Dawn to Dusk

I have not been on for quite a while.

I thought I would write about the mornings and the evenings here in the south of Tenerife.

It is now the middle of October and the evenings come suddenly. You can go and make a cup of tea and come back on to the patio and lo and behold it is quite dark. There is no dusk to speak of.

The mornings are the same only the opposite way around. When I open the patio doors in the morning it seems quite dark but it is only the sun is not up yet.

We need the sun at this time of year because sometimes there is cloud cover and the sun burns the cloud off often before 12 noon.

This is the time of year we have to look for the rain. We do have rain here but it is mostly in October or November. A couple of years ago we had a terrible storm. We are lucky where we stay as we are at the top of an incline.

Here I am again

I am going to tell you about my day today.
The other day my grand-daughter brought four school books to cover. I can hear you now ‘simple enough job’ well I can tell you it turned out to be a nightmare. First my daughter bought some wrapping paper. It was too thin so I doubled it. The next day when my husband went to school to pick up my grand-daughter there she was with the beautifully covered books. They had to be covered with transparent plastic not Barbie paper. Well as you can imagine I was not amused.

This morning my daughter went and got the ‘transparent plastic’ it is like thin fablon. I took one look at it and wondered just how I was going to get the stuff on to the books without wrinkles. I managed it with a lot of blue smoke wafting round my head from the swearing. Enough said.
The picture is my own little talking head as I told you he never shuts up.

Retirement in Tenerife

Our life here in Tenerife is very simple. The day starts for us when we open the wooden shutters and look out to clear blue skies - at least most days. At this time of year there is often a little cloud in the morning but it soon burns off. In fact, just the other day, there was so much cloud wrapped round Teide that it looked like her snow blanket had arrived early this year. I wish I’d had my camera with me for that one.

After a quick breakfast, my husband goes down to pick up our two grandchildren and their mother and take them down to school. The school in their wisdom has the pre-school and main school on opposite sides of a busy road. The plan is that the little ones get taken in 15 minutes before the bigger kids but as my daughter says ‘T.I.T!’. This Is Tenerife. The times never work out so one or other kid would always be late.

Of course, I know that the sky will not fall on our heads if the kids are a few minutes late for school and that this is really a thinly veiled excuse for the kids’ mum and their abuelo to have a coffee and do the crossword together every morning.

While all this is going on I get ready and go to my Pilates class which lucky enough is in the complex we stay in. I must say I enjoy that and miss it when I can’t go for any length of time.

At 2 o’clock in the afternoon the school thing happens again only difference is it is me that goes for the wee boy and my husband goes for the little girl. We take them home for their lunch and I look after them for a couple of hours. This is when life in Tenerife is neither simple nor quiet. The little boy never stops talking and always at top volume. In fact, when he is quiet, he is up to mischief, like the last silent spell when I found him behind the sofa experimenting on redesigning his mother’s glasses. Mind you, she can’t complain. She looks quiet flash now with day-glo sticky tape on each leg of her bi-focals.

The girl on the other hand – well there is good reason why we all call her Princessa! She can be a little madam and is a bit temperamental but when she turns on the charm she just lights up the room. She just loves when I take her with me to visit my friends. She can sit quietly and listen to her music or if included in the conversation she can speak very well.

I certainly never thought I’d be child-minding two little kids in my silver surfer years and I would have bet dollars to doughnuts on never having grandchildren from my daughter to mind at all. But here we are and tired as I am at the end of the day, I just wouldn’t have it any other way.

What I miss in Tenerife

What I miss in Tenerife
Really I don’t miss much of my life in Scotland. The thing I miss most is all my friends. Although I have made quite a few friends here, English speakers ofcourse, but I also find I have made quite a few Spanish friends. The language is the problem. I have been attempting to learn Spanish since I came here. I honestly feel the more you know and understand, the more you realize you know next to nothing of the language.

Now back to what I miss.
Well something I do miss is an oven. I have a portable oven but it is quite a bother to set it up. Space is at a premium in this little house. Some foods too we both missed mince and dough balls. But that was sorted the other week when a friend of mine took me to Iceland, the shop not the country. I will add to this as things come to mind.



Here in Tenerife they would say I am in, la tercera edad, the third age I know what they mean, first you are jovan, young, then you are edad media, middle aged and ultimately you are in la tercera edad, in old age.

This third age thing is a good time of life, a time for me selfish though that sounds. I have worked 40 odd years of my 68 years doing quite a number of varied and different jobs. Retirement is MY time.

More of life in Tenerife

In the first year we had lots of visitors, friends and family, came over to see just how we were living. By this time we had bought another apartment on the same complex. Because it would have been too much of a squash to have them staying with us in our little house as it is just too small.

In the August 2000 my daughter came to stay for a short holiday she has never left. When they came there were two now there are four. I went to England to see my son and his boys and came back to the news that my daughter was pregnant. You could have knocked me down with a feather. It was unbelievable as she had been told years ago, on good authority, she would never have children. Anyway in the fullness of time she presented us with a lovely little girl, who needless to say is the apple of our eyes. I am giving you the inter-net address
Of the complete story of just how we came here.
http://www.etenerife.com/Moving_To_Tenerife.htm

Living in the south of the island the hospital is in Los Cristianos called fondly by the locals The Green Clinic. I have heard many mixed reports of the care there but our family has no complaints. When we came here at first my husband broke his ankle and his treatment was very good. Since coming to Tenerife he has two heart attacks five years apart and the treatment was second to none. He would not have got better treatment in Scotland. My daughter had her two children in the Green Clinic. Now she has two little miracles a daughter and a smashing little boy. Both times the treatment was fine, after all at the end of each time we had a beautiful baby. As for myself I have no complaints with my own medical care. Here is my daughter’s account of her experience of having her daughter.
http://www.etenerife.com/baby.htm

Coming to Tenerife

We came to Tenerife to retire following coming here for my nieces wedding.
We loved the place and especially loved the sun and heat.
We have been here now for 8 years.
Before coming here I researched how to get us on to the social system.
I was told it was necessary to fill in a E121 form, this form takes the place of the E111 form used by tourists, the E121 form is for people wanting to be classed as resident here in Tenerife. However it was not easy finding where to get the form. After much searching and many phone calls I eventually received the precious form. This meant I could come to Tenerife prepared.
Once here I had to apply for residencia in Tenerife. Remembering this was 8 years ago, gathering the necessary papers was no mean feat.
I do not think it is such a problem now-a-days. In fact I don’t think the residencia is so crucial.
The residencia card, I have, is rather a neat little card which has my name, address, photo, finger print and the fact I am a foreigner and a pensioner. This is my identity card for Spain. I get reduced entry to many parks and most important I get reduced travel when I fly to the mainland.