Debbies Adventures

What's been happening ??

2007-10-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

Good Morning,

Well after my quick message on Friday, I thought I would start to update you on the last 12 months, well if any one's interested of course!!

Russell's business continues to go from strength to strength and he is now employing 3 people, Ashley who is here in Spain and Gaby and Mady in Romania. We went to visit them in Romania in February and had a really good time and found the country really interesting. Gaby and Mady also had their first holiday outside of Romania and came to visit us last month which they seemed to really enjoy.

In April this year, we decided the time had come to move nearer the coast. The main reason being that Russell was spending most of his day driving up and down the mountain road, to visit clients but also because we both really enjoy going out in Nerja in the evening and the 40 minute drive back up the mountain was a bit off putting!! Although we do now have my little Jimny as well as the MX5 but that's another story!

We put our lovely house on the market and it is has now been sold, with completion set for next month. We are currently renting a penthouse apartment between Nerja and Torrox and really love being so close to the sea. We can hear the waves from our bedroom and lounge, really calming...
And what of Leroy? I hear you ask. Well he is now an attico cat and seems to like it, particularly as he has learnt how to climb over to next doors terrace and use their flowerbeds for.........

We are looking to buy another house down here on the coast and had had an offer accepted on one we both really loved, that is until yesterday when someone else came in with an offer and that was accepted instead !! Yes, it happens over here too!!! So we are now back looking again but hey ho....

Anyway , enough for today, I will do more updates during the week

Debbie

I'm back !!!

2007-10-19T10:24:00.000-07:00

Hello world!!

Have you missed me? OK don't answer that....

As you can see Russell has kindly updated my website for me( I am sorry to the people who used the old one to see what the weather was like here in the Malaga region) As you can also see we are now living on the coast.

I am now going to be updating on a regular basis. Yeah Yeah I hear you say, but for the moment I need to prepare dinner.

Another update with all our news will come on Monday.

Have a good weekend.

More news from abroad

2006-09-20T23:40:00.000-07:00

How are you all ??

We are good thank you. We have just got back from a few days in Portugal, where we stayed with Mum and Dad and some of their friends in a really lovely villa. Wall to wall luxury !!.

We drove down in our little MX5, it took about 5 hours but was an easy journey ( due to the fact that Russell did all the driving !!) and it was good to see more of the country and Mum and Dad.

The weekend before was Russell's birthday and I had arranged a surprise party for him in one of the local bars. There were about 30 people there and we had Paella, salads, wine and of course birthday cake. It is amazing how good my Spanish is when it comes to ordering food and wine. Russell was really pleased with how many people were there and a good time was had by all.

We then had some really rotten weather for a couple of days, including a very long and loud thunderstorm that managed to crash our internet provider for a few days, so it was a good thing we did go away.

This weekend we have Eddie and Sarah coming over and then Simon is coming so I will be in touch again after that.

I am also going to try to put some photos on here that Russell has taken with his new and very posh camera !! ( I know, I know, I am always promising photos !!)

Hasta Luego,

Debbie

Another two months have gone by !!!

2006-09-07T00:07:00.000-07:00

Well what can I say?? I dont know if anyone still reads this as I am so bad at updating things but if you do I am so sorry. My only excuse is that time passes so quickly. I promise I will try to do better.

Well what has happened since I last wrote?? Well it seems every village in Spain has had a fiesta ( ours included) These are not like the village fetes in the UK. Oh no, these go on for 3-4 days and on those days almost 24 hours !! There are fun fairs, foam parties ( Russell enjoyed these!!) live bands and ofcourse lots of drink!! However by 7.30 on the Monday morning (after it started on the Friday evening) it was all wearing a bit thin !!

We have also had my family over during July and August, so we have been Go-karting, to the water parks and the beach, all of which was really good fun as we never seem to get time when we are here on our own. Also Teresa, Neil and Eleanor were over aswell so it was great to catch up with them..

Now to the weather... I don't want to moan because those of you who know me know that it is not in my nature !! but it's been hot hot hot !! Now I know the weather was one of the reasons we came here but I don't think anything can prepare you for the heat all day everyday until you spend a lot of time in it and ofcourse in the past we have been on holiday not working, doing housework and shopping in it. Can you imagine carrying your weekly shopping up 3 flights of stairs in temperatures of 45 degrees? well we can!!

We have also managed to get away for a few days. We went to Ronda which was lovely, as was www.laguzmana.com where we stayed. This was a really beautiful converted finca just outside Ronda and I am afraid the two days we had there just wasn't enough, so Peter if you are reading this we will be back!! We then went on to a lovely posada in Alajar www.laposadadealajar.com This was a lovely white village ( a bit like ours) and Lucy, Angel and their beautiful baby Sophia made us feel very welcome.

