Bonus & Wendy's Big Adventure . . . .

[Bonus]

We're now back in Spain after 2 weeks in the UK.

You don't generally go to the UK in January "for the weather" that's for sure, but we did have an amazing time visiting family & friends 🙂

While I was there I gave my son a copy of some footage that I recorded after he'd left his Drone with me at the end of his visit back in October. I shot most of it before I went over to meet "Wendy" at her daughters over in the States back in December.

There are some hubbers on here who have visited us here in Spain - you'll recognise the area 🙂

 

 

Edited January 12, 2022 by Bonus

[DIPSLICK]

56 minutes ago, Bonus said:

We're now back in Spain after 2 weeks in the UK.

You don't generally go to the UK in January "for the weather" that's for sure, but we did have an amazing time visiting family & friends 🙂

While I was there I gave my son a copy of some footage that I recorded after he'd left his Drone with me at the end of his visit back in October. I shot most of it before I went over to meet "Wendy" at her daughters over in the States back in December.

There are some hubbers on here who have visited us here in Spain - you'll recognise the area 🙂

 

 

Beautiful, quality love it, one day when my UK LOTTO comes in

[Bonus]

We've been fortunate over the last 3 months - time with family in the States before Christmas, time with family in the UK over New Year and now after a fortnight at home in Spain I'm back in the UK helping my son with some work.

 

The last couple of years have been hard for a lot of people and it's been interesting listening to the different (but similar) stories on both sides of the Atlantic. Now, working amongst people here in the UK, I can see that they are just tired of it all. Almost no one on site is wearing a mask (or "face covering" as they refer to it here), in the shops maybe a third of people are - despite signs urging everyone to do so. Quite a contrast to Spain where masks are still compulsory when entering any shop.

 

And talking of shops, I popped in to the "Best Biltong" South African shop in Guildford last week and had a nice catch up chat with the owner.....

 

Happy days 🙂          

[Bonus]

I'm back in Spain for a fortnight and being spoiled by "Wendy" who was really happy with something I bought back from the UK for her . . . .

[Bonus]

My friend Pedro Montaner, who lives here in Ainsa and is a fellow MTB'er & professional photographer, recently took this picture of the village of Guaso where our Project is. 

He's always taking and posting amazing pictures and it's shots like this one of Guaso that remind us of everything we love about living in this area and keeps us going towards our goal of building and running our little B&B.

🙂

 

[Bonus]

As far as website addresses go, possibly not the easiest I've ever come across . . . .

 

[Bonus]

It's been a while since we posted anything much on here - so this is just a quick note to say we're still alive and kicking! 

My son came over with his partner to visit us last year at the end of October and between us all we started making plans to change the way we were doing things a bit. In a nutshell, my son, a Project Manager with a big "Events" company, was in a position to give me a load of work, which would allow us to make more progress than we could make carrying on the way we were. So, since the end of January I've been commuting between home and the UK, working in the UK when there's work to do, whilst "Wendy" holds the fort in Spain.

It's a quick 1hr 50min flight that doesn't cost too much (as long as you don't mind the unsociable flight times!) and although we do miss each other a lot we do have unlimited internet for video calls and we both feel better knowing we're now getting somewhere. And . . . . I am enjoying working for my son enormously!

I'm going to post some pics in the Aviation thread regarding my latest work . . .  🙂

[Bonus]

Last week:

Last weekend was the annual Farmers Market in Aisa, this weekend is a big Fiesta. This evening there will be a show on in the plaza and tomorrow night music and dancing. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the UK this summer – so missed the Guaso village and Boltana town Fiestas – so this weekend will be nice 🙂

I’m looking forward to chocolate coated Churros!!

[Bonus]

Today:

 

After a nice week of R&R back in Spain – hiking, swimming, riding and picnicing – we’re heading off tonight to Barcelona for an early morning flight to the States in the morning.

