The very last day of a very interesting 2006.
It’s 10.30hrs just now, the barometer has risen steadily to 1037mb and it is 21 degrees out in the sunshine. After breakfast (we have it very late these days) we will pick more olives and prune more olive trees (what a life). This afternoon, after olive cropping we might have forty, or perhaps forty five, winks. This evening we will get scrubbed up in readiness for going out at eleven o’clock partying the new year in. If you are going to call us in the morning, please make it late ;-))))
It’s 16.00hrs and we have just arrived back at the caravan. We have collected probably only 5kg of olives from two trees, but most of our time has been spent in pruning. It’s quite heavy work involving climbing up into the tree and working from there with a hand pull saw and a bow saw and then clearing all the branches away. With the day being very warm anyway (25 degrees in the sun this afternoon) it was hot going. We have got all the olives that we are going to get this year (about 40kg in total). One more session of pruning on the very last tree and we can leave them alone until December next year, except for sitting under them with a good book in summer of course. By gum we are ready for a nice cup of tea when we get back.
Elayne and I would like to wish every single one of you, that has visited our blog during the last five months, a Very Happy and Peaceful 2007. Writing this blog has become a habit (this is the 155th blog that we have written) that is very enjoyable especially in the knowledge that our family and friends throughout the world (yes it really is throughout the world) read about our day to day adventures. It makes us both feel a lot less isolated from you all. Don’t forget, if you get half a chance to come over here during 2007, we‘d love to see you, just give us a ring or email us and we will discuss it with you.
The pictures are just to prove that it really is a fabulous sunny day (you may have thought that I was kidding, would I ?????).
BTW I have taken the moderation element off the blog so when you make a comment it will appear straight away. However anyone can now comment openly so if there is interfearance from spammers I might have to revert. Let me know your views about this if you have any.

