An amazing Nun that hugged and kissed all the children everyday at school. She is so fabulous.

A big thank you to their school whilst in Cartagena. All the teachers hugged and kissed the children. How lovely is that? Not many schools in the world are allowed to do that and I applaud it. All the children at that school showed so much love and caring to each other and their teachers in all years which the school excelled in. Something that a school is rarely assessed on but this one would come top of in any league table. Thank you.

So something amazing happened to me this year, my childhood sweetheart replied to a comment on Messenger. I had loads of her posters on my wall and I practiced her signature for hours. WOW how cool.

So Cheryl and I are best friends now…my other sweet heart was Doris Day (she’s not on Facebook)….

So what else has been happening-

Christmas came to Cartagena:-

Olivia got eaten by Mario :-

Enjoyed a motor boat excursion on Avalon Star – thank you Dave

Carnival time –

Got caught on TV at Easter…

Caroline’s Parents joined us for a few weeks:-

Cleaning up the marina with the marinero

2018

The list of jobs is getting shorter although sometimes we do one job and end up adding another 3 or 4 to the list. This year’s main task is to have a stainless steel arch added to the rear of AF so she can then have solar panels to help with keeping the batteries charged. It’s under construction and we shall await its fitting with trepidation.

It’s January and Olivia turns 8 this month. Where has the time gone? When we left on this adventure she was 6 years old, that means she has had the last 2 birthdays living on board a boat. I wonder what she will say to her children about turning 8. Will she recall where she spent her 8^th birthday and will she have fond memories of her time living aboard?

As always when it’s time for present giving we have to think about something that will not take up too much space. So we opt for a tablet, one that can allow her to have books loaded onto it so she can read without the need to have a light on and disrupt her sister – Olivia is a bit of a night owl. Well, the plan didn’t quite work out as expected. I could not figure out why the thing would not accept the books we had bought for Jessica’s old style reader. It’s the same make just a much newer version. All I can say is thank goodness for the internet as the manufacturers help line was not able to help. On finding the answer it became clear that the manufacturer had tried to monopolise the selling of their books only and even changed the format the books are stored in from the old style reader to this newer style so they were not compatible or so they made out.  PC world had a very good article explaining how to get around it thank goodness as we had lots of books we had purchased for Jessica that Olivia could now utilise. Bowling was organised as a treat and new friends were invited along to join in the celebrations. Iain (10), Suella and Stephen off a catamaran called Tingha, all joined us for the evening. We caught the bus there and thought we had it sussed when we left the bowling centre for the bus back. After waiting for 20 minutes Suella and I grew restless and decided to walk towards the main plaza in the Mediterranean centre we were near to go to a restaurant that they also had in the main town. No sooner had we started to walk up the road in the industrial area did we see the bus heading our way. We were now nowhere near a bus stop but I just ran into the road with my arm out and stopped the bus. The lady driver was not at all happy, she gesticulated towards the camera on the front of the bus and proceed to rattle of really fast in Spanish. I can catch most things but when they speak 50 to the dozen I am left unable to work out what is being said but I guessed she was telling me off; needless to say I apologised profusely and paid for the tickets glad to be in the warm and on our way back to the town. We tried to get food at the restaurant the girls and Iain liked but it was shut for another hour so we ended up in Burger King. Olivia was happy though so being birthday girl that’s all that mattered. That and the fact that you can get a beer with your meal as your drink here in Spain so happy parents too!.

