Diary of a Nobody

Paul Whitelock visited Montejaque (Malaga) for the second time in his life back in the year 2000.

Accompanied by Jeryl, his wife at the time, and their son, Tom, then aged 13, they rented a house in the upper part of the village for the October half-term holiday.

What happened?

The couple, from Thelwall near Warrington (Cheshire), had already fallen in love with the Serrania de Ronda and had decided to use a windfall to buy a property in the area. They had narrowed their search to Ronda or Montejaque, and were using this village stay to try to sharpen their focus. Here’s Paul’s diary from nearly a quarter of a century ago.

Puerta Verde, Montejaque [Photo: Karl Smallman]

Paul Whitelock and his then wife Jeryl were considering buying somewhere in Montejaque as long ago as the year 2000. So they decided to rent a holiday home in the village, in order to get a feel for life there and to ascertain whether it might be somewhere they would enjoy having a bolthole. The stay would also give them the chance to view some more properties in the area.

Here’s an extract from Paul’s diary of the time.

Sunday 31 October 2001

Up at 3.30 am  and left for the airport at 4.20 am. We arrived at Liverpool John Lennon airport at 4.50 am.

Small queue, checked in, no problems!  Saw Janet T and her husband; also Anne-Marie, a teacher from my last school, St Aelred’s Catholic High School in Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside.

Front seats again!  Guess who was sitting across the aisle from us? None other than 1985 World Snooker Champion Dennis Taylor (Doppelgaenger). He had his eyes shut throughout the flight. Fear of flying or a signal that he didn’t want to be disturbed? I left him in peace just in case.

We took off on time and arrived early in Málaga.  I went for the hire car while Jeryl and Tom waited at the belt for our luggage.

Had travelled 10 kilometres or so when Jeryl asked if my bag was handy or was it in the boot – no! It was at easy.rentacar.com! I’d left it behind!

We turned around and headed back to the airport on the ordinary road. Have you noticed how Spain seems to have fallen in love with the roundabout and the sleeping policeman? It was getting on my nerves, having to continually brake and slow down, so we resumed our journey back to the airport by motorway, as soon as we could.

With my reclaimed luggage on board, we recommenced our journey to Montejaque. The journey to Ronda took us about 90 minutes, winding up the hill from San Pedro de Alcántara. After another 20 minutes we were in Montejaque.

Collected key and went to our casita, Puerta Verde, which, despite its name, has a brown door, not a green one!  It was nevertheless nice and rustic with many attractive features.

It had been pouring with rain, however, so everywhere was rather wet.

After unpacking we went to La Casita for lunch on the terrace overlooking the gardens and pool and the mountains beyond.  Excellent lunch, though unfortunately I had to drink all the wine as Jeryl was still on penicillin.  The post-lunch brandy had to be the biggest I have ever had!! After lunch I went ‘de chiquiteo’ while J and T went back to Puerta Verde, only to catch up with me later.

Bumped into ‘Camper Van Couple’ again. We’d met them at La Casita that lunchtime. They are actually quite boring.

Joined up with Ron Watt and his latest ‘client’, Carol, who’d just bought a place for 5.000.000 in Calle Manuel Mañara, 5. Found out quite a lot about the housing scene from Ron (subsequently found to be false, or, at least, exaggerated!).

Juan, dueño del Bar Alemán, had sold his mum’s house (Calle Manuel Lopez, 24) to a retired English bobby, Philip, and his wife Sandra, who were later to become good friends. We’d looked at that house the last time we were here and were quite interested, but, hey … Juan told us his father’s house was for sale (Calle Manuel Mañara, 2).  Arranged to view on Tuesday.

Which we did, along with other properties in Arriate and Ronda. After a gruelling day viewing mostly totally inappropriate houses, we finally fetched up at a flat that had apparently come onto the market just that day. The estate agent showing us round hadn’t even seen it!

Well, we bought it there and then, agreeing a deal that very evening!

Small but ideally located in the Barrio San Francisco in Ronda, it was part of a comunidad of 10 dwellings with a shared garden and, wait for it, a pool! Practically unheard of in the town itself.

Needless to say, we spent a sleepless night worrying about what we’d agreed to.

To find out what happened next, click here.

Note: This article forms part of a trilogy with The Houses That Jack Built and My God! What Have We Done?

About Paul Whitelock

Paul Whitelock is a retired former languages teacher, school inspector and translator, who emigrated to the Serranía de Ronda in 2008, where he lives with his second wife, Rita. He spends his time between Montejaque and Ronda doing DIY, gardening and writing.

In January 2021 Paul Whitelock and his wife Rita contracted the Coronavirus after spending the end of 2020 in Cádiz. Both were very ill, Rita more so than Paul. Rita spent 10 days in hospital in Ronda, before the couple took the decision to self-discharge.

