At the dancing class last night we were discussing having a small Christmas party on the 18th. We are going to all take some food and booze. Following the success of Elayne and I teaching the dance ‘Strip the Willow’ at Menston St Josephs church dance night in February, we are going to teach the whole class this dance as a party piece (and if time and if wanted we can do The Gay Gordon’s). The class has Spanish and English people, none of whom know the dance. It will make a real change from the Argentinean tango etc that we have been doing for some time now.
Tonight we have a Christmas Party down at Lentisco’s starting at about eight and going on till about two. There is a buffet supper and three ‘turns’ on, as well as JC doing his usual fabulous singing and talking to the audience, he’s really good. All for 7€ per head. We are looking forward to it.
It’s overcast and relatively mild today (11 degrees) and no wind. The barometer is at 1023 and falling (slowly I hope). We are seeing the architect on Friday to review the plans and the builders brother (Dario) is coming up tomorrow to mark out the orientation of the house base.
Tonight we will take pictures for the blog tomorrow, that’s if I am able to lift the mouse to do the blog tomorrow, after a late night and our first game of tennis in five months.
TTFN must get my dancing shoes polished.

We woke up disgracefully late this morning, one presumes we must have needed a long sleep. We shot off down to Albox to get dozens of stamps for the Xmas cards only to find that the shop where we intended to buy them, did not have any, in fact the English lady was a little short in telling me that ‘they weren‘t a post office‘. The shop is called The Word and sells UK books at outrageous prices together with stationary. We have bought stamps there before but now we will try to avoid buying anything there. We bought some supermarket odds and ends and put the car through the car wash (that’ll make it rain for sure, in fact it looks more like rain today than we have seen for a while). We got home about three and we are now having a nice hot hip bath in readiness for dancing tonight.
I tried to get the hebe to gravity feed this afternoon instead of having to have the pump on all the time (just a little half an hour job). As I worked amending the water end of the pipes, and disconnecting the pump up at the hebe in readiness to get it to flow by it’s self, Elayne went and turned on the water taps at the caravan and took away the water that should have acted to suck the water up out of the hebe to flow to the caravan (bad communications was blamed after the enquiry and court marshal !!!!!!!). When I had finished and returned to the caravan to test it we got a small dribble of water and then nothing (take two more pills and return to go without collecting £200). I had to go back and reverse all the pipes and pump again. Perhaps I will try again manana.

Today is our son Nick’s birthday. We wish him a very happy one.
It’s been a very lovely but cold day today, we slept well last night and really hope that we have some long period of rest before more winds come along. Even though we were scared witless by the wind and the battering of the caravan and portacabin, everything was intact when we ventured out to look for any damage. If you remember we tried to put some netting up on the windward side of the caravan. Well in the end the wind beat us and we had to take it all down. We even tried to retain the netting by putting a plank on the roof and then double hand sized boulders in front of the planking, all to no avail. The wind very nearly took me off the ladders on two occasions so we called it quits in fear of damaging the caravan roof.
Today it has been so nice that we have pottered about catching up on jobs that we left after the move to the lay-by.
Perhaps tomorrow, if it’s good out, we will go down and try to harvest some of the olives from our twelve trees. It will be interesting to see if we have any left after all the winds.

We had a reasonable night last night. We went to bed at one thirty in anticipation of the high winds that seem to start around that time on previous nights. If you go to bed at eleven it is not good to be woken at one thirty after a couple of hours sleep. Anyway it did blow but a little more moderate than on Tuesday and Wednesday. Today the wind (so far at 18-00hrs) has eased down to a brisk blow and a temperature of 4-7 degrees (2.7 overnight) . I have just come in after working all afternoon outside on the caravan new drainage system, and trying to modify the hebe to run as a gravity fed system instead of running on the pump and genny only. Anyway my water pipes sprang a leak and so I went back to the pump until I can repair the leak.
We are having one of Elayne’s specialities for tea/dinner tonight, chicken casserole with dumplings. I can smell it all simmering away as I write this blog.
We have started to explore the possibility of renting a place, for the building duration, instead of living here in the caravan and being exposed to this extreme weather. We don’t want to do this because money paid out in rental is lost money. However the last few nights have been quite overwhelming as far as we are concerned and the feeling of vulnerability, for us and all we own, in the really raw elements is not too funny. We can explore this angle without commitment and at the same time see if the elements calm down enough to let us stay here, which is what we want to do, but not at any price. This move in no way deviates from the original plan for this plot of land and our house. Had we been inside a house this week we would not have been too bothered by the elements.
We’ll see how it goes. The pictures today are entitled ‘Our place in the sun’ ;-))