Whilst studying the foundation plans this morning and comparing them with the dig out, I found that the builder had missed out one of the foundation trenches. It’s a good job that I am an ex-papermaker and know what I am doing concerning building a house ????dhhh??? Anyway we phoned down to Bob and Pam, who were meeting Dario the builder today anyway, and they said that they would talk to him about it.
Elayne and I, (and Saffy and Pip) then went off olive pruning and picking again. The two trees that we did today were barren for all intents and purposes. They both had a huge amount of internal growth in them but very little fruit on them. We didn’t even make 1kg today although we have both been working on them for over four hours.
Whilst we were working on the trees, Bob, Pam and Dario arrived on site to see ‘the missing trench’. After much ‘oo-ing and ah-ing’ they said that they would call the JCB back up and do the trench on Tuesday at the same time as they do the ‘steel work’. Fine by me but how many times have they built foundations and not done all the trenches properly.?
This, of course, is the distinct advantage of living up on site where the action is. Had we gone back to the UK for three months and come back again on an inspection/ progress visit, which a lot of ‘place in the sunners’ do, we wouldn’t have been able to see that the building had less foundations than it should have.
Anyway today has been beautiful, sunny and warm again, perhaps even warmer than yesterday.
We are both tired out and glad that we can come home, to the caravan, and slob out for a few hours before we have a meal.
Unusually last night there was a film on BBC1 called ‘Mrs Henderson Presents’ staring Judy Dench, Bob Hoskins and Will Young. I don’t normally watch too many films but this one caught my eye so we both watched it.
It traces the story in 1932 about Mrs Henderson (Judy Dench), now in her seventies and after burying her husband, being persuaded by a friend to use some of her spare time and great wealth on a hobby, to take her mind off her husbands’ death. She is also still mourning the loss of her son in the first world war at the age of 21.
She dwells on this but eventually buys the derelict Windmill Theatre in London and has it done up again. She scouts around for a manager and eventually employs Mr Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins). They are like chalk and cheese and fight like hell but each holds a respect for the other that transcends the arguments. VVD decides to open the theatre and have nonstop reviews, no other theatre had ever done this before. They are successful for a while until all the other London theatres start to copy them and slowly they subside and start to lose money in a big way. At a very heated meeting between VVD and Mrs H, Mrs H all of a sudden says that they should put on nude review shows to gain back the public. VVD is mortified and says that they will not get this past the very strict theatre censor. Mrs H happens to know the censor, an old friend, and has him come round to tea in a specially erected tent in Green Park, in front of Buckingham Palace. Mrs H wines and dines the censor and eventually she broaches the subject of a nude review with actual naked ladies on stage. The censor blows his top but eventually they draw a comparison between a nude painting and a nude lady on stage. The censor says that providing that the nude ladies do not move at all, he will give them a certificate to open.
This then is how the Windmill Theatre started putting on nude reviews before the war.
When the war starts a lot of the audience is made up of forces lads home on leave. The censor changes and the new censor tries to close them down. Mrs H is furious and in public outside the theatre, tells the censor to ‘F off‘. They continue with the shows right through the London blitz and become famous for being the theatre that never closes. Mrs H dies in 1944 and leaves the theatre to VVD. The theatre still did these reviews right up until the sixtees, I think. Sheila Van Damm took over the show when her father died in 1960 but closed the theatre in 1964. Sheila died in London in 1987. Sorry to go on but this is relevant to me on two fronts. One being that I used to frequent the Lyric Tavern (right across the street from the Windmill theatre) quite a lot when I was in the forces in London,(not during the war, in case you were thinking) I had an eye for one of the barmaids. On the wall of the theatre is a role of honour naming all the postwar stars who have appeared at the Windmill, and who then went on to become famous in show business. Harry Secombe, Peggy Mount, Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Tommy Handley, Eric Sykes, Hattie Jaques, Michael Bentine, Tommy Cooper and even, I think, Bruce Forsyth etc . Each of these stars tells many funny tales, in their books, of appearing at the Windmill and having a hard time because the audience only went there to see the nude girls and wanted nothing to do with ‘the warm up acts‘. One of them said that as soon as anyone left one of the front seats, there would be a mad scramble of men climbing over the seats trying to get nearer to the stage and the nude girls.
On the second front, for a long while and a long time ago I belonged to an internet email group of people from all around the world called The Devs. One lovely lady called Trisha Jackson, who was part of this group, lived in Australia. She was great fun to correspond with. She told us that in her youth she used to go rally driving with the famous lady racing driver Sheila Van Damm (Vivian’s daughter). This was in the days when Pat Moss (Stirling’s sister) was motor racing and horse show jumping. She told of some hairy moments being a friend and passenger with Sheila.
So there you are, an item not about Spain (thank goodness I hear you cry). If any of the information above is slightly inaccurate I am sorry, it was after all a long, long time ago.

The JCB dug another potho, for the house, and has now left the site until after the foundations are down. We are not sure when ‘the steels’ will arrive, one presumes either tomorrow or Tuesday (on the assumption that perhaps no work will take place on Monday, New Years Day). We have had it confirmed by Dario that the concrete will arrive on Wednesday.
Elayne, the cats and me have been down pruning and harvesting our fifth olive tree. The poor thing was so overgrown inside that we were not surprised to collect only about 2kg from it. I have given it a good talking too after it’s hair cut so perhaps next year it will perform better.
Today has been fabulous with sun all day with temperatures in the sun of about 18 degrees. I have been working in shirtsleeves it was so delightful. In the shade it was a cool 12 degrees.
It’s now 15.30hrs and we are going to get scrubbed up and go shopping to try to avoid yet another expected food fest rugby match in the shops tomorrow.
Pictures today are more of the dig out and another of our new pet ‘rock of Taberno’. We could print some brochures and have coach parties coming to see it at €10 per head (tea and coffee extra).