At home again, Rita was so weak she stopped eating and drinking. Then her niece, Dana, a physiotherapist, took unpaid leave from her job to come and treat her aunt. She did a great job, and Rita's younger son, Jojo, who came with Dana to help me, decided to take Rita back to Germany with them for further treatment. She was away for two and a half months.

This is Paul’s diary, written in 2021, describing what happened when Rita returned to Spain.

Preamble

Paul Whitelock hasn’t seen his wife Rita, except on WhatsApp video calls, for two and a half months. In early January, after a short post-Christmas break in Cádiz, the couple contracted Covid-19, Rita particularly badly. She spent 10 horrendous days in the Hospital de la Serranía, followed by 10 days bedridden at home in Fuente de la Higuera (Ronda).

Miracle Worker

Then a miracle worker in the shape of her German niece Dana, a physiotherapist, arrived from Germany. She had taken 10 days unpaid leave from work to come and treat her aunt. Rita’s son Jojo also came to relieve the pressure on Paul as lone carer.

The family then decided Rita would get better post-Covid care in Germany, so she returned to Germany with them on 15 February and was immediately admitted to hospital in Ludwigsburg (Baden-Wuerttemberg) for tests.

As fate would have it the doctors discovered another, potentially fatal, medical problem, and they had to operate straightaway. But it was a false alarm, thank God!

But, nevertheless Rita had undergone a major abdominal operation – no joke for a lady who was already physically weak from her bad experience with the Coronavirus.

After recovery in hospital and a period of recuperation at her daughter’s, Rita went to stay with her niece Dana and had a further 10 days of physiotherapy, which worked so well that Rita felt able to plan her return home to Ronda. She flew home last Monday 26 April after 10 weeks away.

***

Here’s Paul’s diary for the week:

Sunday 25 April 2021

"Off to Málaga Airport early tomorrow morning to pick up Rita. She’s due to land at 09.40 on the Ryanair flight from Frankfurt International.

"I haven’t seen her for two and a half months, except on WhatsApp, as she’s been in Germany recovering from a very bad dose of Covid-19 and a major operation.

"But she’s feeling well enough to travel and will be back home where she belongs in our home near Ronda tomorrow afternoon.

"I shan’t sleep a wink in anticipation."

Monday 26 April 2021

"Left later than intended, bugger! Happens every time we do an airport run!

"I estimate that, by the time she’s got her luggage, she’ll emerge in her wheelchair, being pushed by one of the airport wheelchair pushers, around 10.00 am.

"That didn’t happen in Málaga! Worked fine in Frankfurt and during the flight, but no-one came to get her on the ground at Málaga.

"So, with typical teutonic pragmatism she sorted herself out and when I arrived there she was outside arrivals, looking very smart indeed, I must say! But then she always dresses nicely, does Rita, doesn’t she?

"I wanted to “nip” to Leroy Merlin for stuff you can’t get easily in Ronda. Unfortunately, it was really busy. Pandemic? What pandemic? The world and his wife seemed to be there, spending money like there was no tomorrow! (OOPs! Tactless remark – for some there won’t be a tomorrow, sadly.)

"And the “nip” turned into an hour and a half.

"Quite justifiably, Rita, who had stayed in the car, was not ‘appy! Well done, Paul!

"We headed back to Ronda in silence, arriving late afternoon.

"I cooked a nice meal tonight. Cheated on the starter (Mercadona), but the main course and dessert were all mine. Genuine beef fillet pepper steak with mushroom sauce and freshly picked broad beans from my garden, and French beans from another supermarket. Dessert was berejenas con sirope de agave. First time for me – not bad. (By the way, I used sirope de agave cos there was no honey! Just as good, if not better, and natural to boot – like honey, of course.)"

Tuesday 27 April 2021

"We tried to have a quiet day recovering. Rita is still unwell. She’s as skinny as a rake and is in sporadic pain.

"One of Rita’s friends, Heather Cooper (Hike + Bike the Sierras), popped by in the afternoon. Heather is a fluent German speaker, so Rita enjoyed that interlude immensely.

"It looked like our neighbour Julian Marshall’s sheep had been rustled, until the four lambs (lawnmowers) were found wandering among the vines of the Badman Wines bodega, which is adjacent to our properties. Julian runs Cortijo Perla Blanca with his wife Jody.

"We had another nice meal prepared by me this evening – pez espada, swordfish, with a king prawn garnish, fried potatoes, onion and garlic, and, of course, fresh broad beans from the garden."

Wednesday 28 April 2021

"Today my British-registered VW camper van is due to have its ITV inspection pending matriculation.

"I was a touch anxious, but it sailed through the ITV. Just need to go to Tráfico in Málaga City now, to complete the paperwork. Then I can get my Spanish number plates.

