Well, that was a lovely 10 days at our Spanish home.
I would have given a brief overview while we were there but I think we had some technical difficulties with publishing for some reason, so I thought I’d leave further blogs until we returned.
Gloriously sunny and hot throughout, apart from the final day where it rained in the afternoon, but both Deb and I thought this was a good thing for two reasons. Firstly, it gave us a brief respite from the constant sunshine but, secondly, it meant that we had the opportunity to go out and purchase a new bed. We’ve been meaning to do this for sometime but other serious commitments such as sunbathing, swimming, reading, and other pleasurable activities that you do on holiday, had taken over.
We decided to go searching for a bed around 1pm, forgetting that most shops shut for siesta between around 1.30-4 or 5pm. Pretty awkward you have to admit but I’m sure we’ll get used to it and work round it.
We eventually located one on an internet search that was open all day, a large store in Gandia on the same commercial estate as Leroy Merlin where we, eventually, received our outdoor furniture from. The store was called Konfort Sueños and we can highly recommend them if you happen to be in Gandia and have the need for a king sized bed. Staff were exceptional, our salesman had good English and indulged our pigeon Spanish. We haven’t progressed much since we had to temporarily stop our Spanish lessons.
I will though reserve a full and proper review until they have delivered our new bed, to our new house with no address, on the day they promised, 27th Sept, when we are at the house again. I am not full of hope after our experience with Leroy Merlin and outdoor furmtiuregate, but watch this space.
On our way back to our home town of Ontinyent, we drove through a damp town centre to find them setting up the streets for the Moors and Christians festival.
During the 4-5 day festival the streets of Ontinyent come alive with festive high spirits, colour and music in this dramatised recreation of the Christian conquest of the town by Jaime I in the 13th century. The festivities take place at the end of August, and the whole town takes part on one or the other sides (in the role of either Moors or Christians) and re-enact key events such as the entry into the city, parades by both sides, and the reception of the troops by their embassies.
But we would miss it as we were travelling back to the UK on the first day. We will however make sure we’re there for next years’ raucous activities and stunning spectacles.
We closed up the house the following morning and off to Valencia airport we went.
The airport departure lounge was like a creche, there were kids everywhere, with various degrees of behaviour. Now I don’t mind children, after all I was one myself at some point and I certainly had varying degrees of behaviour, but you sometimes forget that as you get older, so I am very tolerant of others.
Deb and I were sat by our gate waiting for boarding to commence and we heard this loud, throaty screeching and screaming coming towards us. It got louder and louder when, all of a sudden, this couple appeared round the corner looking stressed and pushing a buggy containing a very disgruntled baby of around 18months with a voice that belied his minimal proportions. We looked at each other in horror as we imagined being sat in front of such a little angel, then laughed in relief as they walked past. ‘That was close,’ said Deb, ‘Imagine being on the same plane as that screeching.’
Boarding commenced and we queued up with all the other passengers and then we heard the screeching again, but this time coming nearer. The parents had gone to the wrong gate, I thought that maybe they were trying to put the baby on a separate flight but were unsuccessful. So all three joined our queue. This kid could scream I tell you. I seriously thought at some point my ears were going to start bleeding. Fortunately, because we have extra leg room seats, we get to board first so we were able to escape the row before any serious damage was done.
We sat comfortably and then heard said child approaching the plane, still in full voice. You could see everybody thinking the same, ‘Not near me, not near me please.’
Pavarotti’s love child then sat, with his parents, only 3 rows behind us. It was bloody awful. Only one thing for it, headphones on and Simple Minds played at full volume for 2 and a half hours.
The child did give up after approx 90 minutes but by then surrounding headphoneless passengers were either trying to get out of the windows or just quivering wrecks in the aisles, grinning maniacally and throwing peanuts at themselves.
Top tip for children free adults travelling in the holiday period. Get the most expensive over ear headphones with the best bass feature you can afford. You cannot put a price on sanity.
Moving to Spain? Help! 