My life in Spain

We had decided that we’d quite like a few days away to celebrate our wedding anniversary, and we wanted to go somewhere not too far from home, but where we’d never been before. We decided on Albacete, the capital of Castilla La Mancha, which is about an hour and a half from us.

We’d seen it on the map, it’s on the way to Madrid, but we’d never been there and didn’t actually know anything about it. We booked accommodation, a little apartment right in the city, which looked grand and had great reviews, and set off for our trip which was to be from the Wednesday – our actual anniversary, to the Friday.

In case some of you don’t know, Castilla La Mancha is Don Quixote country. The famous 17th century book, by Miguel de Cervantes, tells of a lowly chap who reads too many chivalric romances and loses his mind, imagining himself to be a knight of the realm, fighting windmills which he believes are the enemies of the state. He is accompanied by his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, and the pair ride together through the whole area.

As we drove through the area en route to the capital, we saw quite a few original windmills, though many have fallen into various stages of disrepair. However, we DID see many, many huge wind turbines which set me thinking about a modern day Don Quixote maybe riding up to fight them on his trusty Harley Davidson, accompanied by Sancho Panza on a scooter!

Albacete turned out to be a delight. A beautiful city filled with the most relaxed and polite people ever! We even noticed that when in a queue at red traffic lights, those on motorbikes and scooters waited their turn back in the queue, instead of following the usual Spanish practice of shooting up either side of your car to get to the front and scare the bejaysus out of you by cutting across you.

Something else I didn’t know is that Albacete is famous for its knife production, from pre-historic times right up to today. They’re so proud of this that there’s a whole museum in a lovely old building, devoted to the production of knives in all shapes and forms, from tiny wee penknives to huge big machetes. We learned about the history of knife-making in the area and it was very interesting. Generally knives are also sold openly in Spain, they are various sizes and shapes, and you don’t need a licence. There doesn’t seem to be any knife crime as there is in the UK, or, particularly, in London. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

One of the places I was keen to see was the Pasaje de Lodares which, from the photos we’d seen, looked a bit like the beautiful colonnades of streets in Genoa, Italy, which we had loved. Well, I wouldn’t be rushing back to see the similar area in Albacete because although it was indeed, very pretty, you could walk from one end to the other in about 30 seconds, and most of the shop units were closed down! Rather lovely architecture though, and worth a wee peep.

We only had a few days in the city, but when there we learned that their feria, or big fiesta,was going to start on the Saturday, the day after we would be home. Spanish towns usually hold their fiestas over a three day weekend, but the bigger cities go on for longer. Albacete was expecting around four million people in and out of the city over the ten days of the feria. Yes, you read that right, FOUR MILLION PEOPLE! Long gone are the days when I’d have been right in the middle of that , enjoying the music, dancing and eating. Nowadays I can hardly think of much worse than being trapped surrounded by millions of people all having a great time! I think our escape was well-timed, a little bit of synchronicity for us!

Now here’s a thing to get you thinking! You all know that Peter and I both believe strongly in synchronicity rather than coincidence, and we look for, and find examples almost every day, a bit like having had a lovely time in Albacete but managing to escape before the hordes descended.

Well, prepare to be amazed, dumbfounded, astonished, delighted and blown away by the next thing I’m going to tell you!

I started at the University of Stirling, in Scotland, 50 years ago. Actually that in itself is shocking enough but there are two more BIG issues here. Ready?

I got an email from my friend Deirdre, who I still keep in touch with after all these years, talking about a reunion for six of us who’d shared a flat on campus. Because we’re all living all over the place it was felt that a zoom sort of thing might be the best way to go, to catch up and re-establish old friendships. It’s going to be happening next weekend.

In the meantime, I found an old photo of the six of us, all dressed up for a party in the flat. From the front, left to right is Hilary, Louise and Lin. Back row, left to right is me, Deirdre and Irene.

Now, never mind that Deirdre had been contacting the very ones in this photo, I need to amaze you even more…..I told them all by email that I remembered that Lin and I had swopped dresses for the night, she wore mine and I wore hers. I had loved my dress, I’d bought it in the White House in Portrush, having gone into my second geography A-level paper; I’d looked at the questions, I wrote my name and number, and left straightaway to go shopping without writing one more word. The dress that Lin is wearing is the one I bought that day, 50 years ago. When I laughingly added this wee bit of info to the group email Lin said she still had it!!!! WHAT?!!?!?!? She said she wasn’t usually in the habit of keeping clothes but since she’d moved south from Scotland the dress, along with some other things, were in a bag in a cupboard and HAD STAYED THERE ALL THAT TIME! She even sent me a photo of it!

Can you tell how excited I was to read that? So, the upshot of all this is that she’s going to post the dress to me, I can’t believe it! I don’t care what it looks like now, we’ve all aged a bit since those days – and then some!

I’ve only just found this out this morning and am leaping around with joy at thinking I have something lovely to look forward to in the post.

Even better, I’m now back in touch with some old friends after such a long time, which is is doing my soul good!

And on that note I’ll say ‘ta luego till the next time!

“When southern summers come the air falls fast like a blanket, smothers the breath and wraps itself round us. We long for the cool air of autumn or even the chill of winter’s fingers on our throats. We overheat like cars with faulty radiators.

To get to sleep we try lying still, but the air feels like a heavy quilt pressing down, turning breathing into gasping, and making skin shine like dawn dew.

We learn in school that most things expand and lengthen in the heat. There is always an exception, of course.

Tempers get shorter and tolerance diminishes as the hot days grow longer, generally it seems best to just stay out of everyone’s way where possible.

The more caring days of autumn are still some time away so for now we rise early, rest when we can, and wait for the heat to lose its sting, and for the relief that cooler air brings.”

Like the vast majority of people here I just can’t wait until this latest little “ola de calor”, or heatwave, does its thing and clears off until next year. It is really, really difficult to get anything done in such searing temperatures, and here in inland Murcia we have seen the mercury rise to around 40C or more. It will be such a relief when the sting of the heat leaves us and we get back to lovely warm days and cooler nights.

Meanwhile, until then, there’s always this…

and this…

When you’re in the pool there’s a lovely cool breeze that is bliss on wet skin, then it’s a race up the steps out of the courtyard onto the terrace and into the shade of the verandah where the same cool breeze is always there all day, no matter what the air temperature reads.

Peter has nearly finished the plastering part of the pool courtyard. We’ve agreed that really only the one very higgeldy-piggeldy wall needed plastering, it was far too rough to even be described as rustic! The other walls are grand, so within the next few days the whole area will be painted white, and the solar lights will be up all over the place. It is really difficult to do manual workoutside in these temperatures, but we should have had the courtyard done before the end of June – just another reminder that you should never put off till tomorrow something you really should have done last year!

There is one wall, where we built the seating area, which is made of very jagged layers of rocks. It looks rather interesting and we wanted to keep it,but if you were sitting there and leaned back you would have a rather painful set of lacerations. So we thought we’d try to get an enormous piece of clear perspex and bolt it onto the rough part of the wall. Then we can dangle down a load of solar lights behind the perspex which will look rather pretty when the sun goes down. I’m currently looking at where to buy a big sheet of perspex so we can get it on the wall as soon as possible.

The floor of the courtyard will be sprayed with white paint, then I have a lovely big thick cotton rug to put down, much easier on the feet!

We’ve recently had just the best time ever, when Laurie and the grandchildren were here for just over a week. I had been counting down the days with growing excitement and it was so, so good to have them here.

We took them to the waterpark in Torrevieja and they absolutely loved it. For me it was just proof that purgatory really does exist – too many people, too hot, too noisy, too everything, in fact! However, it didn’t matter a jot as the children had a ball. Laurie and Peter went in the different water areas with them – I sat in the shade with my book and a big bottle of half frozen water, guarding our belongings – I’m not entirely daft!

I think most of all they enjoyed just being with us at home – as they could be in the pool as much as they wanted! The best time was their “midnight” swim. Well it was about half past nine but it was dark and that was what we needed to bring on the LED and solar lights. They really loved the floating lotus flowers and thought it was great fun to dive down for the little colour-changing lights we scattered along the floor of the pool.

