Itchy feet.................

I’ve just made a list of all things I’ve been up to since my last update in November, and it runs to 4 pages, admittedly very small pages but even so it seems I’ve barely drawn breath!

Sadly I couldn’t get to Jim & Lizzie’s wedding, but I was fortunate enough to be invited to spend some time with Mike, one of Mick’s old school friends, and his fiancée Marie in Nerja, on the coast the other side of Malaga, just over an hour’s drive away.

I understand the wedding went off very well and everyone had a splendid time, they are both obviously very happy!

And we toasted them in the sunshine of Frigiliana;

 a small, very pretty hillside town a couple miles inland from Nerja. The weather was great for November, and when we took a stroll along the beach there were people swimming in the Med., I’m a keen swimmer but not that keen!

Work continued on the roof terrace, somewhat sporadically, but the main weatherproofing was complete before the rain started in earnest and Mario and his mate popped in every so often to do a bit more........clearly fitting me in around other jobs.  Every time it rained Mario came charging into the house, his face a picture of consternation, checking all my ceilings to make sure no water was coming in and checking that the water was running off the roof terrace as expected, no puddles!

I’ve now had a visit from Rafael, an architect who works in Seville, and asked him to set up a ‘project’, an official document outlining work I want to do on the house so I can get the appropriate licence from the Ayuntamiento (Town Hall).  I’m going for a new roof, the current one is tiled on the street side of the house, and with all the awful rain we had last year the rain came in and shorted the upstairs electrics and corrugated iron one on the back, which works but it’s very noisy.  I thought it made sense to get the whole lot done in one go. New windows and the front of the house rendered, so I don’t have to keep getting it painted. No idea at all how much this will all cost, so might need a review! I figured if I’m staying here I ought to get these things sorted out. It’s taken me two years to decide what to do, but I guess the decision to do the work means I’m staying.

I’ve also come to the conclusion I can’t sort the garden out on my own. So I’ve contacted an English couple who advertised in a local magazine and asked for their help. They sounded very keen at first but now I’ve supplied the information they asked for, they’ve gone quiet on me!  Fingers crossed, it’s just that they’re busy!

At the end of November my friend Anne returned, with her son Dan and mum Joan for a week to finalise the letting of her house here to a young Spanish couple, well American and Spanish, Viola is American and Angelina is Spanish. They’re thrilled with their new home and Anne’s got the best possible outcome considering trying to sell a house in Spain at the moment is nigh on impossible.

Off to Barcelona. Abi Pilot celebrated her 40^th at the beginning of December and that seemed a good enough excuse to take myself off to Blanes for a party and spend a few days in Barcelona. I narrowly missed the air traffic controllers’ strike by arriving early in the day. I flew into Barcelona and got the train to Blanes. It takes just over an hour from Barcelona to Blanes and the train tracks run alongside the beaches pretty much all the way. It was a lovely journey, a bright sunny day and just a few people about walking their dogs, long stretches of empty beaches. I bet you don’t see that sight here very often! Andy met me off the train and I had a great couple of days with the Pilot family.

Abi’s brother wasn’t quite so lucky; flying into Girona from Stansted, his flight was already on its descent when it was diverted to Reus, 115 miles away the other side of Barcelona. The air traffic controllers had called a lightning strike, I believe Reus is part military so alternative staff were available to handle the incoming flight.The passengers were bussed to Girona and Abi picked her brother up at about 1am, only about 3 hours late! During the weekend the Spanish Government threatened to impose military rule over the airports and by Sunday flights were starting to get back to normal. 

Anyway, the party was great. A real cosmopolitan mix, of ex pats from other bits of Europe as well as the UK and Spanish, although I suspect they would prefer to be called Catalans.

On Sunday I took the train back to Barcelona, and found my hotel. Hotel del Mar, down near the waterfront, surprisingly! It was an easy walk to the Ramblas, the main route from the port to the Plaza Catalunya, the hub of Barcelona and the old city. The hotel had model ships and sailing pictures and old charts on the walls. Mick would have approved.

I spent the best part of a day following a walk I downloaded visiting the places mentioned in The Shadow of the Wind, (a novel set in Barcelona)Shadow of the Wind Walk if only to give a purpose to my wanderings but it was interesting to see the old Gothic quarter in a new light and of course there are all the Gaudi, and Gaudi inspired, buildings to see too. 

The weather was fabulous for December and I stumbled across all sorts of interesting things. A violinist was playing in a small courtyard behind the cathedral and the acoustics must have been just perfect.


 I’m a bit of a heathen when it comes to classical music but I was completely mesmerised by his playing, it fit the afternoon perfectly, and it made up for all the other street musicians playing 'Without You'.

I particularly liked the boy, in the harbour, although it doesn’t really work if you’re American (buoy.............geddit!)

