Boxing Day...

What a lovely view to wake up to.

Its been another lovely day doing seriously nothing except walking, reading and lying in the sun. 

I spent a while sat on the beach this morning just looking out on the oh so calm Med.

For me this is a great place to be at the moment, Christmas Eve was the big party night, this is now my time to just sit and reflect, I'm loving it so much I will stay a bit longer.

I had a couple of visitors come to see me from Mojacar. We met Wendy and Barry over a year ago when we first got to Mojacar, they are Canadians and have been travelling through Europe for the last few years looking for their Nirvana, they found it at Mojacar. Elaine and Wendy were best mates, Wendy flew over to the UK to see Elaine whilst she was in the hospice which was much appreciated by Elaine and myself.

I took this shot of Wendy.....is Elaine shining down on her!!! 

They also bought me some of yesterdays Christmas dinner, I had the works tonight plus dessert, it was lovely, yesterday I ate crap!

More nothing tomorrow please.

Merry Christmas

The weather has returned to normal, wall to wall sunshine, warm in the day and cold at night.

This Christmas was always going to be a difficult one so I decided to run away in the van with the doggies.

It was a no brainer in my opinion, not that I didnt get plenty of offers for dinner, but I just wanted to be on my own.

I loaded the van up yesterday and drove down to the beachfront to park up opposite the pub.

Firsty I took the boys for a walk along the beach, its just lovely and deserted at the moment,

We popped into the pub for a early drink and chat to the lovely barmaid Eva.

I then took Sammie back to the van as I knew he would be scared of all the people and noise.

The party kicked off at 16.00 and went on until the early hours, it was a fantastic night and the busiest I have ever seen the pub, A lot of people were also outside as it became too crowded inside.

I had a lot of friends down there so there were no Nigel no friends moments.  I did have a big meltdown moment when I met up with Sara, she was one of the first people we met in Mojacar last year, she bravely come down the pub for a little while after getting news that her sister had passed away in the UK that morning, once again far too young and once again a victim of bastard cancer. 

I think we both felt better for having a good meltdown, so sad for her though X

I did feel slightly rough this morning so didn't get on the road until 10.30.

Once again I went to La Carolina beach which was an absolute favourite place for me and Elaine and is only a 40 minute drive up the coast.

If she were alive Im sure we would have come here anyway.

I got a prime position on the front row, there are quite a few motorhomes here from all over Europe, but I'm keeping very low key and keeping myself to myself.

I have been doing a lot of walking with the dogs, plus some reading and had a lovely sleep in the sun, As the sun goes down I'm about to crack a bottle of Champers.

Meanwhile back in the UK my poor old mum is spending Christmas in hospital, she has been in and out of hospital all year, this time she has been in since early October, she is 86 and usually pretty healthy, but this period in hospital seems to be taking its toll.

Im also thinking of Elaine's sister Julie who has been battling fkin cancer for a number of years, once again its reared its ugly head, she starts another round of chemo in 5 days.

But as we all know life goes on, albeit in different tangents.

Merry Christmas dear reader  XXXXX

Huge Storm..

As promised the storm hit us yesterday, I have never witnessed a storm like it, the locals who haved lived here years also said it was one of the worst on record.

The house was shaking last night with wind gusts of 100ks, the thunder and lightning went on all night until 05,30 this morning.

I had some very minor water leaks under doors but nothing major, the power was on and off all night and the internet has just come back on.

I went out earlier and took some pics, I couldnt go too far because of road closures, I fear some other local communities have really suffered.

The forecast is sunshine back tomorrow, so it wont be long before it all returns to normal.

The Rain In Spain Stays Mainly In.......

Mojacar......

What wild weather we have been having recently and as I type this (Saturday Arvo) it is going mental out there!

Today is going to be the worst day and by Tuesday we should be back to wall to wall sunshine.

I took the below pic this morning whilst walking the doggies.

The below pic was taken yesterday as I was heading back to Mojacar, In all honesty Im quite enjoying it, its actually starting to green up a bit in the campo, nothing like English green but for this area it's a welcome change. 

So apart from the weather the other exciting thing to happen is that the motorbike passed its ITV (MOT)  

Once I got the correct paperwork it was pretty straightforward, I was most impressed by the setup, the test has to be done by a government testing station, they test emissions, noise, brakes on a rolling road plus suspension is checked  on a device that puts the suspension through the wringer. They also check underneath for anything hanging off etc.

In my opinion is a much better way than letting a garage do it as for one they are not looking to fail the vehicle to get work, plus the system in theory should stop your mate giving you a dodgy pass. So although most Spanish cars are battered to bits, mechanically they should be ok.  

So with the new ITV ticket I should now be able to ride the bike legally......well no this is Spain remember....... nothing is simple.

I was informed by the chap doing the transfer of the bike into my name that there is in fact an embargo on the bike because the previous owner has a couple of outstanding debts so the bike cannot be transferred into my name until the debt is cleared.  Sounds like a good system except they cannot tell you how much the debt is, the debts are from a couple of years ago, indeed the debt could even be cleared but not put through the system yet.  The previous owner probably doesn't even know he has a debt and it could be anything, a parking ticket, speeding ticket, fine for anything or an unpaid bill.

So in the wonderful Spanish tradition they now have to go to another department to trace the debt, this could take weeks, not days but weeks!!!  

Spain really is a very strange place and as I have said before if the sun didnt shine you wouldnt go near it with the proverbial barge pole.

With that said on Monday the little Citroen starts its journey to be put on Spanish plates, it should take a couple of days, the headlamps have to be changed, it has to have matching tyres on the same axle, not only size but make!!! Thats correct the tyres have to be of the same make.....as I said Spain is a fcked up strange place.  Once that is done it has to go to a special testing station one hours drive away  where it is checked over to make sure it is mechanically sound and is built to Spanish specifications, it also has to be checked to make sure it has enough dents and scratches to fit in with the other Spanish cars! 