Yet another day of ‘trench warfare‘. The JCB has been at full tilt from 09-45hr until 13.00hrs. The foundation trenches are finished ready for ‘the steels’ (the network mesh of steel rods that make the reinforcement of the foundations ‘more earthquake resistant‘). It’s all very impressive, the foundations are 600mm deep onto almost solid bedrock. Once the steels and the cement are laid (next week) and set, walls are built up all around the foundations to 200mm minimum (they find the level at this point so some of these walls can be another +600mm, on top of the foundation). This open box, that is the inside of these walls, is then filled to the top with gravel and firmed down. A waterproof membrane is then laid on top of the gravel and more cement is poured on the membrane thus making the concrete floor of the house. Upright steels are jutting through the concrete floor that make the square columns that will support the ceiling (another 200mm of concrete). The roof pitch is also concrete although we are having an imitation pitch roof, the inside of which will be our 113 sq mtrs solarium.
I’m sure that this will not make much sense just yet but I will back it all up with pictures as we go along so you can watch the progress.
This afternoon I employed the JCB and driver to further dig out and level what will be the ‘front of house parking area’ and what in the end will be the garage or car port area. I always said that I wanted a single car drive, leading to a three car forecourt, leading to a two car garage, or something of the kind. Anyway Francisco spent over three hours doing this work and must have shifted in excess of ten tonnes of solid earth and huge, and I mean huge, stones. One stone eventually came out after half an hours digging (see picture) and is taller than me. We have put it to one side as a very, very big ‘talking point of interest’, it’s almost our own mountain, we might even get snow on the top of it.
Talking of snow, there is enough in the Sierra Nevada for the ski resort to be open!!

Three of us played tennis this morning at 11am (Allen, Elayne and Me). We had a good session in the warm sun ( I took my legs off because it was so warm. It’s the first time my legs have been exposed since October) I can already see that Allen is going to be a tough opponent in the near future (This despite his assurances that he has not played since his school days ;-). Elayne played some super two handed, point winning, shots as well. It was good to be out in the open having a run about in the sun.
Elayne and I went straight down to Albox, and the bank, after tennis. Good heavens!! The bank was empty and we got served straight away. We had a drink and some tapas in town then as we were walking back to the car we had a call from Pam to say that she had kindly left some mail for us at the caravan and that she had seen a JCB on site. She told us that the foundation concrete wagon is already booked for next Wednesday 3-1-2007 so all the foundations must be completely dug and correct before then.
When we got back to base we did indeed have a JCB on site. It was orange and in somnolent mode. Not a sign of anyone anywhere. But within an hour we had JCB driver Francisco here, and then a car arrived with Dario’s mates.
It’s now 15-50hrs and it’s all hell and no notion up there at the moment, long may it continue.
Pictures: JCB to prove the point. Plus yesterdays olives, I wonder how many bottles of pickled olives these will make?

26-12-2006 Boxing Day

We have done many varied things, over the years, on boxing day. But this is the very first time that we have spent a big proportion of the day outside picking olives in the warm sunshine. It’s a glorious occupation in total peace and tranquillity. We were going to go down to the olive trees yesterday, but somehow we never quite made it. Today we picked the crop from the fifth out of twelve trees (since we started). We knew that it was well endowed, but I recon that just this one tree has given us another fifteen to twenty kg of olives. This is the amount that we collected on all of the first four trees. I think that this was probably the tree with the most fruit on it out of all of them, so the rest should not take too long to harvest. We spent about three and a half hours down there today.
No signs of anything remotely looking like a JCB today, not even anything yellow has passed us today, hey ho.
Elayne is watching ’White Christmas’ and after writing this blog I will have another cup of tea and perhaps another mince pie (they are Mr Kipling, very nice).
It is interesting that Jeff and Jane down in Benerraba commented on their blog on the fact that a lot of red poinsettias have been planted down there in the town centres. Jeff found it strange because he said that they die off within a few days of planting. We had noticed the same up here although I had not as yet observed that they had started to die off yet. If they do, it must be a special Christmas thing. I’ll try to remember to see them tomorrow when we go to play tennis and report back. It has to be said that they look very spectacular when they put them in.
Pictures: Our poinsettias, that we were given last week at Lidl. Saffy and Pip still enjoying life here in Spain. No JCB on site!!!

