My life in Spain

As the “Neighbours” theme tune states, “everybody needs good neighbours”, and we are certainly blessed with ours. I have mentioned before about how friendly and helpful our neighbours have been ever since we moved here 5 years ago, and they are still the loveliest people around!

To give you another example, the other day our friend Joaquin, who runs the Fuente Blanca bar/restaurant with his lovely wife Loli, came over to our house. You’ll remember them from a couple of blogs ago? Well, anyway, Peter and Joaquin had been talking grape vines – ours are not in great shape and we’re not too sure what to do about them since they’re quite old. Joaquin came over and he showed Peter how to prune the big old vines properly – he reckons they’re about 30 years old.

The two of them worked away pruning and clearing, then Joaquin planted two cuttings from his own vines, for us, and advised on how to look after them. The day Joaquin came was the best day for pruning and planting as it was a full moon. Ask any decent farmer and s/he’ll tell you that pruning and planting at the full moon gives the best results. No, it’s not an old wives’ tale, it’s absolutely true, and proven to be so. Watch this space! Err…and yes, the wall behind is a typical “throw it up with whatever you have lying around” one, so it will be getting a coat of plaster and white paint shortly!

Still on the subject of good neighbours, when we got home ready to do some pruning and planting, we found a big sack of oranges at the front door. Victoria from way down the bottom of our driveway messaged to say her husband Manolo had left them there for us. I can see orange drizle cake, orange curd, orange liqueur, freshly squeezed juice and goodness knows what else over the next few days. If you want something quick and beyond delicious, especially on a hot day, try squeezing oranges over a bowl of frozen raspberries, or whatever frozen fruit you like. The orange juice starts to thaw the fruit on contact, while starting to chill down itself. Not a great photo, I’ll concede, looks a bit odd, but a delicious wee taste of something quick, easy and fabulous!

Now that we’re finally getting to the end of sorting out the house repairs we’ve been turning our minds more and more to the garden. I know we should have probably started there but the house needed things doing that took up all our time and money so we’re only now getting round to the bigger garden projects, like sorting the vines.

I am determined to grow something – ANYTHING – from seed, so I’ve had another go at planting some apple pips to see what happens. The first time I tried this I was really excited when I took the wrap of them out of the fridge and saw they had sprouted. I planted them very carefully then promptly forgot about them. Needless to say they didn’t last long.

This time I’m being a lot more careful and have planted more, and they’re actually looking quite healthy.

There are six of them and they are doing very well. Not sure what will happen when they need moved though, we’ll see, though I think it will be some time before we’re out picking apples from the garden! My main lemon tree is doing very well with new lemons starting to appear. We have a little clementine tree down the terrace outside the walled garden so we’re going to see if we can dig it up and move it into the walled area. Then I think we need to buy another lemon tree or two, and maybe some soft fruit plants.

Since the major house repairs are now almost complete we’ve also been able to start thinking more aesthetically as we need to get on with decorating all the rooms. We have a big house, and after a bit of reconfiguring we have now got four double bedrooms, two bathrooms, sitting room, snug and bodega, plus a study and an art studio. A fair bit of white paint needed for all those walls but at least it’s a relatively quick job getting it out of the tins and onto the walls. We have lots of paintings and pictures we want to display so we need to crack on, get them framed and up on the walls.

My study is almost finished. Plenty of artwork and photos on the walls, and more to put up! It’s a really peaceful place where I can concentrate on my writing and hopefully get a book or two out of it!

You can see a wee bit of my lovely painting of my home village, (thanks Brenda!). Also just in view is a photo montage of our grandchildren – Peter had their school photos framed for me at Christmas. I’ll show you the rest of the room when it’s done!

The art studio is the next room to be organised. We have shelving cases to store materials, all we need to do now is buy some baskets/containers of some sort to fit in the spaces. Peter is currently building the second unit to go upstairs – it’s easier to put it all together outside on the terrace while the weather’s so good.

I’m starting to look forward now to being able to show you the progress room by room – as we get them complete;y finished and presentable. Aslo, with having dedicated space, each of us can enjoy the things we really like doing. I now have quiet space to write, and Peter will soon have a very well-equipped art studio where he can paint and draw to his heart’s content.

When we were over home in Norn Iron before Christmas I bought a wee card game for us; I thought it might give us a laugh. It has lots of cards with song titles on them, and you have to hum the tune for the other person(s) to guess what the song is. Great idea, I thought, until we gave it a go. Now please understand, my husband is the most fabulous man ever, he is a man of many talents, but unfortunately humming is not one of them. It’s one of those things where it’s nearly right, but not quite. He seems to know every flipping song that was ever invented, so he guesses mine straight way. However, for me to guess his attempts takes an enormous leap of faith, and I usually get them wrong, because although I am a woman of many talents I’m really rubbish at “Name that Tune”! I think we’ll stick to regular card games in the future, like rummy and whist.

Speaking of humming, in the nicest possible way, we seem to have a road in town which hums different notes. Yes, really! It’s just along the front of the cemetery, heading out of town, and has recently been resurfaced. I have no idea why the surface sounds different but the first time we drove on it we heard distinct humming, changing notes up and down. Very peculiar but rather nice, in fact!

Here’s something about Spain that definitely promotes positivity. You will frequently see women breastfeeding their babies, not just in restaurants, but even as they are walking through shopping centres. I think this is great because it is responding to a baby’s needs, and not to society’s invented rules. Actually when I say you “see”, it’s a bit of a misnomer as you can’t actually see anything, just a baby snuggled up against their Mum’s chest – hardly a full “stripped to the waist” view as some would have you believe! Very refreshing to realise that there are places where Mums and babies aren’t expected to hide themselves away like something shameful.

It looks like Spring has well and truly sprung here, as the almond trees are all beginning to burst into bloom. The colours range from deep pink to the palest pink you can imagine, and all are very, very beautiful. We currently have 12 almond trees and when they’re all out in bloom it really does take your breath away.

That particular tree will be a real cracker when all the blooms appear, but it’s lovely to see how quickly they come.

