The Big Sweat!
The big sweat! ...
So, dear reader, yes, I know you are there, and we are here in the sweltering late thirties of another different summer in Spain. The big saving factor of course is that we are already geared up with air conditioning. In our case, we only have it in the bedrooms as we generally benefit from a through breeze from the door to the balcony over the drive, through to the front door on the other side of the villa. It’s one of the benefits of being three hundred metres up the side of a hill outside of the local township.
Having a pool right outside the front door is also just the bees’ knees in this weather and we jump in at least once a day. We’re not overlooked at all, so if our swim gear isn’t to hand, skinny dipping is often the choice! And since we installed a few coloured solar floods around the rock face above the terrace it’s particularly enjoyable after dark to just laze around in the pool late in the evening, when the temperature drops a whole couple of degrees! Of course, a small medicinal cocktail sat on the side of the pool steps, to be supped from at will, is just the poodles’ privates, as they say!
In actual fact, you will find that your washing basket takes much longer to fill up and you use much less heated water in your showers (sometimes twice a day!). Hot food for dinner is much less attractive too, so it all helps to offset the cost of running the air conditioning at night, so that sleep is easier to attain. Having said that, the beer bill soars to new heights! Even she who must be obeyed has taken a liking to a bottle of Corona whilst chilling in the pool!
On a totally different tack, it would appear that a burger restaurant in Valencia has been voted the best burger IN THE WORLD for the second year running. I am an honourable member of the “Curry Boys” gang. We regularly convene at our favourite local Nepalese restaurant in Gandia, hence the name! But our illustrious leader is currently investigating the logistics of the team travelling up to beautiful Valencia City to sample said delicacy and staying overnight to make the trip worthwhile. I hope Valencia is ready to receive us! It will also mean, of course, that there will not be the belittling spectacle of a group of middle aged …… OK, senior male citizens trying to run through the city to catch the last train home at ten thirty pm! Yes, for some reason that is the last train. And this in the country where half the population goes out to eat at ten pm! Hey Ho! Uncle Steve will sort it out!
I think that I may have mentioned before (No doubt at all – Ed) how musical this area is. Well, I can give you a very recent example: Yesterday in fact! A Dutch neighbour of ours on the hill attained the age of seventy-five years of age. We were invited to his Birthday Bash, along with many of their other friends, primarily also Dutch of course. Language never a problem, as we have learned in particular from one of our best friends here, also Dutch, when we asked him why so many Dutch people speak really good English, his response was, “Who the f%%k speaks Dutch?” Kinda makes sense, I guess! Anyway, I digress (Oh how unusual -Ed). We were made very welcome by our host and guided down on to the terrace where others were gathering, and a superb guitarist was playing in the background. He was introduced as one of their friends, as we noticed someone we had met before, who is a singer and was there to serenade. Long story short, yours truly ended up singing a few numbers, which appeared very well received, judging by the applause and compliments, and the whole party ended up as a bit of a musical evening one way or another. This often happens around here. Indeed, the music scene is, I would suggest, almost central to the social scene here in La Safor.
I can legitimately add that before we attended the above-mentioned party, some four hours to be exact, we were at Ruta 69, a relatively new venue for bands and singers just twenty minutes down the road, attending an Elvis Tribute act. Absolutely not my cup of tea at all, however it was a good Spanish friend of ours who was the act, so as we do here, we support our friends and those with the courage (Or stupidity -Ed), to get up on stage and entertain folks. We shall be there again in a couple of weeks for the monthly Rock Karaoke show. I´ll be working on a few numbers for that one. Then a couple of weeks later it is the Open Mike night, so I´m hoping I can get the other two boys of our band there and we´ll do a couple of numbers from our playlist, whilst we are waiting to get our bass player back from abroad.
But this is going on all over the place within about a fourty minute drive of Gandia. Then there are the established venues, such as the Garden Venue behind the Culture Centre in Gandia itself. A town centre location and very popular at weekends to go and catch up with your favourite bands or check out a new one. That´s not to mention the other ´big un´ in Gandia, The Dublin Pub, where you can get to see big well-known bands for very little outlay and during the summer, the ´Chirenguitos´ down on the beaches from Gandia to Oliva. Yep, you can´t get lost looking for the Gandia area. You just open your ears and listen for the music!
We did venture down to the beach the other day. The motor scooter is really handy for that. A large number of citizens of that great city have holiday homes here in Gandia, so the roads tend to be full of traffic near the main Gandia beach. Parking is almost non-existent. Blah blah blah! (Translated as “flipping tourists” I believe -Ed), however you can use the handy underground carparks that bring you up onto the beach front, but those you have to pay for. However, on the scooter, it´s a pleasant and easy ride to our favourite part of the huge beach area and always somewhere to park the scoot. The water is reaching its peak temperature I reckon. Earlier than usual, but obviously down to the protracted and early super high temperatures and in my opinion (Here we go – Ed), no, seriously, Wolfie, I reckon it´s down to the fact that there is so little difference between day and night temperatures. For some time now, we have not had anything lower than mid-twenties all night and often as high as twenty-six and twenty-seven in the middle of the night. So, just like our pool, the water temperature stays high ready for the sun the next day. Personally speaking, (Really??? – Ed), I like it. I´m not a cold-water bather. I need twenty-four or twenty-five degrees in the pool before I don´t have to clench my teeth when entering the water. But of course, from an eco-point of view, it isn´t good news for weather patterns. Mind you, I think the number of wars going on and volcanoes erupting and suchlike, they have a great deal more to do with climate change that our car. But let´s not get into that eh!
¡Nos vemos amigos! Yes, I know that some of you are female, so I should add amigas’, as I am addressing male and female readers, here in Spain I have to use the male derivative. So glad you asked! Did you also notice the inverted exclamation mark at the commencement of my parting riposte?
Tarra then! Until next time ………..
