Almost Autumn. It was officially noted yesterday that this summer in Spain has been the hottest on record. Ever. And I read yesterday that the El Niño-Southern Oscillation continues until the middle of 2027. This will mainly hit south of the equator but could lead to nearly half a million excess deaths due to heat-related problems. As many of these people will be Africans and Indigenous South Americans, I suspect the people who could really affect matters will just ignore it as usual. Score one for cynicism. Nobody’s really made a fuss in Europe this summer despite indications that many thousands of excess deaths have occurred for heat-related reasons. And for the moment I really don’t care whether it’s man-made or not. It affects you…

Just like riding a bike. Writing the blog that is… This is the first post since the end of August. And I’m going to have to think carefully what to put in and what to leave out. I suppose the first thing to cover is our few days’ break in Cádiz. It has been five years to the month since the last time we went to Cádiz. And amazingly not all that much has changed. I am quite noted for having a good memory for places, much to the occasional annoyance of members of the family. But sometimes of late it seemed very difficult to recall places after a few years. However my few days’ break renewed my sense of geography for the place. It…

Tremendous wind. Ooer missus. I can even express it as there’s a tremendous wind up our Pasaje if you want real smutty… And it is nothing to do with last night’s leftover milanesa con patatas fritas y ensalada. Well I don’t think so anyway. As mentioned last week(opens in new tab), the blog’s a day early. With my PA going down to the West Country on Friday, I’m having to do it so that she can get it sorted on Thursday instead. And also as intimated, we may or may not be on holiday when she gets back and the blog will recommence when it does. As I write the blog, the Find My function on the phone has spotted that Die Tochter is only…

At last a cooler patch. Most years we’ve been here summer has been hot but without too much in the way of heat waves. But with our super-el niño year(opens in new tab), this year has been a year hopefully not to remember. There are rather a lot of ‘years’ in that last sentence… This year has seemed to be one long heat wave since June, with warning after warning from AEMET(opens in new tab), the Spanish meteorological office. The ultimate was earlier this week, where we had 36°C temperatures, high humidity, and no air movement to speak of. It was like being suffocated. It’s certainly not cool cool today but it is an improvement when the temperature hasn’t exceeded 30°C in one day. Hooray!…

Busy week. Seems that way anyway. And in lots of different ways. Changing from the bizarre to the even more bizarre and merely strange. Over the last few months or maybe even a year, L has been mentioning that a cat has been getting into our terraza. And then frequently doing its business in her plant pots. I’ve just tried a search with mixed results and I’m none the wiser whether I’ve mentioned this before or not. I am sure I would have mentioned that the cat actually came into the house and we were suddenly aware of a furry object that was not normally there. Once spotted it decided that retreat was the better form of honour and scarpered it. L went upstairs to…

A slight respite. After the heat wave upon heat wave of the last few weeks, we’ve had a day, while not being cold, has been definitely less hot. I am not really sure that 32 to 33°C can be described as cool but in the context of up to 40°C days it probably is, relatively. Which is good. Yesterday felt muggy as well as exceptionally hot and dragging yourself around in weather like that is hard going. It’s also getting noticeably darker in the mornings and the evenings as the day length reduces. So not only less heat but less time for it to be warming. And hopefully less time for the sweat to trickle from my hair to down my back. This feels really…

A Godzilla of an El Niño. I read this in one of my emails in the last few days. Because of its nature it’s almost certainly from The Conversation or The Guardian. I really do understand exactly what is meant by this. More firefighters have lost their lives in Crete and Greece, I read today. There was a headline a few days ago suggesting that the Spanish and French firefighters were trying to extinguish the blazes in their countries before the next heat wave arrives over the weekend. In the middle of the last heat wave the temperature hadn’t got down below 29°C at midnight. But somehow we all carry on. I’m trying to write a bit of my blog before I walk up to…

So the boat trip was cancelled. Like I alluded to last week. Which was a shame but watching the few vessels that were out tossing around in the waves, I was pretty glad we were on shore. However it was still a poniente. The hedge on a wing. That’s not what I said. The hairdryer wind. But as we said a few weeks ago, lo es que lo es. It is what it is. And surprisingly it’s the same number of words in both languages. I do have a small issue with the boat trip. For some reason as I get older I seem to get more and more impatient when not much happens. Which on previous boat trips has probably led me to drinking…

Life is full of disappointments. Hello everyone. Now that is just completely weird. I didn’t say that. It just went bleep-blop and did it itself. Not that I am too concerned given that, for reasons that will become apparent, I’ve left myself insufficient time to do a full post at all. The main disappointment I will mention now. The boat trip tonight and the onboarding?/offboarding? of the Virgen del Carmen has had to be cancelled because of the weather. Not that it’s too cold or too hot but that the seas are too rough offshore. Although I suppose we should be pretty glad that the seas aren’t too rough onshore… To be honest I was umming and ahhing a little earlier whether I wanted to…

Feria time again. La gran feria de 2026. And we hope to walk up there tonight assuming things go right. It’s a funny old day. Again. Here I am, sitting in front of the computer, waiting for a beer delivery while I drown in my own sweat. It’s just bizarre at the moment. The humidity says it’s less than 35%. And at anything less than 50% I should be sitting here quite comfortably. But there’s a Poniente wind blowing despite which the air in the house is almost stationary as every door, window, and shutter is partially or fully closed. No air movement, no wicking effect, and nowhere for the blasted sweat to go. It’s at times like this I almost wish I was back…