2012 quite a year...........

Well so much for trying to update this more often but so much seems to have happened that I kept thinking, I'll wait for the next thing............I'd left it so long I was seriously considering abandoning it completely, but as all my address labels have got the blog address on them, I guess I'd better make an attempt at bringing things up to date at least until I need to print some more labels!

After my misadventure in Lisbon when my handbag was stolen, and the trauma of replacing all my documents, bawling my eyes out at having to deal with all this stuff, everything arrived before my next trip to the UK, so I could put it all behind me.

I flew to Newcastle in March to spend a few days with Anne, Tim & Dan and go to see Joe Bonamassa at Metro Arena Newcastle with Anne. I had a lovely few days, the coastline up there is fabulous and the weather smiled on us. Anne and her mum, Joan, and I went out to supper one evening and we had a great evening. I'm so glad we did because within a few short months Joan was no longer with us.

While I was there Dad was taken into hospital with a series of infections, and managed to persuade them to let him go home on the grounds that I was going to be there, so I cut short my visit and flew down to Bristol to be back there on Monday evening. He recovered quite quickly, but I delayed my return to Spain by a further week to be sure, fitting in a trip to Bristol to see Katie, Salisbury and Jim & Lizzie & Jack Bruce at the City Hall then on to Bern & Al's and off to see Joe Bonamassa again, this time at the BIC.(Bournemouth International Centre) Yes that's 3 times in about 6 weeks!

Staying on an extra week gave me the opportunity to see the Blues Band at the Octagon Theatre in Yeovil and then back to Salisbury to attend Annie's funeral, the wife of my good friend Adrian. The little chapel at the crematorium was packed and it was an almost joyous occasion, if that's possible. Annie had known for sometime that life would be far too short and had given a lot of thought to how she wanted the event to go, culminating in the congregation singing Que Sera Sera. I knew a few people there, and it gave me the chance to catch up with them, then I went off to have lunch with Mel & Jackie – old friends I hadn't seen for far too many years.

That extra week in the UK meant I had a day to organise myself for Sue & Paul's visit. Which wasn't really quite enough. I think they enjoyed their visit in spite of the lack of central heating and telly! I'd left it too late to fix up tickets for the Alhambra but we went to Ronda, Seville and Cordoba as well as Antequera a couple of times.

 I took Sue & Paul back to the airport, and drove on to Estepona to stay with Bryan & Ruth on their holidays there. The following day was a bit overcast so we decided to go to Gibraltar for the day, Ruth drove, bless her, and we had a day of me showing them where I lived, where I went to Brownies and where I broke my arm trying to roller skate down steps!

I left them on Friday and went back to the airport to pick up Janet, coming out for a long weekend. This meant that poor Janet had to help make up her bed and clean the bathroom when we got home! Janet had pre requested a trip to Cordoba, so we went there.

On Monday I took Janet back to the airport via a few hours at the seaside in Torremolinos with a bite to eat one of the Chirinquitos (beach bars).

On Wednesday I was back at Malaga again to collect Paul, Ali & Sandra (Paul's sister) who were visiting specifically to go to the Asparagus Fair in Sierra de Yeguas (a small town about 10 miles away).

Sadly the week was mostly wet, although Paul did manage a swim in the lake at Guadalhorce on one of the 2 sunny days. The fair, originally scheduled for the Sunday, was cancelled because of the weather and moved to the 1^st May, the weather held, thank goodness, and everyone enjoyed it. We visited a bar in Sierra de Yeguas run by Jose and Almudena, who used to run La Maestranza in La Roda.

We had trips to Cordoba and Seville reminding Sandra how much she liked Spain although its something like 50 years since her last visit. And yes that is Cordoba 3 times in two weeks.

Back to the airport, but not before enjoying a sunny day at the seaside, back to Fuengirola to meet up with friends Anne, Tim & Dan holidaying there for a few days.

An organised coach trip to Madrid was the next treat. It was really well organised. Some free time as well as guided tours of the Prado, the Royal Palace, Segovia and one of the summer palace at La Granja, famous for the 40 fountains in the grounds powered by gravity alone. A visit to see the windmills of La Mancha at Consuegra and a bodega in Valdepenas on the way home.

By now it was May and I was very much aware that my car was now 4 years old and was due an ITV (Spanish MOT) and the road tax was due. Everybody pays their road tax in May, but the reminder and demand hadn't arrived.

I went off to the town hall to find out why.

It appears that my car has a different address to me. It lives in Antequera so I can only assume that the demands when there. The address is that of my lawyer, so I can sort of see how the mistake was made. Anyhow I managed to pay the road tax with a day to spare before penalties were incurred and I phoned the MOT station for an appointment without the letter – this turned out to be about 2 months late, as I had to fit it in around visitors and other bits of toing and froing, but there didn't appear to be any penalties for that!

