Ramblings in Retirement

June 2006

I am pleased to say that Penny has made a good recovery following her operation and suffers no ill effects so we looked forward to returning home to Spain. To mitigate the long drive we opted for taking the ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao (missing out the tiresome journey through France and the overnight hotels). This was the first occasion we have tried this route (although it is a favourite with most ex-pats) and whilst relaxing, it was a little boring. Although a car ferry the ship was quite large and attempted to give the impression of a “cruise liner” and I suppose that accounted for the large number of people who were taking a 3 day mini-cruise to Bilbao and back! It seemed senseless to me, all that way and expense to sit on a boat, then have only 2 hours in port, but they seemed to enjoy.

On Arrival at Bilbao, I set the Navigation system to take us home and was a little surprised that we went from Bilbao to Burgos, then to Madrid then on to Valencia (the surprise was that I expected to go via Zaragoza and Teruel to Valencia). Nonetheless, it was a pleasant (if long) journey and allowed us to see yet another aspect of the Spanish countryside.

We arrived back home and were delighted to find that the automatic watering system had performed as programmed and that all of our plants were in good order. Our Poinsettia tree (yes tree) has given us a second flowering, normally after the xmas flowering, I cut the tree down to the main trunk with a few branches but omitted to do so this year so we were delighted to have a second showing. The weather however was uncommonly grey for June and this was a pattern for a couple of weeks, grey skies but warm. The Sahara visited us twice, in the form of short showers, and deposited red sand all over the terraces and pool (as you would expect this normally took place just after cleaning).

My sister and husband (Edie & Calum) arrived for a week with us, they tried for 8 days but realised on their way to the airport they were a day too early. (Now this is just a mistake, but when you learn that they left their home at 3am and were halfway to Glasgow airport before realising their error, it loses it’s sense of fun, for them anyway). Nevertheless they arrived the next day somewhat embarrassed and dog tired. We had a great week together, the weather was very warm and sunny and Edie got a nice tan whilst Calum got his usual “red”. We treated them to a night out at a restaurant, which also puts on a spectacular cabaret, of Flamenco ballet (not that poofy stuff this was really good). I’m sure they will have good memories of that night. As usual we had lots of dining out and some dining in, not to mention some boozy nights!

I had to have our car MOT’d this June and took it to the ITV station where it passed with no problem, although I have a suspicion that it was a little superficial. (ITV is the equivalent to MOT in Spain). Unlike in the UK, local garages cannot carry out these inspections, as they have to be done in specific government stations. Cars in Spain need to be MOT’d after 4 years old and then every 2 years thereafter until 10 years old, when it then becomes an annual event. At 10 years old, the government offers financial incentives for you to change the car for a new one. (I don’t think we’ll wait that long)!

A new traffic law has been introduced as of the 1^st July; similar to the UK we’re adopting the “points system” for motoring offences. The slight difference is that here we are awarded 12 points to start with (in the UK I seem to remember it counts up rather than down). As a bonus for good driving, if after 3 years of no infractions, we get another 2 points added and again after another 3 years we get another point to a maximum of 15. I think it rather strange that we get more points, if we are good drivers, we shouldn’t need them! Anyway, as you would expect there is a list which gives the penalty points which will be deducted for each offence. Interestingly, point deduction for “professionals” (people who rely on driving as part of their job) only get 50% of the deduction for speeding and drink driving offences. (Worth noting that drink driving is banded depending on the amount of alcohol in the blood). I was surprised to see that a penalty of 4 points will be incurred if the driver of a vehicle carries out any manoeuvre, which is deemed to put cyclists in danger! In Spain they seem to have as much right to the road as any other user and when bunches of them are cycling they do not go into single file so you can often find yourself dropping to 20kmp behind them.

I notice on the telly that the UK is enjoying a nice spell of hot weather so I hope you are all getting a nice tan.

That’s all for this month Why not join my friend Paul and leave a comment, just click on the word comment and then in no more than 5000 words tell me what you think.