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I see that the Conservative Party members have put in enough letters saying that Boris should go such that there will be a vote by the MPs. Good idea? Could be, or maybe not. I decided to try to write something about it as I am fairly undecided myself and it might prove useful in making a decision. In the first instance, I was reasonably happy that he got in as PM as he made me laugh and seemed to have done a reasonable job as mayor of London (better than Sadiq, but then anyone could, etc). The story was that he was a reasonable leader and was good at creating teams to do the work! He was also (converted) committed to brexit, which was the key at the time. Now? Well, he "got brexit done", but not in any convincing way, and, in particular, has failed to follow up and create opportunities and show advantages. The bigger issue turned out to be Covid - and I can´t really criticise him for how it was handled at the time, other than the government failing to use the influenza contingency plan, which they must have had available. Now commentators are all over the unchallenged contracts, lockdowns and care-home issues - oh, and partygate. WIth the Ukraine war, he has come out all Churchillian - and managed to restore some pride into Britain´s foreign image and (and his own, especially going to Khiv when everyone thought it was a warzone). On the economy, he has been stuffed by Ukraine and the sanctions the west has imposed (and which he fully endorsed). The upshot has, of course, been the increase in cost of any sort of fuel and a lot of foodstuffs - driving the cost of living through the roof. A crisis not of his making? I am not convinced. His achilles heel (probably both feet) seems to be women - and in particular the current Mrs J. His pursuit of a green agenda is laughable, but (I believe) mainly attributable to her influence. Likewise, the issues with DC (the Barnard Castle wanderer) stemmed from their mutual antipathy and party-gate also seems to have featured DC and her fairly largely too. The whole green issue is mainly a total failure in energy policy. Everyone could see the stupidity of running down the coal and carbon (and even nuclear) industry without anything else in place other than some windmills - but the absolute lunacy of the gas boiler replacement policy showed someone totally out of touch with reality. Likewise the electric car "drive", which relies on having some sort of generated power anyway - (and recharging everywhere, which also seems to have slipped his notice). Having an alternative PM in the wings would help, but the obvious choice was Rishi, until "someone" put the boot in him relating to his (totally legal) tax affairs and family wealth. I wonder who started all that? So, for me the key liability in having Boris as pm is the influence seemingly wielded by his wife. OK, 3rd wife (I think). His inability to keep it in his trousers was always an indicator that he was a full-time liar, (you can´t have affairs with lying to someone, if only the partner). Partygate has exposed him as a liar again. If he had come clean and said "what the hell, we were all working together", then he might have killed it quickly. The slow drip, drip, drip of additional information and subsequent denials has been his undoing. For me the final straw was his recent comment that "It was necessary to maintain morale". Sorry - so you now say they were parties but there was an explanation you have just thought of. Just not good enough. For me the whole partygate is a storm in a teacup, but his evasion has spoken volumes more than the issue. So, is it time for him to go? Well, being lucky is always useful, but not totally reliable. He seems to be good on the big stage, but crap at overall policy, crap at seeing things through and driven by agendas underwritten by the latest wifelet. All undertaken with a "distant relationship with the truth" as I believe a teacher once reported. Conclusion. Time to go. And caveats? Well, I think I have made my views on politicians fairly clear in the past - ie just thinking you are good enough to stand for election, makes you unelectable in my book. The party faithful who are supporting Johnson seem to be driven by their impact on the overall election prospects, not by any moral compass. No surprise there then. Potential candidates - well we want someone who thinks of the country first, then party. A strategist who will put long term plans in place and ensure there is a path from where we are to where we want to go. A brexiteer, as there is no point in going back after all the upheaval, but someone who is capable of killing the rubbish ideas already in place - whatever the cost (think HS2 and boilergate). Someone with integrity who puts the country before themselves. I wonder if the Queen is up to taking over?

