55. Autumn in Spain

The clocks went back last night which means Autumn has hit the Costa Blanca here in Spain, it's funny because  just over a week ago before the wet spell the weather was still summer-ish once the rain finished there was a real chill in the air especially in the mornings and now later in the evenings, the local are all wrapped again even if the temp hits mid 20's. So whats new then? well first of the roads, we have had a bit of a torrid time with the local road works, we have had to park the car the other side of the village which makes shopping a pain int he arse but at  last and after 6 weeks I think they are finished...phew!!.

 The road as it was

 Top layer stripped

 God knows how they got this machine up the hill and round the corner

 Tarmac laid and imprinted

 Finished job

 Steps have been re-tiled

Wall has gone and new kerb and pavement laid

It all looks a lot better and cleaner and hopefully now we can get the parcel delivery firms to re-commence deliveries as they refuse to walk up the hill LOL.

We have a busy day tomorrow so taking it easy this Sunday, somehow tomorrow we have to get to Gandia police station and for the third time of asking try and sort out our residency once and for all then within an hour I have to get to the dentists where they will attempt to take out the other half of my tooth that they started last week ouch ouch! while I am doing that Lorni has to to go to Alzira while I am in the chair to try and sort out driving licences..all go eh? then the next day she is back tot he UK for a couple of days, at this rate Lorni should be getting frequent flier discounts.

54. A little colder now..!!

This morning I jumped out of bed full of the joys of Spring to notice that there was something distinctly different; I couldn't put my finger on it at first then it hit me, I was feeling something I hadn't felt since March this y ear...cold!! the days are getting shorter and of course I get up at the same time every morning so slowly it's getting darker and colder, I'm not going to complain as we are heading for November and I'm still in shorts and tee shirts but! I am going to hunt out my jeans and fleeces just in case. Mostly the days are still gorgeous and it does warm up by mid morning but we are now looking at temperatures in the mid 20's instead high 30's and low 40's, The local beach at Gandia is now open to November from march which a a long season and a week ago I took a trip to the beach and there are still holiday makers there.

Three weeks ago we had the local policeman come round and ask us very nicely to not park our cars around our street or drive  here as the road works have started and sure enough a couple of big machines made their way up the hill and ripped up the surface of the road.

So for three weeks now we have parked our car a mile away in the centre of the village in a ca park, every-time we need to go shopping we have to walk tot he car that in itself is not the problem! the problem comes when we have a boot-full of shopping and we can't get near the house and we have to unload bit by bit and drag it up the hill to our Casa. After a week this becomes more than a pain int he bum after three weeks some of the locals have moved the cones out of the way and have threaded their way through the potholes and wet cement as they are fed up too but today it looks like something might actually be starting to happen, we wait with bated breath!

Also on top of all this we have decided that it is time to get Lorni's knee sorted, bless her she has been in pain and has had partial mobility long enough we can't wait for the NHS to get their finger out fo their arse so we are now looking at where? how much? how long? etc. as it is in our interest to get this sorted as soon as possible for more than one reason.

Bless her Lorni has suffered long enough time to get her knee sorted

I have also been a bit busy on my bike visiting Castles more info on this can be found on my other blog site dedicated to motorcycle travel.

53. October already?

I have to say this but where did September get to? One minute we have a house full of people the sun is shining then,empty house and incredible storms! OK lets start with the storms, we have had the worse storms since records began large parts of the Costa Blanca wee flooded it turned out to be a national disaster and they sent in the troops to help out, we were very lucky as we are in the furthest point north of the Costa Blanca and we didn't suffer the same fate as some further south but it was still horrendous all the same.

The road became a river.

I have seen heavy rain before but nothing on this scale and this went on for  over a week am so glad that we live where we do and I will never complain about walking up that hill ever again. The storms contributed to another problem? Before the storms hit a series of roadworks were started as part of a village improvement scheme and of course while the storms where in progress the work stopped so they had managed to dig up a road close to my house it's an important road as it is the only way out from my garage so while the roadworks continued i couldn't go out on my motorbike!!!

Then

Now

It has taken them over 3 weeks to get to this stage but there are still barriers to stop anyone using the road, well this Sunday I got bored with waiting so I got up early moved the barriers and went out for a long overdue ride on my bike, in fact I went for a near 500 mile ride to Consuegra and back, the home of the famous windmills of Don Quixote.

The weather is still mild and hot even on some days it was over 30 degrees the day I went for my ride, so I still wear my shots when out walking the dogs, some days when Lorni's knee is too painful I walk the pair of them together and I have to say it's getting easier to do this Willow is starting to settle a wee bit.

That's September done I am hoping for a mild October so I can keep my shorts and sandals on for a bit longer, The nights are drawing in now and I have noticed a bit of a chill in the morning but not going to complain I love it here and I want to stay so fingers crossed we get our residency sorted out fast.