time to reach this happy position. But I am not my house, and in terms of adventures, and new experiences, I have lived a little life, yes I was an au pair in Tenerife, yes I went to uni when I was 36, but I am still living within 3 miles of where I was born, and I have spent a lifetime being sensible, (well mainly) and working for a pension, like we are told to.

So I reckon that if I am going to throw over the traces, that it is now or never.

Life continues to throw up challenges like some kids smashing my front side window , and having to make a statement to the police, and finding out that the car insurance is more convoluted and I had to pay 93 euros, which hopefully will be refunded. Not much luck with my car.

I am now looking forward to Paula and Nina arriving at the weekend with the girls. Marjorie left this morning at 5.30 a.,m and had a 100 mph journey to the bus station in order to link up with flight to Barcelona.There has been some weird weather recently, including high winds which blew down power cables causing massive fires on the mountains around the area, a bit .reminiscent of the hills round Santa Monica.

All for now hasta la proxima vez

blossom time in Jalon valley

This last 4 weeks has been a rush of visitors, in fact the last one arrives in less than an hour. I have had more trips to new places, and fabulous meals out, than I would have in a year at home!

Each person to arrive has been enchanted by the house and the views, so that I enjoy it all over again.

This month the Jalon valley is full of almond blossom, all shades of pink, it is so lovely. We have joined the walkers each friday, and I shall upload a few photos to give you a flavour of the scenery. I really find it difficult to blog and have visitors, so will get back to it after friday this week

fish retaurant Calpe we climbed 1500 feet

still here

Hello
Yes there has been a long gap in posts. This is mainly through visitors and chest infections. All is well. I am discovering parts of Spain through the pensionistas trips, and weekly walks.My laptop at present is not working so it may be a week or so til serious blogging returns, in the meantime there are visits from Ann, Marjorie, Nina Paula and girls, Brenda and Bernard and lastly Graham and Sadie. Hopefully normal service will be resumed soon Hasta luego

Boxing Day Costa Blanca Style

Well I did go swimming in the sea on Xmas Day, and I did go to midnight mass on christmas eve, and I have got another heavy cold, which I think is more to do with the freezing cold church, than the temperature of the sea, but all the same I am housebound for a couple of days, a good opportunity to catch up with you all.

Christmas Day was lovely. I actually missed the headlong rush into the sea, which happened an hour before I arrived. However Shelley and Don were still there with the champagne and snacks, providing a meeting place for friends to catch up with each other, sometimes for the first time since last xmas.They are a lovely couple, who work for an english charity, doing hands on work with homeless people, the sick, expats who need to go back to the UK. They also made a splendid christmas dinner, and invited another temporary expat to join them. We were held spellbound during the meal, while Charles, from NZ , who also had lived in South Africa, Rhodesia, and various parts of Spain, working as a nurse, and nurse tutor. Although ill himself he now worked with girls forced into prostitution on the Costa Blanca.

It is now 2 days after new years day, and have spent a lot of it immersed in the flu that everyone seems to have had.

Ihad some great chats with my grandchildren on skype, and new years eve in the square at Altea was brilliant, no doubt about it. I loved the music the free champane, grapes, marraccas, fancy hats, and the fireworks provided a suitable climax to it all. Then we went back and did english new year at my house an hour later. The photos do not do it justice, but took a short movie to upload. Then returned to more coughing and sneezing. I am now pretty well recovered and Graham is helping me revise my exercise leaflets to expand the classes over the next 3 months. So photos to follow, and A HAPPY NEW YEAR ONE AND ALL.

THE LAST POST BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Have just been reminded by the family that there has not been a post in over a week, which has been mainly the week of Chris’s stay. Can you believe that we were both suffering from flu type colds, and spending half days in bed? I blame the huge variation in temperature, which was freezing(relatively speaking) on Sunday, and changed around Thursday to hot  swimwear on the beach weather. This unfortunately was the day Chris returned to England not before she had picked a couple of oranges to top up the vitamin c , and show her grandsons!

I am very pleased with  the xmas tree I knew that bringing the xmas tree lights with me was a good idea.We managed a trip to Guadalest and Benidorm market , on the sameday. One of the noticeable differences in the spanish run up to christmas is the prominence of nativity scenes, everywhere, in shops , on roundabouts, in shopping centres, everywhere

The christmas lights are pretty stunning too, Paid for ,course by the fines for cars dragged off to the car pound. But hey I am cool about it! Just look at what I paid for!

On christmas Eve I am going to midnight mass. In the morning I shall join the revellers on Cala Finistrat beach, drink champagne, and rush into the sea at noon. In the afternoon an english xmas dinner in the home of some friends. Tonight was pure enjoyment watching my grandchildren open their xmas santa sacks which Chris took home with her, and seeing Paula Nina Graham, Sadie, Simon. J,u and Malc via skype and webcam, nearly as good as being there, except you can’t join in all the jokes. I was very choked watching Amy and Sophie sing a carol for me.