The boys saw a little dragonfly had got bogged down in the pool – we have a couple of them who visit every day, one red and one blue – and Scott lifted it out of the water. Marshall let it rest on his arm until it was able to fly away again, something else to tell their friends! Incidentally, the Spanish word for dragonfly is “libelula”, isn’t that lovely? Those wee beauties can each eat around 100 mosquitos a day, so they’re well worth having in the garden.

All too soon the holiday was over and I had to take our wee family back to the airport. We had had such a great time and of course we are now looking up flights to get over to see them again in November/December. Always a good excuse to do a bit of Christmas shopping and catch up with friends.

Meanwhile, the day they went home I went into their bedrooms to strip the beds and in the boys’ room they had left me their wee sliders, until next time. Tissues required to stop my eyes leaking!

We have a fabulous little pasteleria now in Fortuna, called Dulce Sueño by Sara. She and her husband are Polish, so Peter is always happy to call in! Sara makes the most delicious little cakes, very different from your average “buns”, each one is truly a work of art. They are indescribably delicious and such a treat! Sara has a Facebook page, it’s here so you can look it up and see what she creates. https://www.facebook.com/dulce.sueno.by.sara

Well? Are you jealous yet? Gorgeous cakes! She is a real artist and the flavours are simply sublime. Any of you who come to stay with us will be marched down the town and into the pasteleria with great anticipation!

And here’s another wee sneaky one of Laurie and the children enjoying a treat there too!

We got up the other morning and as I looked down the driveway I could see something unusual – a big cactus had flowered overnight.

Now I’m not a fan of those spiky things and wouldn’t ever want to plant them, but we inherited this one with the house and this is the first time I’ve ever seen a flower on it in the five plus years we’ve lived in this house! It looked rather lovely but….by the next day all the flowers had vanished!

This garden and the local wildlife continue to astonish and amaze me. I took this photo of a bee collecting nectar from our big bougainvillea – it looks for all the world like a butterfly or hummingbird but is actually a bee. Nice wee thing!

I was lucky to get a photo of this cicada on a tree in the garden – they are masters of disguise and you can just about make it out in the middle of the photo, with its wings folded down along its back. They are about a couple of inches long, and they make a sound like electrical charge flowing, designed to attract a mate.

Apparently their eggs are laid underground, where they stay or up to 7 years before hatching and making their way to the surface to find a mate. They don’t live very long, the females then lay their eggs underground and the whole cycle begins again.

I had a couple of great finds recently, while shopping. Our brilliant supermarket chain, Mercadona, has come up with a fabulous perfume that smells like Mediterranean lemons, my all-time favourite scent, along with neroli, or orange blossom. It’s only €6.50 a bottle and is just divine.

And for my neroli scent, Zara has nailed it with this one – wonderful!

I’m currently smelling gorgeous!

One final word about the heat, before it starts to cool down in the run through autumn and into winter….

That just about sums it up!

Right, I’m away now to finish off the last of the dulse that Laurie brought over for us, if Peter hasn’t beaten me to it!

I’m sure by now most of you will be aware from the media that much of Europe is experiencing a major heatwave? Well don’t believe all the hype about how much hotter is is now than has ever been. I checked our temperatures for the last few years, in fact since we moved to Murcia, and actually nothing much has changed! Last year we had temperatures of 44C in the shade, on our terrace. This year, so far, we have seen temps of 40C but that could reach up to 43C in the next few days, then tailing off to a much more manageable low 30s. The current temps are absolutely normal for this time of year, it’s summer here and business as usual. That can mean restrictions on working hours for those who usually work outside, for obvious reasons, and older people and small children are advised not to be out in the hottest part of the day. Incidentally, the hottest part of the day is not noon, it’s from around 3pm to 6pm. Sometimes tourists don’t realise the effect heat can have on your body, especially if combined with copious amounts of beer instead of water, and tragedies can occur, as we have all read about recently. Last year, across Europe, 61,000 people died due to the high temperatures. Shocking.

When the heat is on there’s only one place to be – in the pool. Oh, and stretched out indoors with the aircon blasting. Okay, so that’s two places but you get the picture! Our pool is above ground – we live in a regional park so are unable to get permission for an in-ground one. Still the pool measures 7.5m x 3.5m so it’s a great size anyway. Last week we noticed a wee drip from one end, and it seemed we had a tiny hole where a bolt from the frame had nipped the liner. Alfredo, our fireman friend from down the road, came over and said he would fix it!? So, he got into the pool, went down to the bottom – it’s deep enough, up to about my chest – but had to get Peter to hold him down under the water so he could apply the sealant. Looks like a murder scene with a very happy murderer holding down his victim!

Happily the sealant did the trick, no more leaks! The pool is up one end of the courtyard and Peter has now started plastering all the walls, ready to paint. The whole area will look so much nicer when it’s finished, hopefully within the next few days – heatwave permitting! We need to paint the concrete floor of the whole courtyard white, then we have cushioned mats and a brightly coloured very big rug to put down which should look good as well as being kinder on the feet. Work starts between 7am and 8am then finishes around 12 when it’s just too hot. Early evening we can get another couple of hours in. (Well I say “we” but of course I really mean the husband!) Then we’ll add some tall plants in pots around the courtyard, and cover everything in wee solar lights. I have a very big dead branch ready to spray white, silver, gold and bronze, and will add solar lights so it’s like a summer “Christmas” tree!

I’ve been hand sewing long cushion covers for the swing seat – Peter has painted the seat frame a lovely sapphire blue. My sewing machine had a nervous breakdown in the heat so it needs a proper service. What would have taken me half an hour at the most to sew by machine has now taken forever with hours spent hand stitching, but when the sewing machine is up and running again I can go over my hand sewn seams properly. It’ll do for now. It’s looking much fresher and brighter now. We need to fix on the canopy frame which I will cover with the same material and then that’s it, job done! I looked for ages for the right material to cover the cushions and make the canopy, but most that I really liked were really expensive. Then I had a brainwave – I bought two single duvet covers from Ikea. One of them, cut lengthways, covered both the seat and back cushions, and with minimal hand-stitching! The other will provide the cover for the canopy. Total cost, €24. So, it’s nearly finished now, thank goodness, another job ticked off the list. It is a really lovely place to sit on the terrace, always a cool breeze and fantastic views over the mountains. There are frequently eagles circling, sure where else would you be?

I’ve just had to renew my Irish passport again, but this time instead of using the postal service I did it online. Well it turned out to be the easiest thing ever! We asked one local photographer place what the fee was to provide a digital photo – €10. I wasn’t going to go there anyway, we always use a really lovely lad called Alberto, he and his father run a photography studio in town. So, got the digital photo done, and Alberto printed me off 4 copies, just in case the digital one didn’t pass muster and I would have had to go down the postal route. It certainly did pass muster, the whole application took about 10 minutes and I should have my new passport around 30th July. Incidentally, the digital and printed photos came to a total of €5, hooray for Alberto!

In this heat it’s actually difficult to drag up an appetite so we tend to eat little and often during the day, only tapa sized little meals, instead of full lunch or dinner. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, one of my favourite thing is langoustines. No need to do anything with them except eat the delicious little things! And the good news is that our main supermarket, Mercadona, has reduced the prices on over 100 foods, including fish and seafood, and olive oil, all considered staples here. This means my favourite langoustines have come down in price from €11.95 to €9.95 a kilo. Oh joy! Guess what I had for lunch today?!

Speaking of eating, we were down at the coast recently to meet our lovely friend Karen for lunch. SHe lives in England but has a house here in Spain. We talk all the time via whatsapp and Facebook, and get as many wee video calls in as we can as well. Karen and her husband Dave were going to be the witnesses at our wedding in Gibraltar five years ago, but Dave became very ill with pancreatic cancer.

I’ve known Karen longer than I’ve known Peter but we haven’t been able to get together since just before Dave became ill, so it was so it was really, really wonderful to see her. We spent most of the time just catching up and hugging! I’ve stolen this photo of them from Karen’s Facebook page as I love it so much. I’ll ask forgiveness after as I didn’t ask for permission in advance!