Christmas Day 25-12-2006

We had a really nice evening out with Allen and Mags and their friends last night. The meal was fine and the company was good.
This morning we woke late, had breakfast and made lots of phone calls to family and friends. Our niece in Australia has got engaged to be married so we will have a wedding to look forward to this year, not sure where. We saw Ivan and Ollie (and Steve and Debs) and opened their presents to us whilst online. We managed to show them all our building plans using the webcam. We later talked with Nick and Ag, up in Stirling, he has to be back in London for work on Wednesday morning..
From E:
We have had brilliant sunshine and blue skies this morning, not a bit seasonal!! More snow on the far mountains, it is getting nearer, but it looks really beautiful.
All quiet on the building front, maybe manana?!! Not too much on the television today, quite normal really. Looking forward to the S.C.D. Christmas show tonight, which is about as good as it gets.!!! even with all the Sky channels which we get now.
We hope that you all have a really wonderful Christmas Day, with lots of turkey and booze and presents.
Love from Him and Her indoors!!

There is snow on the near mountains, down to about 1700mtrs, this morning (see picture). It’s delightful sunshine, cold and the snow makes it seem very Swiss. We had a lovely peaceful night as well so we are feeling good. This afternoon, in a sheltered area, one could be out in shirtsleeves.
The JCB didn’t arrive yesterday or so far today, but he did say manana!!!
Elayne is going to give my hair a Christmas trim this morning, it’s only the third hair cut I have had since we left the UK.
We are then going to get scrubbed up and take a Christmas card and a bottle of wine over to our neighbouring two farmers. We have put in each card a slip of paper saying what we are doing with the house and wishing them etc, etc. We have translated it all into Spanish so we hope that they can read it all OK.
This evening we have been kindly invited to go out with Mags and Allen and their family and friends for a Christmas Eve meal at a place called The Willows restaurant over towards Albox. Another exciting new experience.
Ivan and Ollie together with thousands of other kids will be all hyped up today and then all the Mums will expect them to go to bed at normal time and go to sleep tonight, fat chance. I remember Christmas Eve night as being the very longest night of the year and being far too excited to sleep. It’s a big cruel trick that adults, who should know better, play on their children in revenge for what their own parents did to them.

Since 08-30hrs this morning we have expected to hear the rumbling of an approaching JCB. It has been raining steadily now for a few hours and looks set for the day. We hear that there is loads of horrible fog in the UK, do be careful if you have to go out driving.
It puts me in mind of when we used to drive down to Folkestone for Christmas and New Year. We did one journey down, from Rugby on Christmas Eve, after work and at night. All the way down the A1 we had really thick fog . Elayne and I were in one car and Steve, Debs and Nick were in their car. We overtook each other on the road constantly to give each other’s eyes a rest. We could only do about thirty miles per hour so we were on high alert all the time for someone coming into us from the back as well as at the front. After about four hours we had got down to the M11 and our eyes were really tired with all the searching. We had stopped much more than normal just for a rest, even though we were running very late. By the time we were on the M11 we anticipated that the fog would be all the way to Folkestone (not unusual). Half way down the M11 the fog all of a sudden lifted within seconds. It was a very odd sensation after all that time of searching for the kerbs and white lines. Of course we then put our foot down to try to make up some time. We arrived very late and tired on Christmas Eve saying, never again, but of course we did, many times more.
I suppose that the builder did not actually say what time they would come up with the JCB today, it must be just us being too eager once again. They will probably arrive after siesta at five or six o’clock, or maybe tomorrow.
BTW, we saw almond trees in blossom yesterday, down near the motorway, in a very sheltered area. Hey now, that’s really something to look forward to in February.
Pictures: Rainy day in Spain and one of the Christmas lights that we have put up in the caravan, just for some seasonal feeling.