"Bought a load of second-hand stuff for Casa Real, the house I’m doing up in Montejaque. There’s a great shop in Calle Monterejas in Ronda called Mi Atillo.

"We decided today we have to let Berti, our gorgeous German pointer, go. He’s still a puppy and way too boisterous for Rita the way she is physically at the moment. We do this with great regrets, as he’s such a loveable, yet mischievous pet, but at least his new owner, José, a friend of ours, lives nearby in La Indiana, so we shall see plenty of Berti. When José needs a dog-sitter, “we’re his men”, so to speak.

"This evening, Berti-free, we dined at one of Rita’s favourite restaurants in Ronda – Las Maravillas on Calle La Bola. Yummy!"

Thursday 29 April 2021

"I have to get a blood test in Ronda this morning for my urologist appointment on Monday in San Pedro de Alcántara.

"Rita is expecting a visit from three girlfriends from Montejaque: Jill, Tracy and Pippa. Pippa is a relatively recent arrival in Montejaque, compared to Jill, resident about 16 years, and Tracy since 2016, I think. Pippa is a trained masseuse and Rita is hoping she can help ease her (sometimes) terrible back pain. For more information on Pippa’s services go to www.montejaquemasseuse.com

"Blood test done and back home. Spent a delightful couple of hours sitting on our new terrace at Villa Indiana with Rita and her guests. Rita gets her first massage tomorrow.

"Slight panic late afternoon. Our neighbour Jody WhatsApp-ed me. Did I know there was a lot of smoke coming from my field? Went to check and sure enough, smoke was billowing from a mound of dead vegetation that had been piled up there. I went to go in to try to put it out but the gate was locked and the key, which for the last 10 years has always been left in the lock, was missing! It must be José, I thought.

"Rang him. Yep, he’d popped the key in his pocket automatically, without thinking. I asked him to hurry back, which he did, and we got in the field, extinguished the fire and bob’s your uncle!"

Friday 30 April 2021

"Today I have lots of things on my to-do list.

"LIDL for some stuff from their Bazar.

"Unicaja to transfer funds.

"Santander to the cajero for cash. Parked in a zona de carga/descarga for 5 minutes and got booked by the local fuzz – 200€. 100€ if I pay quickly. Bugger!

"GP for face-to-face consultation re Covid-19 jab, long-Covid, which I have, unfortunately, and to update my prescriptions on my tarjeta sanitaria.

"Peugeot workshop with car – driver’s window won’t shut. 36€ to get it fixed. This is turning out to be an expensive day!

"Ferretería to get some cupboard locks.

"Mi Atillo again to identify more bargains for Casa Real.

"Policlínica de la Serranía to get results of blood test ready for my urologist appointment on Monday.

"Venta el Puente in La Indiana for a quick drink and to pay my builders.

"Montejaque to deliver stuff to Casa Real.

"Ronda for Covid jabs. We got Pfizer.

"La Cascada for dinner.

"Bed and sleep."

Saturday 1 May 2021

"Just posted this on Facebook:

“Hi, everybody.

Rita Whitelock thinks I reveal too much about our lives on Facebook, and she’s probably right. I just felt it was the easiest and least time-consuming way for me to let people know how she was progressing.

Now she’s back home where she belongs and things are beginning to look good, so I should probably quit my bulletins while I’m still ahead. This will be the last one.

We both got our first jabs yesterday and get our second doses on 21 May.

We went for dinner last night with our good friends Kevin and Yvonne Speak at one of our favourite restaurants, La Cascada at Hotel Molino del Puente. Rita enjoyed her mejillones and so did I!

Today we’re hoping to make it to Bar Allioli for live music, a great choice of beers and burgers to die for.

So … no more FB updates. Lots of you will see us around; others will pick up info from my outpourings on www.secretserrania.com and elsewhere.

Mucha suerte a todos.”

Saturday 1 May 2021 continued

"Rita drove a car for the first time in four months today! She went to Montejaque to have breakfast with her good friend Jill La Pêche. They chose La Terraza, where they offer  a damned good desayuno inglés by all accounts.

"Me? I went to Ronda to get the newspapers to read later. I got SUR, Ronda Semanal, SUR in English and The Olive Press. That should keep me going for an hour or two. The Spanish Press keeps me informed about the latest news and helps maintain my level of Spanish, a good discipline to have (see “Top 10 Tips for learning Spanish”), while the two English “freebies” always come in handy for lighting the chimenea on chilly evenings. (Only joking!)

"Also popped into Mi Altillo to confirm the purchase of other items of furniture and décor.

A couple of hours gardening at Villa Indiana until Rita returned from her breakfast date.

***

"We later went to Bar Allioli in Jimera de Líbar, where Jens, a Dane from Alhaurín El Grande played two great sets of folk, reggae and soft rock. We ate well too. Plus I met Alan, a real ale importer who was at Bar Allioli for the first time in his life. He’d brought a barrel of live beer (a delicious mild from Hobson’s Brewery in Shropshire) and a selection of the Hobson’s bottled range.