Anyway you are probably all bored rigid now, so I will leave you to your day. I will write soon and let you know what we did for Russell's birthday ( on Sunday !) and also how our drive down to Portugal ( next week ) went..

Adios.

Debbie

Summer's here and there!!

2006-07-03T07:33:00.000-07:00

Hola mi Amigos,

Well, Summer is certainly here now. For the last two weeks the sky has been blue and the temperature is now in the 30's every day!! Aparently we are going to have a heatwave this year and can expect temperatures of about 45. Can't wait for that to happen!!Neither can Leroy who is finding it ever so tiring lazing on the terrace all day...I'm also pleased you're all having good weather in the UK too, Have MFB got air conditioning yet????

Loads has happened with us since I last wrote and not all of it nice I'm afraid.
First my great Aunt Mollie died which was very sad and we will all miss her loads although it's nice to think she is at peace now.

Then Russell had to go back to England on business for five days and left me here all on my own ( Thanks to all my friends and family for all those supportive phone calls !!- (that is being written in a sarcastic tone in case you hadn't noticed) Still you will be pleased to hear I coped very well, even after dropping him off at the airport and getting out of there on my own!!

We then had more bad news in that Russell's Nan has been taken very ill and is still in hospital in Bury St Edmunds. We are all keeping our fingers crossed and hope that she will get better soon.

Russell got back from England last Monday and I left on Tuesday for the funeral and came back on Thursday with a stincking cold!! on top of all of this England lost on penalties again and I can't even support Spain anymore. I don't think I could bear a Germany- France final- I think I will support the Italians for a change and by all accounts they need a bit of support at the moment....

Anyway, I had better go as I have to do some more recipes for www.expatations.com
Have you had a look at the website yet or tried some of my marvelous recipes???

I'm not sure if anyone is reading this anymore but I will write soon.

Love Do-dah xx

Latest News

2006-06-12T08:21:00.000-07:00

How are you all??

I just thought I would give you an update on things over here since my last notes.

Well we have had the outside of the house rendered and at the moment it is all being painted white so it will look really smart, that is if the man who is painting the front door ever turns up. The door is going to be painted amarillo ( yellow for you non-speaking Spanish) to match the windows and the ironwork is all dark azul ( blue) .
We are going to be updating the website in a few days so I will post a picture for you all to see, you can then also admire our lovely street flowers ( which we are still watering)

Talking of watering flowers we have taken a tip from Ron Noakes of Tonbridge, this will also be useful for all you people in the South of England with a water shortage- so pay attention....
When we run our shower, we put a bucket of water underneath whilst the hot water is running through, we then use this to water our flowers on a daily basis, being very careful that the handles do not give way and we don't flood the house!! that's right isn't it Ron??

Anyway back to my update. We spent our anniversary weekend in Gibralter. We are actually only a couple of hours from Gibralter so it was an ideal place to visit and stock up on some duty free items!! and there is a Morrison's there so we could buy sausages, bacon, mature cheddar and strong pickled onions!! Bliss..
Gibralter is quite an unusual place, obviously very historic and apparently there are 365 pubs there ( so my brother-in-law tells me!!- I think he has drunk in most of them) it's like a town in England really and also the weather changes as you cross the border to and from Spain- there is more cloud and wind in Gibralter.
We did have a really nice weekend there and I even managed to sneak into Marks and Spencers for a little bit of retail therapy.

Since then we have both been busy, Russell has finished another website for our friend Steve Brogan, have a look and see what you think. www.brogan-properties.eu and also for a garage in Tonbridge www.nevllfixit.co.uk and has more on the way, including a teddy bear shop in Torre del Mar, I can't wait for that one...

Anyway enough of my ramblings, the flowers need watering.........

Luego.

Sorry, Sorry Sorry!!!

2006-05-18T06:15:00.000-07:00

I really am sorry for not having put anything on my diary for some time now but the time goes so quickly here in Sunny Spain.

I have had quite a few comments from people regarding the fact that I have not been updating ( mainly Colin who quite obviously has nothing better to do in the afternoons!!) so I will now endeavour to keep it updated on a regular basis.

Well what has been happening here...

We have been really busy, Russell's business is going really well and he has been working extremly hard at developing his new website www.expatations.com and I am still working for the best mortgage broker in the UK !! www.propertyinvestorfinance.co.uk

We have decorated the kitchen and painted the terrace (twice !!) If we have one more visitor who puts their dirty shoes up the nice white walls, I will throw them over the terrace myself !!

