ann and andy lawrenson

Well, I promised fluffy bunnies, butterflies and optimism for my next post so here goes.

1. Fluffy bunnies. A man walked past our house this morning. He had three fluffy bunnies hanging on a pole. They were dead. I expect he will eat them.

2. Butterflies. There will not be many butterflies this year because of the drought.

3. Optimism. Hopefully there will be more butterflies next year.

It was a considerable relief to hear this morning that I hadn’t got pneumonia, only a really bad dose of bronchitis. Should be on the mend within a week, though it may take a couple of months before the lungs are fully functional again. Many thanks to all those who have sent good wishes, and to Roger for his always welcome advice on what I should be posting.

Ann is now looking and sounding a lot better and should be OK to fly back to the UK to see her mum on Friday. I gather that the weather in the North is pretty appalling, so I hope she doesn’t get snowed in. It would be good to be a fluffy bunny with a nice thick coat in those circumstances. (note fluffy bunnies). Ann sometimes gets a nervous stomach before flying, (note butterflies), but I am sure it will all work out OK. (note optimism.)

The weather here is absolutely lovely during the day, with blue sky and temperatures of about twenty degrees. We have completely stopped using the log burner and have found much to our surprise that the gas fire actually heats the lounge at least as well. Wish we had discovered this at least a year ago. However, No doubt the information will serve us well in the future. (note optimism).

Desperate to be fit in time for the Costa Blanca Choir Competition in three weeks time, but I think it might come a bit early. Never mind, there’s always the next concert. (note optimism).

I was reasonably pleased with the latest painting, though Mike Hill will no doubt point out that the rigging is wrong in some respect. Perhaps it might act as a nudge to Mike and Janie to seize the day and set off on their adventures while they are fit enough to do so. The last couple of weeks have certainly reminded us that we are not indestructible and that life is all too short!  All the best, Andy.

As most of you know I’m not adverse to a little moan about things occasionally. However, yesterday deserves rather more! On a scale from exceedingly crap to one of the worst days ever, it was certainly nearer the latter than the former!

It started when I came to the conclusion that my current meds were doing no good whatsoever, so I trotted off to the doctor in search of the same antibiotics he had given Ann. We waited for an hour, and when I eventually got in to see him, he refused to give me anything but insisted on me getting a chest xray at Denia hospital because he thought I might have pneumonia. I could see the sense in this, but was unaware that charming as he is, he suffers from “Optimicus Hilyardis”, a rare disease encountered previously only in Ferring. “Swan up there with this form and give it to Marco at reception”, he advised. “He will make sure you get fast tracked through because you don’t need to see a doctor. Then come in on Wednesday and I will look at the xray on line. It shouldn’t take more than twenty minutes.” (I should say that this is a very approximate translation as he was by now two minutes late for lunch, and he had wound delivery speed up to full unrestricted Kalashnikov.)

We arrived at the hospital just before two, and it took us twenty minutes to find any where to park. Predictably no Marco at reception, but we were very efficiently registered and put through triage. And at that point, nothing further happened for over six hours! After one hour I would be seen shortly. After two there was one person in the queue in front of me. After four, there was still one person in front of me. For the next two hours I think the radiologist must have been having supper. Eventually, at eight I was escorted to the xray room and they took two pictures in less than thirty seconds.  “What happens next?” I asked. The girl shrugged. “You wait until doctor can see you.” When will that be?” “Maybe three, four hours”.

At that point we were both cold, tired and a lot sicker than we had been when we arrived. We gave up and went home.

The whole experience has been a real eye opener. This was nice new facility totally inadequate for the job it was designed for from the day it opened. The Spanish are pretty stoic and found places to sit in corridors and foyers as all the waiting rooms were constantly full. People were waiting on beds in the corridors, some of them in a terrible state. The staff, who must be absolutely fed up to the back teeth were a constant mine of non information. Managers? Not one to be seen, all day. Most of them are political appointees and they have taken their money and run. The whole thing looks completely broken.

Rant over. I promise something positive full of fluffy bunnies, butterflies and optimism next time. Andy.

Hi All. I think we have both realised that we made a major mistake coming back to this house for the winter. The weather here has been far colder than last year, most of the rooms are cold and damp. and the only way to heat the lounge is with a log fire which is costing us a fortune in firewood. The combination of the smoke from the fire, the cold and the constant temperature changes has been too much for both of us. Ann has a serious inflammation of the lungs and a truly horrible cough, and I’m not much better. Usually we manage to get ill at different times and can support each other, but at the moment we are both spending a lot of time in bed feeling awful. I can’t really see things getting any better until the weather warms up, so I hope we survive till then! Last year we could buy antibiotics over the counter, but they seem to have tightened up on that, and it took two weeks for Ann to get a prescription, during which time her health deteriorated to the point we were considering the hospital.

