Boaters and Chihuahuas In Mojacar......

It's been pretty busy in our little paradise of Mojacar.

Elaine has a choice of a roof terrace with glorious 360 degree views and two huge decks with equally lovely views (and comfortable seating), but she prefers to sit on the doorstep to study Spanish (with her dog!) ...

Last week we had a visit from some Australian friends who were checking out the area for a possible winter escape.  They are living in the UK at the moment and the winter is killing them ...

Four more boaters arrived to escape the winter for a month or so and who can blame them?!!  The weather is fantastic, the food and wine are good and cheap and of course we are here!! 

We have been really welcomed into the Mojacar community and are doing our bit!!

We are looking after a couple of lovely little Chihuahuas until a forever home can be found for them. If you fancy a couple of adorable little dogs drop us a line, they must however go as a pair ...

They have settled in a treat.   We would be so tempted to have them ourselves but we still have a few things to sort out back in the UK, so we cannot commit ...

We have been taking the dogs on our prom walks.  One is fine and one very nervous but every day he is getting more confident ...

I took this pic a couple of weeks ago whilst we were on a prom walk.  The two little guys on the left hail from Holland, our two in the middle from Oz and the boy on the right is from Canada ...

We are still loving life in Mojacar.  It really feels that we belong here and so far everything has fallen into place just perfectly, especially getting the villa (touchwood and all that!).

In saying all this we will be heading back to the UK on 27th January to get the MOT on the van, get an MOT on Elaine, sort out our goods in storage (so they can be shipped to Spain) and to get the little Citroen C3 all fired up.  I will come and pick the C3 up at a later date and drive it down to Spain, where it will become our little runabout.  The motorhome is just to big to drive around as a daily transport!

The Manly Ferry Mother-ship.

We have only been living in Mojacar for two months and have found the local community to be ultra welcoming.

One of the local forums were running the inaugural 'Mojacar New Years Day Dip' today.  They asked us to join them, so we offered the Manly Ferry as the Mother-ship!

We supplied the oven, the fridge/freezer, hot shower, outdoor BBQ, toilet and changing room for all the participants. 

They estimated a crowd of about 15-20 people.....they were very wrong! 

We arrived early and set up the van ...

By 11.30 about 50 people had turned up ...

We had pre swim champers ...

By the time we went in for the noon swim there were about 45 swimmers and 50 watchers ...

After the swim it was time for nibbles and drinks all served from The Manly Ferry ...

Elaine and her friend, Wendy dished up the drinks and food whilst I slaved away in the galley cooking it! (Well, heating up sausage rolls etc in the oven !!) 

It was a fantastic day and we met more lovely people!

The actual swim part was a piece of cake ... the air temp was 21, the sea temp 17 with no wind and clear blue skies......easy peasy.

Happy New Year xxxx

... and wishing our reader a very Happy New Year too !!!

We thought we would do a bit of a 'year in review', so here are some pics from 2015 adventures ...

January saw us paddling about in the snow in Goyt Valley in the Peak District National Park ... 

In February, we bought our new motorhome (but we didn't pick it up 'til March) ...

March saw us waving goodbye to Diane and Ray from NB Ferndale, after they had wintered for a couple of months around Bollington ...

In early April we had a little cruise aboard NB Ewn Ha Cul with Dot and Gordon, while they were in the area ...

In May I went to see Man Utd play, with Diane and Ray from NB Ferndale ...

June saw us leaving Bollington ... here I am saying a sad farewell to the landlord of the Spinners arms ... 

Our travels in the new motorhome took us to Anglesea, Barmouth and Trefin in Wales, then to Bath, London and then to Stoneleigh to watch my niece show jumping.  On this occasion Neeko refused, catapulting Kimberley over the jump instead.  It was spectacular and thankfully neither horse nor rider were damaged ...

After sunny (!) Stoneleigh, August saw us at Cropredy Folk festival for three days, which was just fantastic ...

In September we were well underway on our European adventure.  This is a pic of our friends, Pat and Martin from Australia, who joined us for a couple of days in Collioure - such a top spot!

By October we had commenced our travels through Spain.  This is a pic of the dogs at Benicassim ...

By November we reached our lovely Mojacar ...

... and in December we moved into our new Villa!  This is the view from it ... 

So, that's it - just a few hightlights from a very eventful year!  

Once again, wishing you a very Happy New Year ...

Christmas Adventures...

Elaine's old school friend from Macclesfield has been staying with us over Christmas, which has been fun.

On Christmas Eve we went to the Emerald Isle Christmas party.

The dogs came to 'early doors' with us, then we took them home before the crowds arrived ...