For more information about Hobson´s beers, please , contact: realaleandciderdistribution@gmail.com

"With lovely weather to boot we had a great afternoon.

"In the evening I went to Ronda to withdraw some cash from the cajero and visited the Feria del Libro in the Alameda. Spent rather a lot of money, but got some great books about Ronda and the Serranía, together with some recipe books and a couple of classics: La Cabaña del Tío Tom and El Diario de Ana Frank.

"I prepared a nice dinner of salmon steaks with salad, before we called it a day."

Sunday 2 May 2021

"After breakfast together on our terrace I headed off to Montejaque to deliver stuff for Casa Real. I also watered the plants at Casa Rita and Las Hormigas.

"Rita had plenty to do at home in Villa Indiana after being away for so long. She also found time to chill out in the garden and do some “pottering”.

"I did some tidying up at Casa Real ready for the start of work on Monday.

"The week wrapped up with dinner (trio of roast sausages with Mediterranean vegetables) and an early night.

"It’s been a bloody good week, and well-deserved, I reckon."

A personal message

At the end of the best week of 2021 so far for both of us, we’d just like to say thanks to all of you for your continued enquiries, good wishes and offers of support. Some from people who have never even met Rita and who I haven’t seen since graduation in 1973. We were very touched.

I never thought I’d feel this positive about the good things that Facebook can do in the world. I love you, Mark (Zuckerberg)!

Paul Whitelock

Photos:

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Karl Smallman

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This is an updated version of a post from 2020 about my life after I emigrated from the UK to live in Spain in 2008.

Life quickly settled down in Montejaque where I was living with my German wife, Rita, who I sometimes refer to in these blogs, for obvious reasons, as The Meter Maid. After a short spell at The Olive Press newspaper, during which time I also contributed articles to SUR in English, the Euro Weekly News and Olive Country Life magazine, the latter based in Alcalá La Real (Jaén), I became a blogger.

First steps

I got myself a website to promote my various activities, namely translating and interpreting, holiday rentals and house sales. The blog was a ruse to attract potential clients to the site.

In the meantime, after three years we left our little house in the village and moved to the campo just outside Ronda. I got a garden, Rita got a pool and we both got a house you could reach by car, which meant no more schlepping shopping up the hill to our house in Montejaque.

I was invited to write a blog for the online version of The Olive Press and for another local website, now defunct.

As time went on, I grew disillusioned with translating. It’s boring being cooped up indoors with a laptop and a dictionary. And interpreting at the hospital, at the bank, at the lawyer’s became a nightmare in that many clients didn’t really want an interpreter, they wanted someone to solve their medical, financial or legal problems.

So I gave that all up. I continued to help out friends in exchange for a cup of coffee or a breakfast, but that’s a different kettle of fish.

The house sales didn’t really work too well either – too much competition.  Around the same time, I got writer’s block. So I stopped blogging and my website lapsed.

Expanding family

Over the last six years I have acquired some grandchildren of my own to add to the six on the German side of the family. All boys, born in 2016, 2019, 2020, and 2023 two in Bow, East London and two in St Leonard’s on Sea near Hastings, East Sussex.

The coronavirus pandemic then arrived and ruined everything: the Confirmation of a grandson in Germany, my 70^th birthday celebration, an extended family knees-up in Germany, visits to the UK to see my children, grandchildren and brother and our annual tide of visitors from Germany and the UK to use our pool (sorry, I mean to see us!) were all cancelled.

Covid aftermath

The COVID-19 lockdown with its random fatalities and the death in a plane crash of a family member in Australia got me thinking about life and death – I was then 70, after all. I’m now 74 and still here!

Back in 2021 COVID-19  kick-started me into action: gardening, carpentry, mending garden furniture, painting, pressure-washing terraces and, after lockdown was eased, more socialising and eating out.

Rita and I tidied up our affairs and sorted out new Wills. I bought new clothes and new furniture and we spent a tidy sum on sorting our water out and becoming a virtually chemical-free home.

A descalzificador, a reverse osmosis unit, an ozone making machine, an industrial ozone vacuum cleaner and defumigator and an ozonised pool all meant no more limescale clogging up our pipes, boiler, radiators, taps, kettle and human digestive systems, no more bottled water and the contingent plastic waste, no more cleaning products and no more pool chemicals.

Back to writing

I decided I wanted to write again so approached Karl Smallman about writing a blog for his Secret Serranía website, and that’s what happened, I became a regular contributor.

Since then I got myself a website of my own again, www.help-me-ronda.com. That’s where I post most of my  stuff  these days, although I post also on www.eyeonspain.com.

