Well, the flight was uneventful. Our timing was a little tight getting to the airport. No sooner had we arrived, checked in, we had to go straight to the gate (disabled access).

We slept most of the flight.

Dad was there to pick us up. I gave directions to Dad for the villa and we ended up going 10 miles too far on the motorway and paying £3 too much toll booth cost !

We went out to Meson de la Costa for a meal. It was overpriced, but a nice meal and we had a good laugh. The funniest moment of the evening was when Mum tried to move a “piece of meat” off Karen’s face.

kp:- What are you doing ?

mum :- You have a piece of meat stuck on your face.

kp:- That’s not meat, that’s a spot

Another funny is when dad was talking to the waiters. Regular blog readers will know dad’s foreign language skills from previous entries. The skill was in the volume you raised your english voice too.

Tonight we encountered another skill. The “Speak Pigeon English with a foreign accent and they’ll understand it”.

It was funny.

We slept very well that night.

Photos will have to follow on our return,

Cracking day yesterday. kp seems free of pain and full of the joys of life at the moment. It’s “all good” on the kp front.

Slept like logs (only 1 loo trip for kp, which is really good). We did get up at 3.30am to watch the thunderstorm, but that was by choice. It was very impressive against the black sky.

Leisurely morning with breakfast (courtesy of mum). It was very peaceful and then the peace ended……

 

With the arrival of “The Family”…Jane, Guy, Sophie and Jamie.

Went swimming at Dad’s hotel with the kids who are startiing to get a bit more used to kp and I being around all the time. Dad did a barbecue (photos to follow) and the kids were in bed by 7pm. Poker night followed.

Mum and Dad were wiped out early on. Mum later said…….

Mum:- Well, I think I know why I lost now. I don’t think I really understood the rules. This is after going out on her “cracking” hand of “3 of a kind and a pair” as she called it. That would be the 3 cluibs, 4, diamonds, 5 hearts (3 of a kind !!!!!) and two 9′s.

Dad didn’t fare much better, going “ALL IN” with two 4′s ! Easy money for the rest of us.

Mum and Dad returned to the hotel and we finished off with Jane emerging the victor.

 

A more usual night for kp last night with 5 loo trips and no commode, but thankfully there are no steps.

We had a great poker night and all slept logs. kp and I went to bed a little later than Guy and Jane. And then we heard a new villa sound we have not heard before. Some sort of foghorn. It turned out to be Guy snoring. And then 10 minutes later, it stopped.

kp:- I bet Jane has just nudged him

We found out this morning that she had indeed nudged him, but more like a thump than a polite nudge.

The kids were up at 5.30am – JOY ! But thankfully kp and I were oblivious to this and only heard them from about 7.30am.

After breakfast they went to the beach leaving kp and I to go back to bed for a much needed snooze. 

Here is kp outside the villa and we are just about to go down to the shops (about 1/4 a mile away).

We went out for a meal at Rancho Blanco’s last night and we all had a great time.

 

 

Dad had consumed a bottle of wine in the afternoon and a number of brandies at Rancho’s and so we were set up for a good night’s entertainment.

The previous night, we had all played poker. Mum and Dad weren’t too au fait with the rules so we had a trial round and then decided to play for real (poker chips, not real money).

Dad went a bit over the top with his betting and I ended up winning the hand and a stackful of his chips.

Dad:- Right, well, that was a practice hand. Let’s start now properly.

Well, we were in stitches at dad’s cunning manipulation of another practice round. This became the in-joke for tonight’s game at every round he had a bad hand.

But, the entertainment didn’t stop there. Tonight’s game was “Hearts” and dad was keeping score. In hindsight, that was obviously not the best idea. In “Hearts”, the lower your score, the better you are playing and every round of the game all the points people have should add up to 127.

So, after half an hour and a few rounds, we took a look at the scores and it didn’t make sense at all. None of the hands added up correctly and he had given Karen 100 points to help her out, but forgetting that points are bad in “Hearts”. We were entertained !