All of a sudden it is mid-May and I realise that I have failed to post for over a month. Boring April - well, yes I suppose it was. G has, as ever, been very busy, while I have idled my time away - usually waiting for Friday - as I continue with my 4-day diet form Monday to Thursday, then go daft on Friday through Sunday. I am absolutely sure it is worse for me than no-diet-at-all, but the sense of achievement on a Friday morning when I weigh myself leads me to celebrate (and negate any weight loss)! It was, of course, Easter on the middle of the month, so the Pueblo was full of tourists (I believe) as we didn´t go in. A couple of pieces of lunacy from the council and council in exile. The current council are having a huge mural painted on the concrete wall (10m high) on the left between us and the Niño. An "artist´s impression" as they have pulled most of Mijas´s features into one place. The painter is getting pissed off with me as every time I go to the bins, I shout "Donde estan las cabras" (where are the goats) and he tells me they will be in "the next panel along". I have started to vary it now by telling him I want a small black cat too. Where are my bloody cabras (and the cat)?? With great foresight, and while Michaelangelo is at it, they banned parking over the whole 80m stretch of wall since late April, so the already minimal parking has been reduced to Lilliputian proportions. (the car in pic is the painter´s - the bins just add to the effect). I will lay money it will be vandalised / graffitiised within a few days of completion. Noticeable that the wall looked like it had been covered in graffit before he even started, as it was covered in apparently random scribbles, but he obviously photo´d that and painted the scene on top on a PC, so now is "painting by squiggles". If they ban parking in front of it, I might add a few comments / squiggles myself. In an online Q&A, the former lead-councillor was asked about lack of parking in the village, whereupon he ignored the issue but boasted that he had been the one to lower the car park fees to 1€ "to bring in tourists" (which explains why no-one else can get in after 1015am). He went on to say that there was no need for parking in the village as "all the pueblo people were old" and simply "walked to the local shop for their meagre needs for the day". What a total pratt. So we have idiots in charge and bigger idiots as an alternative. I am going green (or anyone else who stands). This photo has absolutely no connection with anything in the post, except that a calima tinted wall is the backdrop. It is a passion flower, on the "vine" that looked to be a gonner last year and which the gardener told me to dig up and burn. The passion flower was sprayed a couple of times, pruned back, and has returned to its former glory. The gardener was also pruned from the payroll. Mentioning the calima, I managed to source a painter for this year!! I was in the Niño at the weekend (no surprise there then) and asked Juan if he knew of any house painters that might have some spare time this year (as it is probably the most in-demand trade in spain at the moment). He whizzed outside and re-entered a couple of minutes later accompanied by a guy in white overalls who he introduced as Miguel - (who was working on Juan´s mother´s place I think). He promised to come and give me a quote - and even turned up on the bank holiday Monday to see what was required. It turned out that he lived in the Pueblo and had a couple of other guys working for him. Hourly rate very acceptable and happy to do "bits and pieces" rather than the whole house (which, even I , baulked at). He is fully booked may and June, but promised early July. Now that is a result! All the garden walls and pillars, a couple of metres up most walls and all the odd places that are stained by the "run-off", also the arbour and the east and south side rejas. I guess I should mention the covid situation. I have mentioned that I record the data they (Junta de Andalucia) release daily, working on the principle that data is fixed (relatively, anyway) whereas interpretations are totally subjective. What they can´t do is hide the trends that their own data show. But they stuffed my anyway, as once again they have changed the method of reporting, and even the days they bother to do it. Now we only get 2 reports per week, with only data relating to cases in the over-sixties age group. What this shows is that cases rose over Easter (crowds, tourists, surprise, surprise) and are still rising slowly. Shops no longer demand masks, but hospitals, pharmacies, public transport do - and lost of people still use them (with the exception of any / all tourists of course). I still maintain that alcohol is the best preventative - preferably delivered in a glass.

Well, that blood(y) rain has struck again and created yet another fine mess. It really is like mud and sticks to everything (walls, cement, railing etc) like the proverbial to a blanket. Last time I was struggling to get the iphone to show a proper image, so this time I persevered and ended up with these taken from the lounge as you will see, it is a striking orange which gives a really eerie look to everything. One of the strange featutres is that it sticks to surfaces even before it rains - this time it actually looked like grey volcanic ash on the benches and dark surfaces, but one it falls it is just like mud - very fine and almost immovable. Luckily I have a jet wash which will come into use when it is all over, but I still think we are going to have to get the house painted (if there are any painters not already contracted, and if there is any paint with the current transport strike). The pool (which I had just about managed to get clean after the previous event, is now more like the river Mersey - which I used to cross on my way to school back in the sixties (and before they cleaned it up). Another sack of floculant has been introduced and I am letting the system churn for a few hours to try to get that circulated, then hoping it will settle and allow me to vacuum it out. This is actually a waste of time as I went to the Niño yesterday solely to speak with Juan and see what he thought about the weather forecast. His view was that there could be more in the offing. At that time the weather reports were favourable, however G found one today (who must also have checked with Juan) and they are predicting more of the same overnight Monday to Tuesday. This of course, has not stopped G from going out and cleaning up - and she is currently on the top balcony with a hose and brush) I am going to go to the Niño for another forecast (or two) !! * and Juan reported that a 95 year old resident of the Pueblo said he had never in his life seen anything like this. Juan also saying don´t do anything before the end of April as there may be more, or, alternatively, it might all be washed away by the rain. I guess no one really knows seeing as it is a "black swan" event.