So, that completes my odyssey from North Devon to South Spain … I hope you enjoyed reading about my journey and that you continue to enjoy my writing.

Please feel free to give feedback by using the comments section at the end of each article.

© Diary of a Nobody

Links:

From North Devon to South Spain in seven decades… Part One: The Early Years

From North Devon to South Spain in seven decades… Part Two: After The Hangover

From North Devon to South Spain in seven decades… Part Three: A New Life in Andalucía

Photos:

Psychology Today

Rigor Textual

Secret Serrania

United Nations

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By Paul Whitelock 

This is the story of a little house in Ronda. Who bought it? Who did it up? What happened next? Here is the Diary of El Rincón 2005 – 2010, a revised and updated  version of an original article written in 2010.

Paul Whitelock looks back fondly to a period of his life in the mid-to-late-2000s which was dominated by his relationship with El Rincón.

Dirty (?) weekend

When I took my then girlfriend Maude to Ronda for a long weekend in September 2005, she loved the “City of Dreams” so much that she bought a house there on the spur of the moment!

Located in the Las Peñas district, it was small and in urgent need of a makeover, but it was very quaint, had a big garden, considering it was in the centre of Ronda and, more importantly, it was dirt cheap.

We called it El Rincón because it was sort of tucked away in a corner. The Spanish word means internal corner or nook and the name seemed appropriate.´

Refurbishment

The house and garden needed a lot of work, which I happily took on. Maude was still working full time in the UK, but I was (early) retired, so I was able to spend months in Ronda re-wiring, building a new bathroom, tiling floors and creating a rather lovely terraced garden with shady pérgola at the rear of the house.

We invested in lots of plants and acquired a large quantity of ornamental stones and pebbles free of charge (see Getting Stuff for Free in the Serranía de Ronda). A good lick of paint and after many months El Rincón was finished.

Maude bought expensive solid wooden furniture in a traditional rustic style for the house. The furniture shop Hermanos Rojas in Ronda made a lot of money from us that summer!

Maude’s three daughters, their boyfriends, her brother and a few friends all came to stay in El Rincón, or “Rinc”, as we called it.

Her youngest daughter, Welsh-born Becky, and her fiancé, Scotsman Graham, were the most frequent visitors and they helped a lot with the building work and gardening. They loved Ronda so much that they decided they would like to get married in the town and asked me if I could organise the wedding for them. “No problem!” I said.

That was my first mistake! Read what happened next in A Celtic wedding in Ronda - Secret Serrania de Ronda

A couple of years went by and Maude and I broke up, although we remained good friends and kept in touch. After a while Maude put “Rinc” on the market, but it was post-2008 and the worldwide economic crash, so the housing market was dead.

By this time, I had emigrated and was living full-time in Montejaque, near Ronda, with the Meter Maid, whom I’d met in Ronda in September 2008 at the Feria de Pedro Romero.
 

My first house sale

In Spring 2010 an English shopkeeper friend, “Soapy” Sara (she sold handmade soaps from a shop on Calle Sevilla, Ronda) asked if I knew of any houses for sale in Ronda. “No, not really,” I replied.

“Hang on a minute! Maybe I do…”. I rang Maude straightaway to see if “Rinc” was still for sale, and, to cut a long story short, Sara viewed “Rinc”, loved it and negotiated by phone and email with Maude, and agreed a price.

It was 27 June 2010. Maude flew out to Spain, we all went to the notary in the morning and did the business.

World Cup woe

In the afternoon of that day, Jojo, the Meter Maid’s youngest son, who was staying with us, and I went to the terrace of Bar La Farola in Plaza Carmen Abela and watched the World Cup match in South Africa when England lost 1-4 to Germany in the Quarter Finals.

This was the infamous match where Frank Lampard’s “goal” was disallowed, even though everyone but the referee could see that the ball was clearly over the line! No VAR back then!

“We wuz robbed!”

Dining in style

In the evening, Maude, Rita, Jojo and I enjoyed a delicious meal together in one of our (Maude’s, Rita’s and my) favourite restaurants, Restaurante El Almocábar in the Barrio San Francisco.

As always, Manolo, the owner, did us proud, as we celebrated the sale of El Rincón and drowned our sorrows over England’s defeat that afternoon.

So, that was the end of an era. With El Rincón sold, Maude’s relationship with Ronda came to a final and poignant end.

***

Epilogue

Later that summer of 2010, Paul and Rita “jumped the broom” at Maulbronn Abbey in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany.

Six months later they moved to a villa with substantial land in the campo outside Ronda ..... and the rest is history.

***

In 2020 they were due to “celebrate” their 10^th wedding anniversary but couldn’t!

Spain was still in Covid-19 lockdown, so they couldn’t go away anywhere. They couldn’t even go out for a meal, as the restaurants were all closed.

