Back in the UK

2/12 Glasgow with the Nobles

We all slept like kings in their 5 star hotel heated throughout whilst the snow and sleet added a soft dusting to the overnight fall.  Our best bed since January 2012.

Carol made a porridge for brekkie after which we rugged up to take a walk through the neighbouring woods & gardens where we simply couldn’t get enough of the patterned frozen leaves, the puddles converted to fairy ice-rinks, frozen ponds where ducks crazily crash landed skidding about, delicious looking pebbles which when coated in icicles looked like crystallized ginger and our noses turned painfully red & streamed madly.

snow angels

Angus and Wil

Kel and Finlay

We collected David from his teen sleep in and skated the short distance to the local pub for an Italian lunch, served by real Italians with Glaswegian accents.

The rest of the day was spent playing, talking by the fire, and eating dessert.  We decided to go to bed earlier at midnight. 

3/12  SWATMAN’S in Leeds/Bradford

The Noble kids woke in the dark, shrugged off breakfast and wandered into the quiet eerie snowed streets, guided only by moonlight to catch their 0745 school bus.  Impressive, understated, superwoman Carol zipped off in glam stylish gear for powerful meetings in Edinburgh & we indulged in more chats with Jimmy waiting for our hire car, a 4WD Honda CRV to arrive at Steve’s.  Whilst costing more, Jeff made an excellent decision because of these unfamiliar driving conditions with sleet, ice, early dark at 1630 and all day low (blinding) sun.

midday sun

5 hours later, we and our brilliant passengers arrived at Leed’s hospital where we were surprised by a bright eyed, remarkably healthy looking Steve and a pretty & elegant as ever Glen, all ready to walk out in the cold to their favourite nearby Chinese.  To see Steve’s eyes so full of sparkling life and his mouth bent to a perpetual grin was a surprise to us, and a testament to his underlying spirit, and the ever present magnificence of his wise, loving wife Glen.  What a year they’ve had - wall to wall needles, tests, scans, infusions, transfusions, pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, temporary blindness, CMV, good news then bad - hopefully it’s all good news from here.

   

At the restaurant Wil held the floor, conversing energetically with such large curious eyes with folk that just drank up his travelling stories.  Afterward, Glen took us back to Steve’s MIL’s apartment where we crashed in a studio for only 6 pounds.

4/12  OXFORD

We slurped more divine porridge (the kid’s with a huge tablespoon of nutella stirred through) back at Glen’s and passed time too quickly sharing European travel yarns with a like minded, generous and intelligent woman.  We really hope she and Steve make it back to Oz.  Back in the car, we drove for another 4-5 hours past Giggleswick, Wigglesworth, and Kidlington. (all BK towns of course) before  arriving right in the heart of gorgeous gracious old Oxford.  Kel recounted a scene from a book as we drove and mispronounced ‘corgy dog”.  When Jen corrected her and mentioned the Queen has two, Wil exclaimed “really! Mum doesn’t have dogs so why does the Queen??!” 

An ancient tumbled down pub with sloping floors called the “White Horse” beckoned us in for a ‘linner’ of pies & mash by which time it was pitch dark (only 1630) and all the splendid Xmas lights & trees lined all the enchanting little cobbled alleyways.  We walked the small streets and maze of little arcades to the joyful chiming of the kid’s voices as the excitedly recognized scene settings for many of the Harry Potter movies.

Our room for the night was hidden behind a dry, dusty Best Western facade which Kel reckons was like Hermione’s bag, for inside was a plump Xmas tree, a toasty reception staffed by a soft round warm spirited woman with welcoming lounge room like bars and breakfast rooms coming off the sides.  Our family suite was magnificent with juicily dressed beds (the kids even had one each), floorspace enough to dance around and a……..bath.

So we thawed out, cleaned up and crawled into bed at the ridiculous hour of 1800.