                    

As it turned out my hotel was right next to Santa Maria del Mar, the church in The Cathedral of the Sea, (another novel set in Barcelona)  so I guess I should have chosen that walk, oh well next time!

Day 2 in Barcelona and Andy and Abi joined me. They were booked into another hotel as part of Andy’s birthday present to Abi and they kindly invited me to join them for the day. We went to Parc Guell, famous for that gecko, and some fabulous views of the city and the Sagrada Familia.

The park was started in 1900 when Count Guell invited Gaudi to design a housing estate, but it soon ran out of money and in 1923 it was turned in to a public park. The buildings are all typically Gaudi; extravagant is not descriptive enough, bizarre!

We stopped to look at the outside of the Sagrada Familia, but decided we hadn’t given ourselves enough time to do that as well. We met up again in the evening for supper down by the water front, outside (in December) for cava (Spanish champagne) and tapas after all we were still celebrating Abi’s birthday!

The next morning I had a little time to kill before my flight so I took a walk down to the beach.

Then after a little confusion about which terminal I was supposed to fly from, and a very serious argument with my suitcase, I arrived home. The suitcase lost the argument and was deposited in the basura (rubbish bin down the road!)

It was barely a week before I headed off to England for Christmas. 

As usual my trip back was yet another attempt to cram in as many visits to friends as possible, and I didn’t do too badly. The weather only stopped me once and that resulted in my having to spend an extra couple of nights in Salisbury with the lovely McCall family, poor Sarah had to give up her bed for an extra two nights but they certainly gave the impression of not minding!

I flew into Gatwick, spent an evening with Nancy,  in Chertsey, then off to Dad’s in Sherborne. Salisbury with the McCalls allowed me to gatecrash one office Xmas do, turn up at Anne Marie’s, and promptly fall asleep as I’d started drinking far too early in the day, when I should know better!  An evening with Chris, Alb & Cath and briefly Pete Howells and his other half.

Justin’s Tabernacle (another annual Christmas event) then back to my Dad’s for Christmas. New Year was spent with Mick’s sister and her family and we saw the New Year in at their local pub ( not any old pub, it was a black tie do!). The plan had been that I would deliver Dad to my brother in Effingham, en route to Sevenoaks but Dad wasn’t feeling up to the journey so Alan came down to Sherborne and saw the New Year in with him.

Then back on tour, Paul and Ali Bailey in Camelsdale, and a lovely lunch at Rebecca’s flat in Guildford with Simon and his girlfriend Amy. Hopefully Simon and Amy will be out to see me later this year so that I’ll have someone to go to the Cordoba Guitar Festival with, or even the Antequera Blues Festival.

John and Jenny Kitchen laid on a supper party for me so I got to catch up with yet more friends, the two Janets, Julie Morris and Andrew and Anna Murgett. I think I’ve either got to change my name to something that begins with J, or find another friend whose name begins with R!

Then it was off to the Bevans for a night en route to Bern and Al in Longcot.

I spent 3 days with Bern and Al and this included Bern taking us up to Esher to see Bern’s sister Vicki and her husband Keith, where I was introduced to my first 3D TV, and I hate to say it but I was impressed!

Then for the final leg. Off to Katie’s in Bristol. Katie’s friend Holly gave us supper on our last night, not too late as we had a 6.45am flight to catch!  Katie came back here for a week.

Unsurprisingly, my roof terrace hadn’t been finished off while I was away! But now I was back they did get stuck into it and finished it off within a few days. The weather was great for January and Katie and I spent many an afternoon in the garden reading, while Mario and his mate carried on working!

While Katie was here she tried swimming for the first time since her latest knee collapse, not wholly successful and at least now she has the courage to try it when she gets home. I also got her to meet a friend of mine, Vanessa. Vanessa ruptured her cruciate ligament some years ago but chose not to have an operation; I wanted Katie to talk to her about how long the recovery was likely to be.

On Katie’s last night we took the train into Malaga and stayed at the Room Mate Larios in the centre of Malaga. Just for a change, it made for a good night out in Malaga, but showed me just how little walking Katie was able to do.

I waved Katie off at the airport, returned to Malaga and hit the sales. I bought a new suitcase!

A couple of weeks later I was off again. Bob Marsh’s retirement do was enough of a draw for me to pay a flying visit, just a long weekend. I’m so glad I did, A chance to catch up with Jim and Liz (only briefly though as I did my usual trick of spending the evening talking to as many people as possible) and other friends that I see regularly when I return but also loads of others I haven’t see for maybe four or five years.  So much so I forgot to get anything to eat!

My car had been playing up a bit, not starting very well in the cold weather, and as I had a three week gap before my next trip I thought I’d try to get it sorted out. Off to the Ford dealer in Estepa, about 5 miles down the road. They would certainly have a look at it; I would have to bring it back next week, as the car would need to sleep at the garage!!