“Bloody Covid-19!” said Paul at the time. “Only good thing is, look at the money I’ve saved!” 

The couple made up for their disappointment later that summer when things got back to the “new normal”, and they were able to dine at their favourite restaurant at the time, La Cascada at Hotel Molino del Puente.

Since then, three more wedding anniversaries have gone by, which they have been able to celebrate. This year, 2024, Rita was away visiting her poorly sister in Germany on our anniversary, so we went for a nice meal to our current favourite restaurant Gastrobar Sensur in Ronda when she got back.

***

Note: The original article first appeared at www.secretserrania.com on 25 November 2020:

The story of El Rincón in Ronda - the “City of Dreams” (secretserrania.com)

© Paul Whitelock

Links:

Back to the “Bridge” – St George’s Day (eyeonspain.com)

Getting Stuff for Free in the Serranía de Ronda

RESTAURANTE ALMOCABAR, Ronda - Restaurant Reviews, Photos & Phone Number - Tripadvisor

SENSUR Gastrobar, Ronda - Help me, Ronda (help-me-ronda.com)

The Building History of a 72-year-old DIY Fan (eyeonspain.com)

Acknowledgements:

Eye on Spain

Help me Ronda

Secret Serrania

Photos:

Google Images

Help me Ronda

Karl Smallman

Paul Whitelock

TheFork

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I recently posted the first two parts of the story of how I came to live in Spain. It took longer than I had hoped, but I made it in the end!

The Puente Nuevo  in Ronda [Photo courtesy of Secret Serrania]

After three decades of regular visits to Spain, it got to the millennium and 25 years of married life.

So, in summer 2000 my wife, Jeryl, and I decided to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary by touring Andalucía, a region we didn’t yet know.  Flight to Málaga, two nights in spectacular Ronda, two in stunning Arcos de la Frontera, a sherry tour in tranquil Jerez de la Frontera, via beautiful Carmona to two more nights in gorgeous Córdoba, surely the best of the big three Andalusian cities (Sevilla, Granada and Córdoba), then via Roman Antequera back to bustling Málaga. We were both hooked on the region and decided to spend some of an upcoming windfall on a property in the Serranía de Ronda.

First steps into the Spanish property market

The following year, 2001, after several further visits to the area and lots of viewings, we bought a little apartment in the San Francisco barrio of Ronda, We called it Piso Blanco. Then  in 2003 we bought a run-down house nearby, and called it Casa Blanca.  

We enjoyed both properties as a family for a number of years until life took a sharp turn in a different direction.

Major Life Changes

After redundancy, early retirement and divorce in 2005 I was able to spend lengthy periods in this beautiful cliff-top town.  Over a couple of years, I did up two houses: Casa Blanca, and one for my new girlfriend, Maude, which we called El Rincón.

I got to know lots of people, locals and immigrants alike.  The social life was something I’d always craved, but never really had before, apart from when I was a student in San Sebastian, over three decades earlier.

Maude and I split up in 2007, but I still kept en eye on her little house in Ronda.

"Coup de foudre"

Then finally in 2008, my somewhat chaotic life sorted itself out, everything came together at the right time, I met Rita and I was able to fulfil my dream of moving to Spain to live full-time.

So here I was, married again and living contentedly in our little old house in Montejaque, one of the white villages near Ronda, dabbling in a bit of writing and translating and feeling a lot younger than the 60 years old I became in 2010!

It took all of 60 years to get from North Devon to South Spain, but I made it in the end! And, by gum, it was worth the wait.

© Diary of a Nobody

***

Note: The original version of this article first appeared in The Olive Press in August 2010:

https://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2010/11/03/from-north-devon-to-south-spain-in-six-decades-part-three/

A revised and updated version appeared at Secret Serrania in 2020:

From North Devon to South Spain in seven decades... Part Three: A New Life in Andalucía (secretserrania.com)

Further Links:

From North Devon to South Spain in seven decades… Part One: The Early Years

From North Devon to South Spain in seven decades… Part Two: After The Hangover

From North Devon to South Spain in seven decades… Epilogue: ¡La carne de burro no es transparente! (You’re blocking the sunlight!)

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Karl Smallman

Secret Serrania

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I recently posted the first part of the history of how I, eventually, came to live in Spain. It took longer than I had hoped, but that's life .....

San Sebastian by night [Photo courtesy of www.secretserrania.com]

The first night in San Sebastián (Guipúzcoa), where I arrived at the age of 20 to start my year abroad from university, was an orgy of cheap wine, pintxos and Santana on the jukebox. This led to the worst hangover of my life.

100% Inflation

By the time I was fit to drink alcohol again two days after our arrival in San Sebastián the price of wine had doubled to two pesetas a glass!  That’s one hundred per cent inflation!  The locals were up in arms, but we didn’t care, as it was still ridiculously cheap, less than 2d (<1p).  By comparison a pint of bitter in the UK in 1970 was about two shillings (10p).

