February 2012 - Becoming an OAP

Our very first experience of Spain was a holiday in Nerja on the Costa del Sol in about 1997 and we spent several winter holidays there before we bought our place on the Costa Blanca.

With my big birthday approaching (65th) and Kathie's blankety-blank we decided to return to Nerja and stay in one of the two top hotels in the town. We considered the Monica and the Balcon de Europa and decided upon the Balcon after finding a good deal on Booking.com.

The famous Hotel Balcon de Europa

Unlike previous holidays in Nerja, we now live only 4 hours or so from this resort and the drive is a blast. We chose the coastal route. The motorway is never more than a couple of miles from the sea and the route is quite mountainous so some of the views are magnificent.

It almost seemed that every level surface contained a greenhouse

We had booked a room with a sea view in the hotel (surprisingly it does have a few rooms without) and upon arrival we were given a room with a beautiful view but on the east side which only had a sunny balcony until about noon. The hotel management were very nice however and changed our room the next morning for a south facing room.

Our original room, sea view but cool in the afternoon

The new room, bigger balcony and south-facing

I have stayed in several 4/5 star hotels on my travels but only on business. The Balcon is a 4 star hotel and this time we were able to enjoy all the facilities to the full. Private pool, open air jacuzzi, private beach with waiter service, restaurant on the beach etc.

Nice weather for a Birthday Lunch 

 Breakfast with a view

Come on in - the water's lovely

Small video reminder of our beach

Becoming an OAP has never been nicer. We left the car parked up for the entire break.

Nerja is very quiet at this time of the year so when we went for a wander in the evening there was no problem finding a nice restaurant. On Tuesday 28th February there was a celebration in town for Andalucia Day. A charity bike ride was organized and hundreds of people young and old assembled on the town square for a short ride around the town. There were some great sights.

Some of the charity-riders from the youngest entrant to the longest bike

We travelled home on the 29th February but before we left we visited the famous caves just outside Nerja. These were discovered in 1959 by a bunch of kids who accessed them through a sink hole. Since then they have become one of Spain's major tourist attractions. The main "hall" is so large that theatre seats have been installed and concerts and ballets are performed in there. There is a fenced and ballustraded walkway around the rest of the publicly accessible caves so that one can take a tour and view the magnificent stalagmites and stalagtites. Naturally every effort is made to separate you from your money and there is a photographer on hand as you enter the caves who will take your picture and have it ready as you exit the complex.

Below are a few photographs taken from the roadside on the route home.

 If you look closely at the centre of the above picture you can see......

 .....the final resting place of this vehicle!

Based on our experience at the Balcon and the price of good apartments in the area we would choose Nerja again for another holiday.

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January 2012 - A quiet month.

After Mike and Pippa had returned home we had a quiet week until friends came out to their apartment and we went out for a few visits.

First visit was to Guadalest in the hills above Benidorm. Kathie and I have been here before and enjoyed wandering around the ancient village with its medieval castle and newish man made lake. Great views from the castle although unfortunately the solar powered boat was moored for the winter and we had no chance to go for a ride.

Murcia was another visit and again first time for Linda and Pete.

We visited the magnificent cathedral (above) and the Casino :-

A surprise here for most British people as in Spain a Casino is a meeting place and most definitely not a gambling den. I'm sure that there are places to chuck your money away but not in this type of establishment. There are some lovely casinos in the area which have taken on architectural significance due to the quality and variety of the building and decorations.

We had lunch in a tapas bar in the Theatre Square and were treated like royalty (probably due to lack of customers) as course after course of delicious plates were brought for us finishing with Solomillo, in this case a lamb dish, which could be sliced with a fork. Wine, water, bread, all the food, and postres (puddings) - €75 for the four of us.

Our friends bought bikes whilst they were here and this prompted Kathie and I to think about it as we had been considering the possibility ever since we arrived. We later ordered one each from England but more on that in a later post.

The month ended on a high with us and the rest of the U3A Committee moving the entire operation to the best meeting place in Torrevieja, the brand new CMO building, erected by the Local Council for use by the older people of the town.

We have been granted permission to use this fantastic building every Monday. Our first meeting was opened by the Mayor of Torrevieja, who warmly welcomed us to what he described as our "New Home" which bodes well for the future.