5/12  OXFORD to TONBRIDGE (in Kent)

Today we had that enormous full English breakfast minus fibre and then walked into Oxford to explore the largest English bookshop in the world (Blackwells), only some of the many colleges (the finest of which was Christchurch where HPs college hall is) gorgeous Christopher Wren architecture, examination halls, more HP back streets and fields with large shallow frozen puddles that the ducks still attempted crash landings.  As we walked the covered market, Wil kicked off an impassioned discussion of how he plans to come here to live & study even down to the detail of working part-time in the cake decorating shop. 

Harry on a wedding cake??

Another 3-4 hour drive against the killer low sun flickering through the tall bare trees, and midnight darkness by 1630 took us into Quentin Gallie’s small town of Tonbridge where we checked into another wonderful B&B with huge soft beds.  Quent took us to his wonderful ‘local’ with the characteristic fit out having one feel one is in someone’s lounge room around a toasty fire whilst Caitlin had a biology tutor visit and Elaine finished up some work.

Tonbridge Sunset

We were wined and dined with their house specialty of yummy spaghetti bolognese, skyped young Kieran in Copenhagen and chatted on famously ‘til late.

6/12  ROWDY’S

Feeling stuffed with food, we got up lazily, but struggling with mild URTI which is inevitable now having been in close company with people again.  We squeezed a coffee in with Quent in town before making our way into London’s Muswell Hill where Rowdy & Maria live in a huge magnificent home that bursts into life with the energies of three beautiful characters, Aiden (8), Jasmine (6) and Louie (4).  Our 2 added more fuel and the tornado of little people slid and screeched about the place before hitting bed allowing us 4 to enjoy an excellent lamb shank dinner.  We burnt the midnight oil once again but breaking it off was easier this time as their family is coming to Oz in 3 weeks where a pack of Jeff’s mates are planning a get together  - this time in the sun!

7/12  PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES

Up with the Garske family at 0630 as they readied for school.  Rowdy and Maria had some morning time to share and Wil dropped his compliment of the year calling Jeff an archetypal Renaissance Man essentially being able to turn his hand & mind to anything!

Aiden - afebrile

We sorted the luggage AGAIN and put on a wash, rugged up and walked out in to the woods adjacent to their backyard.  Frozen silly after a few hours, we found our way into town and sniffed out a huge HOT lentil soup.  With a thermos in our bellies, we rolled back down to Rowdy’s, had a shower and massive chuck out of redundant winter things and made for the airport at 1400.  We got stuck on the northern ring around London, the world’s largest carpark making our 45 min trip into just under 2 hours. We had time.  A shuttle drove us for miles to the departure lounge from the car hire and then the usual London queues occupied us for a few hours.  Finally checked in, we welcomed a coffee and then Jeff ducked of to buy the kids a thank you gift we’d planned for months...he also bought himself a Xmas pressie of jolly impressive Beats headphones.

We climbed onto the plane twitchy and exhausted for doing NOTHING at 2100. Can’t wait for the otherside to run in the sun and eat fibre!

Torrievieja and the sale of Ed

25/11 Our last day in Ed

Like kids on Christmas morning, we kept checking the time beneath the bedsheets waiting for the sun to come up before setting off on our bike ride and thus kick starting the day. Finally at 0745 we were off and for the first time this year, didn’t need a camera on the boring ride on endless bike paths paralleling the Costa Highrise.

The kids worked like champions alongside us, polishing around windows, cleaning sand from door runners, replacing snapped curtain ring holders and presstuds, streamlining the contents of the shed, doing a load of washing including throwing out clothes, socks & jocks that are too small, too threadbare, too dirty and filling up an enormous garbage bag of rubbish from Ed most of which were reams of small booklets made by Kel.

3rd time lucky

On a roll, we found it hard to stop for lunch only all agreeing at about 1530. The boys broke it up for a skate into town whilst the girls prettied Ed’s upholstery. 

We were buoyed toward the finish line by another confirmatory test from Elaine & Steve agreeing to meet for ‘The Sale’ in 2 days as well as e-mails from UK mates we hope to catch up with next week.