It was by far the biggest crowd we have ever seen at the pub ...

Everyone was in the spirit! 

On Christmas day we went to one of the beach-side restaurants for lunch.  Unfortunately the head chef had done a runner the week before so we were a tad apprehensive!  The food, however, was pretty good but the service was absolutely woeful!  I wasn't too fussed that they undercharged us for the drinks at the end ... and the tip stayed in my pocket!

We took a Christmas selfie after lunch ...

For the rest of the Christmas week we just chilled and took Jane to a few of our favourite spots ...

We have also been looking after our Canadian friends' dog, Maxx, for a few days whilst they were out of town ...

Elaine had the pleasure of three dogs waking her in the morning ...

Jane left us on Monday so we decided to move up to the villa full-time.  We have been staying in the flat as we are paid up to the end of January but the lure of the house on the hill has proven too much!

We were lucky as there were no cars parked outside the flat so I squeezed the van around the back of the units right outside the door. We loaded the van quick smart and headed up the hill to the new abode ...

It's lovely to be in the big house, we have so much room ... we still cant believe it!

We went to an Iceland store today in the nearby town of Vera.  We have never been to one in the UK before so it was like being in a toy shop! We only popped in to buy a couple of things and ended up with a trolley load!  Everything is imported from the UK (and consequently all the labels are in English!).  I thought they only sold frozen goods but no it's a full-on supermarket selling everything from the UK.  Even the checkout chicks are English, so at least you get a smile when you hand over the hard earned!

Elaine was delighted to have found a range of Linda McCartney products in Iceland today ... so we had one of her pies for dinner, very nice it was too!  Treats from 'back home' are always worth their weight in gold!

Merry Christmas XXXXXX

Wishing our reader a very very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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The Start Of A New Life

A year ago today we signed up on a six month lease in Bollington in the UK. 

A few days ago we signed up for a one year lease on a villa in Mojacar Spain!

We really enjoyed our six months in Bolly and I am pretty sure we will enjoy our one year here, although to be fair we won't be here for the whole year as we will be going off on excursions in the motorhome and will probably cruise north for a wee while in the hotter months.

We have been busy lately, sorting out the new place. The owner left a few days ago and, in his words, 'do what you want with the place'.  He left everything behind, including all  the white goods, furniture, bedding, absolutely everything.

So today we just about finished sorting everything out.  We will personalise it a bit more once we collect all of our stuff from storage in Manchester and from my mum's house in Milton Keynes.  I'm not sure how we are going to get the goods here yet but we will find a way. 

We started off the day with, once again, a fantastic sunrise.  Sometimes I get up, watch it then go back to bed.  Actually, most times I go back to bed!

We then took the dogs for a walk along the paseo, as you can see the crowds haven't arrived yet. 

To the left ...

Middle ...

And to the right ...

We walked right to the end of the paseo then backtracked, walking along the beach ...

After the walk we headed up to the villa, where I took a few indoor shots.

This is the lower deck leading off of the bedrooms, it looks straight down the cliff out to the sea.

The framework is a flyscreen which covers all the outdoor areas. It looks a bit strange but the owner said he got so fed up with the flies and mozzies that he had it built and now you can sit outside all summer without getting eaten alive.  It will also allow us to have all the doors and windows open in the house, without having any nasties buzzing around ...

The upper deck leads off of the lounge and kitchen. This also has a perspex roof over it,so that we will be able to dine outside in all weather!  Once again, glorious views of the med ...

It also has a roof terrace which has 360 degree views. It was hot up there today so in the summer it would be unbearable, but it will be very handy to dry the washing! 

Looking up the hill which is a dead end, so very little passing traffic ...

You do get the best views from up there though ...

The main living room ...

Looking back towards the kitchen ...

Upstairs dunny.  It's all very Spanish in design, as is the whole villa ...

Laundry and store room (still being sorted!) ...

Ditto ...

Downstairs bathroom ...

Main Bedroom ... 

En suite ...

The smallest bedroom, which Elaine is making into her massage room.  She just needs her massage table in it now and she will be away ...

Ditto ...

The third bedroom, which will look a lot nicer when we have sorted it out a bit more ...

I had to take a pic of two passing tugs as the sea for the last few days has been so flat that you can't pick out the horizon!  It's just above the tugs ...

 Other news, very quickly cos it's getting late ...

Tonight we have been to a house warming of a couple we met a few weeks ago.  I went go kart racing yesterday with some local lads whose average age was about 25 ... they flogged me and I came last!  I was so knackered I had to go to bed at 19.30!   Finally we have another visitor arriving tomorrow, Elaine's old school friend, Jane, from Macclesfield who is joining us for Christmas.