Cornish visitors and the Grim Reaper

...There are regular visitors to Spain as holiday makers, they may own a property or arrange a long lease, from a month up to 6 months. La Cala is no different, often I find my drinking companions are familiar faces from last year and ultimately we became friends. A couple called David and Doreen have an apartment up 'Cardiac hill' (not lightly named). They bought it several years ago and its a nice place, but they have a business in the UK in Cornwall, a hotel with room for Caravans near Newquay. Therefore they can only come a couple of months a year, these tend to be in February and November but Dave sneaks a week in May when his sister comes over. Dave clearly work very hard back in the UK, so when he is here he likes to relax with good food, cheap and plentiful.

They don't attempt to speak Spanish at all. The Piug Campana restaurant they call 'el pug'. The Spanish pronounce every letter in the alphabet except the letter H. So Calpe is pronounced
Cal-pay but Dave and Doreen call it Calp. If Dave has an opinion, it is not easy to sway him. And if Dave prefers a product, he will challenge why you would get anything else. I had a Seat Ibiza car. Had it from new, and Dave said: "what you need is a Berlingo, get loads of stuff in it, runs on diesel so cheap, engine never wears out" I told him I don't want one, they look like work vans I don't need reminding about work. Eventually my car had problems that Seat dismissed and I lost faith in it, so I was looking for another car. Dave kindly said he would take me to some garages to have a look, I still didn't want a Berlingo, and Dave had heard of the Kia cee'd which he now preferred. He took me to a dealer, and I must admit I did like the car. I decided to pursue it, the dealership wouldn't however accept my seat as part exchange. I eventually went to the official dealer and got a new car part exchanged my other and have a 7 year warranty on it.

Dave also knows how to let you know your faults, he said: "You were doing well negotiating a purchase with the first guy you got a quote from, but you could learn from the experience, the buying bit you did well, but the selling of your car could be the problem. He lost interest when you said it was a pile of rubbish and always lets you down!".. I conceded he had a point.

Dave's sister Jennifer is a nice lady and comes over with her husband Roy, an equally nice chap. The first month I met Roy we got to know each other well, around 6 pm every day he would appear in the bar along with Jennifer and join me in a drink. One particular day he came with a tale. He had been on the beach and saw a major crowd on the beach, a poor elderly chap had been swimming and must have had a heart attack and got into trouble, the life guard ran into the sea to help rescue him Roy also helped, they got him on shore and another person, a lady, helped resuscitate, it seemed to work and he was taken to hospital, but he unfortunately died on the way.

The next time he came I was on the balcony of my apartment and witnessed a crowd on the street, it looked serious. My phone rang. It was Roy. "Bob you'll never guess what's happened?" "Let me see I said, is there another body on the beach?" He said: "Yes, how did you know?" I said "There is a crowd on the beach and you are in town." He is affectionately known here now as 'The Grim reaper'...