Onward Quizteam Soldiers– South

Friends are the family you choose for yourselves

When we started this adventure, our (Iain’s) plan was to tour Europe and be in the warm all year round.  Personally I would rather have had a small cottage by a river and eked out my days relaxing and “playing” with my crafting things and sewing.  So neither of us got our dream (quite).  I do love living the life we live and the way we live it but I would never have come up with the idea in a million years but then I would have missed out on so much.

What we didn’t expect was that we would stay put for 6 months. We have met so many wonderful like-minded people from many nationalities who are easy going and doing a similar thing to us, although a lot swap their motorhome for a mortarhome in the summer months.  We can now count amongst the friends we have made this winter the Dutch (well some of them), Belgians and French.  So that will be a lot of visiting.

So it was time to leave El Albir and the many friends we had made and relationships that we had fortified over the winter.  Everything was ready to leave, the dog washed, the van packed and we had to say our goodbyes.  It was really emotional, big hugs all round.  Plans made to meet up in England in August to celebrate Joy’s birthday.  Over the last three months the Ingles seem to have become a group of 6.  We did do our own thing sometimes but quite often it was the same group of six that would be walking together through the campsite to go out for meals, events etc.  At last we have a picture of the six of us without someone missing, taking the photo.


Here’s also a collection of my memories from the winter.


And I did promise Emma to post the video of the pseudo bull fighting – talk about last of the summer wine!!!!  When I was younger I hated the program “Last of the Summer Wine” as (in my mother’s words) it just showed that men didn’t grow up, they just grew old and their toys got more expensive. But now, 30 years later,  I’m in there amongst it and I laugh with everyone else.  It seems it doesn’t matter that you have to be over 55 or disabled to hire a madge, there's no sensibility guarantee and they still get abused. Enjoy.

And for those of you with one of those posh, flashy, expensive, crappy apple devices that can't open files that everyone else can, because the company wants to convert the world to their way of doing things - here's an Ipad/Apple version. Sorry about the rant, but I just don't like Apple!!!!!

Duck Update

Sorry there isn’t one!! After months of feeding by James and taming, the duck is still missing.

Moving on

As I said before, I hadn’t driven for 6 months, well apart from playing on Jo’s madge and if you remember I managed to crash that into their awning (actually into the van, but don’t tell James). Mmm – so tom boys don’t grow up either.  It was with a certain amount of trepidation that I took to the wheel. I was feeling a little nervous, especially as the exit from the campsite is quite narrow with a 90 degree turn at the top into a narrow road and then a very sharp roundabout to navigate.  I was also nervous because for the first time we don’t have any breakdown cover (explained in my last post).  I’m such a worrier. 

Before we had left, there were more people to wave at, so that is a little distracting and this wasn’t helped by Martina, one of the receptionists shouting her goodbyes and her surprise at the fact that I was driving.  Unfortunately it wasn’t that easy to get out of the campsite because one of their trucks had been parked opposite the exit and it meant that I had to do a bit of shuffling back and forth to get through the exit.

First stop Benidorm Repsol garage to fill up with LPG, about 4 miles away.  I was absolutely stunned, I was a lot more comfortable than last year when I left the campsite but then maybe it was because I’d another 4,000 miles of experience of driving this truck behind me.  There were no dodgy moments, no wobbly legs, not even at the “London Underground” junction to get out of Albir and onto the N332.  WOW!!!!!

Sorry I haven’t got anything exciting to report but it did a lot for my blood pressure.  We arrived at the garage with NO incidents.   Refuelled, 200 litres of LPG later (the garage attendant couldn’t believe how much gas we bought)  we left for Carrefour to do a stock up.  There is a fantastic area for motorhome parking so it’s really easy to get in and out.  Whether this is a rumour or not we weren’t taking any chances.  Carrefour in Benidorm is apparently renowned for motorhomes being broken into.  The decision was made – Iain would stay in the van whilst I did the shopping – yippeeeeeeee going to a supermarket and and a large one at that on my own.  It was like a kid being let loose in a sweet shop.  Some hour later (or maybe longer) I emerged with my trolley full of STUFF.  But I’d forgotten the tyres and the innertubes for the dogs buggy.  So I had to go back again, result, that meant that Iain had to find a home for all the goodies that I had bought.  Lunch and then off about 100 miles to La Manga.

Again no dramas and only one time did we have strong words when the motorway split into two.  The conversation went something like “Which way?” (me) – well that always starts something.  “Head for Murcia” was the response.  Both options were sign-posted Mucia so I was none the wiser.

The choice was becoming imminent – the chevrons were appearing and I still didn’t know which way to go.  So I have to admit that I did shout “Which Way?” of course expecting that more volume would encourage a more positive response (I must have got that from my father).  It worked – “Take the right” – now I’ve told you before that I’m left handed, on the wrong side of the road, in a left-hand-drive vehicle and I really do struggle with left and right when I’m behind the wheel so it always takes me a few seconds to react to a left or right instruction.  If only I’d looked at the SatNag, I would have seen the direction I needed – something I had forgotten in the six months being off the road – a lesson to be learned.

Anyway we were on the correct road, which happened to be the right road, so no major drama.
We arrived in La Manga a little after 4pm so had plenty of time to pitch up and sort ourselves out. I was surprised at how tired I was, it was only just over 100 miles, but maybe it was the excitement of my trip to Carrefour.

