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3rd May We survived our whistle stop tour of the UK, the first visit back in 6 months, and are now back in Spain catching our breath. We drove over 600 miles in 6 days, visiting family and friends in Cornwall, Hampshire and Kent. We had a good meeting with our IFA and have sorted out the investments that will now provide us with an income to supplement Vernon’s pension until he is 65. Celie visited her old
colleagues in the office at Gascoigne-Pees in Alton on Tuesday morning and
found that nothing has really changed. In fact, we were struck by how little
the town has changed; it was still raining, it was market day and the people
looked so unhappy. After lunch in the pub and a quick cup of tea with Chris and
Georgie on the way to Gatwick (Celie was very well behaved and didn't cry at
all this time when it was time to go!), we were glad to on our way home to the
sun again.
Since we got back, we have been catching up on gardening and cleaning the pool and sit out on the terrace most afternoons, where we have our glass of wine at 5pm, enjoying the late afternoon sun and reading our books. The temperature in the pool is coming up nicely and should be warm enough to take a dip soon. We are now looking forward to Celie’s mum and sister coming to visit for 10 days in mid-May, followed in June by Sharon and Alan from France (ex-Kingsley, via Portugal!) It’s going to be a busy summer and the fiesta season is only just getting underway, so there will be plenty to do and see. Watch this space! 22nd April Time passes so quickly when you are enjoying yourself - an old cliche but one we're beginning to appreciate more and more these days. We've spent the past 3 weeks gardening (it's almost "completo" now, especially with the addition of some Thai statues) and re-painting the naya; Celia is becoming a real demon with the secateurs! However, the wind has played havoc with the painting project and I'm hoping that, when we return from the UK, I will be able to finish that before our next visitors arrive in May. Yes - we're off back to the UK tomorrow for a week of visiting, travelling to Cornwall, Hampshire and Kent. This will be the first time since last October and we are looking forward to seeing all the family and putting things into perspective again, although from a weather point of view, it seems to have turned warmer there now. Here in the Orba valley, the temperature has been 20C+ most days but the wind has made it a little chilly on occasions. The orange blossom is virtually over now but there are wild flowers by the roadside up in the mountains in profusion; I think we've forgotten how much damage modern agriculture has done to the UK flora. We found a beautiful little valley yesterday not far from here near the village of Benichembla and went "off road". For 2 hours we never saw another human being and we were just amazed at the wild flowers. We cheated a little bit and bought cornish pasties in an English-run shop in Orba and had a picnic up in the pine trees on the side of the mountain with only the birds for company Fantastico! We will miss the "Romerofest" (rosemary festival) in Jalon this Saturday, where the villagers walk up onto the mountain and pick bunches of rosemary, which grows here in the wild in great profusion. They take the herbs to mass on Sunday, where it is blessed by the priest. It is also an excuse to have picnics on the mountainside with their family and friends and drink lots of wine. When we return, we hope to visit the fiesta in Benissa, a town at the end of the Orba valley where we get onto the A7 highway. This will be the first time we will have seen the bull running, where young heifers are let free in the town square and with which the young men of the town will display their bravado (or stupidity, depending on your point of view!) We are discovering just how much the Spanish like to enjoy themselves, contrasting with life in the UK, where everything has to be provided - cinema, 10-pin bowling, discos, TV, computer games. Whatever happened to making your own entertainment? 4th April I can announce that spring is officially here, because I heard a cuckoo calling across the valley for the first time yesterday. The weather improved the day the clocks went forward last Sunday - the wind dropped and the temperature rose to about 25C every day now. The orange blossom is coming out in the valley now and the smell drifting up onto our terrace is wonderful. We were able to entertain some friends to dinner earlier this week out on the terrace and it was great to be sitting outside for a full 3 –course lunch with the fabulous backdrop of the mountains.
The warmer weather (sorry – hotter! - it’s been warm all winter by comparison with the UK!) is having an incredible effect on the garden. Shrubs that we and our gardener friends cut back to old wood just a few inches from the ground a few weeks ago are already sprouting green shoots, which are lengthening by the day; we have never seen things grow so fast! The bougainvillea by the swimming pool started flowering as soon as the first shoots appeared. We are looking forward to a garden full of wonderful colour and smell this summer. The rate at which we are cutting back trees and shrubs has now slowed and we are able to concentrate on more detailed jobs.