We had another wakeful windy night. Again it was calmish when we went to bed but by one o’clock it was kicking up a fair old rumpus. We laid awake for perhaps an hour or so and then fell asleep. Perhaps if it goes on for many more nights we may not even wake up. The wind can arrive in thirty seconds and at the end it can be calm again in thirty seconds, it’s very strange when it stops because you can’t quite believe that it is not going to start again quite soon.
I’m sorry for harping on again about the weather but it does become a very dominant feature of our new life here on the mountains. It is fair to say that we appreciate that we will only have to live each of the bad days just once, based on the fact that in twelve months time we should be living in a bricks and mortar house and therefore the wind and rain will not make us feel quite as exposed as we do now. Also we appreciate that it is us that has put ourselves here so we are going to grin and bear it, (and have a little moan about it as well).
Hey guess what, I am writing this at ten o’clock in the morning because we do not have to go down to Taberno for a ‘you know what’. In fact we are going to luxuriate in a hot bath (as we know it, two pans and one kettle full of hot water in a huge bowl in the bottom of the shower). Now that’s what you call real pleasure.
BTW We have a central heating/hot water boiler in the caravan. Sadly it does not work because it needs a gas valve. The C/H man has tried to buy a new part from the manufacturers in the UK, but because he is not UK Corgi registered the manufacturer will not sell him the part. The boiler is a Worcester/Bosh 24CDI-OSP-LPG- Combi Boiler. Serial No 77161300168650654685 Model AOI.
If, per chance, anyone out there has any connections with the central heating/plumbing trade and/or Worcester Heating Systems, England and could get this part for us we would be eternally grateful (all costs paid of course). We have a complete picture of the whole unit with all the spec details if this would help (pictures now included anyway, just in case, it's the grey bit on the right, I think. PF at 16.50hrs Spanish time). We have already paid an ebayer (but bought outside ebay) £65 but the part never showed up. He swears that he has sent it and he has my £65, so I’m a bit stumped as to be able to go and bash him from here. There you go, a little advert and plea for help if anyone possibly can. Just imagine, all this luxury that we have gained so far, and hot water, shower and central heating as well. We would be swooning with delight.
We are now going to have breakfast and then get dressed up warm and go for a walk down the camino where we have not been before.
Take care and have a nice weekend folks. Please try to make comments on the blog as well as keeping in touch in the usual manner.

We slept well last night TG. It is still windy but not as bad as Tuesday night, we keep hearing it calm down for a while and then start up again with a vengeance.We parked in the square in Taberno this morning and walked up to the panderia for a roll for lunch. Then we spent lots and loads of dosh in the top DIY place and then did the same in the bottom DIY place. Both places are owned by Fran Mari. The top shop sells tools and hardware and the bottom place is a builders merchants. We bought loads of netting for the caravan and some for collecting our olives, should we ever get to a stage of not needing to fight with nature for a spell. We now have running water from the hebe, although it’s a bit mucky just yet, and can at long last use the loo via the potho (rather than the porta-potti). It’s all quite exciting. Elayne said this afternoon that we came to Spain for a life of sun and luxury, and look at us getting excited over having running water and a flushing loo.This afternoon we tried to put netting up all along the side of the caravan and then over and along the portacabin and down to the camino. We thought that it might break the wind a little and stop any stones being thrown up by passing cars. However nature intervened, and as we tried to tighten it all up, it blew half of it downagain. On top of the caravan it is very windy indeed and takes the breath out of you as you struggle with planks and stones. We have given up on it until we have more peaceful weather.
We had another glorious sunset tonight, as we did on Tuesday. We hope that we don’t have a similar night.
See pictures of a flying saucer over the Sierra De Baza.
Please keep sending comments, bad or good, so that I know we are not alone!!!

