21st November

Saturday is Calpe Market day so up and out pretty smartish, collecting the laundry from Lavanderia Ana that we dropped off yesterday on our way out. Surprise, surprise we got a parking space on the main road by the Ford dealership next to Aitana Bricolaje.

The next two hours was spent doing the length of the Market, stopping part way to try a new bar, Bugatti that we won’t try again. Lynne only partly fulfilled her mission to get every seer-sucker short sleeved shirt the ‘shirt man’ had as he didn’t have any in her size. She did buy four shirts, only to be disappointed that one was badly marked in a way that wouldn’t wash out. Then it was time for Cafe Dany’s and again I got a tapas with my beer.

On the way back to the car we had to pass the Muebles, furniture shop, that we bought the computer table from a couple of trips back, so thought we would have a look in and it was a 50% off sale!  And they had something we liked.  The two chests of drawers arrive “maximo Martes”, no later than Tuesday. Stopped at Mercadona for a few things to get us through Sunday and home for lunch with the mushrooms and eggs we bought on the market. Amazing, every egg in the box of six medium eggs was a double yolker!

We drove down to the port and played dominoes at Las Barcas and watched Deportivo beat Athletico Madrid 2-1 with a penalty in the 95th minute. Real shades of a recent Man U win and Ferguson injury time.  We then moved onto HDB for a ‘dose of WiFi’. And spotted Lynne’s Christmas present, so we have to go back tomorrow night

20th November

Today’s weather forecast on the bar tv yesterday was for sunny and cloudy but by 10 am it was a clear blue sky with bright sunshine. A great day for our troll out to Parcent for lunch with Keith and Audrey.

The run up to Parcent was nice in bright sunshine. Part way through lunch our new friends Chris and Ali came in with their visitors from England. We found out later that Chris was disappointed as there was no roast pork left. Apparently the four of us having it had finished it off. It was a nice change being served with beans and carrots and a fine mashed potatoes. 

We came back via a bar in Alcalali where Chris et al caught up with us again. We then drove home via a country route, part way along which we stopped for Lynne to photograph a cock turkey in ‘full rut’!  We dropped Keith and Audrey off and took the car home. This gave us the evening to head for the bar via a bit of WiFi at Hotel Diamonte Beach. At Mejias III we watched the football till quite late  After a pleasant session we started to walk home only to realise very quickly that we had been ‘marked’ by a hoodie and that it would likely not be safe to walk up the dark roads to the house. So to verify if we had been marked I made a fuss about forgetting something and we double backed towards the bar past him and then observed. He carried on towards La Merced but just when we thought we might have been wrong he reappeared and seemed to hang around the junction outside Mercadona. Time for a taxi!  We were greeted with surprise when we re-entered Mejias III and a pantomime developed as we tried to explain that we were being followed. At one point El Jefe asked where the guy was and afterwards Lynne and I were convinced that if it had been outside the bar they would have gone out and decked him. Then our taxi arrived and took us home; Arrival is great value for money by comparison!  A couple of nightcaps were required to steady the nerves before bed. This will change our behaviour in future. 

19th November

Another cloudy start with no urgency to get anywhere as we are waiting for the gardener to drop off some spray. Turns out that he literally meant over the road, at our new English neighbour. Her name is Bee and her dog is Leo. The bay tree got sprayed and we had another 30 minute chat about the garden in the process. I noticed that our German neighbour went and had a word with our gardener, which looks like more business. Then she came in to ask us about how reliable is he? Lynne asked her about furniture shops and she said they got all their living room from Teulada. 

The plan to check out furniture shops in Calpe became a plan to go to Teulada.  It took us a couple of hours to walk the length of Teulada’s main ‘drag’ going into every Muebles as there are a lot of them. We found what we want but it is made to order, whick takes four to six weeks. So we came to an arrangement to order it from England before our next trip. 

Finished the evening off by walking down the bar for a few and despite only having had first and second breakfast but no lunch the tapas filled us up. A night cap saw us off to bed at eleven.

18th November

Started off very grey and windy. But as is often the case here the sun as it gets up burns off the clouds but the wind persisted for most of the day only dropping towards sunset.

Another gentle start, heading into town in time to get a haircut. But we started with Victoria Car Rental about a back shelf. When we collected the car it didn’t have one. The woman at the airport office said I should have selected one in the options section on the website. I hadn’t spotted that among the baby seats etc. that fill such options lists. We left the car parked outside the car rental and Lynne took us into the Multiprecios next door. Came out with a new pedal bin and standard lamp plus some energy saver bulbs, the place has an enormous range of them. We left those in the car and got me my haircut. We then dropped into our favourite in-town watering hole, Cafe Dany’s. We got a nice greeting and a new first, a tapas of Olivas with my beer; that hasn’t happened before. On the way home Lynne decided that today was not a good day to try to photograph the large flock of Pink Flamingos currently on Las Salinas as they were ‘hunkered down’ against the wind in a tight bunch right in the middle.