Just a wee quick note to let you know I’ve started reading “The 5 am Club” by Robin Sharma. If, like me, you are not a great sleeper and are always up at the scrake of dawn, then this book shows you how to be very productive instead of just trying to get back to sleep. Maybe it’s the nudge I need to get up when I’m awake so early, amd settle down at the computer and actually write something constructive. I’ll let you know how I get on!

Well that’s Christmas over and done with for now, but wait! It will be Christmas again later this year, hooray! I do love it – not the religious side of it, or the commercial bit, but rather for us the real Yule meaning. This is when we gather ourselves in towards the worst of winter, feasting and sharing our time and our love with each other, preparing for Spring to burst in on us, bringing new life and hope everywhere.

Señor Kopczynski went out of his way this year with the tree and general decorations – in fact he was still finding more to do even after the big day itself! I have to concede he did a great job, mostly centred around the sitting room and the snug which leads down into the kitchen. Very festive! Yep, you’re seeing them again because I like them so much and now miss them as they’re all packed away.

I’ll tell you something now to maybe make you laugh – I was on BBC Radio Ulster early on Christmas morning, on John Bennett’s “Calling Home” programme. For those of you who don’t know, every Christmas John does a programme consisting of a series of interviews with people who are from Northern Ireland but who now live abroad. I was quite relaxed about it all until we dragged ourselves awake on Christmas morning – by this stage I was convinced I sounded like a rambling idiot and I was quietly hoping they’d edited me out altogether! Well, no. We listened, and laughed, and it sounded not nearly as frantic as I had feared! However, new career in radio? Don’t think so!

After the shock of hearing myself on the radio, the rest of our Christmas day was mostly spent in jammies with the two big log burners going a dinger and heating the whole house. We had a big rib roast of beef with all the trimmings for lunch, then just did what most other people do, vegged out in front of the fire with some music, good books to read, and a bit of telly. Video calling my daughter and grandchildren was the highlight of the day – even a rare roast rib of beef couldn’t compete with that!

Murcia city hasn’t put on much of a show with lights for the last couple of years due to covid but we wanted to see this year’s show, so we went into the city with friends of ours, Andy and Julie, from where we used to live in Arboleas, Well my goodness the city did well this year! We had lunch out then went into the city on the tram, just as it was starting to get dark, so we saw all the displays at their best. It was chilly enough being out at that time but the city was heaving with people just enjoying being out and about. All the little bars and restaurants were doing a roaring trade, and everyone was very good-natured, as they generally are in Spain. No pushing, no drunkenness, no aggression, just peace and laughter. Well, apart from the occasional teenagers on electric scooters…but with new laws limiting their use in public places that’s another story.

I have so many more photos to remind us of how lovely the lights were, and to remind us that even in darkness the light will always come back.

After we’d come back from Northern Ireland I was a bit low as I really miss my daughter, grandchildren and friends so much. As a wee pre-Christmas lift we had booked a few days away in Benidorm, and I have to say we had the most fabulous time. Our hotel was amazing, overlooking the beach and in the old town. The room was lovely, and we had a very big terrace with the most wonderful views. Apparently we had been given the best room in the hotel, and were told by the owner, Despina, to book directly with her next time and she would reserve the same room for us. The bed was huge and supremely comfortable, and the breakfast was excellent – Peter said it was the best coffee he’s ever had anywhere. The daytime and nightime views from our terrace were fabulous!

It always surprises me when people get a bit “iffy” about Benidorm, maybe they are over-influenced by the comedy TV programme? One person we know sniggers smugly at the very mention of it, yet he’s never actually been there? I think that says a lot more about him than about Benidorm – there’s something there for everyone. The youngsters love the newer part with all the noise, dancing and cheap drinks. However if you’re looking for something a little more “grown-up” then the old town has great architecture, fabulous restaurants, tapas bars to die for, and excellent shopping. We had a brilliant time and as it’s only about an hour and twenty minutes from us we’ll be back soon.

On the way home from Benidorm we stopped off at the MARQ museum in Alicante city to see the exhibition of the lifesize Chinese terracotta warriors. I have read a lot in the past about this discovery and was very keen to see them “in the flesh” so to speak. Well it left us speechless! Absolutely fabulous exhibition – if you ever get the chance to see this please do so!

As for New Year resolutions, I was trying to think of something useful to say while wishing everyone a happy new year, then I realised that instead of trying to be someone we’re not, maybe we should simply try to be better, kinder versions of who we already are. I also realised that what you give out, you get back in shedloads, so I genuinely wish all of you peace, love, joy and laughter. For those of you who tend to revel and delight in sending out negative thoughts to and about others, be careful, I hope you heal.

I’m very aware that this year some of us are having to live with the loss of the light of those they loved so much. I hope that those of you who have lost your light will remember that those of us who care about you will lend you some of our light until your own can rise and shine again.

We wish all of you nothing but peace, love, joy, light and laughter.

Well, not really, but because of the time of year, and because I’ve been up to my eyeballs in other projects I haven’t written anything on this blog for the last week or two. So this might be like the Christmas and New Year TV guides – a bumper issue! We’ve been away in Northern Ireland for a week, staying with Laurie and the grandchildren, and we had a fabulous time. Every minute spent with those wee dotes is so precious, and as you can imagine I was a bit of a wreck having to leave them. Still, I’m now planning the next visit over and keeping an eye on flight prices. Regrettably we didn’t manage to see half the people we wanted to – spending time with the children is always a priority and besides, it’s warmer for you to come and see us here!

One old friend we did manage to call with was Peter Thompson. He’s a very well known and well respected person around Dervock and Ballymoney, and is a brilliant historian, with a fantastic knowledge of the local area. He also has a military museum in his house, beautifully laid out and looked after, tracing the history of the military and police services in years gone by. Peter manages “The Dervock Page” on Facebook, and it is full of information about the village and its people. Have a look, I guarantee that you’ll wish you came from Dervock! Sign up and read it!

Because the pull of home increases with every year that passes, I think we will be looking to buy a place there as well as keeping our house here, so we can have easy access to both. It won’t be an issue given that we have Irish passports. We may, in the future, choose to be fiscally resident in Northern Ireland…why? Well our two incomes would have a personal tax allowance of at least £25,500 in NI, while in Spain the joint allowance is a meagre €12,000 and remember, the latter is in euros!

