Now of course, you all know by now that down here, in our little corner of the Iberian Peninsula, there are, practically speaking, only two Seasons in our calendar year, Very Hot, which is generally the period between June and August, and Less Hot, which is the remainder of the year, and that, I do have to say, is perfectly fine by me. So okay, maybe that is not the case everywhere else in Spain and so yes, officially speaking, there are still four seasonal changes and apparently, one of those changes took place on the 23rd September, that being the start of ‘Otono’ (Autumn). Anywhere else, these changes are quite visible, the leaves on the trees change colour and, in mixed woodlands, this can lead to the most wonderful colourful visual displays, with varying shades of greens, browns, reds and yellows and then, gradually, the leaves start to fall to the ground and it’s the time to go foraging for all the seasonal fruits, the berries and the sweet horse chestnuts being the most abundant at this time of year.

For those of us down here at sea level however, it is of course a very different picture, as we still continue to wear our tee-shirts, shorts and flip-flops and continue to enjoy the warm daytime and evening temperatures, when the swimming pools are still very much swimmable without the need for any additional neoprene protection 😂 However, the reality is that we too will start to feel the change soon, but not usually until mid to late October, when these current 27 degree(c) temperatures will start to drop to nearer 22-23 degrees(c), the pool water then only really suitable for those who enjoy cold water swimming, and the evenings will start to feel a little chillier, dropping to between 18-19 degrees(c) and that will mean that it will be time to dig out the long-sleeved shirts, the long trousers and we will be forced into wearing those infernal socks and shoes again 😲 Perhaps, when the winds pick up, we may also start to get the very occasional few hours in the day when we get a smattering of the wet stuff, we may even be forced to wear a warmer top layer, a sweater or lightweight hoodie but……….. just hang on a minute and don’t be so hasty lad, ‘Hold That Front Page’ !! for, according to the ‘Works of Fiction’………………….

But we know by now don’t we ? At just how inaccurate these ‘Works of Fiction’ advance forecasts are and, given that neither they, or the media, are actually very good at understanding the geographical layout of Spain, their South being very much different to the actual South 🙄 so, we are remaining prepared for the potential down shift in the temperatures, the moths have now been evicted from the wardrobes and drawers, our cooler months stash of clothing have been recovered from their storage containers under the bed, and are freshened up in the washing machine, although their is not a lot of space in our wardrobes or drawers, as we are keeping out our Summer attire, just in case the ‘Once In A Blue Moon’ scenario happens where the ‘Works of Fiction’ actually get their forecast correct.

Now I don’t know with any accuracy whether anywhere in Spain actually got the forecasted 37 degrees(c), all I kept reading about in the Spanish National Media was in relation to the floods in more Northerly parts, Galicia, Asturias, Cataluña and even just up the coast from us, in Malaga City, and that these conditions would be followed by much more stormy conditions, I am only surprised that I have not, as yet, read about the ‘Lynching’ of those employed in the Meteorological profession 🤷‍♂️

But the news here, from ‘your’ man on the ground, which will be me then 🤭 is that, in the main, we have kept our more usual weather conditions, no 37 degrees of course just our more usual 26-27 degrees, but then again we already know not to trust the so called ‘Experts’. But to be completely transparent with you, five days into this official ‘Otono’ period, on Monday 28th September to be exact, we did awake to no sunshine or blue sky, instead it was with, what I can only describe as being a be-speckled sky, white and grey clouds and, from my balcony observation post, I noticed that the pavement below was wet. There was only the faintest hint of a breeze and the external temperature had dropped to 23 degrees(c), their was a very light, almost unnoticeable drizzle falling horizontally, which meant that we could still sit on the balcony with the doors open. Even this minimalistic amount of water gave the surrounding grass, shrubs, trees and flowers a much more radiant and refreshing appearance, whilst it would not have prevented us from going out, if we had wanted to, instead, the two of us unanimously agreed that we would use this break in the weather to have a full on domestics day, rather than just the shorter weekly ‘essentials’ version, which was quite timely really, what with Shazza’s mum arriving in just six days time (Sooner by the time I actually get around to publishing this ramble). However, and as is pretty usual here, by early evening on that same day, the light drizzle had stopped, the clouds had parted and the sun made a brief appearance before dusk arrived, which is another visual sign of the change of season here as it now gets dark by 8:30pm.

The following morning, normal service had resumed once again and we went for our usual morning walk, refreshments stop and people watching activities before driving to our local fuel station to fill up the car with diesel, ready for our upcoming Airport run. Now of course, we have also read about the fuel shortages in France and the UK, and some other countries within Europe.

However, Spain it would appear has announced that there are no such risks to the availability of fuel here, either Petrol or Diesel, as it has it’s own Refineries and it only relies on imports of around 4% of oil which is transported through the Strait of Hormuz.

Well, shortage or no, it still hasn’t taken the Spanish fuel companies long, to use the fuel shortages elsewhere as an excuse to put up the prices here too, so it came as somewhat of a shock when, for the basic diesel, not the stuff with added this or that, and for which I had previously been paying €1.75 per litre (£1.50), but on this occasion I discovered that I was now having to pay €2.04c a litre (£1.75) 😲 Now correct me if I am wrong but this is known as ‘Profiteering’ and it goes on all the time, with every type of public consumable, and worst of all they all get away with it 😡 However, when there is no longer a shortage, those prices do not fall and, if they do, they are nowhere near as much as the increases were, or as quickly. I know, it’s pointless me ranting about it as there is nothing whatsoever that us mere mortals can do about it. Fortunately, and yes, speaking with my completely selfish head on, personally we don’t generally tend to use very much fuel and in truth, this was actually the first time that we had re-fuelled the car since June 🙄 Not sure why that happened as we do usually refuel at least once a month 🤔 But for everyone else here in Spain, the Government have once again stepped in and announced that as from the 1st October they are discounting the price of both Diesel and Petrol, at the Pumps, by €0.20c per litre, well every little helps, although I wish I had known that before I had refuelled 🤷‍♂️

Now then, the beginning of this current ramble has just been a bit of preamble before I hit you with what has really been going on here, and believe me when I tell you that it is serious for I have now just discovered that I may be being subject to a ‘Threat Of An Unlawful Eviction’ 😲

It started quite surreptitiously, from just a small rather insignificant event which had begun over twelve months ago, but has now progressed into something akin to a heavy truck without any brakes, travelling down a very steep hill and gathering pace very very quickly 😲 What had commenced as just being a quite innocent ‘seed’ of a thought has now ‘grown’ into a reality that I had not foreseen and, quite importantly I should add, for which I have not, as yet, received any formal written, or verbal, communication on the subject and have only become aware that this process has already commenced through my own observations 😳

However, as I now reflect back on it, I should really have been aware that the early warning signs were there but, in my defence, even my OCD Buddy, who is generally quite alert to potential advance changes in my personal circumstances, he too had also been blindsided by this one 😲 So, you may be asking yourselves at this point, ‘What on earth am I going on about, Eviction ? How ? Why ?’, so, if you are sitting comfortably, then I will begin to tell you the whole story, from what I now realise was the real beginning of how this had started……………..

It was over a year ago, Shazza and I had been on one of our routine annual trips back to the UK, to visit family and friends. On one of those days we had taken a drive out in the countryside where we had made an unscheduled stop to visit a Garden Centre, that we had noticed as we were passing, it being one of those with a Cafeteria. As you already know, we live in an apartment in Spain, and not on the ground floor, so we don’t have any real outside space or a garden, so we were not there to purchase anything of that nature and, in all honesty, neither Shazza or I have what you may describe as ‘Green Fingers’ although, I do have to say that many years ago, when we did have a house and garden, it was usually me that cut the lawns, yes ‘Lawns’ as in the plural, for we had three of them, a larger one to the rear and two much smaller one’s to the front, I also weeded, and tended to the various flower beds, although I will state here and now that I hadn’t stooped down so low as to purchase a greenhouse to grow our own produce, for in those days we were still fully committed patrons of the ‘Carniverous Diet’ 😂 So no, we had just made that unscheduled stop solely because it was at a certain important time of the day, the time when one of Shazza’s automatic stomach clock alarm’s sounded, she has three such gastronomical alarms, Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, and it was already a little after midday, so she needed feeding as a matter of urgency, otherwise I would certainly suffer the aftermath for the remainder of that day 😲 So, we had only stopped there as it was a convenient time for us to partake of lunch, the bonus being that we knew, from past experiences of stopping at other similar locations, that they always do nice freshly made sandwiches or rolls, with generous fillings and also, beautiful home-baked scones and cakes which, without fail, always taste so yummy and so of course, with such a vast variety of temptations that we would be faced with, we were always willing to forego those all important calory counts and dietary health principles 🤭

Now many of these Cafeterias are actually located within the Garden Centres themselves, not a separate building or facility, and so, after a very pleasant and filling lunch, we decided to take a stroll and look at what was on show, it would have been rude not to, as usual in these sorts of places there were a wide variety of Seasonal Flowering Plants, Herbs, Bushes and miniature trees on display and for sale, along with associated outdoor garden furnishings and cooking stations, Barbecues, Pizza Ovens, Chimeneas etc, and of course the usual vast array of Garden Ornaments and Fountains, “If we still had a house and garden we could spend a fortune here” we both said to each other as we casually wandered around. However, and this where the slippery slope started, as is usual at these places, they also have a section where you can purchase packets of various seeds, flowers, vegetables, herbs all that sort of stuff, and that, my friends, is where the future potential eviction story starts because, for some inexplicable reason, Shazza decided to purchase several packs of seeds to bring back to Spain to start growing her own Herbs in Pots 🤷‍♂️ Now what you need to understand, and remember, is that Shazza has never before shown any sort of green fingered inclinations, although since starting our ‘Plant Based Dietary Regime’, over six years ago now, she has made the occasional murmurings about buying a property with a small garden, in order to go some way to us becoming self-sufficient, although she had always quickly discounted the idea, when she gave some thought to the personal and physical consequences of such an action, what with all the ‘seasonal’ efforts that would have to be involved, through Spring, Summer and Autumn, although Winter may have perhaps of provided some respite from the more physical requirements, but even so, all of this would require dedicating time, which would detract from much more of her favoured daily engagements, morning walks and coffee stops, partaking of extended lunches at beachfront Chiringuitos, her two or three hour swimming pool and solar basting sessions, reading her books, doing her Spanish lessons, and, as she was quick to point out, “Everything would surely die when we went on our extended ‘Road Trips’”. I smiled, for I knew that she wouldn’t need long to talk herself out of this crazy idea and, I had of course had to agree with her, she had delivered a very strong case, before agreeing with her that she had come to a very sensible conclusion, “It is certainly very much easier and convenient just to drive to our nearby Organic Farm, Fruiteria or Supermarket to gather all of our vegetables, herbs and fruits” I had said. Now I had genuinely believed that she had allowed the Herb Garden idea to just fizzle out of her mind, and that the half dozen or so packets of Herb seeds would remain secreted, somewhere in the apartment, and that they would never see the light of day again, or feel the sprinkling of life-giving water or warming rays of the sunshine upon them 🤷‍♂️

But now, a little over a year later, whilst she was de-weeding the outer window planters on the balcony, a job usually delegated to myself, along with the cleaning of all the balcony windows, which was a task that I accepted willingly, considering that the balcony has always been ‘my’ primary domain. Although in all fairness to myself, I do let her make us of this space, if and when she feels the need to, I have never considered myself as being ‘overly protective’ of this one small area of space in our apartment, well not until now that is. But, to my alarm, whilst she was conducting this period of de-weeding she suddenly said, “Oh, these planters would be perfect for growing those packets of Herb Seeds ‘we’ purchased from that Garden Centre in the UK. Now where did I put them ?” I hastily reminded her that there was certainly no ‘We’ in that decision making process, and I suddenly realised that I had been complicit, my big mistake being that, at the time, when she mentioned buying these packets of seeds, I hadn’t actually said ‘No’, I had instead chosen to just humour her and now I realise that that was a big mistake, “Never choose to just humour a woman, for it will undoubtedly come back to bite you on the arse at some point in the future 😲”

Now these external planters, that are permanent, and form part of the structural’ part of the outer windows on the balcony, were used at some point by the previous owner’s, for they contain, what is now only hard gravelly earth with chunks of white decorative pebbles throughout, so my guess is that they probably grew flowers in them. We had no fresh soil or compost on hand to replenish them but Shazza still went and found a packet of seeds, ‘Mint’ on this occasion, and planted them in one of the smaller window planters, she got me to save my tea bags and mixed the used contents with tap water and fed them religiously on a daily basis. To the surprise of both of us, even in this hard gravel like soil, that must have not had any nutrients in it after all this time, apart from used PG Tips tea leaves and water, the bloody things only went and grew, and grew, and grew and she has now used the leaves in several of our meals, mixed in with Salads and other ‘Plant Based’ concoctions, the damn things still just continue to keep growing 🤷‍♂️

Well that giving life to something must have stirred something within her more maternal nature, for ‘we’ have since been out, now bypassing all of the fruiterias, replacing them with regular stops at the gardening stores, where ‘she’ has purchased a bag of compost along with several more plant pots. Within just a few days, the second longer planter has now been filled with ‘Coriander’ seeds, the rest of the seeds, including ‘Basil’, ‘Thyme’, ‘Sage’ and ‘Small Green-leaved Lettuce’ and god knows what else, have been planted in Plant Pots and placed on the Juliet Balconies outside the bedrooms. She is now spending way too much time looking for other varieties of edibles that she can grow, and spending too much time looking suspicious, as if visually measuring up ‘My Balcony Space’ and that, to me, is taking this ‘Self Sufficiency Just One Step Too Far’ 😡 I am beginning to think that she may also be taking this ‘Prepping’ for disaster lark just a little bit too far now 🤷‍♂️

Otono is actually my personal favourite time of the year, the heat is much more bearable and so enables us to have a wider choice of things we may want to do, and although whilst the majority of the Summer visitor’s have gone, the place isn’t what you would call dead, for it is, as I have said numerous times, a normal working ‘Open All Year’ location, with the benefit of being situated right on the coast, although yes, there is no doubting that it has certainly quietened down a lot, to what I consider to now be ‘bliss’. For now you can actually hear what is going on around you, from the somewhat boisterous flocks of parakeets arguing consistently with each other up in the palm trees, the seagulls screeching at each other whilst chasing the one that had managed to find a scrap to eat, the Cormorants as they make a discreet splash as they dive bomb a lunch target under the almost flat sea, then of course the sea itself, with its ever changing moods, one day it is as flat as a mill pond, and makes gentle lapping sounds as it breaks onto the shoreline, other days, with perhaps the force of a much stronger Easterly behind them, they crash onto the shore with their white surf shooting skywards. As we enter the town along the promenade we pass three separate schools, a Nursery and then two separate ones for the Primary age groups, if it is break time we hear the excited and loud chitter chattering of children in the playgrounds, not loud and oppressive but a sign of life going on around us. As we get closer to the town centre, then there is the usual associated noises, traffic noise, the beach tractors going up and down, collecting seaweed and sifting through the sand with its fork like projectiles collecting man-made rubbish left behind or washed up, then there are still people sat on seafront terraces having conversations in the variety of cafe/bars, either between themselves or more usually, with EarPods in and talking on mobile phones, oblivious to the fact that everyone else can hear their one-sided conversations. So we head for one of our usual choices of venue for our own morning refreshment, the choice of venue very much dependent of course on which one has a table with shade, for it is still too hot to sit in the direct heat of the sunshine, unless of course you are one of the recently arrived ‘Purple Rinse’ brigade with lily white skin. We of course just sit and engage in our usual hobbies, you know which they are by now 🤭 If we have nothing else to do that day, shopping or going to the bank ATM, which are our usual diversions, then we just return along the same route to where we had left the car, all in all around a 3-4 mile long stretch of the legs, even Shazza has stopped using her mobile device to count how many steps she has completed, the only time it varies is when we change our route, which isn’t very often.

However, I have just been reminded that there is something else that continues to return at this time of year, another much more unwelcome visitor, no of course I am not talking about Shazza’s mother, as if I would say anything uncomplimentary about her, well not out aloud at least 😂 No this next visitor has already announced its arrival, and it has nothing to do with unruly passenger’s on flight’s, or sunbed wars or drunk’s in bars, no this visitor sends shivers of fear down everybody’s spines, for we all remember it leaving its devastating calling card, back in early 2020 and it never really left 😳

My philosophy remains the same, there appears to be more threats in the world these days, to us personally as individuals, what with Environmental hazards and disasters, Global Warming and Climate Change, Wars, Violence on our streets, Food and Fuel Shortages, Cost of Living, Hacking of Essential Infrastructures and AI taking over the world, so perhaps, when you put all of it into some sort of perspective, Covid is the lesser of all the other evils that surround us 🤷‍♂️ Of course there is a Vaccination available, will I be partaking of it ? I suspect that you already know the answer to that one, but in my defence, I do have my own very effective Anti-Covid Medication 😁🍷🍷

It is a simple lifestyle we lead these days, probably myself more than Shazza as, whilst I do certainly have my own opinions and thoughts on many of the things that are going on in the world today, I don’t get involved, or allow myself to get stressed over the vast number of things that I have absolutely no control or influence over. So my life is in truth a fairly uncomplicated one, we can basically choose to do whatever we want to do, if we want to, and when we want to and, apart from the periods when we entertain our own visitors, and take our own annual trip back to the UK, we will also try to get away ourselves at some point on a road trip, generally somewhere within Spain as there is still a lot of it to see, sometimes if it is local we go away for a day, or even a few days, perhaps a bit longer if our trip is beyond our own Region of Andalusia. With Shazza’s mum due to arrive shortly, and staying for two full weeks, and also with the repair to the car unlikely to be completed now before the end of October, as I have, with the co-operation of my Insurers, changed the garage that is going to complete those repairs, it is a long story which I will not bore you with, but the fact is that we are unlikely to go anywhere now before the end of the year. Anyway, Shazza will be fully engrossed with harvesting her produce from her garden, whilst I remain engaged in my own surreptitious schemes to fight this proposed ‘unlawful eviction’ from my balcony space. I may require to become a ‘Squatter’, although I will certainly require much more than the three days worth of ‘Prepping’ supplies secreted away somewhere, I wonder if she will be growing any Tomatoes, Potatoes, Onions ? I could always attach a zip line to the balcony railings, so that I can order and take delivery of take-away meals, when I want a change from all of the healthy ‘Plant Based’ home-grown produce that will be readily available and close at hand. That thought gives me another idea for keeping this produce plentiful during my period of internment, I will be able to supply it with plenty of home grown ‘Organic Compost’ 😂

On that note, I best bring this particular ramble to its conclusion, so, until the next time……………………….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

When you are sailing your own medium sized trawler yacht upon a calm ocean, with nobody else around you for hundreds of miles, with only the soothing sounds of the boats bow as it cuts through the calm water, and perhaps the sound of the occasional sea birds as they fly over you on their own journey, and perhaps sometimes getting the occasional surprise marine-life visitor to share part of the journey with you, Whales, Dolphins, Turtles etc. and your everyday solitary life and routines just tick by slowly and peacefully, just as they should do, then life in those moments must be sheer bliss. Well that is until the sky and sea suddenly turns black, and you start to feel the bumps on the side of your hull, from the rising tumultuous and restless waves, as the sea buffets you from side to side, or pitches the bow skywards and it comes down with a bit of a thump, a timely reminder that you should never take things for granted, for things can, and often do, change with very little, if any, warning which, if you are caught unprepared, could otherwise spoil your day.

