Tag: blog

Since the last blog, which seems to have been ages ago, I’ve been to Northern Ireland to stay with my daughter and grandchildren…and I owe many of you a big apology! It was a flying visit of only a few days, and I really saw only a couple of people while I was there. Apart from the time constrictions, and wanting to spend as much time with Laurie and the children as possible, I have been restricted in my breathing which makes any exertion very, very difficult as I just can’t get a breath, really more than a bit frightening. It’s why I ended up in hospital some weeks ago, as my blood sats were dangerously low, requiring immediate medical attention. I made a good decision to request special assistance at the airport on the way home, absolutley brilliant, I got wheeled the whole way and didn’t have to life a finger. I should have done it when going outbound from Alicante, it’s a long walk to the gate and I struggled very, very much. However, all is being dealt with health-wise now I’m home. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the health service here is very, very good and I’m grateful for it! I have had appointments arranged within 6 weeks of my doctor referring me, I think this might be considerably better than in Norn Iron!

Now in the line-up is a cardiac scan next week, then an appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon about my knee, then three more pneumology appointments, all within a couple of weeks…then I’ve decided after all that lot I’ll be back to normal again! Oh, update coming up later…

Nearly everyone we know has been afflicted in some way this winter, roll on the better weather, at last it’s starting to warm up.

I just loved spending time with Laurie and the children, they are the light in my life and now I can’t wait to see them again!

It was one of my great joys when in Norn Iron to catch up with my two best friends, Wendy and Sandra. Between us we have 210 years!!!! We’ve also known each other for around 60 to70 years, real friendships are meant to be cherished and nurtured, and are so special. We had lunch at Harry’s Shack, and weren’t exactly the quietest of customers, though we were tolerated very well! Sandra lives in England, Wendy is in Portstewart, and I’m in Spain, and it isn’t very often we all manage to be in the same country at the same time, so this lunch was very, very special. I just love those women so much!

To add to this, I recently found, in my Facebook memories bit, a photo of the three of us just before I moved to Spain…18 years between the two photos and if I may say so, we’re all wearing very well!

Here I must give the BIGGEST thank you to Barry and Siobhan who went out of their way to collect me at the airport and take me to get the hire car at Edwin May in Coleraine. We then all headed to The Quays in Portrush for a lovely lunch, and made firm plans for Barry and Siobhan to come to Spain to stay with us! My Peter had sent them over a present of cheeses and meats, as well as some alcohol, which seemed to be well received! I hope they’re still keeping an eye on flights to Alicante as we are really looking forward to having them here…take note, Barry and Siobhan, keep watching the skies!

With the weather picking up everything in the garden and beyond seems to have just taken off. Our lavender has put in an appearance, and my little lilac tree at the side of the house is looking – and smelling – wonderful.

Also showing off are the fig tree and the vines, we have weenie grapes now on the vines so they’ll be ready to eat in a few months, assuming the birds don’t get to them first.

This is one of our weenie lemon trees, which is starting to come on quite well, and you can see our big fig tree just over the wall in the lower part of the garden.

Those tiny grapes are a joy to behold! I have to say, though, that the wildflowers seem to beat the pants off everything – the hills around us are currently filled with millions of magenta-coloured little blooms, a fantastic sight!

We haven’t been anywhere very exciting, mainly as my breathing is so poor and I have zero energy. However, we did go into the city recently, to see a production of the Ballet of Lights, which we’d booked months ago, I was really looking forward to it. Getting there was a struggle, into the city on the tram, so no parking problems. The venue was right by the cathedral, and usually it would be a 10 minute walk to get there, but this time we took a taxi as I just couldn’t walk that far and breathe at the sane time!

The performance was fantastic, just a cast of 6 showing a short version of Sleeping Beauty. All the costumes were lit by tiny little lights. It was something really different and definitely had the wow factor!

We sat at a little bar after the performance, right by the back entrance to the cathedral, in a lovely little square, just to have cold drinks and tapas before heading home, and we were lucky enough to see a wedding taking place.

I couldn’t get near enough through the crowds to take photos once the happy couple appeared, but I got a good shot of the flowers decorating the cathedral door, and the chaps prepping the red carpet for the bride and groom.