We’ve had a mini heatwave here over the last week, with temperatures hitting an easy 28C during the day, and around 14C at night. Lovely warm west and south breezes as well, as you can see from our weather vane on the front upper terrace. Really unusual though for December, even in southern Spain. However it’s been getting colder now, especially at night, and this week we are expecting temperatures of below freezing for a few nights. We’re very happy to have the two big log burners roaring away every evening, one in the sitting room and one in the snug. This is a sizeable house, over 250sqm, with the original 6 bedrooms and 4 reception rooms reconfigured to better suit our needs. We have no other means of heating except the hot and cold aircon unit in the bedroom, and it’s mainly used to keep us cool in the blazing heat of summer. We don’t need central heating as the log burners keep the whole house warm and cosy – the heat travels well upstairs, the thick walls hold in the heat and the whole house is toasty.

The husband has been very busy organising all the Christmas decorations. He loves it – he gets all the boxes out of the garage and goes through everything to decide what to use. We buy some new bits and pieces every year so this year we had far too many, and were able to bring a big bag of good decorations to the local charity shop in case anyone needs extra bits for their tree. So far he’s put up the tree and added some wee lights and bits in the snug, very Christmassy indeed! The photo above looks very plain without the decorations compared to the last photo in this blog issue.

I’ve started to plan the wee Christmas baskets we give to our fabulous neighbours. We don’t give presents, as such, but swop home-made goodies to enjoy. So from us they’ll be getting some limoncello, lemon curd and shortbread, all home-made. The shortbread is the easiest and most delicious thing ever, here’s the recipe:

Put 300g of plan flour, 200g of grated or chopped up butter and 100g of sugar into a bowl. Rub it with your fingertips as if you’re making pastry, till it looks like breadcrumbs. Sprinkle some sugar on the top. Put it all into a greased tin and press down – I use a tinfoil tray – and bake at 150C for about 45 minutes. If you use a smaller tin it will be thicker so allow an extra 15 minutes. Sprinkle on a bit more sugar if you like, and cut it into squares or fingers while still hot in the tin. Leave for a few minutes then put all the pieces on a wire rack to cool. Very, very moreish! You can add “stuff” if you like, even drizzle chocolate or icing over it – whatever you like.

If you’re wondering what this photo is about, it’s to show how busy the husband has been! Old houses like this one – well over 100 years old – need regular and timely maintenance, and I’m very happy to say that the husband is rather handy about the place. This is actually part of the outside wall in the side courtyard of the house – through there is the bodega, which from inside is accessed via a quite funky door at the far end of the kitchen.

Having noticed a few cracks appearing where the original pointing had crumbled, we felt it was time to replace it as quickly as possible. Peter did a great job, very neat and tidy, and it will last for many more years. He didn’t use the Spanish method – they scoop up the mix and fling it at the wall, meaning it’s very messy and there’s loads to scrape in and off both the wall and the ground. Years ago for doing a similar job in our previous house I had suggested he use a silicone icing piping bag which meant the mix went straight into the gaps like a dream, filling them well and leaving no mess at all. Teamwork – I come up with the ideas and he does the hard labour! He did a great job on the courtyard wall and it didn’t take too long to complete either. Incidentally, that faint line across the photo is only the shadow of the washing line and not an error in pointing!

Look at this, isn’t it lovely? This is one of our two local farmacias, or dispensing chemists in Fortuna, and the one we use most often. It is so beautifully laid out with items that hark to days gone by, with the older jars previously used to store all sorts of cures and treatments. It’s one place I never mind waiting in, there’s always so much to look at and admire, and the staff are just lovely! They never mind when I stumble over a word or two and are always happy to help me learn new terminology and pronounciation. Lovely, friendly people!

And speaking of lovely friendly people – here’s a couple more!

This is Loli and her husband Joachin – they manage our local bar, the Fuente Blanca. It’s also a little community centre and used to be the national school. It’s only 5 minutes away from us, in a tiny wee hamlet, and is a lovely place to while away an hour or two in good company. Loli is renowned for her excellent albondigas, or Spanish meatballs, and they are truly delicious! As you can see, they also make a very fine paella. We are always guaranteed a wonderfully warm welcome there and are met with hugs and kisses. Just lovely people!

All the public transport in Murcia city is currently free – a move to try to alleviate the amount of traffic while major roadworks are being undertaken. We always use the tram to go into the city, no hassle with other traffic, no parking problems, and a return trip only costs €1.40 so well worth it. We’re heading there in the next few days to see the Christmas lights. The city council had to hold back for the last couple of years due to the covid issue but have gone all out this year and spent almost €900,000 on putting on a great show. I’ll put up some photos next time. No need to batter round the shops or fight the crowds at checkouts – all my shopping is done, so we can just have a wee dander around the city and enjoy the magic of the lights and the little artisan market stalls. Well…..I suspect the husband hasn’t quite finished his shopping, he rather likes the mad melee of doing it on Christmas Eve – not wise, I say!

Oh for goodness sake, in the time I’ve been upstairs in the study writing this the husband has continued to decorate, adding a few more lights and bits to the snug! I think the house is likely to end up looking like Santa’s grotto by Christmas morning…but I don’t want to give him any ideas!

Tis the season, I wish you all a very merry everything and a happy ever after.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I know it seems a bit early but I do love this time of year, when Autumn is everywhere and you just know that right around the corner is Christmas, or Yule, with all that it entails. It is always a very long summer here in Spain, and while it is wonderful to have continual sunshine and warmth, this year has had higher than usual temperatures, and it’s not easy keeping cool when it’s over 40C in the shade. After a while we find ourselves looking forward to the shorter days and colder nights when we can light the big log burners and snuggle up on the sofa.

So, it’s preparation time now for the incoming season. Peter has checked the two big chimney flues and he is now going to clean them properly. He has great chimney brushes and is also able to borrow a chimney vacuum, once again thanks to our lovely builder friend Nigel. The log burners themselves need a new coat of blacking so that will also be done shortly. The first lot of logs have been delivered, and Peter has been busy stacking them in order of size…OCD, anyone?!

