HELLO AGAIN!
Again I must say that I don’t know where the time flies. A prompt from son David made me aware that it is 11 weeks since writing my Blog. My excuse once again is that we have been very busy with visitors coming to stay and playing catch up before, between and after each set of those visitors. So excuses over, what have we been up to? Let’s see!
July Activities – On arrival back from our wonderful holiday, (which I wrote extensively about in my last blog in case you didn’t read it) we had problems to contend with, again, sigh! A power surge while we were away tripped the mains switch in the house resuting in the power being off for 1 1/2 weeks. We have tried to get this sorted out to stop it happening without success. The up side is that the last time it happened we did get the fridge/freezers and alarm put onto another circuit bypassing the mains so this latest episode did not affect them thank goodness. However, the down side was that the irrigation system stopped working once the battery back up failed and we arrived home to wilting plants and patchy brown grass which had been lush green when we went away. Once we replaced the battery in the control box and reset it all was working fine again and very soon the garden recovered.
The garden recovery was aided by an abnormal amount of rain which descended on us spasmodically thoughout July and August with some days feeling almost wintery. Most unusual for Spain but certainly not as bad as the UK’s summer weather. We do not complain though when we get the showers and even downpours in Spain in the summer as we know it won’t last long and the sun will quickly be shining again. I do feel sorry for the holiday makers who have to cram their vacations into August to suit school terms, save hard to take their families to sunny Spain only to get rain when they are there.
So what did we do in July? Peter got the garden shipshape again, we washed the terraces, did major food shopping and I got to grips with the normal chores around the house and prepared for the guests due to start coming in August. Peter got back into the swing of his golf practice on the driving range (no pun intended) and I settled back down to my crafting. I have now made all my Christmas cards apart from the special family ones and I just have to do the inserts and make some envelopes for the odd sized ones and they will be ready for the post at the right time. Oh, and of course we caught up with friends and did a bit of socialising.
August Visitors - On the Sunday before our first visitors arrived we had a heavy downpour of rain which brought the brown dust of the Sahara Desert with it. This normally only happens in May and was a shock to us to get it in July. Thinking that we had already got ready for our visitors we then had to hose everything down and have a major clean up again on the day before they came. Sigh Again!
Our visitors arriving on Tuesday 31st July were daughter Sally with grandkids, 15-year-old Matt and 12-year-old Robyn together with my niece Sue with her 15-year-old son Regan. It was a first for us and interesting to have two families visit together. Although enjoyable we don’t think we would repeat this as we found we preferred the company of one family at a time more to our liking. You don’t know until you try and both Sally and Sue fortunately understand how we felt and did not take offence as indeed none was meant.
We did not go out and about on day trips as the adults were happy to chill out at the villa for the duration of their short visit and Sally was engrossed in the latest Harry Potter book, which she finished and left for me to read. I found it hard to get into but by the time I was half way through I fully understood why Sally could not put it down. A good read and not the ending I expected. Us women enjoyed many games of Scrabble and Backgammon and in the evenings we all played our fun card game of Uno. Anticipating that the three youngsters might get bored, Peter had gone and bought some pool games – a goal post, basketball net and volleyball net and so we played lots of family games with these. We had also bought some woggles which only cost 2 euros each and were worth their weight in gold. The volleyball players who were the strongest swimmers were deligated to the deep end and found the woggles a good support aid while playing. I naturally was allowed to play in the shallow end where, being nervous in the water, I planted my feet firmly on the bottom of the pool and only attempted to go for balls within my reach. I felt as though I was a bit of a liability to my team members but it was good fun.
We did go out some evenings though. We went for a fish and chip supper and then on to the Irish pub to be entertained by Jooles, our favourite guitarist and we all enjoyed the evening very much and we also had some nice meals out at their favourite restaurants and had a couple of barbies at home. On the Sunday lunchtime we met up with 14 of our friends at the Donkey Sanctuary in Jalon and really enjoyed a lovely leg of roast pork with loads of crispy crackling. Oh and of course we had to do the obligatory market visit – that is always a must with visitors! We had woken to rain but as this was the only chance they would get to go to the market we braved the weather. It actually stopped raining for us when we got there and was quite pleasant wandering around as it was quite cool.
The week flew by and on the afternoon of Tuesday 7th August Peter took them all off to the airport for their flight home. I stayed behind at the villa to do all the cleaning, make up fresh beds and prepare an evening meal for our next visitors who Peter would be bringing back with him on his return journey from the airport. A very quick turnaround indeed!
