Month: March 2023

There are plenty of old jokes about how awful the Spanish drivers are, though it has to be said things have improved greatly with the advent of EU money for the basic infrastructure. Roads, in general, are excellent, with hundreds of kilometers of motorway and A roads up and down – and across – the country. In adition, hte rules of the road are very clear, and the branch of the police force, the Guardia Civil Trafico, aren’t a bit slow in handing out fines for misdemeanors though you get a 50% discount for paying the fine promptly!

Having said all that, the standard of driving is actually not that brilliant at all. On motorways people still drive far, far too close to the vehicles in front, but the worst perpetrators are the lorry drivers. Not only do they drive so close you can’t see their number plate but they must be exceeding their speed limit by a long way. Cars can drive at up to 120kph on motorways, which I usually do, but lorries are not allowed to exceed 90kph. Now it doesn’t take a genius to work out that if I’m driving at 120kph and lorry, who’s restricted to 90kph is sitting right up tight on my tail, it’s a recipe for disaster. These days I just let them all do what they want and I keep well away from them, they’re farr bigger than me!

The worst offenders are the lorries who are doing up to their legal speed limit,but then decide to overtake the perfectly inoffensive lorry in front of them. Indicate (sometimes!) pull out, and sit in the overtaking lane for up to 3kms, dandering along at around 60kph as it’s a bit uphill. So, the two sit side by side for ages, with nobody else able to get past. Dreadfully frustrating!

I have to say that our town has to have the worst drivers in the country. They pay absolutely no heed at all to any road signs, road markings, or traffic lights. The majority of them are very old and have probably never done a driving test, or never had to worry about “rules of the road”. It’s quite common to start to go through the lights when yours have turned green, only to see at least 3 more old boys heading straight for you, having all simply disregarded their red light – maybe they think they’ve had to wait long enough so they’re just going to keep going anyway! There is absolutely no point at all in trying to remonstrate with any of them, best to just ignore them and let them go, as this means they’ll be well out of your way. Their other favourite trick is when coming round a corner we are frequently met with a car coming in the opposite direction, towards us, but halfway over the centre white line. They should really provide drivers in Spain with free Immodium…

I’m always amazed at how many people here live well into their 90s, as, given the way they drive, they should have been dispatched to the big race track in the sky years ago!

Off the very well-maintained main roads the state of the surfaces can leave a lot to be desired. Pot holes are plentiful, but so are other dangers like items which seem to have appeared from nowhere, waiting to cause you serious car problems. We were heading into town not too long ago when suddenly there was tremendous bang from the rear driver’s side of the car. We stopped, looked at the tyre, and saw a huge bolt had gone right through it, in one way and out the other. I couldn’t believe it, and neither could Jose, our local garage owner. To this day we have no idea how it managed to embed itself in the tyre in the way it did – pretty impressive! I kept the bolt as a souvenir! I needed new tyres anyway so it was as well it happened when it did.

Another thing, if someone bumps into your car you can be sure they’ll probably laugh it off and nothing more will happen. An old boy smacked into the husband’s white Nissan Terrano not so long ago, but just drove off. When we caught up with him he offered us a half-used tin of white yacht paint to repair the scrape! You couldn’t make it up!

Oh, and as for cyclists…well that’s a whole other story for another day!

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Next on the list of things I like about Spain – the national healthcare system. Our healthcare is the same as in the UK, free at the point of delivery. We pay 10% of our prescription charges, which is very little. I can go online on an evening and book an appointment with out GP for the next day or the day after. Our own lovely GP, Laura, is currently on maternity leave and the locum is a wonderful man called Jesus. Yep, we have Jesus looking after us very well!

Two years ago Peter became very ill, following a routing colonoscopy where, while removing a couple of little polyps his intestine was perforated – it’s just one of those things that can happen, about one in a thousand cases., just unlucky, We didn’t know about the damage until the next morning when he was in considerable pain, and looked dreadful. I got him to hospital by ambulance, where the surgeon told me they might not be able to save him. Absolutely the loneliest time of my life, sitting till after midnight in the family waiting room, on my own, desperately hoping he wouldn’t die.. No friends were able to come as we were in lockdown due to the covid regulations.

