Got here on Friday with Nicky, and Mr H and Jules arrived in the laden car, with our 'perro' shortly afterwards. AirBNB host lady is Concha – very sweet but slightly batty. Long conversation about marble floors and how overdue the builders were leaving the property when all we really wanted was a cup of tea and a chill out.
And not a great start from our self-proclaimed 'well-behaved dog', who was so delighted to be out of the back of the car that she legged it straight to Concha and pissed with excitement all over her shoes. And then had a crap in her garden. And then sneezed on poor Concha who was doing her best to look pleased about us having dog with us. God only knows what she'll think when Flossy arrives too..
But here we now are.. Sanlucar de Barrameda (or 'de Barmaid' as it just got spell-corrected to, I quite like that idea) is our new home.
Our house is a decent size and just at the end of the main boardwalk that runs along the huge beach here. However – it's bloody freezing inside! Obviously made with thick walls to counteract the summer heat, its marble floors are icy, so thank god we packed our sexy slippers. Not a great photo here, but its the red and yellow house here.
Roof terrace is rather nice too…
What's best is it is literally a case of crossing the road and we are on the beach. Miss Scrumpy is very pleased to be covered in sand all day long, although yesterday she drank a bit too much sea water while getting her ball and threw up under our table in a cafe. Cue salty dog sick sliding its way across the pavement, with us pretending it wasn't anything to do with our group… Not sure we'll be popping back to that one any time soon.
Had a good first night out with Jules & Nicky as we went exploring along the front – one excellent cocktail bar already located. And it is SO cheap! 6 euros for a huge bowl glass of carefully crafted G&T. And on our way down there we had a small beer each at an outdoor cafe – and it was only 1.5 euros per beer. When the guy said 6 euros for all 4 of us I was racking my brain going 'seis? That's the number for six, but surely he means sixteen..?' Liking that a lot.
Poor Nicky then went down with a bad cold, so stayed home with Scrumpy while H, Jules & I headed into Jerez yesterday afternoon. Went to the same cute little outdoor restaurant that I'd been to with some of the girls a few years back. And so nice to sit in a little sun trap spot, baking in the January sunshine.
Boys had 5 sherries each and the bill was 20 euros per person – which would have been a decent cost for the sherries alone. Let alone that we also had 5 different plates of nosh ranging from artichoke and fried fish to prawns and white beans to beef cheeks and Iberian pork. Yum yum yum. Guess who drove home while the boys revelled in their tasting experience?
Nice too that orange trees abound – and we are already home squeezing fresh juice for breakfast as bags of 'naranjas' are easy to drag home from the supermercado.
Today is our first day of working from here, as N&J went home this morning. So H is up in the office, great views over the beach, and I am in the living room on my laptop – quite good views too, although I am also getting eyeballed by Scrumpy who wants her walk.
Need to go and see shortly what the local Lidl has (much to H's great horror) as the house lacks a couple of bits like wine glasses. And we also have our eye on a small fryer that does croquetas as well as calamares…. Naughty but nice!
Lots to discover still, and our next chums, David & Mandy, arrive on Thursday night. It's apparently snowing in Harrogate where they are so a bit of 18 degree daytime heat here should go down well. Alongside the large gin and tonics…
And my Spanish lessons start tomorrow morning – suspect that will be a shock to the system after 25 years with no formal tutoring, but hopefully Elena will turn out to be a very patient lady..
Hasta la ruega x
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Not jealous. No. Absolutely not.