General Chat

Good morning all

Health and safety Ann - Spain does not know what those words mean !!! I have seen men painting outside of houses with bricks under the ladders, young folk riding scooters with the helmets on the handlebars, driving the wrong way up a one way street - which seems to be the norm. I could go on and on but will bore you all to tears.

Another nice sunny morning here today - Val your weather yesterday was just like we had a week or so ago - only here once it starts raining it does not know when to stop. Hope you have a good day with your friends.

Well I must do the ironing so will be off.

Hope you all enjoy your day

Love Mary xx

Morning or should it be afternoon,
Weather lovely again.
What I love about Spain is..everybody is responsible for their own actions...so they are told to wear safety helmets etc but if they choose not to and have an accident they can't and don't sue anybody, a bit like life should be, I think.
Did a very touristy thing yesterday and went to Guadalest and guess what the place was full of tourists, particularly the French. Usually when we go at this time of year we have it virtually to ourselves, must be the hot weather, it has brought everybody out of the woodwork!!
Take care & enjoy.
Frances

Just popping in to say hello.
Nothing going on here, have the very strong winds blowing again so it's too miserable to do anuything outdoors. Feel sorry for our friends who have come all this way to this awful weather.

Take care and have a great day.




Val in SA.

Well what glorioys weather we are having. Saturday we repotted some plants on the roof terrace - had fun with the large yukka plant - but all the plants look so much better. Saturday evening we had a bbq.

Sunday saw us off to the beach with picnic in tow - went for a walk and a paddle and then decided we would go in the sea for a swim. It was so refreshing and amazingly not that cold considering it is November. Enjoyed our picnic on the almost deserted beach - then had our snooze !!

I had got a couple of steaks for our dinner but we decided to bbq them and had an enjoyable few hours sitting on the roof enjoying the peace and quiet.

Getting a little excited about our trip to UK - fly off on 2nd December to see family and have a wedding to go to on 4th December and on the Sunday off down to Cornwall to see my mom and sister.before flying back on 10th - just in time for hubby's birthday on 13th and gosh our 42nd wedding anniversary on 16th.

Hope Bridget's hubby arrived safe and sound

Take care all

Love Mary xx

Blustery sunny day here today, more like March than November. Not warm enough for the beach though. Did dry the washing this morning outside in the sun so that is something.

Ann
Glos

Hello everyone!!

I am now on line at "home in our apartment" so can be in touch again!!!!

Peter my OH arrived on Friday evening and it was simply great to see him again...I felt like a teenager.

A very Big Thank You for keeping this thread going, I am absolutley bowled over by your input.

Off to London tomorrow to have a CRB check for those who may not know what this is it means that i am checked by the police records to make sure that I am fit to do my job!!
it used to be able to be registered locally but now I have to travel to London. Oh well once it is done it stays in place for 5 years and I am sure i shall not be working then.

The place I am working in is delightful with good staff and interesting residents.The Home is set in 5 acres of gardens and grounds with a great view of the surrounding countryside.

Good night everyone I will be back soon

bridget

Hello to everyone,

Good to see you back Bridget. I'm sure you are over the moon having your husband with you.

We have had really miserable windy weather since our friends arrived from London ten days ago, hasn't been really pleasant out so have spent a great deal of time indoors. We have this tradition of Christmas in October which we started some years ago while they are here, and so to-morrow night we will have our celebration. On the menu will be roast lamb, beef and vegies but as none of us like Christmas pudding we will be having mince pies, and of course wine!!

Next week we will be doing a bit of travelling with them which will be rather good.

Have a wonderful day.



Val in SA.

Hi Bridget and everyone,
Glad Peter arrived safely. You are certainly missing some wonderful weather...assuming it is as nice in Peñiscola as it is here on the Costa Blanca..it was worth having all that rotten weather in September.
Went out for a lovely long lunch yesterday...lamb cooked so beautifully. The waiter actually brings the roasting tin to the table and then proceeds to take the meat off the bone, in chunks, none of these silly thin slices....superb, served with mashed potato studded with almonds.
Enjoy the day.
Frances

Glad Peter arrived OK Bridget it must be lovely to have his company when you are not working. Does he work from home so can work from your apartment? Blustery and sunny here today, quite a chill in the air but very pleasant really.

Hello, it's a lovely day to-day. I will be away for a week, leaving to-morrow for a trip with friends, haven't decided on anywhere specific just going where the mood takes us.

Have a great day.



Val in SA.

Have a great week Val, hope the weather holds for you.

Frances

Have a great week Val and hope the weather is kind to you.

Love Mary xx

Thanks Frances and Mary, friends hire car is not too big so I will have to curtail my packing! I have never learnt the art of travelling light so I guess now will be a good time to start!