He ended up with an ileostomy, which he hated. Changing those bags every day was a bit of a challenge – we learned to do it before breakfast which not only got it over with but reduced the risk of, err, involuntary splashes! Happily he was able to have a reversal operation a few months later and now just has a couple of very impressive abdominal scars to show for it. The medical staff at the hospital were fantastic, and in our health centre all the nurses loved him and all wanted to see him every time he needed his dressings changed.. It tells you a lot about the calibre of the man that he is so well thought of.

I knew he was on the mend after the 2nd surgery when he whatsapped me a photo one night….

To explain, and very handy information to pass on…the most important things I brought him when he was in hospital were his phone and charger, plenty of internet allowance on the phone as there was none in the hospital, an extension lead, a decent sized tabletop fan as it’s so hot in hospitals, and…the Claw. Invaluable for relieving itches when it hurts so much to move in any direction! So if you or anyone you know is having a hospital stay remember what to bring them!

Next on the list is the cost of living. Everything may well be costing all of us more now but your money still goes a lot further in Spain than in the UK. For example, diesel is currently costing us €1.36 per litre, which is around £1.19 sterling, and the cost is still falling. Fruit and vegetables are inexpensive and plentiful in the local markets, and eating out is ridiculously cheap. Also energy prices are still coming down – we have a very big house, and our last electricity bill was €71 for the month, and that included some use of aircon to heat our bedroom.

Given the huge range of plentiful and affordable vegetables I tried getting into healthy green veggie smoothies – disgusting! It took about 6 swallows to keep every mouthful down. See that smile? It’s not a smile, it’s a grimace, I’m trying not to be sick… Veggies might be cheap but as smoothies they are not welcome!

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Since our neighbour Antonio was kind enough to give us a huge bag of lemons in return for some lemon curd, I got onto it today and have made 6 jars for him. It really is the best lemon curd and is so easy to make. Here’s the recipe in case you want to try it.

350g sugar

225g butter, cubed

juice and zest of 5 lemons

5 medium eggs

rounded dessert spoon of cornflour

Makes 6 small jars, that’s about half the size of a regular jam jar. Muddle up the eggs in a biggish pan, (about the size of pan you would need for cooking potatoes for 4 people). Put everything else into the pan and whisk continually on a medium heat for about 7 minutes till it thickens. When it thickens, turn the heat to low and simmer for one minute. Pour into clean jars. (Why do you always have to say “clean jars”? Nobody’s going to use dirty jars, are they?!) Put the lids on and store in the fridge. Just delicious on a bit of wheaten loaf fresh out of the oven.

Also, a quick pudding is…whip up some cream till stiff. Fold in a jar of lemon curd. Crumble up some digestive or biscoff biscuits in the bottom of the most beautiful, fancy glasses you can find. Spoon in the lemon curd and cream mixture – it ends up like a lovely soft mousse. Crumble some more biscuit on top and add a couple of raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, or all of them. Bet you can’t eat it without licking your lips!

While we’re on recipes, here’s another favourite. Paris buns. I’m not the greatest cook in the world but Paris buns are hard to beat, and hard to describe! Like a sweet kind of cross between scones and cake, but more cake than scones, with wee sugar nibs on the top. You see? Quite difficult to describe! Anyhow, here’s the way I do them…

290ml milk

140ml vegetable oil

170g sugar

1 large egg

440g self-raising flour

Pre-heat oven to 200C. Mix milk, oil, eggs, sugar by hand. Sift in flour and mix by hand. Should be quite stiff. (The mixture, not you, unless the old arthritis is once again playing havoc with your skeleton!) Drop big blobs of it onto a greased baking tray. Add some wee sugar nibs/pearls to the tops. Bake for about 15 minutes till risen and golden. Just too delicious for words and a wee taste of home. Err, as well as the lemon curd the neighbours (they’re all Spanish) are deadly keen on the Paris buns but can’t work out why they’re Irish but are called “Paris” buns. Actually nobody really knows, and who cares? They’re just delicious! (This makes about 6, but we ate the rest before I took the photo…)

Incidentally, can you see those things in the fancy bottle? They’re home-grown chillies. We thought we’d have a go at making chilli oil, so we shoved in as many as we could and filled the bottle to the neck with best local olive oil. We didn’t realise you’re only supposed to put in a couple of chillis. Suffice to say if you have a cold, a hangover or anything similar, that stuff will clear it up straight away. Either that or it will kill you.