I took over the scoring and we had a couple of normal uneventful hands until it was Dad’s turn to deal. We were supposed to have 8 cards each, but we all had 6 apart from Karen who had 12 cards. At which point Mum decided to take dad back to the hotel.

LOL

And then to top of the evening’s entertainment, dad locked the garage on the way to the car, he toddled off to the car and couldn’t see mum at the car.

Dad (coming back to the villa) :- I think I have locked your mum in the garage.

We were in stitches, especially when we heard mum laughing at dad. She hadn’t been locked in the garage, but was putting rubbish in the outside bin and was following dad up the drive.

A real fun packed night.

Not to end on a downer, but it’s something I should put in the blog. Karen used to know how to play hearts and she was a good player. But tonight, she couldn’t seem to grasp the rules at all and was playing all the wrong cards. She wasn’t down about it at all, and she provided nearly as much entertainment as dad at some of the cards she put down.

In “Hearts” you don’t want to end up with any hearts in a hand you win. And hearts can’t be led until someone else has had to put one down. Karen led an ace of hearts.

1-Against the rules and

2-She would end up winning lots of hearts (a bad thing)

Mum:- You can’t lead a heart Karen

Karen took the Ace of hearts back and put a 8 of hearts down.

She clearly was struggling to play it. It was quite sad, but she was laughing at herself, so we didn’t let it get us down and joined in the frivolities.

A cracking night overall !

Good day, sad ending.

We had a morning with the kids watching Ice Age 2 (very good), the kids weren’t that interested to be honest. Lunch was the usual “round the table” affair of ham sandwiches and beer – absolutely gorgeous.

And then it was time for Dad, Jane and Guy to go off playing golf. Mum, kp and I had the kids and took them to the swimming pool at Mum’s hotel. kp was keen to carry on her hydro in the lovely warm pool. She did all her usual exercises but avoided swimming after the pain she suffered the last time she tried it.

Here is kp and Sophie in the whirlpool before a 6 foot man lost his footing and fell on kp. kp pushed him away just at the right time so he didn’t do too much damage.

After that we went outside and the kids paddled for ages in the kids pool.

Back to the villa for a chinese – very tasty. Here are kp and I after the chinese.

Lots of talking followed with kp grilling dad on company issues. Guy wanted to make a point about “motivation” and was going round the table asking people what their motivation was. I was dreading him coming to kp our I, but thankfully it evaporated before it got to us. Once mum and dad left, the remaining 4 of us continued the discussions and guy brought up motivation again and asked me and kp what ours was. At this point kp got upset. She is sick of her body and the struggle it takes to do anything that she could normally do with ease. The tears went on for quite a while and kp was annoyed with herself for crying. We tried to say it was ok. But I think she felt a bit embarassed. kp and I are struggling for a point in life. We know it, but noone else can REALLY understand it from reading the blog. But, eventually we got past the tears and went to bed on a little higher note.

Here is a photo from the first night of us at dad’s lovely barbecue.

 

 

Karen was up quite a few times in the night for loo trips and was up early.

We enjoyed breakfast outside and went for lunch with mum and dad at El Paco’s. Dad ordered and STUNNED is all with a sentence or two in fluent spanish. I kid you not. No pigeon english, no raised voice, juat spanish. He was probably just ordering some beers, water and the menu, but it sounded great and we thoroughly enjoyed the white wine and orange juice when it arrived ! (only kidding). It was a lovely lunch and for less than £20 for 4 of us (including drinks), I should have offered to pay, but my wallet remained sealed (a special dp trick).

 

We took mum and dad back to the hotel and went shopping for some cushion covers for the villa deckchairs as the current ones are looking a bit tired. We found four lovely ones and I paid for them. TWO HUNDRED EUROS. In english money that’s about…….A BLOODY LOT ! We took them back to the car and discussed them for ages, before agreeing it was too much for our more limited budget nowadays. It’s the thought that counts, well we hoped that’s what mum and dad would think.