Just like that sailor on a boat, miles away from all the noise and hustle and bustle of everyday life, those calm and blissful routines can quite often be similarly conducted here on dry land, and like that experienced and confident sailor, who must possess the necessary skills and mental strength required to deal with unexpected situations, well, sometimes us landlubbers too must have similar skills and mental ability to be able to safely navigate their way through those occasional ‘Bumps In The Road’, for not every day is about pleasant walks along a sun drenched promenade, or sat in the shade enjoying lunches at a beachfront cafe/bar 🤷‍♂️ That is how I had thought about our own recent stormy waters, although the bump on the side of our car door was physically damaging, to the car, we ourselves were not in it when it happened and so were unscathed, and whilst being both frustrated and angry, we did eventually manage to navigate our way through that initial storm, our own turbulent waters had now, thankfully, calmed again and, although we continue to wait for the repair on the car to be conducted, the sun at last is once again shining, both physically and metaphorically speaking and our daily lives have returned to their normal more even keel. You do not always get advance warnings of when the next storm may arrive, although we know that it almost certainly will. It is all part of life’s journey and, like that sailor alone out on the Ocean, you have no choice, you have to deal with it and trust that you have the mindset, and the strength of character, to come out of the other side of those troubled waters.

So there I was, laying on my back in our communal swimming pool just staring up at the blue cloudless sky, the sun warm on my face, with only the sounds of the gentle rippling water as I moved slowly and effortlessly through it. It was mid-afternoon, which to be down at the pool at that time of the day had been somewhat of a rarity recently, due to the tourist hoards that had commandeered it over the last 10 weeks or so. However, here we both were, in the middle of the afternoon with only four other couples around our communal pool complex. We did not know those other couples, well not on a close personal level, but we recognised their faces as being some of our fellow permanent residents, whom we see from time to time throughout the year, either down at the pool, or as we pass each other going to and fro in the car park.

These other couples were just enjoying being sat on sun loungers, reading their books and magazines, or enjoying a blast of solar basting, but they each gave us an acknowledging smile or nod as we claimed our place under our selected wooden and straw hatted sun shade. If it had not been for the sound of the pools water filtration system bubbling away in the background, it would have been completely silent. If you could describe a Summer heaven it would be this exact moment, with the short but lush green grass surrounding the pool, the slightly darker green hedgerow bordering the area, the inner parts of the hedgerow with radiantly coloured pink, red and white flowers poking their heads out from in-between the close cropped branches, the blue ceramic tiles that filled the inner walls and floor of the pool, with the sun’s rays sparkling off the surface of the clean clear water, was a beautiful looking haven of tranquility, all that was missing were the Angels playing relaxing music on their Harps, which would have indicated that we had perhaps passed from one life to the next 😂 Although, on saying that, when I think about it, I suppose we actually had in a way, passing from the noisy hectic Summer life into the more peaceful and Tranquil end of Summer 😂 There was actually nobody in the pool itself, so after positioning our sun lounger’s and laying out our towels on them, we took off our flip flops and tee shirts and entered the refreshingly cool water, the air temperature was around 29 degrees(c) and the sun searingly hot, but the pool water, when you first get in, always feels a bit sharp, although not to the extent that it took my breath away, like it undoubtedly will in just a few weeks time, but it didn’t take too long, after immersing myself fully in the water, before it became pleasantly warm and it wrapped itself around me, like a comfort blanket.

Our own rising paranoia, which is real I hasten to add, not about whether we are ‘becoming’ ‘Grumpy old wrinklies’ but more about the fact that we may already have become them, was alleviated I am pleased to announce, after, quite literally just several days ago, Shazza seeing this post on one of her Spanish Social Media Forums, and when she showed it to me, we sighed with relief and gave each other a knowing smile for this just confirmed that we, after all, are certainly not the only one’s that feel this way…….(Apologies for the small print)

Although the front main balcony in our apartment still remains my most favourite place for conducting my periods of contemplation, but with the tranquility that has now returned to our pool area, this makes it my now very close second best place for conducting lengthy periods of ‘General’ contemplations although, the reality is that this particular place is on borrowed time, for the effective use of this area is limited by the pool water temperature and when a certain part of my bodily extremity takes emergency shelter ‘inside’ my body, then my pool season is most definitely over 🫣 Whereas, the sanctuary of the front South facing balcony is more of an ‘Open All Year’ sort of location. However, I may be about to experience a sudden surprise extension 😲 No !! Behave yourselves and stop that particular train of thought right here and now 😂 I mean an extension to the amount of time I may get to spend in the pool this year, for although, as you already know, I am always cynical about what I read in the media these days, and even more-so when the media and the ‘Works of Fiction’ combine to push out a joint article, but on this occasion, I am rather hoping that they may have got this one right this time 🙏

There is a very good reason for my cynicism on this occasion, it isn’t really to do with the actual temperatures they are quoting, more to do with their Geographical location abilities as to what area actually constitutes the ‘South’ of Spain. It appears, from reading numerous Spanish media articles, that ‘they’ fail to either know, or acknowledge, that the ‘South’ of Spain does not actually end at ‘Seville’, on the North West side of Andalusia, or even at ‘Malaga City’, on the Eastern Coast, but that in fact their is a further 65 miles (105Km) of Coastlines, Mountains, Villages and Towns below those two locations, an area which run East to West from the Mediterranean side to the Atlantic side (Or Vice-Versa). More often than not, the media’s next general reference point, after Malaga City, is usually when they mention Gibraltar which, for any of my reader’s who do not know, is actually a completely different Country, much like Canada is to the USA, or France is to Spain, Wales is to England and so on and so forth. Our part of ‘Southern Spain’ does, generally speaking, have its own unique weather patterns and climatic variations, so, I guess the question that we down here in the proper part of ‘Southern Spain’ are asking is, will we actually get these extended Summer temperatures that the media and ‘Works of Fiction’ are forecasting ? To be honest, it isn’t looking very likely when I look at the advance more localised forecasts for our area, which, personally speaking of course, would not be a bad thing, for 38 degrees(c) is just a little too excruciatingly hot for my liking 🥵, so I for one will be happy if they were to stay at their current level which is around 26-27 Degrees(c) which is much more bearable for lazing around a pool, or swimming in it, or for once again being able to enjoy a pleasant morning’s walk along the seafront promenade.

Now even given the forecast above, which can also often be inaccurate, so those daily high’s shown could still be 2-3 degrees higher, even so, I think that I can safely say that whilst those in and above Seville and Malaga may end up getting toasted to a crisp, down here we should be okay, and at the end of the day, with my selfish head on of course, that is perfectly fine by me 😂 BUT, it doesn’t end there as both the media and the ‘Works of Fiction’ have been in cahoots with each other once again, and whilst one minute they are forecasting that we are going to be roasted alive, in the next breath they create confusion by pre-warning us that we are also likely to get hit by this ‘Super El Niño ’, that is purportedly bringing Storm force winds, gallons of Rain and Hailstones and lots of Thunder and Lightening, although I guess we should be grateful that they have made no mention of starvation and pestilence, so perhaps it won’t be as bad as some of the more threatening biblical prophecies indicate. So, take your bets now, will we either get fried to a crisp by the upcoming Solar Blitz or drowned by the effects of the Super El Niño, Annihilated by World War III or will the human race be destroyed completely by Artificial Intelligence ?

Personally speaking though, I am hedging my bets, to escape the Solar Blitz I am going down to the pool everyday and learning to hold my breath under water for sufficient length of time until it has passed, although that, I have to confess, is not going as well as I would like it to 🙄 However, Shazza reminded me that we do still possess ‘Wet Suits’, and all of the associated paraphernalia to go with them, flippers, masks and snorkels, we purchased them year’s ago when we were going through our ‘Let’s sell up and go and live full-time in a Motorhome’ adventure period of our lives, but to be honest we never really got much use out of them. In those days we were perhaps a little slimmer than we are now (Actually, there is no perhaps about it), however, we both did try them on a couple of year’s ago, just to see if they still fitted, let me tell you that that event would have made a very good comedy sketch on ‘You Tube’ 😂 Have you ever tried getting in, and out, of one of those things when you reach a certain age, when your body is showing more of a ‘relaxed muscle’ tone physique, as opposed to the once, much younger, more athletic toned physique, okay, once again, personally speaking, I may even be pushing that description a little bit too far 🤭 No, once in the tight neoprene wrapper, which I have to tell you, was an exercise workout in its own right 😮‍💨 and I dread to think what the neighbours must have been thinking we were up to, in hindsight I guess we really should have closed the blinds first 🤔 Then, once in, try then to extract yourself from its clinging, almost suffocating grasp as you struggle to persuade another roll of relaxed muscle to lever itself out of the near claustrophobic constraint, believe me, you will only ever do it the once, especially after the embarrassment of having to call out the Emergency services to cut you free of it 😂

As for being prepared for the Super El Niño, well I now have ‘Kevin the Kayak’ on standby, although he appears to look a lot smaller than I remembered him being 🤔 However, I feel reasonably confident that he could still carry us both, not sure about three days worth of ‘Emergency Prepping’ provisions though.

The other downside is that if the amount of heavy rain that has been anticipated to fall in such a short period of time, actually does, then I think that ‘Kevin’ may fill up faster than I am able to bale him out 🤔

As for World War III, well we are doing our best to stay as far away as we possibly can from Andy Burnham (UK Prime Minister) and Donald Trump (We all know who he is right 😳), although I still fear that even the end of the earth from either of that pair still wouldn’t be far enough 🙄 I guess that at this point, with reading all about this modern form of warfare with the use of drones, I should also confess to getting a bit twitchy these days, every time I hear one of the Spanish Guardia Civil ‘Anti-Drug Smuggler’ Drones flying overhead I ask myself, is it one of our’sor one of Putins or Zelenski’s that has gone astray accidentally on purpose 😳 And then, as for the apparent imminent threat to Human Civilisation that we keep hearing more and more about in the media, which is purportedly coming from AI Bots and not Global Warming and Climate Change 🤷‍♂️ Well, as I am not too well versed in matters of technology, I am also not stupid, contrary to popular belief, so I of course used modern technology to assist me and so I have taken to consulting ChatGPT and Google Deep Mind as to what options are available to me, although they both just keep giving me the same answer, ‘It Is Futile To Resist, You Will Be Assimillated’ 🤔 Perhaps I should ask ‘Siri’ for a third independent opinion ?

Now if you will just humour me for a little bit longer, seeing that I have just mentioned the ‘Prepping’ of three days worth of essential supplies, albeit in a bit of a tongue-in-cheek sort of way. Now whilst this subject has been something that has very recently re-appeared in the UK News over the last day or two, where they are attempting to loosely reference it to being just a precaution, in case of some sort of Environmental or Infrastructure Emergency, and they just happen to mention it in the same sentence that makes reference to the anticipated arrival of this ‘Super El Nino’, I always thought that was a game with those funny little Italian looking character’s 🤷‍♂️ However, perhaps it would be reasonable to ask yourself why is it, that the rest of Europe were telling all of their citizens about ‘Prepping’, and even going as far as distributing advisory leaflets to every household, way back in March of 2025, when, at that time, there was no threat from a ‘Super El Niño’, or any of his brother’s 🤷‍♂️ Many European countries mainstream media publications, and Television News Channels have also, certainly within the last year, been making reference to re-introducing Conscription into all of their Armed Forces, is their a link 🤔 Now as you know, I am forever de-crying all forms of Media for the spreading of Alarm and Despondency, Scaremongering and trying to generally just make people feel depressed about how bad off they are, and I certainly do not want to join that brigade of soothsayer’s but, sometimes, not very often I have to admit, there are the odd bits that keep appearing in the media, a bit like a jig-saw puzzle where, the pieces on their own, all jumbled up, make very little sense, but when you start to put those pieces together, a picture starts to emerge, although sometimes they must put the wrong pieces in the box because mine never finish up looking like the picture on the front 🤔 Not so very long ago, here in Spain, Portugal and parts of Southern France, the Electricity supply was cut off for hour’s, even over 24 hour’s in some areas, that particular incident was blamed on the overloading of a Sub-Station although a few conspiracy theories also emerged 🤔 How many instances over the past year have their been of major Companies, Communications, Transport, Financial Institutions being hacked, What about the very recent massive Technical Issue with the UK’s Air Traffic Control System that resulted in major flight Cancellations and Disruptions throughout Europe, and on some Global routes and what about the public announcement, by one of the major AI developers, that foreign Scientists had been caught attempting to use AI to develop a bacterial weapon, now, is there a picture emerging or are these incidents, and numerous other’s, just coincidental coincidences🤷‍♂️ I have to confess at not paying too much interest in reading, in full at least, many of these media articles, or trying to formulate a doomsday scenario based on what could quite possibly just be sensationalist headlines or click-bait, that was until I saw this very recent article.

If the above had not have appeared in a BBC News article, then I probably wouldn’t have given it a second glance, or any credence, and, if it wasn’t for the fact that Government’s are notorious for not telling the public the truth, until it is too late that is (think back to the Covid Pandemic when we were told that it was nothing more than a really bad case of the Flu Virus and to just carry on as normal), only for a global pandemic to hit which went on and killed millions globally 😲 So perhaps we do need to heed the Governments advice and ‘Prep’ at least three days worth of emergency supplies, just in case of some sort of Environmental or Infrastructure disaster 😉 I mean what is the worst that can happen if this ‘Super El Nino’, or other disaster, Environmental or otherwise, does not materialise 🤷‍♂️ at least your next weekly shop would certainly be much cheaper 😁

Wow, that was a bit heavy Eric for what is supposed to be a Spanish Lifestyle ramble 😲 How about I try to lighten the mood again, if I can manage to catch you before you race off to the Supermarket that is to commence your own prepping activities 😂 Now let me see, what else has their been recently in the media that brought a bit of a smile to my face…………….

We are now in the part of the season where, although the bulk of the Summer tourists have departed and the temperatures are beginning to cool down a little, it is still shorts, tee-shirts and flip-flops weather, we have once again re-commenced our longer seafront promenade walks in the much cooler temperatures, although the sun still burns if you are out of the shade for too long. We are enjoying the occasional lunches out, and we still go out for dinner in the evenings, although that is only once or twice a week, but we can still sit outside the establishments and then, their is the additional bonus of still being able to enjoy the pool either in the mornings or now, even in the afternoon’s too. So in truth, we do have a period of around six weeks ‘before’ the Summer tourist rush, and the same again after they have departed, so I guess we shouldn’t really complain too much about the tourists 🤷‍♂️ The daylight hour’s are also reducing gradually, it doesn’t seem to be that long ago when we were talking about how nice it was to have daylight until a little after 10pm, now it’s around 8:30pm, when the sun drops behind the mountains, a sure sign that Autumn is just around the corner. Not that it makes too much difference to the nice evening temperatures here, more the fact that the Summer beachfront Chiringuito’s will all soon be stacking up and securing their sun-beds and umbrellas, along with the plastic tables and chairs from their sea facing terraces and then closing the wooden shutters on their doors and windows, until Easter 🙏 Then, shortly after the closure of the beach bars, the local council will come and remove the wooden beach boardwalks, and the bright yellow marker buoys that define the safe, boat prohibited, swimming areas along the seashore. The Autumn and Winter, more religiously orientated festivals, will once again commence. At the time of writing this we are only at the mid-point of September, but the Restaurants in the Marina are already advertising advance bookings for Christmas and New Year’s Eve parties, and then before we know it, yet another year will have passed and I will need to start gathering all the information to file my annual Spanish Tax Return, oh deep joy 😲

The regular ‘Looky Looky’ men who ply their goods up and down in the Marina, well they still remain, they are the officially licensed one’s who are here all year round, but their invading Summer competition has now departed. The numerous Cafe/Bars and Restaurants have a lot more empty chairs and tables outside and inside. The town, although a normal working ‘open all year’ location, has grown much quieter along the seafront promenade, although the main shopping street above it still remains pretty busy, but it certainly feels less hectic, the parking bays on the seaward side are once again available in abundance, there is no congestion in the aisles of the supermarkets, until the normal residents read this ramble about the ‘Prepping’ bit that is, then there will be panic buying and their will be nothing left on the shelves to buy anyway 😲 Perhaps I should think about delaying the publication of this particular ramble, well at least until Shazza and I have completed our own ‘Prepping’ trips 😂

Although the frequency of the Dolphin watching boat trips from the marina reduce slightly now over the quieter months, they do still operate until the sea conditions start deteriorating, usually around mid-October and I guess, although they obviously stipulate in the small print that they offer no guarantee’s, their is still a very good chance that you would get to see them out on a boat, where you can go much further out to sea, rather than being stood on, or sat on, the beach. However, if you are willing to trust to luck, and have a lot of patience, sometimes, you do not have to part with even one Euro to catch sight of the great number of marine wildlife that regularly swim close to shore along our stretch of the bay, we have seen several pods of Dolphins, Loggerhead Turtles, small Rays, large Tuna, lots of varieties of Jellyfish and, very occasionally the odd Shark turns up in a harbour, but I have only seen the photo’s of those particular species of marine-life in the local media.

Well that was certainly a wide variety of verbal Diarrhoea from me in this ramble wasn’t it 😁 However, do remember the philosophy about not wasting our very precious time on worrying about things that we are unable to control or influence, their are much more enjoyable ways of spending our time, whilst we still have it that is 😉 But the season is changing, a much quieter period is upon us, albeit that the ‘Purple Rinse’ brigade area already in evidence at the ‘Grab a Granny’ disco events along the seafront 😂 But they will arrive in much greater numbers in December, ready for their ‘Tinsel and Turkey’ parties, at least this lot are harmless and far quieter, in bed after their cups of cocoa and chocolate digestive at a much more respectable hour, I only know that because we have to shut our doors and windows much earlier, nothing to do with a chill in the air, more to do with the multitude of differing snoring noises. You have to see the funnier side of life at times, for laughter is always the best medicine 😁

Until my next ramble……………….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

I know, you really do not have to tell me, I published my last ramble on the 1st August and then, without any advance warning for you, not a single word from me, my rambles just ceased to fall into your Email Inbox. But now, as we enter the first week of September, after what has been five weeks of silence, which I dare say, some of you may actually have been quite relieved about, the lack of my verbal diarrhoea over that period 🤭 But for some it left unanswered question’s, had we finally succumbed and become victims of heatstroke ? Or, had we been devoured by a rogue wildfire 😲 which obviously, you now know that we were not, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing or publishing this ramble 🤔 So, had we gone away on our own Summer holiday without telling you ? Nope ! Had either of us suffered a serious medical issue that took priority over rambling ? Nope! Had I suddenly come down with dementia and forgotten that I wrote these rambles, ? Nope ! So why the silence ?

The truth is quite simply this, there had been some ‘other’ events that had demanded our more immediate attention, one of which had left us both feeling very angry and frustrated, and it is never good to write any sort of communications, especially lifestyle rambles, when you are in the wrong frame of mind 🤷‍♂️

So, as many of you are probably aware of by now, if you are one of my loyal long time loyal reader’s, I never actually write notes to pre-empt or remind me of things that I generally end up writing about, I just tend to try and rely on my own cognitive abilities and then tap away on the keyboard, often aided by visual prompts, photographs, or images that I may have downloaded from the various ‘Doom and Gloom’ media sources and, so far at least, that has tended to work quite well for me. So, why change the habit of a lifetime and let me see just how well my memory is working as I attempt to retrace my thoughts to five weeks ago …………………; 🤔

In one of my previous, but fairly recent rambles, I had given a brief mention about having taken an ‘unscheduled’ trip into Estepona, and indicated that I would talk about the reason for it in a future ramble. So grab yourself a cuppa, or something stronger, you may well need it and, if you are sitting comfortably, then I will begin…………………..