I do love doors, of all shapes and sizes. Now I’ll grant you that our front door doesn’t exactly compare to Murcia cathedral but…the husband has been painting it, changing it from plain white to a soft blue, and it looks fabulous so far! One more coat, then paint the metalwork white, and it will look even better…coming up next time.

One thing I’m NOT wildly happy about at the minute is the local wildlife – when it comes into the house! We seem to be finding weird spiders every day, I believe it’s because the weather has been fairly awful, but I’m hoping that now it’s getting warmer the spiders won’t feel the need to come inside! They’re not venomous, so we’re in no danger, but I just hate them with a passion, and wish they’d stay outside.

They’re the odd little things with teeny weenie bodies like full stops, and big long legs. If they’re lucky Peter spots them before I do, and he catches them in a glass and puts them outside. If they’re really unlucky I get there first, catch them in some tissue and chuck them in the bin. I was reading in bed the other night and felt a tickle on my arm…one of them had decided to land on me! Good grief I almost had a heart attack!

Now for some truly shocking news…hold onto your hats…

I know Easter has come and gone,as usual I had bought us each a wee Easter bunny, like the Lindt ones, except from Aldi, as I think their chocolate is much nicer. Peter’s disappeared fairly quickly, while mine hung around in the fridge a while longer as I haven’t had much of an appetite, even for chocolate. A few days later I thought I might have a wee nibble, opened the fridge door, looked towards the back where I’d put the bunny and….SOMEBODY HAD BITTEN ITS HEAD OFF!

Given that there are only two of us living in this house (apart from the spiders!) and I hadn’t been anywhere near it, there’s no prizes for guessing who the criminal has turrned out to be. Indeed, it was Mr “I’m-not-that-keen-on-chocolate-I prefer beetroot” himself! Crime of the century, I’d say, even if it was a calorie-saving move!

So, here’s a wee quickie about how I have noticed life in Spain changing in one area in the 18 years I have been here. One of the biggest changes has come with the arrival, en masse, of the fast food chains. I don’t suppose a KFC or Burger King or wherever will do you much harm if you’re only indulging once every few months. but it seems to me that with the advent of fast food the shape of young people is changing rapidly – they are getting much, much fatter than before. I have no photos to illustrate this as it would not be appropriate to snap someone without their knowledge and put their photo up for the public to see, and nor should we be in the game of body-shaming anyone, especially women. I think we should definitely be in the game of shaming the fast food outlets, they’re just too convenient, and far too tasty!

Still on the subject of food, and you know that we usually eat very little in the way of processed food, as well as preferring everything made from scratch when we’re out…we found a new pizza restaurant recently, and what a joy it is! There are a few pizza places local to us, but almost without exception they use pre-made, miserable wee skinny. limp things with next to no taste.

Forrmento, on the other hand, is an authentic Italian restaurant where all food is freshly prepared to order – what a difference!

Bianca is one of the staff and she couldn’t be more helpful – I can’t eat cooked cheese and often, when I ask for a pizza with no cheese some restaurant staff look at me as if I have just arrived from the planet Eejit. Worse, they can’t provide what I want as the pizzas are ready-made with cheese and tomato already on them. In Formento it’s no problem at all, they make the pizza how you like it. So, no cheese, but plenty of ham and chicken is my choice and my word I think they’re the best pizzas I’ve ever eaten.

Take a look at that feast, wee salad to start and a whopper pizza to follow! Nobody’s leaving here hungry, fabulous food! We got there really early, it was just as well as it filled up very quickly with not an available table left either inside or out. If you want to check out the restaurant, here’s their website: https://formentopizzorante.com/

Drivers in Spain are bad enough, but parking is something that often either makes us laugh like drains – when it’s other people’s parking – or drives us to despair, when someone parks too close or awkwardly to us.

Spotted this one in the city the other day, the car had parked right up against a bin, so couldn’t move forward, then I think rather unexpectedly, someone squeezed right tightly in behind, so they couldn’t move back either.

This is on the same street as the hospital, and we quite often sit in a rather nice little cafe across the road and watch how the locals park….touching another car on the way out of a space is known as a “Spanish kiss”. I think it might pay to drive a bit of a wreck with bull bars and just shove some of them out of the way. No such thing as parking, really, more like abandonment issues, they really don’t seem to care too much!