Once we were billeted with families, the only affordable option, we spent the next three months enjoying our new surroundings and our temporary new life. 

Typically, mornings were spent on the beautiful beach of Playa de la Concha, afternoons at lectures and evenings in the Old Part checking out the range of delicious pintxos and monitoring the price of the wine, before heading back to our digs for dinner prepared by our landlady María Nieves, Snow White as we called her!

The three months went quickly by, after which we were left to our own devices for three months.  Some of my fellow students set off to travel around Spain, whereas I’d got myself work in the office of a local tour operator, DORFE, owned and run by the formidable Antonio Dorronsoro Feliner (Toni). 

This office role soon turned into a job as a tourist guide collecting British and Irish pilgrims from Lourdes in France and showing them the high life of this most beautiful of the Basque cities.

My Year Abroad Part 2 - Germany

After my six months’ sojourn in Spain, it was off to Stuttgart for a placement as a translator at Daimler-Benz, the luxury car manufacturer. 

But Germany just wasn’t the same as Spain and I missed the carefree, life-on-the-streets ambience of España.

***

Post-graduation - My Career Gets Going

After I graduated and started work as a foreign languges teacher in England, the next several summers were spent "repping" back in Lourdes/San Seb, when it was busiest and Toni needed "good people like you, Paul".

It was intensive, but fun. Too much adrenalin, booze and lack of sleep, but, hey, we were all young.

Then it was time to step back, act my age and to concentrate on being an adult, on the demands of my job in teaching and on my new marriage.

Getting to know Spain

Over the next several decades we (my wife Jeryl and, subsequently, our two children Amy and Tom) explored most parts of Spain through holidays, study visits and business trips.  Although the country changed dramatically and quickly after the death of the dictator General Francisco Franco in November 1975, Spain remained a great attraction for all the family. 

Over the years our jobs took Jeryl and me to Madrid (twice), Barcelona, El Prat de Llobregat (Barcelona) and Oviedo (Asturias) for short visits, which enabled us to experience something other than the sand, sea and sun of the ever more ghastly development of the costas.

Jeryl even made an effort to learn Spanish, by attending evening classes. She became so good that our bank manager in Ronda said she had a better accent than I did!

B****d! Only joking. All credit to Jeryl.

© Diary of a Nobody  

Note:  The  original  version of this article appeared in The Olive Press on 3 November 2010:

From North Devon to South Spain in six decades - Part Two - Olive Press News Spain (theolivepress.es)

A revised version appeared at www.secretserrania.com on 26 July 2020: 

From North Devon to South Spain in seven decades… Part Two: After The Hangover - Secret Serrania de Ronda

This diary post is part of a four-part "story", describing how I got from North Devon, where I was born, to Andalucia, Spain, where I  have now lived for over 16 years. It was first published on the website Secret Serrania, owned and run by journalist and photographer Karl Smallman, who is also deputy editor of SUR in English and Publicity Secretary of the Costa Press Club.

Donostia/San Sebastian (Guipuzcoa). Photo collage by Karl Smallman

Well, it took nearly 60 years but I made it in the end!

Obviously, when I was born in 1950 I didn’t yet know that Spain was to be my destiny; nor when I went to primary school and later to two different grammar schools, where only French, German and Latin were on offer.  I did all three.

When I was 17 I didn’t know that Spain was to be my destiny either, as I was preparing to apply to study for a degree in French and German at university.  

Then at my interview for a place at my first-choice uni, Salford, they offered me the chance to start a new language ab initio (I knew my Latin would come in handy one day!) instead of either French or German in exchange for a lower grade offer!  The deal was done – I chose Spanish instead of French (don’t ask me why…) and the rest is history!

So, as I fetch up on Las Ramblas in Barcelona in 1971 at the ripe young age of 20 to start my year abroad, I am stunned by this exotic new world of seedy, noisy, but exciting Mediterranean life in the catalán port city.

After an exciting weekend in the catalán capital (not that you would have known it was catalán back then, since General Franco was still very much alive and outlawing all public use of the local language), we set off – seven of us – in a hire car to drive across northern Spain to San Sebastián in the Basque Country, where we were due to spend three months studying at the university there.  We’d planned to do the journey by rail, but it was Easter and all the trains were fully booked.   So we hired a big car – a large SEAT.  One snag – I was the only one of us with a driving licence!

One full day later – no motorways back then – and we arrived late at night in San Seb with nowhere to stay.  However, Miss Pilling – we didn’t know her first name – who’d done Spanish A level at school and was better at Spanish than the rest of us, who were all beginners put together - soon sorted us out with a fonda in the Parte Vieja (Old Part).