It’s just Karen on her own now, though I’m very happy to see she is so busy with her daughters and grandchildren, as well as filling her life with love and friendship. When we message each other we always sign off with “Love you, Mrs Roberts!”, from me, and, “Love you, Mrs Kopczynska!” from her. So, until the next time you’re over again Karen, let me tell you you’re more than worth the 400 kms plus round trip drive to see you, and…love you, Mrs Roberts.

Now, here’s a thing. I know this blog is supposed to be all about my life in Spain but I do think this is also part of that, in that it illustrates the potential difficulties of getting things done over here, and, more importantly, the ease with which things can be achieved, especially when dealing with Norn Iron people! So, for all you folk who don’t live in Norn Iron, and especially for the very, very few who don’t realise what a fabulous place the country and its people really are….here’s a wee example. Peter recently caught his finger on a door handle, and it snapped open his wedding ring. Now, this is a man who loves that wedding ring and everything it means to him, so he was a bit upset when the ring broke.

We had bought the ring in Rohdich’s famous shop in Portrush – the only place to go if you’re looking for genuine Celtic jewellery, amongst a whole plethora of other items! “No problem”, said I, I’ll contact the shop in Portrush and see if they have another the same. So I messaged Alice Rohdich, with the sad story and a couple of photos of the damaged ring, to see if they might have the same one, same size, still in stock, just in case we couldn’t get his fixed.

Alice came back straightaway with the great news that they had the same ring, right size, and she would be able to give me a total price once she knew the postage costs. Shortly after that she messaged me to say she had posted it….but I hadn’t even paid her yet! Got the payment off while being so grateful to be part of a community like Northern Ireland where people actually trust you to do the right thing. So, big, BIG thank you to Alice for helping out so quickly and graciously!

And to anyone who thinks Northern Ireland isn’t a great place….you don’t know what you’re missing!

We are quite well into the latest wee football tournament now. The real football season just finished, then about 20 minutes later the current one started. So far the little teams are proving to have far more heart than the bigger boys. The only one of the 4 home countries left in the thing is England, though if they carry on the way they’re going they’ll be on their way home very soon. So many memes now doing the rounds about the England team, so I won’t say any more except to state that I know the rules, including the offside rule, but despair at how much cheating goes on from almost every player. Poor old England, if the team turned out to be half as good as they think they are perhaps they might win more than one match. Only one more thing to say – their FIFA world ranking is 5th, Slovenia’s FIFA world ranking is 57th. I don’t think there’s much more to say. We have months of fabulous sport to look forward to now, with the football, tennis and I’m sure I heard a whisper about the Olympics being held this year? Suffice to say I’m happy to have both a house and a kindle full of books to while away the hours!

To get away from the dead and back to the living (sorry, England football team!) our pomegranate tree at the back of the house seems to have suddenly taken on a new lease of life and has sprung into action! All over the winter it looked as dead as the England team (okay, I’ll stop now!) and we had thought it was too late to save it. Well, one massive plop of sustained rain and it’s now covered in leaves! We don’t pay too much attention to the back of the house as it’s a kind of split level area and we haven’t planted anything there – however we think we might dig up the pomegranate and replant it in the lower walled garden to see if it fruits again.

I’ll admit it’s not the best photo, as I took it through the bedroom window, with the reja bars and the mosquito blind in the way, but you can clearly see the pomegranate in full leaf! The tube running to it is from the aircon unit – water from it will help to keep the tree from dying of thirst over the summer.

We went to the interactive Van Gogh exhibition in Alicante last week, and it was really, really good. His art style is not my favourite genre at all, but I learned a lot about the man himself, his family and his mental health struggles. We went there on a coach trip – yes, we’re officially old now! The joy of that is you get brought door to door, no hassle with city traffic and parking, so no stress.

We had the afternoon in Elche – famous for its shoe production and for its 200,000 palm trees. They must take a lot of looking after! As I said last time, we were given a guided tour of the city and gardens on the tourist train which was, indeed, like the Portrush Puffer, great fun!

I like doors, and cathedral doors are enormous, as well as being too heavy to move. I imagine the cathedrals and their doors are built that way to impress the population and remind us of how insignificant we all are, and of how important “the church” was to people living hundreds of years ago.

As well as seeking out doors, I make a point of looking up wherever we go – hence the photo of the cathedral dome. Across the square from the cathedral I happened to spot another little blue and white striped dome just peeping out from behind some tall buildings. Got no idea what it belonged to but I liked the look of it!

On the way back from Elche we could see the salt mounds near Torrevieja. The salt is extracted from the low lagoon waters and is left to dry as the water evaporates. The mounds are more like hills, massive! You can have a tour round to see how the salt is extracted and what they do with it, it’s fascinating. The lakes,or lagoons, also host something else…flamingos! The water is tinged pink, as are the birds.

It’s amazing what’s on our doorstep, the variety of nature is fantastic and there’s always something to see.

Now here’s a thing – I rarely drink alcohol, about one glass of wine every couple of months, but I do like a little of my own home-made limocello now and again. I have found another rather lovely liqueur, made from watermelon, it tastes gorgeous! Have it on its own or in a tall glass with lemonade and lots of ice. Comes from Mercadona supermarkets and is around €6 a bottle. Bargain!

Often when I’m in Mercadona now I buy a bag of fresh langoustines. They are great value and are absolutely HUGE! By the time I have them shelled and “de-veined” – a polite way of saying “gutted”! – I’m left with a big bowl of juicy fresh monsters. Happy to report that Peter isn’t a big fan, so since I do all the work prepping them it’s only fair I get to scoff most of them.

Now that the hotter weather is really starting to kick in here we’re always looking for ways to keep cool. The three best ways are, of course the pool, the fans and the aircon. It helps that the house has very thick walls to keep the heat out during the summer and in during the winter. As well as the usual tried and tested methods, it’s rather nice to have something to sip which is really cooling as well as tasty, and isn’t the usual fizzy drink stuff. We chop up melon, any kind you like, and liquidise it. Put it in a tall glass with ice, and top up with cava or ginger ale. Delicious and very refreshing.

My other favourite with melons is to cut them into big chunks, add a lolly stick and freeze. Hey presto you have the most delicious ice lollies and far better than the manufactured kind. It works with any kind of melon or other fruit. For me, the most flavoursome is the Sapo de Piel melons….translates as “toad skin” and tastes considerably better than it sounds! Very naturally sweet and juicy, yum!

Here’s who I’m listening to at the minute….Sierra Hull. Nope, I’d never heard of her either but she is well known in bluegrass circles and is just fantastic! Here’s her rendition of Mad World (Tear for Fears). Wonderful stuff! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFIQgPAms88&list=RDsFIQgPAms88&start_radio=1

I have so many unread books stored on my kindle and I keep finding more, it’d just as well I’m a very, very fast reader and usually finish a book in about two days. The one I’m reading at the minute is going to take a little longer, and is one of those ones where every now and again you have to put it down and have a little think, and maybe read a bit of something else less challenging before going back to it. It’s called “The God Effect: Quantum Entanglement, Science’s Strangest Phenomenon” and is by Brian Clegg. It’s basically about understanding the universe and how it works. It’s a very interesting read and a bit different from my usual choice, but every now and again you need to push yourself to different choices if you ever want to learn anything new.

I’m looking forward to getting into the time travel stuff!

It’s tax time here again in Spain, the tax year runs from 1st January to 31st December. We use a good firm of tax specialist accountants and got all the paperwork in on time thank goodness. If you’re late with your returns some hefty fines can be imposed by the Hacienda, the tax office. So, we have paid our tax for another year while complaining about the miserable personal allowances here. Our joint allowance pre-tax, in Spain, is €12,000. In the UK it would be £25,500. We’re now actively looking at way of becoming tax-resident again in Northern Ireland in the future – the money is better in our bank than in the government’s coffers!