We came back and kp had a bit of a snooze.

We went to a pizza place in Torre for tea with the family - Pizza Nostra – and then went round the fair for the kids. Jamie and Sophie loved the kids rides. They both went on this little vehicle based one. Jamie drove a truck of some kind and Sophie was in another vehicle.

 

 

 

 I made friends with a dog that was faithfully sitting on a coconut shy stand.

 

With the kiddy ride over, I tempted Sophie to go on a bit more of a daring ride. Dad was rightly concerned that if she didn’t like it she couldn’t have got off and she would have to cry to the end as it couldn’t be stopped for her. I offered to go on with her. Great Plan ! EXCEPT for the fact that I couldn’t get in. It was a “older” kids ride, but it wasn’t designed for 25 year olds like me ! The family had a great lauigh at me trying to get in to Sophie’s car with her. In the end, I had to go in sideways in to the seat besides her. She was very brave and loved it !

We meandered up the street markets before returning home for some drinks on the veranda and the NIGHT OF HELL !

It was a long day, and all of us were knackered. Mum and dad returned to their hotel and we all resigned ourselves for an early night. You could sense the tiredness around the table.

So, about 10.30pm, we were all in bed.

At about 10.50pm, all was quiet. Quiet – meaning Guy was at full volume snoring and Jane must have been asleep otherwise Guy would have been shouting “Ow”, followed by peace, after a nudge from Jane.

At 10.51pm, Karen and I heard a scuttling noise.

kp:- David, what was that ?

We instantly both thought it was a cockroach.

dp:- I dunno, it sounds like something’s stuck in the air conditioning unit.

The scuttling got louder and I put the light on.

dp:- It’s too loud to be a cockroach. It sounds more like a bird, or perhaps a mouse.

Karen was very concerned. She Hates (CAPITAL “H”) cockroaches and mice and anything that crawls.

The scuttling continued. I decided to reach up with a shoe and tap the air conditioning unit, but before I had chance to tap it, a VERY lively cockroach dropped from the air conditioning unit and hit the floor and ran off at top speed.

dp:- It’s a cockroach

kp:- SSSSCCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMM

Guy’s snoring still pervaded the room once her scream died down.

The cockroach hid behind our bedside table. I grabbed a shoe and as it ran for me, I sent it in to the next life with such a clout.

dp:- Do you want to seei it ?

Strangely she did.

kp groaned when I showed it her.

We couldn’t be sure there was just one, even though the scuttlng noise was gone, so I got a can of cockroach spray and sprayed every orifice of the air conditioning unit. I must have used half a can. There was no chance any could live for long as even kp and I were struggling for breath. I went outside and sprayed the outside and could see another one and where it was entering the house through a pipe duct.

kp went to the loo and came back ………………….

kp:- I can’t sleep in here now.

To be fair, the room was too full of the spray and it was really hard to catch your breath, so we resigned ourselves to sleep on the coach in the living room. We tried sleeping on the same one, but that was a non-starter. I gave kp the long couch and slept on the smaller one.

kp:-  I want to go home tomorrow. I don’t want to stay here and I certainly don’t want to come back in August.

dp:- Can we discuss this in the morning ?

We didn’t have too bad a night sleep as “sleeping on couches” go.

Here is kp on her couch with bedclothes still visible with the kids eating their breakfast.

 

 

I spent the morning filling the duct holes so no further cockroaches could come in. kp was very quiet all morning – very tired I think.

Dad kindly offered to put us up in his hotel. kp was pleased and we moved over this afternoon. Lovely view…………..

And if you look closely you can see dad and sophie heading from the pool (right) to the deckchairs.