We had a good evening down at Gill and Malcolm’s house last night. They have done their house out beautifully and with some superb features. We met some new people and had chance for a longer chat with the folks that we already knew.
We have been warned that any day prior to a Spanish holiday is total chaos in any supermarket. As we had to go back down to Mojacar this morning any way, we sprinted out of bed at eight o’clock just a dawn was arriving (strewth it was cold) by quarter past eight the sun was coming up and by half past eight it was full sunshine but crisp and cold out. More high mountain snow overnight.
We were at the supermarket at quarter past nine, before any onset of a rush. Don’t the well organised people, who shop this early, walk fast round the place as though they owned it. I nearly had several head on crashes with my trolley round blind corners. I was a wreck by the time we had finished.
Then we scooted off back to the bank to get the money that we should have collected yesterday. It was actually open when we got there. I inquired about why they were shut at two fifteen yesterday when they were supposed to stay open until two thirty. The young lady smiled sweetly and told us that they had gone to a Navidad (Christmas) party at head office down in Almeria, and therefore they had shut at two.
So that’s what they use my money for!!!
Anyway the story does not end there. We wanted €25000 in cash but ‘they’ had only sent €20000. They did say sorry, and even said that if we wanted the rest today we could go to the Garrucha branch and collect €2000 and then go to the Albox branch and collect the other €3000. We declined but asked them to ensure that the Albox branch had the remainder of the money in their branch by Tuesday (not a public holiday here). The round trip to Mojacar for the two days was just short of 300km. This is Spain.
On the way back to base, whilst we were in Taberno, we met the builder who was on his way to see Bob and Pam. He told them that the JCB will be up on site in the morning to start digging the foundations. We thought that we might have a sleep in tomorrow after a hectic week, no chance. But it is tremendous progress and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
We ended up getting two and a half litres of pure unrefined olive oil in exchange for our seventeen kg of olives. As already said we have only done four trees out of twelve so we must get on again soon.
The picture was taken by John at The Christmas Party at Lentisco's a week last Tuesday. Paco, the owner of Lentisco's looks on with concern expecting an accident. Gladly it never happened and we all drank our drinks from the proper glasses.

After another good night at Lentisco’s, last night, we awoke late and found that it was raining. I rang round and we aborted tennis (what a wimp I hear you say) and so it turned out to be. We set off to Heurcal Overa to shop anyway and by the time we got there it was dry warm and the sun was shining. I felt really guilty that we had called the tennis off, must be more brave next week.
From yesterday you will know that we arranged today to collect loads of dosh from the bank in Mojacar. I had asked the manager what time they close and he said two thirty, this is normal winter closing time for all banks. We were in Mojacar for one o’clock and because we had loads of time we shopped a little and had a meal, outside in the sun, at a café on the seafront. We went to the bank at two fifteen only to find the place shut and deserted. So we now have to go all the way back down there tomorrow (a round trip of 140km) Grrrrrrrr!!!! as well as still doing the other dozen things that we had planned to do already tomorrow and before Christmas. How did we find time to work as well?
The builders have been up again this afternoon, finishing off marking out the plot and the foundations, it looks enormous. He says that the JCB ‘might come manana’ to dig out the trenches.
There was snow cover on the high peaks this morning, the sun has now burnt it off but it looked spectacular.
Yet another party night tonight, what a life!

