Beach repairs

Walked by the beach yesterday and saw work had begun repairing the beach, no camera handy so my mobile was pressed into service, apologies for the not so good quality. Two machines and some very large piles of sand. The water in the new channel created by the storm has slowed to a trickle, while the original stream is flowing freely although a kind of 'waterfall' seems to have been formed under the bridge which is why the water is 'foaming' in the bridge picture. The new channel seems to have been blocked nearest the sea though it's hard to tell because the piles of sand are in the way! The beach is still accessible from the far side or from behind the cafe but not from the town side.

And we've had more rain. I hope it isn't going to be like this during the whole of the autumn and winter - I've had more than enough wet weather this year!

Had a wonderful evening at the dinner dance our group went to on Friday - lovely meal and excellent music. Unfortunately the ladies outnumbered the men on our table but the fellas did an excellent job of making sure we danced a lot. The 'do' was at El Canor near Teulada, a totally beautiful place! I had no idea such places existed around here - it is obviously extremely popular for weddings - the grounds are stunning. Lovely meal, good company and great dancing!

Yesterday I had an unexpected but very welcome invitation from one of the Blue Skies men to go out for dinner last night. We tried a new Chinese restaurant and had an excellent meal, one of the best I've had since leaving the UK and our favourite chinese takeaway! A most enjoyable evening and I hope we'll do it again, he was very good company! He's interested in photography so I'm hoping he'll give me some tips on how to get the best from Derek's camera before I lose patience with it!

OK, that's it for now - off for my shower, and get on with the day!

Whoops!

Absent longer than I realised! Not sure whether it's because time has flown or I simply couldn't be bothered. Anyway on with the catch up ........

Adam and Jennie got home safely after their visit and almost immediately Doug and Doreen booked to come out on 30th October for 10 days - it will be lovely to see them again!

I've been out three more times with the Blue Skies group - to the El Puerto Restaurant in Javea, Las Brisas between Javea and Gata, and last weekend to the Paradox in Benitachell. No dancing at El Puerto, but a fabulous duo at Las Brisas and a keyboard/sax player at Paradox. Lovely evenings and a really good mix of people. On Friday we're going to a dinner dance organised by one of the bowling clubs, a 'dress up' do - we've booked a table for 12 and of course I've had to buy a new dress for it! Rather pleased with it too!

I've also started learning Spanish. I phoned to enquire about classes locally and booked myself into the lower intermediate group, then by a spooky coincidence the lady who teaches joined Blue Skies the following day! The Blue Skies organiser has also joined and we're taking it in turns to drive to lessons each week. I didn't go yesterday as I'd been feeling ill all week, culminating in a headache I knew would stop me concentrating on the lesson. (Glad to say I'm feeling better, not sure what it was, maybe a bug I picked up somewhere).

We had to most awful storms last week, beginning Thursday lunch time and continuing until Friday night - almost 36 hours of thunder, lightening and rain - it really was quite awful (and frightening). Some of the Blue Skies group who've lived here for years and years say it's the worst they've ever known. Something in the house of one member (in Orba - very badly hit apparently) was struck and wiped out her electricity supply; she had to move in with a friend temporarily. Alicante was swamped and Javea was also badly affected. I had a bit of a paddling pool in the basement! Thankfully, after the clear out Mark and I did, the only damage was to a few cardboard boxes as everything else is stored above floor level.

Moraira beach was badly damaged too. There's a little stream which runs through a wooded walking area at the back of the beach, separated from the beach by a fence. To get onto the beach you cross a little bridge over the stream. The bridge collapsed (not sure why - it seemed quite sturdy) and blocked the stream. The water running off the land to the sea then forced a new channel halfway along the beach - it's quite wide and deep. Some pics, taken last Monday -

The first picture shows the little bridge, the second one of the other beach access points - there is normally a lot more beach between the bottom of the steps and the stream. The rest show the new channel, you can just make out the beach volley ball net in the middle of it, and also the broken fence near the little playhouse where the new channel forced its way through. I can't imagine how this lovely little beach is going to be fixed. The council took really good care of it, cleaning and 'raking' it each night at the height of the tourist season (must be done mechanically of course). I had decided to make a beach walk my regular exercise just before all this happened. I'll be watching with interest to see how they put all of this right.

Not feeling too great and more 'iffy' weather (storms and heavy rain again overnight last night) I haven't felt well enough to walk round town since Monday, but it's market day tomorrow and I'll definitely be having a look to see if work has started. Amazingly, on Monday, the beach was very busy and quite a few people in the sea too.

One of the inconveniences we tend to suffer after heavy rain (or even just having the water switched off for any reason) is the orangey/brown water from our taps that follows. When Derek and I first moved here we had a water filter fitted for drinking water, so we didn't have to haul bottled water from the supermarket. At the weekend the drinking water became a trickle so when my plumber friend arrived to finish connecting the thermostat to the boiler he had a look at it. The filter was covered in orangey/brown sludge! He's coming back today to fit a new filter and also fit an in-line filter to the mains. Hopefully I'll no longer have to shower or wash clothes in 'dirty' water - it can discolour clothes unfortunately. And what it does to the WC is nobody's business! Nasty!

No scrapping done lately, seem to have fallen out with it completely. Haven't even been inclined to visit the shop in Javea. Wish I knew where my mojo has disappeared to - I want her back!