Moody Seas.....A Small Light And Long Tunnel!

 Once again, the carrot was dangled and we were told that as soon as carnival period was finished we would go in to level one on the Covid restriction scale. If I´m honest I wasn´t really bothered about going in to level one, yes the restrictions would be less but there would nobody here to enjoy them so why not just leave us where are? As it happened we are still in level two, 6 people to a table and 11pm curfew, its not so bad.

I have started walking to Alcala. I don´t know whether its a midlife crises but I´ve decided I need to get fit, or at least a bit fitter than I am, either that or I have too much time on my hands, I don´t want to commit to either. The walk to Alcala takes me from Puerto Santiago where I live, all along the rugged coastline down through playa De La Arena and Varadero where the coastal path starts, and finishes in the square in Alcala. Its a lovely walk, mainly flat and the views are stunning. Its a good 5k walk, good for both the body and the mind.

Today, the sea was particularly moody and I found myself stopping every now and then to take photos of the high waves and the few surfers that were out.

I thought I would throw back today to my Mallorca days as just the other night I got talking to someone and it turned out that she had worked in one of the same hotels that Eddie and I had gigged in while living in Mallorca. The conversation only came about when I was talking about stand up paddle boarding or SUP in Mallorca last year, something I long to do again soon.

Eddie and I sang in the Playa Mar hotel every two weeks for two seasons while we lived in Mallorca. The resident entertainer was a Dutch man called Edward and at the end of our show he would set off fireworks from across the pool, all very showbiz, and the audience loved it.
During our show, Eddie would go off and I would sing a couple of songs alone and on one particular night whilst stood on stage giving it my all to Whitney Houstons I will always love you, I had a visitor! The most enormous bug I have ever seen (A giant locust or a Praying Mantis) had decided that my shoulder was a comfortable safe place to land and sit for a while. Like the consummate professional, I somehow managed to carry on singing and made it to the end of the song to a rapturous applause from the audience. shortly afterwards the bug flew away and I was left completley shell shocked, I´m not keen on small bugs let alone these prehistoric looking things that look like they should've died out with the dinosaurs!!

I look forward to the day when we can return to Mallorca and take holidays and being back to some kind of normality that was taken away from us almost a year ago.

Its a year since we had an almighty Calima here in Tenerife, we had so much dust from the Sahara desert that we all felt like we were all in Sepia. We had a Calima a few days ago, fortunately it wasn´t half as bad as the one we had last year!!

Apart from the Calima and a bit of cloud here and the there the weather is amazing.

Wherever you are and whatever the weather stay safe.
Until next time

H x

Finding Things To Talk About And Feeling The Love

Its a conversation I have with people on a daily basis. We speak to our families every day either on the phone or by video call. When lockdown first happened we could be on the phone for hours talking about all sorts of random crap, and reminiscing about the better times. Most people I speak to, including myself, have simply ran out of things to talk about. There's only so much TV we can watch and so much food we can talk about and we can't talk about where we´ve been all day as most of us have been nowhere. In the UK people are lucky (or unlucky) if they´ve been to the supermarket. My parents have now had their first Covid jab and I imagine they enjoyed the ride out, for all the wrong reasons!

I´m not going to lie, I´ve felt a little bit deflated this week, the cheese has slipped a little if I´m honest. More of our UK swallows have left this week to avoid the new restrictions in the UK, and then we were hit with more restrictions here.
We have actually been promoted to level 1 because our figures are very good. That said, its also carnival period here and because the government don´t want people out celebrating and partying we are now back to a 10PM curfew until Carnival period has ended. Live entertainment was also cancelled but then a few hours later we were told it was allowed, sometimes its hard to know if we´re coming or going!! We soldier on but some days are harder than others to wear the hat of positivity!

We went out for a drive yesterday and we ended up in Chio. We stopped for coffee at a restaurant called Casa Sira, it was pleasant and the change of scenery and the slightly hairy drive lifted our mood. There were some vintage cars on the car park and before Covid hit, it was probably a place where coaches full of tourists would stop on their way to Mount Teide. Yesterday there was just a small trickle of locals.

Its Valentines Day today, so where ever you are, and who ever you´re with, give a little love and have a great day!

Until next time

H x

Who Says You Don´t Need A Coat In Tenerife!

Its cold, I am currently sat at home wearing warm jeans a thick jumper and my DMs and its cold.
As cold as it may be, I still have the window open. I guess I´m so used to living with the doors and windows open it just seems the right thing, I´d rather put more clothes on than shut the windows! 

