Oldies On Tour

Up early again, as we have arranged with Herbert to take us to the garage again, this time we used tom tom, and ended up at completely the wrong place, apparently there are two roads with the same name and post code!  Eventually we got to the garage, to find that Rosie had been striped down already, and was waiting for new parts, the problem was very simple, apparently a snake had crawled into the engine department and made itself at home, when we had tried to start it,’ hissing Sid’ had wound itself around a pulley, breaking some belts, and messing up the pulley! Now that is a first for us, and I expect many others, but for the garage, they had had another one the previous week, which had been even bigger.

Anyway progress was being made, so we left there, and treated Herbert and Liz to a meal at the Wok, which was lovely, accept Liz and I would prefer to be waited on, instead of having to help yourself.

Tuesday was hospital day, I had my bone density test in the morning, and Geoff saw the Consultant in the afternoon.  Geoff has to go back in six months, when they are going to do a scan, and blood tests which is good news, I have to go to the Doctors for results next week.

Wednesday we finally got Rosie back, everything is coming together again, we decided to go to the Air conditioning place on way back, where they told us the unit was not worth repairing, so we have had a new one fitted.  We then eventually managed to get Sooty and Bella out of the kennels, and took them to Boules with us, they were so excited, they would not settle down, we then went for tapas afterwards.

We moved again, this time to Pat’s, at this point I am quite tearful, as I am tired, and fed up, but I soon got into shifting things, cleaning the rooms,and soon we were settled into our new home for a few days, this time without wifi, still we will survive.

Daf's Paella

In the afternoon we went to Daf and Steve’s, she had read about our Paella in France, and said hers would be better, so we had to try it. We had a lovely afternoon and evening, and we both agreed it was ‘simply the best’, so tasty moist and full of goodies, and better still made by an English lady. We could not

Cheers

fault it.

On Sunday it was the Valencia Grand Prix, so we went to Herbert and Liz to watch, we had a light lunch, followed after the race, by a Sunday Roast at a local restaurant.  The race was good, it would have been better if my man had not be knocked off the track.

Back to Pat’s to find she was watching England play Italy, well I am not sure England were playing really, no wonder we do not win anything, they are awful. The right team went through.

The weeks have just flown by, and this week is no exception.  Liz and Herbert kindly took us to Cartagena, on route we called in at a Caravan shop, as our air conditioning unit has packed up, we have never used it up until now, as the weather has not been good until we arrived in Spain, anyway it chucks out warm air instead of cold, and it is so noisy, that I cannot bare to have it on!  Anyway they will look at it, but the model is obsolete so not much help there. Onto Cartagena, where our bank is now, as we chose to stay with Esther, as she is so efficient, that at least when we are travelling we can get things sorted.  It was lovely seeing her again, although sadly she is not happy, as the big white chief watches all the staff, does he not know if people are happy they will work better!!

Back into the old routine, we went to Boules on Wednesday, and Geoff went to crib on Thursday, it has been good catching up.

Friday we had the results of our blood tests, and we are still living, more important Geoff’s PSA level is lower than last time,and my cholesterol is down too, we went onto our favourite steak house with Herbert and Liz to celebrate. Four enormous steaks, two fillets, two sirloins, Geoff was the only one to finish his, there’s a surprise, still he was under Doctors orders to eat red meat, as he is anaemic, so he had an excuse.

Pat and Vince working hard

Pat and Vince working on stall

Sunday we went up to the market, then Pat and Vince came over for a BBQ, Geoff used his new toy, and we had the thick pork chops, they were lovely, and cooked to perfection.

Monday we went over to Herbert and Liz’s for a spot of lunch,

Lovely pool at Cabo Roig

and a swim in there lovely pool, it is huge, and very deep, so you can do proper lengths, another good day was had by all.

Wednesday was the day we were going to have the air conditioning unit fixed, or replaced, so we were up early, walked the dogs, had breakfast, tidied up, and we were ready for the off, accept ‘Rosie’ would not start, very strange, as she has always been a good starter. Fortunately we had breakdown cover, so they were duly called, nothing left to do but sit back and wait. An engineer turned up about 10.00am, with a battery charger, we told him the batteries were fine, but he still checked, when it would not start he said it was electrical, and we would have to be towed into the garage. We were told it would take about twenty minutes, well 8 hours later, with a lot of calls between England and Spain the truck arrived.  After a lot of shunting etc., they finally had it on the

Oh dear Rosie

lorry, only for the man to say, he would have to take it off again, as he had run out of hours, well you can imagine what Geoff said, the air was blue.  Fortunately the lady on reception was very helpful, and translated between Geoff and the driver, eventually ‘Rosie’ was sent to the local compound to be collected in the morning.  The rules here are, that the owners have to arrive at the garage the same time as the van/car, not sure what happens if you have to go to hospital!!

Goodbye Rosie

Temporary home

We booked into the chalet next door to us, which was fine, although no dogs were allowed, it was comfortable enough, although the beds were bad, so we slept in the two rooms, and we sneaked the dogs in late at night, can only book for three nights as it is booked for Saturday.

Herbert again came to rescue, and took Geoff over to the garage, which was in the middle of nowhere, they are saying it is the Cam belt, so it is going to be expensive….. Oh dear!!!