Well that is all for now

A VERY VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL

Where did the last week go

I was a bit concerned that when Chris arrived for a week the weather may have deteriorated to that of Madrid or other snowbound areas which Spanish news had been dramatising.However she arrived in glorious sunshine, and we had a coffee and snack in my favourite open air restaurant by the sea, discovered by Ann and I 3 months ago.

I do love having people come out to stay especially now that weather is so grim back home. I do remember my sister Brenda describing swimming in the sea to keep cool in NZ, while we were bracing ourselves against months of rain,and trying to be happy for her! So no more mention of it from this point on!

Wednesday was the trip to Valencia, a couple of hours by coach , up the coast.Oranges are everywhere around here, but I was not prepared to see mile after mile of orange groves, as we approached Valencia. We get a lot of oranges from this region, and they must be about ready to pick and export for the christmas market . Valencia, third biggest city in Spain, and home to some pretty spectacular modern architecture, housing art galleries, sea world, science museum, and work just celebrating the sheer joy of creating shape and texture . This was a shopping trip , so those of us who wanted to see a bit of the city, had to be resourceful in finding buses , and rapidly moving from place to place. Those beautiful buildings will draw me back, and we had no time to enjoy the renowned science museum, or spectacular sea world.

I have continued to find the weekly walks a delight. Last week saw us walking up the river bed to the dam at Guadalest, and eating tangerines and Sharon fruit straight from the treesYesterday Chris was up in the mountains with me taking in the incredible views, building up an appetite for a huge christmas meal, where  both sets of walkers, easy and hard met for a raucous let your hair down meal. and self made entertainment,  Say no more!

We returned from this jaunt slightly inebriated and purchased a lovely live christmas tree, which has just been delivered this morning. We are having a leisurely day before the action starts again with a dinner and dance at Ciudad Patricia tonight. This is an interesting venue.Last November, while looking for venues for exercise groups, I was given the name of Cuidad Patricia, where very wealthy expats of many countries, buy into an air conditioned retirement village, with apartments, swimming pools, golf, beautiful restaurants, gymnasium. high security, doctors etc.,a veritable waiting room for heaven.I had no desire to work there, or in their nursing home, just over the road, so imagine my surprise when the venue for the dance shifted to this place. Apparantly the restaurant owner had sold his place and bought cuidad patricia, and was taking his bookings with him. Perhaps in the days of recession, where the restaurant business is definitely suffering from the reduction in people eating out, there is an increasing ageing market of wealthy people wanting to have a secure comfortable future, where everything is taken care of.He obviously thinks so. Perhaps I shall learn more after tonight.

COMPETITION ON THE HORIZON

This week I need to look at how I want to develop the exercise class, given that there will be only 3 months left after Christmas.There is a core group of enthusiastic participants, especially  Ron who wants me to stand up each week to remind the companians what they are missing. This week one of the fliers left on the tables, announced that from January 12th, there would be  gentle exercise classes for the over sixties every weekday,in the local gym, at a cost of only 4 euros. Additionally a new pilates class would start the next day in the hotel bar.While it is good that there is such variety of exercise on offer, there is a real struggle in the business sector to survive, with alternative, and beauty therapies , massage, facials, homeopathy, hypnosis, nutrition, vying with each other for a corner of the market.

The hotel also announced that I could no longer use the gym downstairs, as this room was being let at a cost of 100 euros a day pro rata, so we were back in the bar, which is a large space, if rather public.There is interest in linking my class with a weight management session, which would run at the same time, and January would seem an ideal time to start.

Ron , who is a long time resident in the area, former chairman of the international club, and the backbone of the whist and tenpin bowling groups is a good man to know. His determination ensured that I had a lift to the tenpin bowling on Tuesday evening, where a group of 16 enthusiasts enjoy a social night out in Benidorm. It felt a bit like my first night at flamenco classes, I was lucky if my bowl hit anything. However Muriel aged 87 who drove herself into Benidorm each week, was on cracking form, and much admired by the rest of the group who were mainly 20 years younger, so perhaps I need to revise my wimpish approach to going out at night. She is certainly a splendid role model, having lived in several countries, and outlived two husbands (neither of which makes her a role model but have probably sharpened her self sufficiency.) Compared with the international club, the companians is a fledgling group, albeit a very successful one, and there is ,I sense, an element of sparring and lip curling, which goes on between key players in both organisations. As the advertising of activities in the weekly news sheet, is strictly controlled by the companians, I need to maintain a neutral position in relation to the merits of the diverse forms of physical activity on offer. With 650 members they could fill endless classes. The real challenge is the ambivalent approach to exercise. epitomised in the gym membership phenomenon, where after 3 months most people’s resolve peters out.The second challenge is the availabilty of cheap alcohol and meals. Having a meal out at lunch time or in the evening is the main form of socialising, and deadly on the waistline.I have to draw a halt to most eating out between guests , and certainly to drinking , to stop the pounds creeping back. What a life!!!

The photos below  I took on the 18th October, little dreaming I would move up to the old town within weeks