In the interim Vanessa & I went to Granada to see Lenny Kravitz. Well it wasn't strictly speaking Granada, it was Atarfe, a suburb some 6 miles from the centre of Granada.

Then it was time for the annual visit from Chris, Albert & Cath and my first trip to the Alhambra this year. This time it was a bit of a working holiday in that they helped me paint my cinema screen and another wall in the garden, we had a barbeque and a film night (including Chris' adventures in Oz). Unusually there was no local festival to coincide with their visit this time, the Spring fair was on in Antequera but as this seemed to be largely about goats this year, we decided to give it a miss.

I delivered them all back to Malaga airport and then I was off to Seville to meet up with Ian, Kate & JP touring the tapas bars for an evening.

At about this time I also had 6 cubic metres of soil delivered for the garden, this has only taken me 3 years, but it made such a difference to the garden to have the beds full of soil. I was now worried that thew temperatures were far too high to attempt trying to plant anything and expect it to live. Though I did give in a little and bought a few plants.

I also received a letter from the tax office in Seville demanding I attend an interview to determine any liability following the transfer of the property to me when Mick died. This caused all sorts of panic as I've heard tales of others having to pay anything from 8 to 25000€, it could be anything. I contacted Luis my lawyer, because I thought all this was sorted out ages ago. He spoke to the office in Seville, and I didn't have to go to the interview. I had to send them loads of documents but in the end the bill was 112€, I didn't think it was worth arguing.

There was a 2 week gap before Kim & Judy arrived for a couple of days to precede their golfing (for Kim) and sunbathing (for Jude) holiday with other friends in Benalmadena. Their trip coincided with some of the European cup football matches, so much enjoyment was had following the trials & tribulations (of England) and the joys (of Spain). This was also my 18^th visit to the Alhambra (this is not as bad as it sounds as the 18 have been spread over some 45 years!).

July brings the Cordoba Guitar festival and this year the draw was Robben Ford, as part of Renegrade Creation (with Mike Landau, Jimmy Haslip & Gary Novak), so off to Cordoba for the night with my rock buddy Vanessa, and excellent it was too. The concert started at 11.30pm so that's an overnight stay in Cordoba, in July the daytime temperatures are high 30s.

Then a trip to the UK to meet my new step granddaughter, Penny. She is absolutely gorgeous, but then I would say that wouldn't I? This meant a trip to Salisbury and a chance to catch up with a few friends there.

It was also to go to Mike & Marie's wedding in the Lake District. Given the summer the UK has had they were very lucky with the weather. I, and the rest of the old school friends were invited to the evening reception at the Langdale Chase Hotel in Windermere. What a beautiful location for a wedding. The following day there was a choice of golf or a trip to Coniston. Most of us chose Coniston. A coach picked us up in Ambleside and took us to the jetty in Coniston where we took the steam gondola to Brantwood, the home of John Ruskin. What a fabulous day out. Finished off with supper in a local restaurant in Ambleside.

I returned with Bill & Meg to Essex, and took the opportunity to meet up with my cousin Nick who lives not far from them. Nick and his wife Sharon & I caught the train up to London, passing through the Olympic site on route, about a week or so before the games were due to start, to meet Ian for a few drinks and a bite to eat at Canary Wharf. A good evening.

Then all too soon, back home. I had arranged to go on a trip to Sanlucar de Barrameda for the horseracing on the beach, something Mick and I had always intended to do but didn't get around to. During August the race meetings are held over 2 weekends, the dates are dictated by the tide as this is on the Atlantic coast. We stayed at an hotel in Jerez, funnily enough this hotel used to be an old William & Humberts sherry bodega (remember an amontillado sherry called Dry Sack?). The sherry house has now been moved to a modern unit on the industrial estate on the outskirts of town, but I had visited the place when it was a bodega, with my parents, in about 1964 and again with Mick in 1997.

At the same time, Mario arrived to start work on my new roof. Blimey what an experience! I had to move out, luckily my neighbours were very accommodating and I moved in there, but I don't think they realised quite how long I would be there.

The old roof came off, the outside walls were built up to receive the new roof, the top of the house was then capped off with concrete beams in filled with hollow bricks then covered in concrete. The whole house was filled with akro props presumably to make sure it didn't cave in under the weight of the concrete! Then the new roof went on and new ceilings put in upstairs. What a mess! I thought it would never be straight again. Inevitably there were a few breakages the odd window, light bulb and the newel post on the bottom of the staircase.

