The plane arrived via Stansted – a bit late, the girls enjoyed the running around space of the apartment, the novelty of the balcony and spanish TV.

First day was spent making friends in Albir, and searching for sea glass and heart shaped pebbles We gave the pebble beach a miss next day and headed for Calpe, home of open air fish restaurants, and sandy beaches, Bliss! they paddled, made sand pies u ntil dusk, while Paula soaked up the vitamin D, and just chilled. Chillax to you too!

Friday was the boat trip day involving last minute taxi to the other port at the far end of Benidorm , and 10 minutes to spare. It was worth it Benidorm looked impressive from the sea with the mountains in the background.The girls loved the boat, and especially the submarine boat which made a trip round Benidorm island All good things come to an end too quickly

and so did that day However the last day, we managed a trip to Guadalest before the airport run

Spectacular scenery, picnic in the sun, but Katy was not keen on the white lady who came to life when money was put in her tin!!

Amy wanted to take the whole sea back to England, Katy thought living in Spain in February was great……….and I loved having them here.

Hasta la proxima  vez

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

The Leaning Tower of Pisa has 296 steps to reach the top. This blog was viewed about 1,100 times in 2010. If those were steps, it would have climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa 4 times

In 2010, there were 21 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 56 posts. There were 164 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 9mb. That’s about 3 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was September 3rd with 27 views. The most popular post that day was SPAIN SECOND TIME AROUND.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were mickwest.com, mail.yahoo.com, mail.live.com, talktalk.co.uk, and alphainventions.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for nativity scenes, city sky, city from sky, nader khalili, and jalon valley.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

SPAIN SECOND TIME AROUND January 2010
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Auckland to L.A April 2007

THE LAST POST BEFORE CHRISTMAS December 2008
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blossom time in Jalon valley February 2009
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Seville and Semana Santa March 2010
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It is a strange stop/start time for the expats around December/January. Quite a few people go home for a fortnight before christmas, or to spend christmas at home leaving a gap in the circles of friends out here. This year the weather has added traumas to the journeys, not to mention the spanish air traffic controllers strike.Two intrepid friends of Michaels have plans to go home twice in December – once for a 70th birthday which Stella insisted on sharing with her grandsons back here for 11 days and then flying to Manchester on the 22nd for the xmas week. It seems quite a gamble whether there will be airports open, and how they will get to Reading. We will have a standby xmas dinner ready just in case.

All is not sunshine here, although last Friday we had a sunny walk round Guadalest reservoir.with picnic. This weekend has been cold with incessant rain. Mike has a cold like half the population, and we are really glad of electric blankets

I really enjoyed cycling down to Albir last week, meeting up with Irene, who wanted us to see a new apartment.I did some shopping, and cycled back up the hill-only 15 minutes.

After xmas I shall join a spanish class again, the exercise classes will start in earnest, and I’ll join the monthly U3a debating group.We do meditation on Mondays and the sports centre x3 when we can Just livening up this uninspiring blog with some walk vistas

And finally the post walk paella- yummy!

Christmas Day was very different. We had been to  midnight mass in a very cold little church – a bit “stable” like, and had then set off, early the next day, in brilliant sunshine, with duvets and gifts in the back, heading for Angie and John’s finca We contacted all our families before sitting down to a traditional and very splendid meal. Card games banter and more feasting followed , until we flaked out at midnight Some of us succumbed earlier!

Between christmas and new year Michael and I had our own new beginning, and decided to give each other a little space – literally. Mike found a great apartment with spectacular sea views We now have an apartment in town, and a holiday apartment with views of the mountains and the sea, so we spend time together in both of them, and time doing our own thing. I have now a regular exercise to music group with 15+ participants, and Mike is a web page consultant for a couple of days a week, and is loving it.

So New Years Day saw us in relaxed mood having a paddle in the sea in Albir I liked this photo so much I put it on facebook, and yes the picture says it all.We are looking forward to treating visitors to a 2 location break, sampling the delights of town and resort.

One result is an improvement in my driving abroad. I gave a lift to 3 walkers yesterday to xirles up in the mountains, and regularly take to the local motorway.Tonight we are going to a concert of Argentinian music and tango dancing at the casa cultura in Alfaz. Tomorrow after mass will spend the afternoon with Mike on his suntrap balcony, and then back home to prepare for the next exercise session.

We forgot to bring back some decent cutlery and a blender to make soup, but these were mere details. What we loved was seeing all our families and friends, being picked up from the airport, by Sue, staying with Barbara – a haven of tranquillity, Dinner with Di, The German market in Leeds with Ju. The fun factory in Menston with Michael and girls, The birthday party with everyone! We were able to have lunch with Michael’s daughter and family, Michael was given a personal photo album of his granddaughter’s wedding in Cyprus. We had a relaxed time with Nina, enjoying her free day with lunch at Epsom racecourse, and then the last 3 days in Southsea /  Portsmouth with Bren before catching the ferry to Santander. a spanish tapas bar and yes we went up the spinaker and had amazing views of Portsmouth. The trip home was very exciting. Firstly we escaped the big freeze by a day. We could have been stranded in snow in Madrid. However placing total trust in the satnav, and with no map – for goodness sake, we became lost in the centre of Madrid and added 200k to the journey, arriving home sometime after midnight. We were very very lucky!

