Blog Catch Up......

I havn't blogged for a couple of weeks, so I thought I would do a quick catch up.

We recently had some visitors from Macclesfield stay with us for 5 days.

 Kathy is one of Elaine's old school friends.  It's the second time they have visited us since we have been living in Mojacar ...

When we inherited the villa it was fully furnished - some of the furniture is good some of it is not so good!  A couple of the not-so-good pieces were the two sofas in the lounge ... they had woodworm!!

So we went shopping to a furniture store quite local and bought a couple of nice new reclining sofas. The store offers free delivery up to a 100km radius, plus they take the old ones away.

They were delivered on time and assembled by the two friendly chaps from the store ...  

We dined out a few times with our friends from Macclesfield ...

One of the highlights were paellas at a local beach bar 'Aku Aku'.

Yep they were good ...

We have had some fantastic weather the last couple of weeks with very clear skies.  I thought this shot turned out quite well ... I took it about midnight on maximum zoom and no tripod!  I do love the little Lumix cameras ...

As I said we have had some lovely clear days and the view from the villa is never boring ... 

This is our favourite spot to chill, out on the deck in the shade,  We could lay up on the roof but you would be a wrinkled prune in abut 15 mins, so we much prefer the shade with a breeze ...

I filled up at the local servo the other day.  They have an attendant fill the car with fuel, who showed me how to hang the filler off of a little catch on the filler flap!  We  have had the little Citroen nearly four years and I never realised that it had that feature!   Exciting stuff eh! 

And here are the sofas, not the prettiest trendy furniture around but oh-so- comfortable ...

Guaranteed to nod off within 10 mins of sitting down ...

Other Stuff

The motorhome is still in hospital having the gearbox leak fixed.  There is a new modified connector part which, when fitted, should stop the leak reoccurring.  It's only a small job but the part is coming in from Mercedes Benz Germany so there is a bit of a hold up.  Hopefully it will be ready tomorrow then we can head off on a road trip next week.  

We are also planning to head north back to the UK in early July.  According to the locals July and August are the worst two months down here ... extreme heat, as in the 40s, accompanied by thousands of tourists which isn't our idea of fun.  We had 40 degree days in Oz and they are bloody awful.

We will take a leisurely cruise through France before arriving in the UK late July or early August, of course all of this depends on Elaine's health at the time. 

We really hoped to got to the Fairport Convention Cropredy concert again in August but looking at the website it said absolutely no refunds under any circumstances.  As it was going to cost about £280 / $560AUD in tickets and a three day camping pass I thought it was too much of a risk.

Howevwer, I wrote them a letter explaining Elaine's illness and that we may have to drop out at short notice.  The reply started off with the 'so sorry to hear about your wife's illness' ...  and then went on to say ... 'no problem at all, we will give you a full refund right up to the day of the concert if needs be'.  They also sent me a 'comfort package' that gives us parking for the motorhome in a field tight next to the main arena!   What a lovely surprise - as they say it pays to ask.

Another reason for heading back to the UK is that my niece has once again qualified for the show jumping championships at Stoneleigh.  We thoroughly enjoyed the last couple of years, as it's also a great family catch up occasion ...

On the subject of Elaine's illness, she has been going through a bad stretch lately but thanks to the local GP is starting to feel a bit better.

She also had another day in hospital this week having more ascitic fluid drained off.  Once again the staff were fantastic, especially the lovely translator girl that accompanies us at the hospital and helps her through the day.

It's not cheap but so much easier than going back to the UK to be treated, plus afterwards she can relax in our comfy home to recuperate.

Almeria Mediterraneo Hospital