We had been to this campsite before so knew what to expect. People either love it or hate it, with over 1,500 pitches it is the largest we have ever been on. I’ve written about it before so I’ll just point you to my post last year rather than eulogising about it – click the picture.  


We have a toilet and shower block just next door – result.  We have a washing machine at the shower block – result (except that I broke it this morning).  We have fresh water and drainage on the pitch – result.  We have a restaurant/bar and beach within about 100m – result.  So facilities wise it is soooo much better than Cap Blanch – but it doesn’t have the town location so apart from the campsite you need to go on a 20 minute bike ride to get into town.  We have done that once since we got here, but with the dog being so much older, she wouldn’t be able to walk that far so it’s the buggy for her and the bikes for us.

Not only that but I’ve been cooking. In Albir we ate out nearly every day, either for lunch or dinner, but in the four nights here I have prepared – healthy salad, chicken curry, spaghetti bolognese and pulled pork fajitas.  Tonight we are going out – well it is Saturday and they do have entertainment on Saturdays. I understand that couples generally argue most over money, well we have most of our heated moments over food.

 Iain is so fussy and eats like a sparrow.  Sometimes I see him staring at his plate of food waiting to see if it is going to eat him first.  I causes me so much angst and worry about what to cook.  It’s not that I’m a bad cook, because although a little out of practice,  I am not a bad cook, it’s just that I hate the thought of spending hours preparing nice food, only to see it being left on the plate.  Often when we are in a restaurant and his plate looks as full when he is finished as it did when it arrived I am just relieved that I didn’t choose it and cook it. The waitress often asks if it was ok, only to be told that he’s had enough.  I digress.

The Plan – Gibraltar, Seville, Portugal and then home for an MOT – OR NOT

Having spent a few days, just the two of us, and engaging in some useful conversation, we were just discussing on Wednesday that we hadn’t heard from Paul, who looks after our house in the UK and that surely we must owe him some money as we hadn’t had a bill for a while.  I said that I didn’t want to contact him and tempt fate as it seems that every time we hear from him, something goes wrong with the house.  We also discussed how nice it would be if our tenant decided to buy our house and what we would do if he left.

Lo and behold, that afternoon, Paul sent an email with his invoice for 3 months maintenance.
Then out of the blue, after Iain had gone to bed that night, an email arrived from our tenant giving us notice to quit.  Oh no!!!! Not what we wanted to hear.  Sometimes I just wish I didn’t look at my emails late at night.  I couldn’t wake Iain up for that but then I just couldn’t sleep either thinking about it.  Iain then awoke about 4am to use the facilities and I got my opportunity to tell him.  There was no reaction from Iain but at least it meant that having shared the burden I could get a good night’s sleep.

So yesterday was spent contacting agents for re-letting and discussing what to do next.    So looking at our options – 1. Head directly home and be there about the time the tenant leaves – approximately 1,450 miles, or 2. Do the original plan to go via Gibraltar, Seville, Portugal, Northern Spain and then home – approximately 2,450 miles.

We have decided to get back to the UK about the time the tenant leaves, which gives us a little less than 4 weeks and then we will be able to check the house over for new tenants and if necessary we will live in it until it is re-let.  There’s not much available in the countryside that competes with our house at the moment, so hopefully it won’t take long. I have looked at properties for sale but that seems to be stagnant so we won’t bother putting it back up for sale at this time. I must admit though, I’m a little excited at the prospect of living in a mortarhome for a while, being able to shower when I want, do washing when I want and above all having a bath for a change.  One thing I remember as a bonus of living in a motorhome is when you are cooking you don’t have to go too far for the bin – strange things we think about and compare.

Not only that but it would be a saving of something over 500 litres of gas.
The feeling is strange, we were to cut our journey home down from 2 months to 1 month.  Most people (and us in our past lives) only get two weeks together for a holiday and here I was panicking that we only had one month to get home.

At least the tenant is leaving in late spring and we just have to come home early, if it had been in the winter then that would have been a lot more difficult for us.

So we’ll stay here for a few days more and then head up north again along the east coast of Spain.  The weather is really rather pleasant now, although still not hot enough for me to want to swim.   I’m sorry that we won’t be able to spend some time on the south coast during the nice weather, I’m sorry that we won’t be able to meet up with my old school friend Loreley who after years of looking for her, she finally popped up on facebook a few months ago living in Gibraltar and I’m also sorry that we won’t be able to go to Seville, where with my new found love of Flamenco I was really rather hoping to get to see and hopefully join in with some more dancing.  Portugal – well I haven’t been there and whilst it would be nice to see it, if just to compare it with Spain, that doesn’t really bother me.

Well there’s always big adventure 3 ………………………………….

Long time no see

I just can’t believe how fast the time has been going.  We’re due to leave here in a couple of weeks and then we’ll be on our travels again so I’ll have more travel news to report then and hopefully a lot more time to do some blogging.

So it’s nearly two months since my last post, here are some of the highlights well things that particularly stick in my mind.

Nick and Joy finally arrived in January and our feet haven’t touched the ground since, almost literally, I haven’t been out dancing so much in years – I don’t know where Nick gets his energy from.

