Celebrity Watch

All memories of last winter’s awful rain are long gone, and with the exception of a brief thunderstorm at the beginning of July no rain until the end of October. La Roda was everything it was supposed to be, a long, hot summer.

After my trip back in May, Dad returned with me for a couple of weeks. He just enjoyed the rest, sitting in the garden, reading, wandering down the road in the evening for a beer or a glass of wine and not going very far, although he did enjoy going up to the lakes.

Dad returned on the Friday, I took him down to Malaga airport and handed him over to Special Assistance, who made sure he got on the right plane at the right time and my younger brother Alan met him at Gatwick. Unfortunately, the flight arrival time coincided with England playing Algeria in the World Cup, so I think he missed the first bit of the match.

Then Katie arrived on the Sunday in time for Feria de San Pedro, the local fair. St Peter’s day is 29th June so our local fair is always held around the nearest weekend. Four or five days of nonstop noise from 7pm till 7am! There’s a traditional fair, with bars and restaurants, live music and one night a fashion show put on by my friend Amparo who makes flamenco dresses. With Katie here I had someone to play with this year, although she had taken a fall and damaged her bad knee, so no fairground rides for us!! The World Cup added an extra reason for partying too, but I had promised to pick someone up at the airport (Carol and Ricky, an English couple who live in La Roda) so missed the second half of the final, and all the celebrations!!

My summer routine revolves around daily visits to the pool, working up to 2kms every day (40 lengths of the 50 m pool). I prefer to swim at about 1pm, before it starts to get too hot so I invariably have the pool more of less to myself!

 

I had a trip down to Malaga to meet up with Ian and Do (one of Mick’s old school friends and his wife) for lunch and we did the open top bus tour – it was blooming hot! Derek and Pauline, my English neighbours here, came down to Malaga too and we all stopped in an hotel overnight and had a really pleasant evening in Malaga. The intention was to find a flamenco show but by the time we had eaten we’d left it too late to find somewhere.

 

Emboldened by my trip to see Joe Bonamassa in Cordoba I decided to go to the last night of the Antequera Blues Festival. http://www.antequerabluesfestival.com/ It really is a fantastic setting, the steps of the church in Plaza de Santa Maria are used as a stage, the front of the
church a multicoloured back drop and the square set with chairs and a bar.

The last night was 3 bands, Esther Weekes (Jazz), Michael Burks (real Blues) and James Hunter (Rock and Roll) - anyway Michael Burks was definitely worth the trip and he treated the audience to a stroll through the chairs during his set.

While I was waiting for the first set to start, I recognised the woman sitting in the row in front of me as the woman who takes her Spanish lesson after me so we introduced ourselves and got chatting and she invited me to join her party – making it a much more enjoyable evening for me!

Some friends, Gary & Sarah and their little boy Ben, were holidaying near Alora, about 35 miles away so I paid them a visit. A lovely villa right off the beaten track with a pool, and I spent a great afternoon and evening with them, far too much to drink and came back the next day!

An invitation to attend a UKP reunion in August and a Ryanair return flight to Bournemouth for about £90 (in August!!) persuaded me to go back for a long weekend. The reunion, at the Wheatsheaf in Middle Woodford, was only sparsely attended, but Kath, bless her, wasn’t deterred and is determined to have another go next year, but it also gave me the opportunity to have a night out in Salisbury with Albert and Chris and Jim & Lizzie.

Derek , my neighbour, visited again in August, bringing with him one of his neighbours from the UK for a game of golf at Antequera golf course. Mick had 2 sets of golf clubs so they borrowed them. The golf course is perched up in the mountains outside Antequera. This friend had arranged to meet up with his boss in Benalmadena for a drink on the Saturday night. So we all went down to Malaga on the train, spent the afternoon doing the tourist bit in Malaga and then got the coast train to Benalmadena. I had booked us a couple of rooms in an hotel there so after checking in and freshening up we went out to find this chap and get something to eat.

We got something to eat, and met up with another friend of a friend but the boss didn’t show up. We got persuaded to go onto another late night bar and very nearly ended up in a fist fight as a lady in her 70s presented a very strange picture, with a pair of plastic boobs tied to her head, and her very p****d son took exception to one of us staring at her!! Benalmadena at its finest!!

Not sure how much Derek’s friend enjoyed his holiday, as he didn’t like flying, didn’t like motorways and didn’t like mountains!!

Janet visited again in September for a few days and we went to Granada. We did the full Alhambra visit, the palaces, the fortress and the gardens and then so as not to waste a visit to Granada we went down into the town and did the narrow lanes around the cathedral and the arab quarter before finding somewhere for supper. Finally we caught the bus back up to the Alhambra to find the car and drive home. A long day, but thoroughly enjoyable.

Before she went home Janet witnessed the first half of the fiesta de Nuestra Senora de los Llanos, this is an annual celebration of the town’s patron saint. There is a procession to take flowers to the church. The next night the effigy of the saint is brought out of the church dressed in the flowers and paraded around town. There’s lots of eating, drinking, dancing and fireworks.

I always go back to England in September; I just don’t want to be here on the anniversary. As usual the trip is as crammed as I can make it but still I manage not to see as many people as I would like. This year, I started in Newcastle visiting my friend Anne and her family who have recently returned to England to live. The trip included lunch in Salisbury with Lizzie and her mum, then catching a few friends in the Avon Brewery before heading off to Collingbourne Kingston for a day or so with the Bevan family. We all went into Marlborough to watch Josie have her swimming lesson and on the way back through town spotted Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen

walking towards the College wearing a name badge – I guess there was some sort of function going on. Then off to my Dad’s for a couple of days to see my brothers and for Dad’s birthday, he was 84. I also had the chance to meet Jill Mildred for lunch in Sherborne one day.