Would you believe that after we had enjoyed the lovely sun yesterday, that it would be followed by a terrifying night.
We turned in at about half past eleven last night, quite a lovely night as I turned the ‘genny’ off. We read for a while and then went to sleep. By half past twelve we were awoken by the wind getting up. By one o’clock the wind was so strong and we were so terrified that we got dressed and put on our fleeces, put the cats in their car boxes, got in the car and drove down into Taberno. We parked up near the Hostel, put the heater on, left the engine running and slept fitfully, warm but uncomfortably until five o’clock. We then decided that, because we wanted to go to the loo and so did the cats, that we would drive back upto site. We said that if the caravan was still standing and in one piece when we got back then we would tough the rest of the night out in the caravan. I was not really too confident in finding the caravan and portacabin where we had left them at one o’clock. The wind had not abated at all during the night. When we got up to leave the van we were very conscious that, as yet, we have not put the ground ties back on the caravan and the portacabin. The headboard of our bed was bouncing and buffeting along with the whole end wall of the caravan that the head of the bed rests against, it was like being in a very noisy train except that it was dark and we were horizontal in a moving bed. It was all really very frightening.
When we drove back over the hill near the hebe I certainly was ready for the worst possible scenario, but we actually found that both the caravan and the portacabin had weathered the gales well, and a lot better than us, with only one or two items outside being knocked over, like the plants and a petrol can.
We said well, if the vans can take all of that, and it was much worse than the high winds the other week, then we would stay. We lit the gas fire and made some tea and then wrapped ourselves in a blanket in the arm chairs in front of the fire in the dark. We slept a little but the wind was still as strong as before, right upto daylight and sun-up at quarter past eight.
Feeling tired but very relieved that it was daylight at last we got ready, again with the cats, and went down to Taberno in hope of a strong cup of coffee (and to use the ablutions facilities). Guess what, it was blooming well shut, because of the national holiday, what a bugger. We drove back to site and cooked a good breakfast instead.
Since sunrise (it is now ten o’clock) it has been glorious sunshine but the wind is still very strong and is only just starting to back off a little.
Both Elayne and I were shaken by the severity of the wind and the speed that it built into a full blown gale, last night. When it finally dies guess who will be out putting the ground anchors back in, sod the hebe and the potho for today they can wait till manana!!
Sorry no pictures yet.

We’ve arrived (with mixed feelings) down on the lay-by.
Yesterday Juan arrived at ten thirty and him and his brother worked like the devil until about one o’clock. You can see from the pictures that it was a very big struggle. We actually thought that the caravan was not going to make it up the drive and then when it was on the lay-by one wheel sunk into some loose edge soil and I thought that we were going to see it tip down over the banking.
Elayne joyously said ‘after the caravan move, the portacabin will be easy’, wrong! The tyres were soft on the portacabin and the additional couple of tonnes weight of our belongings nearly made it too heavy. Juan was nearly ready for giving up on it. However he persevered and we finally had a ‘soft landing’ down on the lay-by. We then spent the rest of the day un-sticking all the cupboard doors and putting back in place all the items that we need and had packed away for the move.
Last night we were so tired, but we both felt that it would do us good to do something other than worry about the move, so we went down to dance class, although we had warned them that we might not turn up. It did us good, and especially the drink or two afterwards.
Today we have been out in Albox with Bob (him that is younger than me ;-( and Janet, and then spent a lovely hour or so with them having tapas and a drink in the glorious warm (low twenties) sunshine. We stripped off our jumpers, it was so warm.
Back at base this afternoon we continued connecting service things back up. I will have the water from the hebe on by tomorrow and the potho connected up by Thursday.
It is a national holiday here tomorrow and a Saints day on Friday, so we are assuming that it will be a really long week end here with no shops open.

