A castle in Spain

Welcome to one of the delights of our 'autonomous region' of Murcia. North of here is the town of Mula, dominated by an imposing 16th Century castle.

As with most 'tourist attractions' in this land, although the castle has been partly restord at some stage, it has an abandoned look. We were the only ones there, to marvel at the structure, the views, the vandalised handrails and the grafitti!

As you can see, we braved perilous platforms and scary staircases to reach the top.









Very stiff thighs for the next two days brought home to us that we should get more exercise!

What a privilege!

Sorry we haven't posted for a while but Judy was a bit crook. Nothing serious. A bit geographically inaccurate but, as Chris put it, "Delhi Belly". You didn't want to know that, but now you do.



L - R: Jose, J, Berverly, Fina, T (Chris took the photo - and all the others!



On Saturday we were taken out for the day by our friends José & Fina. They live at the back, just like Jack. But they're not like anybody else here. Probably more generous of spirit than anyone we know. They have embraced Chris & Bev, our dear friends, their immediate neighbours – and us.

What is that in the background? Yes, a submarine.

José is a retired navy lieutenant and has access to all the inaccessible delights of Cartagena. The Spanish for Navy is, of course, Armada. For those of you who thought this just meant a marauding force that tried to attack England and failed, rethink!

We were taken to lunch at the Officers' Club and then we were allowed into the 'Arsenal' (Laura, eat yer heart out! Sos).

More pics follow.


Two Man Sub




Battelship – gosh, I hope the security men weren't watching!




Six-man sub





The real thing – Terry, Chris and Bev were allowed to go down into it. A 14-year-old sub being repaired at the time. It gave them an incredible insight into the lives of the submariners – of which our Friend José was one, for forty years, no less.

A day in the life of . . .

People ask us what we do all day.

It's difficult to say really, so I thought I'd create a Day in the life of . . . T & J

Here goes.
18.01.2006
We woke up to a collection of fit young men (steady, Judy!) doing stuff to our casa bonita.

Re-laying the drive, re-routing drains, extending the chimenea so we don't smog out our neighbours (few though they are), regrouting tiles and painting beams and walls to make our whadyomacallit – sunroom? conservatory? archway area? – habitable. As far as the authorities are concerned it's a pergola, because you're not allowed to have a proper living area within 3 metres of your neighbour's boundary.

The phone reminder beeped and Judy had to visit the dentist. When yer get old things happen to yer teeth. My dentist is German and resembles Goldfinger - scary! He took one out last week but today was just a refurbishment of lower left two. It doesn't help with my Spanish to have to revert to German. Ist es der Zahn oder das Zahn? Der, I think. No problem, we can communicate.

Bugger, our Mercedes Benz garage in Totana is no better. The boss who is also the mechanic speaks fluent French. We have changed 'los faros' to point the other way so that we can get our ITV (aka MOT) on the car and register it as Spanish. OK, I speak to my cleaner, the lovely Rosa, in Spanish – as an Ecuadorian her rendering is much more comprehensible than that of the esteemed Murcians – I fix my car in French and my teeth in Deutsch!

Bugger again, because of all the work going on in the house, I, Judy reversed said car into the skip and smashed the rear lamp. Which means we have to fix it before getting legal, which at the moment we are not.

I digress. A day in the life of continued . . .

We had to go the Correos. For a change the queue was not out of the door. The reason for our visit was Mamie's birthday present. It had been promised for the morning of our flight last week to visit Mamie on her 85th birthday on Jan 10th. She is all Terry and I have left of the previous or our contemporary generation. A photo of West Burton Falls, a magical place for Mamie and Miriam and us, was sent to be framed. We finally picked it up today. Enjoy, Mamie, we hope.

Then we had to go to the hole in the wall to get money. It's surprising how infrequently you have to do that here. Council tax back home was around £1,3000. Here it's 271 Euros! Three-course meal of very good quality, including salad, starter, mains, a bottle of wine, pud and coffee for two of us is 15 euros including a generous tip.

Now where was I? Supermarket next. Off to Mercadona for a few bits and pieces – yoghurt, apple juice, tonica light etc. Then we went to Galayos for above mentioned lunch in the sun. So hot, I had to walk about 5 meters to the shore to get a breeze on my face. Afterwards we sat on a bench on the beach and enjoyed the sun and a gentle breeze in the face for an hour or so.

Off to Purias near Lorca then – to buy an addition to my cactus garden and also a spiky Pyracanthus to plant at a crucial place on the property to deter potential marauders. On the way, I picked wild flowers. Sorry, it's probably illegal here too, but I couldn't resist them. So may spring flowers here in January and almond blossom starting! Beautiful.

The way back was unbelievably lovely. The sun struck the high peaks of Sierra Espuna and, even with our back to the sun, with spiky hills in the foreground, mountain range on mountain range spread before us - breathtaking.
We diverted to Bolnuevo to watch the sunset over the sea. That's something we have to do every day. Every day is different. Tonight it was somewhere between red and peach, intense yet soothing.

Then home to find the drive nearly finished and the sunroom part painted. And everything quiet!!

Tomorrow? Blood pressure test and pick up repeat prescription for Terry at the medical centre is first off.

Then, who knows?

Watch this space for another 'day in the life of'.

Next time I promise more visual images.

Night!
(I would have posted this yesterday but we were off-line, as usual!!)

Happy New Year

We hope your Christmas was as crazy as ours.

Apart from exploding drains which covered our drive with something the Spanish euphemistically call 'aguas sucias' for a couple of days, we partied.

Helen (right) sorted the problem with the Town Hall, despite the fact that when she first telephoned she was asked to wait whilst the local government employee who took the call finished his cigarette. Congratulations to Dan & Helen on the announcement of your wedding in the summer.

Alkie (centre) discussed angles of fall with Aqualia, despite the fact that Murcian is an obscure form of Spanish that they didn't teach him in Guatemala (or Guatalumpa, as my Auntie Mamie calls it). Good luck to Alkie & Mel on their travel plans.

Jo (left), well, she partied. A brief respite of throwing caution to the winds before she tackles the problem of being potentially homeless. Well done to Jo on her promotion. And Leicestershire is not the dark side of the moon.

Further pictures:


Dan


Helen


Alkie & Mel from a previous occasion


Jo leaping into the future


Sweet Kate enjoying the view from Aledo with my friend