We were over at a neighbour’s house this week and had them back to us two days later – we needed a day in between to recover! Alfredo and Laura live in Murcia, but have a holiday home here in our village which they’ve been renovating. It’s a great house, part cave, with lots of rooms leading off one another, absolutely lovely! They built a pool just off the terrace which is necessary for the hot weather here. Alfredo’s long-time friends from Galicia were staying with them this week on holiday; it was such a pleasure to meet them. We ate and drank freely, spent most of the time practising our Spanish, and then, at our house, woke up the whole neighbourhood from their afternoon siesta with a few hours of karaoke – brilliant afternoon! Laura had made a big paella at their house,then we cooked a pork and Pedro Ximinez casserole at ours a couple of days later. It is so lovely to make new friends – Alfredo and Laura’s house is just down the road from us 100m or so – we can wave at each other from our terraces!

This one was the party at Alfredo’s house, (the paella didn’t last long!) the photo below was at our house, just before they all arrived, including bringing the big karaoke machine!

I would say there might be a few more afternoons like that before the summer’s over! Just the best way to spend your days, in the company of good friends, with good food, celebrating being alive and counting our blessings. We are so lucky in the friends and neighbours we have here, and we always appreciate it!

Oh, one more thing before I go….I know I said no more football chat but I gather the husband wants to go to a bar tomorrow to watch the England vs Slovakia game. Well, according to my DNA results I have no English DNA but am about 5% Eastern European, which includes Slovakia. I might take their advice so I’m now threatening to come to the bar with Peter to cheer on Slovakia…or I might just stay at home and relax in the pool instead! I think discretion might really be the better part of valour this time!

Well, allegedly, that is! We’ve so far had some lovely hot and sunny days but it then descended into a wet and wild experience. We’ve had tormentas, storms so loud we couldn’t hear ourselves speak, with phenomenal thunder and lightning, and torrential rain. The garden is sighing with relief, all those plants and trees have had the watering of their lives, including a bit of a battering from which they will soon recover. I’m happy to say that even with very, very strong winds our newest little additions, the blood orange tree and lemon tree are still upright, if a bit shell-shocked. And the best news is that we know the roof doesn’t leak! I bless the rains down in Murcia…I bet you sang that, didn’t you?!

Last week we were toying with the idea of taking off the pool winter cover and doing a bit of hoovering and topping up. I’m very glad we decided to leave it for another week as goodness knows what might have ended up in the water. It looks like normal service should be resumed by Friday with temperatures around the low 30s so I think that really will be summer rolling in.They do say here in Spain that summer doesn’t start until the 40th of May (think about it!) and we’re about there now so hopefully the rains we have had will make a difference to the reservoirs and we can start to enjoy a bit more of the blue skies, sunshine and pool we like so much. In the meantime, I took a photo of how dense this evening’s fog is – we can’t see as far as the bottom of our driveway, nor can we even see down into the walled garden. It’s like being in “The Langoliers”!

I have no doubt that in another month we’ll be complaining about the heat! I just hope that the temperatures this year are lower than last year so they don’t get near the 44C we had last July and August. Our Spanish friends were all complaining that it was far too hot, and if it was too hot for them imagine what it was like for us.

We were out last weekend at one of our favourite places to eat, La Taberna de Encebras, near Pinoso. I’ve mentioned this restaurant before in the blog, it’s where the lovely Ann serves her whale and chips – cunningly disguised as fish and chips! Honestly, the biggest portions you’ve ever seen! Ann has started a “Tapas Saturday” and we rolled up last weekend to give it a go. Well, good grief, I have not had such delicious, authentic tapas since coming to Spain more than 16 years ago! Everything is beautifully and freshly cooked, with very generous-sized portions, and served with a smile by Jo! Now listen to this – you get to choose 5 tapas for €10 from this list:

magra (pork pieces in a spicy tomato sauce), albondigas (meatballs in sauce), tortilla, serrano jamon (ham from Seron, far tastier than parma ham!), croquettes, spicy chicken breast, chicken wings, salt and pepper squid, spring rolls, onion bhaji, spicy samosas, Russian salad, prawn and crab salad, fresh crusty bread and allioli, chorizo, fries, fried morcilla (black pudding), fresh homemade cod goujons, and last, but far from least, mozarella sticks. Phew!

Gorgeous food, beautifully cooked and no need to eat again until the next day. You can see the portion sizes and the quality…and we’ve booked again for next Saturday. Seriously, five of those big boys for only €10?! Best value in town!

Meanwhile, back in the real world, the work on the house is still dragging on. Dragging, that is, mainly because we’d rather be out lunching at great places like La Taberna de Encebras than foutering around rubbing down and painting woodwork, sewing fabric panels for behind glass doors for cupboards…well you get the picture.

We reckon the only way to get on with it is to decide what day we’ll be doing what job, and simply do it. Every now and then we get a great burst of energy and miracles occur – then we can’t get out of bed as we’re stiff and exhausted…the perils of getting older!

Okay, a very BIG subject that can be a very BIG problem in Spain….barking dogs. On-line forums are continually littered with posts complaining about dogs barking at all hours of the day and night, and, while it may not seem a major issue, it can be very disruptive to sleep and to normal life in general. Spain has introduced some very tough new laws concerning the keeping of dogs as pets, in that they should receive a high standard of care. Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to apply to working or hunting dogs who often just get treated like, well, dogs. Those who keep hunting dogs are not emotional about their animals and they certainly don’t see them as pets. The are there to do a job, and when they can no longer do it they are simply disposed of. Or not so simply disposed of. One way or another the dogs are eliminated when they reach the end of their useful working life.

Now I can easily understand why people might want dogs to hunt with – many, many years ago my father and his friends went hunting with their gun dogs. What most people find difficult to tolerate is how the dogs are treated at home. Sometimes they are kept in order to warn off other predators who might seek to snack on someone’s chickens or geese – a good bark usually scares off most predators. However, a dog kept permanently in a cage outside, or permanently chained up isn’t really going to frighten anybody. As for the barking, well again I simply don’t understand why, if your dog is barking endlessly, you don’t go outside to see what’s going on. One of our neighbours, about 150m across the “sheugh” on the other side of our wee hamlet currently has 11 dogs and my god the sound of them all kicking off after dark is horrendous. It can go on literally for hours. Sometimes it might stop around 2 or 3am, for a while, then it all starts up again. I’m so glad we have very good double glazing, but it means we rarely have the windows open in summer, so we can’t enjoy much of a breeze. As for being woken up 4 or 5 times a night with the noise – why doesn’t the owner go out and shut them up?! We were chatting with four of our closest neighbours the other evening – everyone in this hamlet is Spanish – and they all said the racket was dreadful. One of our neighbours starts work at 6.30am every day and can’t get any decent sleep due to the noise. Here’s the issue – why don’t our Spanish neighbours go and tell the chap to shut his dogs up? Are they afraid of insulting him? Are they all related to each other? Is it easier to complain to us that to deal with it head on? It’s a real dilemma. One branch of the Guardia Civil here, Seprona, deals with environmental issues and animal welfare, so when a complaint is made to them they take swift and effective action. That would include the dogs who are permanently chained up, as well as the dog in the big cage who has never been out of it in the more than 5 years we have lived here. We’re hoping that our neighbour who has to start work very early will maybe have a quiet word with the offender and get a bit of peace here! It won’t solve the problem of the chained and caged dogs but the minute I know we’re leaving here for good, whenever that might be, I will be making a complaint to Seprona!

It’s really not good to have barking all through the night, all year round. Sleep deprivation is a known form of torture but at least we can stay in bed all day if we want, we don’t have to go out to work! We do expect a certain level of disruption out here in the campo but this is ridiculous! In the meantime, we have a megaphone, and now and again Peter practises his loudest roar…it seems to work!

Better news now, not Spanish but essential to my wellbeing out here….our wee grandson Marshall and his football team won the tournament they were playing in recently, the Moyola cup.

We’re just so proud of him! Thank goodness he is the goalie – when the others are all charging around wearing the same blue and white striped outfits I find it hard to tell who’s who….at least I know where to find Marshall, and his strip is bright orange!

Well done the team, well done indeed!