In February, there was a Dutch 50th wedding anniversary party and Clara, our flamenco teacher did a performance and the flamenco group had a photo

Joy, Ronnie, Betty, Frieda, Fabienne and yours truly. Missing were Hortense and Cora

This brought me onto doing a website for Clara to help promote her business.  So one afternoon Joy, her friend Ellie who was visiting and myself went onto the beach to take some photos and videos.  Here’s a couple – they were pretty good I thought for amateurs.

Then another day, Clara and myself went up into the mountains and took some more pictures and videos. This then got me into photo manipulation and I rather liked the result of this one. Clara is dancing with her shadow which is in black and white and she is wearing vibrant red.


If you liked those then have a look at her website www.claratierra.sbw1.co.uk

I have really enjoyed doing the website although it has taken up quite a bit of time.  But anyone who knows me, knows that I’ve always got to be learning something new and I’ve learned a lot about photo manipulation and videos and YouTube – so for me it was all worth it.

After some inspiration from Joy, I’ve also been working on a couple of websites for myself that I’ve been meaning to do for ages, but they took a bit of a backseat because of Clara’s so they haven’t been finished and will be revealed soon. Oh and look, I’ve got into Pinterest and you can now pin any picture on my blog.

Clara, bless her, than offered in return to give me some private Flamenco lessons and I’ve been learning the four parts of the Sevillana, which is a dance that all Spanish people seem to know but it really is very difficult and takes ages.  I think I’m just about there now and I can get up and dance with the Flamenco dancers at El Cisne and Kaktus and actually look like I know a bit of what I’m doing instead of just jigging around – more of that to follow.

In March, there was another party to celebrate the Dutch leaving – sorry that was for the Dutch to celebrate the end of the winter season, when they all go home to check on their tulips.  Apologies to our Dutch friends Meerke and Nol, Henk and Jenny, we don't see you in the same way as some of the others.

So in one of those inebriated moments, we thought it would be a good idea to put on a “Flash mob” during the party.  Only planning it a week before, we actually only had 2 hours to put together and practice the dance (I did mention the Sevillana takes ages to learn).  Clara was brilliant and this is the result which also gave me another opportunity to play around with videos. It’s only a couple of snippets but hopefully it will give you the idea. Even Iain, Nick, Jo and James were involved as they were the “Clappy Happers” backing group.  Hope you enjoy it, it was just a bit of fun and it proves that old birds still like to get up and dance, the oldest in our flamenco group was 82.

We’ve met some new friends

Paul and Ruth from Wiltshire stayed for a couple of weeks.  Paul has just finished his self-build and it’s all orange inside – yes, even the orange squeezer. Apart from the fact that they were real party animals, my most vivid memory was of a fairly cold evening (still able to sit out until gone 9pm) when Paul was sitting outside wearing an orange and black “Tigger” style onesie.  I couldn’t believe that he would actually wear that in public there could have been a bit of the confidence-juice that had been consumed responsible for that.

Ruth and Paul

Mick and Shirley returned again, we had met them last year and that meant another few nights out. They’ve now moved off to Calpe for a couple of weeks before returning home.

Dave and Pam from Grimsby became new friends and they are planning to come back next year.

We’ve had some birthdays to celebrate

Jo and mine fell at the same weekend in early March so we did a whole weekend’s celebrations.  Meals out, dancing at Kactus (posh hotel on the seafront) – you get the picture.
Nick’s fell on 1st April and I made him a card.  Inspiration is always the problem, but just recently, as I said we’ve been out dancing and partying a lot and Iain and James are a bit light-weight when it comes to staying up late, so Nick always seems to be left with the women.  He was left to entertain 5 women one night, so we have “Nick-named” (rather apt I thought) him “Sultan Nick of Albir”.  Of course he loves all the attention.  Here’s the card I made for him.  We then did a surprise lunch at Wyndhams for him and managed to pull it off without him finding out.  But I don’t think he appreciated this picture too much though.

We’ve also had some falls

James was the first – fell over and dislocated his finger – mmmm well they do call it falling down water. So that meant a few visits to the hospital and a couple of weeks in a sling.
Then Pam, tripped in the street and ended up 4 nights in hospital.  Badly bruised but gladly nothing broken.
The following night,  Liz who lives in Albir  – fell on her way home from the quiz on Wednesday night and we haven’t seen her since but we have been getting regular updates. Hope you are doing ok Liz and also hope we will see you before we go.
Jo finished it off (we hope) by tripping on a piece of metal  on the campsite.  With her already dodgy ankle that meant a trip to the hospital but thankfully nothing broken. But that does of course mean that the Madge is back in action.  It was the day of “all day” rugby so nearly everyone was out at the time.  I’m sorry to say this Jo, but it must have been a sight to be seen with only Jo and Pam down our end of the campsite at the time and Pam, who had only come out of hospital  that day had to walk using her walking frame over to Jo and help her up.  Glad that it’s improving now Jo, hopefully you’ll be up and running again soon.

We’ve found some new places to go

Kaktus

– the posh hotel on the seafront. Last year, Nick always took Joy out on Saturday nights to the Kactus – they do a really good act each Friday and Saturday and there’s dancing of course.  Last year we just didn’t get ourselves organised enough to go, especially as the act doesn’t come on until 10.30pm which was always far too late for us.  But this year we have been making the effort sometimes.  The acts are really good and we do have a great time.

