At this moment I am enjoying half a bottle of “Sangre de Toro” wine. It is very red and a little too fruity for me but somehow it really doesn’t matter . The view from this apartment is second to none. We have a full view of the swimming pools and , as we are on a hill, can see a great sweeping panorama out to sea, it is probably in excess of a 90 degree angle of view from the sea’s horizon from left to right or should that be port to starboard?
Fully in view today, though not everyday, is the island of La Gomera. it is a grey mass rising from sea level then flattening out and sloping once more down to the sea again but slightly more steeply toward the right side. It probably creates an arc of 25 degrees from where I am sitting. If I had its total length and a set of trig tables I cold calculate how far away it is but I have neither. I will guess it at 20 miles because the only feature visible are some white buildings slightly left of centre the must be the main part and presumably the capital. I can’t see buildings, just white uniform blocks.
The mix of people here in November is skewed toward the 50 plus, I don’t mean old though many are, more like there are very few children and parents but lots of couples who are in the main over 40. Many, like myself, are pushing 70 and lots well above that. I had a mantra when I first retired, “10 great years left”. now I’m not so cocky. I will be 79 in 10 years and that daunting. There is a lot of chatter and laughter coming from the poolside, it’s mainly one family group who know how to enjoy life while doing no harm to anyone else, The combination of my industrial deafness and their, Irish?, accent makes fully half of what they say get lost in translation. The booming from the bar also intrudes. It must be one of the family’s birthday as that’s what’s playing right now. “happy birthday to you”. Very soon it’s back to the night club/Jamaican rap/football whistle music. It does not suit the demographic of the sun lounger people. I don’t understand why they don’t play Spanish Guitar songs.
The Hang-gliders have suddenly appeared yet again in the sky line to the right. They seem to set off from the mountains to the right of us, they then gain height from the winds that must howl off the sea and up the side of the hills, they then make lazy gentle circles until they end up on the coast about a mile north of here. As they make their way over what I estimate to be 5 miles they twist and turn so that at one moment they are a black line then disappear then look like shuttlecocks. I can only just make them out as they come down to Terra firma and the end of a great day. I would love to do that but it would take 6 months training to get me to that point and I only have two weeks.
Time for a shower and a walk along the prom and a long multi-servings meal with wine and entertainment of some sort from one of the many excellent restaurants within a mile of here.
It’s a wonderful life as we say every Christmas.