Last night before bed

17 October: Mosquitoes and Sangria

Published on October 17th, 2008 Leave your comment (3 so far) »

It’s the final day of our holiday and I’m finding it difficult to tell the smudges of ex-mosquitoes from the live blood-suckers on the walls and ceiling of our apartment. Several glasses of sangria don’t help my eyesight any, but probably make me care slightly less about being bitten.

Dénia has been wonderful- the town is very quiet and friendly, has a lovely little sandy beach with stunningly clear waters, and a complete lack of the musical beggars, table-side sunglasses and handbag salesmen, and high food and drink prices of Calpe, Benissa, or Moraira. Dénia has everything we like in a destination and only the mosquitoes as a faint negative mark. (Of course, the mozzies could be the fault of the groundskeeping of the resort, and so we’ll not fault Dénia as a whole.)

We’ve bid our favourite haunt farewell (a really outstanding little restaurant and bar called Manduka), have packed our bags, and are draining the last of the sangria reserves. We did not end up with our paella, but have sampled several tapas. The road-trips to both Madrid (to see Picasso’s Guernica) and Valencia were not possible due to Neil’s unfortunate four or five day illness last week. We have, however, explored the region around us fairly thoroughly and have fallen for the Costa Blanca. I’ve got more photos to upload (hopefully you’ve seen my flickr page so far) and I’m certain that we’ll consider Dénia for an upcoming holiday. Next time though, I’m bringing mosquito repellant.

[Of note- places we've been in Spain: Dénia, Pego, Vall de Gallinera, Alcoy, Vall de Guadalest, Castell de Guadalest, Altea, Calpe (y Peñón de Ifach), Moraira, Benissa, Jávea, Cabo de Sant Antoni, and through many more.]

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13 October

Published on October 13th, 2008 Leave your comment (1 so far) »

13 October:
Neil is among the living and the clouds have mostly disappeared. We haven’t had much in rain since the electrical storms but a haze has remained over the Costa Blanca. The thick air hasn’t been overly humid and that is a blessing. Neither of us can imagine the heat of Spain in the summer months, as early October seems to suit us just fine. The haze isn’t great for taking photos, but we have persevered and have both taken pictures that please us regardless of the weather.

We’ve investigated local towns and driven winding mountain roads, experienced pockets of non-tourist Spain, and shopped for our own food as a preference to eating many meals out. I actually love cooking in the countries we visit; I love finding ingredients, reading labels in foreign languages, and tearing my often overly complex style of cooking down to the most basic of ingredients. Here, as is the case most of the time we travel, salt is my only spice. Meals in Spain are mostly high quality pasta, risotto, olive oil, broccoli, salmon pate, sea-fresh prawns, still-warm fresh breads, and Sangria. Everything is local and everything is inexpensive. I bought two-thirds of a kilo of sea-fresh prawns for a tiny 6 Euros. They were amazing and the fishes in the supermarket are tempting me as well.

Food, in short, is fantastic. Even when we do eat out, the quality and presentations are tops. Tapas can be a tad expensive for two and are clearly priced for the mightier wallets of tourists, but we did indulge yesterday and enjoyed it thoroughly. We had ours at a seaside café and it could be argued that that is where we went wrong with finances. One meal we have yet to sample is a proper mariscos paella. This is a goal for before we board the plane destined for Britain.

(Note: Due to the infrequency of obtaining wifi, these posts may appear in spurts and could be dated a bit oddly.)

Technorati Tags: holiday, Neil Dixon, regularjen, Spain

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10 October

Published on October 13th, 2008 Leave your comment (2 so far) »

Sunny Spain disappeared behind a bank of electrical storms and rain a couple of days ago and with the departure of the glorious sunshine so fell too a darkness on Neil’s health. He’s been ill for several days and I have been practising and expanding my limited Spanish language vocabulary at the local pharmacy. We experienced a power outage lasting over an hour last evening, but these things aren’t so bad for a couple of only children with ADD. We went for a gentle walk to the seaside in the dark and watched the lightening strobe the sky a few miles out at sea. Not wishing to test his poor health further, we found our way back to the resort, improvised silly songs, and played an Air-Hockey video game on his iPhone until the lights came on again. The situation would have been perfectly accompanied by Sangria, but we didn’t dare open the refrigerator not knowing how long the power might be out.

(Above: on the mountain road to Javea, Spain)

Though he’s been in bed or on the sofa for the better part of three days, we’re trying to keep in good spirits. The singular upside to the past few days is that we are saving silly amounts of money and if you could only guess how many hours we are spending with the English-speaking business reports on television, then you will know that saving a little money during the unspeakable global financial crisis is actually a very good thing.

(Note: Due to the infrequency of obtaining wifi, these posts may appear in spurts and could be dated a bit oddly.)

Technorati Tags: holiday, Neil Dixon, regularjen, Spain

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Spain!

Published on October 7th, 2008 Leave your comment (2 so far) »

We arrived after a delayed flight, got the car, hit the road to our resort near sundown, got lost after dark, found the resort, avoided foreign language pressure sales for package meals and spa treatments (they wanted decisions and money and we just wanted to put our suitcases in the room), went for the remains of the evening buffet around 10PM, and then crashed hard till the next morning.
Saturday, you could say, was not really our first day in Spain.

Sunday was, and it was lovely!
Have some photos! (more on flickr and many more to go up in the coming week or so)

I’ll try to upload more and update in a few days.

We are loving Spain!

Technorati Tags: holiday, Neil Dixon, Spain, regularjen, travel

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172856 - a pole in the park

Published on October 5th, 2008 Join the conversation »

Taken in Memorial Park, New Castle, Indiana.

Technorati Tags: America, Indiana, photo, regularjen

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Cowboys in the park

Published on October 3rd, 2008 Leave your comment (3 so far) »

Taken during our trip back to the midwest in April/May 2008.
Memorial Park, New Castle, Indiana.
(Town of my birth.)

Technorati Tags: America, holiday, Indiana, Neil Dixon, photo, cowboys, regularjen

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Little Frog!

Published on October 2nd, 2008 Join the conversation »

A few days ago I blogged about the big frog in our garden pond.
Today I discovered Little Frog!

This late morning, I scooped out about half of the pond water, used the waste to water the garden plants, then began picking out leaves, seed pods, and other muck from the pond. That’s when I spotted our new little friend swimming around. Hooray! Rupert (that’s what we named the bigger frog) has a friend/girlfriend/sibling/child/acquaintance!
Whatever their relationship (if there is one at all), Rupert and Little Frog both seem to think that our small, manmade body of water is worthy of hanging around.

Our fish are still with us, despite my poor track record with fish-keeping. Terrance and Philip (yes, that’s what we named them) are lively, seemingly healthy, and are renewing my faith in my fish-mama skills.

With any luck, we’ll still have fish and frogs in the springtime and beyond. For now, it’s time to prepare for winter and the lads (Terrance & Philip) will be avoiding the freeze by relocating to an outdoor tank on our balcony. We’ll still keep water in the pond over the winter since we seem to have wildlife to support. What a truly wonderful situation to be in!

Technorati Tags: frogs, garden, regularjen, UK

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