As a result of the higher temperatures and the extra hour in the evening before the sun goes down (8pm on the dot every day now) we are sometimes outside in the fresh air pretty well all day. Imagine what this is doing to our appetites! We managed to resolve our dishwasher problem - the door wouldn’t open after a washing cycle about 3 weeks ago, trapping a large amount of crockery and cutlery. It took 3 visits from a technician and 1 from a carpenter (the dishwasher is built into the kitchen units and the technician couldn’t access it properly.) The final solution was to fit a new control unit, which he indicated may have been damaged by a power surge, and although this cost about £100, we did inherit the dishwasher with the house and it’s about 5 years old now. We have also finally had our broadband service installed by the Spanish equivalent of BT – Telefonica. We have been waiting for this for over 2 months, having ordered the ADSL link before we moved into the villa! We received numerous promises of when the work would be completed but the hold ups were always blamed on lack of equipment at the exchange. We also finally picked up the radio aerial for our new Hyundai Tucson this week – it was missing when we took delivery and – like Telefonica - the dealer made numerous promises to obtain the missing part. On one occasion, they said the part was in stock but when we got there, they couldn’t find it! We are learning to live with the slightly more laid-back way of doing things over here in Spain – you have to, otherwise you would just get too stressed out! Manana..... We have arranged the itinerary for our trip back to the UK at the end of April and although it will be quite a daunting schedule, covering Cornwall, Southampton, Basingstoke, Chichester and Sevenoaks in 6 days, we are looking forward to it! We are going to Sevenoaks on Saturday evening and Chris and Georgie will also be there, so we will see both of the boys together. (For more photos of the villa, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/8989670@N04/ ) 24th March
We took them on a whistle-stop tour of all the best mountain views and hilltop villages to try and give them a flavour of why we have settled here. Chris was overwhelmed by the photo opportunities and his camera was rarely out of his hands; the photograph of him standing on top of the Coll de Rates at about 3,000ft taking yet another of his ‘panorama specials’ is our endearing memory of the week! It will take him a long time to edit the many 000s of photos he has taken and he is looking forward to entering some of them into future camera club competitions. We had some great meals out and both Chris and Georgie ate heartily and very healthily whilst they were here. The lunch at the Donkey Sanctuary included a shoulder of lamb each and Chris took full advantage of the bottle of brandy that was placed on our table at the end of the meal! They also enjoyed a huge pan of paella on Saturday night when we celebrated Chris’ 30th birthday. They were also lucky enough to be here during the Fallas celebrations – a fiesta held during Easter week, which involves the building of huge figures depicting local or national events.
The fiesta culminates in a huge firework display and the burning of the figures on the Wednesday before Easter - St Joseph’s Day – events which are unbelievably dangerous, as they take place in the town centres in close proximity to buildings.The finale of the firework display was like a scene from the centre of Beirut at the height of the Iraq war! The weather has been rather mixed in recent weeks and although C & G will be going home with a suntan, they have also sampled the high winds we have experienced recently, plus a couple of rainy days. Spring is definitely underway now and all of the shrubs we cut back to old wood now have fresh shoots. Purple irises are everywhere and the orange and cherry trees are just beginning to flower. After a break for Holy Week (and Chris & Georgies’ visit), it’s back to the Spanish lessons next week. We are promised a visit from the dishwasher engineer to get us operational again and there is a rumour that we may also see Telefonica this week to install our broadband link! We are really looking forward to the latter as we miss our chats on–line with the boys and Celie’s sisters. The new car is not so new now, having done over 2000km already. It was really put to the test during C & G’s visit, as we drove up into the mountains a lot and also off-road to a great picnic spot. The back-seat passengers reported favourably on the comfort, important when driving up and down twisty, pot-holed mountain roads. The price of petrol here in Spain is creeping up in line with world oil prices. However, at 86p/l it is still a lot cheaper than the UK. We look gloomily at the euro exchange rate too but hope that things will improve in the next 6 months whilst we are still living on the euros we were lucky enough to ‘buy forward’ last November at 1.4. We are back in the UK for a short visit from the 23rd- 29th April and will be trying to visit Cornwall and Hampshire. The boys had planned a Saturday night at Simon’s on 26th so we will probably go to Kent that weekend as well in order to see them all together 9th MarchYesterday was our 33rd wedding anniversary and we celebrated with a meal at La Salamanca restaurant in Jalon. Run by an English chef, the food was great, the service excellent and the price very reasonable. We reflected on the number and quality of restaurants in the area and we’ve certainly been impressed with those we’ve eaten in so far. There is wide selection of Spanish, English, German and Dutch run establishments and the prices for a 3-course meal with wine varies from €8 to €17pp – the cheaper end of the market being provided by the local restaurants and bars catering at lunchtime for the workers. The cold winds which dominated the weather last week have now eased off and for the past 2 days we have sat out on the terrace in the afternoons, reading and relaxing. It was warm enough this morning for