Too much weather…

Before I launch straight in I need to apologise again for such a delay in publishing this blog! I was all ready to go after Christmas but became very unwell, and that actually eventually resulted in me being carted off to hospital by ambulance – not quite as exciting as it sounds! I had been having difficulty breathing after any basic level of exertion, and it seems my blood oxygen levels were dangerously low and needed to be dealt with as a matter of some urgency. Oh yes, and while there I also discovered I tested positve for flu, in spite of having had the vaccination. It’s no wonder I felt so wretched!

To cut a long and boring story short, three nights, a number of CT scans, X-rays and different treatments later I got home again, and was never so glad to be in my own bed.

The medical staff were brilliant, from my own GP who had carried out an ECG in the health centre and immediately had me admitted, to all the staff in the hospital. Nothing was too much bother for them, they were all very kind, caring and professional. Best of all was being looked after and waited on at home by the husband, what a man!

So there you are, that’s my excuse for this being late, and I’m sticking to it! Thankfully I’m now feeling much better, back in the land of the living, though still breathless but I’m working on that one. I am very happy to report that after the battery of tests I can state that my heart and lungs are normal, and I just need to work on breathing exercises in order to increase my lung capacity. I have to say I’m also very happy I gave up smoking 16 years ago – I dread to think what shape I’d be in if I hadn’t.

So, on to the weather. There’s been far too much of it recently. This is the longest, coldest and wettest winter in Spain for about the last 20 years, and everybody is heartily sick of it.

There has been so much rain recently, mainly throughout Andalucia and across into Portugal. As usual, in our part of Murcia we seem to have missed the worst of it, we’ve had a few sharp showers and some blustery days but that’s about it. Others have not been so lucky, with widespread flooding and structural damage. We did have one very interesting hail shower, they covered my car roof and windscreen. I haven’t seen hailstones for years!

I think that everyone is looking forward to the warmer weather. Spanish houses aren’t really built to cope with the cold and damp. We have a very big, old house in the country – and no central heating! Fortunately we have two big log burners, and we also have aircon units in the sitting room and in our bedroom, as well as a trusty electric blanket on the bed, bliss!

There’s the best sign ever that spring is actually on the way – the almond trees are bursting into bloom. Our trees are a few days behind the rest down in the valley, as we’re that bit higher up, but it is so heartening to see the fabulous display of blossom which literally seems to have appeared overnight. So, so beautiful.

One of the things needed in this pre-spring, generally dreich weather is something guaranteed to brighten us all up – well those of us who are women, anyway! And no, I’m not getting into the “what is a woman” question, it’s a very stupid premise and everyone knows the right answer even if they try not to admit it!

So, my go-to trick is….red lipstick! I choose the scarlet type rather than the crimson shades, suits me better. It always makes me feel I can face the world with a bit of scarlet lippy. The one I use is by Maybelline, and is long-lasting. So long lasting that it’s flipping difficult to get off last thing at night, but sooo worth it – Taylor Swift eat your heart out!

I have bought loads of red lipsticks in the search for the perfect one – it turns out there are quite a few that fit the bill, though the Maybelline one remains my favourite. However, I have to say that the selection from Temu, Shein etc look absolutely fantastic lined up on a wee shelf! Their packaging is amazing, even if sometines the contents are not…

It was Peter’s birthday last week, and we had planned to go to Granada for a few days to celebrate. We’d found a lovely hotel in the city centre and then…I ended up in hospital so we had to cancel. We can go another time, but its such a shame as we had bagged ourselves a real bargain. It would have been impossible as my mobility has been very limited, so we’ll just try again when everything improves.

I had ordered a big ballon for him which I intended to blow up and hide in the house – it’s a big house so I assumed there should have beeen plenty of hiding places. I hadn’t reckoned on the balloon actually being taller than me, and I knew I hadn’t a mission of blowing the thing up given I find it difficult to catch a breath at all. Then came the real issue – in tiny print it said it had to be filled with helium! Well, we’ll just have to find a shop where we can do that, I’m determined to get it inflated! So all in all not the most well-planned and executed birthday, but the upside is that he’s now an OAP so he’s now getting his state pension!

