Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Only Fools And Horses
Saturday, June 25, 2011

Only Fools & Horses

We love the Spanish television. You can watch a film for over an hour with no interruptions then ping you get 10 or 15 minutes of back to back adverts. And when one programme ends you only get to read one name in the credits before the next programme has started. Very strange. Unfortunately, we don’t have a satellite dish and are currently going cold turkey with no Eastenders or Coronation Street to watch. We did find a button on our remote that we never knew we had that changes the language on the television so we can actually hear the programme in English. Some channels it works on but not all. So we can watch episodes of The Mentalist, CSI kinda stuff and the odd good movie, usually an old one though. Watched the original of The Italian Job – “You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!”. Classic! The Spanish seem to really love westerns and there’s one on nearly every day. So what do we do in the evenings when good old lieutenant Columbo has solved yet another murder? Well we are gradually working our way through our entire DVD collection, which sadly isn’t vast. The Shawshank Redemption (brilliant), Armageddon (far fetched but fun), Aliens (one of my all time favs!), War of the Worlds (Tom Cruise style), Shrek one AND two (“better out than in”), Schindlers List (heavy!), 50 First Dates (chick flick but very funny!) and the entire collection of Only Fools & Horses. I bought the boxed collection for Charlie a couple of Christmas’s ago & now we’re working our way through from the very beginning. We’ve had the dropping chandelier, the exploding coach, meeting Raquel, Uncle Albert “during the war”, the reunion with Slater, the birth of Damien, Rodney’s marriage and Triggers broom. We’ve actually nicknamed our mutt Trig coz he sometimes looks at us in that “what do you mean” kind of bemused way, we thought it fitted him perfectly. Really don’t know what we’ll do once we’ve watched all the episodes and the Christmas specials?? Start all over again maybe?! Luvvley Jubbley!

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Topless Or Not?? Part 12 of our Story
Wednesday, June 8, 2011

When you’re 47 years old and have had three children it’s a big decision when you hit the beach. Do you go topless or keep everything under wraps. I’ve never really done the topless thing before. When I was about 17 or 18 I went to Tunisia with my mum and my stepdad. Now I love my stepdad and he’s a great guy but there was no way I would get my thrupenny bits out in front of him. I must have been the only person in the whole complex covered up. Even my mum dared to bare. Then in 2000 I went to Portugal with my dad & my stepmum. Again, nearly everyone on the beach was topless but it just felt too weird to go topless in front of my dad. So I didn’t! Now here in Spain, most, if not all of the ladies on the beach are topless. Jealousy, that evil green eyed monster, is one of the deadly sins I know but some of the young girls strutting their stuff on the sand are absolutely gorgeous and make me feel terribly old and unattractive. Now Charlie says he loves my body, wobbly bits n all and cant see any reason why I should keep covered up - but then he’s biased. And anyway don’t you need white bikini lines to see how you’re tan is improving?! If I could spend a few months at a gym, eat nothing but rabbit food then maybe I wouldn’t feel so self-conscious but that just ain’t gonna happen. The thought of jumping about getting hot & sweaty pumping iron fills me with dread and I DO like my grub. So there’s the dilemma. Maybe I could go topless but only if I’m lying down. That way I wouldn’t have to breath in so hard to make my stomach look smaller, whilst trying to arch my back in an attempt to make things look perkier than they actually are. Of maybe I should just let everything hang out just as nature intended and frankly not give a damn. Decisions, decisions?!

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Rain, Rain Go Away - Part 11 of Our Story
Friday, June 3, 2011

One thing we really weren’t expecting when we arrived out here was the rain. Everyone we spoke to back in the UK kept telling us how glorious the weather was there, whilst we were dodging showers here. I’d even left my little fold up umbrella behind, thinking it wouldn’t be needed. Big mistake! Since we’ve been here, there has been rain, floods and an earthquake! Last Thursday in the very wee small hours of the night I was woken up by a massive clap of thunder. I lifted the shutters in our front room and stood out on the balcony in my dressing gown storm watching. It was pretty spectacular with lightning flashing across the mountains to my left and over the sea to my right. But there was no rain at that time. Then a flock of seagulls took off and headed off into the distance squawking the whole time & only then did the heavens open. It was like a scene straight out of “The Day after Tomorrow”. Eerie but fascinating. We watched the news the next day and saw one poor Spanish town trying to cope with the floods. We were jokingly calling ourselves Jonah.

We were advised to get the “tourist” bit out of the way in the first few weeks. Then we could concentrate on the hard bit – earning a living. So we spent some time being touristy. We walked the length of the beach and struggled up the hill to walk around the castle. Talk about spectacular views. We spent time sitting on our gorgeous beach congratulating ourselves on where we were. We visited Torremolinos and Benalmadena with its beautiful Paloma Park. We went out for meals in the evening with our friends and checked out a few bars. But the fun part has to come to an end and now the hard work begins.

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Transition Stage? - Part 10 of Our Story
Wednesday, June 1, 2011

I don’t know if anybody else felt the same way when they first moved out here, but we had to keep pinching ourselves to make sure it was reality and not just a dream. On our first visit to Iceland we walked across the overpass above the main road, where there is the most amazing view up into the mountains. We just stood there, with the cars zooming underneath us, and Charlie kept saying “this is our home”, “we live here”, “we ACTUALLY live HERE!!!” Unbelievable!!

After the first few days though, I seemed to drift into a bit of a daze. I think all the big build up, selling, packing, travelling had been so full throttle that actually arriving here I suddenly had no purpose. I was very quiet and Charlie knew that something wasn’t quite right but when he asked me to explain what was going on in my head – I just couldn’t. At first I put it down to being exhausted from our journey but it wasn’t that. We had made the giant leap. Achieved the impossible. The apartment was perfect, as was the location. The beach was incredible, the sun was shining (some of the time!) but I felt totally lost. Charlie started asking if I wanted to go back to the UK but I definitely didn’t want that! It took me about a week to snap out of it. Couldn’t explain it then and still cant! Transition stage maybe?

Our friends introduced us to the delights of coffee sombre in a glass at the local Spanish café where we can sit out on the pavement watching the rest of the world passing by. They also pointed out where the best shops were for everything that we might need. Although Iceland is great, they are a little bit pricey so we’ve found that it’s better to shop in the Spanish supermarkets. They are an Aladdin’s cave of goodies, especially the fish counters. It was a bit strange not being allowed to take your own shopping bags or trolleys around with you but rather lock them up until you’ve done your shopping. We are learning!! Slowly but surely. Still get caught out by the siesta now & then, usually when we’ve run out of teabags (cant beat a nice cuppa!) and all the shops are shut between 2.00 & 5.00 in the evening. We’ve made one beachside restaurant Casacola, our local for having a couple of beers on our way back from trips to the beach and the waiter Antonio is helping us with our Spanish. We try to learn at least one new word or phrase a day. So we should be totally fluent in about twenty year’s time!

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