us to sit outside in our dressing gowns, round the back of the villa in a sunny spot, and have breakfast. Not bad for 09:30 and the beginning of March! We ate segments of fresh grapefruit – given to us by friends who have just moved to a villa on the ‘campo’ in Jalon and found a tree in their garden laden with huge grapefruit – and local oranges. The only thing missing was the Sunday Times! However, the beautiful smell of the jasmine, which grows around our huge 2m satellite dish and the sound of the birds more than made up for such a small privation. In any case, we are now enjoying being less in touch with all the depressing problems of the UK economy, reports of yet more crimes, petty gossip about celebrities and so on. This brings me to another reflection, triggered recently by someone who asked if there was anything I missed living in Spain. There are probably only two things – and these are pretty insignificant when compared with all the advantages of climate, scenery and generally improved lifestyle here. One is not having a letterbox. It isn’t the same, walking to the other end of the urbanisation to access your mail box in the communal area, as hearing the postman pushing letters through your front door or the newspaper crashing onto your door mat on a Sunday morning! The other, more significant, longing is for real ale – a good old pint of English bitter! Having said that, we belatedly discovered yesterday that the English bar just 5 mins. walk from our villa on the way into the town, serves London Pride and the English owner keeps a very good cellar. We are thoroughly enjoying our new garden and have now broken the back of all the pruning and cutting back that desperately needed doing when we first moved here. Celia has been tackling the smaller shrubs under the guidance of our professional gardening friends, Ann & Derek, and we are both looking forward to seeing everything blooming again in the coming months. There seems to have been lots of colour in the garden throughout the winter though and the lemon tree is still laden with fruit. This time next week, we will be collecting Chris and Georgie from the airport for their first visit. We are looking forward to showing them our villa and our new lifestyle and we know Chris will be bowled over by the photographic opportunities here. 29th February When we announced our retirement, people in the UK asked us what we would do with our time out here, concerned that we might become bored. Well – at the moment, we are busier than we were back in the UK and often fall into bed exhausted! This week, we have been cutting back more olive trees, the almond tree and miscellaneous shrubs and bushes and vacuuming up dead leaves and debris from the rock chippings, which cover the whole garden between the natural rock outcrops – no need to build a rockery here! The amount of greenery we are cutting back requires frequent trips to the local tip of course and the new SUV is proving a boon in that respect. The effect of what we are doing, however, is now becoming apparent and the garden not only looks much bigger but also lighter. Meanwhile, our friends from Jalon who run their own gardening business have continued to give us some more of their professional help and are planning to plant up the pots on the terrace ready for the summer. We waved goodbye to the Peugeot 206 this week – Celie’s car for the past 3.5 years and such a reliable little thing on our journey down here to our new life and over the past 5 months, scaling steep mountain roads and rough tracks without complaint. It was sad to part with such a reliable car but we need a left-hand drive vehicle here and one a bit more suited to the terrain. The truck that collected the car also delivered the long-awaited replacement for the dining room table leg, damaged when we moved out of Churchfields. As a result, we were able to move the dining room suite from the underbuild, where it has been stored, to the main living area upstairs. The kitchen table and chairs we have been using were therefore surplus to requirements and so, along with all the other bits and pieces we no longer need, we sold the lot to a dealer. We then embarked on turning the underbuild into our guest accommodation but decided that it needed decorating first. After some judicious crack filling, out came the rollers and paint brushes, and so we are now juggling projects both inside and outside, which is useful as the weather has been a bit changeable over the past week – mist, rain but also some very warm days. We now have our Sky card installed and the aerial re-tuned to the satellite. However, even with a 1.9m dish, BBC and ITV disappear about 7.30pm. Never mind, we are enjoying all the old comedy series on UKTV Gold at the moment. We are looking forward to Chris and Georgie’s arrival in 2 weeks time – at the very least, we will be forced to take a break whilst they are here! 20th February
We apologise for not updating our diary more frequently at the moment but we are still waiting for our broadband line to be installed; we chased it the other day and were told that we had only been waiting for ten days and were told it would be twenty when we ordered it. So in other words, go away – manana! We’ve since been told it could be early March before we are connected, due to a shortage of lines at the local telephone exchange. However, we go into town 2 or 3 times a week and download our emails at our agent’s office or the English bar, so don't always get them that quickly but it's better than nothing. The Peugeot 206 is going back to the UK next week by truck and Chris is going to sell it for us. It now looks very clean and shiny, inside and out, so hopefully he won't have much trouble selling it. It's a little gem of a car and hasn't missed a beat since being driven here 5 months ago. We are enjoying our new Hyundai Tucson 4x4 and will get some photos up on the web soon. We are having some teething problems learning to change gear with the other hand and the driver’s door handle took some stick in the first few days!
