Our 1st Year Anniversary

Good Afternoon All

A year has passed to the day that we said our farewells and boarded that plane for our new life here in Spain. We cannot believe that a year can pass by so quickly, Any regrets....not one apart from wish we had done it sooner. We have spent our anniversary day on the beach, swimming and a tapas lunch out in around 35 degrees and beautiful blue seas to swim in. We both feel extremely lucky.

When we moved here i thought i would be writing this blog on a weekly basis but you end up just carrying on with life as normal even though it is just in a warmer and more relaxed place, but you still end up having to go shopping each week etc but it brightens up after the shopping when you can lay on a sun lounger and then have a dip in the jacuzzi....hehe

In the last few months Graham has got himself a job as a chef in a local restaurant in the evenings which helps out financiallylly alot and lets us have the treats of meals out and shopping days...much to Grahams delight..he has discovered a Zara, H & M, C & A etc only about 40 minutes away from us....dam it

Spanish lessons are plodding along but blimey it is tough going, just when you think you have cracked what a word means they then tell you it can mean something totally different and that you can change the last 2 letters in about 14 different ways as to whether it is male female happened yesterday tomorrow etc etc etc. And then you have the local dialect which basically means drops all the letters out of each word apart from 2 join them all together and speak them at 100 miles per hour and there you go......

We have plenty of visitors lined up for this year and the only months we are without guests so far is August, November and December...which is fantastic as its always good to see everyone and always appreciate the nappy sacks ( Dog Poo Bags ) for the boys as they are really expensive here. talking of the Dogs, Basil has not been very well, he was coughing up blood so a trip to the vets..Xrays, Scan and blood tests and he has the start of Heart Disease and Fibrosis so he is rattling with all the pills that he is now on. But he does seem to have perked up we seem to be having good days and bad days with him but as the vet said he is an old man and we have done all we can for him, so just treasuring every moment with him as always.

The garden is really starting to look good again now after the winter and I have had several cactus come into flower and all the Hibiscus are flowering, figs on the fig tree and just the one orange on the orange tree..all the rest of the blossom seems to have got blown off in the wind, but it is the first year for them.

We have been spending alot of time with our neighbours Maureen & Barry who live a couple of doors away and having some good days out with them. Not sure if i have written this before but Maureens Sister is married to my Aunties Brother !!! what a small world.

Graham and I are hoping to have a few nights away in October when my sister arrives for a week or so and has very kindly offered to dog sit for us...so BENIDORM  here we come........poor Graham is dreading it i think especially if I get my way and we stay at The Solana ( where they filmed the series Benidorm ).

Eurovision did not pass us by this year as anyone who knows us will testify that our Eurovision parties are quite legendary...well this year apart from supporting Spain of course we went to a friends for a Eurovision party and it was a fantastic evening. We were there along side some Spanish friends who really became quite excited by the whole thing...coloured wigs , face paint and very very vocal. A great night was had and ended up with a swim in the pool and then back home for around 3.30am.

Hopefully that has been a decent enough update.

Just to say we are both very happy and have no regrets and long may this life continue. To all our friends and family we do love you all and miss you very much but we are still not coming back...hehe

Thank you for reading this

Lots of Love

Barry & Graham

Sorry This Is Not The Most Frequent Of Blogs

Firstly sorry that I am not one for writing every week, it is strange because when we first came out here I thought it is something that I would do, but I guess as you start to settle in and it begins to feel like home you end up doing what you would do wherever you live in the world and that is just going on with normal day to day life and to write about it doesn't seem that it would be that interesting for anyone to read.
We have been living here nearly 10 months now and I cannot believe how quickly time has gone by, and still no regrets. Thank goodness.
We seem to be over the winter now and I have to say I never expected it to get so cold here, don't get me wrong we have had some glorious days of sunshine but once the sun has gone down the evenings turned very cold. We had a new large log burner fitted a few months back and it was worth every penny as it heated through the whole house. It is a fact that the houses here are designed for the summer and to be cool not the best in winter.....but the weather has definately changed the last few weeks and it looks like the log burner has been cleaned hopefully for the last time for a while....
My sister Tina and Brother In Law graham came out for a week at the end of February which was fantastic and we had a week of going out and about and of course coffees with a few side orders of Tapas to go with it. Markets had to be attended and the compulsory shopping by Tina completed, much to Graham's amazement they did manage to get home the three wall hanging pots and three paella pans in the luggage.....hehe
I am pleased to say that bookings for this coming year at "CallaBaza" are on the up despite the recession in the UK...friend Lesley is due in a weeks time followed by mum & dad, then Tina and Nephew Jack, then Tina & Graham and again followed by mum & dad...that completes the guest list so far......but who knows ????
Graham has got himself a job as a chef in one of our local restaurants and seems to be enjoying it, plus the extra cash is really useful and let's us have a few more treats and lunches out etc.
Spanish lessons are still plodding along but I have a feeling it is going to take a very long time.
The dogs are all fine and we have just given them haircuts ready for the warmer days and nights.
In this region it has just been confirmed that Paramount have purchased the land to build a large new theme park which hopefully will help with the property market in this area as we are only 15 mins drive from the proposed site...fingers crossed..they are meant to be laying e first blocks at the beginning of June. They estimate aprox 5 million visitors a year.