It was Thursday the 23rd July, a week before I actually published my last ramble, we had returned from our local town around 3pm, having attended a dental appointment and then conducted a routine shopping trip at our local supermarket. We parked the car as usual in our gated communal car park and lugged the shopping up to the apartment. Due to the searingly hot temperatures we didn’t go out in the car for the next two days, just enjoying taking refreshing dips in our communal pool in the mornings and enjoying the cool shade of our apartment in the afternoons and evenings. However, on the Saturday evening at 7:30pm, we decided to go out for dinner and, as we approached our car, exactly where we had left it, to our horror and disbelief we discovered this….

You will note from the first photograph that we were actually parked in the end bay, the yellow line being a ‘No Parking’ area and, from the extent of the damage, this damage was not from another vehicle that had just given us a small bump during a manoeuvre, but must have given our car a right wallop. Of course the perpetrator had not had the decency to leave a note providing a contact number so that we could exchange Insurance details.

I of course took numerous photographs from all the different angles, showing not just the damage but also the actual positioning of the car in the parking bay, there was no logical explanation as to why another vehicle should have been anywhere near that side of our vehicle, or for the actual force of the collision that had created that extensive amount of damage, it is a small private car park where you would normally be lucky to drive anything faster than 5Kmph !! Fortunately, the car was still driveable and the door could still be open and closed, although it had been knocked out of alignment. We could do nothing more at that time, it was a weekend, so it was pointless trying to contact our Insurer’s, or the Police, who would not be interested anyway as the vehicle was parked on ‘Private Property’ and there were no casualties 🤷‍♂️ We went for dinner, but as you can probably imagine, our mood, and the incident, totally dominated that whole evening, and the following day’s, conversations 😡 I enquired on our on-line community forum as to whether anyone had either seen, or heard, anything but of course we received the usual……………..

I reported the damage to our Spanish Insurance Company using their online accident reporting portal on the Sunday night, knowing that they would not see it until sometime on the Monday. I had never had to use the Spanish Insurance Policy that I had had in the three years we have been here, so I wasn’t sure how long it would take for them to respond, or whether it would all be in Spanish and need translation, the accident report claim was all in Spanish. However, I have to say that they were extremely efficient and responded in English. They Emailed me on the Tuesday morning and advised me to find either a local garage myself that could facilitate the repairs, although they did offer some recommendations of their own, but the closest one of theirs was quite some distance away. We found one in Estepona, all of the on-line reviews gave them consistent 5-5 ratings, so I phoned and spoke to them and they advised that they could facilitate the repair. We took our car to the garage on the Thursday, at the time that the Insurance company had arranged for their Assessor to turn up and do what he had to do, hence that was the reason for the unscheduled visit to Estepona.

The Insurance company had responded swiftly, the assessor detailed the work that would be required, which would require the fitting of a complete new front passenger door, the damage was too extensive for it just to be panel-beated out, and there was damage to the lower door sill, but that could be re-aligned, the Assessor approved the cost of the repair on behalf of the Insurer their and then, less our own ‘Personal Excess’ contribution which is normal procedure. The garage owner stated that all the work involved, obtaining the parts, the three coat re-spray, the fitting and the re-alignment of the door sill would, he estimated, come to a final bill of around the €5,000 mark 😲 The other down side to this, other than the damage and all the administrative inconvenience, is that here as well as in most of Europe, most workplaces, other than the usual retail sectors, close down for a whole month and this particular garage was shutting down for its four week vacation period on the day following the Assessor’s visit 🤷‍♂️ So, current update (as at 30th Aug), the garage has re-opened but they now have to order the door and wait for it to arrive to enable them to start the repair, they gave a tentative date of the end of September before it could even be booked in, but no idea of how long we would be without our car, the additional problem with that is, that Shazza’s mum arrives at the very beginning of October for her two week annual visit, and being very nearly 85 year’s old with poorer mobility these days, we need the car to collect and return her from Malaga airport, and also to get her out and about whilst she is with us, yes of course we could hire a car for the duration of her visit, but that would involve quite an additional expense that we could well do without, having also just had other family visitors very recently, but more about them a little later in this ramble.

Under normal circumstances I should really end this ramble here, it is depressing enough just having to write about the incident and re-live it in my mind, never mind putting you my reader’s through having to read about it, so perhaps I should stop and focus on getting my mindset back into a more positive state of mind 🤷‍♂️

But of course I am not going to do that, I couldn’t let you off the hook that easily now that I have your undivided attention once again and to be honest, this, now that I have had time to sit and think about it, is quite a minor issue really in the grand scheme of things, when I consider that their are probably very many other people who are facing much more serious issues than this in their lives, so, time to get over myself and time for you to go and refill your drinking receptacles with whatever refreshments you were enjoying, mine is a very large glass of Anti Covid Vaccine if you are offering 🍷😁

So, throughout August the Spanish social events calendar continued unabated, both the larger annual National one’s that are well publicised, like ‘La Luna’ festival and the annual week long ‘Manilva Fair’, as well as the numerous smaller, more localised one’s, many that we quite often have no prior knowledge of and generally just find ourselves just wandering headlong into when we go for our morning or evening walk’s, which we still try to do when the temperatures permit us to do so, along of course with continuing whilst we can with our swimming pool sessions. The long and hot summer temperatures continue here, that is not unusual, and they will probably do so until we get to the latter end of September or stretching into the first couple of weeks in October, when the average temperatures will drop to a more bearable 24-25 degrees(c), but, reading the wider media reports, that is also true of many other European Countries who have also been enjoying a rather longer and much hotter summer period than would be usual. Of course there will be consequences as a result of this extreme heat in many countries, a few more rogue wildfires, drought, hose-pipe bans etc. but as most people will have just have enjoyed the extended Summer, they will not have given much thought to the price they may have to pay for them later, probably for they already know that as sure as eggs are eggs, it will not be too long and the Autumn and Winter storms and gale force winds, frost, ice and snow will once again soon return and be upon them, to replenish those essential water supplies and return the scorched earth back to the more lush green colours, the effects of those storms, well they are just the normal circle of nature and life 🤷‍♂️ I don’t wish to sound flippant, for I know such Autumnal and Winter weather can also bring about devastation, but down here, in our little corner of Europe, a few storms right now would be very much appreciated, so if you could spare a drop or two of the wet stuff it would be very much appreciated 🙏

So, moving on, and what else can I remember about what has been happening over the last five weeks that may be of interest to you ……………………🤔

Well, just in case it didn’t make the headlines in your own ‘Doom and Gloom’ media publications, there was a major invasion of a Spanish enclave on the Northern Coastline of Morocco, this happened towards the end of July, when it was reported that between 70-80 thousand Moroccans invaded Cueta, which I should just add is an ‘alleged’ speculative figure rather than a factually documented one, although, if true, is quite alarming as the whole ‘official’ population of this small enclave is only 80,000

Then, on the 9th August our Son, Daughter-in-Law and our three Grandaughter’s arrived for their annual two-week summer holiday with us. In previous year’s they had arrived a couple of weeks earlier but this time whilst they would be here with us, on the 12th August, we would actually get to celebrate the twins Eleventh Birthdays with them, and what a day that proved to be as it was also the same day as the ‘Solar Eclipse’, which our Grandaughter’s had never witnessed before.

We had started their birthday morning with a trip into the town for breakfast of Churro’s and Chocolate Sauce, which we ate down at the beach, then spent most of the day in nearby Estepona, so that they could spend some of their birthday money, and have lunch, and then in the evening they got to choose where they wanted to have dinner. I already knew that it would be either their favourite Italian in the Marina, or the nearby Indian Restaurant at the bottom of our hill, they selected the Italian. So, we went down and parked in the former fishing village, took them for a look around the small Castle before having a drink at one of the beachfront chiringuitos where we watched as the Solar Eclipse took place. We then walked the short distance into the Marina to the Italian. Although I had pre-booked the table, I had not mentioned that it was the twins birthday, but they had noticed the girls wearing their birthday headbands and, at the end of our meal, they came out with a small decorated Chocolate Cake with a Sparkler, sung Happy Birthday, in Spanish of course, and then took a photograph of them both. After paying the bill they told us to wait a moment and then came out with the photograph, complete in a frame, and presented it to them and at no additional charge, which we thought was a very nice gesture.

On another evening when we went out for dinner, we had just got to the bottom of our hill when Shazza announced “Their must be something big going on down here this evening” for one of the roads that led down to the beach was cordoned off with Police Vehicles all with their blue lights flashing. Fortunately, we were heading straight into town on this occasion and not down towards the Castle. However, further along on a slip road towards the Marina, there was an unusually long queue of traffic and as we passed we saw even more Police Vehicles that had cordoned off access roads ? We had parked our car in the town at what has become our ‘Summer’ parking location, on the opposite side of the A7 that intersects the town, and not on the seaward side. However, as we crossed the footbridge to make our way down we saw even more Police Officer’s stood on a road one street back from the main Promenade. We had seen more Police vehicles and Officer’s on that one evening than we would normally see in a whole year in our local community, our first thought was whether it was some of the Moroccans, who had recently attempted to invade the Spanish enclave of ‘Ceuta’ and when that had become much harder for them to do, well, perhaps they had decided to use dinghies to make the short crossing to mainland Spain ? It is a much shorter crossing than the one between France and the UK. Or, perhaps it was the drug smugglers who often surreptitiously ply up and down this coastline, although this time the authorities would be laying in wait for them 🤷‍♂️ Now of course, our curiosity was raised and so it would have been rude not to have wandered down to investigate 😂

I have to confess to being somewhat disappointed to discover that a major shootout wasn’t taking place between the Police and the bad guys, or that the armadas of dinghies hadn’t actually arrived on the beaches. What we did discover was that this large Police presence was due to the annual Charity Run, that we were totally oblivious to, it had started at the promenade in the former fishing village, went through the Marina and finished at the far end of the town, which is our usual walking route and would be quite a distance to run in the humid heat of the evening, the runners got precedence over everything else, both Vehicles and Pedestrians and the road closures would remain until the very last runner had passed each of the strategically positioned Police Officers. The route was of course lined with hoards of non-participants, cheering and clapping every runner in encouragement as they passed. We managed to get across the main running route road, in between the constant flow of runners, without interrupting their progress I hasten to add, our three grandchildren all smiling thinking that the applause was for them, the youngest letting out a rather deflated ‘Oh’ when I informed her that the clapping and cheering wasn’t for her own short, but very enthusiastic, athletic effort.

Being a weekend and with the added attraction of the charity run, the town was well busy and with a cooling breeze blowing off the sea it was a typical warm and balmy evening. The Grandaughter’s had requested to have a ‘Pizza Night’ so we headed into the Plaza, away from the seafront establishments, but unusually we were unable to be accommodated at our usual Cafe/Bar that served delicious freshly made Pizza’s. The owner shrugged his shoulder’s but offered to place tables and chairs further out into the main Plaza, that would have made us the centre of attention and we didn’t fancy that so we thanked him but declined his offer, I am not sure that he was that disappointed as he had more than enough customer’s to be going on with. Plan B was as equally as unsuccessful, our second choice ‘Bella Italia’ on the seafront was also rammed full and there was no space for an additional table as that would have put us out onto the promenade itself and into the main pedestrian thoroughfare. The girls were disappointed but Grandad had a sudden brainwave. There was a third choice, however, we had never used this establishment before, as when we had passed it on numerous previous occasions, it always looked empty, usually an indication that it was either not very good or overpriced but ‘beggars cannot be choosers’ as the saying goes, so I waved our merry bunch forward. “Where are we going ?” Shazza asked, “Just follow me” I responded. To my utter surprise, even this establishment was extremely busy, although I spotted an empty table with six chairs around it, although, as I pushed my way towards it I saw the irritating ‘Reserved’ sign festooned in the centre. Fortunately, as we were about to turn away and leave in disappointment and defeat, the male owner came over and asked me how many, seven I said, he looked around and scratched his head and then saw a table for four that had literally just come free, with enough space to add another table on to the end of it. He gestured for us to wait whilst he commanded two of his waitresses to quickly empty the table of the plates and glasses from the previous customers and to prepare the table for us, whilst he went in search of an additional table and three extra chairs. Finally seated amongst the throng of other diners, a friendly female waitress handed out menu’s and took our drink orders.

We were sat under a canopy with the chatter of voices all around us, all Spanish, and the constant wafts of hot Pizzas and Pasta dishes made us all feel very hungry. We were on the seafront promenade, with the gentle offshore breeze making it feel comfortable in the humid evening air, there were people constantly strolling past but we still had a good view of the beach and sea and so the ambience was fantastic. Amongst all of the menu items, Pizza and an assortment of Pasta dishes, we came across one that specified a ‘One Metre’ long Pizza, a combination of four separate Pizzas with individual toppings, which suited our large group perfectly, as the three girls would only eat the one with Pepperoni, Shazza and Sarah preferred the Vegetarian option whilst Chris and myself wanted the meat feast option.

Now of course, it was a busy two week period and we did lots of stuff with them all, although as usual on their visits to us, Chris and Sarah took the opportunity to have their own mini-break, which was also convenient timing as the day after the girls birthday it was their Wedding Anniversary, so they left the girls with us for two and a half days whilst they went to visit Granada, including of course the Alhambra Palace, it was good for them to have some time to themselves and it gave us the opportunity to have time alone with our Grandaughter’s. Chris and Sarah also had their own family day’s out whilst they were here, giving Shazza and myself a chance to catch our breaths and to get out to the supermarket to re-stock on provisions. They went up the mountain to the beautifully scenic town of ‘Ronda’, where they discovered that the youngest, Orla, travelling in a car up into higher altitudes caused her to suffer with car sickness, but having an experienced Nana Shazza on hand, who had already pre-empted this possibility, she provided an ample number of plastic bags, although it was only Orla that had suffered 👍 They also paid their usual visit to their own personal favourite long sandy beach at ‘San Pedro’, and on another day a visit to the swanky and much larger Marina Resort at ‘Sotogrande’.

We of course enjoyed every single minute of our time with them all, although for us their were two particular highlights, celebrating the twins birthdays with them in person, instead of just over a video call was one, but the second was seeing ‘Orla’ swim without the need for any buoyancy aids. Lily had learnt to swim in our pool two year’s ago, Eva last year and now Orla this year and she was swimming the full length of the pool by herself, unsupervised in the pool but with eight adult eyes always on alert, albeit not required. Unfortunately, with the lack of council funding throughout the whole of the UK, so they no longer have a community swimming pool in the town or immediate local area, which is one of the reasons why they enjoy coming across to visit us. They are all growing up so quickly, it won’t be too long and they will be asking for Grandad, or Nana Shazza’s Taxi’s to take, and collect them, from the nearest nightclubs 😲

They departed for their return flight home very early on the Sunday morning, 02:00am, but of course we were up to help with the loading of the suitcases into their hire car, to give the final hugs and kisses and then the waves until their car disappeared out of sight. By this time we were wide awake so we sat on the balcony with a hot cuppa. We both agreed that after this particular visit we had come to realise that as much as we don’t want to admit it, we are ageing and just do not have the same amount of energy that we used to have, the girls are growing up, but with that comes the increase in their growing energy levels against our deteriorating one’s, so by the end of each day we were both glad to get into our beds to re-charge our own batteries, I think we now urgently need to upgrade to those newer Lithium ones and wear hats with solar panels on them to keep them charged up 😂 Warning: If any Entrepreneur reading this takes this idea and markets it, at least list me in the credits for the idea 🤭

Whilst catching up with what else is going on in and around Spain, amongst the usual doom and gloom reports, there started to appear more and more news articles in the Spanish media that particularly attracted my attention.

Being very much aware that in only six weeks time I will be celebrating my 70th Birthday, No ! really Eric ? I hear you all shout, and believe me, I certainly do not feel that age either, although I do keep telling myself that it is only a number. However, I do tend to take particular interest in articles such as these, but what struck me as quite unusual is the increase in the number of more senior aged Spanish residents who are allegedly ‘Migrating North To A Cooler Climate’

I have to admit that before we decided to come and live in this part of Spain on a more permanent basis, the searingly hot and long Summer months with their blood boiling temperatures were my personal major concern, Shazza was the sun lover and Solar Baster, not me. However, in the little over three year’s that we have been living here permanently, we have quickly learnt that it is more a case of adapting our lifestyles and our daily routines to the seasons, much like you would do anywhere, whether that be extreme heat or conversely, extreme cold, but what we had not given any consideration to was how the heat may impact on us personally, as we too began to get into our more senior years.

When I read the media articles on the increase in the number of fatalities this year, directly related to the excessive searing heat, it also indicated that those who suffered the most, or who had passed away, also had other health associated conditions. Fortunately, for now at least, Shazza and I remain fit and healthy, we have never visited our local GP or Health Centre since first registering there in July 2023, so we will just keep doing what we are doing, it appears to be working 👍

Now you know me by now, forever the cynic, and from what I have read, and seen on numerous documentaries, those entering their more senior years prefer routines and familiarity. Younger family members may move away, but friends and neighbours in senior age groups generally do not. It’s one thing moving away from the heat, but these warmer climates also provide longer periods of outside living, allowing people to get out and enjoy the fresh air and to socialise. I ask myself how many older men I regularly see sat under the shade of trees in a Plaza having a good old gossip, putting the world to right’s, and the women sat outside their homes on chair’s with their neighbours also having a good old gossip. There will not be many months in regions along the Northern Spanish Coast where you will get the opportunity to do that. Closing shutters but keeping windows open to keep out the heat of the sun is far easier than chopping firewood for the log burners or traditional fireplaces, or for cleaning them out on a daily basis for months on end. Not being able to get outside their front doors to go to the local shops or the Pharmacy or the doctor’s surgery, when snow and ice is thick on the ground or the gale force Atlantic Winds and storms are rattling the doors and windows. So personally speaking, I just don’t buy the media’s claims as generally speaking, no matter where people live, the majority of them appear to survive wherever they are used to living, come what may with whatever weather conditions they are used to living with, what is that saying, ‘The Grass Is Always Greener On The Other Side’, well it is until you get there 🤔 So no, Shazza and I, although we do enjoy our visits to the Northern Spanish Regions and coastlines, have no intention of relocating there, well not just yet at least, Shazza doesn’t do cold very well 🥶 Unless of course our ageing bones get to prefer sitting and watching the yellow and orange flames in a warm crackling fireplace, whilst the wind rattles the doors and windows, with the added bonus of course of being able to see the actual physical change of the seasons, when Christmas actually looks like Christmas. So, Never say never, that’s what I say as you just never know with us when our itchy feet will start twitching again 😉

There is one very important seasonal change that we do get to see each year in this part of Southern Spain, the end of our own people invasion, the period when our normal car parking spaces become available again, when the Cafe/Bars are quieter, when we no longer have to pre-book tables in our favourite Restaurant’s in the Marina or in town, when it becomes less stressful to do our shopping at our local shops and supermarkets and best of all, when a certain peacefulness and calm returns to our world.

It was Monday 2nd September when we realised that there was no more being awoken by noises of suitcase wheels rumbling along the pavements after midnight, or loud voices in the stairwells, temporary visitor’s having no consideration that there are people sleeping, or trying to, or the banging of apartment doors. Our pool, and the one across the road in the adjacent residential community complex, have now become much both less crowded and noisy, yes, at last, the end of the Summer Tourist Season is once again upon us.

I know that to you I am actually sounding like an old person, with diminishing tolerance of younger people enjoying their well-earned annual holidays in the sun, but in my defence, like my senior Spanish counterparts, I too really enjoy and appreciate routine and familiarity, I guess it really is an age thing 🙄 However, in my defence, it does appear to have been a particularly very long Summer season this year. But we will now once again be able to take our daily walks, as the temperatures gradually decline ‘poco un poco’ (Little by little), we will watch as many of the Beach Chiringuitos board up their doors and windows until Easter next year, thankfully our particular favourites do not. We will once again get to open up all of door and window shutters to let daylight back in, well until the Autumn night’s start to get darker earlier again and, at last, we will be able to remove the mosquito net from over our bed, for like Shazza, the mozzies prefer the much hotter temperatures.

