This morning our friends, Chris, Linda and their fantastic kids (our God children), Joe and Ella left to return back home to the UK, they had been staying with us for the past week – arrived at 11pm on the 23rd.
Usually its refreshing to have the apartment back to ourselves after guests leave, that’s not to say that we don’t enjoy the company, we love it, its just that its nice to get back into our ‘routine’ – I’m sure you know what I mean. However this time it was different, as soon as Liesl and I got back into the apartment, it seemed unusually quiet, not in a good way, it was quite upsetting to say “goodbye” to them knowing that we would probably not see them all again for at least 12 months, I hope they realise how much we miss them and how important they are to us both.
Whilst they were here they did a great deal, we managed to take some time off from work to be with them, but they also made themselves busy whilst we had to work.
On Sunday we went with them to Pola Parc, a kiddies fun fair in Santa Pola, 99% of the rides were aimed at exactly Joe and Ella’s age group (7 and 8 respectively) and they loved it, even though it was the LAST thing that they said they wanted to do – kids eh? Linda, quite wisely, said that she didn’t feel like going on any of the rides with the kids which left Chris and I 
(suckers!) with the unenviable task of accompanying Joe and Ella on as many fast, bumpy, painful and just down right dangerous rides you could every have dreamt of.
One in particular sticks in my mind, it was a line of wooden hobby horses that followed each other around a metal track – Chris and I took one look and thought “that looks fine, nice steady slow ride”, so we mounted our steeds, Ella and I on the front horse and Joe and Chris on the horse behind us. The ride started and everything was fine for the first few seconds, ok the wooden horses were not the most comfortable of things but I could handle a circuit of this I thought.
Then it happened!
What had escaped both my and Chris’s notice was that the horses actually trotted around the circuit – so for every meter we advanced we had to endure one “bump”! After far too many bumps 2 excited kids and 2 crippled adults got off the ride, I am certain that our voices are still at least one octave higher now than before we got on the ride – NEVER AGAIN!
The park was a great way to spend the evening, we arrived at about 6pm and left just after 9pm, the kids had a great time – which is what it’s all about!
We also spent some time on the beach with them, both Joe and Ella went snorkelling and saw loads of fish, Linda also had a chance to indulge in her favourite pastime (clothes shopping) in Santa Pola. 
All in all it was a fantastic week; my only regret is not being able to spend more time with them – on their last full day I had to work for most of the day!
This evening Liesl and I went out for a walk, a usual nightly occurrence, whilst walking we talked about what we would have to eat when we got back, another regular topic of conversation, attested to by our “racing snake figures”.
I mentioned that I would really like some Marmite sandwiches – now this is a much more unusual comment that those of you that know we well might think. Back in the UK my staple diet consisted of at least 6 slices of white bread Marmite sandwiches – it would be a rare day that passed without this feast, I was so addicted to Marmite that I brought 4 extremely large pots of Marmite out with me to Spain and such was my infamy for the stuff that anyone that knows me well always asks whether they should bring Marmite out with them for me.
Well let me tell you……
I have hardly touched the stuff since I have been here – not even eaten one of the large tubs I brought out (which incidentally I would demolish in a month back in the UK!)
Anyway, I think that it was Marmite, or my over eating of the stuff, that caused the terrible acid reflux that I suffered back in the UK, I have not needed to take my tablets over here and I feel 100% better – amazing eh?
Anyway back to the story, I fancied some Marmite sandwiches, so Liesl agreed and we walked back past the local, very expensive, English supermarket, we bought the following…..
Total cost was around 5.50€ – a rip off really as the Spanish equivalent would cost us probably under half that, but then we were going to have a decedent night – lol, sad eh?
Anyway, let me tell you it was fantastic, Marmite sandwiches and lemon curt tarts have just never tasted so good!
This evening I was invited to a boys night out! Dave (editor, The Jungle Drums), Mark (photographer, designer and all round decent bloke) and Kevin (Our Man In Santa Pola, contributor to The Jungle Drums).