Goa

– not the holiday resort in India, but a Spanish bar just down the road and on the seafront.  I can’t believe we didn’t discover it before.  On Friday nights (late) and Sunday evenings they have Spanish entertainment.  This normally consists of a Flamenco band (no dancer though) which we think is one family. They are fantastic and whilst Iain really doesn’t like the wailing singing that they do, the guitarist is brilliant.  Having done some flamenco lessons we have learned not only the dance but also an appreciation of the culture and the rythms.  I’m really getting into flamenco and I’m sure it is mainly because I understand it so much more and can appreciate it – even the singing sometimes.

Of course all this makes it sound like we are forever in the pub and getting pi**ed.  Well it would be so easy to do that.  There are loads of ex-pat communities over in Spain, retired, not working, loads of time on their hands, living very cheaply off pensions and with a pint at anything from 1.50 euros and large brandies at 3 Euros a shot it is very easy to fall into that way of life.  I for one, don’t want to.

Yes I’ll party, yes I’ll have a drink (and too many sometimes) but I also want to keep myself busy doing other things.  I’ve been doing a bit of crafting stuff but not enough and the days still seem to fly by.  It’s amazing the things that you did automatically seem to be a job these days – even just having a shower, or doing water in/water out is something  to tick off the list of “jobs to do” each day.  It’s also very easy to get lazy.  Each day seems to start with – “Our neighbours are up, let’s pop around for a chat and see what they are doing today”.

Jo and James, Nick and Joy and ourselves are all next to each other and it is getting like one big commune.  Even the dogs just seem to wander from one van to another as if it is just one big pack with separate kennels. Paddy often pops in for a bit of Connie's left-overs.  It’s rather nice really and we do like the campsite life, but we need to leave here for a rest.   You wouldn’t get this lifestyle in an apartment.  However it is lovely when on the odd occasion we just stay in for the night and watch TV together, just the two of us.  However with the warmer weather and now the longer evenings – already the sun doesn’t set until after 8.30pm those nights are getting fewer and farther between.

But we have taken in a little bit of culture

A couple of days ago, Joy and myself actually ventured into Altea Old Town.  It is lovely, pretty white buildings, narrow streets, a church on top of the hill.  As with a lot of Spanish old towns they are on top of hills and it’s a bit of a climb to get up there but worth it. This is much more real Spain than Albir which has really only come into being since the 1960's. For anyone thinking of visiting – we do actually walk there from Albir, it’s about 2 miles along the promenade,  then the climb up.

You can just see the massive hotels at Benidorm in the distance

These young people – just couldn’t make it to the top without a rest

Last week saw the return of the Classical Flamenco Group which we saw in November (I think).  Iain and Nick declined to join us and said it would just be wasted money on them.   As usual (this is Spain), there was very little information about it beforehand, loads of posters everywhere but nothing explaining what it would actually be – so we didn’t really know what we were going to see.  I googled everything I could and we were still none the wiser.  We thought from the poster that it might be a male dancer, if any dancer at all, but we did manage to find out that the guitarist would be the same as the previous performance. I wasn’t sure about seeing a single male dancer because I love to see the ladies dancing in their flamenco dresses, however as Joy hadn’t seen the last performance and the poster did show a man half naked,  we thought we would give it a go.

It was fantastic.  Norman (the dancer) was about 6ft 4 and was like an albatross.  How he moved his long arms and legs at such speed, I just don’t know.  His name is Norman Contreras and here’s a brief snippet of his dancing.

 He must be quite new on the scene as I could only find one YouTube video of him.



The guitarist was Antonio Munoz Fernandez and he must be quite famous as there’s quite a bit on YouTube of him, if you would like to have a look and listen.

So if you ever come across these people, they are well worth seeing.

DUCK UPDATE

The duck has become very tame, it will let you stroke it, James can even pick it up with no fuss and it dominates the two dogs, Connie and Paddy who avoid it at all cost.

However the stupid duck thinks it is a dog and kept visiting Max – now would you torment this dog? Max didn’t know what to make of it and was very curious to say the least.  We had to keep rescuing the duck from a good sniffing and chewing. One day I saw Max had pinned it to the ground.  Another time Max was standing on it’s wing and chewing it’s feathers and the duck didn’t even try to get away. Then Max must have realised that this might be food and one time the duck was rescued after Max picked it up by it's neck.  Things were getting a bit dodgy.  Understandably, although Dave was fed up with the duck tormenting Max, more seriously, Max is a big softie and he didn’t want him to actually taste blood.

One day however the inevitable happened, Dave was throwing the ball for Max and the stupid duck got too close.  Max chased the duck which didn’t take off quick enough and he caught it on our pitch.  Everyone was reluctant to get too close to Max as you don't know what a dog on the hunt might do if you try to take it's prize away. In a matter of seconds, Dave came to the rescue and managed to get Max to drop the duck. Was it curtains for the duck? Well not quite, but it was pretty roughed up, looked very sorry for itself and it lost a few tail feathers so it won’t be flying off anywhere for a while.  It seems to have recovered now but it doesn’t mess with Max any more.

