Hi All, we are still lazing our way through the sunny days and balmy evenings, eating and drinking too much and generally being thoroughly self-indulgent. We have both been painting today, and I have produced another monster to add to the collection. My last brain cell gave up the ghost the day before yesterday when I went to get something from the car and left the keys in it all night with the ignition switched on. Result, one totally flat battery, so I hoisted it out and put it on charge, only to find that the new charger that I had bought just before we left England didn’t work. Had to borrow one from next door, which was beneficial because I now know what a cargador de batterias is. Apart from that, a day out became a day in, which was a bit of a pain.
I think Ann mentioned that the choir I sing in gave a concert of religious and sacred music at Benitaxell Church on 12th April. Some of the songs are now on Youtube. If you go to the youtube site and type in Costa Blanca Male Voice Choir, then go to the second page of results and click on the videos posted by Howard Westcott there are about six songs there. We don’t sound at all bad, particularly if you put it through a decent speaker, and at least you will be treated to the almost unheard of sight of a Lawrenson singing enthusiastically in a Catholic church!
We are both missing the grandchildren a lot at present. The end of July seems a long time away, and they grow up so fast. Hoping to catch them on Skype this evening. Happy Easter to All.
Andy
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How about this? This road has been named after the Lawrenson family who ran a concrete block manufacturing business on the site in Billingshurst West Sussex in the 70’s. John (Andy’s dad) would have been proud!
These selfies are taken in our canoe! We had a great day in Moriara with the canoe and then chilled out in the pool at home. After that I had a Spanish lesson but didn’t learn much. Then a nice drink in a little bar with Pauline and Alan. Great to have a chat with Helen on the phone and now we’re chilling out with good books. Happy days!
Well done to the Costa Blanca Male Voice Choir! Once again they put on a wonderful concert filled with very moving music for Easter. Well done too, to the Dolce Divas. Claire and Kirsty performed beautifully again. It was a very enjoyable evening. Andy and I went for a great Italian meal with friends afterwards.
We made a big decision yesterday. We have decided to come back to the Costa Blanca next winter.
Hi All. Many thanks for all birthday wishes. Had a very pleasant barbie yesterday and today we crawled out of bed at about 10.30 and went for a bike ride. This is not the relaxing experience that it might be as I am constantly looking over my shoulder and listening for the thump as Ann falls off and hits the floor. It only happened once today, so slightly better than normal! We stopped for lunch at the restaurant we had been to for New Years Eve, and then came home for a swim. All very pleasant, but my single remaining brain cell is becoming just a faint glimmer due to indolence and lack of the necessity to do anything useful. I’m not sorry to be moving on next month. Great to talk to Ross on Skype this morning. Having it working has made such a difference.
Happy birthday Andy for the 10th April. We’re definitely getting on a bit because we had the birthday BBQ a day early due to a little mix up of the days and dates! However, it was great to celebrate with a few friends from the Costa Blanca Male Voice Choir.
Great BBQ food Andy, excellent company, and loads of wine and laughter. The sun shone for us and we had a brilliant afternoon. 
Greetings from sunny Spain. 28C today, and we sat out on the patio having a barbecue until 20.45. We did get the Sahara sand at the beginning of the week, though. It arrived the night after I had spent nearly all day polishing the beast to a state of gleaming perfection for the first time since we bought it. Came out in the morning to find a thick layer of red earth all over everything. The swimming pool looks like a duck pond. Cleaned it all off yesterday only to find this morning that my neighbour had had a massive bonfire late last night and the beast was now covered in ash. Have decided to revert to my previous policy of benevolent neglect.
We are both still suffering from chest infections, so haven’t been doing much. Hoping it has cleared by next week as I have another concert next Saturday, and we have friends coming for lunch on my birthday. (41 again). Apart from that we are spending a lot of time reading and trying to work out what we need to do to get to the point we would like to be at in eighteen months time (which we haven’t really managed to define yet.) Computers are still driving us mad with constant malfunctions. We are sure it is a problem with the server but they are denying all responsibility. We are thinking of fitting a pigeon loft to the caravan when we move on as it may be simpler and more reliable.