Had a pleasant light lunch with the left over dips from the evening before. Then got Lynne’s online account unlocked by phone that I’d managed to lock at the bank the day before. The funds I’d sent from the UK bank had arrived so I distributed them around accounts and we are solvent again. The clouds looked good for a spectacular sunset so we walked Lynne’s big camera and monopod down to the corner by Pepe Agua’s but it was a complete washout so trudged back to the house.

My Inbox was filling up so I suggested a ‘dose of WiFi’ before Mejias III. The young barman is a delight and we are helping each other with our ‘Spanglish’, learning today that the Spanish pronunciation of WiFi sounds like “wiffee’. The rest of the evening passed very pleasantly at Mejias III watching Spain trounce Austria 5-1, consuming drinks and being fed tapas at regular intervals. ‘El Jefe’ made a break through with Lynne’s gluten intolerance when two of the same tapas came out for another couple so he gave one to us joking that Lynne could have the ham and I could have the bread. I said that this was not possible due ‘contaminacion’. From that point the bread came on a separate plate. How’s that for service, especially for a freebie!

17th November

We had planned to do ‘the Tuesday usual’, namely Altea Market but with the bright sunny morning we decided we couldn’t be *rsed and had a lovely lazy morning enjoying the warm weather. Only slightly marred when we couldn’t pay Mercadona for the ‘nibbles’ shopping with our debit cards. Yesterdays debt settlement had meant some money juggling between accounts that had left our personal account short. Fortunately we had enough cash on us to pay. So while Lynne got on with preparations I moved more money out from England on the Internet.

All her work was for having Keith and Audrey over for drinkies. It was a very pleasant evening of chatter about everything and nothing as usual. Agreed to lunch together at the Co-op in Parcent on Friday.

16th November

Despite this being supposed to be a holiday today turned into a business day. A number of lessons were learned:
1. Rates are due on Sept 1st here.
2. The bill comes in the post on the 1st August.
3. Ditto the first half of the Basuras
4. Second half of the Basuras is due 1st April. (So I’m guessing that the bill comes in the post 1st March?)
5. If there are not enough funds in the bank not only does the ‘Recibo’ not get paid but the Direct Debit gets cancelled. (We already knew about not being allowed overdrafts here.)
6. All the above means a trip to SUMA to get a new bill and new direct debit mandate. And there is ALWAYS a queue!

So, we had a longer than expected morning in town queuing at the bank, SUMA and again at the bank. But by the time we returned home for lunch were we no longer debtors. Despite all this we enjoyed the bright sunshine and warmth.

The afternoon was taken up with Monasor coming to measure up for estimates and the gardener coming to be paid for the next six months maintenance.

We decided to ‘eschew’ the WiFi and went straight to Mejias III. We started with the Spanish idea of a G&T, lots of ice and gin with a slice of lemon and a splash of tonic. We then both had the liver from the ‘Menu del Dia’. We finished with a brandy, Soberano for me but Lynne had a Ponche, which is a Spanish brandy liqeur. We strolled home after a pleasant meal to bed.

15th November

We have had a quiet day at home; partly because Lynne hurt her back while sorting out her camera back pack.  Keith and Audrey stopped on their way out to lunch to say hello. Agreed to catch up with them tomorrow. 

On our way home yesterday evening from Mercadona there was a glowing sunset behind ‘Table Mountain’ that made Lynne determine to be in the same place tonight. From the house the prospect didn’t look good so we deferred but then set off walking for our ‘dose of WiFi’ at the Hotel Diamonte Beach. And while walking down at 5:45pm there was the most spectacular sunset! So out came the Casio compacts and here are a few of the results.

14th November

Back to flying Jet2 and had a good flight with no problems at either airport. The hire car, a Seat Ibiza automatic is very nice. The house was fine and we hit Mercadona for provisions for the weekend. Walked down to empty the post box and called on Keith and Audrey but they appeared to be out. The contents of the post box included included two Suma letters and a Correos delivery note. Looks like a banking problem has left the rates unpaid. Let Keith and Audrey know we had arrived okay on the phone. Then off to Hotel Diamonte Beach for our dose of WiFi, only to find that it is no longer open and unlimited. You now gave to produce a bar bill at reception to get access to one hour for free.