Golf courses struggling and facing closure

Hi, Everyone,
Every now and again The Mirador 2 community goes a bit quiet... must be the warm weather here in the UK...!  Hope you're all well.  I am in the last week of term with rehearsals, Leavers' Services and end-of-term productions filling up every waking minute quite nicely.  With our move to Spain imminent, as soon as term ends, it'll be time for the Grand Clearout/sale/trip to Oxfam as we begin downsizing in earnest from a three-bedroomed house to our wonderful (but considerably smaller) place in Cox!  The move's seemed in the distant future for so long that it seems strange that it's nearly upon us.

Hope you're all well.  Do use this thread to update us on your news, even if it's only a sentence or two, that is, if there's anyone actually reading this rather than lying in the sun by the pool...!  Bye for now,  Donna xxx

Hi Donna and Andy,

So glad to hear from you. it has been very quiet  on EOS for far too long. 

I am glad things are going well for you. We have the same feelings..it all seemed so far away..and now as we get ready to make the big Move..it has actually come about very quickly.

Danny finishes work on Friday.  We are packing things as I speak... to ship over next week... using the same movers that Dil and Alan used. 

We will be comng ove the folowing week.. arriving  on July 29th.. staying  for 5 weeks..until Sept 2nd.

After that, we return to the UK and hope to sell our large Family home here..and move the kids into their new house.
As soon as that occurs..then we are in Spain permanently. The market is pretty slow here at the moment..but fingers crossed someone will turn up. We have so many things..but luckily the kids can use a lot of the furnishings.

Look forward to meeting up soon...  (and using that corkscrew..on a bottle of wine)

Best Wishes, Carol & Dan

Hi Donna, Andy,
we arrived back last wekend after two very warm sunny weeks. Had a good chance to meet up with some old friends, Jo and Nigel, and meet some new neighbours, the pool is a very good meeting place during the day. Many of the new folk are permanent residents and we found out many new things, picking up tips for this and that. This was the first time in using the pool and wow it was great, very handy for cooling down, very difficult getting the kids tro come out, but with the knowledge that we could leave them there as its very safe, and retire to the cool of the apartment, the air-conditioning is very welcoming.
We've finally got our apartment in order now, all flat packs built and all packing removed, that felt like a great relief. Spent some time just driving around the local area getting our bearings, and just seeing what was around, I'm especially looking for a good garden centre, so if anyone else knows of a good one please let me know.
Mirador is getting busy now with the arrival of more people, its becoming a very nice community.
Found a nice restaurant on the road from Cox to Catral where we had the set lunchtime menu for 10 euros each including four courses, bottle of wine, bottle of water and coke's for the kids. The girls were a bit unsure of what they had on there plates, but the food and service was good, they couldnt speak a word of english, it was great and we would certainly go back there again. I'm sure there are plenty of places like that around if you try your luck and take a chance with what you get.
If you want some good value local wine Liria is the brand, they make white, red and rose, Carrefour sells it for about euro 1.30, and it is very nice if you like your wine dry. Tips like that are invaluable !
I have got a few photos to post which i shall do later.  We are in the apartment again at the beginning of August for 10 days and then in early October for 10 days, so hopefully we will catch up soon and meet even more new neighbours.

Ian, Jill, Louisa and Hannah

This message was last edited by cockney boy on 7/18/2008.

This message was last edited by cockney boy on 7/18/2008.

Hi Ian, Jill, Hannah and Louisa,

It wasGreat to hear all about your holiday at Mirador. Thanks so much for taking the time to update everyone... 

I am very pleased to hear that the pool is working well..and the development is thriving..with many making Mirador their permanent home.

We are over on the 29th of July...and look forward to meeting you along the way.

Glad to hear your furniture is all sorted..Hopefully, we will be able to set up our apt this trip. We have had a little mix up with the movers..but it seems we are back on track for delivery.  Can't wait.

All the Best, 
Carol & Danny No 50

Thanks Carol for the alert.  Sometimes I get an email to tell me there's something on EOS and other times nothing.  Not to sorry, as long as the old jungle-drums work, we'll get to keep in touch with everyone.

Yes Donna, I agree too, it's been much too quiet.  I was thinking of you just yesterday watching Living in the Sun (or one of those) and a couple were setting up  painting holidays.   I hope you saw it.