Windy (but not ferocious) night. For the first time the temperature dipped below freezing to -0.3. With the breeze this morning it feels about -5. We are taking our olives to Paco in a few minutes. We have phoned our bank in Mojacar and asked if we could withdraw a vast amount of money tomorrow in cash. This is for the first payment to the builder to kick start them as quickly as possible. They seem to want to work through the holidays so we won’t stop them. The payments are paid at various building stages and a big dollop is retained at the end until we are satisfied with the whole project. The amount of money that we retain is about 20% of the total and is certainly enough to make it very worth while for the builder to make sure that we are happy with everything. The whole shooting match is then guaranteed for ten years .
The internet was performing erratically yesterday so that when I had written the blog I couldn’t upload it, sorry. You can enjoy? two days in one.
Dancing and partying tonight for a change, then tennis, shopping and more partying tomorrow night. We’ll have to come back to the UK for a rest at this rate. We’ll need to be put in the ‘burnt out geriatric ward’, but at least we’ll have huge smiles on our faces!!!
PS Anyone remember these two young men? Ivan & Ollies latest school pictures, butter wouldn't melt ect, etc (not half). Fine and handsome young lads, just like Grandad. Thank you both very much for the picture and the wonderful Christmas card. Can we talk to you on Christmas morning? you can then show us your pressies, and we'll show you ours!!!
PS 16.55hrs We have men on site, marking out the foundation area of the house ( very cold and sunny just now).

Tuesday 19-12-2006

It was a good party last night with a nice mix of English and Spanish folks there. We had a finger buffet with wine and beer. My party piece (teaching them to dance Strip the Willow) fell a bit flat because the CD Player that Fernando used last night could not get enough volume to enable all thirty, very noisy, or so people at the party to hear the tune. It turned out quite strange teaching the dance without music. It all broke up in total chaos with everyone killing them selves laughing and getting very tangled up (a bit like Menston Church dance, actually ;-)) After that we broke into the ‘hokey kokey’ and absolutely everyone joined in, it was very funny. Fernando then had us do some very long sessions of the Melange and the Machete, he did some crazy partner swapping moves and again every one got it very wrong. Just before we finished, we Brits sang ‘We wish you a Merry Christmas’ to our Spanish friends and they sang an equivalent short carol, which was very lovely and sweet. In all it was a good evening of dance, music and mixing with our host neighboroughs.
As we left the hostel (where the party took place)last night ,the wind was picking up quite a bit. We sat in silence as we drove home, dreading what strength it would be when we got back to the high ground and caravan. What sort of night may be in front of us? I quipped that sometimes it is windy down in Taberno but not too bad up on the campo. This was more to cheer me and Elayne up rather than anything else. When we got back home indeed the wind was not too bad and by the time we went to bed it was dying altogether. So we actually had a relieved, good and restful night.
This morning we set off for Roquetas De Mar (at the far side of Almeria, where there is a fabulous shopping plaza). This shopping centre was the brain child of the local mayor, who had it put up in very fast time as a show piece of his term of office. The debate now is, was it all constructed illegally. The opinion is yes it was constructed illegally, however because it employs over four thousand people and support troops, perhaps they should not knock it all down but connive to make it legal. We found this centre way back in February when we holiday’d in Roquetas. It is fabulous inside, see pictures. We have bought each other expensive Christmas presents, but I’m not allowed to tell you what they are until we open them on Christmas morning (now there’s a new twist).
On the way back to base we called in at El Pinar to have a pint and to see if there was any residual mail for us, there was so it was worth while. We drove down past Eric and Isobel’s house to see if all was OK ( because they are in England until mid January), pleased to tell that all seems to be well in order. We admired their new porch/room conversion and the new windows on the garage (making it into a very nice computer and work room). Have a happy Christmas, you two. We look forward to catching up with you both in the New Year.
Back at base once more we had a call from Bob and Pam (Lighthouse Properties), could we go down to talk to them about our requirements for the house. The builder is keen to proceed and we don’t want to stop him. It would seem that by the end of this week we could have the foot print orientation marked out and maybe by next week they may want to start digging out the footings for the foundations. We must keep rein on our excitement (of course) but it does look as though the build will perhaps/maybe start before the New Year. There will be a six month penalty clause in the contract for completion, this allowing for bad weather. We will see.
Also tonight we learned that Paco, who owns Lentisco’s, will buy our olives from us. We will take down our twelve kg (so far) tomorrow and see what we get in return. Evidently he has an olive press in Taberno.
Watch this space. The pace of life quickens.