We have been spending lots of money on plants and it now takes longer to water all our plants on the terrace and window boxes then it did to water the whole garden in our house in the UK !! We are also watering the plants in the street at the moment so there's another reason why I hav'nt had time to 'blog'.

Leroy is now fully settled as a Spanish cat. He spends all day lying on the terrace, moving from one shady spot to another and watching the swifts darting past him as they build their nests. he is even starting to look a bit like a Spanish cat -- dusty!!.

We have had a few visitors since we got back in March. Simon came for a few days as did Teresa, Neil and Eleanor and then at the beginning of May my Mum and Dad came over as a surprise ( well obviously Russell knew!!) which was great. I have just spent a few days in England doing some training but it was lovely to see the 'Ricketts' family again along with the new addition 'Chutney'.

We are both still going to Spanish classes, Russell goes for 4 hours a week and I go for 1 so you can imagine who is the best Spanish speaker out of us both..Yes that's right, ME!! Not really, Russell is, as I am still learning the millions of verbs!! but our neighbour across the road ( remember her from when we first arrived here) is really helpful and I am now able to speak to her a lot more than I did, which must mean I'm improving.

Anyway I had better close now as you have probably all lost the will to live reading my ramblings but I promise 'I'll be back'.

Adios Amigos.

We're back !!!

2006-03-07T07:06:00.000-08:00

Sorry I havn't put anything on the site for a while but we have just been over to the UK for three weeks.

We had a great time and it was lovely to see everyone, and a special mention to my sister who had her 40th birthday whilst we were there ( oops probably not supposed to mention that!!) and also to Jonathan ( Jonny) Ricketts who had his 11th. Great disco!!
We are sorry to anyone that we did not see but three weeks seems like a long time but it goes really quickly!!

We arrived back on Sunday and everything in the house was fine, apart from no power on one of the floors ( this has now been rectified) and our very expensive BBQ cover !! has blown away on the terrace, and our plants have got wind burn !!Apparently the winds have been really strong and it's been really cold while we have been away(made us feel better).
Yesterday and today have been lovely though and I drove down to the coast this morning to pick Leroy up from the cattery ( we thought this the safest option!!) with the roof down and no jacket. All the blossom is coming out and everywhere looked really pretty, I could even smell the Spring until Leroy left another smell in the cat basket!!

I will now be writing more regularly again and after some rather cutting feedback on my film making! will be practising before posting some further clips of Canillas.

Speak soon

Snow

2006-01-29T08:27:00.000-08:00

Have a look at the pictures!!
Yes, this morning we woke up to snow!! About 1 and a 1/2 inches according to Russell!!
It has all gone now though, there was a massive thaw and this afternoon turned out to be quite warm,We have even sat on the terrace in the sunshine.
The locals were very excited to have snow but personally I can't get that excited about it, it is too much like Cowden last February!! without the central heating!!

The patron saint of animals

2006-01-26T03:56:00.000-08:00

Last weekend there was a festival in the village to celebrate St Anton, the patron saint of animals.
It started on the 17th, when you could take your animal to be blessed by the priest at the church ( Leroy didn't want to go !!) but the real celebrations were over the weekend !!
On the Saturday there were lots of fire crackers going off, these are like small bombs!! they just make a big bang and frighten all the animals that the festival is supposed to be for !! In the evening there was a lovely firework display ( proper fireworks this time) a fun fair and at about 10.30pm a party started in the square with a band and drink etc and ofcourse there were still more fire crackers !! It was a really good evening/morning. On the Sunday ( a beautiful sunny day ) there were lots of men riding horses into the village ( along with setting off more fire crackers) and the party continued!!

I would like to apologise to Sarah and Eddie for all the noise ( they stayed with us for the weekend) but hopefully they saw the real Spain and the real Canillas.

Our village

2006-01-12T03:52:00.000-08:00

Well, we have now been in Spain for over 10 weeks and I thought it was time just to let you know a bit about our village as I don't think I've done that yet.

Canillas De Albaida has a population of approximatly 1000 people, obviously the large majority being Spanish but with a spattering of British, German and Norwegian among them.

There are 3 'supermarkets', a chemist, bank and 3 churches not to mention 5 or 6 bars/restaurants all of which we are now known in !! Nearby, the village of Competa has even more, so there is never a problem of finding somewhere to eat.

The village is 800 metres above sea level so as you imagine we have fantastic views of the coast below us and the mountains behind us. The only drawback for this fantastic backdrop are the two roads coming up from the coast, they take a bit of getting used to, as I am sure our visitors so far can vouch for!! The weather up here is also a bit cooler than on the coast which I am sure we will be really glad of during the summer months, although I can do without it at the moment.