Good to hear from you again Ian, Jill & Girls.  Welcome back.  I'm sure you're so thrilled to be here in this glorious weather.  Where I work in Swansea, I am priviliged to have an office overlooking the sea and if the weather is good I go out at lunchtime and sit on the seafront.  I can honestly say that this summer I've only sat out there twice and didn't exactly suffer sun stroke on either of those occasions.   The forecast is improving from Sunday though, so fingers crossed for a late summer.

Interested to hear about that restaurant Ian.  Do you remember the name of it?   We found it very difficult to find a meal in Cox - anyone want to make their fortune by opening one?   Thanks to Mick we found one at our end of Cox in a side street, which was absolutely brilliant.  It's a tapas bar at the front.  I'm not even sure whether there's any name outside, but you go in and ask in your very best Spanish for "Una Mesa Para Cuatro Personas Por Favor"  (very proud of that I can tell you! LOL) and you get shown a back room which is laid out very nicely as a restaurant.  You ask for the menu - but no, there isn't a menu or a price list.  You just tell him what you fancy to eat (phrase book at the ready) give him your order and hope that the plastic at the end of the night will stretch (or in their case - work! but that's another story).   The wine again - no price list, we just asked for a Rioja and kept our fingers crossed.   The meal was terrific - A large shared salad to start; slices of delicious chicken, a fried egg (didn't know we'd ordered that bit!) , salad and chips; and a fair selection of deserts on offer too.   It was a scream and thankfully the bill wasn't horrendous either.  Not particularly cheap but not expensive either.  At a guess I'd say around £15 each with the wine which I suppose is what we'd pay here in UK for similar.   Well recommended and within walking distance if you're feeling fit.

Looking forward to the pics.   We're back out on 15th Sept to 1 Oct - can't wait!   

All the best

Hi everyone,

So sorry we havent updated you all earlier, however the week of our return was Hopes christening, and we had a house full of family and friends. They have now left us but James and myself are still getting ourselves and the house back in order.

Spain was great we had 25 days in total over there, and the day before we returned home I  mentioned to James that I could have stayed another 25 as I didnt feel relaxed at all. Shopping in 37 degree heat with a 4 year old, a 4 month old and my dad certainly took its toll, however now a distant memory.

The apartment is looking lovely and about all in order. We only have a bedside locker to buy for the girls room, as the original furniture was sent back as it was too big!!!! However Isabel has her green curtains that she harped on about with matching cushions and Im afraid to say  looks like something from an incredible hulk movie as there is a green glow on all the walls of her bedroom. Next she will be dreaming about monsters!!

We have met a lot of people, neighbours etc and all seem really nice and friendly. The perm residents seemed to have settled in well, and Isabel has found a friend, a little Dutch girl who lives two doors down. She cannot speak a word of English and obviously Isabel cannot speak Dutch, however they seemed to have hours of fun together in the pool. My only concern was the amount of wasps around the pool. I think they might to building a nest nearby and come swooping to the pool on a regular basis. At one point I counted 22!! I dd mention this to Carlos, however he claimed he didnt understand or didnt want to understand!!!!

We are back 7 August for 2 weeks so hopefully we will cross over with some of you then, however must go as teatime at the Connollys

Jo, James, Isabel and Hope x

Hi - it's good to talk - again!  Glad you had a great time, but 37 degs sounds ot ot ot.  I don't think we'll ever be out there for July and August.

The wasps thing is a bit worrying, but we have come across this problem in Spain before whilst camping.  One summer it was wasps and the next it would be flies and then a perfect year with nothing.  We were returning to the same site for several years so I don't think it was anything to do with location.  Oh well, time will tell.  In the meantime I suppose we can set up a few homemade wasp traps with half bottles filled with water and honey which attracts them and they learn to swim in record time!

I don't want to kill my resident cricket though - he's lovely - and so big I could almost put a collar and lead on him (her?)

If anyone is going out in the next week or so, please would you pass our thanks to Mick, Eric and Jan, who have been on a mission to save our Bouganvilla plant.  WeI'd set up an automatic watering system, but either it's not working, or half-pressure for 3 minutes twice a day wasn't enough.  Please pass on our thanks  if anyone is going out.