Simon & Mary Louise have been out for a long weekend. They loved the area and ML thought the villa was gorgeous. We did the mountain trips and took them down to the coast and we ate out a couple of days. The almond blossom was at its peak too which was a bonus.It was great to see them and now we can't wait to get Chris and Georgie out here on 16th March.
We are almost straight now with just the underbuild to sort out now. We need to get rid of some surplus furniture and then we're finished - hooray! It's been wonderful to have heating that clicks on at 5pm every day and it's really cosy.
We're also getting to grips with the garden and have started cutting back trees and shrubs with the help of Ann & Derek our gardening friends. They are advising us which plants to put in the pots on the terrace too. The lemon tree has had a good prune and we now have a bucketful of lemons to use up – anyone for gin and tonic? We also have 5 olive trees to prune before the spring. The Tucson is proving to be a great utility vehicle for transporting all the foliage to the tip!
The Spanish is coming on a treat and we are still managing to get everything we need in the shops and end up with the right food at restaurants!
24th January 2008 We are now the proud owners of 19 Penyes Roges on the urbanisation of El Capso in Orba. The final legal transactions were completed before the Notary in Benissa this morning and the keys handed over. This afternoon we eagerly visited the villa to find it had been left spotlessly clean by Mr & Mrs Bush and, of course, with most of the furniture gone, it seemed much bigger than we remembered it. It was a good opportunity to plan where we will put everything when the furniture van arrives on Saturday morning. No long now and we will be surrounded by familiar possessions (can't wait to get the hi-fi wired up again!) and living in a warmer house (the new villa has central heating.) 19th January 2008
It doesn't seem possible that 4 months have now passed since we arrived in Spain and wondered whether we would settle and be happy here. Our minds were made up within the first 2 months and we have now bought a villa and will move in next weekend.
The villa is in the next valley - the Orba valley - only 5 mins drive from here, Jalon, where we have been renting.
The villa is on a small urbanisation within walking distance of the town of Orba, rather than one of the more idyllically-situated villas we viewed out on the campo, most of which suffer from potential planning problems, have no main services, are accessed by long bumpy tracks and have no neighbours (or only strange, German or Dutch fanatical keep-fit addicts!) We have already met several of our new neighbours and they seem to be nice people - all English and the sort you could happily invite round for a glass of wine on a summer's evening. The villa has a wonderful view of the mountains from the terrace and although less spectacular than one on our short-list, more practical in the height of summer - being on an exposed mountainside with temperatures of over 30C is probably not practical in the long term. It is also in a sheltered position within the valley ready for when the winter winds start to make you remember long-johns!
It’s a very warm house (approved by Celie!) with both central heating, h&c a/c AND a log burner. The quality of the build is 1st class (double skinned walls - very rare in Spain!) and only 5 yrs old, so will be easier to sell when (if) we are ready to return to the UK. Many of the older villas we saw look a bit tired now and would look thoroughly knackered in another 10 yrs or so. It's double-glazed, alarmed, has a pool and an underbuild containing the guest accommodation. With 3 bathrooms, I should always be able to get to the loo when I want! The gardens are very well-landscaped and, yes, we do have a lemon tree, laden with fruit, an olive tree and a young almond tree. It's ideal for us - needs no work done to bring it up to standard, although Celie has plans to add a few more kitchen units in the future. All we need to do is stock up the wine rack and sit out on the terrace and enjoy the sun setting over the mountains on the other side of the valley! There are plenty of great walks in the mountains within a 15 min. drive and plenty of excellent restaurants.
The weather continues to be sunny 5 days out of 7 and is warm enough to be out walking in just a cardigan. However, it does get cold once the sun goes down and we are looking forward to moving into our new villa which has central heating, unlike the rented, holiday villa we are living in now.
We have already made a lot of new friends here amongst the ex-pat community and there is a great sense of camaraderie - we are all making new lives here in a strange country and those with a few years experience help the newcomers. It's a bit like starting a new school! Fortunately, all the people we have met in this area are the sort of people with whom we feel comfortable and the more we see and hear of coastal resorts like Benidorm and Torrevieja, the more convinced we are of the wisdom of having elected to live in the mountains. The scenery here is simply breathtaking and we are only 10 mins away from great walks and unbelievable views. Yesterday, for example, we parked the car at 625m and walked up to over 850m from where we could see the coast 40km away in several directions and way off to the horizon. Back at the restaurant where we had parked the car, it was a pleasure to be able to buy a beer at 4 in the afternoon, without worrying about licensing hours AND to sit outside in the sun to drink it!