  Back to the weather again and I’m sure you’ll all have seen on the news recently the reports of the horrendous weather we’ve been having in some parts of Spain and the Balearic islands. This photo is from “Murcia Today”.

We’ve had another couple of tormentas – big storms with torrential rain and hailstones. A few parts of our region of Murcia have been badly affected but we were very lucky to remain warm and dry, with no flooding near us. Also our electricity only went off once, for less than 3 minutes, so that was a real bonus. A phenomenal amount of rain can fall in a very short space of time, and gullies and drains in Spain, can’t really cope with it – if they exist at all. Also, because the gound is usually baked hard, the water doesn’t just naturally sink into the soil, as there isn’t time, so it just runs off and out to wherever it can. It usually only happens a couple of times a year, and everything dries up very quickly due to the heat. It’s just something to put up with, and to remember if you want to buy a house in Spain don’t buy one at the bottom of a hill!

This photo of the mountain behind us on fire is what we all desperately try to avoid, so you can see why the rain is so important. It’s to help prevent the devastation that fire brings, as well as to assist the agriculture industry here by ensuring good crops like olives for oil, almonds and so on.

As I said, above, for hours after the rain our house was shrouded in fog, really, really wet air, with very limited visibility. We couldn’t see as far as the bottom of our driveway, and looking over the wall along the side of the house we couldn’t see the lower walled garden at all. Very weird indeed. We’re not so used to being in the middle of fog or cloud, we’re more used to being above the heavy clouds.

Oh, I don’t know why that photo turned out so small…I’m not very technically minded, forgive me! Anyhow, for now the rain has gone, and we don’t expect to see any more until winter.

I’ve been doing bits and pieces on the computer for the last couple of days and I just looked up what our current speeds are. Today, while writing this, the ping is 16, (whatever that means?!) the download speed is 908mbps, and the upload speed is 939mbps. I’m very happy with that result! Our television service runs via internet so with these excellent speeds we never get any buffering or other issues.

In truth we don’t watch a huge amount of television here because we’re either too busy with jobs around the house, or we’re out enjoying ourselves with friends. This wee box is magic! We have access to all the terrestrial channels as well as all the Sky ones amongst hundreds of others. It actually doesn’t mean we watch more, but it does mean we’re a lot more selective in what we choose to watch. All those channels of entertainment, sport, films as well as stored films, box sets and so on gives us a huge amount of choice for when we do actually want to watch something. I can’t believe how good our internet service is – when we moved here to Murcia in 2019 there was only one internet provider and our speeds were between 6 and 12 mbps, if we were lucky. Another little something to be grateful for.

There’s a new, interactive exhibition of Van Gogh and his work showing in Alicante,and we have decided it will be worth going to see. I’m not the biggest fan of his but I want to see how they involve the “interactive” bit so it should be very interesting. Last time we were at an exhibition in Alicante it was to see the terracotta wwarriors, and it was fabulous. With this Van Gogh exhibition, we’re actually going on a coach trip, like bona fide old people…oh wait, that’s what we are now! We’ll get collected from a pick up point we know well (easy parking there too!), taken to the door for the exhibition, then off to Elche for a dander round and some lunch. We keep driving past Elche but have never yet actually had a look around the city. Apparently we are also having a trip round the city on the wee tourist train, I suspect it’s like the Portrush Puffer so we may need to wear wigs and dark glasses! Actually I’m really looking forward to it, I think we’ll have a great day out with no parking or city traffic to worry about. It really is one of the great things about living here,there’s always something on at museums and art galleries, and we’re within very handy range of everywhere.

I need to look up now and see what’s on in Murcia city over the summer – apart from the general inferno that is the weather here! Also, because Laurie and the children are coming over, I want to find out if there’s anything suitable for the little ones to see in the sity. We can go in and out again on the tram which I think they’ll enjoy too. There’s a very good museum of science and water which is mainly geared for families and children so I think they’d enjoy that. We’re taking them to the waterpark in Torrevieja for a day out as well, got the tickets now, I think it will be great fun.

We’re planning the next stage of the garden, getting another area cleared properly. It’s the vaguely terraced bit beyond the walled garden, and there’s quite a lot of it! There are a number of almond trees, and there’s even a little clementine tree there but the latter is being slowly strangled by an enormous fig tree. We need to work out a way of cutting the fig back to a manageable size – we do get lovely fresh figs from it but it definitely needs a bit of a hard pruning. Then we can lift the clementine and transplant it into the walled garden, and tidy up the terracing so we aren’t in danger of breaking our necks clambering down to clear the ground. Those stones in the photo are where a bit of the wall collapsed, so we will get them back and get everything looking shipshape again.

The little blood orange tree which Peter bought me is now safely planted and has lots of blossom buds on it as well as some teeny wee oranges, so it seems to be thriving.

My main lemon tree took a bit of a hammering with the storm and is looking as skinny as a supermodel but still has a couple of lemons attached so it’s hanging on! It won’t take long for it to come back and fill out. Plenty of sunshine and the right amount of water will put things right very quickly. The vines are looking strong and healthy, and the walled garden will be slowly filled up with more fruit trees. Oh, I’ve just realised, in the photo of the lemon tree you can see “buildings” across the “sheugh” from us. Sort of buildings, really a clatter of sheds held together by corrugated iron roofing. Must be like an inferno in there in the summer. Anyhow, that’s where the chap lives who has all the dogs….sound carries on still summer nights, and sound from 11 dogs carries even further.

We’ll be looking in the garden centres now for a couple more fruit trees. Meanwhile, our tomato plants are coming on a treat, thanks to Peter’s careful management! I think when I was in charge of them they nearly died, so I’m sort of glad he’s taken over now. Don’t judge me, I’m not great at gardening but I did manage to successfully raise two children! I was really annoyed that I didn’t manage to get very far with my apple pips, so I’m having another go. They’re in the fridge waiting to germinate, so we’ll see how they get on this time.

We were just talking the other night about how much we have to look forward to at the minute. The Van Gogh exhibition in Alicante, Laurie and the children coming over, the water park with them, the science and water museum with them, getting the pool cover off this weekend and the pool prepped for daily dips, our friends Edgar and Ariane coming to stay, Bryan Adams concert in Murcia and….a scoot over to the best wee country in the world, Norn Iron, for some pre-Christmas shopping. Also so many lunches out with friends for relaxing times. Add to that the last of the jobs done in the house, the art studio will be properly set up at last, everywhere painted and fresh, and all our pictures hung in the right places. Some work but plenty of lovely things happening, I’ll keep you informed!

I’m back home in Spain after my few days back home in Norn Iron…if you see what I mean! I loved every minute I spent with Laurie and the children, it wasn’t nearly long enough so I think I need to plan a few long weekends if the flight prices are right. The only downside was that of course I didn’t manage to see so many of my lovely friends, but I know they’ll understand that when time is so short Laurie and the children have to take priority. Strangely enough, I did bump into a couple of people I haven’t seen for ages. First of all, in Dunnes, of all places, I bumped into an old school friend from such a long time ago, Helena. I always loved her name and when I told her that she laughed and said she’d never known!

The other friend I met was at the airport waiting to board the flight back to Spain. Vera and I worked together for quite a few years – she is the very definition of”The Wise Woman” and an absolute joy to know. We spent the flight chatting and catching up on news about our families and friends, and I hope we’ll now stay in touch.

I managed to miss my best friend Wendy altogether this trip – while I was in Norn Iron she and her husband Ivan were at their apartment in Fuengirola. We’ve been best friends for 68 years so are hardly likely to fall out, and we’ll be able to catch up very soon – thank goodness for video calling!

One of the things I noticed when I was home was how green everything is – it’s not for nothing Ireland is called the Emerald Isle. I seem to forget every time how much the rain matters to plants and trees. Over here, Murcia is one of the driest areas in Spain so we don’t have the luxury of deciduous trees. And they are indeed a luxury – being able to watch how they change throughout the seasons is a real privilege. Over here we live in an area filled with pine trees, they are great at helping to prevent soil erosion (says the one who got a miserable “F” in her geography A-level!) and they have their own beauty, but they never change during the year. We usually go over to Norn Iron in the late spring and late autumn every year and my goodness the colours of those trees would take your breath away. I took a couple of photos of the grounds of my Dad’s old school, looking lovely!