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Things I like about Spain? First up, the weather, of course! For around 300 days a year we have sunshine, and from June until October it varies from “warm” to “the furnaces of hell”. On weather sites it seems that only Spain can describe 32C as “pleasantly warm”. In Northern Ireland that would probably constitute a state of emergency with people warned to stay indoors! There are actually storms and rain sometimes, and often of biblical proportions. Every few years we get a big one – water thunders down streets, washing away bins, cars and anything else in its path. One of the strangest kinds of weather here is called “calima”, and that’s when the air gets filled with dust particles,, most often blown over from the Sahara desert. The air turns red, as does everything it touches, filthy houses, walls, cars, patios and pools. Very difficult to breathe so always best to stay inside. This photo was taken in the middle of the day, from our verandah, last year, and is absolutely not doctored or photoshopped in any way. Very weird and a little bit freaky.

Next up – the food. Spanish cuisine is simply fabulous, always fresh, always plentiful. Although fast-food places are becoming more and more available, it seems that the excellent Mediterranean cuisine still prevails. We do much of our grocery shopping in the bigger supermarkets but for fruit and vegetables we shop in our local Saturday market when the range is wonderful and the prices much better. Every thing is seasonal, so we appreciate fruits when in season, and they are much tastier then too.

A favourite is the “menu del dia”. This is a set lunchtime menu of at least 3 courses, said to originate in Franco’s time when he wanted to ensure that workers could enjoy a hearty and affordable midday meal with a choice of starters, mains and puddings.. As an example, here’s what we often have at our favourite local restaurant…

Large tuna salad. Crusty bread with allioli. Starter of consomme with meatballs. Main course of half chicken cooked on the plancha for a wonderful smokey flavour, served with chips and vegetables. Pudding is a 3-chocolate tart, more than delicious! We always have Sprite, a large bottle of water and a jug of wine. All this, for 2 people, for the ridiculous price of €24 total. No such thing as portion control here, just as well we only have one meal a day! As we say at home ,”you couldnae bate it way a big stick!”

As you might guess, we like to eat out fairly often! The Spanish are big meat-eaters which suits us very well, though vegetarian options are becoming more available. Vegans maybe not so much – yet! There are so many great places to eat out here that we are really spoiled for choice. Everything from great little tapas bars to Chinese all-you-can-eat buffets, to great restaurants, all serving wonderful fresh food at great prices.

We rarely eat any processed food here, the husband is very handy in the kitchen and enjoys cooking everything from scratch. His favourite is Indian food, and he uses just about every spice you could think of! We’re running out of space for the spice jars in the kitchen so they’re now on glass shelving on a spare bit of wall. Well that’s some of them anyway!

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So here we are, with an almost-finished house, at last. We’re getting in a team to sort the terraced garden properly, so I don’t risk breaking my neck climbing up and down there.

Our builder has now knocked down 2 sheds in the corral/courtyard below the terrace, as this is where the new pool will be going. The whole area is now prepared, with steps leading down from the terrace to the pool courtyard. We’re also going to build a BBQ there, and we need to put in a solar shower as it’s important to wash off sun cream before going in the water. If you don’t, it leaves a scummy mess that’s difficult to filter out and it clouds the water.

It won’t be long before the pool is up and running. I can’t wait for the days when we will be out in the mornings geting whatever we need, then a bite of lunch,then home in the heat to just get into the water to cool off. Very necessary in summer temperatures of around 43C, bliss!

