Looking forward…

I’m really now looking forward to Christmas/Yule, and midwinter. While it never gets icy cold here the temperatures can fall to very low single figures, and it’s great to be able to come home after a day out and light the big log burners – they heat up the house in no time at all. When we moved here in February 2019 the house hadn’t been lived in for quite a long time, and had perviously only been used as a summer house now and again. The little wooden windows and shutters looked lovely but were obviously made by a 5 year old as a Primary school project – the wind coming in would have gone through you like a dose of salts! Since we got the new double-glazing fitted the house stays lovely and warm all winter. We’re too old to be cold, and we’re very lucky to be always warm and dry.

Last week we sampled some fish and chips at a local restaurant, The Castle Bar, Camping Castillejo, in Fortuna. It had been recommended as somewhere serving “whale and chips”, so we were expecting a slightly bigger portion of cod than usual, and we weren’t disappointed!

Just look at the size of that beast! We generally only have fish and chips a few times a year, certainly not every week, but my word that piece of cod would last you a week anyway! It was absolutely divine – the batter was light and crispy, a real melt-in-the-mouth experience which had sealed the fish letting it steam away to perfection inside it’s wee/huge golden coat. Oh my word the tastiest ever! And so big I had to take half of mine home to reheat later in the air fryer!

We’re actually booked in for “whale and chips” lunch again in a couple of weeks – we have friends from Arboleas coming up to stay over so we’ll eat till we fall over, then get the tram into Murcia and walk off the excess enjoying the Christmas trees, lights and littel artisan market stalls in town. Every year the city puts on such a fabulous display, we’re looking forward to popping in and out coming up to Christmas.

Here’s something I really don’t like about Spain – the quality of the water. Having come from Northern Ireland where you can drink fresh, clean water straight from the tap, the water here came as a big surprise. We had a little outside water filter at the last house that was a three stage thing, and the filters were changed regularly. You could see how bad the water quality was by the dirty brown colour of the water! I thought that when we moved to our current house it might improve, as we’re up in the mountains, but it is simply dreadful.

Every few machine washes I take the wee detergent drawer out of the machine and give it a scrub, as it gets really mucky. Today was the worst in a long time, it was absolutely black with slimy yuck – I’m not sure how else to describe it! I’m sure you’re all very happy to see this photo, but trust me, it was the very last bits I had cleaned, if you had seen the dispenser drawer when I started you’d have been sick! It actually looks like lumps of charcoal but is thick, slimy and lumpy, and is utterly disgusting!

So, we have made a decision to get a water softener and purifier system fitted to the whole house, as it means both the washing machine and dishwasher – and their contents – will stay clean, and the water outlets everywhere else will even be drinkable. It will be a good investment as that sludge is no fun at all. Looking forward to drinking straight from the tap and having fresher water coming into the house all round.

It is no lie to say that women believe a visit to the hair and beauty salon is a necessity rather than a luxury. I have only been to a hairdresser once in the last 10 years, as the husband has always done a sterling job in keeping my straight bob, just that, straight!

However, having decided on a restyle, and on the recommendation of a number of people, I made an appointment with Kerry in Chicas, in Hondon de las Frailes, not far from us. Well let me tell you, it’s the best thing I’ve done in ages! Olivia washed and conditioned my hair, and gave me a wonderfully relaxing head massage. Kerry knew exactly what I wanted, a loose, layered, casual style to give a bit more movement, and I am delighted to say that’s what I got! I love it, and I’ll now be a regular customer, thank you so much Kerry! So, if any of you girlies are within striking distance of Frailes and are looking for a hairdresser….you’ve just found her! There’s a Facebook page for easy contact and you can message Kerry from there as well. The page is just called “Chicas Salon” so do yourselves a favour and get in touch!

I’m only putting up this photo to make the UK readers jealous! That’s our view today from the terrace, blue skies as far as the eye can see, in fact away down towards Cartagena and the coast. The temperature will really sicken you – we managed a rather wonderful 30C in the shade! Well, we then looked at the pool, looked at each other, checked the water temperature and thought….pass! It’s going to stay like this all week and then the temperatures will drop and we’ll be needing to light the fires again. Lovely while it lasts, though.

At last we’re able to tick off a few more jobs we’ve done on the house – after a couple more outside tasks we’ll be concentrating on the inside over the winter, and getting lots of little jobs done that will make the final transformation of the house into a real home. I should think by the time the house is the way we want it we’ll have at least doubled our money, as we got it for a great bargain price.

There was a lot more I wanted to say about this but I’ve been advised by the husband to “keep my powder dry”…for now!