I’m back

Well it’s been a long time since my last post. There’s been so much going on that I just haven’t had the time to think about doing my blog.  People asked us what we were going to do, were we going to get bored etc? But the days just seem to fly by and before you know it, it’s evening again.  We’ve even been trying to have a couple of nights in this week to catch up on a bit of TV and that hasn’t happened.  Now the weather is getting better in the evenings, it’s just so easy to pop round to someone for a quick drink about 6pm and before you know it, the evening has gone and you haven’t had any dinner – again.  It’s a hard life but someone has to do it.

We’ve been thinking about our reasons for doing this, is it to travel Europe or is it to stay in one place and enjoy the warm weather?  Well it’s both really, so we’ve decided that we love it here so much (of course that’s all about the friends we have here) that we will come back next year (all being well of course) and probably spend the whole winter in one place.  This then brings us onto whether we should get an apartment, buy a caravan to leave here in the summer with a small motorhome to do our travelling in, or stay with the van that we have.  The decision is that we will decide in another couple of years – we love this van and although we can’t get to the smaller campsites or travel easily on the smaller roads, if we get rid of the van now, we will never have something as luxurious as this again.  The one decision that we have made is that we will NOT get an apartment. 

The campsite life is fantastic for us.  Now we have Nick and Joy here, and of course Jo and James have been here the since we got here – we are on the same block of pitches D1, D2 and D5, I have to admit it has become a bit of a commune.  The dogs (Paddy and Connie) seem to think that it’s just one big pack and they become interchangeable.  In the mornings Paddy comes around to check that the pack are ok and to finish off Connie’s breakfast.  Of course this also has the advantage that if we want to go out for the day we can leave the dogs with each other and know they are ok.  Only yesterday, Iain was ready to go for a shower at 11 o’clock, but “people” just kept popping round, Paul had a flat battery, so we asked Henk for a jump start, Henk and Jenny were leaving so we helped move their caravan – by 1.30 he gave up and we took the dog out for a walk.  The only time I get to update my blog is in the mornings before we open the door to the outside world.
So what has been going on.

Early in January we saw the arrival of Nick and Joy – great friends we had met last year, so the first day that just had to be an excuse for a get together and we started with a welcoming party.  The next day Nick and Cathy (Tales from Aurora) arrived.  It was really bizarre, we had never met them before but we had been following each other’s blogs for about a year.  It was like meeting long lost friends.  They were only staying a couple of nights before going skiing so we sent them off to have a look at Benidorm.  Nick bought himself a “selfie” stick so we just had to try it out at the Chinese restaurant.  Very successful I must say.

Nick seems to have the hang of it

Cathy brandishing her new toy

It was lovely to meet up with people that we had only known vicariously and hopefully our paths will cross again soon.  Perhaps in the summer we might visit the campsite where Nick and Cathy will be working.

Early in January, Meerke arranged for us to pay a visit to the campsite Boss’ Finca (Estate) and this was a great opportunity to have a look around at a wealthy house in Spain.  About 12 of us went.  Now I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before but when dealing with Dutch people there is no approximate time.  We had arranged to do the visit on Thursday and we were to meet at 11.00am as our Dutch friends had arranged transport for us (they have caravans so cars are available).  Nick, Joy, Jo, James, Iain and myself were idly chatting at 10.30am on the preceding Tuesday about how were were going to leave soon to walk to Altea and how we mustn’t be late on Thursday to be ready for our Dutch friends at 11 o’clock exactly.

Something had got lost in the translation though and while we were chatting, Meerke waved to us from their pitch – it was now 10.45 and 10 minutes later she came to ask if we were ready.  We exclaimed that we thought the arrangement was for Thursday and she said no it was today, Tuesday.  So having really tried hard not to insult them by being late for our arrangement  it was suddenly a mad rush to get ready to leave.  Never mind, cameras thrown in bags and jumpers grabbed we only held them up about 5 minutes.

The Finca was only just this side of Benidorm so it didn’t take us long to get there. The old farmhouse dated from the early 19th Century and they are obviously very wealthy people as there were quite a few pieces of old furniture and antiques.  The house even had it’s own Chapel upstairs. 
 There were some very pretty rooms and it was kept immaculately.  The one thing I would say though is that it was FREEZING inside.  These houses are designed to keep cool in the hot summer months, but hey, this was January – no-one actually lives there in the winter (except the housekeepers) and I can’t blame them.

Every autumn the Dutch contingent at the campsite go up to the Finca to pick the oranges.  They asked us whey we didn’t go with them and I (hopefully) tactfully explained that it was because we didn’t understand the posters.  Never mind, perhaps next time.

Things soon settled down with Nick and Joy’s arrival and we got into a fair routine of partying.  However it was so long ago now that I’m sure I have forgotten a lot of what we did.  Either that or the copious amounts of falling down water that has been consumed has made my memory hazy. The problem is that Nick and Joy are on holiday and we are “living” so it’s trying to get that balance.

Oh and I forgot to mention - remember our atrocious antics at our party - getting rather confused as newts and losing our presents - well about three weeks after the party we were out one quiz night and we were handed a couple of bags of bottles of wine and a gift that had been found and were being returned to us.  We were absolutely flabbergasted and couldn't believe the honesty of someone to send them to Wyndhams for us - and we don't even live in the town.  It would appear that when I left the Beach Lounge I didn't actually manage to pick up all the bags and left some behind.  So thanks to Robyn for letting us have them - it wasn't the value of the items but the thought that we were most impressed with.

Quick summary for January:-

• Duck is still around and still making a mess everywhere.
• Nick and Joy have joined us and made up the numbers for the quiz team.
• Weather has been cold(er) but hey we haven’t seen any snow and we have seen a lot of sunshine.
• Still doing Flamenco lessons – and loving it.

See you soon for February update.