So for now were still stuck with the duck and it's muck.

A couple of days later an egg appeared under James' van.  James was soooo excited - thought he was going to be a grandad. More research on Muscovy ducks revealed that they can lay up to 30 eggs in one batch so preparations were being made for the new arrivals.  Was it the shock of the encounter with Max that had spurred on the duck to start laying? Or was it just a chicken egg!!!!!  Sadly no further eggs have been produced so one solitary egg lies underneath James' van and the duck is totally ignoring it - perhaps she isn't ready to be a mother yet? I think James is now in mourning over what might have been. No one is owning up to the joke but I just wish it had been my idea.

That’s about it, I’m sure there is loads that I have forgotten and apologies to anyone who didn’t get a mention.  We’re on the move again later next week, so there should be more of our travels rather than just our living.  But to anyone thinking of spending winter in warmer climes – Spain is great. Winter lasted about 6 weeks, cool in the day and quite cold at night but I only saw ice on the ground once, early one morning where a small puddle had frozen and I still only wore a coat once and that was because it was raining.

So did we get bored staying in one place for 6 months - what do you think?

See you soon when we are on the road again.

It’s not FEELING much like Christmas though

Well not yet anyway, and it’s only just over a week away.  Maybe it’s because it’s still quite warm (forecast says it will be up to 20C again by the end of the week) or maybe it’s because of one of the things that I love about Spain and that the sun doesn’t set until after 5.30pm and we don’t have those horrible dark afternoons like in the UK.

Still I’m not complaining – at all and I’m very much looking forward to it.

We’ve got family arriving next week, Iain’s dad ® and younger brother are coming on 22nd for 3 weeks and we’ve got Iain’s older brother and his wife (where did those smileys come from, they were supposed to be initials in brackets, sorry that’s just what popped up) are arriving on 28th for 2 weeks.  No they are not staying with us!!!!! No room in our motorhome for 6.

We’ve booked our Christmas lunch at our favourite restaurant, we’ve also got a party organised there for 29th December which is our 10th wedding anniversary.  YES 10 YEARS.  Where have they gone?  This is of course quite a mile-stone for me as I’ve been married twice before and they never got as far a 2 years – ADDED TOGETHER. Then it’s new year and then Iain’s (ahh, my husband is a light bulb) birthday.  So it will be a busy time for us over the next few weeks. 

So what have we been up to?

A couple of weeks ago I decided I wanted to highlight my hair.  I’ve been trying to go natural for nearly a year and have just got bored with grey and mouse and thought I’d like to liven it up a bit. Not really noteworthy, but something to consider when small space living and the shower blocks a cycle ride away.  So being the eternal optimist that I am I thought I’d have a go in the van where we don’t have copious amounts of hot water. When you live in a house, you take water for granted – in a motorhome, everything that you use has to be brought in manually and everything that you discard has to be removed manually – and you generally don’t add chemicals.  Now that’s not such a big deal, you get used to it, but it does make you much more aware of how you use your resources.

Now I’ve just got to get to the shower blocks without looking like I’ve a load of cheese straws growing out of my head!	And a quick selfie to show that it didn’t all come out in the wash.

The duck has taken to visiting us now and the dog is terrified of it.  She won’t look at it and pretends it’s not there.  I think the duck just likes company and we don’t mind, except that it’s not house trained and c**ps all over our benidorm blanket so we’re forever washing it off.  James has almost been able to resist feeding it so that it might leave and as I’m writing this, I’ve just heard Iain call from outside, “Oh the bloody duck’s back”.

Don’t come too close,  I’m warning you,  or I’ll just have to …………..move.	Guard duck – I’ll just sleep here so the dog can’t come out

We had some pretty rough seas the other day, we could hear it from our pitch.  Wow it was really rough for the med but it was still warm and sunny and there wasn’t much wind, so it must have been a pretty big storm from out there somewhere – we thought of Eric and Shazza as it was they day we thought they were taking the ferry to Morocco. 

That’s pretty rough for this part  of the med.	At least the dry river bed did it’s job – to protect the town from sea surges.

I’m still going to Flamenco lessons which I absolutely love.  I can hear the rhythm and I can remember the steps but once I get the arms in motion anything can happen. Also I have rather a lot of bulk (that was my rowing coach’s term for it) to move around quickly.  I’m in good company though. The teacher, Clara, speaks Spanish and a little English, Hortensia is Belgian and speaks Flemish and Spanish, Lyn is English and speaks English and Spanish and I’m the pleb who can’t speak anything other than English, so there’s a lot of guesswork going on. It’s a good laugh and at least we keep Clara amused. God help us if we ever get to use castanets and I hope that the campsite don’t ask us to do a demonstration at the end of “the season”.   No photos of this debacle.