26/11

Hard to get used to this late sunrise but the parents went for a run down to the mill pond Mediterranean, then along the waterfront, noticing how amazingly well infra-structured this part of Spain is after recently being in Italy.  Spectacular tiled boulevards by the sea, green spaces everywhere, kids playgrounds, petanque courts, picnic tables, bike ways, even footpaths & cycle paths (not too many foot paths in Sicily).  But where are the people?

Savoured our last breakfast in Ed (fingers crossed) and then moved across to the cabin where thankfully we were allowed to park Ed next door.  The kids moved everything in and we went at it cleaning and scrubbing and buffing the insides and tossing a heap of junk that will be no use to us or Steve and Elaine.

The kids then occupied themselves playing in the cabin, skating, docking in and out to check our progress, ferrying washing to and fro.  A snack on the balcony and back into it.

By 4 we were done - the inside sparkling and fresh, all the upholstery cleaned, the seat covers left by Glen and Steve grey with dirt, underneath the seats as new - thanks Glen!

Jen cooked a magnificent satay prawns and fat shell pasta, the kids showered and the olds sorted more junk, post home, UK gear and RSA gear and then Jen went off to do a yoga class (with Jude’s sister!) while the kids watched another Harry Potter. 

27/11 Meeting The Buyers

It rained in Spain, and it blew a gale too.  All night!  The morning was darker with full cloud cover, rips of wind and drizzle but the troops were up & off to the car wash where the first 2-3 hours of our day were lovingly spent washing & polishing up Ed for the last time.  An icy wind coloured our lips blue, stood the hairs up on the kids LONG skinny bare legs and blew on our wet feet as we splashed about in the car wash leaving them completely numb but at the same time, strangely painful.  The kids kept ducked in & out of the heated toilet block to regain some feeling in their fingers & toes, skipping & giggling nonetheless.  The job was done and we all thawed out in a shower followed by a cuppa.  Wil on skates & Jen on bike made for the local Chinese €2 shop to find some Christmassy large fluffy silver & blue tinsel to wrap around Ed’s windscreen wipers and a celebratory bottle of bubbles to share with the new owners when the deal is done.

The buyers arrived as we watched from our bungalow window & circled Ed for some time who was parked beneath a flapping UK flag and shining handsomely in the sun.

We met Elaine and Steve who seemed very pleased with Ed, Elaine and Jen went back to the cabin to chat while Steve poured over Ed for a couple of hours of minor problems intimating that he had been mislead (can’t put me feet up, where’s the TV aerial, don’t want to spend any extra $, you’ve hammered the table top, the back bed is too high, the layout in my van is better, where is the electric oven you advertised (in Glen & Steve’s previous owner's ad, NOT ours), there’s not much space in here, the TV is not connected…..)  We gave them heaps of opportunity to ask questions and get more pics before we decided to come to Spain to se them.  Steve reckons he was only “happy-ish” and Elaine tried to smooth things over for now allowing more time to bend us over further later.   Plans were made to meet them at theirs tomorrow from where we’ll do the deal at the bank.  

Hungry & tired, we cooked up a satay chicken curry between skates and chapters of our books and took an easy bike ride along the esplanade marveling at the pinky blue sky in which a plump setting sun behind us faced off with a rising full shiny bright moon over the Med.

Then we received the predictable text demanding a “reasonable” reduction in the price by €500 (beyond the €2500 we had already taken off and despite the promise they would not try to lower the price further when we got here) because of the things Ed does not have - and never had if they’d read the extensive ad & looked at the volumes of photos we sent properly.   

Finally, after we rode out in the cold night to a phone box to respond to their text, they sent another text confirming a new price of €34,700, which we agreed to,  Karma will catch up with them.

Another restless night followed with banging shutters and second guessing their next nit-picking unscrupulous move.  

28/11 D-day!

