|
It's not that there hasn't been anything to report in the last 10 weeks since the last newsletter; we've just been too busy doing odd jobs and tidying up around the house and garden to get on the computer to add our latest weblog. With the nights getting shorter I've been outside until 9 p.m. most evenings, wanting to get everything straight in the garden now that it's all bursting into bud. It all started around Easter with a spot of power washing of the flagstones which led to the emptying and repainting of the water rills, in turn encouraging us to drain and clean out the ponds, weed all flower beds, buy and put in more plants and cut and shape the conifers and hedges. We're almost on top of it all but it hasn't been all work and no play, as we've fitted in a short week away in Spain, going back to the Costa Blanca once again early this month,….oh yes, and the new Aston Martin arrived late February, and so we've got the new V8 Vantage to play with now that Spring has definitely arrived.
Arriving by transporter in late February, we delayed registering the car until March so that we could put an '06' plate on the Aston so as to officially date it as a 2006 year car. This supposedly adds to the resale value compared to a late '55' plate, and anyway, as a youngster I could never understand anyone taking delivery of a new car just weeks or days before a new year plate came out. I decided the day I would consider doing such a thing would be the day 'I'd lost my marbles!'. So, marbles still intact, the car was put away in the garage for a while and brought out on the 1st March, when we took it over to Buckland Manor Hotel for a morning coffee, sporting it's day old plate 'LF 06 OOC'. Well, needless to say, the Vantage is a great car, and quite different from the DB9. The styling is one step up, with an emphasis on it's sportiness with the lower spoilers, flared wheel arches, sharp line down the side, and accentuated rear tail fin. I just about ticked every box of options, including a special exterior paint job with the car finished in an exclusive Grigio Titanium, a slightly bluer grey than the numerous standard shades of metallic grey that Aston offer. Set off by red brake callipers and two tone red and black leather interior with red stitching, the overall colour combination is really pleasing. The greatest difference to the DB9 is probably the strictly manual gearbox compared to the DB9's semi auto box. Having now tried and owned both, it's difficult to give a preference. The auto box certainly makes for more comfortable effortless driving, particularly in town or heavy traffic, though the paddle shifts for quick manual gear changes were necessary to extract all that power waiting to be released. With the Vantage, reverting back to the traditional clutch and stick tends to mean I hold a gear longer (it really comes into it's own above 6000 revs in each gear!) and so all the potential power is readily on hand as I merrily scream the car through each of the 6 gears, which is exactly what it wants and was designed for. So, it's lots of fun on the open road minus the speed cameras, but trundling along stop and start in town traffic balancing the clutch certainly gives my left calf muscle a thorough workout, thanks to the heavy clutch pedal. Being a hatchback the boot space is also very practical though this model is a strict two seater. With the good weather just around the corner and indeed almost hot Summer temperatures promised for the first week in May, we are ready to take to the road and head up North maybe to The Lakes or even Scotland to finally put the car through it's paces, with the first 1,000 miles still not completed. However, earlier this month we did take a Sunday ride down to Cliveden in Berkshire where we met up for lunch with friends Maurizio and Lisa who had only just taken delivery of their new black Vantage too, so these next shots show the 'twins' outside the famous hotel and at the bottom of the driveway besides the Cliveden fountain.
I'm going to limit myself to just 10 photos of the car because no doubt there'll be more to follow in subsequent newsletters from other destinations. Meanwhile let's now take off back to Spain for some welcome early sun, as we did just before Easter when we booked the usual flight to Alicante, staying at the Altea Hills hotel on the Costa Blanca coast, and revisiting favourite restaurants and looking up old friends from the days when we lived there. Leaving a still very cold England, it was really great to be back in the warmth and we easily fell into the routine of old, taking it easy on the beach and ambling around during the day, and looking forward to good meals out each evening. Already warm enough to take a dip in the sea, (well, we were once again tourists, and not 'locals' anymore!) we topped up our leftover tans from The Maldives, with the sun reminding us just why we had enjoyed living over there for so many years.