This morning we did some ‘business’ on the internet and then we went back to olive picking, I recon that we have about fourteen kg of olives now. The next tree that we will do is dripping with fruit so it will take a good long afternoon to prune and pick the olives. I think that we have now completed four trees out of twelve.
We came back to have a late sandwich lunch and then have a chillout hour or so before the dance class Christmas Party. Last week we all put €10 each in the pot and Fernando (dance teacher) said that he would organise the food and drink. I thought that, rather than one or two folks doing all the work, we should each bring something and a bottle. Anyway the debate over this issue, with the Spanish there as well, was hilarious. It was going on so long that I tossed my €20 (for Elayne and I) on the table and went up to Lentisco’s for a pint and to get the drinks in for the others for when they also arrived.
We are taking our building plans down with us tonight to give to Pam and Bob so that they can draw up a contract that we can make and sign with the builder. The sooner the better as far as we are concerned.
We had a wind overnight but today has been wall to wall sunshine plus wind. The barometer has fallen from 1026 to 1019 since yesterday. The wind is boisterous at the moment, so it needn’t bother getting any stronger for us.

Another superb warm and sunny day. This morning we pored over the house plans with glee and then we took them up to the site and did an approximate mark out and orientation. We put markers where the house plinth will be and then faced it all with the front door facing NNW and the lounge and back of the house facing SSE (this is the natural orientation and will give us sunrise in our bedroom nearly all year and sunset in the French windows of the lounge.
This afternoon we have been olive picking again, it is a very satisfying occupation. Whilst we are picking and climbing the trees, we are pruning all the over growth inside the trees to allow light to get to the centre. It’s great fun being up in the trees. The cats come up into the trees, to say hola to me, and to show how intrepid they are now in wild Spain. They stay down there with us until it’s time to come back to the caravan for tea. It was nearly six o’clock when the light started going and it started to get chilly. We have now completed two trees and have pruned and started to pick on the third tree. I guestimate that we have about twelve kg of olives so far.
BTW our hands are lovely and soft with all the olive oil on them, last week we had hands like brickies.
Wasn’t it a shame that Emma Bunting went out of SCD last night, however I didn’t vote so I can’t complain. I just thought that she did a lot better than either of the remaining men, hey ho.

Wow what a lovely day. We have had wall to wall sunshine (18 degrees) nearly since half past eight this morning. We have started to our pick olives, from two of our twelve olive trees. What a wonderfully soothing occupation (providing your living does not depend on it) We were down the bottom, picking olives this afternoon and the only sound that we could here, other than our selves, was the very occasional aircraft going over. The poor old trees are in need of a good pruning, so as well as picking the olives I was trying to prune a little as well. It’s a long time since I have climbed right up into a tree, but this is the only way of getting the very top olives, this despite our telescopic pruning poles. Two down , ten to go.
This evening we had a meeting with Chema (our architect). He has given us two complete sets of drawings and building instructions for the house, from which we can now instruct our builder how we want our house to be built. We must of course look these plans over carefully and then have a meeting with the builder and draw up a contract with him to tie down the building price, what will be included and time scale of the build. We will endeavour to move this forward next week, if we can.
At first glance the drawings are really comprehensive, and just what we want our house to be like when it is finished.

