Transitions and renovations....more to follow

BACK IN my home town of Bolton I have spent the last few weeks updating our flat. We downsized from a semi-detached house in 2005 to a two bedroom ground floor flat. The intention to make it age-proof, for when we enter our dotage. The other reason was to then spend most of our time in Spain. We knew that one day we would return to the UK permanently and we did that on the 14th January 2010. On the 15th January we started the long-haul towards living in a refurbished flat with as many mod-cons as possible to make up from the lack of sunny days.

We bought a car which we collected a couple of weeks later and then went into Harvey's furniture (the one that is advertised before and after every episode of Coronation street) and ordered two sofas, a dining table and 4 chairs. I am currently sat here on a temporary chair, with my laptop on the largest of a nest of coffee tables waiting for a phone call from them telling me when the goods will be delivered,,,yes 27th April and ordered on the 15th January, of of which is fully paid for. We have had a new bathroom designed and installed in the meantime, wooden flooring laid in the lounge a new TV unit and display cabinet custom built, and the hall lounge and bathroom decorated, all Harvey's needed to do was order and deliver a bit of furniture...I won't be rushing back to Harvey's!

I am a Freemason. I don't doubt some people reading this have already imagined pant legs rolled up and thinking "secret society" etc. Well I have become accustomed to that, but as a Freemason I am encouraged to be trustworthy, honest, patriotic, and charitable, and wherever possible I do my best to uphold those values. I have taken on the role of Master of Ceremonies in my Lodge. The Lodge is the oldest Freemason's Lodge in England, outside of London. My role involves overseeing all the activities in the Lodge and seeing that they are carried out in accordance with the rules and regulations of our constitution. One of our most pressing activities is raising funds for charity both Masonic charities and non-masonic ones. In fact next week we are holding a charity fun evening with a small quiz, a 4 course meal and a 30 minute comedy magic act, all for £10 per person. The fund raising will come from a raffle held during the event. Half of the finds will go to the Handicapped Children's Pilgrimage Trust (HCPT) and the other half to a charity chosen by the Master of the Lodge, likely to be Bolton Lads club.

The reason I have explained this is so that when I undoubtedly mention the Freemasons in the future, you will understand the context.

In June, Ange and I are off to La Cala again for a weeks holiday, stopping in a holiday let. We are going for the San Joan fiesta, which I have blogged in the past, this year most of the clan are returning too so it is looking like a reunion as much as a holiday.

Here back in England I am slotting back into the routine, and tonight I am going on a Brewery tour to our local brewery 'Bank Top'. It promises to be a great evening and a report will be given in a subsequent blog, along with reports of UK social events and where possible how they compare to our experiences in Spain.

So my loyal readers, stay tuned after my brief absence I will be writing here once more on a regular basis....with a bit of humour I hope....

Spain to rain...

WE HAVE gone and done it. We moved back to Bolton after 5 enjoyable years in La Cala one of the finest bays in the world.

The move gave us mixed emotions. On the one had we were leaving behind some excellent friends, who, we have no doubt will remain friends for the rest of our lives. On the other hand we are looking forward to doing new things, taking holidays elsewhere in the world and finally getting to grips with our UK home and doing the improvements we perhaps should have done when we first bought it. However the first thing I did 12 hours after landing at Manchester airport, was to go to my nearest Kia dealer and bought a new Kia Pro Cee'd Strike.

But let me describe our send off from La Cala. Ange and I went for breakfast at Simply the Best, an English bar on the main street owned and run by Debbie and Chris, two of the nicest guys you would wish to meet and providers of food at exceptionally good prices.

We took advantage of the breakfast which is on offer at 6 items for 2.50 euros or 10 items for 4.50 euros.

Debbie and Chris allowed us to hold our leaving party at their bar, they also put on a buffet for us. Eighty people turned up between 2.30 in the afternoon and midnight, we didn't appreciate we knew so many people.

After we had finished our breakfasts we said our goodbyes to Debbie (Chris was working in the new town) and went home to make final checks that we had left the apartment tidy and clear of all our property. The next bit we knew was going to be difficult. I set off for the marina Bar. Ange decided to have a few minutes to herself before we left.

Jeremy and Colin were already sat inside the bar, so i joined them. On the next table were Margaret and Denise. Slowly but surely the guys arrived until we had around 20 people taking up half of the inside of the Marina bar. The reason we were indoors was because the wind was so strong outside with small sand tornados running across the beach. The last to arrive were Jonathan, Michelle and Connor and last of all Pete (Dave had gone to England for a week). I mentioned to Antonio that we were celebrating our leaving. "ju hare leaving us, why you not tell me before" he said quite startled. "I told Pepe last week, I thought he may have told you" I quickly replied. He went away and I carried on chatting. A little while later he returned with four bottles of the best champagne he kept and uncorked the first whilst Salvador distributed champagne glasses. Antonio said "Salud to Bob, (pronounced the way Rowan Atkinson said Bob in Blackadder) and ankela" and everyone toasted us. Antonio continued "an' done forget dat dees bar ees dee best een la Ca come an see us even when Bob ees gone OK?" Antonio is never a one for letting an advertising moment go by.

As this was going on the wind was howling outside and at one stage a mighty gust cleared the patio of tables and chairs and threw them across the street, which meant Antonio and all the staff had to chase after them and bring them back to the bar and safely stow them in a corner to prevent a re-occurrence.

The time to leave arrived and we bade farewell to everyone in the bar except Pete, Neil and Patrick who wanted to wave us off. Jonathan was driving us to the airport, so we had to go and get our cases from the apartment and hand our final set of keys back to the estate agent.

There were many tears, and as we re-emerged the lads were clearly upset and sad to see us go as were we. We got in the car and set off, but Jonathan went left out of the car park instead of right and as we neared the roundabout there they were 20 people at the side of the road and as we approached all we could hear was "I'm coming out of Make-up..........." Jeremy was serenading us away!...

-----watch out for tales messages from Lancashire.........