Back in the days of being a "proper" expat, and when we lived in Oman, there was an irregular phonomenon they called "saharan rain" which was when the clouds became saturated with red dust and eventually fell as "dirty red rain" - which made an incredible mess of any white surfaces, especially cars. Well, the spanish have it too and call it "calima" - and today we have it in spades (or maybe a Diamonds or Hearts analogy would be better). I actually tried to take a photo on the kitchen patio as everywhere looked so biscuit-coloured (like just before a thunder storm). Pretty. Patio - Warmed up, but still too pale Unfortunately, Apple have played with the iPhone camera controls to such an extent, that the shot ended up looking normal - and I had to add "warm" filters to make it look, well, real. Seems like you don`t need fancy apps to make things (ie you) look better - Apple does it by stealth. Altered reality indeed. Note how all the (freshly-oiled) furniture had been moved to the side in preparation for the downpour predicted for yesterday - a downpour which actually came to pass. The weather app regularly predicts catastrophic levels of rain which will hit the following week, but as the day approaches, the rain gradually disappears. However, this time it happened and we had 80mm (3" in old money) on Monday. Now today we have the mucky stuff* to mess up everything which had been washed clean. Rain forecast for the next 10 days, just hope it is heavy. It´s a tough life here. In general news - not so much. The government seem intent on getting rid of all covid restrictions before Easter (processions, churches, tourists - what could possibly go wrong?) This despite the fact that the overall number of cases seems to have plateaued and actually rose a little last week. Anyway, it will not be possible for me to monitor and record what is happening (I believe in actual numbers not statistics) as I have been doing, as they are changing the way the record and report cases. Fait accompli. Everything is ok because our (new) figures say it is ok. The tourist requirement (=money) is obviously uppermost in their thinking. Work has been progressing on our new neighbour´s house - to the extent that there is only a shell left. I can´t fault him as he was happy to let us cut back the trees between our patio and his guest house (you can actually see the result in the `photo above - and were it not for the saharan clouds, you would see the sea as well). During thr pruning, hopefully we didn´t make refugees of any of the wildlife which mainly roosts in the larger trees. Wildlife which now includes a couple of chaffinches. Very pretty, but a noisy call. The birds don´t seem to bother Bobo (the hobo) who is now on a regular schedule for his biscuits. The other morning, he actually sat on the bench where his bowl should be and waited for me to serve him (from a 5 foot distance, but we are getting closer). Still has not uttered a single sound though (other than the crunch of his biscuits cauht on security camera. Talking of bears, the two new lime Bearss are starting to blossom, so I have high hopes of (another) good crop, and even the lemon which I butchered a couple of years ago is now showing some blossom. Lots of G´s bulbs out now too, with a good crop of fresias and daffs - plus the jasmin, both yellow and white. G back in the hospice on a daily basis as one of "her" patients is in for respite - and doesn´t have many / any visitors. Apparently a couple more patients who speak english are in too, so G "making the rounds" (something she volunteered to do, but they are so "spanish-centric" now they tend to forget they have patients who are not spanish speakers). G is happy doing it, thus I am happy too(!). I am chief cook (not bottle washer yet) and making buckets of different soups. G has shown a liking for my (vegetarian recipe) cream of mushroom soup (the lentil / dal was a bit too strong for her) - with the "cream" being achieved by use of blanched cashew nuts and a bit of blitzing. Culinary highlight was last weekend when I was in the Niño having a coffee and chupito and I noticed "alitas picante" (spicey chicken wings) on the menu. G loves these, and they also had tuna steak for me) so I prevailed upon her to come for lunch on her way back from Cudeca. A rare lunchtime outing, but very enjoyable. *PS that bloody blood rain, well the dust in it, created an incredible mess. I actually had to hose down the walls on the east side as it had stuck to vertical surfaces, the rejas look like they are rusty and any flat surface is filthy. The pool - well don´t mention the pool - it looks similar to the river mersey that I used to cross on the way to school - in the days before they started to clean it up. G spent 3 hours scrubbing the top patio pillars an, rails and tiles att the weekend and I vacuumed the pool just to make a start on it. We just hope the heavy rain predicted for next week will be havy enough to wash it all off (and that the saharan dist has headed elsewhere too).