Our neighbours have all been very friendly to us and seem to make allowances for the fact that we are still learning their language, although Russell seems to be able to have conversations with most of the women of the village anyway!! and I am now a familiar sight in the Post Office ( oh yes we have one of these too, open between 11am and 12, daily) collecting the post which should really be delivered!!

I must go now as I am busy looking for Villas for a large party of guests who are hoping to come in the summer!!( you know who you are) Will speak soon and please feel free to comment, I would love to hear from you all and it would give my Dad a break!!

Happy New Year

2006-01-03T09:14:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to wish you all a very Happy New Year.
I will soon be back doing notes and updating you all,but I would like you all to know that the weather is beautiful here at the moment.We even had a BBQ yesterday!!

Was that Joe Cole ??

2005-12-19T00:20:00.000-08:00

I am sorry for all you non-Chelsea fans, but I just had to mention our 2-0 victory over the once mighty Arsenal yesterday!!

Where are you Dad, is that eighth??

Everyone have a nice lunch !!

2005-12-16T04:11:00.000-08:00

Hi there,

As we are now getting nearer Christmas, it seems that today everyone back in England is having their Christmas lunch/party and I am feeling very left out!! Christmas in Spain seems very different to England, which I suppose may be a good thing as at least I wont get a hangover!!

Our village has decorations up which look lovely and some houses have lights outside aswell but generally it's a much quieter affair. The big celebrations here are Christmas Eve and then Kings day( I think thats what its called) on the 6th January.This is when all the children have their presents. Oh yes and the 22nd December is also a big day as everyone buys a 'Lotaria Navidad' ticket and there are apparently great celebrations!!

Anyway I would like to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and New Year and thank you all for reading and I promise the photos are coming!!

Speak soon xx

Leroy's here!!

2005-12-05T04:25:00.000-08:00

Just to let you all know that Leroy arrived last night safe and well.

Russell picked him up from Malaga airport and they got back here about 10pm. Leroy was very chilled and had some chicken and milk and then just wandered about taking everything in. He hasnt cried at all but I think he misses Jonathan and Oliver a little bit.

He seems to like running up and down the stairs, which is just as well really ( there are so many of them) and he has been looking at the views out of the kitchen window.

We would like to thank the Ricketts family for looking after him so well (well apart from a little glitch !!) and we are really glad to see him again.

Bye for now!

Sorry!!

2005-11-30T00:08:00.000-08:00

I would like to say sorry to everyone who has been waiting for the pictures of the house, they are coming but my parents have been staying with us for the last few days so things have been a bit hectic.

This was the first time Mum and Dad had seen the house and I think they liked what they saw! The weather was good albeit a bit cold in the evenings ( especially in the house) no heating yet you see!! and Dad met some of the locals and he and Russell spent the evening explaining the difference between Irish whiskey and Scottish whisky to them.I think they tried quite a lot too!

Anyway it was lovely having them here and I would like to thank them for all the bits and pieces they brought with them, especially the hot and spicy pickled onions !!

We are now going to concentrate on getting the rest of the house finished and are both looking forward to Leroy arriving on Sunday. Lets hope he remembers us!!

The Village People.

2005-11-18T13:30:00.000-08:00

We are going to put the photos on, honestly!! We've just been a bit busy with the building works, decorating and trying to earn an income!

Anyway, I thought I would just do a little piece on some of the characters we have met here in the village over last couple of weeks.

The first one is 'Russells' friend'. He is an old man who when Russell was putting some of our rubbish and boxes outside to take to the dump started shouting and gesticulating at the mess.Fearful we had upset him by making a mess on the street, we were most amazed when he started carrying it off.Russell quickly caught on and helped him carry our rubbish away to his house chatting as they went in some sort of foreign language.The man then offered Russell a beer,obviously for his help!! It turns out that the old man makes the local wine in the bodega next to our house and his favourite pastime is drinking this lethal cocktail!!

The second man, we have named 'potato head'! not for any unkind reason but only for the fact that we have seen him round about in most of the bars whilst we have been in them, always on his own, apart from the other night when he was having a meal and took out of his carrier bag what can only be described as a very large potato, put it on the table and spent the evening watching it very carefully!!

Lastly our neighbours across the road.They are lovely Spanish people and have been most kind to us, even inviting us in for a drink, although we are not sure when the invite is for!
When our furniture arrived it appeared that our brand new sofa was not going to get into the house but rest assured that our neighbour and a very big hammer quickly knocked out our wrought iron stairway thus enabling our furniture to go in.There was lots of laughter and chatting from the Spanish saying this always happened, lots of rubble and dust and also a few tears from me at the mess.

