On Wednesday 28 August, we did next to
nothing, except go to the pool in the building and take a little wander to the
promenade for some ice cream, cakes and coffee. Our time in the pool was
curtailed by the arrival of an angry boy who kept trying to steal Dainoris’s
surfboard and clinging on to it really tightly. To retrieve it, I had to unwind
it from his wrist, all while he was trying to punch me in the ribs, face or
abdomen. Bonny Bee put the surfboard on the roof of the heating shed but the
little monster took the pole for the filter net and knocked it off. He
eventually left us despite accusing us of several disproven acts of sabotage
when his mother called him from a window above.
Apart from that, not much happened. I guess
we’re kind of winding down now, before we return to Valencia on Monday.
On Thursday 29 August, Livia turned 7.
Seven years already. How time flies… so
to celebrate, we took her to a shop to choose her birthday present. She wanted
a bed for her new doll, but as we didn’t find that, she was happy with a
pushchair for her. She asked to have pizza for lunch, and I found one a short
car ride up the beach. It was quite an impressive complex with one section for
burgers, one for pizza/pasta and one for ice cream and cocktails. It’s probably
kicking in the evenings there.
The place was also right on the edge of the beach, so we headed over there next. Dainoris played in the sea for a while, Livia did her own thing with rocks and sand – she loves making structures and improving on them – and Milda just lay on the sunbed, as she really didn’t like the strong waves.
I lay on a sunbed, as did Bonny Bee, and we
had a decent rest. I think we have also got a bit of fatigue from the nomad
life. It’s been an educative and exploratory two months, but continuously
unpacking our stuff, packing it up again and moving on has taken quite a toll
on us. The idea was to use the time wisely, mixing work with leisure, and
looking around to see if we had decided to settle in the right place. A
by-product of this has been that we have seen what type of house we would like
to live in once our house in Germany is sold.
And what we saw was that indeed, returning
to the Valencian Community, even though we aren’t in our province, was a true
moment of joy. There are parts of Spain that we definitely could move to, but
Valencia is where we feel most at home.
Further joy has sprung up in recent days:
the children have all started asking how to say certain things in Spanish. They
began in the winter with “zumo de piña” and “pajita”, but now the curiosity is
much greater. I think because they realise they’re going to start at a Spanish
school in just ten days’ time! So now that even Livia has started asking how to
say certain phrases in Spanish, I think the floodgates have been opened and we
will see a lot more of this in the weeks to come.
I went for a swim in the sea, which
compared to the Atlantic was like getting in the bath. However, the beach in
Torrevieja is quite narrow and not particularly pleasant. A lot of it used to
be rock until very recently, and under the water there is a fair amount of it
sticking out and into the feet of unsuspecting members of the public (me)
wading into deeper waters. My toes, toenails, heels and calves are all
scratched and gnarled. More than they were before…
But once in the deeper waters it was fine.
The waves were familiarly low and no so strong, but there was a treacherous
riptide. Out further in the sea the waves were coming in at an angle, the most
telling aspect of nasty undercurrents. After I was nearly swept out to sea back
in June, I don’t take any chances, so I hung around where my feet could touch
the bottom.
When I got out, Dainoris came to declare
for the tenth or eleventh time that he was bored. This is because his close
mate Milda hates the beach, and Livia likes the pleasure of her own company. I
was also getting a bit bored of the place, so I suggested we go for a drink and
a little sit down back in the huge leisure complex.
Then we jumped in the car and went back to
our poky little apartment in the city. Just four more nights of our exile left…
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