I got back from Norn Iron a week too early to see the famed Northern lights, and we are too far south here to see anything so I had to rely on photos from my daughter to see what it was like. One thing I did do, which I really wanted, was to go to the viewing point at Magheracross, where some of the best views along the Causeway Coast can be found. There are some fabulous photos available online to look at if those of you outside Norn Iron have never been. However, here’s my fabulous actual photo taken the morning I was having to leave for the airport, please try not to laugh!

Cracking photo, don’t you agree?! That fog was so thick we almost lost ourselves! We had an ice cream while looking out at nothing at all, but….three small ice creams and a brownie came to almost £18 – I am quite glad to get back to “normal” prices here in Spain!

We haven’t been out and about too much since I got back from Norn Iron – the husband had a pulled tendon/ligament in his foot which meant he wasn’t too mobile. Unfortunately it also meant he hadn’t been able to do as much round the house as he’d have liked when I was away either! What we’re busy doing at the minute is framing loads of pictures and actually getting them up on walls. We have lots of interesting pictures to hang – some bought on our travels, some of family from years ago, and some new ones we just really liked the look of. I used the Google ordering service to buy some copies of photos I’ve taken so we’ve been busy hunting for a variety of frames to suit them. Some have been framed by a friend of ours, Alberto, who owns a photo framing shop in Fortuna. He has produced some really lovely finishes for our more important pictures and paintings. Other frames we have sourced from a great wee shop called Action. For those in Norn Iron, it’s a bit like a slightly more up-market B&M, with a wide range of household necessities. They also have a brilliant selection of art and craft materials. We were there last week looking for specific frames and and also came away with yet another haul of acrylic and watercolour paints. It looks like our art studio upstairs is going to be overflowing with enough paints and brushes to open our own shop soon!

Where we have been to recently is a lovely bar/restaurant called La Taberna, in a little hamlet called Encebras. Fridays are special days for those who like fish and chips or, as the offerings are fondly called, whale and chips! The portions are huge, and the restaurant is always busy with lots of events, including regular live music.

The restaurant is run by the lovely Ann and her husband Ray, and are ably assisted by Jo who is the speediest waitress around! The food is absolutely delicious, and the outdoor seating in the little square is so picturesque. Inside there is also a snug with an enormous fire for the colder days. We really enjoy the food there and will frequently be back for more.

Another word now about the water situation here. We are all aware of the lack of water generally across Spain due to the minimal rainfall – some areas are suffering much worse than others. For example, in the area in Almeria where we used to live, the topping up or filling of swimming pools is now prohibited, and households are limited to using a maximum of 200 litres of water per person, per day. The situaltion is only going to get worse as the real heat of the summer kicks in. Here in Murcia, as yet there are no water restrictions. The Fortuna area is famous for its spa and underground resources, so we are very lucky so far. We are careful about preserving water here – no over-flushing of toilets, no running the tap while brushing teeth, washing machine and dishwasher set to the shortest and most economic cyles. However, I am still SO frustrated by the fact that whenever any of our neighbours is running their taps or hose, we only get a trickle of water to our house on up the hill. The Romans were in this area along, long time ago and were able to make water flow uphill so why on earth can’t the local water service put i some kind of decent pump?! The water flows to a wee tiny amount if anything, not what you need in the shower or when the washing machine or dishwasher is on. I wrote to the service provider about it and, as expected, got no reply, but the water has been flowing freely since then, long may it continue! Let’s now hope Murcia doesn’t have to implement restrictions as severe as those in Almeria province. Next week we shall be taking the winter pool cover off to see what the water quality and volume is like in the pool, and hopefully we’ll be able to clean the pool and top it up, especially as the forecast next week is showing temperatures of over 30C, just the weather needed for a wee dip in the pool!

I really miss the shopping experience at home compared to here. When I was over I bought new bedding in Dunelm, a king-size duvet cover set which is gorgeous and so soft. I did manage to bring it back with me on the flight as I had brought precious little over there so had a big case, an cabin bag and a very handy long under-seat bag which held everything without being overweight. I’d flown over with Ryanair, luggage very, very well below the allowed weight. I flew back with Easyjet – their standard hold baggage allowance is 23 kgs but for another few pounds I had upped it to 32 kgs which made all the difference! Half of Marks and Spencer food hall treats ended up coming back with me! I’ve since ordered another duvet set from Dunelm, who sent it to Laurie’s house, and she has posted it on to us. Total cost for the king-size duvet set plus postage was £26 (£12 for the bedding and £14 for postage!) so it was well worth it. I just can’t source items of that soft quality here at those prices.

We have a new addition to our upstairs en-suite bathroom – Steven. We bought him is a lovely wee shop full of different surprises, in a town called Gata de Gorgos. It is just something a bit different, and definitely something you don’t see every day in a bathroom! When you pull the string his wings flap up and down – I love him! If you don’t know why he’s called Steven, just think of it with his last name, Seagull. Oh alright, forget it!

My lovely hibiscus bush was starting to come under attack by teenie wee creepy black flies, so I have treated it with Fairy Liquid – other dishwashing liquids are available! Just put some in a bowl of cold water, flaff it up well with your hand, and put the foamy bubbled directly onto the flowers and leaves. Works a treat – all the creepy things are gone and my plant is looking much happier again.

Incidentally, washing up liquid is great for clearing away wasps from the house. We make up a solution of one part liquid to four parts water, then spray it all along the roofs and under the tiles. I makesure there are no wasp’s nests anywhere – they’re easy to spot and easy to knock down and burn, then we are more or less wasp-free all summer. We were previously quoted well over €300 to spray our roofs to keep the wasps away – I’m glad we found the washing-up liquid trick to get rid of them as there are far fewer chemicals in it and it has saved us a lot of money.

I had another go at making soda farls today. I’ve had help in the way of recipes and encouragement from Charmaine, Gloria and Tony, but the flipping things always ended up raw in the middle and black on the outside. I decided I wasn’t going to be beaten so followed a recipe to the dot and…the resulting mixture was so liquid I could have made soda pancakes from it. I cut down quite a lot on the buttermilk for the second try, kept the gas as low as I could get it without it blowing out and cooked the things for 8 minutes each side. And….success! Just had a big slice with home-made lemon curd and it is delicious! I think I need to try it with some raspberry jam now and see if it’s as good….*

Currently listening to Don Mescall, “Innocent Run”. Absolutely love this album.

Currently reading Noah Gordon, “The Physician”, for the nth time, the best book I have ever read.

Websites to look at:

http://www.gagdonkey.net just for the fun of it!

https://tranquilstays8.godaddysites.com/

Home

*It is!

Well I think we might start with the bad, as I’d hate to end this blog on a negative note! Bureaucracy. Specifically, bureaucracy in Spain.. If those of you who are in the UK or elsewhere think that the administrative red tape is bad where you are, you ain’t seen nothing till you experience it in Spain! They do have a bit of a system which means you can get a digital signature onto your computer/phone/laptop etc which allegedly allows you to access your information via numerous government departments such as the health service, traffic branch and so on. It’s bound to be a vast improvement on the previous/current system. For example, the last time I was in the traffico office in the city to change an address for driving licence and car, we had to take a numbered ticket and wait. Eventually our number was called and we went to the desk where a “computer says no” type glumly started putting the information into her PC. Finally she told us to take a ticket from a different machine and wait till it was called. So, more hanging around in a room full of people, with limited seats. Every time someone’s number was called and they stood up to approach the counter, there was a rush and a scrabble towards the vacant seat. A bit like musical chairs for grownups. Finally our number was called and we approached the desk. Right next to the one we’d just been to. The previous member of staff reached over and handed a paper to her colleague, where we were waiting. The colleague typed something on her computer, printed it out, and we were done. Good grief – the staff don’t talk to each other so how can we expect the computers to do so?! Anyhow, I gather that with a digital signature thing we can do all this sort of stuff at home now, online, in the middle of the night, in our jammies. Let’s see if it works!