There we go as to prove the point...life just plods along.

Would I change anything ? No

Thank you for reading this drivel

Take care

Barry & Graham

Visitors January 2012

Good Afternoon Everyone

Well here goes with the latest update from Mazarron.

After what was an odd Christmas being away from the family we did'nt have to wait long as Mum and Dad arrived on the 10th of January for one weeks holiday. I drove to the Airport to collect them whilst Graham stayed at home and got the dogs walked etc before they arrived. the flight landed early ( good old EasyJet ), straight through the little airport with only the one suitcase to collect and we were on our way home. It isn't that far about 55minutes door to door.
Some changes had happened around the house and garden since their last visit and they seemed very impressed, garden paths had been laid, more plants arrived, walls painted and bedrooms changed around.

Our days out went as follows and this is for Mum's benefit as well as at least now she will be able to read this and know where she has been !!!!

Thursday   -  Callenegre...which is a little village with bars right on the beach where we enjoyed coffee and tapas with beautiful skies and the sound of the waves. This is my favourite place that we have discovered so far since we have been here. From here we drove along the coast road calling into other bays along the way.

Friday..Graham worked today so I took them to the Monastery for coffee and then further up the mountains to the village of Aledo which has breathtaking views. On the way home we called in to Totana to have a look around a local pottery shop and then back through the village of El Pareton to order some more fire wood for the log burner as the evenings are still cold although the days have been glorious ( sunbathing weather ).

Saturday...A trip down the coast to the town of Aguilas which has a fantastic waterfront, a lovely stroll along the paseo and a coffee in the beautiful square and then off to a shopping centre for some Tapas.

Sunday... A relaxing morning and then off to El Saladillo to watch the Spanish horses and of course a couple of drinks and more tapas. Although I have seen he horses before I still think they are magnificent to watch.

Monday...A trip down to Puerto Mazarron and stroll along the paseo and the coffee stop of course. The harbour there is fantastic and we have chosen the Yacht ready for when the lottery numbers come up !!

Tuesday...the weather wasn't so good today for our trip to Alhama market ...in fact it poured down for a brief period of time and was very windy so the lucky man selling umbrellas done a roaring trade..this was the first time coffee had to be drunk inside the cafe......

Wednesday .....Cannot believe that week has gone so quickly...this is the bit I dread ...saying good bye never gets any easier...but on the positive side it is only 104 more sleeps till they are back again...

Also this Wednesday morning was a bit hectic because within an hour of me leaving to take Mum and Dad back to the Airport Grahams Sister and Brother-In-Law arrived for a couple of nights...They have a place in Spain but further down and were lovely enough to do the 4 hour drive up to see us. I felt so pleased for |Graham that he has had family out to visit now. As it was only a brief visit we spent the Wednesday just chatting in the garden and on the Thursday took them down to Puerto Mazarron. We feel they loved the area and were quite surprised how rural it is and were not expecting us to be surrounded by mountains and open space. Sadly on the Friday they had to make their way home but it was fantastic to see them both.

The house feels very quiet now, it is amazing how you get used to doing things at your own pace and just pottering around with the time just disappearing....

5 weeks time and my sister and brother-in-law are coming out for a week...so we can have our rest now and then have good times to look forward to.

There it is the latest update....now back to a spot of sunbathing

lots of love to all

xxx