We're Here !!!

2005-11-13T20:03:00.000-08:00

Well actually we've been in the village for 2 weeks now, but have only just got the office and broadband sorted out!!

Anyway you will not be surprised to know that things move quite slowly in Spain!! For example our tiles for the kitchen and shower room took 2 weeks to arrive and this is from a country who supply tiles to the world!! We are therefore still living in a bomb site and only the office and 2 of the bedrooms are finished but hey ho the wine's cheap!!

For those of you who are aware of the scare we had with Leroy, you will be pleased to know that he is back with the Ricketts family safe and sound and hopefully will stay that way until he is well enough to fly!! I will do a story later this week on his adventures but would like to thank both my Sister and Nick Coffin for their help!!

During this week, I will be posting some of the pictures we took during the drive down through Spain( I would recomend this trip to everyone) and I will also be doing regular updates again. Thank you to everyone who has sent messages back, it's really nice to know that people are interested.

Is there any one out there!!

2005-10-18T20:10:00.000-07:00

If anyone is looking at my website and is vaguely interested, we are leaving for Spain next week.Our furniture goes on Tuesday and we start our drive down on Wednesday,catching the evening ferry from Plymouth.We should arrive in our little village on the Sunday.

The builder has started work on the house and by all accounts (well his anyway!) things are going well. Leroy is staying with his favourite nephews, Jonathan & Oliver for a couple of weeks until the furniture arrives and then he will fly out to join us.

So I will be a little quiet here for a couple of weeks (who said hooray?) but hopefully next time I 'blog on' we will be in our new house in Spain and maybe the sun will be shining??

Take care.

How to comment on my website.

2005-10-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

If any of you would like to comment on the dribble that I write about, I would be really happy to hear from you.

When you read the latest post, at the end there is a link saying 'comments' , if you click here then it will take you to Blogger. You can then register here at no cost and then comment on my thoughts to your hearts content (you'll only need to register once).

You can also email me at debbie@debbies-adventures.com

I look forward to hearing from you all!!

Football, Football,Football

2005-10-08T18:45:00.000-07:00

Can anyone tell me, have Spain qualified for the World Cup ? If so, guess whom I'm going to support !!
When is Sven going to realise the only person capable of being captain of England is John Terry!!The sooner he does the better, I also think that Frank Lampard should be vice Captain, if there is such a thing. If people reading this don't know, they might want to guess which great English team I support.

Anyway for an update on our Spanish adventure--we are now definitly leaving Blighty the week of the 24th.Leroy is our only real issue now, it would be cheaper for us to fly to Australia than get him to Spain!! but rest assured he will be coming!

I am concerned that I have had no comments so I will be advising you all in the next few days on how to 'blog on'.

Talk soon xx

Tonbridge Angels

2005-10-02T19:10:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to say 'Well Done' to Jonathan and Oliver for their skills on the pitch this weekend for Tonbridge Angels.

'Jonny' (as he's known on the pitch) and his team won 4-3 and whilst 'Ollys' team lost 4-2, this was by no means down to the skill of the goalkeeper!!

We will miss standing on a freezing pitch on a Sunday morning at 10.00 am!! and look forward to receiving our weekly updates as to how much Grandad owes the 'Goal' kitty!

My first week at home

2005-09-30T18:40:00.000-07:00

Well this week has certainly gone quickly, but I have managed to get lot's done.
I have really missed all the people I worked with, I thought it would feel like I was on holiday to start with but it does seem more final than that.Thanks to all those who kept me updated with the gossip though and keep it coming!!

As you can see I still havn't managed to change the awful photo and I need to update my 'favourite list' as I don't even eat wotsits!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend and a very Happy Birthday to Derek Capon!!

My top ten favourite things

2005-09-26T19:23:00.000-07:00

Please ignore this list! I will not miss boot fairs!! I've only ever been to one once.

The crisps, now they are a different matter!!

Anyway this will be updated properly very soon.

My first update

2005-09-24T20:09:00.000-07:00

It's taken us almost a year to get where we are and most of that is by Russell's sheer determination,but our house here in England has been sold,the house in Spain brought.Leroy has his Pet Passport and yesterday was my last day at work!!We move to Spain permantly in October.

I wanted to be able to keep in touch with my family and friends exactly the same as I do at the moment and when Russell came up with this idea I thought it was wonderful, although the web address is taking a bit of getting used to and so is the awful photo(must get that changed)!!