So for now, we have one more family visitor to entertain for a couple of weeks, then we have to get the car repair completed before we can settle back into some sort of normality, perhaps then we may also manage to take our own short Autumn break and take our turn in becoming for somebody, somewhere, another one of those damn tourists 😂

Until my next ramble …………………….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena, Si la gente no choca contra tu coche! (If people don’t crash into your car) 🙄

So there I was, still enjoying my period of behaving like the proverbial Ostrich, with my head buried in the sand, no longer wanting to consistently fill my head with the mountains of Doom and Gloom that I had been consistently bombarded with when speed reading and reviewing the wide variety of media publications, and I do have to say that, for a while, it had been working quite well but, there is one major disadvantage with doing this, for whilst my head may have been buried in the cool dark sand, other parts of my anatomy were still above ground and exposed, and they suddenly began to feel very much warmer than usual, which had nothing to do with the continuing, and quite normal, high Summer temperatures 😳

Now I certainly do not want to appear disrespectful to any of the victims, or to any of those involved with the dangerous job of fighting the recent spate of catastrophic Wildfires, whether they be the Professional Firefighter’s, the numerous Volunteers or any of the vast amount of other people who are providing other forms of assistance and relief, wether they be in France or Spain, or indeed with any of the less publicised devastating fires that are currently burning elsewhere throughout the continent of Europe or even wider afield. However, I am not going to focus this particular ramble on those catastrophic events, and my reasoning for not doing so is quite simple, I actually only know as much as any of you do, so I would just be regurgitating what most of you are probably already aware of for yourselves. Shazza and I, probably much like many of you, view these often horrific images and read the associated reports, but then, like many other’s, we just finish watching, or reading about them, and then we get on with our normal daily lives, which is the principle displayed in this particular ramble’s leading photographic image, for in reality all we can do is watch from afar, what else can anyone do 🤷‍♂️

But of course, what happens when you do raise your head above the parapet and return to perusing what else is contained within the pages of the ‘Doom and Gloom’ media 🤷‍♂️ This time, the other major News story was one for all ‘Conspiracy Theorists’ to get their teeth into, whilst donning their tin helmets wrapped in tin foil and heading into the hills as fast as they could run, or drive.

Now, if like myself, you are a person within a certain more senior age group reading this, you will also have probably watched many of the associated Sci-Fi movies, where Aliens, Robots, or Rogue Computers, try to take over the world, but then, and just in the nick of time, people like, Arnold Schwarzenegger (Terminator), Bruce Willis (Armageddon), Will Smith (Independence Day, Men in Black) or Keanu Reeves (The Matrix) come to our rescue. Well it looks like we are going to need them all to once again come and do battle for us, although I am not sure whether ‘Arnie’ or ‘Bruce’ will be up to the task these days, So, just in case some of you still have your heads stuck firmly in the sand, the big question is who, or what, is attacking us now ?

Now I am guessing that most of us will have heard the term AI, but don’t know exactly what it is, although we all probably use it every single day, the abbreviation ‘AI’ refers to ‘Artificial Intelligence’, basically Computer Programmes, that now manage most of the Technologies that we use in our everyday lives, wether that be for Communications purposes, via Mobiles, Laptops, iPads, Gaming Consoles and even Digital Watches, in newer vehicles, keyless ignitions and internal electronics, Sat Nav’s and engine monitoring systems, but also in our everyday Digital Banking processes and procedures, including ‘Apple Pay’, Debit and Credit Cards, then the extremely long list of On-Line Shopping Services, and let’s not forget ‘Alexa’ in our homes (Or other similar gadgets), Google Search (and other on-line search engines) and a whole host of other Digital Technologies, far too many to list. In truth, most of us do not ‘generally’ give any of these things a second thought for, ‘It Is Just The Modern World In Which We Now Live’, whether we like it or not. However, given this latest major breaking news story, and the huge response to it from other’s in the Digital Technologies World, Cyber Security Specialists and Government’s, the big question is, ‘Should we mere mortals actually be concerned ?’.

Now from a purely personal perspective, here’s the really coincidental thing about this recent ‘Breaking News Story’. Shazza and myself are in the process of watching the start of Series 3 of our current ‘Netflix’ box set series, ‘Person of Interest’, which was first aired back in 2012. It is, generally speaking, just a relatively modern American police crime drama, very easy watching and very entertaining and it involves a ‘Super Computer’ which is used to identify people whose lives are in danger. Now you do have to remember that this is a ‘fictional drama’ from some fourteen year’s ago, but the technologies are pretty much what we are all utilising today in both our personal and business lives, although these days they have advanced very much further. So of course, watching this programme at the same time that this current AI Cyber Security Breach was very publicly announced, led us to discuss between ourselves wether or not we ourselves should be concerned, or should we just accept that actually we have absolutely no ‘Control or Influence’ over it, should we immediately go and ‘delete’ lots of the ‘Apps’, that we rarely use but keep active on our electronic devices ? We both agreed that that would be much like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, for nothing is truly ‘deleted’ by just pressing the ‘delete’ button on the keyboard 🤷‍♂️

So enough of all of that stuff, let’s not get ‘Paranoid’, although that isn’t to say that there isn’t something out there watching and listening to us 😂 Okay, time I think to get this ramble back to the less scary topic of ‘La Vida Es Buena’ in the here and now, a place where we all, currently at least, just co-exist quite happily alongside the more helpful, informative and user friendly side of AI.

Now that the month long FIFA World Cup football tournament is over, our small area of Spain has returned to it’s normal more laid back and leisurely mode of lifestyle, that we have most certainly become well accustomed to now, and at least that month long football event did at least provide another excuse for the whole of Spain to hold another, albeit un-scheduled, Fiesta, which does tend to take one’s minds off, for a short period of time, what is going on in the big bad outside world 😁

I guess I should also get the ‘Works of Fiction’ subject out of the way too whilst I remember, it would be rude not to 🤭 Yes, and much like the rest of Europe at the moment, it is still very hot here, although probably not quite as hot as some other areas further North from us at this moment in time, for obvious reasons 🙄 We have just waved goodbye to the extended period of ‘Terel’ winds, knowing that they will undoubtedly return several times again before the Summer season ends, but there is no respite, for they have now been replaced by a similarly hot ‘Levante’ wind, these blow up and across from the African continent, but as well as the additional heat that they bring, they also carry with them the Saharan Sand (Calima) which just literally covers everything in their path.

However, let’s get back to talking about much nicer topics, yes more ‘Fiestas’, as they continue to come thick and fast especially in our surrounding locality. Just a few short weeks ago it was the big celebration in our local town for ‘San Juan’, that was swiftly followed by celebrating the Patron Saint of Fishermen and Sailor’s (Virgen del Carmen). Last weekend, 25-26th July, it was another ‘Religious’ celebration, which of course involved the mandatory inclusion of merriment, parades, music and of course the imbibing of much liquid refreshments that carried on well into the early hour’s. However, that event was not held in our own town but up in the small town of ‘Manilva’, which is a little further inland, 5km North of us and around a 10 minute drive and that event was in celebration of the town’s female Saint (Santa Ana).

But this small hillside town of Manilva and its surrounding area, have more to it than first meets the eye, it produces its own wine (Nilva) and holds tour’s and wine tasting events throughout the year, and during the grape harvest in September they celebrate it with a ‘Wine Festival’, well of course they do, it would be rude not to. But it isn’t just the wine, for if you visit the town and look down from several of the outer streets or viewing points you may be surprised to see green lush, well maintained land, which produce very much more than just vineyards, for this is an area that also produces a lot of fruit and vegetables and yes, before you ask, they even have a festival to celebrate that too 😁

The Wine Festival (2025)

Now I had not intended to make this a tourist promotion ramble for this small whitewashed town, however, after reading back through the previous paragraph’s, it does tend to sound very much like I am writing an article for the Manilva Tourist Board. Perhaps I should speak to the Mayor and if this ramble creates an increase in Manilva’s tourism revenue then perhaps a little bit of ‘Financial Commission’ may be in order 😂 But the real reason for writing about Manilva was more to do with my own conscience, for whilst I often write about our local area I tend to stick to things in and around our own ‘immediate’ area, that being the former fishing village, the Marina, the town and even Estepona, so I thought that I may be portraying a more dismissive attitude to our close neighbours, so I thought that it was time to give them a little piece of the spotlight in this ramble, job done I think 😉

Now although we have had quite a busy ‘Fiesta’ period during the last month or so, there was still one more to come this coming Friday (31st July), or by the time I publish this ramble we would have just had that, but more about that a little bit later.

Now during the week building up to that Fiesta, Shazza and I actually had to break our now, more usual, daily ‘Summer Schedule’ routine of confining ourselves either to exercise sessions in the pool, or remaining out of the heat in the cooler cave-like conditions of the apartment. So, what used to be our daily walks, had become much less frequent and, when we do need to go into the town, we drive directly into it, as opposed to parking up at our more normal beachfront location and walking in, but now, with the much increased tourist hoards, we do now unfortunately also have to play ‘Hunt the Parking Space’. These town visits are only generally conducted when absolutely necessary, we both had separate dental appointments on different days and, unfortunately, they were both after lunch when the temperatures were climbing rapidly into the nearly ‘Unbearable’ category. So, with the temperatures already well into the thirty degree(c) somethings, we elected to combine one of those day’s with our weekly shop, killing two birds with one stone as it were, although we did still manage a stop, on both of those days, for our mandatory refreshments, well it would have been rude not to really wouldn’t it 😁. I genuinely cannot even begin to express to you the luxurious feeling of ice cold cervesa on the back of one’s throat, it was like throwing cold water onto hot coals, yes you could hear the customary ‘hissing sound’ as ice cold beer hit the back of my throat 😂 but we know for certain when it is considered to be ‘excessively’ hot here, for even the locals who live and work here also complain about the temperatures, although daily life for them has to continue. It was a bit of a strange week as we ended up having to go out on four of the five days, one of them requiring an early drive into Estepona, without knowing how long we would have to remain there, it could have been a few hour’s or, for most of the day, but more about the reason for that in a future ramble ?

We do still try to get out from the confines of our apartment and pool area at least one night a week, although usually that would be on a Saturday to go out for dinner, however this week it just happened to be the ‘Fiesta de la Luna Llena’ (Full Moon Festival) on the Friday night, this was an annual event and to distinguish it from the scores of other fiestas throughout the year it is advertised as a ‘Cosmic Beach Party’ with some specific traditions, so our weekly night out would take place a day earlier so that we could enjoy the festive ambience.

The dress code of all white was not mandatory, and many didn’t, but Shazza and I went with the tradition. We knew that as we had not pre-booked a table for Dinner that there would be no way that we would get to eat at a seafront promenade establishment, but we were happy to go to the large Plaza a couple of streets back, which we knew would be relatively tourist free and where we could guarantee getting a table in one of the several Cafe/Bar Eateries. The Plaza was less chaotic than the seafront and we were happy to sit, eat and drink amongst the local Spanish and also to enjoy the abundance of people watching opportunities that we were provided with. We have attended these fiesta numerous times so we didn’t plan on staying and participating in the event into the early hours, although it was nice to be amongst it and, for those who have never witnessed this kind of thing before, it is quite a spectacle, for us though, most of these annual events become much of a muchness.

As darkness fell at around 9:30pm, we wandered back to the seafront promenade to join the ever increasing growing numbers, the full length of the promenade was awash with lights from the additional, and numerous, ‘Pop-Up Bars’ that we had watched being set up when we took our much earlier morning walk that day (disguised as an essential fruiteria shop by you know who ?), their were street vendors selling their assorted ‘themed’ trinkets, food trailers selling fried ‘Buenellas’ (Dinky Donuts), Candy Floss and other assorted sweet treats, the lights emanating from the terraces of the seafront restaurants, the flames from the beach ‘wood fired’ grills, the lights from the children’s bouncy castles and other fairground like attractions and of course the noise of the musical entertainment and people talking very loudly trying to have conversations over the top of it, made it feel like a party ambience. The one major noticeable lack, was the presence of any Police, we saw just two, on foot patrol, enjoying banter with the people as they strolled amongst them, for all of these events are enjoyed by everyone, of all ages, from the very youngest to the much more senior and of course, the full moon must have got delayed in all the traffic as it once again failed to appear to an event organised in its honour, but I don’t think anybody missed it 😂

So there you have it, just another couple of weeks in our life down here in our small corner of the Costa del Sol. For us, well there is no rest for the wicked as they say, as we have just one week before the arrival of our Son, Daughter-in-Law and three Grandaughter’s, they will be with us for a full two weeks, so another couple of busy weeks ahead of us, but very enjoyable one’s. Whilst the twins are here they will celebrate their 11th Birthdays, they have been coming here to see us every year since we have owned our apartment, from when they were only 6 months old, where does the time go to 😲

Although there is a lot of ‘not so nice’ stuff going on all around various parts of the world today, I feel almost certain that there are also lots of places where, just like here, normal daily life and lots of good stuff also goes on and so, I think that it is very important that we must each remind ourselves, when we see, or sit and read about all of the ‘Doom And Gloom’, that, if these media publications didn’t fill their pages with all of that kind of stuff then they just might have to concentrate on writing about much more happy news, and I am sure there is plenty of that if they took the time to look, but then who would bother taking the time to read it, for we would all be far too busy just getting on and enjoying our lives. And here is another thought that I will just leave you with, Artificial Intelligence (AI) certainly had a big part to play in assisting me with writing, researching, editing and publishing this ramble 😉

Until my next ramble…………………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

To be completely honest with you, after publishing my last ramble around a week or so ago, I hadn’t anticipated writing, or publishing, another quite so soon, we were just into our normal leisurely daily and rather uneventful lifestyle routines with nothing very much of interest to write about 🤷‍♂️ But then, similar to a freelance journalist sitting at his desk, boringly sharpening his pencils whilst waiting for the phone to ring with the next big news story to land on his desk, for me, there was no desk or pencils to sharpen, just a pool to sit around, on a sun lounger under a sun brolley, neither did the phone ring, it was the lure of the ‘Doom & Gloom’ media pages that got my itchy keyboard fingers twitching. So, if you are sitting comfortably………………

The invasion of Spain commenced slowly at first, but then, from the beginning of July, the invaders began to arrive in ever greater numbers. These foreign armies of people struck from all directions, crossing Europes Land Borders in great swathes, along with assaults from other’s, arriving via Air and Sea, there would be no escape, it would be futile to resist for they would occupy every corner, every nook and cranny leaving no stone or beach pebble unturned. Whilst a small handful of dedicated resistance fighter’s attempted to repel these foreign invaders, with their wooden placards, some even armed with pistols (that fired water based ammunition), spray paint and tubes of super-glue, but they made little impact, but at least they had tried. However, and quite unsurprisingly, the larger majority of Spanish actually welcomed these invading hoards with open arms, for they knew that this was only another temporary Summer invasion of their shores, and a lucrative one, which would once again swell the ‘Shekels’ in their business bank accounts, in comparison to the much leaner pickings during the Autumn and Winter season’s. Some locals accept this annual invasion for good economical reasons, other’s oppose it for more personal reasons, but it is a very fine balancing act as their are Advantages and Disadvantages on both sides of the divide.

Shazza and myself know when the Summer season has truly arrived in our small corner of Spain, it is when we can no longer get a parking space in ‘any’ of our usual places or, we can no longer just turn up at any of our favourite Cafe/Bars and Restaurants and expect to find an empty table, or even more closer to home, quite literally speaking, it is when we have to get down to our pool by 10:30am, if we want a sun lounger and sun brolley and also have the time, and space, in the pool itself to enjoy a proper swimming session without fighting through the mass of ‘Little Darlings’ with their wide variety of inflatable toys, and the ball games being played both in and out of the water, being jolted out of a moment of ‘Personal Contemplation’, which is always best done with one’s eyes closed, by a football crashing against the side of one’s sun-bed, occasionally, but only occasionally, accompanied with the word ‘Sorry’, spoken in a wide variety of foreign tongues, we both knew that it was only a matter of time before one of us would mutter those immortal words, although in fact it was Shazza who it was that this time first vocalised what I was already thinking, “Roll on mid-September” she said, with a roll of her eyes. But then I reminded her that it would only be a matter of three short weeks before our own family numbers would swell our own family group by another five individuals, three of which would be our own quite noisy ‘Little Darlings’ down at the pool, twice daily. “Roll on the last week of August” I replied laughingly 😂

It was whilst I was enjoying a quiet swim in our pool one morning recently that I had another one of my ‘Contemplative’ moments, yes they are coming fast and furious recently, I blame the extended heatwave and the Summer crowds myself, keeping me incarcerated for far longer than is healthy for you my reader’s 😂 I began to recount how many moments of significant ‘Historical’ events that I have lived through so far in my life, some that I have actually participated in during my former Military Career, and other’s that I was much less directly involved with. I was quite astonished when I started to list them all, although not in any real Chronological Order, more just in the order my brain relinquished the information at that moment in time. It may seem a strange subject to be contemplating, although to be honest, my regular contemplative moments these days can be a variety of very wide subjects, as most of you will already know but, there had actually been a catalyst for bringing this particular subject to the forefront of my mind.

But what does the Land Border between Spain and Gibraltar now ceasing to exist actually mean in reality ? It certainly means that there is now Freedom of movement on the land border between the two countries, if you are an EU Citizen but, for some other non-EU citizens however, who used to visit Gibraltar for its lucrative low tax benefits on purchases, everything from much cheaper fuel, tobacco, alcohol, jewellery and electronic goods and for some, on both sides of the border, the ability to purchase their favourite UK foodstuffs from the ever popular ‘Morrisons’ supermarket on the Gibraltar side, or be able to take advantage of Gibraltar NOT being part of the ‘Schengen Zone’, well perhaps this new ‘Treaty’ may not be so beneficial.

But what has to be remembered here is that this latest change in the physical status between Gibraltar and Spain it is not about ‘Visitors’, it is about what this latest Historic event, that took place on Wednesday 15th July 2026, means to the people who actually live permanently in both Gibraltar and Spain. It is also now another Historical event that I can add to my list of things for which I would personally witness in my own lifetime. However, this particular one did not involve any armed conflict (Although a lot of verbal one’s) or indeed any loss of human life, so we should at least be thankful for that. Similar to the divide that was created between people during ‘Brexit’, for some ordinary members of the Gibraltarian public, this will remain an uncomfortable and disputed alliance and the decision, taken purely by Politician’s with no consultation (Referendum) with the Gibraltarian public, in forging this particular ‘Treaty’ will remain a topic of heated discussion amongst the local Gibraltarian community, for many year’s to come.

Now, just to try and lay this subject to rest, well as far as this ramble goes at least, you will be aware that both Shazza and myself are basically ‘History Heathens’, but this current event did raise my curiosity as to why Gibraltar was actually ceded to the British, and not the Dutch ? So, over to you ‘Mr Google & Co.’

So there you have it, the History of Gibraltar, well since the 1700’s, in just one relatively short ramble, but if you want to delve further back into its history, be my guest, for I don’t know about you, but my eye’s have already started to glaze over.

