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

the expats social whirl

Friday was a gem of a day, when windy and wet was replaced by sun and snow on the mountains.  The easy walk had so few takers that we all travelled in one car, I met a sculptress from Wales , who was house sitting for her sister, who was in America, a talkative lady from Wyke, and our leader who took  loads of photos for the record.

The mountain ranges we climbed up were spectacular, with very bare craggy ranges, which appeared to have been erupted from the depths of the earth in some volcanic frenzy, while we walked the more gentle paths which had a rich vegetation of bushes and herbs like rosemary and thyme covering the slopes.We were heading for the moorish fort in the Bernia mountains, a garrison for 50 soldiers , with ramparts and extensive living quarters. We looked down on the coast from that vantage point, spotting the church near my house  which looked minute.The day will live in my memory as I forgot to put in my camera!

Saturday was the day of the buffet dance at the Kaktus hotel. I had not appreciated the many opportunities to dress up , afforded by the very full social calendar. My outfits are already having a second airing, and doubling as flamenco dancing gear. The buffet was a splendid affair with a dazzlng selection of starters and main courses.The men were all spruced up in suits, and the women were elegant in cocktail dresses and the like.When we emerged from the dining area up the marble stairs to the dance hall – this was no disco square surrounded by tables – there was a kind of line dancing which I averted my eyes from, having avoided all contact with line dancing over the years. Next there appeared to be a lot of expert ballroom dancers floating round the floor, not leaving a lot of scope for free expression. However the entertainment, in the form of two accomplished flamenco dancers was about to begin, and a sense of replete well being filled the audience. I had met some interesting people including the psychotherapist’s daughter who was training to be a rabbi; and some of the star turns at the companians recent entertainment evening.

In order to live the good life in Spain it seems to me that adequate income and good health are the two major requirements. The effects of losing either one are possibly more dire in Spain than if one were back home.On average the better off tend to eat out at least 3 times a week, there are opportunities to go the the theatre, have trips to other parts of Spain and beyond. Golf, petanc. cycling,climbing, walking, ten pin bowling, whist, making music, surfing the net, watching satellite tv. There is charity work, from fundraising, to taking in battered wives, or giving carers a break. There are cultural events aimed at integrating the different communities. One person’s good life is another’s idea of hell, but there is certainly a variety to choose from. Me I’m just playing at it, and thoroughly enjoying the idea  of entertaining family and friends out here. a few friends thinking about coming out!