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December 2011 - A surprising day at the beach.

A 45 minute drive to the spectacular beach at Calblanque.

Arriving we find a totally empty beach, gorgeous weather, and a sea with enough big waves to make it interesting.

It didn't take Mike and Pippa long to get down to the bare essentials and take a dip whilst Kathie and I took Catherine for a long walk along the sands. She kept insisting that she wanted to walk in the "big puddle" which was a small lagoon formed by the sea breaking onto the sand.

This puddle was warmed by the sun and sand and was very pleasant to walk in.

We came upon a French lady who was swimming in the sea with her dog. She asked us to take some photographs and seemed to be having a wonderful time.

Hidden behind some rocks we accidentally came upon a large German chap sunbathing (as you can on Calblanque) in the nude. Surprisingly he didn't ask us to take any photographs.

Catherine eventually decided to play in the big puddle and emptied all of her toys in the water whilst her skinnydipping parents frolicked in the waves.

Happily nobody caught pneumonia despite it being only a couple of days before Christmas, and after drying off and changing clothes we repaired to a pub called "Paddy Singh's" which serves a fusion of Irish and Indian foods. You can have a curry starter then cabbage and bacon or any other combination from their extensive mixed menu.

Lots of fun.

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November 2011 - The MX5 Story

At the end of September my lovely MX5 broke down. Twice before it had refused to start and by coincidence it was outside the same shopping centre near where we live.

In Manchester there is a huge shopping centre called the Trafford Centre and it became notorious for car owners being unable to disengage their car alarms and immobilisers after they had been parked there for a time. It turned out that the microwave alarm system at the Centre was interfering with the "blippers" and would not allow the signal to reach the controllers on the cars. I suspected the same failing so I had the garage remove my immobiliser, thinking it was faulty, and the car was returned to me seemingly OK to drive.

The next day it broke down again whilst I was driving it but I was lucky enough to be able to pull into a parking area before it finally gave up the ghost.

The garage worked on it some more, got it running again, and called me to collect it. This time it wouldn't start outside their premises. They told me after more investigation that their diagnostic machine reported a faulty wiring loom and the cost of this would be €800 plus labour. The total cost was to be a whopping €1200. Because they weren't Mazda specialists however they asked if they could take the car to the large Mazda garage in a nearby town for them to examine it as they did not want me to lay out all this money if they were wrong.

The Mazda engineers agreed with the original diagnosis but could not find a wiring loom anywhere. They did however charge me €200 for the privilege of them examining the car. I tried with my own contacts in England and after some searching they said that this part was not available in Europe.

I have a friend here in Spain who, whilst not a mechanic, used to work in a garage in England and he was most surprised at the suggestion of a new wiring loom as he had never heard of one being replaced except under extreme circumstances. So we had the dead car returned home and called upon the services of an Auto Electrician. We were now working on the principle that he could probably rebuild or repair the wiring if that indeed was the problem.

He also had never replaced a wiring loom apart from ones which had either burned out due to an engine fire, or on engines which had been left for so long that the wires had deteriorated and "rotted".

After examining the car for half an hour, getting it started, the engine running first on four cylinders, then on two, he narrowed the probable cause down to one of the coils even though the two garages who had previously had the car had dismissed this idea. I therefore ordered two brand new coils from MX5parts.co.uk and the electrician fitted them two weeks later when they arrived from the UK. The car started first time and has been OK since. His charge was a very reasonable €80 and the parts cost me €230.

The car had been off the road from the end of September until the Auto Electrician finally repaired it in late November. The entire brain power of two garages had been defeated due to lack of proper thought. Had they been able to get a wiring loom, I would have been €1200 poorer and the car would still have been unmoveable.

I think the motto is "Put not your trust in electronic diagnostic machines, think about it now and then".

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October 2011 - The U3A Gala Evening

Kathie and I returned from our extended holiday in the UK to find that we had both been invited to join the Committee of Torrevieja U3A.

In some ways we felt honoured as we had been members only for a year and in another way I was wondering how much involvement and time we would have to donate. The Chairman spoke to us both and I felt reassured when he said that full membership would not take place until the AGM in January 2012 so that gave us time to decide if it really was for us.