Moving swiftly on, the following day, Thursday 16th July, and along the majority of the whole of Spain’s coastlines it was yet another traditional Spanish event, marked annually on the countries ‘Religious Calendar’, the day of celebration for the ‘Virgin del Carmen’ (Patron Saint of Fishermen and Sailor’s) with the celebrations also including the presence of the first of many of this year’s ’Medieval Markets’ along the seafront with the sounds of ‘Roll Up, Roll Up and get your Tourist Tat here’, and why let a Religious Celebration stand in the way of Capitalism eh ? But after breaking bread and drinking a sip of wine at the church, from the chalice at the morning Mass, you could then go and gorge on ‘Burgers’, ‘Dinky Donuts’, ‘Candy Floss’ and ‘Fizzy Drinks’, with not a single Mediterranean Diet option in sight 🙄, but it’s all part of the day’s appeal to families, locals and visitor’s alike and finished off, in usual Spanish tradition, a long night of music and copious amounts of alcoholic beverages 😁

Now as you know, I do not need too many prompts to start my ‘Contemplative’ periods from going into overdrive, but even I thought that the first one, on the Gibraltar Border subject, would be enough to be going on with for this particular ramble, but no, it was not to be, for another ‘unanticipated’ event landed, quite literally, right into our living room 😲

It was around 7:30pm on the Thursday evening, we were about a quarter of the way through a film on Netflix when Shazza’s mobile phone rang, it was our Grandaughter’s back in the UK who, quite excitedly, wanted to tell us all about a school two night ‘residential’ trip they had just returned from, the first time they had spent any time away from home without Mum and Dad, and although it had only been two-nights away for them, it had been a major adventure which they thoroughly enjoyed and needed to tell us about. We didn’t want to concern Mum and Dad by informing them that now their 11 year-old ‘Little Angels’ had tasted parental freedom, that it wouldn’t stop at just school supervised outings.

However, we were unceremoniously cut off and, although we made several attempts we could not re-connect with them. Shazza’s phone displayed a ‘No Signal’ message, I checked mine to discover that I too had the same message. okay we thought, we will contact them via the Internet on Shazza’s iPad, but when we checked that, we also discovered that both our iPads were displaying the ‘No Internet Connection’ message, so as usual when the Internet goes down, we re-booted the Wi-Fi box, but with no success 🤷‍♂️ We couldn’t even finish watching our film on Netflix.

We didn’t think too much about it at the time, these things happen, not very frequently, and nothing that we considered to be out of the ordinary for today’s mobile technology pitfalls. To be honest, I rarely use my devices during the evenings anyway, and Shazza tends to read books on her Kindle, we only tend to use the Internet for occasionally watching films via Netflix, watching the football or, for following some Vlogs on ‘You Tube’, so it was really no great drama for us, the peace and quiet of the evening was actually rather enjoyable, we even communicated with each other verbally at times during that evening, although, god only knows what we are now going to talk about the following day 🤷‍♂️ perhaps the Internet will be back up and we can go back to our individual habitual ‘Zombie Scrolling’ activities 😂

I was up first the following morning and discovered that I had both connections back again, but that didn’t last very long before both the mobile and WiFi connections went down yet again, That did appear a little strange as they usually get these outages resolved pretty quickly. An hour or so later I discovered that my mobile phone signal had been restored, but only my mobile phone signal and not my Internet connection, and so I used it to check the posts on our local Social Media group, where I discovered that the same things had happened on all ‘Mobile Phone’ and ‘Internet’ service providers within the whole Manilva and Caceres municipalities, so it didn’t sound like an Engineer had inadvertently pulled the wrong plug on a local communications box. I telephoned our local Internet Service Providers office in town, they confirmed the Internet was down, stating that this was due to the recent wildfires which had affected two transmitter masts, but alarmingly they also stated that Engineers in the field had informed them that repairs would not be completed until after the weekend, which would be at ‘some point’ on the Monday, three day’s away. Now that was not very good news for all of us ‘Adopted Spanish’ residents as the World Cup final, Spain v Argentina was being televised ‘Live’ on the Sunday night, but we needed our Internet connection to be able to watch it, and so would most of the Bars in the local area that would be showing it on their ‘Big Screens’. There was also a big open air event also planned in the former fishing village let alone other similar events in the wider local areas, this was sure to create a major issue, for the Spanish Internet Provider, as they are also a Co-Sponsor of the Spanish National Team 😲

Anyway, let me cut this much longer story, very much shorter (Yes Pleeeeze Eric, I hear you all shout 😁). Fortunately, for all concerned and not just ourselves, the Internet connection was restored around 6pm on the Friday evening. End of story ? Come on, you know me better than that, for this incident had now created yet another Catalyst for my over active ‘Contemplative’ mind. Generally, I was just thinking at just how the world today is so reliant on all of these mobile communication technologies, in all aspects of maintaining our normal everyday lives, not just for social purposes, but also Banking and other Financial activities, Using Debit and Credit Cards, making Travel Arrangements, Withdrawing cash, Paying for Groceries and Fuel and the rest of the stuff that we all tend to do now using technology 😳 Governments are now encouraging a ‘Cashless’ society, along with everything else, making us more and more reliant on a more digital and technological world, so I think to myself, what happens when there is a ‘Denial of Service’, of course I was immediately thinking about hostile ‘Cyber Attacks’, what an easy way to disrupt global economies, or worse, we are all well aware that some of these incidents have already happened globally, although more usually for Financial Gain by the perpetrators of such acts, or even attacks on ‘Foreign Governments’, testing the countries resolve in such situations. But what about less sinister malfunctions, Electricity cuts or Natural and Environmental disaster’s, how would we (That is the Royal ‘We’) get access to the vital information that ‘we’ would need in cases of ‘Wildfires, Earthquakes, Floods or similar disasters’, the essential stuff like locations, escape routes, emergency shelters and all that kind of stuff 🤷‍♂️ That actually created more recurring thoughts in my mind, as periods of contemplation often do with me, a lot like these rambles I guess, where I often digress from the original subject and head off in another direction, well so it is with my contemplations 😁 Finally, when my mind was spinning out of control in numerous directions, I was left with the thought about the truth in that old saying, ‘You Only Miss Things When They Have Been Taken Away’ but by which time, often, it may be too late to do anything about it 🤔 I think it maybe time to go back and do my Ostrich impression…………….

So okay, the following ramblings will very probably be ‘Old News’ by the time you get around to reading this and you may well have already been wondering why I haven’t mentioned Englands failure to ‘Bring it Home’, before now in this ramble 🤔 I was saving the good news until the last. Anyway, back to the disappointment with our England performance, as a consolation prize, that to be completely honest, is completely irrelevant, but on beating France 6-4 in the play-offs, they did bring home some ‘Bronze’ coloured Bling, so at least their disappointment will be quelled a little, as they each now have something to sell on ‘Vinted’ or ‘eBay’ (Other on-line trading establishments are also available 😁) However, a few rambles previously I had already given my prediction as to the outcome (No Crystal ball required), yes I confess that I may have cheated a little as I had read the same script over and over again over the last fifteen FIFA World Cup footballing tournaments, where I of course discovered that the story and the ending, for England, always remained exactly the same 🤷‍♂️ But, I also told you that I had a 50/50 chance that one of my ‘home’ team’s would make it to the final, was I wrong ?

Now as you may imagine, every Village, Town and City in Spain would be glued to the ‘Big Screens’, many that had been set up in Parks and Plaza’s, but even on much smaller screens in Cafe/Bars in the much smaller villages, would have crowds packed inside and out for this major concluding event and, with the hard fought win going to the deserving team, and not the football thugs of the Argentinian team, although the game itself was not a classic in the history of this competition, the victory celebrations went on until the early hour’s of the following morning.

So, as another new week commences, which I suspect will now be very much quieter than the previous one, the excessive heat aided by the hot ‘Terel’ winds continue 🥵 but like the football, we have been here before too, so I will make yet another prediction, I anticipate that the heat of Summer will continue until around October, when Autumn arrives 😁 Yes, the Wildfires continue too, some worse than other’s, but that is true Globally, not just here in Spain or other areas of Europe but around other parts of the globe too. But please do not get overly concerned about our well-being, for there is very little tinder dry forest around our immediate vicinity, just a handful of Palm Trees between our apartment and two-minute walk to the pool 😂 However, here is another prediction, and somewhat of a certainty, the ‘Doom and Gloom’ machines will continue to churn out more and more depressing news to re-focus our minds, when all of the current stuff just becomes ‘Old News’, and on their current form that could well be as early as tomorrow 🤭

I will leave you with the advice we are advised to follow by our Andalusian Health Authority:

Until the next ramble……………………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

I often start thinking about the subjects of my rambles well before I even ‘draft’ the first sentence, that is what some of my contemplation periods are used for 🤭 As I have mentioned to you, many times over the year’s that I have been producing these rambles, I do not make any notes in advance and so only rely on what is in my brain when I do come to actually start drafting them, trying to recall things that we have done, where we have been or what is happening in our lives at any given moment in time. Sometimes, my memory can be supplemented and prompted by photographs that I may have taken, or indeed any media articles that I may have read and taken screenshots of, but generally I just ‘ramble’ and, quite often as it happens, I often find myself digressing from the intended script, well you my reader’s can certainly attest to that particular fact 😂

But why am I starting this ramble by re-stating this, something that you probably already know anyway ? Well the truth is that sometimes, even when I have already commenced ‘drafting’ the originally intended next publication, something rather inconveniently happens, which I believe could likely be of more interest to you, things that you may already have read for yourselves in your own media publications, but which you probably do not think very much about, after you have finished reading or watching them. Well sometimes, those very same things can have an impact on our lives here in Spain too, sometimes directly or perhaps even indirectly so, as your ‘man on the ground’ as it were, I may be able to provide a little more localised information but then, that sometimes mean that I need to go back to the drawing board, my ‘Draft’ Ramble, delete it and start again.

This is one such ramble so………………..

It had been like a furnace on this, our second recent visit into the city, the noise of people and traffic was almost overwhelming for us, the 40 degree(c) temperature and dryness of the heat made walking extremely uncomfortable, especially as large parts of the walk offered no shade whatsoever from the rays of the scorching sunshine, fortunately though, it had only taken us a little over a twenty-minute walk to get to our ultimate destination from where we had managed to park the car, although I have to report that on this occasion there was to be no ‘Free’ parking for us and we had to pay the extortionate fee of €1.20 (£1) for a full day’s parking ! But this, as you will already know if you had read my last ramble, and why wouldn’t you have done, but yes, it had been an essential trip, as opposed to just one for more touristic or leisure purposes, for us personally, it was to be a very lucrative one as, by the end of it, we emerged with our new updated ‘Residency Permits’ (TIE Cards).

We were however glad to finally leave the mayhem behind us and, by the time we had returned to our haven of sanctuary in our much quieter environment, we had been out for six hour’s. Although the car journey, in and out, had actually accounted for half of that time, but it had not been a relaxing journey, for either of us, in either direction, as the roads were extremely busy and so it was just one large bubbling cauldron of ‘people in machines’, of all shapes and sizes (That reference applies equally to the humans inside too 🤭) trucks, vans, coaches, car’s and motorcycles, all of whom, for whatever reason, appeared to be in a hurry to meet their maker, from the speed freaks to the one’s whose driving speeds were more of the Sunday driver type pace, but who chose to hog the overtaking lanes seemingly oblivious to the queues of death seekers behind them, which then created the impatient lane weaver’s to ‘undertake’ them which, in turn, meant that they took up other driver’s breaking distances and they would slam on to regain the lost ground, it was more akin to a fairground bumper car ride experience, but at much faster and deadlier speeds 😲 Shazza, who had been happy by the way to negotiate this nearly 200km distance Formula 1 racing circuit (100km each way), well she does go by the alias of ‘Lewis Hamilton’, but I do have to say that she actually coped with it extremely well, although I did hear her come out with quite a wide and varying range of expletives on numerous occasions. I shut my ear’s to most of it though and was happy, as the unemployed Navigator, for we knew this Motorway route like the back of our hands, to just sit and gaze out of the passenger seat window at the Sparkling blue Mediterranean Sea on one side and the Mountains, with their white-washed villages, on the other, although I had been brought back out of my semi-hypnotic sightseeing mode on a couple of occasions, when she had to make sudden braking manoeuvres and my head hit the dashboard or I was nearly garrotted by my seat belt strap as it tightened across my neck, but fortunately, no permanent damage was done, I think 😳 She of course apologised, after she had stopped laughing.

We are not really that comfortable in large cities these days, perhaps because we have allowed ourselves to fall quite easily into our much slower paced lifestyles and surroundings, which means that when we do occasionally have to re-enter, what is the ‘real’ outside world, well let’s just say that it tends to come as a bit of a shock to the system, but there are times when you just have to do whatever it is that you have to do, although in the future I may travel wearing a crash helmet and one of those neck cushions.

Once back into our much cooler apartment we agreed that we would go back out later for dinner, neither of us wanting to really think about what we were going to have, or more importantly, the enthusiasm to prepare and cook for ourselves on that day, but we both agreed that we much preferred on this occasion for it to be somewhere that was right on our doorstep, not the Marina or the local town, just somewhere where we could just basically ‘eat and run’ and then get home again as quickly as possible, as we were both pretty much knackered after our already long and extremely hot day. We both unanimously agreed on our very convenient, typically British, ‘Fish ‘n’ Chip Restaurant, which was only a two-minute drive away at the bottom of the hill, and yes we could have walked but we didn’t. We savoured every single mouthful of our Medium sized battered Cod, I remember thinking at the time, if that was a ‘medium’ sized cod then I was glad that I hadn’t opted to have gone large on this occasion 😳 It of course came with the usual portion of homestyle chunky chips, curry sauce (Although we could have selected ‘mushy peas’) and a slice of doorstep thick bread and butter (To make the mandatory Chip Butties of course, it’s a British thing 🤭). Our delicious meal was worth every single mouthful of ‘unhealthy calories’ which, just for the record, neither of us even thought twice about when putting them into our very grateful, and hungry, stomaches 😂 Shazza enjoyed a bottle of cold toasted ‘non-alcohol’ cervesa and of course, you already know what my refreshment of choice was without me having to tell you. Having enjoyed our meals and it still being 30 degrees(c) at 7pm in the evening 🥵 we both thought, ‘What the heck’ we may as well go the full nine yards, so we called in at the Supermarket, which was virtually next door, and purchased a box of ‘Magnum Double Caramel’ ice-creams, which we enjoyed whilst we sat and watched ‘Enola Homes 3’ on Netflix, which was a particular movie that had been on our ‘favourites list’ for ages, their was no FIFA World Cup football on the TV at all that particular night.

It felt so good the following morning to know that our usual, much more sedentary lifestyles, would return to normal now, well for at least the next couple of year’s, to just do what we like, when we like, if we like and even my OCD Buddy can now, hopefully, enjoy an extended vacation.

Although the daily, and nightly temperatures are keeping the mercury levels high, generally around 35 degrees(c) and 24 degrees(c) respectively, in our little corner of Spain and, as we are now utilising our Summertime schedule on a daily basis, sometimes, making decisions on what we are going to do on any particular day can actually be all about timing. Occasionally, if we are ‘both’ up early enough, we can still find the opportunity to get down to one of the quieter stretches of beach, just a couple of minutes walk away from our usual ‘favourite’ solar basting beach and where we park the car. We take off our flip-flops and stroll at the waters edge along a near empty shoreline, the tourists, who are now beginning to arrive in much greater numbers, don’t tend to descend until much later in the morning. There is just something so nice about getting off the scorching hot sand and feeling the cooler water lapping over our feet, just walking slowly along a seemingly endless expanse of beach, listening to the gentle rippling of the waves, the intermittent screeches of the gulls overhead and just the very slightest audible drone of traffic noise drifting across from the nearby A7 coastal road. These moments, for us, are one of the ‘True Moments Of Pure Bliss’.

However, the sun burning our exposed skins was a timely reminder for us not to wander too far, with each of us lost in our own silent thoughts, before turning around and heading back towards where we had parked the car. We stopped at a small Chiringuito, to partake of our slightly later than usual ‘Cafe con Leche’s’ whilst watching the local area start to wake up, the security shutters on the small village shop started to raise, the woman owner popping her head out of the doorway to see what customer’s were waiting to enter, to purchase their daily loaves of freshly baked bread, baguettes or rolls, their were none waiting on this occasion so she exchanged pleasantries with the lady owner of the Cafe/Bar that we were sat at, before then disappearing again, back inside the darker and very much cooler sanctuary of her shop. People watching and general observations of life is one of those pleasures that require a lot of patience, and of course time, for which we now have an abundance of. We both smiled at each other when we saw an elderly gentleman, sat at a table opposite us, receive his ‘Tostado’ accompanied by a pot of blended tomato, bottle of Olive Oil and sachet of salt (Tostado con Tamate), he paused for a moment, as if he was thinking on how he would construct his breakfast, would it be Olive Oil poured on top of the two halves of small toasted baguette (Pitufo), followed by spreading the tomato paste then adding a light sprinkling of salt, or would it be the Tomato first and then the Olive Oil 🤔 Either is acceptable, but he opted for the more traditional way, the Olive Oil first. What made us both smile is that it is a very similar conundrum to the British way of eating a ‘Scone’ with Strawberry Jam and Clotted Cream, is it the Jam that is spread first, or the Clotted Cream ? My answer, if asked, is always, ‘Does it really matter ?’ for you put it into your mouth and swallow it all together anyway 🤷‍♂️

It seems strange how one minute you can be enjoying the calmness and serenity of life, and then, you literally just turn around and become aware of the reality that, in the real world, ‘Things Can Change In An Instant !’. One moment can feel quite calm and tranquil, but then for some, in that same period of time that we ourselves were enjoying, that plume of smoke that we could see in the distance, in the low lying foothills of the mountain near Estepona, was about to turn some other people’s day into a less than calm and tranquil one.

We had of course been keeping up to date with the Wildfires, both those happening in Spain but also those in other European Countries too, but to be honest the first one’s reported had occurred many miles North of us, up in the Province of ‘Catalonia’ around 7-8 hour’s drive away, but within a matter of only 48 hours many more, quite shocking reports, and images, started appearing on our own Spanish News Channels, as well as on European TV News Channels and in the media, including in the UK, where reports were awash about incidents all over Spain, Portugal and France. It made we wonder on just how many times we had read news articles, or watched TV News, and seen and heard about disasters all around the world, but if they do not directly impact on us then, whilst still shocking, the often tragic scenes that we may have just watched, or read about, are quickly forgotten as we move on to another unrelated news subject. We are the same here in Spain, if these incidents are further North, or just across the borders in either Portugal or Southern France, we take note, make the usual comments and then get on with whatever it is we were doing.

However, since owning a property in Spain, and now living here permanently, we have had very regular realisations, on an annual basis, that here in Spain incidences of Wildfires are a very real threat, so Shazza and I take a lot more notice of any that are reported, both within our local area, for which their have been three so far, and also several other’s further afield. That isn’t for just ‘General’ Interest, as these Wildfires can occur without warning and spread within minutes at an extremely rapid rate, not helped by the strong winds that fan the flames, for wildfires know no boundaries. By way of an example, very recently, on the day that we had travelled to Malaga, a Wildfire had caused part of the A7, that we would use on our way home, to be closed. We were not aware of this whilst we were in Malaga, we had other things on our mind and had no reason to check our Google Maps App. Fortunately, the fire had been brought under control and the road re-opened by the time we travelled back on it and, in reality, we would have been stopped well before we got anywhere near it, but we actually only learnt about it later that evening on the local news. But it reminded us of an incident in our former nomadic lives, we had been Wild-Camping for a couple of nights in an inland forested area in Central Portugal, on our way down to the Algarve. By sheer luck, we had got talking one morning to a local, who asked if we were aware of the Wildfire a few miles away, we weren’t, as we didn’t listen to the local Portuguese news, we didn’t know the language 🤷‍♂️ A few days later, sat in the comfort of our van on a campsite down on the Algarve, we learnt that that particular fire went on to burn for many days, burning thousands of acres and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people, including those in the area where we had been discreetly hidden away 😲 The thought haunted us for many year’s after that, ‘What would have happened to us, if we had decided to remain in that discreet spot for a few more days ?’ 😲 Now, recalling that incident, serves to remind us of just how real these situations are, how quickly they can develop and just how close we now live to them.