 

That’s our eventful day. kp is fast asleep (3pm) in the hotel room and will definately be better off for it. Tonight dad is baby sitting the kids whilst he watches some football final on telly. I think it is more a case of mum babysitting and dad watching, but it gives us a night with Jane and Guy so that will be nice. He said a funny thing the other day when we were planning this night.

Dad::- You go out for a meal. We will mind the kids.

Great offer.

Mum:- Oh yes, that’s the night of the football final isn’t it John ?

We all laiughed. And then he suggested

Dad :- You could go to Patio Andaluz (nice restaurant with flamenco dancers). You could take the kids they’d like it there !

We laughed even more. A babysitting offer had turned into a “I’ll watch football with Ann”. He didn’t mean it like that to be fair and they are looking after the kids tonight so thanks Mum/Dad for that !

Enough blog – sunshine time !

 

Well, I went down to the family by the poolside while kp slept.

Jane, Guy and I played tennis with the kids as ballboys/ballgirls. Although a 1 year old and a 4 year old don’t quite seem to have the skill of the Wimbledon versions.

On the night time, Mum and Dad stayed at the villa, babysitting and watching the Barcelona / Arsenal match while we all went to Olli’s treff. A lovely meal was had by all.

That’s it for Wednesday.

Lovely day today.

Both kp and I enjoyed a restful cockroach-free night in the hotel (big thanks to Dad for stumping the bill) !!

We had a room service breakfast of croissants and toast on the balcony.

Here is kp after the breakfast at about 10am

She went back to bed until 12pm and then we went in the pool where kp could do her hydrotherapy exercises. I encouraged her to lie on her back (with me supporting her) so she could relax at the end of them, but she isn’t as confident in water as she was pre-accident and although she wasn’t quite screaming, she was raising her voice when she said………………

kp:- David – get me upright again !

An attempt at swimming resulted in the same kind of protest.

When the family arrived, we joined them for ice cream and beer. They shouldn’t really drink beer at such an age, but there is no telling the parents.

Here are the kids. Note Jamie’s (right) skillfull decorating of his face/t-shirt with choc ice.

Then Jane, Guy, Dad and I played double’s tennis. Pollards vs Boxalls. Modesty prevents me from saying if the Pollard’s won. BUT WE SLAUGHTERED THEM !

Tennis over (4pm), it was time for the kids to go for dinner and then bed. Kisses goodbye……………..

 

And now kp and I have come back up to the room for a shower and some peace rest. Tonight, mum and dad are babysitting AGAIN ! And we are off for a meal at another German restaurant recommended by dad. Coming home tomorrow. Big thanks go to Marie who has been dog-sitting for us. From the sounds of it, we are going back to a new house, with a new back garden. She has got 20 rubbish bags filled with garden debris from all the digging up she has done ! THANKS MARIE !

 

Lovely meal out with Jane and Guy tonight. Alejandros. Superbly cooked German food with great service.

kp in good form. You can’t half tell a difference in kp’s walking in this sunnier clime. It really loosens her up. We are coming back to Spain in August and there are 10 of us in total. The villa sleeps 6, but the 3 kids top and tailing with Adele means we can get 8 in comfortably and Michelle and Freddy were prepared to come and sleep on the sofa, but Dad has VERY kindly offered to put us up in the hotel again, kp is OVER THE MOON.

A great last night. I was knackered after the tennis so was out like a light  kp didn’t have to take a Tamazepam she was so tired.

A lovely end to a fantastic holiday. It was great to spend time with the kids and the family and hope we can do it again some time.

Tomorrow (today when I write this) is our last day, so a blog entry is unlikely until tomorrow night or Saturday possibly.

Going home day.

We had arranged to get up early to join ma and pa for breakfast at 8.30am (Karen’s idea). Well, she had a bad night’s sleep and didn’t get up until 12pm, so we missed that event !

We packed the case and went to the villa for lunch. Sophie came in the car to pick us up with Mum. By the time we got back to the villa she was fast asleep.