Val in SA.

Well I am back! Had a wonderful time and the weather was perfect, didn't wear a jersey once! We visited a lot of towns, stopped off at some super roadside stalls, had a cheese and wine lunch at a farm cheese factory absolutely super. The one place I had not been to before was a free flight bird aviary (the world's largest I believe) the dome covers indigenous forest and there are about 3000 birds in the aviary. Among the many birds which we saw I think the most striking was the Scarlet Ibis, Chinese Pheasant and a variety of very colourful Parrots. Needless to say a week wasn't long enough.

Enjoy the weekend.



Val in SA.

glad you had a good time Val.

No news from Bridget this weekend yet?

What's happening? Everyone is so quiet.

It's a cool and cloudy day to-day. If only it would rain, we had water restrictions imposed on Monday, can only water gardens with a watering can.

Christmas decorations are up in the shops and carols are being played.
Will only be putting my tree up next month. Have received my first Christmas card. Oh yes, I made my Christmas cake yesterday, won't be icing it as I don't like marzipan.

Take care.



Val in SA.

Good morning everyone
I have been naughty and not adding to this thread - sorry Bridget !!
Last week workmen moved in again armed with scaffolding etc. ready to paint the front of our house. Took them a week - and it is only a small house !! Still it does look lovely, bright and clean. We opted for a pale blue on the bottom half plus blue around the 2 windows and the rest white. So our little casa is looking great. Monday I cleaned from top to bottom so yesterday I treated myself, or rather hubby did, and went to the hairdressers and had my hair cut and coloured - ready for our visit to UK in 2 weeks time. Getting quite excited about it - only I know the time will fly by. We fly on 2nd December and arrive back on the 10th.
Our weather has been great, blue sky and temps around mid to high 70's . we had a bbq Saturday lunchtime too. This Sunday we are going out to lunch to celebrate 8 years since moving to Spain. As I have already said time flies !!!
Well as I did not do the ironing yesterday I must be off and do it this morning.
Hope you all have a great day and that Bridget will manage to find the time to add to her thread soon.
Take care all
Love Mary xx

Sorry I have neglected the thread too, think we are missing Bridget's input. today it is dull and very wet and miserable and a bit chilly so I have opted to stay at home. OH is playing golf and will no doubt arrive home complaining of being wet and cold. Will he get sympathy?? I will leave it to you to guess the answer.
Mary your Casa sounds delightful. Not long now before your trip 'home', hope the weather dries up a bit for you.
Val you are welcome to some of our rain!! Our shops have had the decs up for a while now and the town decorations are due to be switched on this weekend, I hope the weather dries up for them, the children do love to see it all.

Hello everyone

Bridget is back!!
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread, without you all this would have died and I would miss each and everyone of you.
The weather her in The Ridge nr Hastings is windy and wet. We have had a lot of rain and high winds. Last Saturday whilst shopping the wind was so severe that in Hastings shopping center people were being blown over we helped a couple of people to get back to their cars safely. The sea though looked both magnificent and threatening. The water was grey and the waves were high and strong as they crashed onto the shore.

OH has just phoned to say that his boat has just docked at Harwich and he hopes to be at "home" between 10.30 and 11.00 hrs so I hope the weather does not worse, he has been to Amsterdam to see our new grandaughter who is now nearly 5 months old so it was about time that she met her grandad.

Today has been very difficult. My eldest sisters, father died in the early hours of this morning. he had a long and healthy life until about 5 years ago when he started to become very frail. at least he died peacfully.
Then I had a call from my younger sister to tell me that my great neice aged 8 weeks has just been diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. My sister is in floods of tears as all family members will be investigated to see if they are carrying the gene. It is the 5th birthday tommorow of the sister of the new great neice....Her planned party is going to be very difficult for her parents and they are being very strong but the little baby is truly poorly.

I do hope that I do not sound dismal but as I sit here with six beautiful healthy grandchildren I feel very lucky but also very sad.

work is going well there is a few more weeks of hard work and putting Policies and Procedures in place and the worst part of it will be over. I am NOT working the long hours I worked last year until the spring of this year and having OH here makes a big difference.


Well eveyone that is enough from me, I am now going to eat my microwave Weight watchers fish Pie!
I will peek again later this evening
Bridget

Hi Bridget,
I have to say that you have been missing some fabulous weather here...very warm, very sunny...perfect. Today it is sort of hazy but still quite warm....keep dragging clothes out of the put away until next summer box!!
Going 'cat & house sitting' for a friend next week. They live on the coast at Albir so I will be able to take myself to Benidorm shopping one day....OH is staying at home to look after our cats. Quite looking forward to it, I think we all need time to ourselves now and again.
Enjoy the day

Frances.