We had a couple of really windy / gusty days this week (ok, I know the UK was blasted apart by Eunice, but this is us) and at the tail end of one such day, her self informed me that the cover for the rotary line had "disappeared". Well, we hunted high and low - looked over neighbours garden walls, checked everywhere it could accidentally have been stowed and - nothing. She even asked me if I had ordered two of them when I bought the lost cover online (I will confess to having something of a penchant for buying two of anything I need), but the answer was still no. I checked the security cameras, and they had not been triggered by a black wind.sock flying past. I even went as far as going up onto the road and looking at the parcela next door in case it had been caught in a tree over there - but still zero. Now, we were out shopping during the week and I had been trying to find (a different) cover (funda) for the gas bottle we use on the kitchen patio for the barbecue. The chino did actually have some available, but they looked more like something a granny might use as a nightie, so no to that. I had actually gone in looking for a shiny windscreen sunscreen (of a type I had been using in previous years to shield the butane), but amazingly the chino came up empty on that too. Where now? Well, Amazon of course. I went on the PC and found a site selling the line covers and I found the perfect model with a short delivery (beware as side by side there are sites with 20 week delivery times from China if you are not careful). Then I remembered the gas bottle , so one hour later went back and ordered a similar cover for the gas bottle (wondering if they would come together, even though different vendors). Well, in under 24 hours, the mailman was at the door with a small box containing both covers. Success - and I even put it on the line and sent a picture to herself to prove my efficiency. Success was somewhat muted by her coming home with the sunshield she had found in a different chino, but, hey ho, you can´t win ´em all. A couple of days later, I went down to the lower neighbour´s garden to check that the builders had closed the doors and turned off any water. On a whim, also went into his avocado patch just to see whether the cover was visible anywhere from there. Nothing. Zilch. Anyway, I wandered to the far side and, in a fit of idiocy, took a photo through the fence of where my pool water vents into the parcela above. As I checked the photo versus the reality, I noticed something grey hidden in the gap between a water tank and the fence - it was that original bloody funda - and only about 10 feet from where it should have been, but totally hidden from site from everywhere except where I was standing in the corner of the garden. Oh, look - there it is..........................................................^ Sometimes Amazon can be too convenient and quick.

In the UK people are just waking up to the increses in costs of power, but here in Spain we are already taking the hit. Just last month, outr bill was 50% more than the previous year - and that was with us actively working on our consumption. The powers that be (pun intended) have changed the charging structure to a point where power costs differing amount dependent upon the time of day. Supposedly to "level out" domestic and industrial consumption, but actually just to scam the users. The weird periods they have invented for peak charges are 1000 to 1400 and 1800 to 2200. The lower (1/3 rate) is 0800 to 1000, 1400 to 1800 and 2200 to 2400. The "cheap" period (1/9 of peak and 1/3 of medium) is overnight and weekends (and holidays). Difficult to remember, even more difficult to manage and a bitch with the charging bands. It is pretty stupid when it is cheaper to put a heater on for 2hrs 55 mins before 6 than 60 mins after 6 - and actually cheaper to leave it on all night than use an hour of peak time. Of course, that makes it pretty chilly in the evening watching tv, so we actually have blankets to snuggle under (and sometimes even hot water bottles)! I actually worked out the peak-power-pullers some years ago when I needed to understand how to balance the load across circuits - and , as ever, it is the kitchen that is the culprit -well that and the utility, where the washer and drier get some pain. Kettle, toaster, microwave, oven - eating and drinking is expensive here in spain (well, at home anyway). The aircon / heaters are an obvious big user, hence the blankets, but that is as far as we go - except for G doing the major washing at weekends. Sanish electricity prices beg the same questions as the UK. How is it so bloody expensive when we produce about half of it from renewables - there should be some payback for those bloody windmills blighting the land / seascape! Of course the answer is that the "companies" charge everyone against a global market price that they "could" buy and sell the power on. The power creators are, of course, quids in (think Shell for petrol and gas), especially as many of the "greener" alternatives have been publicly subsidised in the first place. The key question here is why we can´t make better use of solar power - especially with the high number of hours of sunshine. My inderstanding here is that the power companies have an "all or nothing" attitude to power - so you can´t mix "your" electricity with "theirs". I actually looked at powering the pool pump (another greedy little sucker) from solar, but a suitable panel didn´t quite generate enough and I was then informed of the rules. So there we go - it is not an actual "shortage" creating a cost surge, rather greed, incompetence and intransigence. Sounds almost like everything in politics.. Anyone got any old storage heaters around?