In the middle of all this Ian & Do paid a visit from Nerja and took me out for the day, a welcome break. We went to Osuna wandered round looking at the lovely old ducal palaces dotted around the town and had lunch in the old casino. Like stepping back in time, sitting in the huge high ceiling lounge on old rattan furniture, under the slowly whirring fans. Then a drive across to the lakes for an early supper.

Vanessa and I arranged to join a moonlight walk around the old palaces of Antequera. It was a very informative evening, apart from the museum the palaces were not open but the guide told tales of old families and planning rules.

Time for another trip to the UK. The roof wasn't finished, I was still living with my neighbours and if circumstances were different I might have stayed, but its that time of year and I just don't want to be here. There was also another wedding, Simon and Amy's in Haslemere.

The wedding was great, the weather perfect. The ceremony was in the little village church of Lynchmere and very traditional, full morning dress for the groom and all his groomsmen, which set off their waist length hair a treat!!

When Simon's sister Hannah got married Mick drove the bride to the same church in the family Rover P5. This time Hannah's husband, Simon, drove the bride in the same car.

The next weekend was Open House London, an event that sounded as though it would be an interesting opportunity to visit a number of London properties that are not usually open to the public. I arranged to meet some of Mick's old schoolfriends and see what we could see.

I met Mike and Marie on the Saturday and we took the river cruise up to Greenwich and visited the newly refurbished Cutty Sark.

Finding myself in London on a Saturday night I trawled the Whats On guides for something to do, and joy Joe Satriani was playing at Wembley Arena as part of a tribute to Jim Marshall of Marshall amps - “50 years of Loud”. So I got myself off there, I had to leave before the end to catch the last tube but did catch Joe's set. It did whet my appetite and I hope to get to see him again sometime. The audience was largely old men with pony tails!!

On the Sunday the rest of our gang joined us, unfortunately it didn't quite turn out as I'd hoped. The opportunities to book ahead were limited because our party was too big, so we were left with only those properties where you could turn up and queue. The whole event turned out to be far more popular than even the organisers thought it would be and in spite of the rain the queues outside the gherkin, the Bank of England and 101 Upper Thames Street were far too long. So we opted for the Customs House, where there was no queue, then the pub for a long leisurely lunch before going our separate ways. As always, its good to meet up with Mick's old school friends.

I managed another visit to see Penny, my how she's grown and what a contented, happy baby.

When I got home, I found that my bank were trying to contact me because my credit card had been cloned. Fortunately they spotted it straight away and no real damage was done apart from the inconvenience of not having a card to book my flights for Christmas, or tickets for Joe Bonamassa's concert in London next year. Now only the £1500 tickets are available and I don't think I can justify that!

I had been talking to a painter about giving the house a makeover once the building work was finished, but I hadn't appreciated quite how awful it would be and mere painting wouldn't be enough. So I then talked to Vicente & Natie, on my friend Juana's recommendation. A husband and wife team who clean and paint, result! They are a lovely, thoughtful couple who added all sorts of extra little touches I wouldn't have thought of, I felt as though I'd struck gold! Unfortunately painter number one wasn't too happy that I'd changed my mind and for a few days I lived in fear of possible retribution, but, apart from some uncomfortable phone calls, nothing happened! The net result is that Natie is now my cleaner!

The clean up started, and I tried to do my bit, but mostly I just felt in the way!

Anne and Dan visited in the midst of my chaos, but I had at least managed to move back into my own house before they arrived. We just ate out a lot!

I had planned to go to Nerja for Mick's birthday but I didn't feel I could leave the house so Mike & Marie and Kim & Judy came up to Antequera to meet up for lunch. The day was cold and wet, so we found a bar close to the car park and settled in for a few beers and tapas!

The room of boxes (those of you who have visited will know what this means) is gone and is now my sitting room, complete with telly. Although I understand this might be short lived, at least for UK telly as the satellite is changing and we might need a new dish (I share next door's). Pictures are up on the wall.The garden has been painted, trees pruned and I've bought a new table and benches for the garden. I've also bought an avocado tree against all the advices of the local nurseries, but Katie's been nagging me for ages to get one. So its in the garden with a bubble wrap coat in the hope that will save it from the worst of winter here.

My study still needs a bookcase before I can get rid of all the boxes, but I'm waiting for a quote for that. So nearly there, anyone paying a repeat visit will be amazed.The place is transformed!

So what a year, I feel like I've spent far too many days waiting in for people to turn up and do something, (though looking back at everything that's happened, clearly that's not true), not being able to get out for a walk or go swimming, and its not quite over yet as I'm now waiting in for the kitchen delivery people for next door, trying to impress on them that the kitchen needs to be finished this week before I leave for the UK on Saturday.!