This poor weather reminds of a time, many years ago, before the days of weather apps on your mobile phone, maybe even before smart phones (that makes me feel old)

I was working at the Island village pool bar in San Eugenio Alto near Aqualand. These days its better known as Iceland although the real name is Overseas. Its where we go to indulge on all our favorite British products, although rumor has it they are a bit low on stock at the moment. I´m unsure whether its to do with Brexit, Covid or maybe both. Anyway, I digress.

I was singing at the BBQ that was held for the guests every other week on Thursday evening, if my memory serves me right.

This particular night was somewhere around July or August time and as the evening progressed, the clouds in the mountains got thicker and thicker. I made jokes about how the clouds came over to tease us and lull us in to thinking that it might just rain, something that we loved when it was baking hot in the middle of summer. The clouds continued to thicken and I promised the guests that it wouldn't rain. By the time Eddie returned from his gig to pick me up it was beginning to spit. We packed away the speakers and returned home. 

The next morning we woke up to torrential rain and localized flooding across the island, along with regular power cuts. 

I remember being relieved that I didn´t have to return to that gig for another fortnight as most of the guests would´ve returned home by then. I bet they were cursing me that next day!!!

This was probably about 16 years ago and weather forecasting has moved on since then, along with mobile phones. I´m a bit of a weather geek to be honest, I love the weather, I probably have an anorak and flask lying around somewhere as well. I can´t help it, it just fascinates me.

It is very cold here at the moment, some are saying its the coldest they´ve ever known it, and i still wonder whether its due to the lack of pollution. Who knows, I´m sure that before long we will be complaining that its too hot and longing for more cooler days. Me personally, I´m enjoying the brief cold spell. I love snuggling under the duvet at night, and enjoying winter food, we had Corned Beef Hash last night, lovely!!

Until next time, keep warm, and keep safe

H x

The coat is on!

I like a bit of Lenticular cloud

I cannot take credit for this one, it was taken by Cliff Jones. A rainbow in the cliffs!

Strike Me Down! No Blog for ten days!

It occurred to me just yesterday that I have completely forgot to blog this week. Then it hit me! What have I really got to say this week?

Its just all getting a bit "samey" isn't it (Is that a word?) I feel like we are living in Groundhog Day, every day is the same, even down to the faces you see walking down the street at a particular time of day. We are all just stuck in this world of limbo, unable to go anywhere and not knowing when things will change.

Anyway enough of this doom and gloom. On a lighter note we are now permitted to have live entertainment again...Hoorah. I was literally chomping at the bait last Friday when Eddie told me to get on stage and sing a few songs with the guitar. I didn't need to be asked twice! Monday was no different when we were entertaining at the Wine bar along with Jay Francis. I actually left there feeling like I´d been transported in to a world with no Covid restrictions and no problems. It was fabulous, even if it was only for a couple of hours and it just confirms the importance of music in peoples lives. 

The weather has just been amazing this week. We´ve gone from having Storm Philomena with record breaking low temperatures and rainfall for this time of year, to record breaking high temperatures and it is just gorgeous. There´s nothing like a good vitamin D fix to motivate you and lift your spirits. I find it amazing how some people can sit in the sun for hours at a time, I can manage about thirty minutes before I begin to need some shade.

Los Gigantes, along with most of the island continues to be very quiet, although our loyal supporters are still continuing to visit us at the bar. We´ve started a new games night on Thursday evenings which is proving very popular. It also gives us the opportunity to raise some money for charity. There is a charity here called F.A.C.T (Fighting Against Cancer Tenerife) and they help people that are suffering with this awful disease. Whether it is providing transport to and from hospitals for treatment, or just someone to talk to, they are there and they provide a great support network for many people in on the island.

We were also sad to say goodbye to someone this week, Lauren, who we met at the wine Bar last year. She´s become a great friend but its now time for her to spread her wings and move on to the next chapter in her life. We will miss you and wish you all the luck in the world and look forward to seeing you when you return for holidays.

Until next time keep riding the storm and stay safe.

H x

Throwing back to 1999, And A Visit To Los Cristianos

I was reminded the other day of an event that happened back in June of 1999 and I thought I would share it with you all.

It was Eddies 40th Birthday and we had been living in Mallorca for around two months. We didn't know too many people, so took it upon myself to arrange a couple of things for us to do in celebration of his milestone. One of those things I arranged was parascending, you are attached to a thin piece of string and a parachute and tied to the back of a speed boat. We did this in Port Alcudia and it was brilliant, it was exhilarating, and along with amazing views across the bay it made for a great outing.