It’s strange to tell but, after all my bragging about the ‘sea defences’ (around the portacabin and caravan) not being tested in earnest, it actually rained last night just after we got to bed. It came down really heavy but only lasted for perhaps half an hour. Elayne said that she thought that she heard thunder in the distance.
It was strange how we became aware of it starting. When I turned the ‘genny’ (yes, in my now world famous night attire, thank you Malcolm) off I thought that I saw rain reflected in my headlight, it was so light that it seemed like snow, so I stood a while and held my hand out to see if I could feel it. Anyway I couldn’t, but just as we were finishing reading we heard what I thought was one of the cats clawing the carpet in the lounge, or it could have been something scratching around outside. After a while Elayne said that it sounded like rain dropping onto a bucket. As this was a far better explanation than mine (and bearing in mind that I’m ‘mutt and Jeff’ anyway) I drifted off to sleep to be woken almost immediately by the sound of really heavy pounding on the roof, what a racket. Because of the ‘sea defences’ I was not over concerned by the rain this time and after a short time we both drifted off to sleep.
On investigation this morning the defences had worked extremely well and although some small amount of water had gone under the caravan, most of it went either round each side of the van or amassed in a puddle behind the defences and in the car park. Ironically I then spent the rest of the morning taking down these barriers in readiness for the move to the lay-by tomorrow.
We both got stuck into pulling everything down inside the portacabin and putting it on the floor so that nothing can fall down when the cabin is moved . Whether Juan can actually still tow both the caravan and the portacabin with all of our stuff in, is entirely another matter. It’s very strange but both of us had felt that there was a enormous amount of work to be done in readiness for this move, but in actual fact after we had each spent about two hours sorting things out we were finished as far as we can go until first light tomorrow. Juan said that he would be up here around ten o’clock, but I think that we should read that as sometime before two, perhaps, maybe. So we are all set, with gritted teeth, to end our two and a half months occupation of this plot and this phase of our project. I’m not sure that I will get chance to write the blog tomorrow but normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.
This afternoon we have had glorious sunshine and we have walked down to see how the olives are getting on. They are ready right now for harvesting, so as soon as we are settled, across the way, we must go and buy some netting to lay under the trees and then start combing the branches to make the olives fall onto the netting. It will be interesting to see how many we manage to get. Watch this space.

Today has generally been bright outside with twenty degrees at the best moments and down to twelve as the sun went behind the clouds. We can now see rain clouds all around us but no rain here just yet.
This afternoon we have had our new friends Mags, Allen, Avril, and Chris (see pictures, names left to right) up on site at the caravan to show them where we will be building the house. They are a really nice group of people that we go dancing with on Mondays and Wednesdays. After a cup of tea we had a short game of boules. Despite Avril’s protestations that she ‘couldn’t play ball games‘, she did get nearest to the ‘jack’ on a few occasions. Beware of people who say they can’t play certain games and then go and win all your money off you ;-))))).
Yesterday we bought a microscope with an attachment so that you can view specimens on your computer monitor. It’s many years since I played with a microscope but we were never able then to look at and capture the images into a computer file. So, be warned, from now on you may see some peculiar pictures on the blog of creepy crawlies and their tentacles etc, etc, etc.
Tomorrow we start the work of preparing for the caravan move on Monday. Everything in the caravan and portacabin has to be brought down to floor level and then secured for the bumpy one hundred meter ride down to the lay-by. All my flood defences have to be taken down from around the caravan, which is a bit of a bummer because since the big rains that nearly took us away, we haven’t had any more significant rain to see if my defences were up to muster, (secretly though I’m glad that we never had to use them in anger, but it would have been nice to know if they could have withstood that sort of rain again).
Other picture: A flies hairy leg and (interesting to Whiteley friends) a section through a cotton fibre.