Cheers

Lovely to see all the neighbours getting together again- in a virtual sort-of way!  Jo, I really felt for you in that heat with two little children... I can't even imagine 37 degrees; we put our electric blanket on last night!  And as for the Bourganvillia Protection Society... !  The restaurant in Cox sounds great, as does the one in Catral.  We wandered round Cox for ages the last time we were there and ended up buying a pizza.  It was either that or an ice cream.  Now I like both, but... Do you have a name for the street?  There probably isn't one!  We haven't much more new news.  I've now finished teaching hre except for the Christmas period when we return to the UK for novemebr and December.  It's a very strange feeling, and we celebrated yesterday by going to a local spa and doing the jacuzzi-pool-steam room-sauna rotation a couple of times!  Danny and Carol, I do hope you get a buyer quickly; even in these days people need to live somewhere.  Andy's busy painting the doors upstairs with that funny wood-grain effect paint.  i think it appeals to his artistic nature more than using ordinary paint.  Dil and alan- thank you for the comments re. the art holidays.  That's something that's constantly with us.  maybe one day... Having said that, he's actually doing a residential course in October about an hour away from cox so if anyone's interested/ knows of anyone who might be, let us know!  He need another couple of people!  Is anyone thinking of doing the freebie Spanish course in Cox which is running in the first two weeks of September?  I think you might have to have the empadronimiento- ask at the town hall.  We're hoping to do it, but as we're not going to be arriving until the 30th August, we won't have the empad. thingy.  After the journey from Cumbria to Cox by car, we'll probably be spending the 31st recuperating at the baths at Fortuna. Nige and Jo- we've got you to thank for that!  Gotta go. It's time for a coffee and to do the next bit of Michel Thomas's Spanish course.  Hasta Luego, Amigos,  Donna xxx

Just a quickie while I've got Alan tied down beside me (in his dreams/nightmares?!).   He's better at directions than me so here goes for attempt to guide you to the restaurant and to the garden centre:

1.   Restaurant -  We think it was called La Taverna.  As you go down the main road from Mirador, after you pass the last veg packing warehouse, you'll see on your left hand side, a primary school.   Turn left at the school (although when we were out there we couldn't turn left during the day due to road works).  Go past the school and come to roundabout.  The bar/restaurant is in the street on the other side of the roundabout, virtually straight over on the right hand side about 50 yards down the street.  If you go straight down this street, you will eventually come to the main street through Cox.

2.  Garden Centre / Ironmongers (ferreteria - showing off now!!).   Get through Cox out onto the CV900 as if you were going to Catral.     At the roundabout for turnoff for Catral, go straight on in the direction of Almoradi.   Follow the CV900 until you reach a roundabout where you need to turn right onto the CV911.   The CV911 eventually meets the CV91 and here you turn right, following signs for Almoradi and Guardamar.  Keep following these signs (but don't go off into Almoradi, make sure the Guardamar signs are still with you)  and you will eventually come to the roundabout on which you will see the Brico Garden Centre on your left hand side as you get to the roundabout.    Not big on plants (they have some lovely cacti)  but lots of general garden furniture, tools, kitchen and bathroom gadgets and ironmongery.  They've also got someone with some English there so very useful.

Thanks for those pics Ian and Jill.  What festival was on when you were there?  Was it a big one?   The bull fight was due sometime in July I think so maybe the decs were for that.  Very pleased we weren't out there for that or I'd have ended up with a placard demonstrating outside I think!  Either that or rescuing a bull and keeping it as a pet on the solarium! LOL   Well, handy for the next fillet steak!!  Oh perish the thought!   The waterfall looked good too, where was that?  It's a pity EOS can't accommodate a few lines of explanation under the pics, it would be useful - Webmaster - are you there?!!  

Speak again soon I'm sure!  Alan sends regards to everyone and hopes you won't get lost - mind you we did and that was with the aid of a GPS!

Hi Dil, Alan,
We found that La Taverna one sunday evening but it was closed, have heard from others that it is good though.
With regard to the garden centre, yes we have visited that one and it is more hardware than plants, I will keep searching.

The waterfall was at the Aquapolis water park in Torrevieja, off the roundabout just past Carrefour, iw was fairly quiet when we were there, but i imagine once the english schools are on holiday it will be very busy.

The festival was  a three day bull fighting thing, like you not interested in it, but we have to acknowledge the culture we are going to be living in, and just as we were leaving there was another fiesta about to get going for another few days, not sure what it was about though.

Ian & Jill

We visited another garden centre, again on the Almoradi road, on the left, 3 miles or so-ish from Cox.  It had a huge number of big cacti and lots of fairly-priced ceramic pots and little trees growing.  Has anyone visited/seen the municipal pool in Cox?  It's new, and was due to be opened this summer.  Donna x

This message was last edited by jeycon on 4/15/2024.