After the tests its then all down to the office wallahs to create as much paperwork as possible to try and bring the Spanish unemployment down to  below 25% !

Im doing all this so that Im legal and above board whilst living in Spain, there are so many UK immigrants here that live under the radar, and I have to admit it is very tempting.

So you might think that I'm pissed of and angry about all this, but after the year I have had I find it all rather amusing and just smile, I have all the time in the world to get it sorted. 

Another Day in Paradise

For obvious reasons 2016 has been without a doubt the worst year of my life, there is nothing 

 I can do about it and as I'm often told life goes on.

So where does my life go from here????

For a start I'm just about to sign up for another year in the villa, this should give me plenty of time to contemplate some sort of future.

At the moment I can't see Mojacar or Spain being my permanent forever home. After travelling a lot throughout Spain I am definitely living in the best part, it really is a little bit of paradise.

As I have said many times before if you want lots of shops, cinemas and water parks etc, Mojacar isn't for you, if you want an incredibly laid back lifestyle this is the place.

The only downside of course is dealing with the Spanish bureaucracy and chronic nepotism, which isn't just in this area its endemic to the whole of Spain. Its a big shame but its not my country, and in my opinion it will never change.

But.....I'm not here to run a business or even work, I'm here like 99.9% of the immigrants  for the SUN, not the crappy old rag that you wouldn't use for bog roll, no the sunshine!! Im not into just laying out sunbathing I like the lifestyle that sunshine brings with it, walking in shorts and t shirts, alfresco dining, and just the general happiness that sunshine brings, and this is winter!

The sun has been missing for the last couple of weeks but now it's back with a vengeance and looks like its going to be back for a while.

So back to the title of the post..... Yesterday was a cracker, so I took the boys for a walk along my stretch of the beach, Mojacar beach is about 5 miles long, but this part is just down the road from my villa and of course is the best part!! 

There is a breakwater at each end of this part of the beach, they are about one mile apart. 

This is where we will be doing the Elaine Mcbride Memorial new years day swim. 

Its the most sheltered part of the beach. 

And looking the other way. 

They have started to groom the beach after the recent storms. 

So there you go it really is a little bit of paradise.

As I mentioned earlier I'm here for another year all going well, but I constantly get drawn back to a life on the canals and I'm pretty sure this is where my future lies, the only caveat being I would have to escape the UK winter.   This is exactly what the boaters who are here at the moment are doing and to my mind seems the most perfect situation to be in.

But who knows what may happen in the next year.....for the moment paradise will do nicely X.  

This and That....

Weather wise it's been a grim week, its been very very wet and quite cold, the rain was quite incredible, you can see the distinct line in the sea, the closest colour being due to  all the crap being washed down the storm drains.

Two of my old school mates were in Mojacar last weekend, I have known Steve and Des since school days in the late 60s we were best mates until I left for Oz on 1980.

We had a great catchup and numerous beers, Steve has a holiday place down here so I'm sure we will get together on a few more occasions.

There have been a lot of Christmas fairs taking place recently, I took the boys to one being hosted by the local Spanish community, they were just starting cooking up the giant paella.

Something I thought I would never do on my own.........put up the Christmas tree. Elaine loved Christmas and she loved the tree that we bought with us from Australia, I wanted to dump it when we left Oz in 2012 but Elaine got so upset so we kept it.

It didnt take too long to put up, its the first time I have done it, in previous years it miraculously appeared when I was out of the house.

Apart from anything else it gives something for the dogs to wee on.

I also decorated the dogs.

I have had a motorcycle in the garage  for the last year, I have been trying for the last two months to put it in my name, in the UK its easy, tear a bit of paper off fill out the form and send it off .....Not in Spain, you cant do it yourself you have to use a solicitor, you cannot believe the amount of paperwork involved for such a simple transaction. I have been trying so hard to keep calm whilst this has dragged on for weeks but today  finally I lost it, I will do a blog post about it when I finally start riding the bloody thing. I cant believe people whinge about the DVLA in the UK,  they are a five star outfit compared with the dills out here.  Of course the general comment is ....Its Spain get used to it!! I cant stand bad service let alone no service.

Onto Nerja

After taking the boys for a quick walk and a bit of brekky it was time to head out of Dodge Seville.

Nice wide roads make it pretty easy driving, I am so grateful for the sat nav, it would be so hard without it especially on my own.

Three hours later I was in Nerja, I have parked up in a huge carpark right in the centre of the town, there are no signs to say no overnight parking plus its virtually deserted so I'm pretty sure I will be ok for the night.

Nerja is on the Costa Del Sol and sits between Malaga and Motril, its a lovely little town that is favoured by a lot of immigrants, but as well as the usual pommies, there are also a lot of Scandinavians and Germans about. 

Its well and truly off season at the moment, which is just perfect for walking around, no problems with Sammie today as most of the streets are too narrow for cars, it is very quiet. 

It really is a lovely place and well worth a visit, there are a lot more shops than Mojacar if thats your thing. 

We had a good walk around, there are some lovely little beaches, the big beaches are just outside of the town. 

This chap was meditating in the middle of the Balcon de Europa 

I went down to this beach to check out the shacks. 

With all his fame I would have thought he would have had a better boat! 

Loved this shack at the end of the beach. 

Nice church. 

After walking for a while I managed to find a bar that was showing the Man Utd game later. 

It would have been rude not to have a pint and a tapa.

I will head back to Mojacar tomorrow as a couple of old school friends are flying down from Luton for the weekend, it will be good to catch up with the lads.