In keeping with my British heritage, I shall start with the weather. It is dull and damp and I am awaiting the delivery of another lot of firewood. There are no sunny days on the horison at present, just more of this stuff, but the weather app had proved to have a forecasting range of about 24 hours, so things might brighten up. As ever, waiting for people to do the things that have been promised. Some I have pretty much written off, but others are slightly more pressing, as other people are waiting on the outcome. Covid would seem to be coming to the end of its "catch-all" reason for non-delivery, so interesting to see what the next main excuse will be. I find it interesting when people use Whatsapp as a business medium, but seem unaware of the indicator that shows a message has been received and read - plus the "last seen" time. You can get away with a lot of "didn´t see it" with email or even (God.forbid) the paper post, but not Whatsapp. Whilst on about technology, I had two calls from people telling me I have a problem with my Microsoft software this week - both receiving a brusque two-word command of dismissal - although the second one was trying to broaden Microsoft to include Whatsapp (it´s Facebook, which is possibly worse). Having a Mac setup does allow one to vent one´s spleen on occasion. Black BoBo has been visiting on a regular basis for the past couple of weeks. He is on about three squares a day with us, so will struggle to get up the hillside if he has other people feeding him. He is still too timid to get close to, and has, as yet, failed to produce a single sound (hunger, gratitude, bored, whatever). G´s car (the Juke) goes in for its second service next week - with less that 700Km on the clock. We still tend to use the Qashqai for almost everything, especially going to the bins, as her vehicle is not be allowed to be sullied with rubbish (or rain, or dirty roads, or dirty drivers for that matter). Not seen any more of the invasive hornets recently, but did have a kamikaze bumble bee. He / she / it (now there is a proper use of modern "select your own" pronouns) threw itself in the pool and was lucky to be rescued- using a tissue which was all I had to hand. I put it on a plant and breathed on it a bit (a sight to behold in itself), then left it overnight. It seemed to be still alive the following morning, so I moved it onto the lavender, which was in the sun. Bugger me, but thirty minutes later, I had to fish it out of the pool again. Back on the lavender and seemed to be comtemplating a drier future, as walked along wall instead of heading for the water. Cute beasts. Juan, the owner and grafter at the Niño, has gone on his annual hols and closed the bar for 6 weeks! How will I survive my weekends of excess? (or should I extend the diet beyond 4 days per week?). He is and his wife are going on a motorbike tour of Portugal for a couple of weeks - I will be going on a wine and tapes hunting tour of Mijas for the next six. Back to Covid, it was illuminating (if not surprising) to read in El Pais that the government allowed a large demonstration to go ahead in 2020 when they knew the problems it would cause - and withheld the statistics that would have shown the issue. In Andalucia, they just take holidays and don´t bother reporting the figures (both Christmas Eve and New Year´s Eve stats ignored - which suited their wish to defer any decisions until after the festive period). You really can´t make it up. The whole of Andalucia is now in the "red zone", but they are adopting the UK strategy of hoping Omicron is less deadly (even as the deaths rise). WHen in the mire, change the response scenario I guess. A couple we know went off to South Africa for 3 months last week - not sure whether that is bravery or idiocy (but time will tell) - is SA safer than the Costa del Sol (well, at least it is warmer, but then so is hell).

… and a Happy New Year to (all) our reader(s). In keeping with tradition, I guess we should have some sort of review of the year, but seeing as the last two years have pretty much merged in to one long lock-in, it could be quite a lengthy process. Spain eventually got its act into gear and then rolled out jabs at a ferocious pace - and with amazing discipline. We are now both triple-jabbed, anti-flu´d and anti-pneumonia´d, so hopefully ok for a few months? weeks? - or Christmas at least. We have our certificates on our mobile ´phones, so were we to go anywhere, we could prove we were not a threat - although the odds of having to show anything in the Niño are pretty remote. I watch the progress of the virus through the statistics provided by the “Junta de Andalucia”, then marvel at the total (mis)interpretation of them as the local towns desperately try to ignore the obvious in order to make a buck from the tourists. No results published today (Christmas Eve) despite it not being a holiday - probably means the results are too bad to show - and they can prevaricate until the dog-days between Christmas and the New Year, when most people are too bored to care. So much for covid. It initially stopped the tourists, but by mid-summer they were back with a vengeance, to the extent that I have applied to pay for an annual slot in the town-centre car park - just in order to be able to park the car when we have to go for doctor´s appointments or for anything at the town hall (or maybe even go to a restaurant in the centre). This has been brought on by the deterioration in my knees, which struggle to get me into the village, let alone out again. I know that weight is a contributory factor, so am actually making an effort by going on a 4 and 3 diet - 4 days of soup and dry biscuits, followed by 3 days of excess. Amazingly it works and the mental discipline is probably good for me too. G has nobly accompanied me (to a certain extent) but seems to think any deviation by her is a problem for me. It isn´t - I am like some of my middle-eastern colleagues who used to encourage me to consume what I liked in front of them in Ramadan as it added to their virtue (a word rarely used in relation to myself). G has continued to help the longer-term patients who are no longer allowed to go into the day-centre at the hospice - her work there with the patients is something she misses terribly. We have met a few very pleasant people in this way, and, in some ways can actually help them more outside the hospice than in. Sad to say the founder of Cudeca, Joan Hunt, died during the year. Not unexpected, as she was in her nineties and bed-ridden, but it did make us stop and reflect on how much she achieved down here (and without ever learning spanish!). Joan and I used to have