Tag: photography

It has to be said that life in Spain has a lot going for it, but there are also so many things that make you want to tear your hair out too!

On the fun side, and the one everybody thinks of first, is the weather. Generally we have all-year-round decent weather, certainly compared with Norn Iron. Where we live, about 30 minutes inland, and up a mountain, we tend to have hotter summers and colder winters. So we regularly see temperatures of 44C in the shade, in the summer, but have yet to see anywhere near freezing in the winter. I actually enjoy the difference in the seasons, even though there are really only two of them. It’s wonderful to spend months being able to be outside – to cook, eat, socialise and cool off in the pool, and not a cloud in the sky.

However, there’s also something to be said for the colder weather. If we’re out during the day it’s lovely to have both the big log burners laid and ready to light as soon as we come home, and it’s also a great feeling to get all “happed up” to go outside and enjoy cleaner, colder air!

Now that the weather has improved it’s full steam ahead with the outside jobs. I keep saying this but happily the plastering of the pool courtyard is now finished and is being painted, so now I can get all our wee solar lights up to look lovely.

One of the bigger gardening jobs was to remove the pink vine thing – don’t know what it’s called but it looks great! It had taken over the support structure for our grapevines to the extent that the poor grapevines were becoming completely choked. That pink stuff grows unbelievably quickly, and Peter spent an afternoon cutting it all back, giving the grapevines room to breathe. Tiny little grapes appearing already, another few months and we’ll be fighting the wasps and the birds for them! I’m going to train the pink thing up that big tree in the corner of the walled garden so it can grow there to its heart’s content and look rather decorative as well.

The hideous back wall will now also be plastered and painted white – it will be considerably more aesthetically pleasing than it looks now…

So, this is what the grapevines now look like having been freed from the pink stuff. Those grapes will be coming in thick and fast – it really IS fun watching things like grapes, pomegranates, olives and almonds growing in your own garden!

Our lovely wee elderly neighbours Bienve and Carmelo made the steep climb up our driveway the other day when we were out, and left us a bag of fresh eggs from their fairly recently aquired chickens. Have to say it’s lovely to see proper and differently coloured eggs instead of the standard supermarket brown ones. These ones are lovely shades of blue, pink and green – no idea what kind of birds they are but the eggs taste great!

With the gift of the eggs, and a bag of lemons from another neighbour, (our wee new lemon tree is just starting to fruit!) sure what else would you do but make lemon curd to share? Best tasting lemon curd ever! Oh, and we also get some eggs now from my friend Julia, who keeps chickens, wonderful!

As usual, we’ve been out and about a fair bit, mostly for lunches, definitely a bit part of the “fun” in living in Spain. We went back recently to a restaurant we hadn’t been to in ages, to find it had been closed for some time and had just reopened. It seems they had had a big electrical fire, but the whole place has been renovated, restored and redone, and it looks amazing! It now has a very contemporary Spanish feel, and, as such, the lighting is modern, instead of the typical Spanish fluorescent strip lighting that often prevails. You know the sort of lighting I mean, the kind that’s so bright and blue/white you look as if you died a few days ago. Happily Spain is moving away from this delightful trend and into something which creates a far more pleasant ambiance!

Very funky! Have to say the food was also excellent. I had salad, crusty bread with alioli, then spaghetti carbonara for a starter, followed by a mixed grill, and finished off with a huge portion of Vienetta ice cream – here it’s called “Contessa”. I can’t even remember what Peter had, and there’s no photos as we were far too busy eating! The lunch included a drink and coffee, and the total bill was €32, fantastic value!

Since we’re now coming into the real start of the summer weather there’s much pleasure to be found in just enjoying the wrm summer evenings – eating later, spending time with friends and generally being able to get out and about without worrying about needing a coat. Can’t beat late night dips in the pool when it’s marginally cooler!

Handy hint coming up if you’re going on holiday this summer – one of the things holidaymakers ask most often is where to get the best deal on exchange rates. Obviously the place NOT to change currency is at the airport, they give just about the worst deals anywhere. There are so many places on holiday where you CAN get decent rates, but you need to shop around. By far the best way to manage your money is to get a Wise bank card.

You can have accounts in sterling, euros or whatever you like. Moving money from your sterling account to euro account takes literally seconds online, and you will get the best rate going. For example, this morning I moved £100 from my sterling account to my euro account and it came up as €119, a great rate, and completed in less than 4 seconds! So, if you’re going to be on holiday somewhere in the Eurozone it’s worth having, as you can then use your Wise debit card to get cash from an ATM without paying extortionate fees.

On to some of the frustrations now! Dealing with the frustrations of living in a foreign country can be a bit of a nightmare at times! Far and away the worst offenders are the big companies like banks and utilities. So, here we go again with the water issue here, always a source of despair. Since we moved into this house more than 6 years ago we’ve not had one single day of uninterrupted water supply.