Another similar load will see us well through the winter, now that we have two big log burners to feed. My job is to make sure we have enough firelighters, I get the easy bit! Peter thinks I’m quite good at laying and lighting fires – don’t be letting on but I can’t be faffing around too much with it so I give them quite a few firelighters and a good dose of BBQ lighting fuel and they go up with a very satisfying whoosh!

With the shorter days it’s still nice to have a bit of colour in the garden, and the bougainvilleas keep “flowering” and looking gorgeous at the front of the house.

All three plants are now starting to come forward from the open beams on the verandah making what will be a colourful show through the winter. My favourite plant, the hibiscus, also just seems to keep flowering, so I’ll leave it alone for now to just to its thing.

The other thing that’s coming back to life after looking very sorry for itself all summer is the strawberry tree, or Arbutus Unedo. Now I have to cheat a bit here and show you what it looks like in full flow, but at the minute we only have one “strawberry” though there are hundreds more ready to ripen!

Here’s our wee valiant tree getting ready to burst into fruit, not exactly overloaded yet!

For colour at night you just can’t beat these “dandelion” solar lights. I buy a couple every month, with the result that we now have a verandah and terrace covered in them. They are gorgeous to look at when we’re sitting ouside on summer evenings, and equally gorgeous to see coming to life in the long winter nights.

We have them in all the plant pots and beds at the front of the house, and I’m continuing to add more until the place is a riot of coloured lights!

With the cooler nights coming now it’s time to rethink the food we enjoy. For so many months when it’s hot we eat cooling foods like gazpacho, salads and so on. Now that winter’s approaching we’re leaning more towards meaty casseroles and fruit crumbles. My favourite winter dinner at home is carrilladas (pork cheeks) done in the slow cooker, with carrots and onions, and a good glug of Pedro Ximinez sherry for added zing. There are lots of good recipes for this online, have a go, utterly delicious! Slow cookers are the best thing ever, I love to just load everything in, switch it on, and head out to wherever we’re going for the day. Coming home, a match to light the two log burners, and very quickly the house is warm and dinner is ready – couldn’t beat it!

Another winter favourite, of course, is curry of almost any type. Peter is a great cook, and particularly enjoys making different curries from scratch. He’s a bit fond of the spices as well, as you can see! The lovely chap who made and fitted all our new windows also made the wee shelves for the spice jars, as a present for Peter – how kind was that!

                          

While Peter is finishing off a few more “tidy up” outside jobs this week I’ll be concentrating on getting the art room into shape. We need to paint the walls and then sort all our art materials into storage boxes/baskets/containers so we know where everything is. We have a big plain white storage unit to build then the baskets or whatever can slide in to the shelves and at last we will not be scrabbling around looking for things. I’ve started making glass pictures, inspired by my daughter’s work. She used to make lovely pictures…before full-time work and three young children took up too much of her time. These two pictures are about to be reframed at last!

I have lots of bags of different sizes of sea glass all over the place, and with new storage in our art room it will be lovely to know where everything is. My mother used to say “A place for everything and everything in its place”, and though I never paid much attention to it at the time I realise now how right she was. So, this week will see the art room finished and ready to use. We are very lucky to have a big house with enough rooms to allow us to have space for an art room and a separate study, as well as everything else.

Finally, I’m very aware that we are heading towards Remembrance Sunday, and I’m remembering my grandfather who lied about his age to join up in 1914, and spent time as a prisoner of war in Germany. He was very, very lucky to have come home. So many did not.

“Did we die well?” those soldiers say

Their bones still resting where they lay

                           “Will you recall the price to pay?”

                            They knew when they had gone away

                            That most would die in fields of clay.

                            And looking up, to skies of grey

                            And here below in screaming fray

                            Are boys and men, all forced to slay

                            To fight the fight that others say.

                            Let guns be silent now, we pray 

                           Around the world on Poppy Day.

K.K.

The husband got home safely from his dental appointment in Skopje, North Macedonia, via Rome, and all in one piece! It still amazes me that the total cost of flights, hotel etc was less than having a new bridge made here in Spain, so it was well worth it. He only had one day to recover as we then had Ariane and Edgar to stay via the Workaway cultural exchange scheme. Having them here for 10 days was absolutely wonderful, not least because they are great workers and they ate everything we offer, even my cooking – not fussy at all! They were so busy helping Peter with many of the heavy outside jobs round the house, and it has made a huge difference. Lots of garden bags have been filled, I think the total is 37, waiting to be taken to the town recycling centre, so we’re now looking at how to get them over there! The town hall might be able to help, otherwise we’ll find someone with a van or truck big enough to take everything away. Some day we’ll aslo be able to sort out the terracing below the walled garden to make it easier to reach the figs, olives and almonds there.

The lower, walled garden is now clear of all weeds and of all overgrown extraneous “stuff”, and looks twice the size it did before. We’ll get a few more fruit trees planted soon, I think clementine, lemon and blood orange are top of the list so far as well as a couple of seedless grape vines.

The terrace walls right round the house have all been painted brilliant white and look fantastic. Everywhere just looks so much better than before, and I can’t tell you how much we appreciate the hard work that Ariane and Edgar have done here.

We’ve done a bit of baking too – we’ve had wheaten loaves and shortbread, plus banana and raspberry porridge breakfast muffins for a little taste of Ireland. They are delicious, and very easy to make.

The recipe is as follows:

Blender muffins  (in a blender or using a hand one)

1. Two and a half cups of oatmeal
2. Small pot of plain yoghurt
3. 2 eggs
4. Tablespoon of honey
5. One and a half teaspoons of baking powder
6. Half a teaspoon of baking soda
7. Two large ripe bananas cut into chunks.

 Blend until smooth, pour into 12 hole muffin tin. Bake at 200C for about 30 to 35 minutes. You can add berries, seeds etc to the mix, whatever you like! I usually put a wee plop of mixture into the tins, then add a few frozen raspberries, put more mixture in and then top them with sugar pearls. The ones in the photo without the sugar pearls had fennel seeds added to the mix, by special request of the husband. You can add whatever you like, they’re so easy to make and are a very filling and healthy portable breakfast option.