Not knowing what was going to happen to Rosie, I had booked my bike into garage for it’s first service, so we decided to do that, as it has to be done, we arrived at 11am, to find the garage, and it was market day, so whilst waiting for the work to be done, we wondered around, bought some fruit, had some coffee and churus with chocolate sauce, picked the bike up, back to the camp site.

Geoff phoned the garage, and they said, they could not strip it down until they had a guarantor for monies etc., well Geoff was furious, why had they not rung in the morning, they are now closed until Monday. We are now homeless, frustrated as Jane is coming out to Italy on Wednesday, and it looks as though we are not going to go anywhere!!

Mickey and Rickey

We have been here over a week already, where does the time go to.  We had a fantastic bbq with Mickey and Rickey, I think they thought we needed feeding up, we seemed to be eating all night, then Geoff found out that Mickey likes Whiskey, so next time we meet up (If there is any left!) they are going to have a tasting evening.  Apparently Mickey had a head ache the next

Lo Monte Swimming Pool

day, serves him right!

The next day we were invited to Pat and Vince’s for another lunch, which was also very good, no wonder our weight is going up instead of down. Vince was cooking for ages, and we had lots of different things, Jo and John were also there, a good afternoon was had by all.

We then went to boules with Vince, and met up with more friends, then down the pub for a social drink, not too many as we are on Pinky and Perky.

Geoff went to crib on Thursday, which he enjoyed, whilst I took the dogs to the vet’s for their annual injections, thankfully Pat took me in her car, otherwise it would have been a long walk, cannot see them getting on the scooters somehow.

Herbert and Liz arrived in the evening, Geoff went to help them with their cases, whilst I

Lots of grass and trees around Rosie

prepared supper, we had a lovely evening, a bottle of champagne to welcome them, and a few wines. Oh dear weigh day tomorrow.

Pat and Vince had kindly delivered a load of our stuff which we do not need to our house, as we did not buy a boat, so we met our tenants, and loaded more stuff in our storage room, it was funny going back, and seeing other people living their, still everything looked ok. Rosie should be a lot lighter now.

Geoff using the Spa's

Saturday we called at a motorbike garage, to try and sort Geoff’s bike out, apparently there are no Agents in Spain for his make, but we have found a man who can service it for us, he also sorted the wobble out, by putting air in the tyre!! The afternoon was spent on jobs, Geoff building the bbq, putting

Building the Bbq

coat hooks up,  and me washing and ironing, we know how to live. Most days we have been in the pool swimming and using the spa, fantastic, we managed to negotiate a cheaper rate, so we have a premier site for 10 Euros a day, quite a bargain.

Lo Monte campsite

Well we have been here for two days now, and after the first initial impression, which was not good, so many tents and people around, lots of kids etc., we are now settled and enjoying ourselves, plus the camp site has emptied out.

We decided to walk to see Daphne and Steve for coffee, sadly Steve was working hard, but we enjoyed our catch up with Daf. We then watched the Pageant on television, how brilliant was that, only Britain can put a show on like that, shame about the weather.  As we were watching, Ricky and Mickey turned up, how lovely, to see them, they were out cycling, and thought they would be nosey to see where we were.  We had a laugh, and a good catch up, and will be seeing them again on Tuesday.

Daf and Steve turned up later with Charlie, so we have now caught up all the gossip, had a couple of drinks, they left early, as they are off to Barcelona tomorrow.We watched the final of the Apprentice, and then went to bed.

Up early as we had a Doctors appointment, we went on Pinky and Perky, which was good,  Geoff has to get his blood test sorted, and me to get my bones checked, so we have blood tests on Monday, and we both have hospital appointments for the 26/6, pure luck that they are on the same day!! Next stop the hairdressers, popped in to see Steve and Vuoka,

Lo Monte Spa

Pat and Vince, and it is still not lunchtime.

Lo Monte Pool

Back home we went down to the pool, for a swim it was lovely, we had the whole area to ourselves, we then went to the indoor pool, and really enjoyed the various spa’s they had there. All in all, we find it very comfortable and relaxing here, just wish we could avoid the week-ends!!

Up early thanks to Sooty waking us at 7am, we decided to get up, and get moving, we still had some jobs to do, before we could leave.  The mucky jobs, that girl’s do not do, like empty the looe, empty the waste water etc., whilst I was making ‘Rosie’ safe for the journey.

We left the site at 9am, and bought a fresh baguette to take with us for lunch, Geoff drove the first two hours, from the mountains, the roads were very small, lots of ‘S’ bends, and tunnels, very pretty, stopped for coffee, then I drove for the first time, I really enjoyed it, nearly 11 metres in length with the trailer, so you have to think what you are doing all the time, fortunately we were on the National route, so very civilised. We stopped for lunch, I asked Geoff what he had done with loaf, he said he had not moved it, I looked at Sooty and Bella and yes, they had eaten it, so even they think we need to lose weight!!

Geoff took over the driving, and we eventually arrived at Elche, to see if the Motor home shop was open, it wasn’t, and it is closed until Monday, so we decided to drive straight to Torré de la Horadada.

We arrived about 7pm, hot, stuffy, and tired, so Geoff decided to take me out for dinner, which was lovely, we walked down to Latino Square, where they had live music playing, had a lovely healthy dinner, with a not so healthy bottle of wine, we then walked back and went to bed.