Meanwhile….

One of the most difficult beaurocratic elements I’ve encountered so far is via the Correos Aduanas, or customs. In short, when you order something from a country outside the EU you may be required to pay import tax, administration tax, and either your right or your left arm – you choose. Well, maybe not the latter, but the route to freeing up that parcel of lovely cosmetics you ordered from USA, for example, is going to cost you severely in time, energy and money.

I’m not the most stupid person on the planet, but even a para legal I went to see couldn’t understand what it was that the customs department actually wanted, and that’s their job! Eventually, with the help of a friend who is fluent in Spanish, we managed to work out exactly what information was required by Correos/Aduanas,and sent everything off via email.. Then came the instructions as to how to complete the next set of forms. Guess what? They wanted all the information again, in spite of having previously recorded it on their system.

Well I have read all the information, and it seems there is no difference between wanting to “import” lipstick and eyeshadow, and several tons of office equipment/live animals/plants/whatever. I have now lost the will to live and I reckon Correos Aduanas can just bleeping well send the stuff back to the seller and I will get a refund somewhere long the line.

It’s really not rocket science – for small personal purchases it would be so much easier for the customs gnomes to just look at the package, write out how much they want you to pay, have you pay and collect it at the post office and then the post office can forward the money to customs. Far too complicated a plan, don’t you think?! It would make everyone’s life so much easier, including the lovely staff at our local post office who are always more than willing to help.

Next on the “bad” list is this. See that photo, above? That’s genuine water running from the tap in the ensuite bathroom. I’m bringing it to your attention because it can be a bit of a hit and miss affair here, that is, getting any water at all to come out of the taps! We’re the last house on our road, at the top of the hill, or the first, depending on how you look at it – the house used to be number 1 but is now number 14, the first shall be last and all that! This means that when anyone on the road below us is using their taps there isn’t enough pressure to shove the water on up the hill to our house. It usually only means about ten or fifteen minutes of nothing coming out of the taps but you never know when it’s going to happen and how long it’s going to last. We have a kind of an idea most evenings if Carmelo from the house down below our driveway is watering his plants, as he tends to have a bit of a routine so around the same time every evening for about fifteen minutes. Since the next two houses down the road from us have been renovated for holiday and weekend use, the demands on the water system are now even greater. To be honest it’s not the biggest problem in the world but when you have the washing machine or dishwasher on and go to empty them and find they’re flashing “H2O” it’s a bit of a pain because it means there’s no water getting through. Same if you’re in the middle of a shower or whatever – suddenly there’s no water, or it’s such a little trickle that it’s not enough to fire the boiler, so it’s a wee cold drubble need to get the shower gel and shampoo off. AAAARRRRGGGHHH! We really just have to put up with it, it isn’t the biggest hardship in the world, just a real pain in the posterior. Never our lovely neighbours’ fault, it’s the antiquated water system. We live in an old Roman spa area and I know the Romans were able to make water flow uphill, but the method seems to have been forgotten! Maybe some day they’ll install a better pumping system round our way.

Here’s one that’s really ugly, really bad, and then turns into something much better…it’s very tempting to buy from advertisements you see on Facebook,especially as some of the clothes shown are just beautiful. However, you need to be aware that about 99% of them are from rogue Chinese companies and what you will receive, if anything, will bear no resemblance at all to what was advertised. I have ordered things a couple of times but got bitten the last time, over a coat which was just gorgeous. It came, well, something came but it certainly didn’t look anything like the one I’d ordered! Very cheap, flimsy material and very poorly stitched together. So, contact made with the company, great apologies from them, oh yes I could return it but I would have to pay postage (err, I don’t think so!), so instead of all that fuss, and because they’re so sorry I was disappointed, would I be willing to accept a refund of 10% of the order and keep the goods? I flipping well would not, as the “coat” actually cost me €80 including postage, so “compensation” of €8 wasn’t going to touch it! Eventually I made the claim via Paypal, and within an hour got a message to say the full amount, including the postage costs, would be refunded to my bank account, which indeed it was, 3 days later. I did complain to Facebook but actually they don’t care about shady practice or downright criminal activity as long as they are getting paid for the adverts.

So, the moral of this tale is always, ALWAYS pay via Paypal. If a company doesn’t offer this option – don’t buy. In fact, don’t buy anyway, chances are you won’t get what you think you ordered. I left the coat into a charity shop – I’m sure somone will like it and it ended up costing me nothing after all.

Facebook is full of these kind of adverts, and the worst are the ones pretending to be from genuine, high-end companies. Here’s an exmple including their blurb about why you can buy everything at Zara Home with at least 80% discount – err, don’t think so, very fake picture! Around Christmas you will be swamped with adverts for things like the Chanel Christmas calendar – a big box of full-size Chanel items to open, from 1st to 24th December. They are offered for sale for around £9.99 but you have to ask yourself, would Chanel be selling these? Of course not! Another example of frankly criminal behaviour which Facebook not only doesn’t ban, but actively supports by charging the rogue companies for advertising.

“Due to a significant decrease in profits in the previous quarter, we have decided to adjust our sales strategy for the next quarter and close some stores. To clear the inventory of these stores, we will sell them at a 80% discount. This is a rare opportunity, don’t miss it.”

Of course it’s all nonsense – don’t be fooled into parting with your money. Facebook won’t help, and if you DO order, please at least make sure you pay via Paypal so you can get a refund.

Okay, now on to the good stuff! Our list of jobs to do around the house is gradually shrinking, at last. There are only a couple of major things to finish off, like building the new fireplace, finishing the electics, ripping out the old downstairs bathroom and fitting a new one. The little jobs actually seem to take up more time and effort. Like a new handle for the back door. Seems an easy task, but the handles need to be small enough so that the shutter on the half door can open and close properly. It is a hatefully frustrating thing to try to find, for some reason, and it looks like we might just give in and source via Amazon as I’m sick of driving round places with no result.

The next room to get the makeover treatment will be Peter’s art studio. It’s currently a repository for things we have no “home” for, but is also full of art materials in great numbers. We have bought storage units and need to now choose basket things to hold brushes, paints etc so we know that everything is at hand. The flue from the log burner in the snug goes up through the floor of the studio and then through the ceiling and the roof, and fitting the flue, cementing it in, waterproofing etc all took a bit of time and made the sorting of the studio a lower priority. We’ve been trawling Pinterest for ideas as to how to make the most of the fairly decent space in the room, and websites like the one above are great for inspiration. The only problem is that once you get into Pinterest you can’t get out again, it’s the best “rabbit hole” in the world!

Here’s something I hope will make you laugh, a drink I found, but haven’t tried yet, called “Heave”. Now I also read it like “Eh-a-bay” as it would be pronounced in Spanish, I’m just used to doing that after all these years here, but if it’s pronounced in English the way it’s written, well, I only hope it doesn’t do exactly what it says on the tin!

A bit of the ugly coming up….mainly to do with local online forums. I am a member of a couple of these, as well as Facebook. The local ones were initially very useful when I came to Spain, as there was plenty of good advice as to where to find things, who to use for different services and so on. In recent years forums seem to have attracted more and more of the less desirable types, that is, those who simply join in order to stir up trouble for other people. They must get some kind of pleasure from it but I think it only shows the rest of us how sad, jealous and unfulfilled they really are. I know I’ve written about this before but I feel so sorry for them, they have unhappy lives and can’t bear anyone else to be happy. One irrelevant little nobody made a comment, on a public forum, about when we bought our house. The comment was “I really admire people who buy and try to do up old cheap houses”. Since most of us have been well aware of this person’s inability to say anything nice about anybody at all, we all knew it was a not-at-all-disguised barb. The thing is, every time we now hear the words “old”, and “cheap” we instantly think of them! Makes us laugh, anyway! It also beats me how those who scream the loudest telling others to “Be kind” are very often the same ones who make nasty little comments about everyone else. Dearie me they’d all be better just sorting themselves out and trying to make their lives better instead of staying jealous of others. Sad little people, aren’t they? As I’ve said before, the answer is to never respond to eejits like this, “silence is the best response to a fool”. Really we just find people like that are to be pitied, we do feel sorry for them. When they get really angry it’s a bit like watching Rumplestiltskin stamping his little feet, makes us all laugh even more!