Ariane travels with her guitar, and plays really well! We were able to indulge in a lttle jamming session or two, mainly fuelled by rather delicious vino collapso which made the playing and singing all the sweeter!

This experience with Workaway has been absolutely brilliant for us, it exceeded our expectations by a very long way. We just LOVED having Ariane and Edgar to stay with us, utterly delightful people who were so easy to get on with. Before they left, they gave us gifts they had made for us. We all share a love and fascination for the stars, and Edgar made us a little clay dog gazing up to the heavens, so beautiful. Ariane had bought a little plain wooden box from the todo shop and she hand-painted a fabulous humming bird on it. Absolutely exquisite gifts, both of them, which we will treasure forever.

So if any of you feel you’d have something to offer the Workaway scheme have a look at what it’s all about, at http://www.workaway.info and check out the information about signing up as a host. The variety on offer is huge, and we really landed on our feet with Ariane and Edgar, who were just such a brilliant help to us as well as being such lovely people – friends for life!

I thought I’d give you a bit of a laugh from something that came up in my Facebook memories, indication that we are all getting older. There was a time when, if I said, “I’m going for a shower now”, the husband would say “Wait a minute and I’ll join you”. I said it again this evening, and he replied with “WATCH YOU DON’T FALL”. Sigh!

This week’s lovely lunch was in the Gastrobar Puerto Rico, in Monteagudo, on the outskirts of Murcia and not too far down the road from us. The restaurant (and pension) is owned by Maria Angeles, who always greets us warmly with a hug.

The food is exquisite, a fantastic range of tapas as well as the menu del dia every day. Everything is freshly prepared and very, very tasty, no wonder we keep coming back for more!

From scallops to mini burgers, from steak to huge prawns in panko breadcrumbs, everything is a delight. Not surprisingly this is one of our favourite places to eat locally!

From the “sweet” to the “sour” now.The end of September saw the introduction of new laws safeguarding animal welfare here. In brief, there will be severe penalties, including huge fines, for people who keep animals (mostly dogs) chained up, leave them alone for long periods, and who fail to register them with the relevant authorities, amongst other things. These laws have been widely welcomed, especially regarding the hunting dogs used by the Spanish. It pains me to say it but often, when a hunting dog has outlived its usefulness, it is shot or hanged by the owner, and is rarely, if ever, kept as a pet. In the campo, or countryside, there seem to be many owners with many dogs, if the barking across the valleys all night is anything to go by. Thank goodness for effective double glazed windows! Numbers of pets are supposed to be limited from now on, to five, though the chap about 300m across the “sheugh” has about 11 at the last count! How on earth these laws are going to be policed and enforced is anybody’s guess. The whole issue of the change in the law is to try to redress the abuse that some animals have to endure. We know of one person who is apparently being taken to court by a neighbour for shooting their cat. The person concerned actually boasted to us about shooting the cat – that probably tells you nearly all you need to know about what kind of person they are, not really someone you’d want to be around too much!

As ever, there is far more “sweet” than “sour” about life in Spain, thank goodness, which makes living here so worthwhile.

Here’s a couple more favourite websites for you:

https://www.facebook.com/TheAntrimRambler/

Check this out on Facebook and other social media sites – Nicky McBride is a fabulous photographer who is now making some of his iconic images into calendars. I have ordered mine, can’t wait to get it!

www,workaway.info

Everything you need to know about the Workaway scheme!

At the minute it really IS a slow slide, as we’re well into the first week of October and the daytime temperatures are still topping 30C. We’ve been making a list of the projects (sounds better than “chores”!) we want to do over the autumn and winter, and trying to get a bit better organised.

At the minute we’re concentrating on the outside jobs as it will be easier to be indoors in the colder weather. We have quite a big plot, completely surrounded by a wall. I’m not sure that wall has ever been painted since it was built, but it’s getting painted now! We have a dozen houses in our little part of the village, almost all of which are currently being renovated. When you drive up the road towards our house you can see the brilliant white paint on the other houses, while our garden wall looked like it had been sprayed with mud. So,while the husband was away in North Macedonia last week our wonderful builder Nigel came over and spray painted as much as he could in the time available. He’s always very busy but I’m so grateful he made time for this as it was a fantastic surprise for the husband when he came home! I can show you a little bit of the wall which we need to finish, compared to the work Nigel has put in. It’s amazing what a coat of white paint can do.

It’s amazing how easy it is to please old people! Anyhow the husband was well and truly surprised, as well as delighted. We will be able to finish it now and the whole place will look so much brighter.

The garden is the other main project we need to tackle. Most of the garden area needs very little doing, it’s terraced and is quite a big area and there’s not much we can do about it at the minute until we can arrange for proper landscapers to sort the terracing to make it safe – it will involve a bit of heavy machinery! That part of the garden has almond, fig and olive trees. For now we are concentrating on the lower, walled garden, which has grape vines, orange and lemon trees. It’s a really good place but has become terribly overgrown so needs a good clear out.

Now, here’s the thing – we heard about a scheme called Workaway, which is a cultural exchange programme. The idea is that you get matched, as hosts, with people who are maybe backpackers or general travellers, who are keen to see different parts of the world and learn about different cultures. In exchange for board and lodgings and learning about our cultural differences they will help you with work around the place. For example, there are some heavy things that we really can’t manage, but younger and stronger people are more than willing to take on for you. So, at the minute we have two utterly delightful people, Ariane and Edgar, who are doing a fantastic job of clearing all the overgrown weeds and bits in the lower, walled garden, and already it’s looking great! They’re also going to help us finish the painting of the garden wall, and get the metal garage door prepped and painted with Hammerite, or whatever the equivalent is here! Our house is going to look fantastic, and it’s so, so good to have help in getting things done! In exchange, we’ve so far taken them to a tour of a local bodega, which shows you the process of wine making form planting the vines to storing the bottles. The bodega is huge, and the tour is wonderful – also they give you each a bottle of wine and a beautiful Bodega Luzon engraved red wine glass to take home. Definitely worth a trip, as it’s a huge part of the Murcian culture.

