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.