22/9 - Well that was Summer...

This week has heralded the end of the summer; it’s been overcast, all week, today it’s raining and it’s due to rain tomorrow as well.

The last time that we had this much rain was in April!

Also, Liesl and I seem to have acclimatised - which is kind of worrying for the fore coming winter period as last year, our first winter, we were still used to the weather back in the UK and felt warm, something that was obvious to us at the time as though our neighbours were wandering around in coats and other warm clothing we were still in tea shirts and summer clothing.

We are already starting to feel the change in temperature, it’s now dropping to the low twenties at night and we are certainly feeling the difference - strange given that only 2 weeks ago Liesl's mum, who had arrived with Ken for a 2 week holiday, were complaining about not being able to sleep at night because of the heat; at the same time we were putting extra covers on the bed at night and stopped using the fan to cool us!

I think that this winter is going to give us a much better idea of what its going to be like living in a flat in Spain as it’s the first winter that we will actually truly feel the cold.

21/9 - Big Balls!

We went 10 pin bowling tonight with a group of friends in Elche (a town about 30 minutes drive away), had a great night - made all the better by me winning both sets, although with scores of only 111 and 134 that probably says more about my friends abilities than mine!

The trip was in aid of Dave's (Jungle Drums editor) birthday - 65th I think ;-)

Afterwards we came back to a bar for a drink, great night and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

16/9 - Scottish, But That Doesn't Make Them Bad People ;-)

Went out this evening with our friends Gerry and Tricia, they are spending much of the year over here as Gerry is on "Garden Leave", they bought their place (down the road from us) late last year.

We went out to a terrace bar just down the road and had a fantastic time - as you can see from the picture!

16/9 - Signed Up!

Found out today that Liesl had received a call from the local library, we put our names down for Spanish lessons when we first arrived in Spain about a year ago and they have just got back to us to tell us that we can be enrolled on the course starting in October - talk about manana!

Anyway, foolishly she said yes and we are now enrolled on a 12 week course - 2 days a week (Wednesday and Friday) for 2 hours a day - intermediate Spanish - God help me!!!!

Watch this space!

11/9 - Must Be Getting Old!!!

Today we went, with our gestor (Official Spanish Administrator) to Delores, to complete our will - scary stuff eh?

Finally decided who we wanted to leave all of our debts to - sorry Dave ;-)

The whole process was pretty stress free really (although it hurt the wallet a little), only took a couple of hours which is pretty good going for a Spanish process!

9/9 - English Cinema?

Bob and Jackie invited us out to the cinema this evening, the cinema in question, which showed films in English (with Spanish subtitles) every weekend, was located in Pilar de la Horadada; a town about 30 minutes south of Bob and Jackie.

The cinema was quite small (although Bob pointed out that it could seat 800 people after a quick count of the rows), and used to be "open air" with a wooden concertina roof which I don’t think works any more (shame as it was quite warm).

The cinema is opened by the local council and manned, we think, by volunteers the cost to watch a film is only 5 Euros and the whole thing seems to be run rather like a non-profit making organisation, the local Spanish council worker that organises everything is keen to point out that without people attending they would not be able to show up to date films like the one we watched last night - Oceans 13 - great film.

We are going back in 2 weeks to watch Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix.

8/9 - Still Suffering....

I have decided - I am never going to drink again!

Bob and Jackie came round this evening to take us out for a meal - to thank me for helping get their computer working, this was a really nice and unexpected gesture and something that was typically kind of them to think of.

We went down to the Patagonia Steak House and had a really nice night, I experienced what it was like to stay sober all evening - it’s good to have new experiences every now and then ;-)