Ariane is a registered nurse and is French Canadian so we’re getting the chance to practise our French, it’s starting to come back again. Edgar is from the US and has a background in construction, they both have extensive travelling experience and really enjoy meeting new people and sharing their experiences. I think we’re in for a feast at the weekend – Ariane is keen to make some cookies using the figs from our tree, and also some brandy biscuits. I might make some raspberry and chocolate chip cookies – a little something to enjoy when watching the rugby on Sunday!

It is a real joy having them here, they have made a huge difference to our lower walled garden, it is beautifully clear and looks twice the size now.

I think the next task is to prep the garage door now that the walls are a brilliant white we really need to paint the door. We haven’t decided what colour yet. Well…Peter hasn’t decided what colour, I’ve decided it will be British Racing Green. We’ll see, place your bets now!

I read recently that the “in” colour this season for interior design is cobalt blue. Hah! Beat them all to it, we painted one of our guest rooms just that colour and added a silver headboard, nothing reticent about our design skills. The bedrooms are not huge, so we just went for what we wanted. Well sometimes you just have to make a statement!

We’re having a bit of a bake-in later this afternoon. As I said above, Ariane is keen to make cookies with figs, and I’m going to make wheaten bread to eat with the new lot of lemon curd I made this week, as well as some Paris buns. A bit of a way to celebrate the Ireland rugby team’s terrific victory over Scotland!

We’ll be taking Ariane and Edgar to have a relaxing afternoon at the Roman spa here in Fortuna, then the following day Peter will take them on the tram into the city to show them some areas of interest. They will be moving on from us soon and we’ll really miss them…more about that next time.

I know there are so many things in Spain guaranteed to frustrate and bewilder the average immigrant, mostly the bureaucratic system, or lack of it, and the difficulties in actually getting things done when people don’t actually turn up at all. However, life is generally still full of laughs here, or it’s certainly true if you know my husband!

He’s away at the minute, in Skopje, North Macedonia, for a dental appointment. Yes, you read that correctly, he’s away to our dentist in North Macedonia! Ivica is a first rate dental surgeon, with top quality equipment in his practice, and, after more than a year of research and video calling, that’s where we went to in order to have implants and porcelain and zirconia crowns at rates you simply wouldn’t believe.

Skopje is a beautiful city, in fact the whole country is stunning, divided into the new town and the old bazaar which is reached by crossing the Stone Bridge over the river.

Our friend Boris, in Almeria, comes from Skopje, so we were able to talk with him and his lovely Scottish wife Morag, all about the area, and then get to know his neice, Natasa, who lives in Skopje; we still keep in touch with her.

That huge statue right in the city centre is of Alexander the Great. His father was Philip ll of Macedon, so the Macedonians claim Alexander as one of their own. This doesn’t please the Greeks, who also claim him, and indeed they believe Macedonia is Greek too, which is why they insist on trying to use a more derogatory term for the country, as North Macedonia. There are a couple of things about this. Firstly the Greeks NEVER refer to the statue as Alexander, they simply call it the man, or the warrior, on a horse. Secondly, it seems to be Greece who is blocking North Macedonia’s application to join the EU. All very predictable in the normal way of politics where entrenched views rule the roost. It’s impossible to see a way forward if you are always looking behind you.

Anyhow, we were absolutely delighted with the standard of dentistry we received, and indeed, we have consulted with dentists here in Spain who have all agreed that the work has been top class.

So, recently, when Peter’s upper side bridge came apart, we checked prices here in Spain to repair, and compared them with him actually going back to Skopje, as the bridge was still under guarantee and he could also have a free check up while he was there.

Now, here’s the interesting part. On Monday he flew from Alicante to Copenhagen, and then on to Skopje. Lovely hotel in the city for a week. Impression taken on the Tuesday, new bridge made, to be fitted on Friday, checked on Saturday morning, then he comes home on Sunday. He flies from Skopje to Rome, then on to Alicante.

A fair old bit of travelling but well worth it. The whole trip, including four flights, the hotel and his “keep” for the week, cost about a quarter of what it would have cost to pay for the dental bridge repair here in Spain, so you can also imagine what it would cost in the UK! When he boarded the flight in Alicante he was allocated a window seat – not great fun when you’re 6’3″ and your knees almost come up to your ears in an aircraft seat! Before takeoff a cabin crew member told him she had a seat for him by an emergency exit, with extra legroom…result!

He was walking through the older part of the city yesterday, popped down a wee side streeet to see what was there, and through an open door saw a hairdresser doing a client’s hair. He stopped to say hello, (typical Peter!) then noticed they were both drinking something.The hairdresser gave him a drink too, it was the local rakija, a bit like Irish poitin but stronger! They chatted for a bit and then, as a thank you, he did a magic trick for them with playing cards! I have to say that my husband can travel the world making friends wherever he goes, as any of you who know him will agree!

I was able to very briefly join in for dinner last night by video link, as he went out with Natasa, her son, and his fiancee to one of our favourite restaurants, right in the square, beside the statue of Alexander.

I wish I had been there too but there was no point in spending the extra for me to go – that saving is reserved for a little pre-Christmas trip we have planned!

While still on the subject of laughter, here’s another incident which could very well be classed as a “Tena lady “moment. We always meet up for lunch with our friends David and Violet when they’re over on holiday in Guardamar. We were out with them a couple of weeks ago, and had a lovely catch up on all the family and friends news, as well as enjoying delicious food. Peter did some magic tricks with card for the owner, who had been looking forward to it, and she really enjoyed it – he’s really rather good!

