T is for Tapas, again

 Hello Ladies, hope you are all well, we seem to have had another busy week but now I look back I wonder why.

We did collect our documents for our TIE card and Sunday we decided we would take a drive to Murcia to see where the offices are, actually it was very easy to find but then we decided to go to IKEA, only five minutes drive away apparently, the trouble is that we had to find our way back to the motorway,  not always easy here as they have service roads alongside the main roads and motorways so sometimes it can be confusing, thank goodness it was early and Sunday with not so much traffic.

We already have two chairs but decided to buy two more but as we went in the main door we spotted some lovely cane chairs, my husband asked one of the staff if they were in the garden section, she said yes so we decided to go there first, as you may know that is near the check outs!

 we couldn’t find them, asked at the desk, no joy so we gave up, went all the way back to find the ones we came for and then spotted the ones we’d been looking for, unfortunately they were quite expensive and we would have to buy four to match, we ended up buying the ones we already had, by this time we were flagging so found a short cut to pay, I always like the thought of going to IKEA but never actually enjoy it.

I was shocked that my husband decided to put them together when we got home, I hate helping  him as he is methodical, counts the screws etc by that time I’m on page ten, ha,ha such fun. I will post a photo next week when all the hanging pots are in place

So Friday we decided to try a restaurant the other end of the beach from last week

to the left you can see the campsite, it’s starting to fill up

Unfortunately even at midday they had no tapas ready so we just had a coffee, lovely views. This is looking to the right, it's quite a steep drop from where you can see the edge of the beach and quite stony, we had to buy the GSs rubber shoes to wear.

We went back to the Oasis restaurant, the same place as last week rather than drive somewhere else

We did have one different Tapas, pork in salsa, very nice, apart from that the other two tapas were the same, even the drinks.

I like to watch the birds, one even sat on the chair next to me and started chirping loudly, that was before the food even arrived.

I took this photo, they sit on the gate, you can see them waiting,  when the waitress disappears they try to go inside looking for food

Good news I had my colon results back today, negativo! The weather is hot now, yesterday when we went back to the car after our walk it was showing 38c, we were parked in the sun, it dropped to 31con the way home! Today it was 27c at 10am so if you'd like to pop over for a cool drink you will find me in the shade with a book.

Take Care Ladies

Jan x

T is for Tapas

 Hello Ladies, here we are again joining Elizabeth and Bluebeard for our weekly T Party.

Most days we've had our walk and breakfast, Last week I had to post some Birthday cards and we walked past the church, it reminded me that I had taken a photo months ago to show and forgot. It looks lovely from this side but not so pretty from the other side!

 Friday I had my appointment to renew my medical card, I wasn’t looking forward to it as we have to see the man we all call Happy Jack as he has never been known to smile, we’ve been three times over the years we’ve lived in Spain, this time he didn’t smile but he was friendlier, I’m guessing since we now have to actually make an appointment he isn’t quite so stressed.

Mind you it didn’t start off well as we walked into his office he said only one person, well he has a screen, two chairs so you can’t actually get near the desk and all wearing masks! Anyway my husband told him it was only for me so he allowed him to stand at the open door and then he totally ignored me!!! five minutes later we were done, documents checked and a document printed as a receipt, he said it could take a year or two months, LOL talk about covering all eventualities, apparently some are back in a couple of weeks so we will see.

We were early for my appointment so we decided to have a coffee at the bakery in the town, my husband gave the waitress a note to pay for the coffee, she came around the counter to show us the machine, you put your note in and it gives out the change!! Next stop robots making the coffee I'm guessing!

After that we decided to nip into the accountants office to see if he had our documents ready for our first appointment for our new TIE card, of course as soon he saw us he said he would ring on Monday, funny that, no news until we turn up, no phone call yesterday but this morning we had a call whilst on our walk and we have to collect our documents tomorrow and have an appointment for our finger prints etc on July 6th!

we went looking for a thermometer for our seating area, my husband has hung the pots on the wall and I bought the flowers for them but we just need a centrepiece, no joy at the moment but I did spot this necklace in a window, what attracted me was the butterflies of course, I think they are made of leather so I'm not sure how comfortable it would be to wear!

   

After that we decided it was time for lunch, neither of us felt like eating a big meal in the heat so we went to the Oasis restaurant for tapas, we sat in the garden, a lovely relaxing lunch.

Alitas de Pollo, (chicken wings) ,tortilla and albondigas, ( very garlicky meatballs) but tasty, a glass of wine and sin alcohol beer, also my drink for this weeks ticket to the party, it was lovely chilling out, then it was home for a swim, a good way to finish the week, it’s our youngest sons favourite place to have tapas when he comes over from San Francisco so of course I sent him the photo!! What a cruel Mother I am!!!