Tired as we were we couldn’t resist going out for a drink.  When we discovered that a glass of wine was only one peseta a glass (less than 1p), it became much more than one drink!  We thought we were in heaven, and with delicious pintxos (tapas) at only five pesetas and Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” on the jukebox, the night was long.

So was the next day.  I was very ill in the night (must have been the effort of the long drive… he says!) and the next morning my nausea mixed with the smell of fish and the sea air made for a hangover I have yet to repeat in the following 40 years!

But I was in Spain, and it was fantastic, if only because it was so different to anywhere else I’d ever been, which actually wasn’t anywhere much back then.

***

Note:  The  original  version of this article appeared in The Olive Press on 2 November 2010:

From North Devon to South Spain in six decades - Part One - Olive Press News Spain (theolivepress.es)

A revised version appeared at www.secretserrania.com on 19 July 2020: 

From North Devon to South Spain in seven decades... Part One: The Early Years (secretserrania.com)

© Diary of a Nobody

Further reading:

• From North Devon to South Spain in seven decades… Part Two: After The Hangover
• From North Devon to South Spain in seven decades… Part Three: A New Life in Andalucía
• From North Devon to South Spain in seven decades… Epilogue: ¡La carne de burro no es transparente! (You’re blocking the sunlight!)

Photos:

Karl Smallman

Media City

Secret Serrania

The Olive Press

Tourist Attractions Barcelona

Turismo Vasco

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We decided to have a day on the coast. We had a few things to buy that you can’t get up here in the mountains and we fancied eating seafood in a chiringuito and spending a bit of time on the beach.

Late start

We set off later than planned, but that was OK. We headed down the mountain to San Pedro de Alcántara and took the toll motorway to La Cañada, the huge “mall” in Marbella.

The toll was a massive 3.35€ for a pretty short stretch, but it was a lot quicker and we probably saved more than 3.35€ in fuel costs, because of the queues and slow-moving traffic on the “free” route.

We did our business in La Cañada:

I went to Leroy Merlin and didn’t buy a thing! Amazing! I’m normally a sucker for DIY stuff.

Rita got herself a pair of sandals from Marypaz, then we met up in the Al Campo hypermarket. I found a bargain T-shirt for 4.99€ and Rita bought some cat food, not available in Ronda, for Paulinchen, our kitten.

Then it was time to head to a beach for a swim, a sunbathe and something to eat, not necessarily in that order.

Beaches between Marbella and Málaga

We checked out a few beaches we didn’t know.

El Rosario was chock-a-block despite having only a narrow strip of sand.

Next stop was Cabopino. It was heaving with cars parked everywhere. We didn’t even find the beach.

We didn’t bother with Calahonda – we know it and it’s not our “cup of tea” - nor Costa Bella, where we used to go regularly years ago before we got a house with a pool. The trouble with Costa Bella is that it’s over-run with Germans. Rita, my German wife, didn’t move to Spain to be amongst her own people, just as I didn’t emigrate to hang around with English people!

By now we were not far from the sprawl of the Fuengirola/Mijas conurbation. We continued past Fuengirola and stopped in La Cala de Mijas where we got a free parking spot right by the beach. We like La Cala, despite it being full of Brits and Germans. The beach is long and wide, the swimming good and there’s a good choice of chiringuitos.

By now we were hungry, so we stopped in Ellas, a chiringuito I’ve eaten in previously. Rita couldn’t remember it. Wonder who I was with, then?

We ordered two beers to wet our whistles and two main courses to calm our hunger pangs. We ordered fish (merluza) and chips and a fritura de pescado with four types of fish: cazón en adobo, rosada, calamares and gambas. The idea was to share, which we did. Rita declared that fish and chips Mijas-style were, quote, “better than any fish and chips we’ve ever eaten in the UK”! Fair enough, she has a point! English fish and chips are very over-rated.

Beach and sea time

We hired a sun umbrella and two beds and took it in turns to swim and sunbathe. Next to us were a family from Liverpool who had "emigrated" to Formby in Sefton, where I worked as a schools adviser for 10 years.

The three girls are pupils at Formby High School, one of my old stomping grounds. I should point out that I had left Sefton LEA before they were born.

Home Run

When we left Mijas we decided to continue towards Málaga and pick up the road home via Ardales from the airport. A bit of a detour but it’s a fast route.

We passed some other beaches we know and like - Los Boliches, Benalmádena, Torremolinos (East) and Guadalmar – but we didn’t stop this time. We enjoyed ourselves in La Cala de Mijas, and it was time to get home to see to our baby kitten, Paulinchen, mentioned earlier.

After stopping to re-fuel the car – Gasolina 95 is 16 cents per litre cheaper than in Ronda – we got home as the sun was going down. I was too tired to go out for a drink, so I had a shower, ate some dinner and went to bed early.

Our Day Out?

It was great!

© Diary of a Nobody

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