To change to much better news, we were out for lunch last week with our friends David and Violet. We always meet up when they come over on holiday to Guardamar, and we have a great lunch in an excellent Chinese restaurant. The craic was mighty, as usual, and we sent a very pleasant time eating, drinking, sharing photos and generally putting the world to rights. It’s always lovely to meet up with friends from home and hear all the news. Err, I think you can tell what a feast we had! Just as well that when we’re out for a big lunch that’s all we have for the day – not that anything else is needed later!

Last word coming up – if you’ve stuck with this so far then give yourselves a pat on the back!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again about how lucky we are to have such lovely neighbours, and here’s another wee example from yesterday. I made a batch of wheaten loaves for our neighbours,and Peter set off down the hill to deliver themwhile they were still warm. It gave him a chance to stretch his legs too as he’s been up a ladder for the last couple of days treating the beams in the snug, then painting them, plus the walls and up the stairs as far as the first landing. (These “old, cheap houses” need a lot of tender loving care!) So, first call was to Maria Jose and Epi. They were enjoying a drink outside with Juan from next door. Nothing would do them but Peter would join them for a drink, in spite of him very obviously, given what he was wearing, having an afternoon’s painting session! One beer later, some wheatens delivered, it was off down the hill a bit further to Felipe’s house, and Alfredo next door. Again, he was absolutely forced to enjoy a cold beer in the heat of the day, and was then sent back home with a rather lovely bottle of Asturian white wine courtesy of Alfredo and his wife. If we go out in the car it’s often enough to wave on the way past, but if we happen to be walking down the road to leave in some wheatens and lemon curd there’s no getting away for a while! The hospitality here is wonderful, it’s so like Norn Iron, and is, without doubt, one of the absolute best things of life in Spain. Cheers!

Question – how can you lose a king-size duvet cover? Answer – live in a big house with too many rooms and too much stuff that hasn’t been sorted yet…see below. We have Ikea storage zippy bags under every bed, and we’ve looked in every one of those. No sign of it. I have another couple of spare ones but I want to put this particuar one on the bed today and anyway, I need to find the thing. So, no joy means get the current one through the washing machine, out on the line and back on the bed later. The joys of first world problems, eh?! At least we get the washing dry outside!

Our almond trees have all started coming into bloom and look fabulous. We have a dozen or so, scattered throughout the different levels of the garden but mostly a bit further down than the house, on the terraced section, below the walled garden. I’m not sure Peter is always too happy about having to water them but due to the serious lack of rain over the last year it’s vital to ensure they get a good drenching now and again. We have no water restrictions here at the minute, though the neighbouring regions of Valencia and Andalucia have begun to severely limit consumption. That means no car washing, no topping up of pools, and in Almeria province personal use is limited to 200 litres per person per day. Murcia city currently recycles around 98% of its waste water, which is a fantastic achievement! We are all very careful about not wasting such a precious resource. We never have baths, always showers, quick and water-saving. I use the washing machine and the dishwasher twice a week, it’s the most economical way financially as well as water-saving.

We have just come back from another couple of nights in Benidorm, at the same hotel we stayed in before Christmas, the Casual Pop Art Hotel….room 601, best room in the house! You’ll remember from a previous blog the room overlooks the Poniente beach and marina, great views!

We just felt like another little break, having been doing so much work on the house, and a change of scene gives a great boost. While we were there we drove up to Guadalest, which is one of the most visited villages in Spain, and no wonder. The reservoir there is absolutely breathtaking, you need to stop there for a while just to take in the view. You can see it’s rather too low at the minute so a fair amount of rain is needed soon for reservoirs and crops.

The village itself is very, very picturesque, all whitewashed shops and houses along little narrow streets. The main attraction is the Casa Orduña, now a museum, named after the family who lived there. It is really impressive, and is reached via a narrow path through the rock. It’s a bit of a climb, and between my arthritis and asthma, and the husband’s foot injury, it was like an outing of the elderly and infirm…but we got there!

Casa Orduña is a large house, furnished with the wealthy original family’s belongings, so you get a real sense of what it must have been like to have lived there.

Now here’s a thing. When we were in Guadalest, which is about 21kms from Benidorm, we met a lovely trio of cyclists from…Ahoghill, of all places! For those in Spain who aren’t aware of the significance of this, Ahoghill is a village near Ballymena, in County Antrim, which is where I lived and worked for many years.

The weather was very cold in Guadalest, they had cycled all the way from Benidorm, and it’s mainly uphill! Hearts like lions! Peter used to cycle in his younger and fitter days and took a great interest in their bikes. I have to say I am not usually a fan of cyclists as here in Spain they tend to go out in huge numbers of at least a dozen or more, hogging the road and never letting you overtake them. You can end up stuck for a long way never getting out of second or third gear. However, I’m very happy to make an exception for lovely chaps with “normal”. ie Norn Iron accents! So, Sean, Bill and Eamonn, here you are, fame at last! Small world indeed!

We did plenty of shopping while away on our wee break, but one of the things that always amazes – and horrifies me, is how easy it is to buy knives and guns in Spain, with specialist shops selling these everywhere. One of them, in Benidorm, had their shop front made from concrete to resemble wood. The amount of guns and knives they sell in there is fascinating, if also a bit scary!

Anyway here we are now back home and getting on with making this big house look presentable! We’ve been doing a bit more clearing out of “stuff” – I think we’re in danger of becoming hoarders unless we take drastic action! The deal usually is that when we buy something new or new to us, we try to let go of something we already have. So, the charity shops do well from us. We’ve also gathered quite a few things that we’re intending to sell, it might add a few more euros to the coffers for a bit of extra holiday money.

I have to admit to making most of my friends laugh at my attempts to make pancakes on the recent Shrove Tuesday. Absolutely pathetic – no matter how often I try, and what recipe and pan I use, my attempts are more than risible. If you want proof, here it is, folded up and flung on a plate, looking more like a dead chicken than an innocent pancake!

I can’t tell you how many failures I’ve had with these things, I’m considerably better at producing lovely soft and puffy flatbread, very tasty and works out perfectly every time. Add a bit of Northern Ireland butter and it’s really all you need!

Just a quick word to say “thank you”, before I sign off this time. I really appreciate the feedback from those of you who read this blog regularly, and I’m glad that most of you seem to generally find it informative and amusing. I’m always happy to hear people’s views, so if there’s anything you really like and would like to find out more about, or anything you really don’t like, let me know! I’ve had some lovely comments so far but I’m not averse to a bit of negative criticism as well, if need be. Final word then, to someone who commented on the blog and seemed to rather enjoy it. A friend showed me what s/he posted (not sure of the pronouns here!), glad they found it mostly enjoyable. However, I just need to give a wee gentle correction about a couple of things they said. Firstly, they seemed to think the husband had grown a few inches after I described him as being 6’3″ tall. Nope, we measured him again and he’s still very definitely 6’3″ tall! Also, the person queried our language skills as we were apparently not too competent in Spanish by the time we moved to Murcia? So, just to gently set the record straight, I obviously speak English, and can speak French and Spanish fairly well. Peter’s Spanish is better than mine and he also speaks French quite well. I used to be fluent in French but when you don’t use it you tend to lose it for a bit, but it’s coming back! My Spanish improved no end when the husband was so ill in hospital and I had to converse with the medical staff. I’m quite competent in Spanish, can easily hold conversations face to face and on the phone. I speak German, at basic conversational level, and I have a little Italian, as well as a bit of Latin. I’m also fluent in Ulster-Scots, which is a legitimately recognised language. So, there you have it, 6 languages, with varying degrees of skill, but always keen to learn more. I hope that sets the record straight for the person who didn’t realise it, always useful to be better informed and staying away from fake posts. If you want to know, just ask!