Arriving on that Tuesday were son David, daughter-in-law Alison and grandkids 16-year-old Tiff and 6-year-old James due in 1/2 hour after the others flew out. Unfortunately they had a flight delay so Peter had a long wait at the airport whiling away the time reading a couple of newspapers and having a snooze. The prepared meal was put on hold for the following day and when they finally arrived at 10pm we made do with Pizzas which was lighter and very welcome.
David and family came for 10 days and unike the others did want to go out during the day a couple of times. Our first visit was to Guadalest, a monestary town up in the mountains. The visit was really for Alison who wanted to visit the big Lladro shop there where David was to buy her birthday present from him to her and she picked two lovely pieces out which were part of her series collection. After the essential shopping we had lunch and then decided to climb up to the top to see the beautiful views. It must be about 12 years since I ventured up to the top and I really had forgotten how lovely it is and the climb was not too difficult. Another trip we went on was a 2 hour drive to the other side of Valencia. The destination was an underground river, reputed to be the longest underground river in Europe. We went on a 45 minute boat trip along this river through wonderful caves with their fantastic stalictites and staligmites (hope I’ve got that right!) and it was well worth the lengthy drive. Unfortunately, the name of the place escapes me at the moment and as I am writing this in the UK I do not have access to the leaflets.
We went to Monro’s Carvery at Pedreguer, which we prefer to the one in Moraira, for Sunday Roast dinner and while we were there we could hear thunder rolling around in the Denia region but the weather for us was hot and sunny. Later that day though the storm reached us at the villa and we sat on the terrace being entertained to a spectacular lightening display over the sea and mountains.
Again we played lots of Volleyball and by this time I was braving lifting one foot briefly off of the bottom of the pool and James loved us all playing basketball and using the goal post with him too (I was placed in goal where I could keep those feet firmly planted! Those woggles we bought were really made good use of as Tiff made up so many different games with them to play with James. They were converted to horses, chariots, racing cars and all manner of things and it was great to watch them play for hours together making good use of the pool. David spent a lot of time helping James with his swimming techniques and with Tiff and James with their diving and Alison did a lot of lazing and soaking up the sun. On one of the bad weather days Alison and I worked together on a Christmas card and she got the bug and is now hand making cards since she’s been back home.
We also took them for the fish and chip supper and on to the Irish Pub to see Jooles again. This time he was with Christian and they were doing a Pink Floyd Tribute, which was right up David’s street he being a Pink Floyd fan. James enjoyed it too but not sure about Ali and Tiff though as they were not keen on the music but they bravely endured it. Again we ate out at their favourite restaurants and had BBQ’s at home as well as some other nice meals and then we played games in the evenings, this time it was Yahzee, a dice game that we have owned for over 30 years and which has given us hours of enjoyment throughout all those years.
We cancelled the obligatory market visit the first week as it was raining again and it was decided to go the following week which was also the day they were due to fly out in the evening. We could not believe it when we woke to rain again on that day too – that was three Fridays in a row! As it was their last opportunity we decided to go anyway and once again on the the way there the rain stopped and although overcast we managed a leisurely 1 and a 1/2 hour stroll around the market without getting a soaking before going off to Holly’s in the Square for a hearty lunch.
It was a very full ten days and again went by very quickly but we had a lovely relaxing, enjoyable time and I think they did too and they did not let the odd days of bad weather spoil their holiday as we always seemed to find something to do that fitted in with the weather.
David and Alison had brought a gift with them for us – a Sky+ box. David connected it up, got it installed and showed me how to use it. Thank you so much for giving it to us and getting it working – I love it as it is so easy to record programs and allows us to record one channel and watch another at the same time, watch a recorded program while another is recording or record two programs at the same time. And it is great too to be able to pause live viewing if interrupted in the middle of a program! David also sorted out a few things on my laptop and showed me how to do some things I was unsure about and he got our bedroom fan working properly too. He also went next door and sorted out a problem Tom had with his PC and TomTom. So a BIG THANK YOU from us all David.
David and Co departed on Friday 17th and we had 9 days to play catch up with our chores and with our friends before our next and last visitors of the summer season arrived. Another downpour of rain the day before our visitors arrived brought the brown dust again so once more we had a major clean up to do yet again. Big Sigh!
Our niece Sue came back on Monday 27th for 10 days, this time with her eldest daughter, 18-year-old Mica. We had lots of ideas of places we could take them and different restaurants they might like but when it came to it they were quite happy to chill out during the day as it was very hot. We did take them for lunch to a restaurant up in the mountains though. This is a ramshackle old barn called Verde Vent which we can only describe as a rustic eating experience. We enjoy going there and they really enjoyed it too. We also had some good meals out in the evenings but we stayed home a lot, had barbies and played games. Sue and I played a game of Scrabble everyday and found that we were very well matched and managed to get consistent combined scores of over 600 points which is pretty good. We also played Backgammon and Mica and Peter also enjoyed some games too. The pool and jacuzzi were well used and we had a daily 1 hour+ game of water volleyball with Pete and Sue in the deep end playing against Mica and I in the shallow end. I am very proud to say that my confidence in the water grew each day and before long the feet were leaving the ground and I was stretching, reaching and jumping for the ball as well as anyone else, not even thinking about the face or hair getting wet, and really enjoying myself. It was a bonus too when Mica read out of her magazine that you use up 200 calories playing 1 hour of water volleyball! Can’t see any visible results though I must say!
