A year ago today

A year ago today Derek and I left the UK to live here. What a year it's been ........ If I wondered then how different life would be in our first year out here I don't think I could have come up with a year such as this. I always knew and accepted that it was likely I would be on my own at some stage but not this soon. The worst thing is that Derek was cheated of the thing he'd looked forward to for so long - living here, just about his most favourite place in the world. Five months was all he had - not much of a deal was it?

Last week I changed my ISP from Telefonica to Direct-Telecom. Almost as soon as I placed my order Telefonica cut me off and I thought they'd wait until the 20 days were up before handing me over to my new supplier. Telefonica have just about the worst reputation in the world for customer service. So I was pleasantly surprised to get a call from DT on Friday to say my account with them had been activated! Only problem was I was still waiting for my new wireless router to arrive! I'd managed to get connected again via dial up in the meantime so I wasn't cut off completely. My router arrived on Monday morning by courier and I set it up yesterday without any problems (so far - fingers crossed!).

I had my car ITV'd (MOT) and it passed! This in spite of the mobile mechanic who did a pre-ITV on it expressing doubts about the exhaust. In England the tiny tiny split he found would have meant failure but they're not so stringent here in Spain. Although he could hear a difference in the sound, I couldn't, but I took it to a Tyre and Exhaust place to have it changed anyway. They wouldn't do it because they said it was OK (they're Spanish)! In the end Steve and I decided to put it in without changing it and see what happened. Saved myself upwards of €200, but I will keep listening and when I hear the distinctive sound of a blowing exhaust I'll get it done. Have to say there are far noisier vehicles than mine on the roads here!

My visitors arrived last Wednesday - Adam and Jenny. Adam is the son of my best friends and former neighbours, Doug and Doreen. Jenny is his fiancee. I had to drive to the airport through the worst rain storms you can imagine. It was quite scary - the amount of spray from vehicles in front of me meant I was driving almost blind in some places. A disappointing start to their stay. Thankfully the following two days were better and they were able to go to the beach and the market, but Saturday was dreadful, it rained all day long - we never moved from the house! Sunday was slightly better and by Monday the sun was back so they've been able to go to the beach each day since. Tomorrow is their last day before returning home on Friday. The two of them are going out for a meal on their own this evening, then tomorrow we'll all go out. Hope to have time to get to the market on Friday before leaving for the airport about 11 am.

OK, that's it for now - off to have my shower and get the day started - hope yours is a good one!

Night out....

....last night to a restaurant called Garfio's in Denia ..... with a group of single people, like myself either divorced or widowed and of a similar age, late 50s, 60s. 'Blue Skies' is NOT a dating agency, just a group who go out to dinner each Saturday evening to different restaurants in the area, always places where there is music and dancing as well. I think I'll enjoy their company, there are about 50 members apparently but usually about 15 to 20 at the dinners. Last night there were 10 men and 7 women so still plenty to meet!

The women tend to dress up, so stash shopping has got to stop while I expand my wardrobe appropriately! There's a 'posh frock' outing being planned for October which I hope I can go to. Thank goodness I brought my posh stuff with me. I could weep at the amount of other decent stuff I junked back in the UK.

I'm beginning to feel the need for company now. This is the first step.

You cannot imagine how nervous I was - I got lost in Javea, then had to drive over part of the Montgo (scary winding mountain road), and had a heck of a job finding the restaurant in Denia which was on the new marina. The TomTom was no help to me as I didn't have the full address to put in it. Felt like turning back more than once - so glad I didn't!

The new PencilLines sketch is up and for once, apart from loving it, I actually have an idea how to use it! So watch this space!

Off to watch Erin Brockovich, a film I've long been wanting to see but never managed it - it's on Five.

A couple of things to show ...

Kimmy at Scrapitude challenged us to 'Scrap Your Stash' - alphabetically! Begin with 'A' (obviously!) -American Crafts, A2Z etc. I finally caught up and have completed A (American Crafts) and B (Basic Grey). My offerings, American Crafts first (Playtime), then Basic Grey (HOME - a project I copied from an article by Anita Mundt in Scrapbook Inspirations):



Apologies for the blurry quality of the above layout - I photographed it instead of scanning it to save time!





I love the 'HOME' project (made using MDF letters about 22cm tall) and would like to do other things with MDF, but I'm not sure where I would display them! Spanish houses have the toughest walls I've ever come across, you can't just knock a picture hook in - it has to be a drill and plug job. Would love a nice shelf in my new scraproom but would need a man to put it up! That's why the letters above are fixed onto a wooden beam! Still, I have the other side of that beam and another one the other side of the living area - maybe I have some scope after all!

I checked the state of the swimming pool today - it's beautifully clear at last! Dipped a toe in to check the temp - not too bad. I intended going for a swim this afternoon, but actually fell asleep. Will try to do it tomorrow!

Very short blog tonight - CSI will be starting in 15 minutes and I want to rattle off a couple of emails beforehand! Hope you've all had a good weekend!

On my own again.....

Mark and Robyn returned home safely on Wednesday. By the time I got back to Moraira from the airport it was raining and continued all day, at times quite heavily. Consequently, although I managed to get all the bedlinen and towels washed, I had to wait till yesterday to dry them. Meanwhile I've cleaned the house through and brought all my scrapbooking stash up from the basement and into its new home in the naya. It isn't all sorted and tidy yet - I needed a shelf unit from the basement and my 'minder' popped in today to help me with it. I'll need some kind of paper/card storage now - I can feel a trip to 1WorldScrap looming!

Last weekend we again spent time on the beach, still very busy as so many Spanish people visit the beach at weekends. We gave the pool a miss - the pump had been fixed but it wasn't doing a very good job of clearing the water which looked worse than ever and I wouldn't let Robyn go in it. I haven't been down to the pool to check but I hope it's quite clean now as I'd really like to use it while the weather is still reasonable.

On Monday we went to Aqualandia - had a fabulous day! Mark and I were both astonished at how much had been packed into a comparatively small area. We think of the likes of Alton Towers and how far you have to walk between the different areas. At Aqualandia there is a lot to do but so well planned it really was no effort to go back to the activities Robyn liked best (the mini Zig-Zag mainly!). Unfortunately there were some things she wasn't tall enough to try because of height restrictions and we failed to persuade her to swim with the sea lions but otherwise she had a great time! Mark tried one of the chutes in the 'Big Bang' area and had what we rather crudely refer to as an 'Oh f**k!' moment - the chute begins with a bit of a tunnel, a few yards long, then on leaving the tunnel part the chute goes straight down and you can't see the bottom of it! He only did it the once! He also went on the grown-up version of the Zig Zag, a very long zig zagging slide. I hope the pictures I took turn out well enough to scrap!

It was our 43rd wedding anniversary on Wednesday - I don't know what other widows/widowers do in these circumstances but when the children asked if it was still in order to send cards, I thought - why not? You don't just wipe away those years - so I bought a card for Derek and put it beside his ashes. Sara sent one, it arrived today, and it's there too.

Market day today, I picked up another half dozen books from the Lions book stall, took some back plus a few more I'd found around the house. I hope the six I brought home will keep me occupied for the next two weeks until the stall runs again!

Nothing much else to report but hopefully will be back next week with some layouts to share!

Have a good weekend!