Author: Susurro

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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