We took Ed for a final spin into Pilar de la Horadada to post home all sorts thus lighting our  baggage load - we’ve worked out we’ll be staying in 17 different places before getting home to Castile Street.  Our iPhone navigation ran out of charge, so back to campsite for connectors & finally on our way.  Jeff sat quietly refluxing & scrolling over plan B of driving across Spain, to ferry, to Graham’s dealership, probably missing the flights to Glascow, not seeing Jimmy or Glen….but realising, no matter what, we’ve had a priceless year and whatever happens now will work out just fine.

We pulled up outside Elaine & Steve’s place where they piled into Ed and we choofed straight to the bank.  Jen took the kids into a bookstore leaving Jeff to do the final transaction.  No surprise, we were expected to pay all their banking fees - €138!  Eventually agreed to pay 1/2 that.  After a coffee they dropped us home where we chatted for a while hoping the money would come through.  With no luck after an hour or so, we bade them farewell, they took Ed with plans to meet in a few days when Steve will come by for the bikes that he’ll flog off.  

Our magnificent children were absolutely beautiful, quiet, patient, respectful and earned themselves €20 for the last 3 days of cleaning and waiting.

boy shoppers

With softer winds and clear late afternoon skies, the olds set off for a magic 43 min run along the beautiful broad, tiled esplanade outlined with rows of tall healthy palms, white washed walls & sweeping curved staircases to the endless still uncluttered ocean.  The miles of gorgeous esplanades & magnificent sunsets together with some of the wonderful Spanish architecture characterized by torre-like features & tiled staircases and entry steps make up a little for the otherwise ugly overdeveloped, barren Costa Blanca strip.  The kids stayed in to read & play.  Back home a soccer tournament filled the last lights, the boys set off on bikes & skates to stock up on final bits of shopping and the girls cooked up a feast of chimichurri mince spaghetti.

29/11 Oh Lazy Thursday

Woke having slept well and long, with nothing to do in a hurry, except have breakfast (porridge!), skype the grandmothers, have a family gym session (the kids used the machines while the olds did a 10BX) and then a loll in the spa pool getting a back and scalp massage from the massive water spurts.

The rest of the day was spent playing about with BK’s, planning, chatting, tea and coffeeing, and then a haircut for the squids.  Lo Monte camping found a hairdresser, made the appointment and ran us there is a bus - all for free.  The kids and Jen spent a delectable 2 hours with Antonio who fussed over them delivering the best haircuts each of them have ever had.  Kel bounced out with a glorious cute wee bobby showing off her tiny pert face and Wil all of a sudden looks like a man.  Jen indicated a number 3 as Wil sat in the chair but Antonio had other ideas.

Then we received the email from Rowdy that the money was in the bank - woo hoo relief!!

30/11 LAST DAY IN SPAIN

Lovely lie in knowing the money is in the bank and we’re on the way home.  Kel thudded off her bed and crawled in for a cuddle at 0815.  Peeking out the window promised a gorgeous morning with still trees, and clear orange skies.  Still really crisp though, we decided to have a slow brekkie and run later.

We packed, worked further on the slide show and the kids had “Snuggy play”, went for a skate together on the ‘green’, made millions of paper planes out of the remaining paper and then had a time trial on the oval outside.  We took off for the most incredible 9km run along the beautiful esplanade feeling so bloody free - Jeff does this joyful flying thing with his long elastoman arms.

Using up the last bits of food, we had a cracker leftover large lunch and as we were cleaning up Elaine & Steve turned up for the bikes and to sign the rego documents. 

The last long trek to the laundry, more discards and a final yoga session with Spanish Jude filled the rest of the day.  After cereal for dinner and a giggle at some of Get Smart, the kids piled into bed and we packed almost to completion. Tomorrow we start another adventure - WOO-HOO.


