Valentine’s Day fell on a Wednesday this year, and as John doesn’t get home until 10pm, we thought it a little late to go out for a meal. The Spanish would probably disagree, especially in the summer!
However, we chose to go to our favourite Indian restaurant, down on the coast in Mojácar, originally thinking we would go on the Saturday evening, as John gets home earlier at 8pm, until we realised that Antas carnival was on. So, we decided to go on the Sunday before Valentine’s. When I phoned the restaurant to book a table, they confirmed Sunday 11th February at 8pm. I then realised that it was also the anniversary of the day I moved to Spain. It is always an easy date for me to remember as it is that of my dear mother’s birthday. When I calculated I realised it was 15 years since I moved from England, well worth celebrating.
My mother died sadly when she was 62 in 1990, but before that she and my father had considered moving to Spain to live, but those were the days before the internet and they didn’t have the same ability to research where they would choose to live. They went for three months to live about three hours north of here to Calpe near Alicante, and enjoyed it very much, but felt it was too much like being on holiday every day. Back in Cornwall they were used to walking on the moors for several hours, and they felt that a stroll along the promenade was no comparison.
When I first moved to Spain, I selected Extremadura as it was not commercialised and life there would not be like being on holiday. The walks I took in the countryside around my village of Santiago del Campo were definitely the sort my parents would have enjoyed, and I feel sad they never got to know the real Spain, behind the commercial glitter.
We enjoyed our meal as we always do at that restaurant and then, three days later, on Valentine’s Day John gave me a beautiful necklace, the pendant being an envelope that contained a letter which said “Love You”.
Extremadura was beautiful, but I am glad I moved down to Almería, otherwise I wouldn’t have met the romantic man I am so lucky to have as my husband.
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