Friday (again) 15-12-2006
Even though we had a night in last night it was still midnight before we turned ‘genny’ off and went to bed. We watched a program about building the new airport at Osaka (I think, any one know?) in Japan. They have created an island in the middle of the sea and built the airport on the island. It has been open for about twelve years and is now sinking into the undersea mud at an alarming rate and it is so successful that it already needs a second runway to compete with Tokyo and other airports. The logistics of creating this airport are amazing. They also ran a program about the success of the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet and the fact that the original design is now over thirty years old. They are still building them at the rate of one aircraft every eight days in the largest building in the world. There you go, I don’t watch much television but that’s what I like watching when I do, that and SC Dancing of course. DYKnow, we can’t get BBC2 very well or very often so we miss out on the mid week shows of ‘SCD It Takes Two‘.
We went down to Albox this morning to get provisioned up for the weekend. By the time we got back and had some soup and a roll it was three o’clock so we are slobbing out for the rest of the day.
There was a little rain overnight, just enough to lay in bed warm and cosy and listen to it gently falling on the caravan roof. It’s mild and overcast just now (about 10 degrees).
HANWE all.

We’re having a chill out day today, recovering from three nights out dancing as well as yesterday’s tennis. Both Elayne and I are a little stiff but we already looking forward to next week’s game. I can’t remember when we last had three consecutive nights out. So we had a late start today, did some house work and then had a nice breakfast. Now we have the rest of the day to do what we want.
We have been discussing with our friends what we are going to do about lighting and heating from now until the house is finished and then for in the house. We would really like to go solar but there seems to be no sense in it because you can never get enough energy for all of your needs, and all of the people that we have enquired from say that if they had the money and could get mains electricity they would choose that over solar power. We are now leaning towards having oil fired central heating and hot water, bottled gas for cooking and then enquiring about the installation costs of mains electricity. If we can afford and eventually get mains electricity it could be anything up to two years before one finally gets ‘online’. In the meantime we are thinking about buying a 5KVa diesel generator that runs on tractor diesel (cheaper than road vehicle diesel) and is reputed to be very quiet. This will do us for the remainder of the winter in the caravan and then for when we move over to the house. Our friends, that know about these things, say that even on Spanish mains electricity one can only get 5 to 5.5Kva from the mains, unless you pay a very high premium for a higher rated system, one presumes that you would have your own transformer for that.
We really did want to go solar, but the swell of opinion from people who have it, is not favourable. There are big running costs in buying new battery banks every few years as well as that the solar panels get less efficient with time.
We have considered wind turbines but these are intermittent and not very efficient (even in the UK they are now asking if wind turbines are worth the installation costs). We have also considered the ‘ground pump’ heat extraction system but the initial installation costs are far too expensive for us to be able to justify it.
It’s all very interesting. More party pictures, sorry about the red eye.

The Christmas ‘do’ last night turned out very different from what we were expecting. There were one hundred and fifty people sat at four enormous long tables and the evening was a ‘variety show with supper’. It was very good with entertainers from the Mojacar Playa giving their services free of charge in aid of the APSA (Animal Protection Society Albox). The show ran from about nine o’clock through till midnight and ended with some Christmas songs. By the end of the show everyone had pushed away their chairs and was dancing, in the small amount of available floor space, to the music and songs. The atmosphere was brilliant with every one determined to have a good night. Our group of friends took up twelve of the seats at one table and we pooled money to pay for the drinks. In all the whole evening, including all drinks, cost €15 each (£10), pretty good value we thought.
Even better value was our game of tennis this morning. I played with three women (See, I’ve arrived in heaven at last) Anne, Mags & Elayne. We played for two hours. It was cold for a start off but the sun was shining and we all got warmed up quickly. The courts are a very acceptable standard in nice surroundings. For the four of us for two hours it was just €5 (£3.30), that’s even cheaper than playing on Friday evenings at Pool at £10 each per year. It was really good to have a game again and we are all determined to play at eleven o’clock each Wednesday morning. We’ll have to call ourselves something like The Taberno & District Tennis club.
The pictures are of last night (well it’s hard to take pictures whilst playing tennis, but I’ll try next week).
More tango dancing tonight, we'll be as fit as butchers dogs if we keep this up much longer.