Anyway, we met up in a local pub and then went for a curry, great night.
masculine task of breaking up a palet for Ken (one he hadnt had the chance to do while he was in Spain – and in a fit of too much testostorone I managed to tear a huge gaping hole in my wrist, although Liesl reliably informs me that its just a scratch and that I will survive!
Whilst there we aired the house and made sure that the patio chairs still worked – by sitting on them for an hour on the terrace, its important to make sure these things work – hehe.
This week Liesl and I have tried to spend at least an hour on the beach every day (not been possible every day – sometimes work runs on just far too long!)
Today was an exceptional day, the sun was really warm, not a cloud in the sky and the sea was warm, we decided to go snorkelling, in water only 5ft deep we saw 1000’s of fish, darting in and out of the coral reefs, it was amazing and really quite special.
The sea, and the pool on our complex, are now warm enough to swim in at 25+ degrees, so we are going to try to take on some more, much needed exercise and swim as many days as we can.
On the downside, its just too warm now for Hetty to go out for a walk in the daytime, we have to either walk her before 8am or after 9pm when the heat has gone out of the air and its dropped below 25 degrees (in the shade!) It doesn’t seem to be bothering Hetty too much anyway, she seems to be enjoying being allowed to sleep all day!
On Sunday we have been invited to a BBQ at Paul and Jackie’s in La Marina, they have a great pool so we are looking forward to that, we will also pop into Liesl’s mum’s place, she has returned to Ireland now, so that we can water the orchard (1 lemon tree and 1 orange tree) for her.
As they arrived late on Sunday we didn’t get to do anything other than get back to the apartment, have a chat and a “wee drink” and go to bed, the following day the weather was glorious and Liesl had already got up very early to do some work, while she was finishing off what she had to do, Dad, Val and I went orange picking (at the same place as Liesl and I had visited before), in about 20 minutes the 3 of us had picked a massiv
e amount of oranges, I have been juicing them all week and I would say that we have about 3kg of oranges left after making 10.5 litres of fresh juice and after a weeks worth of 4 people eating them!
In the afternoon we went over to La Marina to visit Liesl’s mum and Ken as they would be flying back to Ireland early on Wednesday morning, we spent some time with them sitting on their terrace chatting and enjoying the sun.
anged, its a full coach trip out for the day, all free of charge, the only requirement is that you visit the factory where blankets are made and listen to a presentation for an hour about the blankets. On Wednesday they went to the trip that spends time in Benidorm. Val loves Benedorm and has been several times before, she took pleasure in showing dad the old town – don’t think that they saw any Sticky Vicky shows – well if they did then they kept it quiet 😉Last night we went out for a meal to Cocoas, dad very kindly paid and afterwards we came back to the apartment and our friends Gerry and Trisha, who are over from Scotland at the moment came round for more than a few sherbets’ – great night.
Today we are planning to go to the Saturday market in Santa pola (woohoo) and probably have a walk in the sun as its looking like another hot hot day – not a cloud in the sky! Tomorrow I expect we will go to the Sunday market in the lemon groves and we have been invited to a BBQ in La Marina, I shall also have to arrange for the “transfer of the pensioners” – lol, dad and Val are spending next week with Val’s son, Shaun who lives near Quesada (about 20 km away from us).
As way of a minor footnote, its been two weeks since I part exchanged the Barchetta for a Citroen Picasso, it was a very sad day, not made any easier by liesl’s comment when we test drove the Picasso – “its not as quick as the Barchetta is it?” The Picasso is a MUCH more practice car, its large enough for our shopping and the seats go down so collecting large items is not a problem, its a diesel and does about 1000km to a full tank, where the Barchetta struggled to get 300km to the same size tank, it has cruise control and satnav although the latter is not working at the moment as the CD is for Belguim! I still pine for the Barchetta, as does Liesl, but we didn’t come here to have everything that we want, we came here to have a less stressful and more relaxed way of life and I guess a convertible, hand built Italian sports car doesn’t fit with that ideal however much I would like it to.