Initially, the news articles made no reference of any of the foreign nationals fatalities as being those that were in Motor-Homes or Camper-Vans, only a general reference to ‘Vehicles’, although it later transpired that these were British and Belgian Nationals who were ‘residents’ in the area. However, recent reports from some of the survivor’s made us realise at how, during our own Portugal experience, that Motorhome ‘Aires’ or ‘Campsites had actually offered us no safety.

Another was just as chilling…………….

The following images reflect on just how close these recent Wildfires came to populated areas, and at how ferocious they can be. I do not include these frightening images for ‘Sensationalism’, just to show that there is a very thin line between a tranquil and safe existence here in Spain, much like what we enjoy on a daily basis but, there are also some less desirable realities of doing so, whether or not you choose to live in more isolated rural communities or down in the much more populated holiday hotspots (Definitely no Pun intended).

Similar scenes are being played out in several other countries too, it isn’t confined to just Spain, last year Italy and Greece made the major news headlines, especially Athens, where one such Wildfire threatened to overwhelm the city itself. These events have become much more frequent, they are annual events but each year they are getting more frequent and much more intense. It is the word ‘Frequency’ that should concern all of us, for no matter where we live in the world or whether it be Wildfires, Earthquakes, Volcanic Eruptions, Floods, Storms etc. for we are regularly being warned by the respective Scientists and Meteorologists, that all of these events are getting worse, year on year.

As if the current Wildfires dangers are not enough, now, here in Spain, it is about to get even worse as another frequent annual event returns to fan those flames of destruction, and raise the already high temperatures to yet another level.

So yes, Shazza and myself can sit and be left speechless at some of the most amazing and enjoyable Sunrises and Sunsets, we can take leisurely walks along miles of long sandy beaches enjoying the water lapping over our feet, we can sit in the shade of an umbrella on a beach, or by our swimming pool, or under a shaded terrace enjoying Cafe con Leche’s, Lunches and Dinner’s and yes, this is the serene, idyllic and pretty much regular part of our daily lives here in Spain, but as each year passes, the realities of our rapidly heating planet call by, and they provide us with a bit of a wake up call 😳. There are two questions that I am often left asking myself, about Global Warming and Climate Change in particular, they are, ‘Can we as individual’s, do anymore than we are already trying to do ?’ And the other question of course is, “Should we stop worrying about the things that we can neither control or influence ?”

So I know that this has probably not been one of my more lighter rambles for you to read, but it does show the other ‘less pleasurable’ side of living here, and I do try to be honest with you and paint an accurate picture of what life is like for us here in Spain, which like anywhere else can, more often than not, be extremely good, but then, occasionally, for a variety of reasons, perhaps be not so good at times.

In Other ‘Slightly Better’ News……………

Both my Spanish and English flags remain flying on my balcony, as both countries progress to the Semi-Finals stage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup competition 🎉🎉🎉 Perhaps contrary to something that I ‘may’ have stated in a previous ramble, maybe, just maybe, we can start to believe that instead of stealing the prestigious World Cup Trophy, and hiding it in their Cabin Baggage, this England team may possibly be able to ‘Bring It Home’ and quite legally 🤔

Now some of you may recall that I have previously stated, somewhat surprisingly, that in all the times we have been coming here to what was initially our ‘Bolt Hole’, before becoming our now permanent home, that we had never witnessed any drunken or loutish behaviour in either the Marina or our local town, on any day or night of the week, or during Fiesta’s that go on until the early hours of the mornings. Well perhaps this next recent media report may provide the answer to why that may be.

Well I believe that this slightly amended Ramble, from the original one I had in ‘Draft’, is lengthy enough to enable those of you suffering with ‘Insomnia’ to at least get some relief from your ailment, so of course, it goes without saying, that I am always pleased to be of service 😂

You may also be pleased to hear that, come Floods, Earthquakes, Wildfires or the ever increasing temperatures, Shazza and I will just continue to attempt to exist the best that we can, for as long as we can, what more can anyone do 🤷‍♂️ Although on a less happy note, for some of you that is, that does mean me that I will almost certainly be producing and publishing a hell of a lot more ‘Rambles’ 😳 So, until the next time……………………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos

As I began ‘drafting’ yet another literary masterpiece 🤭 It was Wednesday afternoon (1st July) and there I was, sat on the balcony doing absolutely nothing, ‘Well that is nothing ununusual for you Eric’, I can hear you all saying, and yes my dear reader’s, of course I can hear you, even if you were only thinking it in your heads 😁 However, I was shaken quite abruptly out of my semi-hypnotic state by my phone ringing, an unusual occurrence I do have to say, not unusual about me being in a semi-hypnotic state but about my phone ringing, as in truth, my phone rarely rings at any time of the day 🤷‍♂️ it is more usual for Shazza to receive phone calls or other notifications on her devices than mine. My initial thought was that it was probably one of those irritating unsolicited ‘Call Centre Tele-Sales type Calls’, which, under normal circumstances I would just ignore, but for some inexplicable reason, I didn’t and instead I chose to answer it and, as it turned out, it was a very good job that I had. It was Silvia, from our local Solicitor’s office, advising me that our new Residency Permits (TIE Cards) were ready for collection, from the Malaga Immigration Office and that she had already managed to secure two back-to-back appointments for us to collect them, although the earliest she could get was for midday the following week (Wed 8th July), so that would entail another 90 minute or so car journey into what would be the furnace of heat in the City, with forecasts currently reflecting that it would be between 40-43 degrees(c) on that particular day 🥵

To say that I was ‘Shocked ! Stunned ! And Surprised !’, in equal measure, would be a bit of an understatement, Why so ? you may very well ask, and even if you don’t ask I am going to tell you anyway, so nothing unusual their either then eh 😁 Well, it was for two reasons mainly, the first being that, as you will no doubt know by now, from my consistent rebukes in these rambles about Spanish Bureaucracy, for they are not generally known for their lightning speed efficiency, but also because I was aware, from the Spanish ‘Doom and Gloom’ media publications, that this recent ‘Migrant Regularisation’ process, which I think that I may have mentioned once or twice in some of my more recent rambles 😂 had actually attracted well over 1.25 million applications nationwide by the 30th June cut off date, of which, according to those that know these sort of things, 400,000 of those applications were made within our own Malaga Province 😲 Now that doesn’t mean that all of those applicants were, or even would be, accepted or approved, but I feel sure many will be, as it was more a Political will to introduce this ‘Regularisation Process’ but, as a consequence of that process, it would also mean that the Immigration Authorities would have to produce even more TIE Residency Cards to those that were successful, in addition to the usual ‘routine’ renewals applicants like ourselves.

Interestingly enough, from the published statistics, ‘other’ Nationalities, originating from some much closer European destinations, who have been living here ‘Illegally’ for quite a number of year’s now, were excluded from those statistics. However, what did come as a surprise to me was that ‘some’ of those ‘other’ nationalities had actually taken to Social Media Channels to say that although they had applied, under the ‘Migrant Regularisation Scheme’, their applications had been rejected, for a variety of reasons, insufficient supporting documentation being the main one but many, who had stated that they were ‘Retired’, had been rejected for they were not now able to meet the ‘Official’ financial requirements of the NLV Visa, the Spanish Government of course wanting migrants of a ‘working age’ which would more benefit the country’s economy, now and in future year’s. Now I am sure that you know me well enough by now to know that my cynical nature would also kick in, on reading many of these Social Media comments from those who stated that they had been rejected, nearly all of them submitted ‘Anonymously’ I hasten to add. So my cynical mind got to wondering, ‘Just how many of these comments were actually ‘Fake’, for why would anyone go on line, anonymously or not, to publicise the fact that they had actually been living here illegally, but had perhaps now wanted to come ‘Out Of The Darkness In To The Light’ but subsequently been rejected. Perhaps it was a warning to say to other’s if, in the future, a similar scheme is deployed, ‘If you have managed to live here ‘under the radar’ for a number of year’s and not been discovered, then don’t put your head above the parapet’ 🤷‍♂️

Anyway, enough of that and back to script………..

So, when the Immigration Officer in Malaga told us, just two short weeks ago, that we would have to wait for somewhere between 4-6 weeks before our new TIE Cards would be ready for collection, you can probably understand my scepticism, expecting it to take very much longer than that in the current migrant regularisation climate, so that is why this unanticipated phone call from Silvia had taken me by complete surprise. Although what will not come as any surprise to you my reader’s, will be to hear that my OCD Buddy had already marked an advance date in the diary, for mid-July, which would be the time for me to start chasing up our Solicitors, to find out if our new TIE Cards were anywhere near ready for collection, so my OCD Buddy has now erased that reminder from the calendar and gone back to solar basting by the pool 😁 So, you my reader’s, should probably now go and get your own OCD Buddies to make a note in ‘your own diaries’, for this is likely to be a very unique and once in a lifetime statement within these rambles, YES ! I am now actually going to announce ‘very publicly’ that, in my personal opinion, the ‘Spanish Immigration Authorities’ have for once, gone above and beyond the call of duty 🙏🙏🎉🎉 Perhaps, I think to myself, some of them are actually themselves followers of these rambles and wanted me to say something nice about them for a change 🤔

Some of you may well be wondering what all the fuss is about, I mean it is only a plastic card that certifies our Official residency status in Spain and, in truth, this Residency Card very rarely see’s the light of day, although we do have to carry it on our person at all times when we are away from our home, just in case we get stopped for an impromptu ‘Spot Check’, which has happened to us only once in 11 year’s. However, that said, this small, credit card sized card, actually does do a lot more than just confirm our residency status. For I now need to update our Spanish Bank Records, for they keep informing me, on-line, on my Banking App, that our legal residency here has expired, and they now need a photograph of both of our new Cards, or it may effect our banking status with them 😲 To just clarify for you, there are ‘Non-Resident’ Bank Accounts, which can attract various Bank Charges, which can be up to €240 a year just in maintenance charges, sometimes a lot more, dependent on the type of transactions that you may make as a ‘non-resident’ on the account. Whereas, ‘Resident’ Bank Accounts do not ‘usually’ attract any ‘routine’ fee’s or charges, even when transferring money to accounts in other EU member Countries. Additionally, this residency card can also have some other useful benefits, in my particular case, due to my more ‘Senior Status’ to that of Shazza’s, it can entitle ‘me’ to either ‘Free’ (My favourite word) or ‘Discounted’ fees, on certain admission fee’s (Tourist Attractions, Cinemas), or even certain products and services, and so, as you can imagine, with me being a poor pensioner, although happily not poor enough to have my renewals application rejected, even a few Euro’s saved here and there is worth having as far as I am concerned 🤭 Then of course there is now the freedom to travel within Spain, although to be honest we could have still done that anyway on our British Passports had we have wanted to, but the production of a TIE Card, rather than a British Passport ‘may’ exempt us from paying ‘Tourist Tax’ if we were to book directly with certain accommodation establishments, but not if we use the On-Line Hotel Accommodation Booking Platforms, and of course, the more important advantage of holding this Spanish Residency Card is that we can now also once again travel further afield within Europe, without the need to go through the inconvenience and delays associated with the recent introduction of the EES processes and procedures, so this small card does actually bring some other very useful advantages along with it 👍

That should now, hopefully, even if only for you my reader’s sakes, be the end of me making any further mentions of this whole Residency Renewal process again within these rambles, or the mention of any other Spanish Bureaucracy, for we have also just sorted our 2025 Tax Bill with the Spanish Tax Agency, so yes, hoorah, that will be a relief to your eye’s in not having to read anymore about it 😂 Although, I will just pre-warn you, that it will only be a ‘temporary respite’, for a couple of years, for then it will be time to do it all again, only on that occasion it will be to obtain our ‘Permanent Residency Status’, which should, well theoretically at least, involve a little less Bureaucratic Administrative Procedures, ‘Not in your wildest dreams Eric’ I can hear you saying already 😂😂

So what else has been happening here in Paradise ? 🤔

For us personally, not a lot, just much of the same really, Beach days, Swimming Pool Afternoons, Shopping, Occasional exercise walks with accompanying Cafe con Leche and people watching activities, the odd lunch out somewhere (usually combined with doing something else like the shopping, going for hair cuts or other appointments), or dinner out, when the sun has dropped in the sky and stopped burning, although then the humidity levels do tend to increase. Dinner’s out, for us at least, are currently just a once a week event and usually just at the weekends but, other than that we have been doing much of the same daily and weekly sort of stuff, although at a lot slower pace of course, due to the current temperatures 🥵 Which does actually link in very nicely with some other more Spanish related news topics……….

As you may recall me saying in a previous ramble, I do not know why the Doom and Gloom merchants are making such a big deal about it this year, the temperatures during the month of June have regularly been in, or even above, the 40 degree(c) range for several year’s now, I remember in our first year of living here on a permanent basis, in June 2023, the temperature reached 42 degree’s 🥵 I guess the only difference is that they are now making a much bigger deal about the number of deaths here in Spain, rather than in the whole of Europe, who are also suffering a high number of heat associated fatalities. However, they do not break those numerical statistics down, like how many of those deaths were actually permanent residents, or how many of them were non-permanent residents who can quite easily underestimate the dangerous effects of the searingly hot and dry temperatures here 🤷‍♂️ I guess that highlighting how many ‘Temporary’ visitor’s die of the extreme heat would not be good for the ‘Spanish Tourism Industry’, in addition to the continuing ‘Anti-Tourist’ demonstrations that are also still going on 🤔

Shazza and myself have adapted reasonably well though, to the Spanish heat over the Summer months, as I am sure other’s have certainly done when re-locating to much hotter countries than their own. There are daily routines that you just do as a matter of course, and I have documented these measures in previous rambles numerous times, so I won’t bore you with them again. We do of course still have to venture out for the normal everyday stuff, but we try to do that during the mornings, whenever possible. Within the last few days Shazza had a hair appointment at her usual hairdresser in the small former fishing village, whilst she was having that done I went to a small Cafe, which is opposite the small whitewashed village church where I enjoyed a ‘Cortado’, which is a slightly stronger coffee than a ‘Cafe con Leche’, and I just sat waiting for her, in the shade enjoying the tranquility.

Now whilst doing so my vivid imagination came to the fore, here I was sat in a ‘Cantina’ style Cafe, rustic clay pots hung from the walls, in a small village with whitewashed houses and narrow streets, a typical looking one-horse sort of town or village that you see in those old American Westerns on the TV, although, on this occasion, without the ball of tangle-weed blowing down the dusty street. At any minute I was expecting the ‘man with no name’ to nonchalantly walk around the corner, brim of his hat pulled down concealing his eyes, chi-root hanging from the corner of one side of his mouth, one side of his poncho slung over his shoulder, hand on the pistol hung in the holster by his side, looking for the bandits that had done him wrong …… Which, I know, you don’t have to tell me, was very stupid really, for when you actually sit and think about it, we all know don’t we, that he did have a name, it was ‘Clint Eastwood’ 😂

Shazza’s hairdresser was quite literally just around the corner from the Cafe, no more than a two-minute walk, so after she was done she joined me and enjoyed a ‘Cortado’ herself, before we headed off, in the car, as opposed to climbing into a saddle and riding off on a horse into the sunset. We headed into our local town as we needed to go and post a Birthday Card to my daughter in Germany. It was a Friday, so that meant that the weekly market was on and it was fairly busy, fortunately though the weekly market is on the seafront side of town and we needed to be on the opposite side, not that it was that much quieter as the main large Mercadona Supermarket is also on the same side as the ‘Correos’ (Post Office) but, like the seaward side, we also know where to park on this side to find a space. By this time the temperature was already at 28 degrees(c), but it was only a ten-minute walk and, inside the ‘Correos’ the air conditioning was doing its job, there was only a couple of other people inside waiting to be served so we were not waiting long, virtually in and out in no time, on other occasions it can be manic inside and we have to wait for ages for our turn. Opposite it, rather conveniently, are three separate Cafe/Bar’s, here in Spain you are never really short of Cafe/Bars to choose from, although none of these are any of our normal regular haunts, but there is one in particular that we occasionally stop at for lunch, if we happen to be on this side of town so, being in the immediate vicinity, and it being in the shade, we did the same on this occasion, and lunch was of course accompanied by the usual mandatory Anti-Covid Vaccine 🍷, well it would of course have been rude not to and, I suddenly realised that it had been almost a week since my last dose of Anti-Covid Vaccine, however did I manage to let that happen 😲

Stomaches full, we headed home out of the rapidly increasing heat of the afternoon, we contemplated getting changed and going down to the pool, but then lethargy took over, maybe tomorrow we both agreed, so I took up my usual position on the shaded balcony, Shazza went to the cool shade of the bedroom to read a book on her kindle device, with the shutters three quarters of the way down and the four French window style doors fully open, it allowed the cooling sea breeze to waft through. We each remained in our favourite places until early evening, just me moving to make us both our regular afternoon cuppa’s, after having first checked that Shazza hadn’t decided to partake in a cheeky little afternoon Siesta 😂 Then later, Shazza would prepare whatever culinary delight we would be having for our evening meal, which of course would consist of the majority of the ingredients being of the much more healthy variety, you know to which I refer by now, lovely 🙄 Then we both settle down in front of the TV, to watch whatever teams happened to be playing that night in the current FIFA World Cup competition, just really a typical sort of day for us at the moment 🤷‍♂️ Now, for all that I may have a rather ‘Whatever will be will be’ sort of attitude to life these days, I do have to confess that I am rather glad that we have got our Residency sorted here in Spain once again, for we both do rather enjoy our generally tranquil lives here, this certainly feels like home to us and it will continue to be our home, until ‘we’, or perhaps someone else, you know to whom I refer, decides otherwise.