We were in Ikea the other day, and when we got back to the car we found this eejit who has obviously got severe difficulty with spatial awareness…

Mine is the car on the right, it doesn’t look too bad until you realise that the car to MY right had also slid in very close to me, and there wasn’t much room behind to wiggle out of the space without the need for about a 100 point turn! I wouldn’t mind, but there were at least 500 empty parking spaces in there, so why the need to snuggle up to me is a complete mystery.

Okay, time for something more pleasant now. I’m no drinker, I have about a glass of wine every couple of months or so, but I’ve found something really deliciously refreshing with a low alcohol content I think is just right for hot summer days and nights…so I’m stocking up!

I got these in the famous Mercadona supermarket , lovely crisp white wine with a delicious melon flavour, and if memory serves me well they’re around the €2 mark, so very easy on the bank balance too.

Due to me not having been too well lately we really haven’t been out and about as I get exhausted at the drop of a hat. However, as well as going to see the Ballet of Lights, we had booked to go to a candlelight concert in the city, where there was a pianist playing a selection of Ed Sheeran and Coldplay music. Like the Ballet of Lights, the performances only last an hour, and are fantastic value. We had taken the tram into the city followed by a taxi to the door of the building for the ballet, but for the Candlelight Concert we discovered it was very easy to find by car, on our side of the city, and parking was available on the street outside so once again I didn’t have to walk.

It might be a bit difficult to see but the stage is on a raised platform, with seating all round, on all four sides, so everyone has a great view. The piano was in the middle of the stage, and the whole hall was lit by hundreds of little flickering candles – not real, due to the fire risk, but extremely effective!

Well there you are,in the last couple of weeks we’ve treated ourselves to a bit of culture int he city, between the ballet and classical music, and the best bit is that the tickets are all around €17 so I think we’ll be up for many more experiences!

Okay so back to the medical stuff and the health service here in Murcia. I have had the consultation with the orthopedic chief, and she is willing to do the knee joint transplant, but also willing to wait to see the outcome of the breathing stuff, as I’m more than a bit worried about coping with a general anaesthetic.

I’ve also now had the cardiac scan. All doctors were on strike across Spain from 27th to 30th April,but there was a very small number of staff still available, (skeleton staff?!) so my appointment didn’t need to be cancelled. Having said that, I was the only person waiting in the cardiology area…I wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad thing but it drove up my anxiety levels somewhat! Anyhow, the scan was carried out very thoroughly, and it seems I have a problem with my right ventricle, in that it’s not properly pumping the deoxygenated blood through to the lungs to get the oxygen needed to function properly, and this is probably the cause of my breathlessness. It’s difficult to explain – it’s not like when you’ve been running and get a bit of a stitch and have to bend over to catch your breath. Think of it more like having a blown up balloon, putting your open mouth on it forming a seal, then hold your nose closed and try to work out how to pull in some air. It’s actually very frightening, and takes a while to recover. Now realise that this happens if I walk 30m without stopping, or climb the stairs at home…you get the picture.

The cardiac consultant said she’s happy to wait until the outcome of my appointment with the pneumology consultant on 14 May, and they will then work out a treatment plan. I’m happy with that as it would indicate there’s no immediate emergency, though she did recommend I get some oxygen at the health centre to use at home, which I wil do as soon as they open on Monday. She feels the problem is likely to respond well to medical treatment, which is very encouraging! Maybe the next time we get over to Norn Iron things will be a lot more normal and I’ll be able to walk everywhere like I used to. Fingers crossed.

Oh, and just to give you a laugh, this is the spiral staircase that goes down from our bedroom to the bodega below. Our room was used as a sitting room by the previous owners, but it’s big, and had a wee room off it that we were able to convert to a bathroom, so it made sense for us to have it as our bedroom.

The husband reckons if I get any worse we could take out the spiral staircase and replace it with a lift. I’m trying to work out if he’s joking or not but, on reflection, it could be very useful for taking things – as well as me – up and downstairs! Let’s just say I’m hoping that after all the medical intervention takes place there will be no need for a lift and I’ll be skipping about like a young thing again!

I think I’d better end this here or it will never be finished! If you like reading my wanderings, please feel free to subscribe, it will mean you’ll automatically get sent each new blog that comes out, and it will make me feel really good!

So, till the next time, keep safe and look after each other.

xxx