While we were eating I accidentally knocked over my glass of water which spilled onto the table as well as the floor. The glass didn’t break, but there was a pool of water on the floor between us and the next table across. At that table were a grumpy-looking older man and woman, eating in silence. When I spilled my water, a couple of tiny wee drops managed to fly across the gap and the man started furiously wiping his elbow with his napkin, while muttering. I apologised to him in English. No response. I tried again, in Spanish, no response. I apologised again, in both French and German (I am definitely a woman of many talents, not just restricted to knocking things over!), no response. Not much else I could have done, really. Anyhow, no harm done the spilled water was wiped up and replaced. Then, about 15 minutes later, oh joy of joys, the grumpy skitter at the next table knocked his glass of water forward all over the table but, more importantly, ALL OVER HIS WIFE! Well, I just couldn’t look at Violet for fear of laughing out loud, but in fact we did just that, couldn’t help it! Oh my word, talk about instant karma! The wife shot a look in Violet’s direction as we nearly ended up under the table roaring with delighted laughter. Absolutely brilliant result, and it still makes me smile now when I think of it!

In about a week we have rather special guests coming to stay with us, and I’ll tell you all about them next time. Suffice to say it looks as though we might be speaking French all week, we’re looking forward to it. Find out all about it later!

Well, no, actually it’s not! It’s certainly a different life, and one of the things we keep needing to adapt to is the changing of the seasons. Anyone born and brought up in Northern Ireland will be aware that the difference between summer and winter there is that the rain is slightly warmer in the summer. Think I’m joking? I think not – it seems that this summer in NI was one of the wettest on record, very disappointing. However, over here we have had four different “olas de calor”, literally, heatwaves.

We can usually expect one or two, lasting a couple of days,when the temperatures in the shade can easily top 40C, but four heatwaves was too many for most. Unbearably hot, difficult to breathe in such loaded air, and difficult to keep cool either during the day or at night. Thank goodness for aircon in the bedroom – we’d never have been able to sleep otherwise.

I’m currently waiting, with more than a little trepidation, for my appointment with the consultant about my poor wee arthritic knees. Apparently it’s likely I’ll need cortisone injections, I don’t care what they do as long as I’m able to walk, run and cycle again! We are very fortunate with our health service here in Spain, as we can go online and get an appointment with the GP for the next day. Hospital appointments are never too long to wait for either. I know a lot of the Spanish people take out private medical insurance as well as having state healthcare, but I’m really not too sure it’s always worth it. I rememeber when we both had private healthcare, before we were eligible to access the state service, and Peter had some tests done including various X-rays, when he was suffering from dreadful sciatica. We had to go to the consultant in Almeria city, when we were living in that province, and it was a 250km round trip by car.. Same thing when we went to collect the results – except Peter got a message to say he could pick up the results in the bakery shop next door to the consultant’s office, as the consultant himself would not be there that day! And yes, we DID collect the big envelope from the bakery….you couldn’t make it up!

Here’s another thing about the health service in Spain….Peter needed an eye test as he was a bit bothered about his eyesight. An appointment was swiftly arranged with the consultant at the local specialist department in the city, and off we went.

The consultant was a woman about the same age as me, very efficient, if a bit brusque. The whole appointment was, of course, carried out in Spanish, and she obviously preferred her patients to talk in bullet points, if at all, and that’s stictly NOT the husband’s modus operandi!

Anyhow, she was very thorough, and told him he needed glasses for long sight as well as for reading. She said he could get varifocals or two different pairs, the main difference being that varifocals cost considerably more. Then, with Peter’s chin still resting on the ledge thingy of the testing equipment, she looked at me, nodded in his direction and said, in perfect English, “Very handsome man!” Well, I nearly fell off my chair, and she repeated it, and we both couldn’t help laughing! Imagine if that happened in “woke” UK?! I just agreed with her, she was right!

This came up in my memories on Facebook recently, and as I thought it was a perfect example of how random my life is here in Spain, I thought I’d share it with you. Not too long ago I fancied a little something sweet after dinner, as you do. The husband suggested we have a bit of shortbread. “Shortbread? We haven’t got any shortbread”, I told him. “Yes we do”, he said, “it’s in the Biscuit Cabinet”. The BISCUIT CABINET!?!??! WE HAVE A FLIPPING BISCUIT CABINET AND NOBODY TOLD ME?!?!!? Turns out it’s the CUPBOARD  where he keeps his revolting home-made muesli stuff, cardboard flavoured with beetroot, probably, as well as some very strange looking pasta and other healthy stuff like lentils. The shortbread was perfectly safe in there as I would never, ever in a million years have thought there was anything worth eating in that cupboard. Three lessons learned – 1) the husband is very good at hiding stuff, 2) we seem to have a cabinet, not a cupboard. A bit like the Prime Minister really. 3) We ate too much dinner and shortbread and felt a bit sick! I found a tiny wee bit of our friend Anna Bedford’s beautiful homemade frozen flavoured vodka hidden in the freezer that day (I can hide things too!) so we had a wee sip of that before bed. Life is good, amigos, life is good… and also a lot of fun!

I am definitely not too computer savvy and usually I am amazed when I manage to put together one of these blog posts without making too many mistakes, but there are times when I just want to cry and chuck the whole machine out of the window.

Yesterday was one of those days. I have no idea what I did but when deleting some redundant inbox messages I hit something I shouldn’t have, and managed to delete everything that had ever been there. Well, it told me I had deleted 3,743 messages from my inbox. I didn’t even know there were that many there, though it seems they were also from my deleted and junk storage, which I was sure I cleared regularly. I had no idea what to do until I spotted a wee note that said “restore messages”. Hooray! I hit the button, and 4,397 messages appeared?! Oh good grief I had to go through every flipping one and delete what I didn’t want. Managed that with a couple of breaks so my eyesight didn’t end up the same as the husband’s. Then…guess what? Hit the wrong bleeping button again, back to square one. Shoot me now. I’m sure there’s an easier way to sort this stuff but I ploughed on and got the right things back to where they should be. I don’t think I’ve lost anything vital as I keep important stuff in folders, separately from inbox things. Never again, please, never again!

