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.