The arch is finally ready to be fitted; it looks large and causes some angst about how we are to fix it to the deck. It means putting more holes through the deck into the boat and therefore more holes in the aft cabin ceiling. I agree on a way forward and the fixing begins. Antonio ( the stainless chap) works without a drawn plan, all freestyle from his brain and the countless times he has made similar structures. He works alongside his father (Jose) and listening to the two of them is very funny. A typical father son relationship, sometimes fraught with disagreements, other times the sound of laughter catches your ears. It is even funnier when we try to explain what we would like using a translator that you speak into. Antonio is preparing himself waiting for the translator to stop whirring when suddenly Jose blurts out a stream of Spanish. This happens not once or twice but several times and Antonio is exasperated. I tell Jose he needs to be quiet but he cannot help himself, he does not seem to like emptiness and has to fill it with speech. The translator is struggling.  It becomes a running joke each time they come to the boat.  Eventually all requirements are taken into account, new bits reshaped, new bits made and it is attached and fitted. It creates a shadow across the back deck and sitting in the rear corner seats is now rather impossible but it will serve its purpose. The new solar panel is fitted, it’s huge and causes even more shadow to fall across the rear deck, it also vibrates in the high wind and we need to fashion something to stop the wind tipping the panel against the frame. Howard fashions 2 cleats to stop the panel tipping on its own and it works.  A note to anyone who has any stainless work carried out on their boat, ensure all electronic things are switched off before they do any welding on your boat. We found out the hard way, it blew up our wifi antenna which had to then be repaired at a rather large cost.

Something else that we had an issue with was the radar. It was new when we left the UK and now would not work. We spoke with Raymarine and it turned out that if you upgrade your chart plotter without the radar attached it can then not talk to it, technology was a daft thing to have happen. We had the radar disconnected and packed away whilst the arch was being made. Howard updated the chart plotter and when we affixed the radar back up it would not power up or speak with the plotter. Raymarine were very good, they put us in contact with the Spanish representative and they had a dealer in Cartagena who could collect the unit and get it repaired under warranty. It in fact was replaced completely as it was not fixable.

February went by in a blur for me as I had the full on flu. I went to bed on the Sunday and did not get back out of bed until the Thursday. I had never felt so rough – even my tequila binge in Mexico wasn’t that bad compared to how my body felt now. Everything was an effort and every part of my body hurt. I heard the girls getting ready for school each day but could not muster the energy to help. Homework was getting left as Howard just did not understand the language. The girls kept asking when I was going to get better. After 2 weeks I think they were fed up with Howards cooking, our friends all thought I had been buried under the patio and my body was crying out to get better. I don’t want to experience that again; it was so draining and took ages to get fully well again.

March was soon upon us and time for school camp. After last year we knew what to expect. The girls would hate the food but love the time away. We packed them up with lots of nibbles to eat and a homemade Sheppards pie each to heat in a microwave. No-one had ever seen a Sheppards pie before and all the teachers wanted to know what it was and what it tasted like. At least we knew they wouldn’t get hungry this time. It was soon time to collect them and they had thoroughly enjoyed themselves again. Zip wire, Archery, Dancing, Singing, Sleeping in a tent, painting stones, making jewellery, bouncy castles – a child’s paradise. Thank you school for making their weekend away such fun again.

On the Monday after camp my parents arrived. They were here for 2 weeks and we had hired a car for the duration of their time with us as it was so cheap. 58 euros for 2 weeks, Howard even got us an upgrade to a 7 seater.

During their stay they would celebrate their Golden (50^th ) Wedding Anniversary. I pause to reflect on what that means:-

a – that’s 50 years of living and breathing with the same human being and surviving. I can’t even imagine what that must be like.

b- I am therefore nearing a zero……aargh.

We made the day special for them, took them out for dinner and spent some time touring the inner parts of Spain.  We travelled hours in the car, Howard finding the most awkward roads for me to drive down and round, lots with hairpin bends in them. My wrists ached after days of driving but it felt good to see in the inside of the places as well as the coastal side. We took a trip along a river on one occasion, it was wonderful to see the wildlife and nature. I am a full on green grass, trees, flowers and creatures person, as is Olivia.  We enjoyed the earth and its life and feeling of belonging. Eagles sawing high up in the mountain tops had us watching for a time transported to another place. It was so nice to be away from the water. Being able to hear birds calling and bees going about their collecting, things you so miss on the water all the time. It’s odd but until you don’t hear them you don’t really know that you pay attention to such things. I miss the countryside. I think that if we settled anywhere it would have to have access to the sea for Howard and Jessica and access to woods and mountains for Olivia and I. Two totally different worlds really.