We lost no time in putting our presents under the tree. Christmas came very very early in Alfaz!

Before we left the fiestas in Alfaz entertained us for 5 days and nights! There were parades, and fireworks, and dancing and eating at all hours.The climax was a candlelit procession, where a huge statue of Christ on the cross is carried by 12 men through the streets, in silence followed by the townsfolk, and back into the church. This statue was given to the town 300 years ago by the bishop of Valencia, sent by boat to Albir, and hauled up the hill to the church. So this event is celebrated every year These street decorations are dismantled, only to be put up again at the beginning of December We like Alfaz, it is a lively town, with its own customs and is also very cosmoplitan, having 54 nationalities living here. Alfaz includes the seaside resort of Albir, which is a 15 minute cycle ride away( – yet to be done!)It is the only place apart from London to have a xmas tree donated by Norway.

Well  it is only 4 weeks since we came out to Spain,and it has passed in a whirl of looking at apartments, showing friends the sights, and wondering why looking for somewhere to live is so stressful. Then I remember that for the last 44 years I have moved house twice, and in the last 2 years I have lived in 6 places, this apartment being the 6 th. I have lived in a typical old spanish house, a villa out in the country, an older apartment in Altea, and this time we have opted for a very modern apartment with 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms, modern kitchen, loads of space, and it is warm. We can walk to various social activities,catch a bus/tram to most places, and cycle to the beach in 15 minutes.

Yesterday Ann and I went to the U3A in Alfaz, and made friends with 2 couples who were enjoying a coffee in the sunshine at the pensionistas club next door after the meeting. The U3A is very lively with opportunities to join spanish classes, philosophy group, petanc, spanish history/culture group,watercolour class, hairy bikers and an exercise group, which I am going to take alternate weeks with Liz.

We have contacted Angie and John, remember our friends who nearly bought a derelict farm; they still live a long way out in the wilds, living the dream, but are returning to civilization, on Thursday, so all agog to see how life is for them. bit of our kitchen!The photos just attach themselves, so Ann and her sister had a night of flamenco before heading back to the UK

Well it seems a long time since I last took up finger and blogged from Spain. This time is different. Michael and Ann and I are sharing a villa on the hillside above Albir. A villa is perhaps a misnoma as it is more like a townhouse, with 3 storeys, and 3 bedrooms. The sharing of bedrooms is a complicated business, as there is a small bedroom with 2 bunk beds, a double open plan bedroom with a walkway which overlooks the lounge / kitchen,and another double bedroom which has its own balcony, and a door which provides  privacy. We play cards every night for who sleeps where!

This arrangement is only for 4 weeks, while we look for accomodation for the next 5 months. The swimming pool and jacuzzi are heated only by the sun. The sun is shining though and temperatures reaching 40 c

Well that was 2+ weeks ago, and a lot of entertaining and house searching have gone on since then.Ann’s son and wife have been out to check on their mum’s strange plan to live in Spain, and have been captivated by the place, Ann’s apartment, and the lifestyle.

Ann’s apartment in Alfaz, was a stroke of luck

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We saw a to let sign, and arranged in spanish to meet the owners later in the day, and the rest , as they say is history.Photos of both apartments to follow.

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The task of booking online, putting in passport info,  not booking a seat, and printing a boarding pass, suddenly seem very complicated, but at last we have take off – excuse the pun, and it seems unlikely that the ash will persist. The possibility of more ash is something that can be dealt with on the day, for now optimism rules, and we are back to thinking how fortunate we are, and planning to treat this as a holiday and plan a picnic on the beach and a walk up the steps to the old church square with the view of the port, first time I have been back there

Friday the outlook gets bleaker, pictures of travellers having spent the night sitting on suitcases in the airports. I log on to jet2 website, which is very clear and lists the flights which should go on Saturday, so we just need to check  on Sunday….However Saturday all airports in uk are closed until tomorrow a.m, and the ash is sweeping over Europe. We decide that we are really lucky to have no immediate deadlines, and a comfortable place to live only one hour from the airport. We just need to be flexible adaptable and wait.PUTTING ON TIME……. Monday arrives, no flights as uk airspace closed until 7p.m tonight. It seems the airlines, who are losing vast amounts of money daily are in conflict with the aviation authorities, planes are being flown to test the effects of the ash.It is becoming a political hot potato, with lots more tales of school parties stranded abroad, pensioners running out of medicine, and holiday makers running out of money as they fork out for extra nights in hotels; and yes eurostar has put up its single fare to £220, when a return fare was £65.

So we have time on our side, especially as jet 2 now say no flights before thursday, and then they will take people booked on flights for that day, and the rest will just have to be fitted in.the 30th April has been quoted for a flight to Birmingham, which should have gone on the 18th.I shall just have to take the plunge and have my first swim in the pool since we arrived, which says a lot about the weather, and it is suddenly 23 degrees. The water is exceedingly cold, but managed 2 lengths Tomorrow is back  to the internet shop to check jet2 website, before we stock up on bread coffee and a few meals.So go with the flow and ponder on the long term implications