Well they had the car for three days, during this time I managed to lock myself out of the house and the only person with a key was 70 miles away in Fuengirola.  When I got the car back it was worse than it was before! But no time to spend another three days in the garage. Anyway, the weather’s improving, it’ll be fine!!

It was now time for a weekend in Amsterdam with Rosie. She had wanted to visit me here but couldn’t get flights from either Bournemouth or Southampton for a long weekend so we decided to opt for somewhere we could both get to easily for a weekend and settled for Amsterdam as neither of us had been there before.

The weather wasn’t too great, but I did get a trip on a canal boat and that’s all I wanted to do!

My trip to Amsterdam coincided with a visit from my neighbours Derek and Pauline. I usually collect them from the airport so in order to achieve this when I wasn’t here Beryl and Granville took me to the airport on Friday, then hung around for a couple of hours and collected Derek and Pauline. On Monday Derek and Pauline collected me in my car and then bullied me into taking the car back to the garage to get it sorted out. And I did, it only took a few hours!

Derek and Pauline were here to talk to builders, Rafael, the architect and order tiles all testing my translating capabilities to the limit!!

I took a trip to Malaga after Derek and Pauline returned to England. Anne had asked me to go to the Justice Department and get her CRB check done for the time she worked in Spain. I thought I was being really well organised, I went to the bank here in La Roda and paid the fee up front so when I arrived at the office in Malaga I presented them with Anne’s completed forms and my receipt. Well, I’d underpaid by 4 cents and the form wasn’t filled out correctly! I was despatched to the bank around the corner to pay the 4 cents, and the helpful guy in the bank explained it happens all the time as the Justice Department have only just put their fees up and he also explained about the form filling, I had to complete part of the form as the presenter. Anyway it all got sorted out very quickly and I was treating myself to a coffee at a bar round the corner before 11.30.

I got invited to another party, Danny’s 60^th (one of Mick’s old school friends, this was a real struggle because I know Mick would have wanted to be there) but this time I had to decline. Try as I might I could not get round the logistics of getting to a party in Somerset on Saturday night and back in time to catch a flight to Valencia at 9 on Monday morning.

Valencia was continuing our tradition of buying each other holidays for birthdays and as my birthday falls just a week or so before Las Fallas in Valencia it’s somewhere I’ve wanted to go for some time.   Katie agreed to accompany me, at the time we expected her knee to be well and truly on the mend, so we took the additional precaution of getting her a leg brace – it’s quite a bit of walking!

Las Fallas is a festival celebrating St Joseph’s day, 19^th March. We spent a week watching, and listening, to the fireworks and bangers. The bangers are let off at 2pm every day in the Town Hall Square with the sole aim of providing the loudest possible noise. The TV channels showing this use a decibel reading on the screen. At 1am there a nightly firework display, all day long kids and grownups are throwing bangers and firecrackers in the street.

 For two days representatives of the local communities in traditional dress, complete with bands, parade from all over the city to the square next to the Cathedral (Plaza de la Reina)with flower offerings for a giant wooden statue of the Virgin, which is then dressed in the flowers to a design that is kept secret until the dressing is complete.

On the afternoon of St Josephs there is a fire parade. As we were lined up waiting for the procession to start the police came though and blew whistles at us to make us move further back onto the pavement, we were soon to discover why. I don’t think I have ever seen anything like it. Dancers dressed as flames holding something that looks like a four foot sparkler, kids dressed as fire breathing dragons, yes real fire! Other characters holding fireworks and dancing down the street to the start of yet another firework display.

But the real pièce de résistance is the statues. There are found all over the city, round every corner, on every crossroads, every roundabout.  Enormous creations of wood, polystyrene and paper mache standing up to thirty feet tall depicting local, national or international figures in satirical scenes, making comment on political or social situations. On the night of St Joseph’s the statues are set alight. Fire crews are drafted in from all over the province to douse the nearby shrubbery, and the watching crowds!

The history of this goes back to the days when local carpenters used to mark the end of the long winter nights by throwing out the post they used to hold their lamps and setting fire to them. Over time they added hats and coats to the post and began to make more of a feature of it, in the 18^th century the festival became more formal and specific scenes were designed initially using wood and wax, but again over time other materials have come into play.

Since about 1931 one has been saved from the fire each year and put into the museum.

We had a fabulous week, not much sleep, but definitely worth doing! 

Las Fallas, the statues before the burning..................

and after!

Katie enjoying a chocolate coated and stuffed churro (sort of doughnut).

And now I’m home, recovered from my week in Valencia, and having to turn down another party! A supper party with a bunch of guys I did my navigation classes with about 18 years ago! I need to tidy the garden and hopefully paint the walls of the roof terrace before my next lot of visitors, and fit in a trip to Extremadura to see Kate and Ian (colleagues from work who also live in Spain) next week. Along with trying to get back into my walking/swimming routine..............can’t just sit in the sun all day (although I’m not quite sure why not!)