That's the Melia Altea Hills hotel above where we always book via the internet a Junior suite with breakfast thrown in, all for less than £100 per night. We get the flights either through Monarch or BMI Baby internet sites, invariably for approx £50 each way, and the car at the airport is all of £15 per day, and they tell us we are allowed to return it scratched, dented and empty of fuel, asking only that it still has all it's windows and 4 wheels! All in all, we have a terrific 4 days holiday for less than the cost of a night at Sharrow Bay hotel in The Lakes! So, who needs a holiday home over there? We find it all a lot less responsibility and more enjoyable to make our impromptu visits staying in an hotel and not spending our days chasing up water or electricity bills and visiting the local Town Hall to find out where our rates bill had disappeared to, as used to be the norm as former property owners there. Dining was as usual at Madelaine's lovely 'Casita Suiza' restaurant in Calpe where we always have tomato soup and steak 'Paris'. The restaurant is furnished as a typical Swiss chalet and very atmospheric and we have been visiting there for over 20 years now. Other nights were spent at Harry's 'La Finca' private dining venue at his rustic house in the Lleus valley amidst the terraces of almond trees, rows of vines and pine trees, set in the heart of the Spanish countryside, yet just minutes from the busy coastal towns.
Harry staged his annual 'opening party' on Palm Sunday to welcome guests back to his place after his Winter season away, travelling the Far East. He will now be entertaining until the end of October and has recently opened a website advertising 'La Finca' both for non resident dining, offering superb meals for parties up to a dozen, or alternately his two bedroom accommodation as a self contained unit to the house with guests choosing to have as many or few meals with Harry as they wish. All in at a very reasonable price, it's a great way to enjoy a holiday, and no we aren't on commission! His website is www.lasruinas.co.uk should you be interested to browse. Don't say we sent you or he'll refuse the booking !!
These shots finish off our trip to Spain, the first and last two featuring Harry's place with Dennis above the Moraira Marina in the middle, with a typical photo of the rocky Spanish coastline to the middle right. So, we returned home for Easter and decided to stay put and finally get some work done outside at it was no longer either freezing cold, dark, miserable, or just plain all three at once which it had seemed to be this Winter! The paths and terraces were getting a layer of green mould on them, and having remained untouched for the 4 years that we have lived here now, we decided to embark on a general revision, and so got out the power washer and set to blasting the flagstones to reveal their true colours once again. So much for 'patina' giving the flagstones and ornaments character, that's no good if you slip on them and break your neck! Well the power washer is particularly good, or destructive as the case may be, so most of the concrete grouting was blasted out with the moss which meant calling in additional help to re-cement everywhere. With the paving looking fresh and new once again, next job was to be the emptying of the water rills, taking out all the loose stones that filled them, draining each section plus the ponds at the bottom, and then waiting for a dry spell to re-seal and paint each section. Well now that that garden feature was once again looking nice and new, next on the clean up itinerary was the two larger garden ponds which needed dredging, draining, bucketing out the thick slimy sludge, and cleaning up and refilling. All is well down there once again, but now all the borders were in need of a good weeding, which to date is almost complete. New plants have been added and hedges trimmed, conifers shaped, and all in all everything in the garden is rosy. As they say, there's nowhere more beautiful than England in the sunny Springtime with everything in blossom and looking it's best. I've got a few more photos to finish off with, taken around the garden late in the afternoon, with a couple capturing a lovely sunset this week. This morning Dennis and I walked up the hill that provides the background to our view from the garden and so the final pictures were taken looking down towards the village, and of course we had to at least include one of the lambs that are bleating all around the valley at the moment.
We'll sign off now until our next weblog in a few weeks, no doubt with more photos and stories of our travels. We hope that everyone who keeps in touch via our site has a super Summer, and we wish you all the best until next time. Best wishes, Colin & Dennis. |