One of the things I love about living here is how shops are decorated both inside and out, to make their goods more attractive to the crowds, they’re so inviting. Here’s just a few of the places we’ve seen over the last wee while…

and finally just inside a shop specialising in all kinds of jamon….

Okay, another wee snippet from the “say it like it is” brigade. I spotted a notice in our local health centre last time I was there, in among all the advice on giving up smoking, getting vaccinations etc. This one was encouraging us to do a bit more exercise, and simply stated “Mueve el culo”. It means “move/shake your ass”….no other explanation needed!

And another wee laugh – you know how I’m always giving out about the standard of driving locally? Well it would appear that parking abilities are similar…get out of that one!

Due to being a tiny bit unwell (!) lately we hadn’t been out for lunch anywhere so yesterday while we were out on a spot of business we decided to try out somewhere we hadn’t eaten before. It’s on the far side of Hondon de las Frailes from us, and as we were out that direction we thought we’d give the Hondon Hub a try. It’s very English, and a bit different from our usual, Spanish restaurants. However, we’d heard good things about the food and as it was close to where we were we called in. I wish we hadn’t. I really wish we hadn’t. In the 18 years I’ve lived in Spain I think there have only been 3 other occasions where the food was so unacceptable and, frankly, inedible.

There was only one other couple eating when we got there, and they soon left, so it was only the two of us in the whole place. I ordered fish and chips – I love to have this about 3 times a year, and was really looking forward to a big piece of freshly battered fish that’s always on offer somewhere local on Fridays. Peter ordered a chicken kebab. Both dishes came with chips.

After we’d ordered we commented to the waitress about the bad smell in the room – she explained they’d “just had the drains done”, at which point we weren’t sure if we should stay or not, or if the restaurant should even have stayed open…

What follows is our honest opinion on the food we were served, so the restaurant needn’t think of suing us for defamation or whatever! My fish arrived, not fresh, a frozen offering which was hard, almost too hard to cut, like a Birds’ Eye one which had been microwaved too long. Tasteless. I had expected freshly battered fish. Silly me. Peter expected a chicken skewer – what he got appeared to be chopped up bits from a bag of frozen chicken kebab meat that you can get in supermarkets. The pieces were so small we weren’t even sure whether or not it was chicken. It looked like a mixture of old bacon rind and sliced mushrooms. Very, very greasy, very odd colours of black, brown and grey, and a very odd smell. Just swimming in oil. It was accompanied by a small, round, pitta bread which wasn’t even firm enough to cut open a pocket.

The chips were just awful. They were handcut, but appeared to be old, certainly not fresh. They were flimsy, soggy, only just warm and very, very greasy. When squashed with a fork the oil just ran out of them. A couple of bites later we felt we really couldn’t continue as it was so dreadful.

We decided to leave, and told the staff exactly why. One member of staff checked with the kitchen and said she was told everything was fresh – whoever told her that was being more than economical with the truth.

I have to say that the two staff members were very nice, very polite and very friendly. However this didn’t make up for the drains atmosphere or the extremely poor and frankly inedible food. We will, never, ever be back.

As we were already in the Hondon Valley we drove another few kilometres to Hondon de las Nieves Bombay restaurant where we often eat. We had absolutely delicious Indian food and left that particular establishment very, very happy!

If you’re ever out that direction and feel hungry, take my advice and do not, I repeat, DO NOT stop at the Hondon Hub. Keep going until you reach the excellent Bombay restaurant in Hondon de las Nieves and give yourselves a real treat.

That’s it for now, I’ll try not to leave it so long next time! Off now to write a review on Trip Advisor…hmm!