To all our friends in Spain, sorry we haven’t been in touch but we are no fit company for anyone at present. On the bright side we managed to get to our art class last week, which was great fun.

Roger and Svetlana are coming out to visit our new house at the end of March, and we are looking forward to that. Dolce Divas are performing a classical concert in Moraira on 18th April, so if you like music come and see us that week. We can’t wait to move!

After an unbelievable few weeks the weather here has changed with a vengeance. Freezing cold and chucking it down with rain! The house is like an icebox and there is water running in underneath the walls and flooding the floor. Yesterday was fine so I decided not to go looking for kindling even though we had run out. Bad mistake! We have two days firewood left, and that rotten sod George Osborne is not intending to pay for any more!

Had lunch at a superb restaurant called La Serenna on Friday. Looking forward to taking Roger and Sveta there when they come out. Apart from that it has been mostly work. I had to change the name of the new company I was setting up when I discovered someone else was using a name that was slightly too similar. I’ve spent the last couple of days putting together a plan for Headliners Costa Blanca and  designing logos etc. Good to be working again, but it definitely stops you sleeping. Ann is still not very well, and is really looking forward to moving in to our new house on 20th March.

Happy birthday to Ollie. we are planning to be back in England for 10 days in April and hopefully will get to see a few more people than we did last time.

Have to sign off now. The computer is at least ten feet from the fire and I have chilled to the bone in about five minutes.

We were about to go off to our Spanish lesson this morning when I mentioned to Ann that I had seen a house on an estate agent’s website the previous evening that might be moderately interesting. No sooner said than done! We viewed it at half past one, decided that we wanted it five minutes later, and will be paying the deposit on a long term rental next week. It is on the outskirts of a little village called Parcent, has three en suite bedrooms, a nice kitchen, a small pool and good views of the mountains. We are due to move in on 1st April and are really looking forward to having a semi permanent base where we can fit guests in more comfortably. It also has heating, air conditioning and satellite tv. Not sure how we will cope with such luxury!

Ann is still not well and has a doctors appointment on Monday, but apart from that we have fitted back into life here very quickly after our break. It is absolutely freezing at night, so we don’t tend to get up very early, but the skies are blue nearly every day and the sun is warm. We hear that the weather is appalling back in England and are not sorry to be missing it! If we can just work out a way to get back to England a bit more regularly and persuade a few more friends and family to come out and see us, life will be pretty good indeed. I am feeling a lot happier since I started doing a bit of work again. It stops one feeling quite so irrelevant!

All the best, Andy

Not at all sure where the past three weeks have gone. They seem to have absolutely flown by. We had six days back in the UK over Christmas. Many thanks to Roger and Svetlana for putting us up and looking after us so well. It was lovely to see everybody, but a shame we had to make so many flying visits. The rugby at Twickenham was great, but the whole trip was a reminder of how much we have slowed down. Being in a crowd of 80,000 people was quite intimidating, and even in Bookham High Street everyone moves at such high speed and with such purpose. The pace here in Spain is much slower and definitely suits us better.

We had a pleasant stroll around the village of Jalon (completely empty) on New Years Eve, before adjourning to a couple of local bars. You are supposed to swallow a grape for good luck on each stroke of midnight, but it is far more difficult than it sounds and our efforts were fairly desultory. It was a beautiful crisp night with the stars shining as we walked home afterwards. The nights are very cold at present and the house is freezing apart from a small area around the fire which is costing us a small fortune in logs. Can’t help feeling that George Osborne wouldn’t be quite so keen on removing our winter fuel allowance payment if he had to stay with us for a few days! The days are lovely with blue skies and temperatures in the low 20’s, so we can sit outside reading, sun bathing or painting. Painting classes start again next week and we are both keen to get back to them.

Hoping that Ann recovers soon from the nasty bug she seems to have picked up. There is lots we want to do this year and a good start always helps. We are in the process of setting up Elite Promotions to manage and promote musical acts on the Costa Blanca. We are starting with Dolce Divas and hope to expand to working with half a dozen good performers by the end of the year. All good fun and quite exciting. We also need to focus on finding ourselves a more permanent home. There is not as much on the rental market as we had hoped, and we don’t have too much time to get sorted. Add to that the Spanish classes, Ann’s Pilates, choir, and hopefully finding a table tennis club, plus cricket in the summer, and we have an interesting year to look forward to. Happy New Year to everyone.

All the Best, Andy.

Today, 19th December on our patio. Not bad eh?

We wish everybody a Happy Christmas! The post service is not so good here so we are sending our best wishes to everyone via the internet. Have a great time and all the best to you all for the New Year.

Check out Julia James and the Art House at Benidoleig. We have found a brilliant art tutor who runs this fabulous studio and gallery. Andy is about to start his next masterpiece and I am working on my next portrait. Our friend Alan is also painting some lovely stuff.