Although the value of the euro has dropped alarmingly in the past month, the cost of living here is still very cheap and with the second orange crop now picked, we can buy a 5kg bag from the local farmers for as little as EUR1.50! We were lucky enough to have 'bought forward' in November at 1.40 all the euros we needed to complete the purchase of the new villa, saving me £20,000+ if we'd had to transfer the money out here at today's rates.
We continue to be in awe of the fiestas and other events we attend here, although to be fair, they don't yet have all the health & safety controls to worry about that we had in the UK. There is a great sense of fun here and the fiestas are for the locals' entertainment and an integral part of their culture. Don't worry - no desire to get involved! We have put a lot of photos of a Moors & Christians Festival we attended on the following web site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8989670@N04/
3rd January 2008
We had a lovely first Christmas in Spain, no turkey but we bought a very big whole salmon and baked it in the oven which is a tradition Spanish dinner. We had Mediterranean roasted vegetables, sauteed potatoes and green beans which are in season here all year round. Celia’s sister and her partner arrived on Xmas Eve for a week so we had a busy week taking them out and about and visiting the local markets, On Xmas Day morning we had bucks fizz out by the pool in the sunshine and although it wasn't warm enough to have our dinner outside, it was lovely to sit out for a while and enjoy the sun, it didn't feel like xmas day in some ways especially when we knew it was grey and wet back in the UK.
12th December 2007
It's almost 3 months since we arrived here in the Jalon valley on the Costa Blanca and the time has passed so quickly. We survived the worst rains in the area for over 25 years and the flooding of the river Jalon, which swept away our road into town and our telephone line. We have also learnt from the recent cold nights that we definitely need central heating.
However, we decided well within the period we'd set ourselves that we wanted to stay and have been viewing lots of potential properties to purchase. We've now had an offer accepted on a villa in Orba - a small town across in the next valley and about 5 mins. from where we're living now. The legal processes and surveys now start and we hope to be in our new home in w/c 14 Jan. It has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, a pool and a big terrace, with a covered area for eating and sitting out in the hot months from May through to Sept. It has an 'underbuild' housing one of the bedrooms/bathrooms, which means guests can enjoy a degree of privacy.
We've had the opportunity to explore the mountains and valleys around here and the scenery is stunning! Within 15 mins. drive of here, we can be surrounded by mountains over 1000m, walk to 800m as we did on Friday, enjoy fantastic views of the coast or visit mountain villages. There are lots of great restaurants and bars in the area where we can enjoy everything from tapas, menu of the day from EUR8 each (including a bottle of wine!) or gastronomic delights like the wild boar I enjoyed last night, accompanied by peppers and locally picked wild mushrooms.
We eat a lot healthier now too - the weekly market in Jalon is much smaller than Alton where we used to live and yet boasts 5 or 6 fruit and veg. stalls, where we buy everything that is in season very cheaply. Ok - the tomotoes and peppers are not all perfectly round and the same colour, like those in Sainsburys, but the housewives select each one they want to buy and put them into plastic bags provided - nothing comes from behind/under the stall, like a certain stall in Alton market! We buy plastic carrier bags of oranges from the local farmers at EUR3 for 5 kgs (2nd crop being harvested now) and a delicious new fruit has just come into season - the Sharon fruit or persimmon. We also enjoy melon for breakfast several days/week.
We think we have found in this valley a community with the right mix of Spanish and ex-pats - we are starting to build a new circle of Brit friends - and there are local businesses run by Brits that we can turn to if we need help (a garage where I was able to have the exhaust on Celie's car replaced recently, estate agents, restaurants, bars, a corner shop that if you REALLY need to buy English tea bags or something, you can - at a price.) But unlike the coastal resorts, there are no signs outside bars advertising all day breakfasts or Arsenal v Real Madrid football on Skye! OK - if I admit it, I am missing the odd real ale or two occasionally but that's about it!
We're looking forward to moving into our own home in the new year and to enjoying the early spring in the Jalon valley when, we are told, the almond and orange trees are covered in blossom. 22 January 2008 11:35:05
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It's even greener and the valley floor is almost entirely covered with orange and nectarine orchards, whereas the Jalon valley has more almond trees and vines. The almond trees are coming out in blossom now and within a week or 10 days, the valley floor will be covered with a carpet of pink and white.