1/12 Braces OUT; Conn’s OFF the European Continent

It was pleasing that Elaine did in fact keep her word and drove us the one hour journey to the airport - we did have a €70 taxi sussed for plan B.  Still encumbered with all the worn out & outgrown wet & cold weather gear, we had a very unpleasant & stressful baggage check in, trying to shift weight about between bags whilst an irritated Spanish attendant kept telling us to move aside and rejoin the now very long line.  Sweating profusely as we had to don as much cold weather stuff as possible to reduce weight & be adequately prepared to subzero UK, we struggled on with fake smiles, fast hands & fussy worn out zips.  We only needed a few minutes and they charge heavily for every kilo over 20. 
Small pleasures & ‘memories’ had us buy a yummy soup in the London airport before jumping on our flight to Glasgow where we met Steve, AKA “Jimmy”, who hasn’t changed one bit in 15 years!  We detoured via Col’s 50^th birthday celebration where we trained our ears to the magical Scottish vowels & Gaelic sayings before arriving to the best welcome from his beautiful Carol, David (14), Finlay (10) & Angus (8).  Although we’d eaten on the plane & at Col’s, it was impossible to turn down Carol’s haggis pots & champagne. 
The kids screeched about until 2300hrs and the old’s competed for talking space until 0100. 

Barcelona to Torrivieja (south of Alicante)

23/11

Woke, still dark nearly 0730hrs and olds went for a run under the expansive Spanish sky, 15 min out heading west, then turned around and all up hill heading home.

Shower & brekkie, emptied the brown and grey and filled up with water before starting the  550km drive to Torrievieja.

Stopped just down the road at a camper store for bits’n’pieces, then at a Carrefour for groceries - wow, forgot the choice range and cheapness - Italian grocery stores seem poor in comparison.  Overstocked we moved on to Decathlon where we did the final clothes shop and then hit the highway to put some k’s under the belt with only another 1-2 hrs of light left.

Pulled up in a servo stop among the trucks just on dark.  A light dinner, “Ace Ventura” for the kids while the olds worked on the Slide Show of photos.  Sleep didn’t come easy for the parents, disturbed frequently by the intermittent/incessant start/roar/stop/doorslam of the trucks and the 3 rowdy geese car drivers who pulled up next to us and disturbed everyone till the police moved them on.  

24/11

Started the 400km trip soon after a sluggish Spanish dawn, with the whole landscape blanketed in thick low lying fog, from the ocean to our left right across to the dramatic mountains to our right.  Again marveled at the Spanish roads, incredible infrastructure noticeable especially after 3 months in Italy.  In places though it’s not finished, with highway overpasses all done, but not bitumened yet.  In other places there seems to be redundancy with the tolled superhighway, parallel to and just 100m from the excellent free road. Spaghetti roads! Tom Tom gets very confused. The fog blanket remained adherent to the earth, above which stood the ubiquitous Spanish Torre, atop every hill, some just 1 tower, others full blown castles, enabling visual communication right along the expansive coast, ever-vigilant for them marauding Moors (and other various alien invaders - the system must have broken down before the Poms flooded ashore and took over.)

As the fog burned off the bright amber lights turned on - the orange groves of Valencia - literally as far as the eye can see.  Some of the trees so laden they were bent over making a dry barren land seem so lush & green.  Then as we headed a bit in land the oranges gave way to olives and grapes, their leaves red/yellow and dropping.  Last time we were here there were no leaves.  

Coming from the west into Alicante and turning south the de ja vu’s started up and the plan was to hopefully surprise the kids by pulling up at the open Mercadona carpark where we had our 1^st night in Ed, where they used their scooter and skateboard for the 1^st time, and where we caught up with Glen for a final hurrah and a US style buffet all you can eat for €4.99.  We recalled only too well how hard we found it to find the park in the dark, having to call Glen from a phone box we couldn’t work for help, having a druggie lady knock on our window and ask for money, then getting final directions from the police.  This time we found it straight away. The Saturday markets were on just like last time, the park with almost as many big motorhomes, the same roast chicken van doing trade at the entrance to the park, the same guy singing and playing accordion in front of the Mercadona grocery store (singing the same song!), the Chinese store still there and having all the bits we needed, and to top it off, the US style buffet restaurant still there, same dishes, only the price has gone up to €5.99!  In we went!  An hour later we rolled out, gave the accordion guy a few €‘s and a cheery “see ya later” (you just never know), gave the kids a nostalgic skate and marveled at how skilled & tall they were in comparison to last time, had an Ed coffee and piled back in for the 15min trip to the campsite recommended by Elaine.