Yesterday we had even more excitement, my husband read online that we could download a form and take it to the local councillor at the office down the road to apply for an EU vaccine passport, so my husband downloaded it and sent it to me on an email so I could print it off, eight copies printed, four for us and four for our neighbours, then a new message, they'd sent the wrong form, eight more copies, two filled in and two just in case we’d made a mistake, so we were  driving home when our neighbour rings to say his wife was there and that we also need a copy of our passports so we dash home, fire up the computer and scan our passports, quick March across to the office, an hours wait, literally took five minutes for the lady to check the paperwork but of course half of the neighbourhood had the same idea, oh well, we Brits are well known for our love of standing in a queue, we were taking bets which year they will arrive in the post! 

Well that’s been my week, hope you’ve all had a more relaxing or exciting week, Happy T Day

Jan x

T is for Tuesday

 Hello Ladies, hope everyone is safe and well, I’m pleased to say I’m feeling good and  thank you for all your kind comments last week.

We’ve been doing a few jobs around the villa,  we removed three electric heaters that haven’t been used since we had the log fire, of course we had holes to fill in and then painting, luckily we were able to just paint where we had filled in the holes, we were worried it would mean painting the whole room, not something we relished doing in the heat.

We also had some ceiling fans fitted in the lounge and dining room, they are quite big but when they are off the blades are tucked away, we thought they looked a little more modern too, they also have remote control, another one for my husbands collection!!

This is the fan off with just the light on, it has three different coloured lights, so of course I had to stand and watch while my husband played with all the settings, he does love a remote control!

Not sure if you noticed the clock in the background, it’s a giant wristwatch, we bought it when we lived in Germany when I was pregnant with our eldest son, he’s 49 next month, it does lose a few minutes but it’s traveled about with us, our sons don’t like it but I  tell them it’s a heirloom, ha,ha, I couldn’t part with as it’s one of the few things we have left for our time in Germany.

This is the blades out, it isn't flashing,It's the light catching the spinning blade, our DIL asked why it flashes as it spins!! They are so quiet too, that's why we took the ones out from the bedroom as the clicking sounds drove us mad.

My drink this week is a coffee, on  Friday we decided to have a Chinese’s meal, I didn’t take photos as I’ve shown this restaurant before but before lunch we had a short stroll at another beach, it was too hot by midday to walk very far but it was nice to sit and enjoy the view.

Not much else to report apart, we spending our afternoons in the shade reading and swimming as it's very hot now, the pool is 28c so I'm also doing some lengths to get fit. I'm still picking bowls of strawberries every day, we could do with the GS's here to help eat them although the wood lice seem to like them too!! 

Happy T Day, hope you are also enjoying some good weather.

Jan x

T is for A Trying Time

 Hello Ladies, Tuesday once again, time to join Elizabeth and Bleubeard for another T party.

We were having a fairly quiet week, a visit to the accountant to collect our paperwork and pay the bill, they are now preparing our new residence cards, we already have residencia but they have a new card and although it isn’t compulsory at the moment we’ve decided to get one before the Spanish government decides to change their minds.

On Friday it was very cloudy so we changed our plans and decided to have fish and chips near the beach, we drove to a different place this time, it was spitting with rain so we sat in the car listening to a podcast. I totally forgot to take a photo as we had a longer drive than we thought, the place we were heading to has been blocked off and made into a lovely area, unfortunately it’s blocked off to cars.

My choice of drink, I've never had it before but I forgot our drinks from home so had to run in the supermarket to buy two, I'm trying not to drink fizzy drinks at the moment so I just grabbed this.

It was quite nice.

Saturday started off as normal, we drove to the beach, had our walk, it was spitting with rain which turned into a down pour.

This was the view while we were having breakfast. Luckily they have two tables inside.

As you can see it's a small place so not good for trade when the weather is bad, luckily in Spain that's not too often.

It's owned buy a young couple with two children, they are lovely and we've known them for years as he used to work at the local Italian restaurant, he wasn't married at the time so we've seen his children from being babies and now they are at school.

we shopped on the way home and then I went into Mercadona to buy some Pan Cristal, cobs as we call them but bread rolls to everyone else. I was only in the shop for about five minutes but as I came out my husband was shouting to me to hurry up, the back tyre on the car was almost flat! Luckily the BP garage is across the road so we dashed over to pump up the tyre, it was so flat the air didn’t even register on the machine, of course it had to  be the new fangled ones that need money and then you had to set the pressure you need, etc, not what you need when you are in a hurry.

the pressure back up we drove across town to the tyre repair, closed, on a Saturday!! Drove to the next place closed too! We decided then it would be best to try and get home so on the way we stopped and to do the tyre pressure again, arrived home and the tyre was nearly flat so my husband started to change the tyre, of course it started to pour with rain so I had to hold the big umbrella over him, luckily, years ago, he had bought  an extending wrench so he was able to remove the wheel nuts! He was so tired afterwards, I think it was the stress, so yesterday we had to drive to town to get the tyre fixed, typical, I also had to have my second vaccine so it couldn’t have come at a worse time! Isn’t it always the case.