The almond farmers around us are now busy deep raking in between their almond trees by tractor. This deep raking disturbs the ground so that weeds do not grow and take up any moisture that the almond trees might have. We have thought about this and have decided, for now anyway, that we will leave the ground alone because it is easier to walk on and we are seeing some really lovely little plants growing (see pictures), after the rains, that deep raking would prevent from taking hold. We can change our mind later, if I can talk Elayne into letting me buy her a sexy red little tractor for Christmas, or we can pay the farmer next door to come and do it for us.
As we were shopping at Heurcal Overa this morning we called in to the municipal sports centre again. It was open this time but hardly anyone was using it. There are three very presentable outdoor tennis courts with not a soul playing. If it is like this on a Friday then there is hope that it will be like-wise deserted if we choose to play on Wednesday morning. I bet I’ll be stiff as a crutch on the first few weekly sessions after a four month lay off. The weather is good for playing, cool and cloudy like today and so as long as it does not actually rain we should be able to play through winter.
Whilst we were in HO my cousin Barbara rang me from Torrevieja, her and Pete were concerned that with all the rain that they had had up there, were we OK? It was nice to be able tell her that we have not seen any serious rain for over three weeks and in fact the sun was shining whilst she was on the phone with me. It was nice of her to be concerned and ring, thanks Barbara and Pete.
When we got back here we phoned the Sky television people to see what we should do about moving over to the lay-by on Monday. We talked around the situation a little and concluded that, as they are busy on a Jacuzzi installation on Monday, they will prepare a seventy meter piece of cable that we can collect from the Albox shop and we can then connect it our selves. As for the internet aerial, I can disconnect and re-connect that myself and then swing the aerial around to the right direction without getting anyone up here. Clever clogs I hear you cry, it should be easy peasy, but can only be done after I have connected the water system upto the hebe and then had a long think about connecting the potho up to the toilet. On top of this we are out on Monday night dancing, then we are out on Tuesday with Bob and Janet in Albox and then out on Wednesday dancing again. Never a dull moment in retirement eh??!!

W e had a slow and late start this morning, due to a late finish last night down in Taberno. I’m not too sure why, but it was a very good evening down there last night, although there was not many people there. Poor old John (JC entertainer) spent quite a long period of time singing on his own before any one started to dance. We are getting to know John quite well and we have noted that apart from being a really super singer and good comedian he has a very good memory, so that when he is chatting to the audience he brings out little things that he has learnt about different people like saying to us last night that it must be cold up at our caravan. When we talk to him, and he is not performing, he and his wife are really a very nice couple. We have bought tickets for the Christmas Party night at Lentisco’s on the 12th December. John has rounded up a few local turns and they have sold out of tickets (120 at €7 each, including a buffet supper). The profits from the evening are going to APSA (Animal Protection Society Albox). APSA is a very strong organisation and they do a lot of very good work to help all animals in this area.
Pictures: John, last night and sunrise on the Med this morning from the caravan.

The last day of November tomorrow, crikey!
When we had settled down at the caravan again last night after driving up to Murcia, to see Barbara and Pete and also organise the caravan move with Juan, we both commented on how really grotty it was to be woken up by the alarm clock at a quarter to eight yesterday morning. Because of the late and very quick sunrise here at about eight o’clock (it’s still dark at half past seven) we don’t surface much before nine these days. If we wake earlier than that it’s usually still dark and cold enough in the caravan, early morning, to roll over for another hour or so before venturing out.
We have had a relatively gentle day today after yesterday and in anticipation of our usual Wednesday evening dancing till twelve o’clock.
We had a forecast of thunder and lightening today but nothing, as yet, has materialised. We could do with a little rain to keep the dust down after the camino surface was disturbed the other day. The back of the car looks as though I have been on the Sahara Rally, and this after putting it through the car wash again this morning.
Pictures: The car wash and Olive collection point still going. We are also collecting pictures from Estate Agents windows for idears on our house, we liked the balcony and porch on this house.