Along the Torrievieja highway, studded with bright neon signs we again noted the profound influence of the northern invaders - the majority of signs are in English.  Into a very plush and new campsite - “Lo Monte”, just about full of big motorhomes with retirees from all over cold Europe.  And they are set up for the long haul - sites fully floored with plastic grass matting and barricaded with metre high canvas “walls.”   Pot plants, satellite dishes, dogs, bikes, Smart cars. 

Sicilian Greco-Roman Jewels

10/11  A DAY OF GRECO-ROMAN JEWELS

Alone in the car park, we woke to absolute quiet, missing the lapping sound of the ocean, and slogged out our 10BX.  One of the morning delights the kids describe is waking to the “click, click and whoosh” of us putting on the wee blue billy.  

Wanting to be the first at the gates, we packed ALL our IT gadgets in the backpack (having been ‘cased’ and ‘conned’ last night) and walked the small pocked road, lined by junk & trinket stalls not yet open, to the gates of Villa Romani di Casale.  We’ve trained ourselves to not expect much but were utterly blown away again & again by the breathtaking beauty, enormous size and extensive mosaics of this Imperial Roman villa.  Theory has it that Emperor Maximius Herculian had it built and decorated largely with slave aritsans in the 3C AD. An earthquake, landslide and flood covered it all over in the 1100s and it was only re-discovered in 1950.  It’s late discovery and the then emerging respect for ancient historical sites probably explain its incredible preservation.  Not much has been pilfered. 

Latrine

The detailed and almost intact mosaics cover the entire floor of about 3500m2.  Each room has a separate design from the massage palour (slaves carrying oils & perfumes), to the dressing room (ladies in waiting dressing the empress), to the great hunt (a story of animals of the world, their capture and shipping to Rome for Colloseum games), a parody of Rome’s Circus Maximus, the famous scantily dressed athletes or bikini girls, pictorial explanations of Greco-Roman mythical gods and Kel & Jen’s favourite, the room with the fruit mosaics. The whole place is in the process of being covered with mezzanine walkways overlooking the incredible art.

Buoyed by the magnificence of such intense history, we decided to drive to Agrigento, Valle Dei Tempi, another UNESCO site where amongst other things, a series of 5 massive Greek Doric temples stand majestically along a ridge displaying their grandeur and wealth to all those sailing the Mediterranean. 

We drove through artistically geometric crops of fruiting cacti, learning of their value as fences, an ingredient in a local breakfast specialty, the fruit itself, animal fodder, alcoholic beverages…. and plastic covered miles of kiwi, grapes, citron, olives and cereals.  

olive truck

Cacti

All the peripheral, unfinished building ugliness is buffered to some extent but nothing can obscure the revolting ever increasing height of garbage piles.  Apparently the Mafia controls litter collection. Why would you want to threaten public health, tourism and business in such a way? Sicily seems ripe for another plague.

Our plan was to park up and see the ruins the following morning but the light was perfect making the closest temple, visible from the car park, shine a most alluring gold.  

So in we went for a perfect & fantastic meander along a grand path of history.  A vigorous debate started about the construction of the columns - whether by laying of moulded bricks in a rose-like ring which were then plastered & marbled or whether by large blocks stacked on top of each other with central ‘pins’ of rock connecting & stabilizing them.  We’ll look it up!

We re-fueled with coffee and soupy hot chocolates and found ourselves electing to press on via the Scala dei Turchi (white limestone cliffs made so impossibly ugly by litter and the human stamp that we drove on further still into the night) and into the hills of Sciacca where we pulled into a run down campground in the dark.  The warmth of the Italian only speaking large owner with a mouth full of pizza and heart full of love together with the gaggle of stray cats at our feet seeking a feed, made up for it. The branches of soft pepper trees gently brushed Ed’s roof, their rhythm made more subtly complex by the delicate tinkling staccato of the dropping peppercorns.