discussions about the long-term future of the hospice, with her being in favour of “localisation” of staff and donors and me being in the corner of believing that the expats were the driving force in both. Now without Joan, there are no Brit staff in the centre, so we shall see how it progresses. If ever anyone should have a gold-ticket straight into heaven, it should be Joan. Charismatic, determined, driven and charming - a formidable combination and a simply lovely lady. After months of hassle, we eventually got some work down on the house - and it was worth the wait and the cost. New balustrades on the kitchen and top balconies, then the small rear lawn paved and turned into a pretty courtyard (serendipity / stroke of genius), then we rounded it off by having the front path widened by a metre and a half. Add a couple of lime trees and it all just works beautifully. House-wise, thing were all trumped by the neighbour below secretly selling his house. We had prayed (and cursed) to get him to go, but it still came as a pleasant surprise when he decided to sell up - and to cap it all, the new Danish owner not only agreed to me trimming the trees between us, but also decided to cut down the big trees as well. 20 years of 2/3 of a view and now the Med is our lobster (to quote Coronation Street). The new people seem very nice and intend it to be a summer home. They are back home again now, which means things are very quiet at the moment, but that suits us well. To add to our pleasure, a little black cat has started visiting us too. Named BoBo (partially named after my Ma´s stolen cat which had the the most politically incorrect name imaginable), we are hoping he becomes a regular. One ear nipped, indicating a neutered stray, “he” looks a beautiful animal and is happy to accept food (but aren´t we all?). As I sit at my office desk (ok, PC desk), it is pouring down outside. Everyone (even the expats) wanted it to happen as it had hardly rained all year and “the reservoirs are very low” (nothing new there) I have a “doorbell” camera mounted at the far side of the pool, and the camera has a microphone, so I can hear the rainwater gurgling down the drain. The camera is there because I bought and filled a bird feeder, but it proved more of a bid-scarer. Nothing came near it, then the strong winds blasted all the seed out of it anyway. Next G noticed some birds actually eating the seed from the patio, so we installed the camera to see if they spotted that there was lots on the lawn. Sure-enough, we now have a flock of linnets and a gaggle of greenfinches munching their way across the grass (flocks of birds, - new cat - what could go wrong?). Other vaguely interesting flora / fauna has been some Bicolor Hornets which appear about December and about which I report to a new pal in Valencia who knows much about their progress in Europe. I am tasked with finding their nests and reporting them as they are an “invasive species” (nothing but occasional bodies to report as yet). Our technology has been pretty much restricted to new wifi cameras - but that technology has advanced so fast that it has made my old (and expensive) Foscam cameras using SecuritySpy redundant. Serves the developer right for being so picky about what you could use with his software. Oh, just remembered, I bought a weather station that collects data on wind, rain, solar etc to a display and my PC. It tells me we have had almost two inches of rain in the last 36 hours. The (level of the ) pool gives me the same information, but then I am technology driven! I am in the market for an upgrade to my iMac, but am not inclined to pay 1600€ for an unnecessary hardware change just to allow compatible software to be used (but then I remember when such modifications ran into the hundreds of thousands and months of planning in my previous incarnation). I have looked at Mac Minis, iPad Pros, Macbooks, etc, but none fit any sort of return on investment criteria (despite business access to vat free purchases - leading to my iPhone 12). Car-wise we still have the Qashqai and the Juke (now two years old and still less than 7k on the clock). The make of the cars is relatively unimportant - we have Nissans because the main dealer is at the bottom of the hill and the service centre staff are so helpful (as the manager says, the sales people sell the first car and the service team sell the subsequent ones - how very true). My interest in religion and philosophy has slowed a little as I have run into the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta and the sayings of Nisargadatta Maharaj - it all fits perfectly with my views and his sayings are even in an app for the ´phone. Relatively unknown (it took me 60 years to find him) and it is an area too esoteric for almost anyone else it seems. Still. it keeps me happy. We have managed a couple of trips to Malaga in the final quarter of the year, but found it very disappointing. The “El Yerno” fish stall in the market is still the best starting point, but many of the other bars seem to have closed. A strange atmosphere - more and more tourists, but less and less good tapas bars. Possibly my best “what the ? “ moment came from the Malaga council´s decision to still put up their annual Christmas light display, but not to reveal the times of the “shows” so as to avoid crowds. It should come as no surprise to anyone, that the crowds just turned up and waited- and waited - and grew larger and larger, until they ended up with an area absolutely jammed with people for hours at a time and day after day. Some things you can not make up, and the spanish desire to socialise and get together in large groups is something I still struggle to comprehend. Last week an official actually suggested that family celebration dinners be “limited” to a maximum of 25 people from 5 households. I don´t think I have ever known that many people or households in my entire life. Well, I got this far without mentioning Brexit, but I guess I should cover it. Very little impact with the exception of an increase in bureaucracy relating to residency at first, followed by the loss of UK dairy and meat products in the "Brit" stores, but recently the customs for anything coming from the UK have proved incredibly cumbersome (actually impossible, with "return to sender" the best option). This has curtailed the use of a couple of G´s UK suppliers, also my go-to spectacle maker "Glasses2You". There are work-arounds, but not for frequent use. Buggeration is the best way of describing it, but it was always going to be so. Anyway, to end on a positive note, we hope that you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy (and safe) 2022!