Looking at subjects just a little wider afield than our own back door ………. Did you know that the annual ‘Wimbledon’ tennis tournament had started ? Well to be honest, I hadn’t, well not until I saw some newspaper articles on it. I don’t really have to much interest in that particular sport, but even less so when it is held at Wimbledon, but that is only because I am more afraid of having to see ‘Sir’ Cliff Richard suddenly arise from his seat in the spectators area, and then start, for no particular reason, to give a rendition of one of his very old hit songs, although, if you are someone of a much younger generation, who doesn’t know to whom I am referring, don’t worry about it, he isn’t really that significant anymore, only at the ‘Mistletoe and Wine’ sort of season. Unlike, Emma Radacunu of course, the young female British tennis ‘star’, and I use the term ‘Star’ very loosely you understand because, a few short year’s ago now, and barely out of her school uniform, she apparently won a prestigious USA tennis tournament and, for that one time only event, she received, in 2022, an MBE (Member of the British Empire) award from our current King Charles III, although I do have to say, since winning that one tennis tournament and attaining that prestigious award, she has won bugger all since 🤷‍♂️ Neither will she be gracing us with her presence in this year’s Wimbledon tournament either, because apparently, at the ripe old age of just 23 year’s, she is injured, yet again, she probably fell over her ego getting out of her Ferrari 😂 Oh no, I just heard my mother chastising me from afar, “Eric ! If you cannot say anything nice about a person, then don’t say anything at all” 😳 Oops, “Sorry Mum”

As for the football and this year’s World Cup competition 🥱🥱 Yes I know, boring, boring, boring, well for some at least, so I will excuse you if you want to go for an unnecessary ‘Hydration Break’ 🤭 (Some will understand that sarcastic comment more than other’s)

Well, what can I say, England are up to their now customary antics, with their somewhat lack lustre performances in the early stages of the competition but now, with what I have to say was an absolutely brilliant performance, and somewhat unexpected win, against Mexico they now progress into the Quarter Final stages, which effectively puts them just three games away from lifting that prestigious trophy. Can we fans now start singing the infamous ‘Its Coming Home’ chant now, I ask myself, the one we have been singing since the one and only time we brought the trophy home in 1966 🤷‍♂️ and let’s be honest here, it does have a lot more catchy rhythm to it than our pretty boring and uninspiring ‘National Anthem’. Although it seems that we have now adopted a new ‘post match’ anthem, ‘Wonderwall’ which both the fans and the players sing with much gusto to each other. To be perfectly honest with you, although being one of the many loyal and patriotic English football supporters, I feel the need to just remind my fellow fans that we have been here before, many times, haven’t we ? Where we make the latter stages of a major competition only to stumble at the last hurdle 😢 However, on a much more positive note, the good news is, ‘You have to be in it to win it’ and there are quite a few nations that cannot say that at this stage of the competition and, mentioning no names, some of them are one’s that you would have expected to still be at the party, but have departed early 🙄 My personal belief is the same as it was at the beginning of this tournament, and that is that the only way that trophy is coming home to England is if one of the team, or coaching staff, steal it and hide it in their cabin bags 😂

Our daughter (English) and son-in-law (Australian), who live in Munich, are especially miffed, they both went out and attempting to blend in with the natives, bought the latest German National Team football shirts, which they have been wearing in various ‘Biergartens’ in Munich along with the locals, good on them for integrating that’s what I say. But I couldn’t help but think, there was €200 down the drain then, perhaps more if they had splashed out on new Aussie tops as well 🤷‍♂️ Although, I did try to be helpful and sympathetic (Although perhaps not as sympathetic as I could have been 😂) and suggested that they look to see if they still had the receipts for their recent purchases, so that they could try to return them and get their money back, although there probably would be a long queue of people attempting to do the same 😁 I do have the faintest of hopes that our ‘second’ country will also progress in the competition, now that would make a good cup final, again 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 v 🇪🇸, although we didn’t do too well the last time around when we had that encounter, well not the 80% of me that is English that is, but I do at least still have a 50/50 chance of still being able to celebrate something at the end of all of this as long as ‘Ronaldo & Co’ do not spoil the party tonight that is 😳

So, on that note, and because I can hear you all yawning now, and yes, I can still hear you 😁 I will bring this latest ramble to an end.

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

The long hot Summer days and sticky humid nights continue to roll on, one into another, but that is nothing unusual, for it is the same here year on year, funny old thing though, although this is a frequent annual occurrence, the media, local and national alike, bless their little cotton socks, still consider it to be major front page headline news 🤷‍♂️ Now of course, I can fully understand these headlines appearing in the daily ‘Doom & Gloom’ publications in some other more northerly areas of Spain, or even in some other countries, where such extreme temperatures are a little bit out of the ordinary and not something that is generally expected or tolerated.

What does tend to bring a smile to my face though, a sarcastic one if I am being totally honest, is the fact that these Doom & Gloom publications actually feel the need to have to ‘advise’ people on what they should be doing in such extreme conditions, to keep themselves cool and hydrated, or measures to prevent themselves from suffering heatstroke and other heat related issues………REALLY !! I mean, I know that there are some certain elements of our society, who constantly display a serious lack of common sense, and that comment by the way is not aimed at the less intelligent members of our society, who, for the obvious reason that I have just stated, may have an acceptable excuse, but seriously, surely the majority of us, of reasonable intelligence, already know that if it is extremely hot that you need to drink more water to remain hydrated (As opposed to Alcohol, including, albeit essential, Anti-Covid Vaccines 🤭) and, wherever possible, you try to keep in the shade, although I do accept that that is not possible for everybody, especially if their profession is one of those that does, by their very nature, require them to be outside, Agricultural workers for example, or those employed in Construction, Law Enforcement or Military personnel, to name but a few, but come on, I am not talking about them, for the advice that is being provided by these ‘Doom & Gloom’ merchants are to people like you and me, yes the normal general public. Anyway okay enough of that, it was just reading and listening to all of these recent ‘News’ reports that made me have another one of my ‘contemplation’ moments on this particular subject, in particular as to whether we really have become such a Global ‘nanny’ population where we have got to the stage that we need other’s to tell us what we should be doing to keep healthy and safe 🤔

So how are we ourselves managing to cope, you may well ask, although then again, in truth you probably haven’t given a second thought to either Shazza or myself since you read my last ramble, so what does that say about you and your civic responsibility for ‘Care in the community’ towards the elderly eh 😂 But to be totally honest we are, in comparison with some other’s, having it relatively easy here, at least in this particular little corner of the Iberian Peninsular, although, perhaps not so further up our coastline in Malaga City, and places like Madrid, Seville and even Granada, where they are currently having to cope with daily temperatures of 40 degrees(c) and above (which by the way is very much the same every year during the Summer months), but yes, it is much cooler here, by at least 7-8 degrees, with the ever present coastal breeze helping of course, and so, looking at the advance ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts, it is likely to remain much of the same for us, the only thing that personally gives me any real concern, is whether Shazza will permit me to have a little extra room in the fridge to keep my supplies of ‘Anti-Covid Vaccines’ cool 🤭

Of course we do still have to dice with danger now and again, having to risk pedestrians suffering heatstroke and collapsing into the road under the wheels of our air-conditioned car, melting tarmac clinging to our tyres, whilst we go about the essential business of attempting to re-provision our food cupboards and fridge freezer at the local supermarket and fruiteria, and no, before you ask, we do not have the luxury of ‘Home Delivery’ in our particular area, we are not that affluent. But yes, occasionally, even we we will toss our own ‘common sense’ by the wayside by risking an early morning walk into our local town, for our routine, but quite essential, cafe con leche’s and people watching activities, how irresponsible of us you may think, but actually the ‘Doom and Gloom’ media ‘advised’ us that regular mobility and social interaction is essential to stave off ‘Dementia’, although I forget which publication it was in 🤔 but if they told us, then of course, it must be true. Although, in truth, at this time of the year we do tend to drive into town, rather than park in our more usual spot and walk in, so no, we are not totally stupid and, on such occasions I do tend to wear my rather trendy Panama Hat, which, in addition to it being for primarily practical purposes, it also does tend to give me a rather distinguished look, even if I do say so myself. In my opinion, it is what all retired English gentlemen, of a certain senior status, should be seen wearing when out in the public domain, certain members of my previous profession refer to me as ‘Our man in Sabinillas’ 😁 (You may need to watch a certain movie to understand that one). Then there are days when we may go down to the beach, where I just hide underneath my sun umbrella, not wearing my Panama Hat you understand, (you should never wear such prestigious items of headdress on the beach, that’s what knotted handkerchiefs are for 😂) I sit there in the shade, cool and well hydrated just watching Shazza, either solar-basting, turning her over occasionally so she is cooked equally on all sides, or keeping an eye on her whilst she is irritating the sea creatures by continuously invading their natural habitat.

Although, to be completely honest with you, the majority of our daily routines now comprise of starting the day, as is usual, relaxing on the balcony where it remains shaded, as the sun, during the Summer months, is too high in the sky to intrude, and where we of course have all the windows and doors open to allow the cooling gentle breeze to flow through. Then, after lunch we will head down to the very nice, small but perfectly formed, communal pool and spend a few leisurely hours there before returning to the cooler sanctuary of our apartment, where we will enjoy a late afternoon cup of tea and a digestive biscuit, how typically British of us 🤭

And so, let me just move on to some more topical matters and, as you can see from the photograph at the top of this particular ramble, no, not the swimming pool, the very top of this ramble, where here, in ‘San Luis de Sabinillas’ (To give it its ‘Official’ name) the theme for this year’s ‘San Juan 2026’ celebrations was ‘Harry Potter’, and why not, for the film, and all of its sequels, was just as popular over here as it was anywhere else in the modern world but, just in case for some totally inexplicable reason that I cannot think of, you have not been reading my rambles over god knows how many year’s, you may be wondering what this major annual Spanish festival is actually all about 🤷‍♂️

Each location has its own theme, and not all have just the one bonfire on the beach as we do here, although, you do have to wait until midnight on the 23rd June to witness them being set alight but, the festival itself , which consumes the whole of our long promenade, actually starts during the early evening and continues until sunrise the following morning. In addition to the vast array of usual Cafe/Bars and Restaurants, there are lots of ‘Pop Up’ Bars, a large stage with Live Music which goes on, and on, and on throughout the night and early hour’s of the morning, there are a whole host of other entertainment activities going on at the same time, Stilt Walkers, Fire Eaters, Giant Illuminated Unicorns, Bouncy Castles for the youngster’s, Food stalls, Ice Cream Parlours, Candy Floss and Dinky Donut stalls etc. etc. etc so it feels exactly like what it is, just one big massive street party which is attended by both locals and visitor’s alike, of all age groups, from the very youngest to the very much more senior age group. Unless you have booked a table, months in advance I hasten to add, at any of the ‘front-line’ restaurants then you will have to rely on grabbing something to eat from wherever you can, one of the back street Cafe/Bars is usually the best option, or queue up at one of the many fast food venues, although ‘Fast’ should not be taken literally on night’s such as this or, you can do what many do, just bring your own food and drink, a beach rug or towel, or even beach chairs, and just picnic on the beach. So, without further ado here are just a few images from another fantastic annual ‘San Juan Celebration’, although, just to be completely up front with you my reader’s, I may have borrowed some of the below images from other local social media sources 🙄

There are numerous local events here during both the Summer and Winter months, our Municipality of ‘Manilva’ has its own programme of events but other nearby communities, such as Estepona and La Linea also hold their own, so their is always something going on somewhere in the area and, in addition to the main annual events, which are published by local councils in advance, other’s take place too, like the annual ‘International Communities’ celebrations, and of course the annual ‘Gay Pride’ event that I mentioned in my last ramble.

Now I am not going to make out that Spain is the only country in the world that holds their own, or even unique, annual events but for many Europeans, including those from the UK, Spain is a short hop, skip and jump away, perfect for a holiday with guaranteed Summer sunshine and warm night’s for dining out ‘Al Fresco’. Until recently it has also been a very convenient, and relatively cheap place to own a ‘Holiday home’ or, for people like ourselves, to come and live here permanently without being too far away from family and Friend’s. However, like most things that start off being convenient, and cheap, eventually with their rising popularity that starts to come at a price. Even just coming here on a holiday, using the numerous ‘Cheap Flight Airline’ companies and to what, once upon a time, were cheap ‘Package Holidays’, well that is all beginning to change as ‘Capitalism’ once again rears its ugly head. Forget, if you will, at least for the time being, the delays and inconvenience now brought about by the recent introduction of the EES system and let me just highlight a few other areas that could now impact on your holiday experience. The recently introduced ‘Tourist Taxes’, not just on the cost of your holiday accommodations, but also added to the cost of many Tourist Attractions, then there are the wider global events impacting on the costs of importing products and produce, which you will feel more if your holiday entails eating meals out on a regular basis or, if you rent apartments and have to purchase your own supplies from local supermarkets.

But the biggest impact is on those who now want to consider re-locating to Spain on a more permanent basis. Don’t get me wrong, anyone with a good eye for a bargain can still discover opportunities to grab them, away from the more desirable locations. However, even we cannot believe how fast property prices have escalated in the relatively short time since we purchased our property here.

We recently conducted a re-evaluation of our own apartment, basically because of our recent Visa and Residency Permits, just in case we unexpectedly found ourselves in a situation where we may have had to sell up here. We were quite surprised, even with the knowledge that property prices had gone up year on year since we purchased it, initially as a ‘holiday home’ some eleven year’s ago now, to discover that, if we were to sell it now, that it is valued at just a little over 100% more than what we initially payed for it. To put that into some sort of perspective, if we were looking to move here now, we certainly could not afford to purchase this very apartment that we now call home 😲 The days when you could come here and offer a price ‘much lower’ than what was actually being asked, and have it accepted, are virtually gone, ‘Seller is once again King’. So, as one Agent who specialises in helping people re-locate to Spain, recently wrote……….

There are many people that want to come and live in Spain, from families who want to relocate, young entrepreneurs, people who want to come and start their own business, or purchase an existing one or people like ourselves who didn’t want, or need, to work and just wanted to spend our Retirement year’s here. So whilst I am on the subject of living in Spain, as a retiree, on a permanent basis, and now that the UK is no longer a member of the EU, just a reminder of the first financial hurdle that you will have to meet before you even step foot in Spain.

Does €3,000 (£2,608 approx) a month represent what you really need to live here ? Well, as I have said many times before in these rambles, it depends on a number of initial factors, can you afford to purchase a property without the need for a mortgage ? (Although you could choose to rent rather than own a property but that rental fee, like a mortgage payment, has to be built into the financial consideration), in which area do you want to live (Some Regions and Provinces can vary on how much it cost to live there) And, probably quite importantly, what kind of lifestyle do you want to enjoy ? Now I can only talk about our own situation which is without the need to have a mortgage, or pay rent, and living on our monthly incomes which are solely from our ‘Pensions’, but even so, we are able to pay ‘All’ of our bills, Utilities, Communal Charges, owning and running a car, two mobile phones and home WiFi, and personal expenditure for Coffee’s (and Anti-Covid Vaccines), occasional Lunches or Dinner’s out and the occasional ‘Road Trips’, and we find that we can certainly live a very comfortable lifestyle here, and I can confidently tell you that it does not cost us anywhere near €3,000 a month. So, if you had savings, that you could keep in the bank without having to access them, so that you can keep meeting the ‘current’ annual Visa and Residency Permit requirements (Bear in mind, using savings rather than annual income means that when you come to the 2 year renewal intervals you need to have twice the annual amount e.g. 2 x €36,000), but then you would not need an income of €3,000 (From other sources e.g. Pensions or Investment returns) to meet the needs of your normal monthly commitments, dependent of course on the initial factors that I mentioned above. But worth taking into consideration, the current Visa and Permit financial requirements may be amended at any time (more likely in the upwards direction), and will your ‘other’ monthly incomes increase with the ‘Cost Of Living’ and, if you transfer money then of course you need to take account of any fluctuations in the exchange rates. So, if you had savings to meet the Visa and Residency Permit requirements and then, as a couple who were both in receipt of full UK State Pensions, you could live here in Spain in reasonable comfort.

Regular reader’s of these rambles also know that I often do comparisons between life here in Spain, with what life is like in the UK, or sometimes other areas of Europe. I try to be open and unbiased in my comparisons and I am certainly not Anti-UK, I could go back there to live tomorrow, if I really had to, although I cannot say the same for my beloved, imagine this picture, Wild horses and lots of kicking and screaming, that would probably best describe her attitude to returning 🫣 However, at the moment at least, I do much prefer living here in Spain, for numerous reasons, although Spanish Bureaucracy not being one of them, which I guess many of you are already aware of 😂 However, for all of its positive aspects, Spain in General, is not unlike many other countries in Europe, or indeed probably the world, it has its issues too and no, they are not all to do with Anti-Tourism.

And yes, there is a lot more that I could add, but I think that I may just have made my point, which is, it doesn’t matter in which area or country you may live, or which area or country that you may choose to re-locate too, that old saying is still certainly so very true, ‘You can please some of the people some of the time, BUT, you cannot please all of the people all of the time 🤷‍♂️’

However, sometimes you are lucky enough, due to your own personal situation, and perhaps even because of the place where you may happen live, that you discover that most of the ‘external noise’ that is happening all around you, does not have any major impact on you and so, whilst you remain aware of it, you also learn to co-exist alongside it the best that you can.

So, to end this particular ramble I will just say, as we have run this year’s gauntlet with Spanish Bureaucracy, and come out the other end with another favourable result, (It was never in any real doubt, was it ?) so, Shazza and I, much like the 2026 ‘World Cup Trophy’ will not be ‘Coming Home, This Year’ 😂

Enjoy the rest of your Summer (or Winter) wherever you may happen to be in the world reading this 👍

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

Just a bit of a pre-warning before you do get stuck into reading this particular ramble, ‘It could be a long read’ so best go and prepare yourself a large flask of coffee and, dependent on what part of the day you may be reading this, either a hearty breakfast, a picnic lunch or a generous supper 🤭

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We left home at 09:50, a little earlier than we would normally do when we were just going down to our local beach, perhaps subconsciously we just needed to take a ‘full day’ off from all the hour’s and days of bureaucratic procedures that we were currently trying to wade through, for some reason it seemed much more intense than previously and, we were both aware that there would still be yet more hour’s, and days spent dealing with it, before we could finally settle back into our much more now accustomed relaxed lifestyle. Although, it didn’t help that I had also become aware that I also needed to sort out another bureaucratic issue, this time with the UK HMRC who keep getting my personal tax arrangements wrong, and of course not in my favour. This was the same issue that, I wrongly believed, had been sorted out last Summer when they had to refund me quite a substantial sum in overpayment of tax, but they had not amended my tax records for the current, or future, tax year’s. It would certainly be a bit of an understatement to say that we were both becoming more and more frustrated with each passing day recently, ‘When it rains, it pours’, as the saying goes. So sometimes you just have to disconnect from all of it, force yourself to take a break and allow yourself to take a deep breath to re-set your equilibrium, to re-gain the motivation to continue to fight for the life that we feel that we have worked so hard to achieve.

Armed with our reclining sun chairs, sun umbrellas, bottles of chilled water and a sandwich for our lunch, we were all set up by 10:05am on our favourite stretch of beach, having made a land grab for our personal bit of waterfront territory, with the car, parked in our normal ‘free’ car park, less than 30 metres away, and with the sea a little more than 6 metres from our toes 😎 We arrived to a near empty beach, there were just a couple of other early arrivals, but just how long it would stay that way we didn’t know, neither did we really care, we had got our position, so everyone else would just have to fit in around us if it got that busy, however, spoiler alert, it didn’t, probably because it is still too early in the season for the bulk of the visiting tourists.

