Ramblings in Retirement
June 2008

The first couple of weeks of June have been a washout! We’ve had rain on and off since the beginning of the month till the 13th. The reservoirs are full to overflowing and even the Spanish were moaning about the weather! It is so unusual. Thankfully, the sun came out and we are at last back to our usual hot sunny days with temperatures in the high 20s low 30s and the pool is a comfortable 26 degrees.

Here is a nice photo of my boss!

















I believe that in the UK prices of fuel and commodities has risen significantly over the past few months and the same applies here. Petrol/Diesel has shot up in price and a tank is now over €60! Not content with that, but in Spain, inflation is running at 4.5% and the euros strength against the British pound has meant a reduction in our income of around 20% versus the same time last year! It’s a hard life.

I have been finishing off some work in the garden and will now stop all projects as it is too hot to work (particularly mixing sand and cement). Our lift has proved to be a blessing as I have brought up umpteen bags of sand and cement for my work rather than hand-haul each bag, I now put 3 sacks on the sack barrow and zip up the lift. As mentioned in the May edition, the lift is now the main means of entry to the property and I have constructed a new pathway near the “woodland area” using some crazy paving flat stones, which I found on my neighbours property after the workmen had finished cladding their wall. (It’s not called pinching its’ “fruits of the mountain”). I am quite happy with the outcome.













The second project was to crazy pave the area underneath the Poinsettia tree at the rear of the villa, previously I had covered it with stone chips but when I removed the large hedge adjoining my neighbours property I used those chips to enlarge the drying area. I chose to crazy pave instead of replacing the stone chips, as the leaves from the Poinsettia tree are too difficult to get up from chips.


Finally (for the garden anyway) I have been carefully watering the newly planted lawn extension and it is coming along nicely, although currently a mixture of the course “Gramma” grass and a finer “Bermuda” grass, the courser (and more drought resistant) Gramma will take over fully by next year.


It would seem that the “Visitors have started as the town seems much busier and I have washed and polished Eke which will throughout the summer months, be my main mode of transport. We enjoyed several meals out with friends in the month and discovered a few new restaurants, it will be a challenge to keep the weight down but now the pool is warm we are both back to our daily swimming. We enjoyed a lovely barbeque on June 21st (summer solstice) at a dinner for the Golf Society, which was held up in the Jalon valley. The participants raised €370 for the school for children with special needs which is in Javea and open to all not just English speaking, a worthwhile cause.

Our son Stephen has bought a webcam and when connected to “skype” we have been having video conversations and being able to see our grandchildren is fantastic. I bought Penny a new webcam and set up “skype” on her laptop so she can use it without using my PC. In fact her webcam is better than mine as it incorporates a microphone so there is no need for additional paraphernalia.

We are going off for a mini holiday next week to visit our good friend Julio Vesperinas who lives in northern Italy (in the Dolomites) and will spend a few days with him, hopefully the weather will be fine too. We have also booked a hotel at Lake Garda for a bit of sightseeing before we return to Spain. Again, thanks to Ryanair for cheap flights making this possible. I’ll give fuller details in the July edition.

I've made a short video of our villa which is nice and colourful at this time of year, hope you enjoy it.


Meanwhile, hasta la vista