The other day I went into reception to see if we had any post as I am expecting to receive a jiffy bag sized parcel from England.  There was one from England but there was no name on it, just the campsite address, so I picked it up and asked the receptionist if I could open it to see if it was my parcel. She offered to open it for me, which of course was the right thing to do. So I stood with my friend Joan and waited.  It was marked fragile but was a little light for the package I was expecting.  Martina opened the jiffy bag, to find a bubble wrapped item inside.  She carefully unwrapped it to find a carrier bag wrapping, this was followed by another two.  Then she opened the final one, looked in, screamed and ran to the toilet.  I thought she had gone to be sick.  No one else wanted to look into the bag to see what had caused this sudden outburst so we waited patiently for her return.  The other receptionists watched with amusement and obvious relief that they had not been given the task.  Martina returned, a little more composed.  Of course curiosity had got to all of us and we just had to know what had created such a dramatic reaction.  She finally managed to say that it wasn’t my parcel it was teeth!   Of course the problem then was whose were they?  There was no name on the envelope.  They would have to wait until someone came into reception and “gummed” at them – “anyone seen my teeth”?

A couple of Saturdays ago, Tomas and Hannelle invited us to a lovely dinner at their van. Apparently very few women cook in Sweden so it was down to Tomas.  Personally I'd rather cook so that I don't have to do the washing up after a couple of glasses of the falling down juice.  It was really nice to have a "home" cooked meal for a change and there were three wonderful courses on offer.  I'm just so glad that we had a conversation about whether or not it is etiquette to take off one's shoes before going into homes in Sweden BEFORE we stomped our way in. Hannelle even has indoor and outdoor slippers - bet that's made you smile Tomas.

We lost the quiz last week on the tie-break – our name was The Spanish Win Quiz Mission, but we picked up some new quizzing partners who are also on the campsite, Dave and Jessica.

Last Friday we had a lovely night out with Jo and James.  Brisa del Mar (where we are going for our Christmas lunch) had their party night with entertainment.  The group were really good, a mixture of Irish music and some other stuff thrown in.  Plenty of dancing and a wobbly walk home for some – not me!!!!

Is James about to make a romantic gesture to Jo? Doesn’t look very natural for you James.	No he’s just holding the flowers for the street seller who’s decided to join in the dancing

This picture proves two things:- 1.  Iain does dance sometimes 2.  I know what my new-year’s resolution will be	Oh no – I hope they haven’t come home drunk again!

On a practical note - I had a trip to the doctors last week.  This note is more for people who fall ill when in Spain rather than my ailment.  Anyway, I’d been putting off seeing the doctor and had been feeling under the weather for nearly 3 weeks and finally relented – I’ve never been one to visit the doctor unless I really have to – even in England. But my ailment wasn’t clearing up and I didn’t want to feel rough over Christmas.

Now having spoken to some ex-pats, there are two choices here, go and see the state doctor – which is free, just go up there with your passport and your EHIC card and you can register temporarily for 6 months. However the downside of this is that they speak little English.  Or you can pay privately for a consultation.  I knew that the private doctor, whilst being Norwegian, speaks excellent English and I had been recommended to both by locals so it was a decision to make.  I have to admit that it was finally decided that I would go privately.  It’s 38 Euros for a consultation (around £32).  What really made me decide to go privately was that we had recently spend nearly 200 Euros on the DOG on vets bills without as much as a flinch but it seemed a much harder decision to make when it came down to me, but in the words of the Oreal advert “I’m worth it!”

What we have found here though is that medication is quite expensive.  An antibiotic cream for the dog was 14.50 Euros and my tablets were 17.50 Euros, there’s no state prescription charge here, you just have to pay the full amount.

Anyway for those who might be interested, I’m feeling a lot better.

I don’t suppose that I’ll have time to blog again before Christmas, oh, there’s so much to do before next week – get Iain a present; get my hair cut; get some music organised for the party; go and talk about the menu for the party; decorate my dress; make “deely boppers” for Christmas day, and it’s Wednesday already. I don’t know how I used to have time to fit in everything that I used to do.

So Happy Christmas to all my readers, wherever you are.    
PS the duck is still hanging around and has now taken to nesting under OUR van!

365 Days and we’re still talking

We’ve made it, one whole year of spending 24 hours a day, 7 days a week together, living in a small space.  No work, no fixed plans, just enjoying ourselves doing whatever we want to do, going wherever we want each day and for the things we don’t want to do - well there’s always manjana. There’s been a few small (occasionally  huge) arguments but mainly over travelling.
In the year we have only spent 5 nights not sleeping in the van, when we returned to England for Emma’s funeral and when we stayed with Iain’s dad (the road outside his house is too busy to risk wild camping) and  Iain another 10 nights when he went home to see Emma.  So that’s not bad.  When we started living in our van, most of our friends and family thought we were mad.  The questions went something like:-

Q: Would you like to come and stay over, we have a spare bed for you?
A: No thanks we have a very comfortable bed to sleep in.
Q: Would you like to come around and use our shower?
A: We have a perfectly good shower in the van.
Q: When you come back to England, will you rent a house?
A: We have a luxury motorhome to live in, we don’t need to rent a house.
Q: Won’t you get bored?
A: I very much doubt it.
Q: Would you like to come around for a meal?
A: We’re not living on road kill you know.
Q: Would you like to do some washing?
A: Now you’re talking.

And I would usually end it the conversation with “Don’t feel sorry for us, we have chosen this lifestyle, you’re the ones still working.”
So I thought I would think about the things I do and don’t like about our life-style.