Our first trip back in 2017 was to NYC – amazing. Last year we were in Denver/Boulder/The Rockies – equally amazing. This trip is to North Carolina. If our daughter and her husband keep moving like this we’re going to get to see all the states! They spoil us rotten when we’re there 🙂

When I get back in a couple of weeks time I’ll be on my own for a month until "Wendy" comes back. A good chance to do some nice long rides and make some progress with our Project. It’ll just be tidying up and maintenance to start with but it always feels so good spending time up there in Guaso.

[Bonus]

So, since I was in no real rush to return to Spain, we've extended my stay here in Charlotte and we fly back together in early November . . . THEN I'll start doing what I can up at our Project in Guaso village.

The weather here is great at the moment, a recent hurricane missed us by a couple of hundred km's - so we got some wind and rain but nothing more.  The neighbours are really friendly and helpful which is great as I'm trying to do as many house & garden jobs for the kids as I can while I'm here with a minimum number of tools. Every job I do here I think to myself "Yep, that's something we can do ourselves on our build Project"  🙂

Of course the 16 month old grandson steals the show most of the time 🙂

[Stretched@Birth]

I was thinking about you guys and your project last night, what’s happening? Are you ok?

[Bonus]

We're ok S@B - but thanks for asking!

 

The last few months have been a bit of a roller-coaster. When you have family scattered literally all over the world things can get complicated and difficult. It's a tough decision to leave your loved ones behind and deliberately move away. Both our parents did it to their families when they moved to SA many years ago and then we did it to them when we moved away from SA back in 2016. You make the decision to leave knowing that, in time, things are going to happen that you'll have to deal with one way or another.  

After a good summer of me working on and off in the UK, we went and had a great time in Charlotte with family. We got lots done to their house & garden and spent some good quality time with them all, but a week or so before we were due to leave, my dad back in SA took ill and then passed away. There wasn't any realistic way of getting over there from the US for the funeral, I'm not sure we would have been able to even if we'd been at home in Spain when it happened, so we had to deal with it "from a distance". Everyone was very supportive and with my dads age and health it wasn't a massive surprise - but you still don't expect it to happen.

In early November we got back Spain and started winding down a bit for winter. We were feeling quite content that, dads thing aside, we'd had probably had the best year we've had in a while, particularly in terms of spending quality time with each other and with our various families. Out of the blue we received news that "Wendys" dad back in SA was ill and that it was serious. She went over for three weeks in December to spend time with him and her mum and when she finally left, she had a good idea that she wouldn't see him again. Usually when you leave you hope to see someone again "one day", but when you leave someone who is terminally ill......

He passed away a fortnight ago and she went back to SA again to attend the funeral and spend time with her family. She flew to SA the day I flew over here to the UK to do another batch of work.

 

In this day and age of such easy communications - high speed internet, WhatsApp video calls and messaging, FB & Insta for photos etc, it's very much easier to be apart and stay in touch than it was 20 years ago and that helps a lot. Still tough times though 😞

 

I'll post again in a little while and update with our latest plans/thinking re our project . . . meanwhile, hope everybody has a great "Semana Santa" (Easter!)

[Bonus]

I’m finally back in Spain after several months working away – and I’m just in time for tomorrows “Copa de España de Pumptrack” competition! 🙂

As soon as I get time I’ll post some updates – this year has been crazy busy

[DJR]

British tourists in Spain face 'pool ban' as 'worst drought ever' hits Catalonia causing Barcelona to run dry - as crisis is declared by regional leaders (msn.com)

Hi Bonus

Was wondering how the drought affects you? Just say if you need advice from us Capies, we did the whole "Day Zero" thing here in Cape Town a few years ago, learnt how to shower and get clean with just a few cups of water and to accept our gardens dying. Yes, and to ride dusty bikes!

[Bonus]

I remember the Day Zero thing a couple of years ago. No problem for us here up in the mountains, but other parts of Spain have been pretty dry for a while now. I think the recent rains will have helped - our local dam is full, we kayaked on it last week 😁

[Bonus]

Of course we Brits are always talking about the weather and crying about something or other. Brits here are no different 😂