Today we have been up to Murcia, Ikea. We went up there to meet my cousin Barbara and her husband Pete, they are lovely people. They have a holiday house in Torrevieja and come over from Taunton in Somerset for a month or so at a time as the mood takes them. We arranged to meet at a prominent place roughly half way and Ikea suited the bill in all respects. It is rather strange that the last time we saw them was in the Railway Hotel in Bradford about a year or so back. We spent a very pleasant couple of hours chatting with them as though we had met them last week.
Whilst we were travelling up to see them we called in to see Juan (the man we bought the caravan from) at Puerto Lumbreras. He will come up to Taberno to move the caravan and portacabin over to the lay-by on Monday. We are going to have a busy Sunday and Monday. There is a hundred and one things to move about and disconnect. It is amazing how much we have settled into where we are now. We really don’t want to move but as soon as we do we will have a flushing loo (using the potho) and water direct from the hebe, so that we do not have to visit Lentisco’s every morning and we don’t have to carry water up from the village to fill the water butt. On top of this of course we can then concentrate on getting our house built, so that will be exciting.
Pictures: Barbara and Pete with us at Ikea and the sunrise at 08.00hrs this morning (it’s been a cool day for travelling).

What a blooming commotion it’s been today.
As we were driving onto the tarmac we spotted Javier’s lorry going towards our caravan with more building materials on the back. I explained to him in, my very eloquent Spanish that we have ‘no contracto’ yet, but if he wishes to unload it all then that’s OK by me. He unloaded it all and even brought some more this afternoon. We had just returned from Taberno when we heard this loud rumbling further down the camino. We drove down to find that a ruddy great JCB type earth scraper was levelling the camino. We had been told that they do this from time to time and especially after heavy rain. Well we have not seen this happening on any other camino but hey ho. However the old man that was driving out in front to forewarn oncoming vehicles of the oncoming of this machine just happened to be the man we had seen on the next piece of land to ours. When they arrived at our border they stopped, got out of their respective vehicles and spent a long time gesticulating towards his plot of land. The JCB chappie then spent a long time on his mobile phone. At first we thought that they were perhaps council spies and that we had been rumbled already. After a lot of walking around and more phone calls I went down to see what ‘was to do’. They showed me the blade of the scraper on this machine and clearly it was worn right down to it’s rivets. Later a lorry arrives with a compressor and a new blade (it took two men to lift the blade for each half of the machine. After about an hour the lorry withdrew and the JCB driver moved onto the next door piece of land and proceeded to clear some scrub area. I walked down just in time to see them straying over into our plot. When they saw me coming down again they reversed up and got back onto the proper boundary course. I don’t suspect any ill intent with this huge machine but it’s just as well that we were here. They scraped quite a swath of scrub before lunch time and then back to work on the Camino. I think that a ‘quick cash in back pocket job on the side’ made them happen to scrape this camino today. It will be interesting to see if any other Camino’s get a wash and scrape up. I suspect that the owner of the land next door will probably plant more almonds and claim a huge EU subsidy for land reclamation.
Life is peaceful again but it makes us realise what we are in for when the building work starts on the house.

Firstly, today, we went down to the Heurcal Overa municipal sports centre to ‘sus’ out the tennis facilities. There are three outside courts as far as we can see. Guess what, on Sunday when the whole family can enjoy sport together, the municipal sports centre is closed, how Spanish is that then? We took a note of the opening times for future reference. A few people that we already know have said that they would come along and have a game if I was to set it up, so I will.
On the way back to Taberno we called in (by prior arrangement) to see Allen and Mags and then with them to see Chris and Avril next door (without prior arrangement). Both of their houses are really nice with very clever design features inside and outside. They have worked incredibly hard in the very few years that they have been here. I’m going to have my work cut out trying to emulate anything as nice as either of these two places, now that Elayne has a scent for what she wants our place to be like.
We had just got back to the caravan and I noticed that Eric and Isobel from El Pinar had rung. I rang them and Eric said that he is taking his daughter back to Murcia airport and as there was some mail for us he would meet us at the Taberno exit of the motorway on his way back.
It‘s amazing how warm, friendly and hospitable people are in this area, to us newcomers. We do appreciate it very much and thank them all for their friendship.
Picrures. Sunrise today, plane trail in the sky yesterday, tennis courts through the bars and it's raining again over there but not over here. The promissed rain for this week end was three spots this afternoon.