All the best, Andy
Andy has cleaned out The Beast and sorted out the tyres. We are cleaning out the caravan and reducing our stuff again. It’s amazing how much you accumulate in 6 months.
We have booked our first two campsites for May and June along the southern coast of Spain. We have also booked a stay in a campsite in France and our ferry crossing to the UK for July 28th.
we are both looking forward to getting on the road again although we have had a great time in Jalon. We may come back here next winter. Who knows?
Good evening from the plague house. We both seem to be on the mend but somewhat devoid of energy. The white cross is down from the door and the neighbours have stopped making the sign of the cross as they pass by, and are no longer sliding pizzas under the gate. We have both been out for a short walk today and should be back to normal soon.
We spent most of the day working on our travel plans and have booked campsites for the first two weeks of our travels. We have also sorted out a ferry back to England on 28th July. Hopefully “The Beast” will keep going until then!
We Have just bought a brilliant painting from Paul Gough, the artist who is staying in our flat, so we will have to buy a house to hang it in in the not too distant future. Paul is really talented, and if you google him you will probably find your way to his website, the address of which escapes me for the moment.
It was great to be able to see Nicki and the kids on Skype for the first time today. Chloe looks so grown up, and has got a bob haircut that makes her look like Mireille Mathieu. It makes such a difference to be able to see people’s faces and we owe a huge thank you to Christie who spent hours working on our computers when he wasn’t coughing in our bathroom, and has done a fantastic job. We also got a video message from Rock, so hopefully our ability to communicate, which has been the bane of the whole trip, will be much improved.
Some of you may remember that I used to enjoy firing the odd letter off to the local paper. Having not much better to do I’ve started doing the same out here. The latest one has suggested a major cull of domestic pussy cats rather than badgers as a means of controlling the latest outbreak of TB, so it will be interesting to see what sort of reaction that provokes.
I have given all my monsters to a girl called Nikki Luxford, who by sheer coincidence is also from Worthing. Ann has given her a couple of paintings, and she is going to auction them all off to raise money for a schools project that she is running in Malawi. We have also agreed to sponsor one of the children in the school for the next few years, which will give us a good excuse to go out to Africa on a visit a few years down the road.
All the best, Andy
Greetings all from the Costa Blanca care home for sick Brits. We have had Gavin, Stephen, Jan and Christie to stay recently, and all have arrived with various lurgies. Is there anyone fit and well left in England? I have finally succumbed myself today, and have stayed at home while the others go to explore the caves at Benidoleig. It’s just started raining so I hope they aren’t too far underground!
Life here is still pretty good. Ann has posted photos of the Costa Blanca MVC singing to a full house of 650 at the new theatre at Teulada. We were the lead choir and it was a really good night. We found a nice Italian restaurant afterwards.
Teulada is a town about the size of Steyning. It has the new theatre, with a £200,000 Steinway, a massive sports centre, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, loads of tennis and paddle tennis courts, plus a town hall and town square big enough for a major city. It also has in excess of 10% of it’s properties empty, enough public debt to choke a rhino (they can’t even afford the interest payments at present), several of its more prominent citizens including the former mayor, the planning officer and the chief accountant awaiting trial on corruption charges, and absolutely no prospect of ever being solvent again. It is in many respects typical of Spanish towns, and though our initial thoughts were that we might buy a place here, I think we have both decided that political and financial corruption is so endemic that it would not be sensible.
We are beginning to turn our thoughts to moving on from here in the middle of May, so if anyone in a reasonable state of health wants to pop out for a few days, let us know as soon as possible. We are planning a swoop through Southern Spain, then up through Portugal and into Central France, probably the Limousin, in mid-July. Plan is to look for a low-cost building project, then come back to UK end of July to get an MOT for the car and see everyone before returning to France for a month towards the end of August, hopefully in a position to buy. Whether it will work out like that who knows, but I think we both feel that we need a base to call our own, and neither of us are in any hurry to return to England. Ann is quite happy lotus-eating, but I am beginning to climb the walls and can’t take many more three hour lunches. I’m just getting fatter and more alcoholic, and definitely need a shed and a garden! If anyone has a house that they want holiday-sitting for a couple of weeks, or a bed we can crash in for a couple of nights from 25th July, please let us know.
All the best,
Andy
ann and andy lawrenson 