Eric Nankivell builder’s labourer!

The good news is that Finca Fenix – our living quarters for the next 8 weeks does exist! Since I booked it on an internet booking site, there was always the possibility that it didn’t and that I’d been giving our money away to some ‘random’ named Mark! [Update 2020: We love Mark! We’ve kept in touch via Facebook and plan to spend a long weekend in Alora at Finca Fenix some time. We visit the northern hemisphere often enough! He is a top bloke and will make you feel so welcome!]. 

We arrived here late on Saturday and it looks just like it does on online. The gardens are beautiful and the pool is lovely and clean and blue (and cold!!!) – inside the house is perfect for us. A main bedroom with ensuite, a second bedroom (in case we have visitors) with ensuite, a living area with dining table, a usable and very clean and modern kitchen – with internet and TV (SKY is available, which means movies in English! YAY!!!). The house is very old and Mark and Kim the owners have spent many years doing it up. It is in a Spanish/Moorish style – with dark timbers and lots of Moroccan pieces.

The downs at the moment are mainly to do with my perceived expectation of privacy. Remember I said we wanted to love, sing and dance – I actually expanded on that when in Greece to ‘maybe’ skinny dipping in our pool (ha ha) which is a big deal for me!!! Well, with the owners living upstairs most of the above is not going to happen. Yes, so far they are doing a very good job of keeping to themselves – and they usually try to be away when they have visitors (after they’ve settled us in!) but there is a difference to having a cottage and grounds to yourself for two months and having intimate neighbours!

So far, Eric is very happy because I’ve been in the pool the two days we’ve been here (I don’t do pools!) and I bought a new swimsuit in Seville the other day just for the event 🙂 It’s pretty nice too!!! We want to learn Tai Chi while we are away (head space and enough down time to do it) and we’ve now started – with a session on each of our two days so far from DVDs copied on to Eric’s laptop. Boy do our shoulders and upper arms hurt!!

The weather is nice at the moment – 27 both days with 27/28 for the rest of the week – overnight as low as 18; so good sleeping too. The last month has been tricky for me sleeping – mostly to do with air conditioning and not being able to have the windows open!

We are right by a train line and under the pathway of flights coming into Malaga – but it’s okay. The trains are electric and not that noisy (I enjoy the sound of trains anyway) and planes overhead don’t bother me. It’s actually very interesting watching them take pretty much exactly the same flight path into Malaga – Eric says one of the mountains around us will be the landmark to turn at. They seriously do look like they’re flying the exact same path each time – which I find amazing, given that they are in the big wide sky, without white lines and signs!!

Mark (the landlord) gave us the quick tour of Alora when he collected us from the train on Saturday. It is so hilly!!! I have absolutely no confidence in a) walking up to our town and b) walking around our town and c) being alive afterwards!!!!

Eric had a quick ‘run’ up last night to see how hard it was – always thinking of me 😀 – and got back about an hour later. The first section is pretty much vertically up the hill – and (Ricco says) takes about 15 minutes! WAH!! Then apparently he only took another 45 minutes because he got lost!!! HA HA – Eric!!

He wants me to be brave and go for a walk with him soon – as it’s in the evening now (about 6.50 pm). The only reasons I’m considering this are a) chocolate b) something with icing on it c) icecream (there’s a theme here 🙂 ) d) we need coffee e) and something for dinner AND f) if we take too long to get to know our local ‘white’ village, we’ll never do it!!!

This post is going to go up before some others I’ve started writing but not posted yet – because then you’ll be up to date with where we are now. The others will be random ‘stories’ – Eric wants to do one on toilet flushes around the world! Seriously :)!

I’m checking into a couple of things at the moment. We are booked to visit Harry Potter world in Watford next weekend (but I think it is too soon after arriving in Alora) and we are trying to visit Rachel, Rachel and Becky while there – so I’m going to get the ticket date altered to Friday 18th October, if possible. Also, I’m just checking where exactly the Alhambra Palace is – so we can plan how to get there. We will travel some by train while we are here – and when necessary hire a car. I think getting to Granada for the Alhambra might be a car hire adventure.

Malaga our nearest city is easily accessible by train, so that will be an cool ‘day out’ coming up soon.

Well, I’d better wrap up – as my tummy is saying ‘STARVING’ and I’m sure Eric’s is too – he’s just being a gentleman and giving me time to psych myself up for the hill!!!

Love to all! Trish xxx