The sea conditions were not exactly what you would call flat calm, more a case of generally light swells, with the occasional larger rogue waves sweeping in now and again, just to keep things interesting of course, one of which just happened to wipe Shazza out on one occasion, much to my amusement I do have to confess 🤭 She re-appeared, swept her hair back and just resumed her swimming as if nothing had happened 🤷‍♂️ The sun was already high in the sky and the temperature felt very hot, although it was only 24 degrees(c) when we had initially arrived, but it was forecast to rise to nearer 32 degrees(c) by midday 🥵 Fortunately though, their was a light Easterly breeze, blowing in from across the sea, which kept it pretty bearable although it didn’t really matter to me, for as you probably know by now, I do not do ‘Solar Basting’, so I was more than happy to remain under the shade of my umbrella, keeping a watch for Shazza to ensure that she did keep re-surfacing from between the tall swells that, every few seconds, hid her from my view. But on this particular day I was also on the lookout for the tell tale shape of a large black fin, which would alert me to the predator that may now be lurking somewhere out there in the deep, which could quite possibly have had Shazza for lunch, before she had even had a chance to take a bite out of her own 🫣 Yes, you may think that I am being alarmist but I did actually have a very good reason for this, for that very morning I had read an article, in one of the usual daily ‘Doom & Gloom’ publications 😲 (Turn on scary theme music to the movie ‘Jaws’)

Now okay it was after all only the one confirmed recent sighting of a Great White in our waters, and that was actually quite a substantial distance away, the sighting being off the coast between Sicily and Tunisia, but in reality, the Mediterranean is just one large circular bay, and large predators like these can travel very many miles in a relatively short period of time. Also, I had not forgotten about the Hammerhead Shark sighting in a much closer Spanish Harbour to us last year ? Or the Pod of Orcas that are still attacking boats off the Spanish and Portuguese Coastlines and, if those few encounters aren’t enough to cause some concern, then there were also these……………

Now I feel rather certain that all of the Marine Biologists, well okay, perhaps only those that do research in this part of the Mediterranean, will be ‘wetting their pants in excitement’ at all of this positive news around the increase in the bio-diversity that is happening in our waters. But I bet they are not giving a single thought about some of us normal beachgoers, who may actually be suffering from doing much worse things in our pants, just at the thought of actually coming face to face with any of these dangerous sea creatures, just to clarify that statement, I mean coming face to face with the ‘creatures of the sea’ and not the marine biologists 😂 Yes I can actually hear them all now, the young marine biologists and not the sea creatures, having spent years on years of doing several Marine Biology University courses, which would have no doubt involved numerous late night sessions in the Student Union Bar, funded of course by the bank of Mummy and Daddy, but now being able to confidently say to them, in some sort of triumphant and jubilant manner no doubt, “See, I told you it would be worth all ‘your’ expense one day” 😂

Okay Yes, I have digressed yet again haven’t I ? Best I get back to the script before you, my reader’s, start having nightmares about the terrors that lurk beneath the waves 🫣 I can just hear some parents already saying to their ‘Little Darlings’, “No Tommy, we are not taking you and your sister to the beach today, it is far too dangerous, but look, instead of that, we are taking you zip-lining across a gorge that has a 1,000ft drop, then some nice bungee-jumping off a suspension bridge, far safer and much more exciting than the beach my Little Darlings” 😂😂

So okay, where was I 🤔…..Oh yes, we are at the beach and, whilst Shazza was playing with the sharks, in the waves, I had momentarily taken the opportunity to indulge in a moment of ‘personal contemplation’, should anything untoward have happened to my beloved, I was certain that I would have recognised her unmistakable blood curdling screams 🤭 So there I was, just leisurely ‘contemplating’, as I often do, it would have been rude of me not to with all this peacefulness that surrounded me. I was not sleeping you understand, although I admit that I may have been resting my eyelids whilst I partook of this contemplation opportunity. As I lay there, eyes closed, I could hear the sounds of the waves as they broke onto the shoreline a very short distance from where I was sat, it reminded me of the sounds that I have heard very many times, whilst watching my favourite ‘real life adventure’ sailing videos on ‘You Tube’, it was a very similar sound to that of a yacht’s bow cutting effortlessly through the water, the swell of the waves gently lapping on to the sides of the hull as it did so and then, well it just sort of happened really, it was as if I had been beamed up out of my sun chair and transported, right into the wheelhouse of ‘my yacht’, where I was navigating myself across one or other of the world’s Oceans. Now perhaps I should just say at this point that the particular yacht that I speak of, is actually very real, and believe me when I tell you that I know virtually every inch of it, it’s upper decks, bow to stern, the rear capacious cockpit, the internally protected wheelhouse, and down below, the Salon, Galley, Cabins, Heads and Engine Room, for I have studied all areas of that particular vessel in great detail, from the numerous photographs that I have of it. The only imaginary bit, is me actually owning it, but in my imagination, that bit really is quite irrelevant 😂

“Are you asleep ?”, the instantly recognisable voice said, as I was jolted back into the real world, it was like the bubble of pleasurable fantasy that I had been in, had quite suddenly been burst and so, there I was, back in my sun-chair on the beach 😢 Damn it, and there I was just about to drop the anchor in a deserted bay off an uninhabited tropical island. ‘No, I was just listening to the sound of the waves” I responded, well she would only have made one of her ‘Tutting sounds’ at me if I had told her where I had actually been, even if it was only in my own vivid imagination 🙄 It had been fairly quiet on our stretch of beach that morning, with no more than a handful of other couple’s on it, different to a day or so earlier, on the Saturday evening when we had walked passed it, when at 7pm it was still jam packed, but we weren’t complaining, for we do tend to like a bit of our own space, as I feel sure that you probably already know 😉 “Time for lunch, I’m starving” she said, so we sat, eating our pre-prepared sandwiches just people and boat watching.

There are some ‘water toys’ that almost silently creep into your vision, such things as paddle-boards, sea kayaks or canoes, but then there are other’s which you can hear, long before they come into sight, the tell tale sounds of the Jet-Ski’s, and a group of five appeared, playing follow my leader, heading off in one direction after they had first crawled out of the marina at snail’s pace, before then entering the open water and then letting rip, full throttle, then, some time later, they came flying past again with their plumes of water behind them shooting high into the sky, as they headed in the opposite direction, that was until their play time was over and they returned, the engines purred rather than roared, as they drifted at snails pace, back into the marina. I observed one of the ‘Dolphin Trip’ boats come and go, several times, but fully laden each time with it’s passengers in their orange high-vis floatation aids, they don’t call them Life-Jackets these days on pleasure trips as it conjures up the wrong sort of images. However, at €40 each for their one-hour trip, let’s just hope that they at least got to actually see some dolphins. One reviewer of such a trip declared that she had seen ‘Hundreds’ on her particular one-hour trip, but if I have told her once, I must have told her a million times, to stop exaggerating 😂 The ‘Guardia Civil’ helicopter also flew right across the top of us on a couple of occasions, following the coastline, no doubt looking for ‘Illegals’ who were probably attempting to come to Spain to apply for the ‘Migration Regularisation Programme’ 🤭 Perhaps, with the weather and visibility being so good, they may also have been looking for the high speed drug boats, who make their illicit transfers ‘at sea’, or perhaps, as this was the same Agency that processes our Visa Renewals, maybe they were sent out just to confirm that we were actually living in the country (Sarcasm does not become you Eric, as my mother would say to me) 😂 There were the usual array of other vessels, either coming and going from our own marina and also those, that were a little further out, either on their way, or returning from, who knows where 🤷‍♂️ I enjoy coming down to the beach and spending hours, just silently observing the comings and the goings, there are lots of people watching opportunities here too and, apart from Mondays, when a lot are closed, their are a number of nearby Cafe/Bars open if ever we fancied not bringing our own lunch.

By 2pm, the wind had changed direction and was blowing from the South-East, this seemed to impact on the strength and much greater frequency of the waves, far too choppy to swim in safely, enough to deter even certain Little Mermaids from wanting to do battle with them, so we gathered our possessions and went home. It wasn’t long before we were once again sat on the balcony of our apartment with a nice hot cuppa, French doors and side windows fully open, Shazza sat reading a book whilst I chose to just gaze out of the windows and watch the world go by, it had been a lovely day of doing absolutely nothing.

The following morning, and whilst I could perhaps understand why Shazza was suffering with sunburn on her arms and shoulders, I couldn’t work out why my shoulder’s had got burnt, I had been under a sun umbrella the majority of the time 🤷‍♂️ Anyway, our planned day by the pool had to be put on the back burner and we opted instead to drive in to nearby Estepona, well we needed to get our photographs taken for our forthcoming new TIE Cards anyway, we knew that we could get them done in the large ‘Carrefour’ supermarket, our local photo-shop in our own town, where we usually get these done, had closed down since we last needed to use it. Shazza hadn’t needed anything from our Organic Fruit & Veg farm, so this time we drove straight in to Estepona, well our usual place on the outskirts just opposite the Carrefour supermarket. We had however planned to walk from the Carrefour, along the promenade and into Estepona Town, around a twenty-minute walk, but when we got out of the lovely coolness of our air-conditioned car, the external temperature showed that it was already nearly 28 degrees(c) and the hot blast of dry sticky heat hit us, so we got our photo’s and took a ‘rain check’ on the walk into the town. We drove back to our own smaller town, parked up and made our way to the Central Plaza, the location of another one of our favourite Cafe/Bars, but this one was shaded from the rays of the searingly hot sunshine, and more importantly, to us, it served lovely ‘well filled’ sandwiches, and of course they too could supply me with my mandatory Anti-Covid medication 🤭 The Plaza is a great place to watch other people go about their own daily routines, the tradesman collecting supplies from the ‘Ferreterias’, (Small DIY shops), the shoppers, in and out of the ‘Fruiterias’, ‘Pastalerias’ (Bread & Cakes) Tabac’s (Newsagents and cigarettes) etc. etc. People armed with their beach equipment heading both to, and from, the seafront as well as watching, and listening, to our fellow Cafe/Bar customer’s, the only foreign conversation heard were our own, never mind all the ‘Pay To View’ TV Channels these days, this leisurely activity is the real readily available ‘Free to View’ entertainment.

The following morning, after having had a very nice couple of days relaxation, the bureaucratic business once again reared its ugly head. We became aware, through Spanish media articles and Spanish social media channels, that there were a lot of people, throughout the whole of Spain, who were in a similar situation to ourselves, many were having no luck with obtaining official appointments to do the second bit of the process, which was to apply for the TIE Residency Renewal Permits, apparently, there were just no appointments available ! The few that were actually reporting that they had managed to secure appointments were saying, that although they had been successful, those appointments were for weeks, even months, in advance with some declaring that by then their current Residency Permits would have expired. So my obvious question, to our Solicitors, was ‘What would happen, even though we now had renewed Visas permitting us to remain in Spain for a further 2 year’s, if we could not get an appointment to apply to renew our TIE Cards, before they expired ?’ The answer was that we would still have 90 days (The Schengen Visa Free Period), after the expiry date, but ‘they’ felt confident that we would get appointments before then although they had no ‘priviledged access route’ into the appointments system and had to use the same database that the rest of the public were using 😲 Now a little bit of additional research by ourselves revealed that you can access this online database in two ways, using a Digital ID, or without a Digital ID, although having a Digital ID does not necessarily give you any greater advantage, other than providing you with access to some ‘Immigration Offices’, that will only accept appointment requests through the Digital ID channel, but in our Province that was only two Immigration Offices. Now I am not going to bore you with anymore rambling on the subject of these Digital ID’s, but suffice to say, we did actually have them, one each as it happened, which we had forgotten that we had organised when we initially registered to live here in Spain, but we never really knew what they were for, or how to use them, as our Solicitors always dealt with the official stuff on our behalf 🤷‍♂️ So, armed with this new information, we learnt how to use our Digital ID’s and this gave us access to the Immigration Department Website where we could ‘attempt’ to book our own TIE renewal appointments as well as having our Solicitor also trying to obtain appointments on our behalf.

We put the access to the Immigration websites, via our Digital ID’s, to immediate use, only to discover that even with it, it is an extremely laborious process. We also discovered, that whilst these TIE Residency Cards are physically the same, no matter which part of Spain that you reside in, you can only apply to renew them at an Immigration Office ‘within’ the Province that you actually resided in, so although we were elated, after spending hour’s of searching for available appointments, when we came across two available appointments, both on the same day, and available in just three weeks time, at an Immigration Office in ‘La Linea’, just thirty-minutes drive away from our home, but then disappointed when we couldn’t book them, because that office is actually across the Border in the Cadiz Province 😤 For seven days, including the weekend, literally morning, noon and night and all periods in-between, Shazza and I kept trawling through the appointments availabilities on all offices within the ‘whole’ Province of Malaga, but we kept getting the same responses, ‘No Available Appointments At This Time’ 🥺

The problem we were encountering was probably more due to the timing of our renewals date which unfortunately also happened to be during the recent introduction of the amnesty period for ‘Illegal Migrants’ to apply for a one year Spanish Visa and Residency Permit. That window of opportunity for them was a three month period between 1st Apr- 30th Jun. The Spanish Government had anticipated that there could be up to half a million ‘Illegal Migrants’ currently living in Spain who would be applying during this amnesty period, they were in for a big shock !

Although we had taken a couple of days off from our search for appointments, we had actually still been trying first thing in the mornings and during the evenings. The start of a new week arrived, Shazza for once was up before me and had started looking at 07:45, commencing as we always do with the Immigration Offices nearest to us, however, it was the same old story ‘No available appointments’, we were pretty much despondent by now as all the other offices up and down our coastline continued to reflect the same responses 🤷‍♂️ But then, we couldn’t believe our luck when we logged in on our next round of attempts, to the Immigration Office in Malaga City, two appointments within 15 minutes of each other came up 😲 Now you have to apply for these appointments using your own personal Digital ID, so she booked one appointment for herself and I quickly booked the other, YES ! YES ! There were no words to express the relief that we both felt right at that moment. Within a matter of seconds of completing the appointments bookings on-line we both received our ‘Official Confirmations’, one by text message on our phones and another via Email. Of course we were absolutely elated but, in our haste to book them, as you only have five minutes in which to complete the appointments reservation procedure otherwise the opportunity ‘times out’, so we were in somewhat of a hurry to annotate all our details on the form, however, in that haste we had not actually checked the dates of these appointments, were they for next week, next month, the month after 🤷‍♂️ We went back to look at our appointment confirmations and to say that we were totally gobsmacked would be an understatement, they were not for next week, or the week after, or for the following month no, these appointments were both for the following day, one at 11:15am and the other at 11:30am 😲 We immediately contacted our Solicitor’s and informed them of our good fortune, but could they have all the documents ready for us to collect from their offices that same day, as we needed to leave early the following morning to drive into the City and find a parking space close to where we needed to be ? Other than the usual documentation, there was also a little matter of the Application Form and Fee, which had to be paid at a bank with an official receipt issued, this had to be presented along with the rest of our documents. Of course they could they said, and they would also arrange with their Malaga Office to have a member of staff meet us at the Immigration Office, in order to provide translation services, if required.

We attended our appointments, suffice to say that there were delays with even our supposedly ‘pre-booked’ appointment times, and we found that we were delayed by nearly an hour before we were each sat, individually, and at different desks, in front of our respective Immigration Officers. These delays were purely down to the large number of people who were queuing outside to do exactly the same thing as ourselves. The procedure itself actually took no more than 5 minutes 🤷‍♂️ the Officer’s checked that all our documents were in order, re-took our fingerprints and then handed us the duly stamped form to confirm that we had renewed our Residency Permits, just in case we were stopped by the Police for any reason, who would note that the dates on our current cards had expired. We will have to make a further appointment to go and collect our new physical cards when they are ready, in around 4 weeks time, but our relief that we were now ‘officially’ legal residents once again was almost tangible.

Interestingly enough, Hannah, the Para-Legal that met us at the Immigration Office, stated that we had been extremely lucky, as she had been trying for nearly three months to get TIE renewal appointments for two of her clients who reside in the Province of Granada 😲 Perhaps, we said to ourselves afterwards, those client’s were not aware that they didn’t have to rely solely on her to obtain the appointments on their behalf, and that they could have attempted to do it for themselves as we had just done. Just how long we ourselves may have had to wait, if we had left it completely up to them to obtain them, would have been interesting, as we knew that they could not spend all day just trawling the different Immigration Websites, they had other clients who required use of their ‘other’ legal services and of course, other client’s trying to get appointments for Initial Residency Visas and Residency Permits, as well as those like ourselves requiring renewals, so where would we have been in the pecking order of their priorities 🤔

We rarely visit the bright lights of the city, although we have done so on several occasions for different reasons, either visiting with friends and relatives or when we have to have our car serviced, for this is where the nearest dealership to us is located, so we did very briefly consider staying and looking around, as we were already here and had secured a ‘free’ parking space with no time limitations but, it would be a forty-minute walk into the heart of the centre and the seafront and, with midday temperatures already at 36 degrees(c), neither of us fancied trawling around just for the hell of it. To be honest, it was also as if a pressure valve had been released and, whilst we both felt jubilant and a great sense of relief, we also felt mentally and physically drained, we just wanted to get out of the extremely noisy and busy city, back to our much quieter environment and familiar surroundings, and of course back to the sanctuary of our home.

My own personal feeling of elation and relief was soon short-lived though, for I knew that I now had to sit down and commence my call to the UK HMRC Tax Office to sort out their administrative failings. Fortunately, my initial call was answered within 15 minutes, in the past such calls were not answered for over an hour, ‘must be my lucky week for good karma events’ I thought to myself. I spoke to a call handler, who of course wanted to know what I was calling about and then tried to give me ‘advice’ on why my tax ‘may have looked’ as if it wasn’t correct. I quite politely advised her that I already knew why my tax payments were incorrect and that it was in fact ‘their error’. She then re-directed me to ‘Brenda’, in the ‘Manchester Office’, who listened attentively to my very detailed, and pre-orchestrated dialogue, providing full dates and financial information, some from my own facts and figures but also from my personal financial and tax data obtained from their own official on-line records. It became obvious to me that whilst listening to the information that I was divulging to her, she was, at the same time, checking these details against my tax records on a screen in front of her. She was a very pleasant lady who confirmed, almost immediately, after listening to me and checking my records, that an error had in fact been made by them and confirmed what we both already knew, that I had been paying too much tax since April of this year. She confirmed, as we spoke, that she was amending my records and my tax code, so that I would not have to keep making this ‘Annual’ phone call (That bit is yet to be seen to be believed) and that the overpayments from April would be refunded. She was true to her word as far as amending my records were concerned, as the following day I received a notification through the official Government HMRC website, that my tax code had been amended and that my State Pension had been removed from any further UK Tax Liability (Although of course I do still pay tax on it, but to the Spanish Tax Authority and, at a higher rate than I would do in the UK, but at least now I am not being double taxed on it). I am now just waiting to be issued with the refund. All in all though, getting both these issues resolved, it has turned out to be somewhat of a rather productive and fruitful week, so Shazza and I can now get back to the more ‘uncomplicated and relaxed lifestyle’ that we have become accustomed to although, I have to admit that, recently there have been many occasions when I have said to Shazza that, personally speaking, ‘It Would Feel Easier To Just Give Up ! Perhaps I am just getting too old, and beginning to lack the patience, tolerance and motivation for us to keep fighting the fight to live the best lives here that we can, but on this occasion I am glad that we did. However, in two year’s time, when I am another two years older and into my 70’s, when it comes to the time to apply for our ‘Permanent Residency’, I am not sure whether I will have the energy or motivation to go into battle with Spanish Bureaucracy once again 🤷‍♂️ I do appreciate that Shazza and myself are ‘Foreign Immigrants’ living here in Spain and that there are procedures that have to be undertaken, it would be the same for any other foreign country that we may have chosen to live in, and the same for those ‘Immigrants’ who choose to want to live in the UK, we are no different to them, but perhaps, when all is said and done, and for all its imperfections, there actually is no place like home.

The Fiesta season is well and truly upon us, just a couple of weeks ago it was the local Manilva International Communities Festival. This last weekend (13-14 June) was the annual ‘Gay Pride’ festivities, which is actually quite a good atmosphere with street parades, various stalls selling a multitude of products, a large stage with ‘Live Acts’ performing, and of course plenty of flowing liquid refreshments throughout the day and night and, just by way of confirmation, being a member of that particular persuasion is not mandatory 😂

Then, on the 23rd June, it is the big festival of ‘San Juan’, which goes on from early evening on the 23rd until around 4:00am the following morning. At midnight (23rd June) they burn the large structure that has been built on the beach, in previous year’s the theme has been related to Nursery Rhymes but, as yet, the base structure is just being erected so we do not know what this year’s theme will be.

A few weeks after the ‘San Juan’ festival it will be the, ‘La Luna’ festival, a similarly large celebration, well the Spanish do love to party and they need little excuse to hold one. We have actually attended each of these annual events several times over the last eleven year’s we have owned our property here, so whether we will attend all, or any, of this year’s events, will be one of those on the spur of the moment decisions and, if we do, well you already know that I ‘may’ just write a line or two about them 🤭

So yes, it has been a bit of a turbulent few weeks for us personally, but upon reflection, as I once again find myself sat here on my sun-drenched balcony contemplating it, after partaking of our usual morning walk, which is conducted slightly earlier these days due to the heat, but each time we have encountered bureaucratic issues we have always seemed to get through them in the end, albeit after a few irritations and frustrations. However, the reality is, that we now have another two years to continue to enjoy the lifestyle that living in Spain has provided us with, with of course the occasional bumps in the road, here and there 🙄

So, on that thought, and until my next ramble……………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena (once again)