The second treat I lined up was scuba diving. He had been harping on about it pretty much from the moment we arrived in Mallorca, so it seemed the obvious thing to do. We did a try dive in one of the hotel pools and booked up to go.

We set off early for this one as they told us it was the best time to go. We arrived at the dive center in Port Pollensa along with half a dozen or so other people where we were fitted out with wet suits. Everyone had these really cool shorty style wet suites however, the only one they could find to fit little old short arse me resembled something that had been hanging about since the 1970's. I felt very uncool but had no choice but to go with it.

So with everyone else looking the part and me looking like a 70's throw back, we headed off to the boat that would take us out to the bay. While on the boat we were kitted out with tanks, facemasks and all the other gubbins that we would need. We then arrived to our dive point and we had all been shown how to gently roll ourselves in to the water with the tanks on our backs. Sadly it was a maneuver that I just simply couldn't do, a gentle shove from someone behind me and I was in the water.

We were then ready to be shown the next set of instructions that we would need to know before the actual dive itself. Everyone stood up, however, everybody else was in excess of around five and a half feet tall .........except me at my staggering height of 4 foot 11, although I usually round it up to 5 feet. By now I was beginning to lose the will and the desire to progress any further. The top and bottom of the story is that while Eddie and the others dived down a few meters and looked at the wonderful wildlife that the Med has to offer, I simply bobbed around on the top and watched from above.

It wasn't a bad experience and it has by no means put me off going again, in fact quite the opposite I would love to have another go but preferably without looking like a 70's has been.

Cabin fever took hold of me yesterday and I needed to escape the west coast. We just needed a change of scenery and we headed off down south to Los Cristianos. The weather was good, parking was easy as like everywhere else its very quiet. Many places have closed, some sadly for good, however we stopped for a coffee and a sandwich, visited a couple of shops and had a lovely walk along the sea front.
It was just the change we needed and I hope, along with everyone else that Los Cris and the rest of the island will soon be back to being the tourist hub it has always been.

As always until next time, stay safe and ride the storm

H x

A cold January!

Whats going on with the weather?

Its usually lovely this time of year albeit a bit nippy at night. This year however, its cold, we've had storm Filomena and its been five years since we had this much snow on Mount Teide. Its not even mid January yet!

I have a theory, just a theory and I said to Ed just the other day, that if things were "Normal" we´d love to hop on a flight to Madrid, just to see the snow that they have had, yes its bad there too. However, under usual circumstances, as in pre Covid, would the weather be this bad?
If there was the usual air traffic, if there was the usual amount of cruise ships wondering about the seas, then the usual road and train traffic, all of which has been greatly reduced. Would the weather be like this, or is it a result of the covid restrictions? 

I haven't felt this cold in Tenerife since I don't know when, in fact when I was gigging outdoors last winter before we were locked down I vividly remember that was wearing frocks that I would've been wearing during the hot summer.

I remember doing a gig in Las Americas in the winter about five or six years back, I wore a long dress with warm leggings underneath and a very thick shrug to keep my neck and shoulders warm, gigging on the Golf del Sur was chillier still. It's all very odd and I don't know whether we were just due a cold winter or if it is a result of whats going on in the world?

Los Gigantes, along with the rest of the island remains awfully quiet, even more so because people can't sit in a warm environment to enjoy a few drinks or a meal. Protected outdoor warm seating is difficult to find so sadly many folk are simply not going out

There has been speculation that this could soon change, maybe allowing for a small amount of people to be allowed inside venues, although it could just be another dangling carrot, we will see.

Until next time, stay safe, ride the storm and stay warm!

H x

I've enclosed a few pictures, one of Eddie and I in our winter hoodies, some of Tenerife after the storm, some of the weather in Madrid and the last one is something that happened when I was bored with a few moments to kill at the bar. Its a coaster crocheted from Ring pulls. There was wine in the glass but I had drunk it by the time the photo was taken.

What Have You Done Today, To Make You Feel Proud?

It never ceases to amaze me how our community pulls together during this awful times. It was the night of the three Kings last night, and usually there are parades across the island. Families come out in their droves and the atmosphere is wonderful

This year is obviously different. It would've been so easy to just cancel these parades but no. The rain held off and the King's came! OK it was a little sedate but they still came and its this sort of community spirit that makes me feel proud to live where I live.

A big well done to Santiago Del Teide, along with all the other municipalities both in the canary Islands and Nationwide. People pulled together once again. I have enclosed a few photos from last night's parade.