Things I love

1.  We don’t have to work to pay for STUFF, our average cost per night is only £2 more than our council tax was and we spend most nights on campsites.
2.  We have the freedom and time to go anywhere we want.
3.  We have everything we NEED and a lot more.
4.  We are almost always in the warm weather all year round.
5.  We have met so many wonderful people from all walks of life, doing the same thing as we are, so we always have something in common to start with.
6.  We have seen many places that we would not otherwise if we just did normal “holidays”, Toledo, Avignon, Valadollid, Carcasonne, Albir, to name but a few, even in England, we visited Hadrian’s Wall, Scarborough, Lyme Regis, Seaford, Cheltenham  etc etc.
7.  Housework takes no more than an hour.

Things I don’t like.

1.  Sometimes it’s a pain having to go to the showers and toilet block if it’s a bit chilly.
2.  I can’t get my crafting stuff “toys” out and leave them out for when I next want to use them.
3.  I’m not a naturally tidy person and have to work very hard at it, everything has to be put away as it isn’t long before you have to clear a space just to sit down if you aren’t organised.
4.  Sometimes I miss our friends and family.
5.  I like to know where I need to go to buy things.
6.  I’d like transport sometimes so that I can “pop” off to somewhere. 
7.  You can’t always do your clothes washing just when you want to.

So to summarise, the things I don’t like are mainly “niggles” the things I love are fantastic. Weighing it up – I don’t regret a minute and I love the fact that we’re not working any more.

The weather here is still fantastic and in the words of Freddie - we’re having a good time!

It’s official – 19th November and 24C

A couple of days ago we decided to have lunch somewhere different and actually used one of the bars on the seafront (they are always more expensive).  However the view does make it worth it occasionally.

And just a reminder of the view from Albir across to Calpe

We’re still in shorts, sandals and t-shirts during the day, but the evenings are getting cooler and during the night the temperature is even sometimes dropping below 10C. We’re still managing to sit out some evenings until quite late, but you do need long trousers and jumpers now.  My Ugg boots have now made an appearance.

We’ve now been on this site for 7 weeks and I can’t believe how the time is flying.  Of course we’ve been here before so things are bound to be different but as we’ve been here longer than anywhere else in the last year, it’s getting to feel rather like home.
On another couple of trips out with Jo and James we went to a Spanish Fiesta somewhere up in the mountains by Alicante – I think it was Cocentaina.   The whole thing was a bit much for me, too many people, too many legs for the dog.  We didn’t really have any choice but to take her with us.  We would be out too long to leave her in the van and it was too hot to leave her in the car, so I’m afraid she just had to put up with it.  I did have to pick her up a few times when it got really crowded in the narrow streets. There were different sections to the fiesta; a medieval section, a Moroccan section, a food section, a children’s section.  There was so much to see, with street performers and market type stalls selling anything from magic stones to combine harvesters.  The problem was that there were so many people that no one could get near to the stalls to actually browse.  It was a great experience but I wouldn’t go there again.

Simple bunting made from strips of material just tied together, but very effective.

See the authentic “Medieval” Doner Kebab!!!

The Spanish love their fiestas and all the shops and businesses shut for the holidays.  Here in Alfaz del Pi they had a 5 day fiesta this month and we read about it in the local paper which told us that on one afternoon they throw fireworks into the crowd and said “Not for the faint hearted, wear old clothes and cover your head” – so we gave it a miss.  We could hear the fireworks from here so it must have been deafening in Alfaz about 3 miles away. 
Also this month they had the Benidorm Fiesta, we just didn’t get our a**es in gear to get there, but we saw lots of people in Albir dressed really weirdly as they met up to go to Benidorm for the fancy dress parade which is apparently the largest in Europe (but then they would say that!!!). Everyone seemed to have a fantastic time, well those that could remember anyway.
Another day we went up towards Javea again, but this time we went up to the peak at Cap de la Nau.  The view from up here was spectacular.  On a good day you can see across to Ibiza but as it was still warm and hazy we didn’t get the full experience of the view.

It’s not that far away, the hazy rock on the left is the Peñón de Ifach at Calpe

With all those mountains, you have to get around them somehow, or through.  This is the main coastal road between Altea and Calpe

On the way back we visited a very pretty village with a gorgeous cove called Plaja de la Granadella.  There was one very narrow and windy road in and it was the same road out.  We wouldn’t like to have taken our motorhome there and were amazed that there were a couple parked up near the beach.  These French will go anywhere in theirs.

Those rocks may have been there for thousands of years but I still wouldn’t live in that house on the top!

It’s not all new and exciting, we’re still eating out a lot because it’s so cheap, but we’ve changed things a bit, we’re drinking a bit more expensive wine these days, around 2E a bottle instead of 1.  I’m determined not to drink too much so I have a self-imposed curfew of generally no alcohol until 6pm at the earliest.  When I say generally, that’s not a hard and fast rule, if I fancy a beer with lunch then I’ll have one, occasionally, I just don’t want to get into drinking from lunchtime until fall-down time, it’s just so easy here if you are not careful.  The only real exception I make to this is on a Sunday, when we go to one of the local bars for a Sunday roast and have one or two, or even a few more drinks.  As I’ve said before, eating out is so cheap that it’s just not worth cooking with two courses at around 7 Euros (£5.60) including a drink.  The only problem with that is that if we are with friends then the walk home and the subsequent evening can become something like a scene out of “The Last of the Summer Wine”.
Jo has become a real bad influence on me!!!!!! I think not. But last Sunday we actually ate separately and then met up back at the campsite for a Soberano (Brandy).  Jo hurt her ankle some weeks ago (funnily enough on a Sunday afternoon) and James has now got her a “Madge” (mobility scooter named after the character in Benidorm who won’t get out of hers) to help her to get around. 