There isn’t much left to do inside, either. Our electrician, Miguel, is finishing off all the upgrading of electrics, and it shouldn’t be too long before that’s done. He works for the town hall and comes to us after work when he can. He called round the other day to sort out some outside sockets, and he brought his 2 children and a big bag of quail eggs! (We only got to keep the eggs!) Spanish people are very, very hospitable, it’s really lovely. In return, they get lemon curd and limoncello from us.

Antonio from down the road landed up with a huge bag of lemons the other day and said we could have them on condition I made lemon curd for him – no problem!

Almost all the walls in the house are being painted white, with the exception of one of the downstairs bedrooms, and our room. We bought a king-sized bed head which had been painted silver – fabulous! We then decided it would look great against a cobalt blue wall, so Peter set to and got the job done. The downstairs bedrooms are all doubles, though they’re not very big, but enough room for the essentials. There’s a wardrobe in there too, hiding behind the door!

Within the next month or so everywhere will be freshly painted, pictures will be up on the walls, and the house will have magically turned into a home.

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After searching for more than 2 years for a new house I was about ready to give up. We’d travelled the country, mainly further north, and viewed so many possibilities that looked lovely online but hideous in real life. Then I spotted one online that looked more than interesting. The husband walked past the computer as I asked him to look, and said “too small” in passing. I only had up the first photo of the house, from the front, which looked a bit like a bungalow. However, when I made him look again and told him it had 6 bedrooms and 4 reception rooms, including a bodega, plus 2 courtyards and outbuildings and about three quarters of an acre of land, he managed a second look!

The rest is history. We went to view – it was about 150km from where we’d been living and was the most romantic looking place, over 100 years old with some add-on parts over the years, and with fabulous views of the mountains and pine trees.

We moved in during a very, very cold February and quickly discovered that the quaint little wooden shuttered windows were so draughty that the bitter wind whistled freely through every one of them. I think they might have been made by a 10 year old as a Primary School project. The first night we slept there Peter wore his ski suit and we had to put an actual rug on the bed as it was so cold!

When it rained – yes, it does rain in Spain – we quickly learned where the leaks were in the various roofs. At least we knew where to fix them!

The garden is going to take a bit of taming. Most of it is terraced and we need to make proper steps down to each level so I don’t hurl myself over by mistake and break my neck.

It’s a bit of a labour of love, this house, and will take a while to get it right. So far though, we’ve managed to have two upstairs terraces sealed, some damaged roof tiles replaced, and we’ve changed every window into new double-glazing-keep the cold-out fabulous ones! Happily they are still in keeping with the house, so not only do they do a great job at keeping out noise and wind, they look good too.

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The hot topic at the minute seems to be all about the menopause and its effects on women. I have to say I feel quite guilty that I never had a single symptom, so I got away with everything very, very lightly. However, I do remember when I was 52 thinking that if the change of life was coming then I was going to have a very big change, in a different way – so I moved to Spain!

My first house was a very standard 3 bed, 2 bath house with a lovely pool. I used to look out of my kitchen window and be totally amazed that I had a swimming pool all to myself, bliss!

My younger daughter, Alice, came with me to Spain. She is a qualified beauty therapist and she opened her own salon in our little town. Her clientele was made up of both English-speaking as well as Spanish people, so she learned to speak Spanish rather more rapidy than I did. She also had a Spanish boyfriend which also helped!

Winters in Almeria province are generally mild, to the extent that you can often have Christmas dinner outside on the patio, a real change from Northern Ireland.

There were so many changes in my first couple of years in Spain that looking back on things now it seems like a different life. I moved to Spain on St Patrick’s Day 2008, and in November of that year my mother died. A horrible shock, and even worse as I was no longer within a few miles of home.

However, the following year I met Peter, and we’ve been together ever since. So, together now for 14 years this year, and married for 4 years this September.

We lived together in my house – he was divorced and temporarily staying in an apartment in our little town, Arboleas, but had a big apartment in La Mata, near Torrevieja. We decided that we needed to buy a house that belonged to both of us so we put both properties on the market, took a big deep breath and found the house we now live in, the one you can see on the front page.

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