I’m pleased to report that my vaccine went really well, very well organised, it was in the tomatoe factory, a massive warehouse, when I went in there were two and a half long lines queuing so I was expecting a long wait but we kept moving, slowly all the time, when I arrived to have my medical card checked they had about eight people checking, by the time I got to the place for the vaccine I was sent straight through, a young man was waving the vaccine to show he was ready, he actually spoke English, I was surprised when I walked back to the car that it had only been half an hour.

I thought after twelve hours I had escaped any problems but at 1am this morning I woke up with aching bones and the shivers, I took a pain killer and thankfully went back to sleep, I felt fine this morning but since we've arrived home I'm aching again!

After my vaccine we went back to have the tyre put back on the car, he said he would do it for us, only charged €10, a bargain, now the car is full of diesel, washed and the tyre pressures reset on the computer!

This morning the weather is sunny and warm and this is the view today!

That's me for this week, off to sit in the shade with some fruit and hopefully a swim, take care ladies.

Happy T Day!

Jan x

Yesterday I had my second vaccine 

T is for time to Celebrate

 Hello Ladies, last Saturday we celebrated our 50th Wedding Anniversary, it wasn’t the day we had planned where all our family flew over to celebrate with us, due to restrictions on travel it meant that our youngest son and family couldn’t come over from San Francisco nor our eldest son and his family from England. We  did go out for a lunch and our youngest son organised a Zoom call for everyone, that was really lovely. Our son took a screen shot of us all so at least we have a reminder!

The glasses and champers we've  had ten years, since our 40th Anniversary, they were a gift, we didn’t drink the champagne as we were actually on a cruise on the day, around the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal and up to San Francisco to visit the family before going home, a fabulous trip, so we decided that we would save it until the family came over all together, for some reason that year they came at different times and then on a trip to San Francisco in the October my husband had a massive heart attack and ended up spending our holiday in hospital after having a triple bypass, not the holiday we expected, anyway we still never opened the bottle as my husband doesn't drink alcohol so the bottle still sits there. since then we’ve had additions to the family and with  GSs starting school  everyone always has different holidays.

 it’s been eight years since we all managed to be in Spain at the same time. We all have plans now to celebrate next May 29th, fingers crossed.

The flowers were sent from our eldest son, our 5 year old GS actually picked it as he said Nan had to have purple flowers as it's my favourite colour!

This is our wedding photo with the Lance Guard, it should have been a sword guard but my husband wasn't with his regiment at the time, he was on a recruiting team attached to the 307 South Notts Hussars.

The Hussars were in time of war were a mounted regiment so their weapon was a lance, easier to use on horseback!

we had our honeymoon in St Ives in Cornwall, in 1971 not many people went abroad for holidays and my husband only had a weeks leave.

This is one of my favourite photos, our Wedding Album was all black and white, we paid extra to have a small album done in colour, well it was 1971!!

I actually bought a rolling pin on our Honeymoon, I think the first thing I purchased as a married woman, I still have it and use it all the time, it is well traveled.

We did decided to go out for lunch, we just went a stroll around the Marina and then to one of our favourite restaurant, Viggios.

we did look at the menu but we've had most of the dishes on it over the years so  we decided to have the Menu Del Dia as you can see they had a big selection.

We chose a salad for our starter, it was delicious with ham and pineapple

and a slice of Garlic bread.

As you can see, my drink for this week, a glass of wine to celebrate.

First course we both chose Gazpacho, it was homemade and I think the best we’ve ever tasted.

Our main course we had the hake with Seafood and Leek sauce and roasted potatoes, I had already tried it before I remembered to take a photo, the photo doesn’t do it justice, I think the sauce over the fish makes it look a strange colour, it was delicious but after that we decided to skip pudding and just have coffee.

I love the coffee cups here, I couldn’t get a good photo, they are hand painted  and the saucer has writing on it, by then the restaurant was full so I felt a big self conscious taking a picture of a coffee.

I hope you are all still awake after all that!!  I was due to have my second vaccine tomorrow but had a text message on Sunday to say it is delayed until next Monday, no idea why, of course the council have only just released it online so hopefully everyone knows and doesn't have a wasted journey tomorrow!

Have a lovely T Day Ladies, take care

Jan x