After another great visit it was time to take them back to the airport for their flight home late on Thursday 6th September and then we had only 4 days to play our catch up game again before we flew out to the UK ourselves.
Pool Problems – Throughout August, and while we had visitors, we had pool problems. The water virtually changed overnight from sparkling blue to a murky green. David went onto the Internet and researched causes which basically all came back to filtration. Peter and David followed all the given advice from giving it shock chlorine treatement to adding other chemicals. As the water was testing OK we carried on using the pool and thankfully no-one has suffered any ill effects. We also had the sand in the filter changed as it is recommended that this be done every 5 years and our pool is 6 1/2 years old. After a lot of effort we finally got the pool water back to sparkling blue again only to find a week later it was murky green again. Talking to other people we found that we were not the only ones having problems and the causes have now been attributed to the rain carrying that awful brown dust. When we left to come to the UK on the 11th the pool seemed to be recovering once again so hopefully it will be OK when we get back. We have left the cover off to make life easier for Alex who is looking after it while we are away so I should think that when we get back the temperatures will be well down which means swimming will be over for this year. Thanks David for your input and help with yet another problem!
Back in the UK – We arrived back in the UK at lunchtime on Tuesday 11th September. Friends Pam and Bob met us at Stansted and we stopped for a very nice meal on the way home. Back at the house in Warboys we had a cuppa before P&B departed and then took a much needed siesta.
A Mishap for Peter – Peter then decided to pop out to to get a few essentials from the local supermarket but when he went to get the car out of the garage the battery was flat. He called the recovery service who came out very quickly. Thinking he would help the guy he started to roll the car out of the garage with the driver’s door open and one hand on the steering wheel. As the car hit the slope of the drive it gathered momentum and Peter couldn’t control it and the result was Peter being pinned by his chest between the edge of the car door and the garage door frame. He managed to jerk the car forward a bit and then he was pinned by his jumper and could not move. By now pain had set in as he had taken the impact by the full weight of the car on his upper right chest. He did not have the strength to move the car again so screamed for help. The breakdown guy who was at his van out on the road thankfully heard him and came to his aid, pushing the car forward enough to free Peter and allow him to collapse onto the seat and engage the handbrake.
Although there was only a 4 inch mark visible on the right of his chest where the door had trapped him he was in a lot of pain so I insisted that he go to A&E and get checked out. A call to friend Bob brought him to the rescue. By this time the car was sat on the drive with engine running so Bob took Peter to Huntingdon hospital in our car to give it a run thus attending to two poorly patients in one go – Peter and the car!
A thorough check showed that Peter had bady bruised all the muscles in his upper right chest, back, shoulder and arm and he was warned that he would be in considerable pain for some time. He was given a cocktail of painkillers with the instruction to take them even if he did not feel he needed them as otherwise he would breathe shallowly and cause a lung infection and he was to do nothing too strenuous. Peter had a very lucky narrow escape as had the car door caught him 3 inches to the left it would have crushed his heart and probably killed him. Let’s hope that Peter has learnt a lesson from the experience and not be so ready in future to tackle things on his own. We will see! One week later he is still in considerable pain and restricted in his activities. He has just got back from a visit to the GP who has really just reaffirmed everything that he was told by the hospital staff. Thank goodness he is able to drive though.
My Health Checks – I have had various tests all connected to diabetes and the results have been good so far. Just got the diabetic clinic to attend next week and that’s that out of the way for another 6 months.
What We Are Doing – We have just got back from spending a pleasant weekend with Sally, Matt and Rob and meeting up with friends today for lunch. Tomorrow we are off to the cinema with Pam and Bob to see Atonement and then we and their daughter Lorraine and son-in-law Geoff are taking them out for a meal on Thursday to celebrate their anniversary. Friday we are off to David and Alison’s for the weekend and leaving there on Monday to go to Norwich to visit Peter’s brother and wife and his Mum. We get back to Warboy’s on Tuesday 25th, I have Diabetic Clinic on the 26th and we wing our way back to Spain on the 27th. So it will have been a busy and eventful visit once again.
Next news will come from sunny (hopefully) Spain!