Well I decided that I’d put it away in their awning for them but then decided that I’d take it for a “Stability Test” first to make sure that it was safe for her to drive.  The men had both gone “for a snooze” by now so it was just the two of us and any unfortunate on-lookers who saw this despicable display of “Bad Brit” behaviour.  Luckily it is very quiet down our end of the campsite and so I had plenty of room as I don’t suppose for one minute that I kept to the 5mph site speed limit.  Well all I can say is that these things are so much fun.  Not much wonder that in Benidorm you have to prove that you are disabled or over 50 to be able to hire one.  Well I’m over 50 so that’s no real recommendation is it? I zoomed off at full throttle, leaving Jo giggling at the pitch.  After a few trial runs I found that you can turn full lock on full throttle and the thing still sticks to the ground.  After about 10 minutes fun I thought I would put it away for her as I had promised.  So at full speed ahead, I headed for their awning.  I managed to get through the door with no trouble and then cut the throttle.  What I had forgotten was that these things don’t have any brakes and they take a few feet to stop.  I suppose they can’t stop dead or you’d have all these old ladies catapulting out of them onto the pavement all the time.   So here I was already in the awning and still a few feet to go before coming to a stand-still.  Yes you can imagine, I had nowhere to go and it wasn’t going to stop until it wanted to.  I was screaming “It won’t stop” and then I managed to crash into the table and the step. Everything was starting to look horrible.  I then had to reverse back off the step to clear all the objects that I had sent scattering.  Of couse having been under the influence of copious amounts of Soberano (what an apt name for a brandy) I haven’t laughed so much in ages. I then scuttled off back to my own van in disgrace.  We also managed to get ourselves on the campsite facebook page (again) Cap Blanch facebook  but this time we were named!!!!  I’m still not sure whether the campsite owner is just putting up pictures of people enjoying themselves or if it is to gather evidence. It was a good job he wasn’t around when I was on the madge or I think we would have been evicted by now. At least being older, we don’t go on too late into the evening and have normally wrapped up our socialising by about 10pm – but maybe that’s because we start so early.

16th November, early evening, jumpers but still in shorts - Javier, James, Me, Jo and Iain

The Spanish gentleman on the left is one of the campsite workers.   He’s probably in his 50’s says he is a free-man, travelling with his push-bike and tent and going wherever there is a bit of work.  During the summer he also did some busking, but unusually with a dancing puppet and at the moment he spends 4 hours a day sweeping up leaves.  He laughs a lot and is always happy. You meet people from all walks of life when you live like this and everyone has a story to tell, perhaps one day I’ll find out what his is.
I’ve been keeping myself busy lately, I’ve nearly finished the three leather cushions for our settee, I say nearly finished, that’s because I’ve now got bored and moved onto Christmas decorations. I’ve decided that I’m going to make all my decorations this year and I want to go a bit OTT as last year we were on the road so I hardly had any at all.  I’ll put them up on 1st December and then post some pictures. I’ve joined the craft club which is another on-site activity so I’m going to see what new things I can learn. Most of the attendees are Dutch (only one other English woman), but I’ve already met a very nice Dutch lady called Didi who’s husband is Irish, so her English is very good. 
Pilates has gone by the wayside, I was really enjoying it but I exacerbated an old netballing injury during one session and had to stop.  So I’m going to wait until I am fully recovered before I return.  I can still ride my bike though, but I think it’s time I got a ladies bike instead of a men’s mountain bike as it’s getting a bit difficult to “get my leg over” so to speak.
James is so desperate to get a pet that he has now adopted a duck.  The duck just flew in about 5 days ago and comes back every day (so far).  James has found out that she (we can’t agree whether it’s a she or a he) loves tomatoes and yesterday she even came when Jo called her.  We keep joking about fattening her up for Christmas but now “she’s” got a name – Daphne, I don’t think that would happen.

One of the young Spanish campsite workers made a pile of leaves for the duck and she has become quite attached to her day bed.

Late afternoon – Jo firmly ensconced in her “Madge” – there’s really no need to salute me!

Connie has got over her op, the stitches have come out and her fur is growing back.  She’s an old lady now and we are surprised at how much she has acclimatised to the heat.  If the temperature goes below 15C she starts shivering. It’s really funny to hear her teeth chattering.  Now I’m not one of those who agrees with dressing up your dogs, but I’ve bought her a jumper – I just couldn’t resist. As soon as she gets up in the morning she runs outside to sit in the sunshine.  I bought her a really cool shower-proof coat in PINK as well.  That will no doubt deserve a picture soon.

I keep promising to give the van a good clean inside, but we’re saving that for a rainy day and we just don’t seem to be getting any.
I’m sure I’ve missed loads but I’ve got Xmas decorations to make so I’ll be back another time ……………………………………………………… One things for sure, we’re having a great time in the sun.