Alison, the carer who looked after my mum, took us out to lunch on Dad’s birthday. Then off to Bristol to see Katie and spend the anniversary with her. Mild panic as I thought I was caught on camera by the Bristol and Avon Constabulary’s photographic society. We decided to go out with a few of Katie’s girlfriends to El Puerto in Bristol, a favourite of Mick’s and had a very good evening! The following evening we had supper with Katie’s friend Jenny and then popped round to their local, The Golden Lion, to see the Mighty Peas who do swing versions of pop classics, good fun!

I then headed off to Chelmsford to Bill & Meg’s to complete the journey to Cambridge with them. Every year one of Mick’s old school friends organises a reunion, a weekend somewhere, and this year it was Cambridge.

As always, a good time was had by all; one of the young lads operating a punt on the river latched onto us fairly early on Saturday morning offering us a special rate – Mike finally knocked him down to £70 for 12 of us, so we went on the river – it was a bit chilly but the sunshine was glorious showing off the colleges and gardens in a grand light and we had a potted history lesson delivered by George. The usual boozy suppers, Friday being especially good, but the fact that these old school friends are now in the academic year of their 60th birthdays must be showing – we were all to our beds well before midnight!
Sunday morning dawned drizzly so everyone headed off home, me back to Bill & Meg’s to pick up my car and on to Dad’s. We had been booked on a flight to return to Spain on the Wednesday, but there was a general strike threatened so we changed our flight to the Tuesday.

We landed at Malaga in good time but there was some issue with the Special Assistance and by the time we got through to the Arrivals Hall Beryl and Granville (the lovely couple who look after my car for me while I’m away) were the only people still waiting and they were getting worried!

A week into Dad’s visit and we’re off to Malaga again to collect Alison (the carer who looked after mum) and Kevin her husband. They joined us for a week, a way of saying thanks for all her help.

While Alison and Kevin were here, we did the flamingos at Fuente de Piedra, the lakes, an overnight stay in Granada (my 15th visit in 45 years!), Cordoba and Fuengirola to show them as many different facets of this bit of Spain as possible. My good friends Pat and Peter who also live in La Roda entertained us all to lunch one day. I think they enjoyed it!

After dropping my Dad off at Malaga and into the hands of Special Assistance again, I headed off to Fuengirola for an overnight stop with Pat and Peter who were house and dog sitting for friends. A lovely evening with them and them back home to sort out the washing and get the house back to normal.

On Monday when I returned from my morning walk I met Mario (the builder) who wanted to come to my house to check on my roof terrace and talk about starting work. He wanted to start on Thursday (Mick’s birthday) I said I won’t be here but he could have a key, he said he’d think about it, and went away. I headed off to Antequera for a swim, but by the time I’d done a bit of shopping I was running a little late and decided I didn’t really fancy a swim.

Just as well, by the time I got home again, Mario and mate were on the doorstep ready to start work – he was worried because rain was forecast for the weekend so wanted to get the work done before then. So work started on lifting the tiles and very loud it was too.

So loud in fact that I’m surprised I even heard the door bell. What a surprise! John Parker, an old sailing friend, was standing in my hallway and his wife Alison was in the car across the street. The noise was far too much so we went to Bar Estepa on the corner for a beer and a bit of tapa. They were en route from Seville to Granada and decided to call in, the main motorway goes past the end of my road!

And so it was Mick’s birthday, his 60th, so I took myself off to the seaside. Lady satnav got me around Seville but let me down at the end when she directed me through the National Park, there are no metalled roads so the last 25 kms where driven very slowly!

Mazagon is on the Atlantic coast on the northern edge of the Coto Donana, Spanish National Park and World Heritage Site, mostly famous for birds but also the home of the Iberian Linx.

I stayed at the Parador de Mazagon. These are state run hotels in fabulous locations, this one is right over the beach – miles and miles of empty sandy beaches and guess what the King of Spain stopped by for lunch on Wednesday!

He was opening an extension to the Cepsa factory in Huelva, local provincial capital, about 15 miles away. I’m afraid I missed him, I arrived just at the moment he was due so the reception staff, very politely, bundled me off to my room and asked me to check in later! I must say I was surprised that although there were loads of police on the approach road, and lots of security at the hotel they were all very polite, I wasn’t stopped and nobody asked to search my bags or anything!

I went off for a walk along the beach, watched the shoreline fishermen and went paddling. I was joined by a young mum and her toddler and his squeals of delight everytime the waves caught him and splashed him just had to make you smile.

On Thursday I went into Huelva for breakfast and a little wander about, then to La Rabida. Unashamedly on the Columbus tourist trail La Rabida has a manmade quay with full scale replicas of the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria; Columbus’ three ships. There’s a little museum and a film show setting out the Columbus story. In the gardens behind the quay lies the Monasterio de Santa María de la Rábida. This is where Columbus came to review his strategy for getting funding for his trip to the Indies after Isabella turned him down. If the paintings are anything to go by Columbus was a very handsome man!

I returned to the hotel and went for a swim, I had the pool to myself but it was a little smaller than I’m used to – 12 strokes from one end to the other!

It was a lovely break, the weather was fab for the end of October and the sunsets over the Atlantic were glorious, shame my camera couldn’t do them justice.

Now I’m home again and thankfully Mario is here repairing my roof terrace to ensure I don’t spend another winter with a row of buckets in the kitchen!