So. a slight hiatus in posts due to – I may as well cut to the chase here – Hawksey & I having had our two main suitcases for the trip stolen in Madrid en route to the house in the south of Spain. Yes, everything we had packed for 4 weeks away (me) and 6 weeks (H).
All our favourite clothes, sports kit, gym wear, swim stuff, beach towels, washbags, shoes, handbags (H obviously), books – the absolute lot.
Including – grr – my laptop, hence the delay in popping up a blog as its tricky from the old iPad.
So, definitely not the best start to the trip and something that is still waking me up at night. As does the 'oh I'll just get an ibuprofen / some antiseptic / my cap etc' moments that keep cropping up – oh no I won't, as those have all gone.
At least we had our passports and money, and Maddie, so one small silver lining to a tricky situation.
But we managed to enjoy Madrid nonetheless (after a few hours in the police station) and made it to the Madrid Open – where we boiled our asses off in the steamingly hot midday sun.
And obvs wandered around the city, J&R taking in the art & culture while H & I took Maddie to the dog park and tried to buy a few much needed items e.g underwear, spare clothes and toiletries. Though we did find one particularly good restaurant which we went to twice as well as the many bars and eateries around town too. H reconnecting with his lust for Spanish brandy in an instant..
Very luckily, Janine then went round Dora once they were home and scraped together the things that we hadn't wanted to bring but that are now pretty essential! Jules & Nicky booked an extra suitcase onto their flight and brought out the magic items, plus this shiny new Macbook for me. Certainly better than having to sunbathe and swim in our pants as we were for the first few days, and we've also gathered as much as possible from Carrefour (H very pleased with his new banana printed flipflops for 3 euros) and anywhere else that looked like it might have Hawkes type clothes and bits.
And brilliantly, the house in Chiclana de la Frontera has actually proven to even nicer than we were hoping for. Very much our style, well laid out, newly on the rental market, with decent bedrooms & bathrooms, a utility room, a gym (obvs been in there every day so far..), a lovely terrace and garden area, bbq and a nice little pool. Plus the fantastic southern Spain weather, made more gentle with the sea breeze. It poured all the way through France as we drove down from St Malo, and we first glimpsed blue sky as we crossed the border into Spain – hurrah!
So nice to get here and try and turn the shock of the suitcases hassle into a more relaxing time.
Maddie is living her best doggie life making the most of the pool, great for her after a crappy 6 weeks recovering mostly in her crate and on short lead walks, after her knee op. She is definitely reborn! Endless flying leaps into the pool, nuzzling the water jets, doing her doggy lengths – and then looking very perturbed at night when H puts the cover over electronically and the water disappears!
Though it wouldn't be a holiday without having to visit a Spanish vet – Maddie got dermatitis, probably from us changing her food from her puppy grub to her grown up girl food when she turned 1 a couple of weeks ago. Who knew that could happen? So she was licking her paws and making them raw, hence we were yet again off to the vets, with me trying to learn the words for 'paw'. 'licking', 'sore' etc en route. Seems better now after a second visit, phew.
More to come – lots of guest visits to cover too! x