On a whim, I bought a bird feeder and a kilo of seeds from the local "campo" shop a couple of weeks ago. The feeder design was an inverted jar on top of a plastic "double saucer" with holes in the top - so the seeds fall into the bottom saucer and the birds eat them through the top saucer holes. All very good in theory, but totally useless in practice. I eventually managed to mount it at the end of a cane fastened into the hedge - a location designed to allow the little beasts to eat and crap without messing up the patios (and also proved fortuitous as I spilled a fair amount when filling it up). Unfortunately the day I put it up was the day the recent period of windy activity started and the result was that the wind whistled into the holes on one side, then blasted the seeds out of the other side. No birds went near the feeder, but there were seeds all over the bloody garden and patios. I had visions of millet growing everywhere. Luckily the odd sparrow decided that the seeds were reasonable tucker when on the ground, so some was salvaged, although no birdlife was going near the feeder, so I took it down for "modification". Imagine my delight when I looked out yesterday afternoon and noticed a bunch of sparrows on the lawn where I had spilled the seeds. Hmm, not all sparrows I thought, as I noticed a bit of a flash on some of their wings. A quick check on my bird-app proved that they are actually linnets - a bird whose favourite food is ..... millet seed!!! Brilliant. Pretty little beasts and a double whammy of having them around AND them cleaning up the seeds.I "borrowed" this photo as it shows the similarity to a spadger, but this has the flashes more to the tail then the wings. I will have to get proper pics of "ours" Not all rosey in the garden though, as G spotted a fluffy black cat on the patio near where the birds congregated yesterday morning, and it was friendly enough to stay in the orchard and have a bowl of food. Easier fare than catching a bird, but not as much fun I would hazard. Now we have the dichotomy of deciding which we encourage more - the linnets or the cat. Cynically think that there are plenty of flocking linnets, so maybe another cat is in the offing?

I recently commented on how the Malaga authorities came up with the brilliant idea of not publishing the times of the light shows on Call Larios in the centre - this to "avoid crowds" Well - as you will see from the ´photo above and as published in the Sur newspaper, the cunning plan failed completely. The accompanying story tells how the police had to shut roads due to traffic jams as people tried to enter carparks, how all the bars and restaurants were full and most with queues outside - and that is not to mention the huge crowds standing around and waiting for any (unscheduled) light show. And definitely not to mention the fact that (supposedly obligatory in crowded places) masks were not much in evidence. And why is all this? Well, Mon 6th was a national holiday, as is Wed 8th, thus leading to a "super-puente" whereby the middle day becomes a "bridging day" holiday too and people have a 5-day weekend (and seemingly head to the coast). And it wasn´t just Malaga and it´s lights which were the attraction. Not realising what was going on, I went down to the Niño for a coffee and chuppito on Sunday lunchtime and was amazed to find cars parked right up to the junction near our house. At 1300, the Niño itself just had the regulars propping up the bar, but in the 40 minutes I was there, at least 10 people came in asking to book tables - only to be told the whole place - all tables inside, outside, upstairs and bar were already fully booked (and had been since the previous day). Why on earth people feel compelled to come to Mijas on a cold and very windy day I just do not know - maybe they went to Malaga first and found it full. What I do know is the the Covid cases are increasing at some rate according to the official Andalucian statistics, while the same Andalucian leaders are avoiding making any decisions on controls - presumable to aid the businesses which are making a mint whilst spreading covid. The trouble in Spain is that there are so many holidays, that just when they look to have covid under control, they have a holiday and everyone naffs off out to meet their mates and spread a few germs - and we are back to square one. Es una locura - it is all madness (well, all a money-grabbing madness) * and you have to hope you don´t get taken to hospital with covid, as apparently 68 (yes, sixty eight) of the ICU nursing staff contracted covid at their annual Christmas "do" last week. Honestly, I am not making this up!