We therefore attended our first meeting in early October and were immediately welcomed into the group. It was an important time to join as preparations were being finalised for the 5th Anniversary Gala Evening towards the end of the month.

Things were a little hectic but we set-to and printed 250 Presentation Programmes for the big night. The dress code for the evening was "smart" but as none of my suits or jackets would currently fit me due to too much of the good life I was panicking a bit until a friend offered me a light coloured jacket which fit perfectly and was just right for the occasion.

Finally the evening arrived and togged out in our finest we travelled to the Palacio del Musica in the centre of Torrevieja where, as Committee Members, we were to help with the preparations, man the doors etc. before we could take our places in the auditorium.

Our Gala Guests included Lloyd Milen, the British Vice Consul in Alicante, Rosario Martínez Chazarra - Councillor for Foreigners, Inmaculada Montesinos Pérez - Councillor for the Third Age, and Graham Knight - Director of the Foreign Residents Office. Unfortunately the British Consul could not attend as his wife had unexpectedly been admitted to hospital in anticipation of an imminent birth.

The evening began with the promised Cava and Cake reception followed by a toast given by Lloyd wishing the U3A success and congratulating us on our fifth anniversary. Shortly after that we adjourned to the Theatre where our Chairman Bob Hill gave a speech of welcome to everybody before introducing Lloyd Milen, who gave an interesting and amusing address touching on what the Consular presence in Spain can do for us.

Rosario and Inmaculada then spoke for a short time about how Torrevieja welcomes all the different nationalities who have chosen to make their homes in this part of Spain.

After a short refreshment interval La Orquesta de Aspirantes (the young people of the Symphony Orchestra, still learning their craft) took to the stage and entertained us royally with a selection of popular classic numbers ranging from “The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” to “Pirates of the Caribbean”.

Two of our committee members then gave a vote of thanks to the Vice Consul Lloyd Milen, the U3A Members for their continued support, our Chairman Bob Hill, the Ayuntamiento and Graham Knight, and the Conductor and Members of the Orchestra, before we had two rousing choruses of “Land of Hope and Glory” for which the Orchestra received a long standing-ovation. We were finally treated to an encore of “Pirates” and I think audience and orchestra were very happy with both performance and reception.

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September 2011 - Playing with digital photographs.

Ever since I discovered Paint Shop Pro as a free version on a cover-disk in the 80s I have manipulated photographs in order to enhance them. Sometimes it is removing people from backgrounds but can be taken to a high level and be used for removing scratches and marks from treasured photographs of relatives through to completely changing backgrounds in order to place people in a different environment.

Digital images on newer cameras may be altered quite easily and older printed photographs must be scanned before attempts at improvement may be made.

In my Computer Group (part of the Torrevieja U3A) we will be covering photo enhancement and this post is for demonstration purposes to show a few techniques.

1. Removing annoying or eye-catching backgrounds.

Click on any picture to view it full size.
Use the back-button to return

Here the image has been cropped, and the car and pavement rubbish has been removed. The groom has had two blemishes removed from his face.

2. Changing a background


In this photograph, the lovely couple standing by their flash car has been added to a picture from "Wind in the Willows". By no means perfect but an early experiment of mine.


Now the same lovely couple (somewhat older but just as lovely) have moved on to a swimming pool but the thin trees in the background allow a view through to the road and houses. Using "cloning" the trees have been spread to provide a more pleasing background and hide the cars etc.


My Great Niece, Grace, was photographed on holiday being given a bath in the kitchen sink in their caravan. I think removing her to a field of wild flowers makes a much more pleasing picture.

3. Repairing old and treasured photographs

Above is a badly damaged photograph of Sergeant Joseph Christie of the Eighth Army, taken circa 1942. Again not perfect but a vast improvement and a very acceptable enhanced image.

A friend of mine was doing his family tree and asked if I could improve this picture of his Grandfather. Mainly using cloning, the scratches, creases, and spots have been removed and left a very good new image. A photograph like this could take about three hours to improve to the extent shown above. The sepia tone has been kept to maintain the "age" of the photograph.

I hope to demonstrate these techniques in future weeks with my Computer Group.

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