The other night we were woken by the sound of the dishwasher motor roaring away downstairs – and it wasn’t even switched on?! So, having investigated, and noticed a wee trickle of water coming out from underneath, we disconnected the intake pipe, flung some towels down on the floor, googled the problem and it seemed to have something to do with the flood pump(?!) and went back to bed. Arranged for Avelino to come and sort it when he could, he was on holiday for the next two days so we had to wait – not a big problem as I can still remember how to wash dishes by hand! Next evening – no flipping water coming into the house again! By the time I filled in the emergency breakdown form and found the emergency number – “we are at your service 24 hours a day”…yeah right! – I managed yet again to have a perfectly reasonable conversation, in Spanish, with the chap on the other end of the phone. I gave him all the details, name, address, ID number, contract/service number etc, and he hung up on me. This happens with alarming frequency, hateful, and so disappointing form a big company like Aqualia.

Well, believe it or not, the husband had had the wit to get the call-out engineer’s name and mobile number the last time he came out – apparently he lives not too far from us. Anyhow, Peter messaged him, and he said he would come over the next day. And he did. Fixed our faulty water meter which had been dripping to the extent that we’d had to turn off the water to avoid a huge bill. Wonders will never cease – we had water again as normal! Miguel said to just contact him directly if there’s a future problem, that will be much easier than trying to deal with the utility company and getting nowhere fast.

Avelino came and sorted the dishwasher problem, and only charged us €20, couldn’t bate it wae a big stick, as they say in north Antrim!

So, away from the frustrations and back to the fun…much more interesting! Here’s something to make you laugh a little, and maybe gasp in amazement? Last week we were getting ready to head down south to Nerja, for a wee birthday break. The two front tyres on my car were worrying me a bit as I thought they were starting to look a little worn. Andreas, our mechanic, ordered two new tyres for me to fit the day before we went on our holibobs. Total cost was €160, including the fitting, balancing and all that stuff. The night before, I had bought a wee ticket in a local Spanish lottery called El Gordo de la Primativa, they’re €1.50 a line. So, €161.50 was spent. Well you’ll hardly believe this, but our one line ticket on the lottery won us…..wait for it….drum roll….€161.54, a profit of 4 cents! There you go, new tyres cost covered, lottery line covered, and 4 cents to go mad with!

We thought it was a great example of a bit of synchronicity at play…must try harder now for the Euromillions and try to win a quarter of a billion euros tomorrow night….

Back to our little trip “down south” to Nerja, on the Costa del Sol. We wanted a bit of a break, and as my birthday was coming up, we decided a road trip and a couple of nights away would be grand. We found, and booked, a lovely place in Nerja called Boutique Hostal Lorca. We’ve been to Nerja a few times before, it is a beautiful town, famed for its narrow, whitewashed streets and little craft and artisan shops, and for the main viewing point over the bay, called the Balcon de Europa.

It turned out we had made a fabulous decision in choosing Hostal Lorca to stay in, absolutely fabulous, in fact! The hotel is in a terraced, narrow street of white townhouses, like countless others in little Andalucian towns. However, behind every front door is a wonderful new world waiting to be explored, and this one was no exception! The hotel is owned and run by Julien and Amber, who are really the perfect hosts, going out of their way to ensure your comfort, and really they are just two lovely people! All the rooms are en-suite, and ours had a little balcony overlooking the garden, courtyard and pool.

We had a lovely big bed which was extremely comfortable – just what you need after walking for hours seeing the sights.

When I said Amber and Julien went out of their way to welcome us, this even including leaving a bottle of cava in our room, in an ice bucket, specially for my birthday! Fabulous hosts!

Peter had booked a wonderful restaurant called Restaurante Bakus for dinner on my birthday. We were right beside the terrace overlooking the bay, and I have to say the food was fantastic! This was the view from our table…

We saw some paragliders heading back and forth across the bay, at one point it looked as if the sky was having a wee peep at what we were eating!

We walked for miles, shopped till we dropped, amd drove over 1125 kilometers in the three days we were away. We shopped in Dunnes in Velez-Malaga, amd Marks and Spencer foodhall in Marbella, those of you in Norn Iron, please don’t laugh, we miss those shops! Nerja is a lovely place to visit, and if you DO go, please stay in the Hostal Lorca, it’s fabulous and is unbelievable value! The website is : https://www.hostallorca.com/ so get online and have a wee look….and if you go, tell Amber and Julien we send our love!

Much closer to home, if anyone is looking for holiday accommodation, you won’t go wrong booking into Tranquil Stays, just down the road from us, and owned by our friends Julia and Kelvin – yes, the same Julia and Kelvin with the chickens and the eggs! It’s part cave house, and is in a wonderfully peaceful setting, yet only minutes from the nearest town, and within very easy distance of both Murcia city and the coast.

I know that Julia has been revamping the website but in the meantime have a look here at the photos and see why it comes highly recommended, great place, great hosts!

tranquilstays8.godaddysites.com

One last wee quick not here, now that the inferno that is the Spanish summer has clicked in, please, please, PLEASE don’t ever leave dogs, babies, children or the elderly in a parked car while you just “pop into the shop for a minute”. Here’s how hot it can get, we were away from the car for less than 10 minutes, and that wasn’t even at the hottest part of the day…

I think that’s probably enough for now, well done if you’ve managed to stick with it so far! A big thank you to all of you who have clicked on the “follow” button, and also on the “subscribe” option, it means a lot to me!