Wow, the week has gone quickly! And it's been pretty full on this week for sure in mostly good ways........
Weather-wise, and to borrow a catch phrase from the wonderful character played by Mark Williams in The Fast Show who emerges sporadically from his shed to inform a waiting world about his diet or clothing, "this week I 'ave mostly been wearing a raincoat" - yes, it's still wet here although due to warm up later this week finally! I certainly won't be getting in our pool until the water is a LOT warmer so the sun needs to hurry up and get his hat on 🌞 But yesterday on our dog walk the valley looked like this:
so despite the clouds it is still wondrously beautiful.
My Spanish classes are going well although the level keeps me well on my toes but that's a good thing. I've also practised my drawing as my oil painting course is later this month and I need to keep the artistic juices flowing!
Thursday was a busy day as after my Spanish lesson it was off to the language academy in Benidoleig to run a couple of classes there and meet some of the students. If things go to plan I should be teaching there in the autumn 🤞 It was great to be back in the classroom so soon and the students were lovely. And after the lessons the academy was hosting a wine tasting so Ian joined me there for that. The whole wine tasting was in Spanish but it was a brilliant opportunity for me to do a more or less running translation for Ian so great practice. Two of the wines were vegan but as the wine man said, all wines are actually vegan it's just that to get the official vegan approval (and of course to charge more for the wine!) the vines can't even be fertilised by manure from eg. donkeys/mules who also can't be used to plough the area either; in other words a totally eco-friendly vineyard cannot meet official standards to be labelled 'vegan' without absolutely no animal involvement whatsoever. Anyway a great time was had by all 🍷 cheers!
Work on the villa continues unabated and Ian is currently building the walk through wardrobes. In any event he has grafted all week tirelessly (well maybe a bit tired on occasion 😜) and so far this:
has become this:
Whilst Ian has been grafting indoors, I've been working on the outside, starting with the rockery area. To say it had become overgrown would be understating it slightly. As well as lots of weeds, some invasive plants had....well....invaded and were strangling other plants. The lower part of the rockery has now gone from this:
to this:
I've put in a few Mediterranean flowering rockery species and supplemented with a few of the succulents and cacti we brought over from Mallorca. And we have bought what I really REALLY wanted and which you can see in the picture - a wonderful Buddha who now sits serenely gazing towards the villa. The upper part of the rockery still has to be tackled not to mention all the other areas of the garden where we have the same problem of invasive species which have taken over in most areas. But....Rome wasn't built in a day!
On Friday we took a bit of time off form work on the villa to go to Javea, sadly not to explore the beautiful old town but to go to Specsavers which is near the beach area. Ian definitely needed some new glasses as he'd lost two pairs in the sea in Mallorca and the pair he was using fell off every time he leaned forward 😂 and I thought I'd have my eyes tested too as I was overdue as well. Luckily I didn't need any new ones and Ian has ordered the classic 2 for 1 Specsavers offer which should be ready some time this week. Before our appointments we took a quick walk in the beach area and then had a nice bocadillo lunch in a backstreet bar. Mind you, even on our 'day off' we went to Javea via a wood merchants and builders centre - as you do.
On Saturday it was a Bank Holiday here (1 May) as in Spain they have this BH on the day itself rather than the nearest Monday as in the UK. The only things that can open are garden centres so we decided to visit the little local one which everyone has recommended. Long story short, another car backed into the front right wing of ours 😱 Cue one very embarrassed - and thankfully very honest - local who kept apologising whilst we filled in the copious paperwork involved here in Spain, everything in duplicate. As we hadn't even been in our car at the time it was very frustrating not the least because we'd had no real problems to the car kept on the street with all the hurly burly that entails in Mallorca, but we park in a small garden centre here and......boom! Ah well. Insurance is handling it and obviously his will be paying but we'll still be without ours while it's fixed. Such is life. On a happier note, that evening we went out for dinner with some lovely nearby neighbours who are also involved with Valley FM radio which I will be presenting on soon. We ate the most delicious paella and had a wonderful evening. We brought wine from Buxtet vineyard in Mallorca which we visited a few months ago and which went down very well and quite quickly 😂 well it was important to drown our sorrows don't you think? 😳
And finally today we changed our SIP cards (NHS cards) over from the Balearics to the Marina Alta area which means that at last we are on the list for our Covid jabs here (with impeccable timing we were called up for ours in Mallorca just after we left). We really hope we get the call/text soon - it'll feel like the beginning of the end so to speak.
Lots of things lined up for this week including a music quiz, afternoon tea, doggy haircuts and an Elvis tribute act. Ain't life grand 😎
Stay safe and hasta la próxima semana!
No comments:
Post a Comment