I know I have been a little lax in my blogging of late, largely being down to the lack of major themes to cover in depth - but then I thought maybe I should just pull together a bunch of short unrelated notes (and let off some steam). Best thing at present is the weather / worst thing at the moment is the weather. Bright and sunny is great, but boy do we need some rain. Today was worst of all worlds with dull, cloudy and cold - but without any rain. The mountain goats are coming down to near the road a bit too much as they seek food. Rain would help them too. The garden has been (further) improved by G putting in some new "baby" shrubs in the main bed. We seem to have had a few of the old ones come to the end of their natural cycle at the same time, so we made a major trip to Guzmans in Al-Haurin-the-far-one and bought a boot-full.Oh, and we have actually run out of pots for all her potted stuff, so there is colour-a-plenty. Recent highlight was my lawyer and architect coming to look at something required to get some sort of licence (don´t ask) and he got to the bottom of the back steps and looked at the new courtyard and arbour and immediately said "que bonito" - (how beautiful) - very pleasing as an unprompted complement about our changes. The whole garden is a playground for black-redstarts at the moment. I almost had G convinced there was only one, but he appeared in so many spot it became fairly obvious that there are quite a few. I caught this pic on a security camera and it shows the male wing-flashes and russet rump. They are also friendly (as befits their being part of the robin family) and often come to the rejas or on a wall near where we might be working (ok, sitting) and bob up and down as if trying to attract attention. I have already taken delivery of the first load of firewood, so we are ready for the winter cold (which reminds me we are not quite ready as the bloke owes me a sack of astillas or kindling). Lower neighbour is in the final couple of weeks before he naffs off and we get some new Danish neighbours. Funnily enough, the lawyer told me he has bought, and noisily renovated, the apartment over her office. She obviously thinks as much of him as we do as she said he speaks as much to anyone as he has done to us. Saturday saw a partial "flitting"(G not quite sure what I meant), but the possessions on an open lorry would normally be accompanied by the family - hence my grandmother sometimes saying to me, "you look like you have fallen off a flitting"). Other neighbours are rarely seen, but managed to get the council to come and remove one of their palms, which obviously had the dreaded "red-palm-weevil". I guess there are some (actually too bloody many) perks for working at the ayuntamiento. Covid is getting gradually worse in Spain, but no obvious cause as we still have mandatory masks and spacing through to spring. The most likely cause is the return of the (bloody) tourists who are here in droves again. Noted an article in the Telegraph today wherein they said that masks, space and sanitiser were a major help in fighting the spread of covid - unlike some previous reports which suggested masks were almost useless! You even see (other) people wiping down shopping trolleys and chair arms now! I managed to make a couple of coordinated booking for next few weeks. Qashqai service scheduled for Dec 1st, then, after many unsuccessful online attempts, managed to get ITV / MOT scheduled for the Friday 3rd. All very tricky as December is a multiple-holiday month - apart from the fact it is party-time December as well! Other meets are my coordinating my (I think scheduled) pneumonia jab with an appointment with my doctor - as I need to appraise the Doc of everything that has gone on in the last two years since my last visit with previous doctor (and get whoever to renew all my pills). I thought my new doctor was going to be ok, as speaks English I believe, but now learn she has (in turn) moved on, so I may be bleating to a locum (and maybe in spanish too). I may have mentioned we made forays into Malaga for both of our birthdays - and both trips failed to please us as much as Malaga used to. Maybe we will just have to stick with the Niño (where I am a weekend regular now, with my 4 and 3 diet of Mon to Fri eating little and drinking nothing, followed by a three day weekend of unbridled excess - well, coffee, anis and biscuits anyway). More anon....

For the last couple of years, we have been using a "local" internet provider - belonging to a company that happened to put a fibre-optic cable across the top of our road and who I managed to get to put a connection in to our house. Now I would not dream of living in a place without fibre and ADSL. In the package, we get two mobile phones, a landline, national calls, 100GB internet and a UK tv package - all for about 85€ per month (which was about 25% of what I was paying for crappier service about 10 years ago). A couple of weeks ago, the technicians called and said they would like to change our sim cards as they intended to change overall provider (currently piggy-backing on Orange). Apologetic and insisted on delivering cards, even though I said I could pop in the office to collect them. Thus fairly p...´d off when I get an email saying the courier "couldn´t find us at home" (= didn´t bother coming ) and would I go into the office and collect them. Not in great mood, I went in on Friday - or rather I joined the queue outside. 10 minutes and in to see one of the girls. She immediately cheered me up as she suggested I might like to change my package (no, dont start). She then offers me 6x the current internet speed, spanish and UK tv and the new sim cards all for 39€ per month!! As the saying goes, what´s not to like? None of it is really important (OK, the price is a lever), as the internet is like lightning anyway as no one around here knows how to use it expect me! Not particularly fond of mobile ´phone carrier (back to Movistar), but at least have the fibre company as the interface (and probably better mobile coverage). Email now suggest I change the sim cards (=supplier) on morning of the 3rd - at 0300 !! Guess I can wait until 0800 for that and test my new spanish tv progs while I wait. Muy bueno! (and that 40€ monthly saving may just cover the increase in electricity costs too). The second piece of good fortune was managing to get the booster jabs undertaken locally without the usual hassle of crowds and queues. We went in at 1310 for our 1330 appoinrments and the nurses were just about waiting to leave, so did us straight away. I got the third covid jab and a flu jab, while G got flu and pneumonia as per last year (no boosters for her youthful age group yet). Something obviously worked on me as I got the sweats for a couple of nights, but poor old (young) G managed to get a swollen and sore arm for a few days from the pneumonia jab. The nurse told me to come back in 3 weeks for the pneumonia jab, but I think I might just manage to forget that one!