Thanks for that James & Jo - very informative and very amusing - though I'd be interested to learn what "Tell 'em we sent u" is in Espanol! LOL

Sorry to be picky, but here is a flaw in the directions.  We know the road you mean and we try to bring the visitors in that way to avoid the confusion of the town. Unless it's changed in the last month, you can't (lawfully) turn left at that point, because to do so, you have to cross over a solid white line in the middle of the road in order to get over the other side.  Alan (being a law-abiding citizen - or rather just plain scared stiff of the police with guns LOL) turns right, either there and finds a left to legally turn further up, or before we come to the garage, near to where the houses are being built, there's a sports ground, and if you turn right there (over some nasty sleeping policeman (without guns!!)) that will bring you on the next road which leads you onto the road where you can then cross over legally on a dotted line.   Not sure if all that makes sense, but I'd hate any of you to get clobbered for the sake of a bit of paint on the road!  

Like to take this chance to wish Carol and Danny all the very best for tomorrow when their furniture and prized posessions are being collected for shipping out to Mirador.  I know they've had a fraught time of late and here's wishing them the very best of everything in the start of their new life in Spain.  Good luck - you deserve it ................... BTW  did I tell everyone about Carol's new book? !!! 

Hi, Carol, What new book?  And will you be dong a special book signing from your place in Cox?  Donna xx  PS All the very, very best for the Great Set-Up. 

Hi Donna...

The book is a clever suggestion from Dil..as I keep boring her to death with my tales of travels through Spain. 

"My strolls down memory lane"..  she has suggested.. I should write down in book form ...and have them published...(instead of Emailing them to a friend! LOl  )

Well the movers have come and gone....an absolutely exhausting week. But then you have been through it yourself.

We packed up everything we could within reason.  And did a good job of filling up the truck.

Now that is gone..we are well pleased. And..considering 6 people were living here until recently..we haven't a tremendous amount of junk left to clear.

We converted our double garage to another ensuite bedroom a few years ago..and I think that did wonders. As our garage used to be topped up. We still have a large loft space that is full..but nothing too overwhelming. Mostly my tons of Christmas decorations collected over the years.  

Just a question of selling up now..in the current market.....And Spain Becomes Our Home!!

We Can't wait until next week..when hopefully furnishings..and Godfrey family..meet up again in Cox.

 Well that' the plan any way. Check the next chapter of my Book..to see what happens. LOl

Best Wishes always.Carol And Dan.

I object your honour!  Carol is just being modest here.  Her stories relating real scenes of her travels, need to be channelled (yes) and painted in words, just like Andy's in oils (though I have yet to pass judgement! LOL ).  That,  from someone who can't paint her face properly, let alone a canvas!

Hope you're all enjoying the weather.  The Gower in South Wales has been just perfect today and we can't often say that.  I wouldn't even have swopped it for Spain which is 'enjoying' 98 degs today - ouch!

Take care all.

Oh gosh, not Spanish Togs again! - with apologies.

Just wanted to wish Carol and Danny and wonderful first real holiday in Mirador.  They are off early in the morning and had a long wait for this.  We wish them every luck and hope that Mahersol have done all they'd hoped (and more!)

Safe flight and try to keep EOS posted as some point.

Regards to anyone who knows us.  Good Luck both.

Hi Dil and Alan, and All of our friends from Mirador

Thank you so much for the lovely Send off and Best Wishes.  

It has been chaotic for some months..with so many ups and downs. This past week especially so. Not a minute to catch our breath.

But now it is finally time to fly over...and take hold of our apt for the first time as a home. I am full of butterflies. But so very excited as well.

I look forward to meeting anyone from EOS..who are over during the month of August.  Please call in and say hello.
Wishing everyone in the Uk an enjoyable summer..See you in the Fall.

Best Wishes,

Carol & Dan


This message was last edited by EVLou on 7/29/2008.

Hi Dan & Carol,
we are off to our apartment on Saturday, we are two up from Nigel & Jo. You'll probably get to know us as our two daughters will be spending plenty of time in the pool with me telling them over and over again' drink some more water'. We will be spending 10 glorious days there, with not much to do other than relax.
It will be good to put faces to names, and no doubt meet more new folk. See you soon, and enjoy your new home.

Ian, Jill and girls

Hi, Ian and Jill,

Hope you and the girls are well.  Just to let you know that a) your plants are doing really well- we talk to them occasionally over the wall, and b) the flag, flagpole and stand were taken away this morning!

when are you out next?  It would be good to see you again.

Very best wishes,

Donna and Andy

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