We had our meeting with Chema, and Bob and Pam, last night and the outcome is that we are going to make immediate plans to start building the house straight away.
Straight away meaning:
When Chema has produced the building plans in two weeks time.
When we have made out an itinerary of events, concerning the house building program.
When we have also pinned the builder down to price, time scale, penalty clauses and we and the builder are satisfied with the whole building contract.
When we have made arrangements to move the caravan and the portacabin over to the lay-by. We will call in to see the caravan man when we go up to Murcia to meet my cousin Barbara on Tuesday.
It seems that we have full permission to have a house on this site, but the problem is that we do not have a house on the site right now. If someone came up on an inspection we might be in a sticky position trying then to build a house. If someone comes up to inspect after we have floor, walls and roof then they would expect the house to be there.
This, in the eyes of Chema, Bob and Pam, seems to be the only and very best of otherwise not very good options, such as re-applying to build, starting the whole process again. This could take up to two years with the chaos going on in the Albox planning department at the moment. Because they have up to two thousand illegal homes and developers to cope with right now, little us with our one house on 45000sq mtrs and already permission for a house to be there, will be very low profile.
Any way here we go at last.
We were sat on the patio at Lentisco’s this morning in the very pleasant sunshine and it suddenly dawned on me that all of the trees still have a very healthy coating of leaves. When we got back to the caravan I also saw that most of the almond trees still have a lot of leaves on them ,although they are starting to look a little bit ‘backendish’. We have worked this morning and even with the rain forecast we are sat up here, not being able to see very far, in the lovely sunshine. We understand that the UK (not sure where) is having very high winds and gales at the moment so we hope that all our family and many friends are safe and sound.

We went for supper to Bob and Janet’s house last night. What a super evening we had with them. They have renovated their house and made it into a wonderful and extensive cortijo. We had a lovely curry for supper, this being the very first one that we have had since leaving the UK, boy! did we enjoy it.
We had intended to try to learn, with them, how to play Spanish cards, but time just ran away with us and we realised that it was after one o’clock. We hope to have more opportunities to get to grips with the cards, with them, quite soon. See the photograph of the four of us, taken whilst I was still sober enough to work the camera.
Today we have been shopping to Albox and stocked back up on a few essentials (like American Ginger Ale and Sherry;-).
This afternoon, as it was such a nice afternoon, that after a Tapas etc, lunch at Lentisco’s, we came back to camp. I chopped some more wood and tidied up the ‘sea defences’ in readiness for forecasted rain this weekend. Elayne got to grips with some washing. We are meeting up with our architect this evening at seven. I think that we might be due for an early night for a change tonight.
PS: I have just eaten my first Dime bar (we have found a supplier at last) since we came out here.

Last night we slept very well. Not only were we very tired after our awful windy night on Tuesday, but we danced the Merengue, Machetero and Tango for an hour before retiring to Lentisco’s bar, where we drank and danced with a super crowd of people, to the excellent JC, until half past twelve and then sat talking until after one o’clock. When we finally rolled out of the bar they were putting the chairs on the tables for the clean up. That’s what you call a good basis for a good nights sleep. We surfaced at ten o’clock this morning with the cats hopping about cross legged because they wanted to go out.
It’s funny but I avoided being ‘burnt out’ by the time I was twenty five, but I’m not sure about reaching sixty five if we are having this much fun now.
In the pictures today, is one of the Taberno by-pass nearing completion. They have been building it for nearly three years because they kept running out of money. We feel very privileged to be witnessing the final part of it. It will reduce the traffic flow in Taberno from twelve cars an hour to about six, by diverting traffic coming up from the south, that wants to go to Albox in the south west, without it coming into the heart of the village. It all seems a bit over kill to me, but then I don’t live in the village.
When we arrived back at base today, we saw that the builder (one presumes it is our builder Javier) had deposited a pile of scaffold type girders neatly to one side of the caravan (see picture). Does he know something that we don’t or is he just parking them here for a while? We have not heard anything from anyone in regards to the planning and we only have a vague hope that Chema (architect) might give us some news if we see him tomorrow evening. I suppose it could be classed as progress really.