So Where Next?

As I mentioned here at the time they happened, over the last two or three years I have had a couple of health scares from which thankfully I have completely recovered, except that I don't have the muscular strength or stamina that I used to have, and my balance is also a bit wobbly. My wife and I discussed it all and sadly concluded that it would be sensible to sell up and return to the UK. A year ago we put our home on the market with a local agent and although we have had a number of viewings we haven't yet found a buyer. What the effect of Brexit will be, it's too early to say, but in the meantime I have done a lot of research online and for a variety of reasons we have decided that our destination of choice would be the Isle of Wight.

So here we are while on holiday in England spending a few days in the IOW. We've only been here a couple of days but this recce has already been extremely valuable. We've found two towns that we really like - Ryde, where we are staying, and East Cowes. We've also eliminated two towns that looked promising on paper - Shanklin and Sandown. The negatives are the same for each; they are too hilly for my present and future needs, plus both are holiday resorts with little else to offer. Tomorrow we head off to two more, St Helen's and Bembridge, and then we might drop in on an estate agent or two to discuss what we would be talking about in terms of our likely price range.

One thing that we are very encouraged by is the comprehensive bus network between all the main towns - we bought ourselves seven day passes that allow us just to hop on and off buses as we please. Of course when we are back in the UK we will be eligible for senior bus passes that will allow us to travel for free. This is important because we want to avoid the expense of buying and running a car.

I've not been able to access wi-fi in the B & B as it's fine in some rooms but not in others, including ours, but I'll post this as soon as I have wi-fi. Including the view from our window.

Tragedy

Frigiliana is in shock. This morning the Guardia Civil were called out to a house in the campo just beyond the village. The owners - a well-known and respected local couple in their seventies - had been found dead. Rumours are flying around as they do at times like this but what is fact and what is speculation, it is hard to say.

The village will now observe two days of mourning, and people are invited to gather outside the town hall at midday tomorrow for a one-minute silence.

No Smoke Without Fire?

I'm not sleeping at all well since my accident, which means that I am often to be found in the living room during the wee small hours, dozing on the sofa and half-listening to music on mi iPod. Which is what I was doing around five o'clock this morning when I became aware of another sound cutting through the music. I took out my earbuds and heard the unmistakable sounds of rain falling. Not just rain, but a heavy torrential downpour. Water pounding on rooftops and splashing down into the streets. It is most unusual to have this type of rain in July, and especially without an accompanying thunderstorm.

I suddenly remembered that we had left the cushions out on the chairs on the balcony. Fortunately, the roof overhangs the balcony and heavy rain usually happens without accompanying wind and so falls vertically. Even so it seemed wise to bring the cushions in. They were still dry, so that was OK. Outside on the balcony the air was beautifully cool compared to the stuffiness indoors, so I went out to stand on the balcony. That's when it struck me that rainwater was not cascading off the roof as it should have been doing by now. I looked down to see the state of the street and it didn't makes sense; the street was dry. When I looked up into the sky, I could clearly see the stars. So my ears were telling me one thing, whilst my eyes were telling me something totally different.

Five o'clock in the morning is not a good time to deal with such a contradiction, especially when you're already sleep-deprived, so it took longer than it should have done to grasp what was happening; the main water supply pipe running along the stree had burst almost outside our door and the sounds I could hear were the pounding of the water hitting the walls of the tunnel in which the pipe lies and the splashing of thr escaping water as it rushed downhill along the tunnel. I wondered what I should do, but fortunately someone else had already called the emergency number and a technician soon arrived and switched off the supply.

By now it was approaching six o'clock so I gave up all thoughts of further sleep. It was a very confusing few minutes though.