We went to Alcantarilla recently, a town about 10 minutes the other side of Murcia city. We were looking for a particular shop – mission accomplished and bank account considerably lighter! We had a look online for somewhere to have a bite of lunch, and the husband found a restaurant called La Cava de Royan. It opens up from a small street onto a little square, and you’d never guess the quality of food just by looking at the outside! We had a mouthwatering selection of tapas, including little bites of succulent cod, enormous prawns in panko crumbs, skewers of the most tender pulled pork with crispy broccoli, mini pork burgers, and all accompanied by a fabulous variety of sauces like chilli mayonnaise, and honey mustard. The presentation and service were fantastic too!

We ate until we could eat no more, and the bill, including drinks came to under €30, so it’s safe to say we’ll be back.

Finally for now, we have some special guests coming to stay in a couple of weeks, I’ll tell you more about that later!

What’s this about then?! One of the potential downsides of moving abroad, and how to stop it! Jealousy has frequently been referred to as the “green-eyed monster” thanks to quotes from The Merchant of Venice, and Othello.

It’s also said, in the Bible, that the love of money is the root of all evil. I disagree, I think jealousy holds that prize. It seems that all the problems on this planet are a result of jealousy, between countries, teams, individuals or whatever. It’s the latter I’m interested in today, since this is where most of us experience being on the receiving end.

The point of this is that jealousy is something that many ex-pats may have to face at some stage or another. It can really be a major issue for a lot of people, and can make or break your comfort in settling in to a new area where you really don’t know anybody.

I have spoken to plenty of people who have expressed dismay at finding out that some they thought were friends have turned out to be jealous of them, for whatever reason, and who have now turned against them. There’s something rather “school playground” about this, isn’t there?

As I wrote in an earlier post, you can be friendly with people you have only met recently, on moving to another country, but you don’t know their history, their previous experiences, their modus operandi and so on. Thus it is prudent not to ever give too much of yourself all at once. There is a chance that some will spot your vulnerability or weak points and try to use this against you, in an attempt to make themselves feel better about their own situation. This is particularly evident given the rise of social media, the ideal way to spread gossip, rumours and lies about anyone.

There will always be someone taller, shorter, fatter, thinner, richer, poorer than you. There’s no point in envying what someone else has if you’re not prepared to do something about your own situation. We know of people whose houses appear to be illegal, who have ongoing feuds with neighbours, who are under retirement age and possibly resent having to work when others are happily retired early. Oh yes, and then there was the couple we befriended and helped out with things like showing them how to clean their pool. The wife didn’t actually like her husband, and seemed to prefer mine! More than once,while under the influence, she announced to all and sundry that she thought my husband was “drop dead gorgeous” and she really believed she “could have a chance with him”. Not in her wildest dreams, but it gave many of us a good giggle! However she subsequently did her best to malign and libel me on local forums. The answer? Advise her of the law regarding libel and malicious damage to reputation. She gave up after that. Oh yes, and lay very low on local forums, they tend to be a hotbed of nasty gossip!

It’s easy to see where resentment can escalate to dizzying heights, to the extent that nasty and childish comments are made about others who the miserable ones believe to be more fortunate. There’s no point losing sleep over this kind of person, or working yourself into a frenzy wondering what you have “done wrong” to elicit this kind of nasty response. You haven’t done anything, you need to remember that it’s their problem, not yours, and ignore it. We are very lucky as we have a fully legal house owned outright, we have a good income without having to work, we have a strong relationship and we have wonderfully kind and helpful neighbours. And yes, we do count our blessings, every day, while ignoring those who spread silly nonsense. As they say, a lion doesn’t concern itself with the opinion of sheep!

We have also experienced this in the past, and have learned to simply walk away. Happy people don’t treat others badly, so when someone behaves in this way it’s because they are unhappy and jealous, and they seem unable to accept responsibility for themselves.. Remember, whatever they say is a reflection of themselves and has nothing to do with you. We just feel sorry for them and move on. Life is too short to waste time seeking approval from others. Just be aware that, particularly for ex-pats, jealousy tends to rear its ugly head from time to time. Protect yourself by deciding to have no truck with it…but don’t let it stop you from making new friends!

And now for something completely different….food again! One of the best restaurants we’ve been to in Spain is in Elda, and is called Restaurante Magico Campico. It is an amazing experience not to be missed! The owner’s father built the interior by had, wanting to create a very magical, “other world” experience, and he certainly succeeded, as you can see from the photos.

The food is exquisite, everything freshly prepared, imaginative, exciting, beautifully presented, and tastes of heaven…I could go on forever! This restaurant is a real feast for the eyes as well as for the palate, and is less than an hour away from us. I know I might be overloading you with photos but I want you to get a real feel for the place. If you’re looking for a traditional menu del dia then this is not the place, the costs reflect the standard of cuisine so be prepared to dig a little deeper than usual. Let’s be honest – we know people who will travel to historic cities for a couple of day’s break but will choose to eat in fast food places like Burger King, so this restaurant is probably not for them! The basic menu del dia starts at €40 per person and goes up to €60 per person, but oh my word it’s worth every cent!

They cater for special occasions like weddings and family celebrations, and they promise to make your whole dining experience something to remember…and return to again and again! Do yourselves a favour and check out their website at http://www.campico.es for photos, videos and menus. For those of you living anywhere within striking distance of Elda, make a reservation now!

Just to make you laugh, since moving to Spain we’ve come up against a couple of foods we wouldn’t choose to ever eat again. Peter will eat everything except snails and mushrooms. We were at our favourite local restaurant recently and he wasn’t sure what one of the starters was, it was listed as a rustic gazpacho, so he decided to have something different and try it. Yep, you guessed it, snail casserole! He really tried valiently to manage but in the end he had to tell the waiter he couldn’t eat it. To their credit, and because we are regular customers, the snails were removed and he was served something much more palatable – and there was no charge for the extra starter either!

In another place we were sampling the tapas and I asked a passing waiter what was on the plate he was taking to another table. I couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying but it looked like pork pieces so I asked “cerdo?” to which he replied “si”. When it arrived I thought it both looked and tasted a bit gelatinous and after a couple of mouthfuls I had to admit defeat. When I got home I looked up what I’d been eating – pigs’ ears. Good grief, pigs’ ears! Never again – the Spanish are known for eating every part of the pig except the squeal, but the ears, trotters and tails are OFF my menu!