Just lucky I guess?

life has slipped gently into a routine

We have been away over two weeks now so the new and novel have become the worn path of the familiar. The excitement of living in Spain has become the routine of living anywhere.
We get up, we shower, dress, go out, eat, come home, watch TV then sleep just as we do at home, but there is some thing more valuable, more precious about doing it here.

The first thing I realise is just how lucky I am.

Now I dont mean ‘Fortunate’ (being rewarded beyond what one deserves.)

I mean lucky.

“The role of chance in bringing about a favourable result”.

Not only to be able to live in such a beautiful place but to be living at all.

I am at an age when friend start to disappear, old colleagues that were young and vibrant when i worked with them are now passing away in increasing numbers. Its getting scary.

I am acutely aware just how fragile life is and how quickly it can be gone and that has been hammered home, of late.

One of the things that always shocked me when I was working was how some one could get up in the morning, eat Toast, shave, set off to work and die before they got there. No warning, no explanation. Just a twist of fate. Crossing the road, driving their car or maybe just a heart attack. But they were, no more.

Losing Larry has been a real shock to me and one that really hurt. I know he wasn’t family and his girls grief must be almost unbearable, but I loved that guy..

Life doesn’t alway give us too many opportunities to bond with people.

You may get to love your Wife and Children (though that isn’t always a given) and if you’re lucky, you love your parents and perhaps even Grandparents. Then if you are really blessed there is the love for Grandchildren which is so strong it hurts. Some one told me once that you ‘love your grandchildren in the way you would have loved your own children if you’d had the time’.

But it tends to end there. For most of us that’s a limited edition.

So to meet other people that you love is a blessing. I’m fortunate to have a few people I care about to the point of loving them, and that is a gift but its also a curse as it hurts more when you lose them.

But as time tick’s on, my list shrinks. They are balanced on the hands of life’s clock and as it goes round, some of them lose their grip and fall off. It’s all just a question of time.

Bob Dylan said. “From the moment you’re born you are old enough to die”. A frightening but stark truth that should make us all appreciate life a little more.

Whilst we were bowling yesterday one of the ‘Chums’ from the club was taken Ill and an Ambulance was called. Whilst we waited people compared the health service here with the NHS, which they found wanting. But then the Ambulance took over 40 minutes to arrive and people stated to shift their positions some what. I guess the NHS offers us the confidence to face old age without fear.

Now I’m saying all this whilst sat in the sunshine. The swimming pool is glinting in the evening light and the Sparrows have stopped their inane squawking. Its a priveleged position that not everyone can have.

I have the advantage of a good pension, well two in fact.

We can afford to live a ‘pleasant life’. (My old mate Larry loved the word ‘Pleasant’).

We aren’t rich. (Did you see the rich list today with the king and the PM way up there in the top 300 wealthiest people in the land).

We aren’t wealthy, we could do with some more loot and if i had been sensible over the years we could have had more. I could have gone for promotion and got a much bigger pension. We could have saved more instead of spending it going Skiing several times a year. We could have bought a second home when we had the chance.

But we didn’t.

However, lots of money isn’t always the answer, ask Steve Jobs, despite all his money he died young.

I have friends who ‘think’ they have to keep working, they ‘think’ they cant afford to retire because they ‘think’ they need more money.

I keep telling them they ‘cant afford NOT to retire’. Life is just too short.

It’s a simple calculation.

How much have I got.

What do I want to do with it.

How can i make that happen?

We have other friends who love to travel and can afford to go on holiday when ever they want. They can afford to stay in expensive Hotels, eat in expensive restaurants and travel first class. If they choose to.

Jaki and I aren’t in that bracket, but we can still go to the same places, we just do it differently. Our accommodation might be more modest, we fly cattle class and catch Tuk-Tuks rather than a taxi but we still get to do it. And we get to have so much fun.

Yes we might have a few more mishaps along the way, but that at least makes the blog more interesting.

Even staying in Mojacar could be done better. More expensive accommodation perhaps, better restaurants, a hire car, a cleaner. (Dare I say, Fresh Sourdough bread)?

But the Sea will still be the same blue and the Sun will still be just as hot.

Life here is good but we have grown into it.

Eating out has become the norm.

In the past we bought plenty of food and cooked quite exotic meals at home. At the end of the stay we always had loads of food left over which we gave away or ditched.

This time (with only 4 weeks) we decided not to bother cooking so much.

Eating out is so cheap and easy that its hardly worth the bother of buying food, carrying it home, (we dont have a car so that makes it slightly harder) and then cooking it.

Luckily there are some great venues locally and we are trying as many as possible.

Some are fairly mundane. I dont mean that negatively.

I mean they are predictable, less exciting, tried and tested. Still good value, dependable. But there are others that are above average or offer some thing a little different. I’m not talking 5 star, Michelin rated just, better.

Some places just have something a bit special.

In the past i’ve given a fairly detailed review of each place we ate but I decided not to do that this trip. However i thought it might be worth listing the places we’ve been to date.

Alcazabar, Bao Bab, Cosmos, Hola Ola, Cheers, Cowboy Kenny’s, Continental Hotel, Neptuno and Bowens to name but a few.

Now Bowens was interesting because its a sports bar with a load of big screen TV’s that show all the important football. They cover the Premier league as well as Spanish leagues, and in the past we have watched international Rugby there. Because its a sports bar it tends to attract a certain type of clientele and they are not always to everyones taste. The language can be a bit industrial and there is often a lot of noise and showing off as they drink more beer, than needed but the bar itself is great and the staff are really friendly and the food is exceptional.

Meat feats at Bowen

We went there this week to watch Man City play Spurs and decided to order the BBQ mixed grill between us. It was a meat feast of epic proportions, so much so that we brought home enough meat to cook a second meal the following night. The meat was tender and really tasty, both times.

Recooked at home

Another little gem is Cheers an unassuming cafe on the main road that offered some of the best and tastiest Tapas we’ve come across to date.

Cheers

So I am feeling really blessed. We have our health ( well as long as you ignore Jakis dodgy Knees, my hernia and the general aches and pains of old age) we are wealthy enough and we are surrounded here and at home by friends and family.

What more could I want.

OK, Perhaps a Jaguar XJ6, but then I have always wanted one of them.

Santa?