We finally did it! After 8 years of living here on the Costa Blanca we visited Benidorm. Penny had a desire to visit the “old Town” and we set off for the day early in October. We were surprised at the amount of people still on the beach (albeit the weather is still warm 26°). A tour of the “old town” was pleasant as there were many designer shops, markets and a sort of carnival atmosphere prevalent. Having said that, after a couple of hours we were ready to move on. Personally both Penny and I find Benidorm too commercialised and too “English” but I’m sure many love it, as can be seen from these photos.






























The cooler weather enabled me to get a little gardening done. I wanted to improve the soil in a couple of areas and headed off to the municipal composting site in Denia and bought 120 kilos of compost for the princely sum of €2.18. This has now been dug into a couple of beds in readiness for planting. We want to create a cascade of trailing geraniums over the top garage wall and the next step is to find the right colour (red) to bed in. I would like the variety called “Mexicana” which reminds me of the lovely hanging baskets seen throughout Germany.


The Valencia Region celebrates its fiesta on October 9, in commemoration of the entrance of King Jaime I in the city of Valencia, which took place in 1238. Unfortunately, the local weather station has sent out warnings of a severe “Gota Fria” (This rain, at this time of the year, is called The Gota Fria. This means The Cold Drop. It happens due to warm air still coming over from Africa hitting the cooler sea and causing rain clouds. These clouds cannot get over the mountain ranges so they drop their load on us)! We were a little lucky this year and although we experienced several heavy downpours no real damage was done. October the 12th is a National Fiesta (Spanish Day) throughout Spain. As it falls this year on a Sunday there will be little effect to us ex-pats, but have a thought for the poor Spaniards, who do not get a day in lieu when a fiesta falls on a Sunday.

The golf society held its Autumn Trophy this month and after the first round I was lying second (whoopee) however, on the second round |I had a nightmare of a round which put me out of the rankings. Oh well, it’s only six months till the Spring Trophy!!

Penny and I attended a seminar held by the British Consul and the Department of Works and Pensions held at the Javea Parador Hotel. Apparently there are over 1 million ex-pats living in Spain with over 70% living on the Costas. It was an informative talk but they did not want to discuss Penny’s pension!

We had our palm tree “dressed” again this year and I am sure you will agree it looks the better for it’s makeover.

















The guy who did the palm also came back with a couple of mates and painted all our railings, gate and Rejas (iron grills in front of a couple of windows), I was going to do this myself but it is an extremely boring job and they have done an excellent job albeit I had to dig into my pocket!

We have agreed with one of our neighbours below to have two of his pine trees removed (at our expense) but this will secure our view for the future. Although they are slower growing pine trees than the ones on our property, the time will come soon when our panoramic view will be obstructed. The work is planned for November so I’ll keep you posted.

On the last week of the month the weather turned to rain once again (I don’t think we got a true “gota fria” this year, so the remainder has been pouring down on us). I had to pump out the bottom of the lift shaft before any water could affect the sensors like last year. Although not cold, it is a bit miserable nonetheless.

Penny treated me to a wii, (well actually I think she wanted it for herself), this is a console, which connects to the TV, and you can play games and do various sports. We have added the wii board, which enables us to do exercises for fitness such as yoga, aerobics, balance and sports like skiing, jogging all in the comfort of our living room. On the setting up you have to carry out a few tests and the computer works out your BMI index and also your wii age (based on fitness level, age and weight). Needless to say the computer tells me I am OVERWEIGHT with a BMI of 26.45!!! Anyway, I hope to not only use the thing to exercise but might also learn how to do some other sports.

Ramblings in Retirement
September 2008

This month started with a continuation of good weather, temperatures in the mid 30s and clear blue skies. However, in the last week we experienced a deluge of rain over the week and kept us fairly housebound. Hopefully, this is the last of the serious rain (which is early this year) and with the temperatures dropping to the mid 20s it looks as we are set now for the oncoming autumn and winter.


I have been encouraged by the members of my Video Editing Group at the computer club who have risen to the challenge of producing a short summer video, which we will show to the club members in November. Currently there are 10 entries with more in the pipeline. I have posted one of my entries on the weblog for your entertainment.


September saw the majority of the holidaymakers go home and this makes for easier access to the town and getting about in general.

We had a very nice reunion with some friends from the UK who inspired us last year to go on our Indo-China Adventure. We all met up at the same restaurant on the same month as last year and recounted all our experiences. I still have to edit the massive amount of videotapes I have of the adventure and intend to do this over the next few months.

Stuart (our eldest son) and his family have moved into our home in Gildersome as he had sold his property and had not as yet found anything suitable. Looking at the current economic climate, his timing has been great and with house prices falling he should be able to get more for his money. It is with deep regret that we will be unable to return to the UK in October as planned (ha, ha) and will have to stick it out here instead.

We have had problems leaving the NHS, Penny requested the appropriate forms which never arrived, then called the office again and was told she would not get them as she was not drawing a pension! (A pension forecast done in year 2000 showed that any pension would be minimal, so we didn’t bother). Penny was told that she would have to wait until I reached retirement age before the forms could be sent. It just seems ludicrous that when we try to do the right thing, bureaucracy kicks in.

Watching TV recently has brought out my cynicism, for the following reasons:
· We see a nice advert for the latest model of car but the actual model shown in the ad is almost 50% more than the headline price.
· We see products, which have voice-overs with American actors.
· We apparently can smell “white diamonds.”
· We can still save with confidence with the Bradford and Bingley Building Society!

Never being technically minded I always find electronics difficult to comprehend. I am fearful of changing any of the DVD/Video/ Sky box connections, as it is most likely to cause me several hours of frustration to get things to work again! Stephen our youngest son bought me a new mobile phone which takes photos, and yes, it does do as described in the handbook. But.. nowhere can I find out how to download them to my PC. I then tried something called “bluetooth” and bought a USB dongle for the PC which after an hour or so I worked out how to download the photos (some of which had been there since February)! For those like me, “bluetooth” is a kind of infrared signal, which can link two pieces of equipment. So here are a couple of recovered photos.


























During the rainy period we went to Valencia for the day to do some shopping and bought a new rug for the lounge. It should be delivered towards the end of October but one never knows. I am always amazed just how beautiful Valencia is as a city, and made a mental note to go sightseeing/photographing (preferably on a Sunday when the shops are closed)!

Anyway that’s all for September………..