Postcard 1 from…well let's see!

It’s still stair rods and the dog’s looking at me with the expression, “Well, you’ve got me wet so now you can turn it off! She’s assuming this is all part of the water torture of being sprayed with tepid water in the shower when she’s managed to wriggle about on her back in something vile and pungently smelly. Then she sneezes as a particularly large raindrop hits the end of her nose!

As if to make its point the rain steps up a gear…

The link road is deserted as Millie sniffs her way along its length. The rain has exposed numerous new smells that need to be investigated so the normal half-hour walk becomes an hour and she puts up with the enforced power shower with only an occasional look of saturated disgust whilst rabbits, stoats, field mice and the odd fox or even a deer are olfactorily profiled. We get back to the car and I lift her into the foot well and think how good it is that she’s always been put in here for car journeys so there’s no chance of jumping on seats, especially in this state, she’s like a saturated sponge.

As I’m bending to tend my little friend the torrent on my back seems to get stronger and it runs off my arms onto Millie as she looks at me in exasperation and sends a telepathic note, “…enough already…” OK, she’s not Jewish but it made me smile.

Driving home we hit numerous huge flood areas and the vibrations on Millie’s feet as the water hits the bottom of the car are not given approval. I get more meaningful ‘looks’ as she lifts her paws when another deep flood vibrates the inner wing and the whole of the car floor and she looks at me with further telepathic disgust as I get the full blame for the scary things that are happening under her sensitive pads.

The radio tells me the meteorological low that we’re experiencing has been designated a ‘storm’ by the French Met Office – I think they’re right….

Back home I put my hands around her body to lift her out and the water that she’s been sponging up over the last hour squelches out creating a large puddle in the aptly named ‘foot-well’ and she acknowledges the reduction in weight by a joyful canter to the front door. I follow her at speed but the rain I avoid by not being exposed to it is multiplied by the extra drops that hit me due to the forward momentum, in this weather, you just can’t win.

As I dry my little friend with her towel usually reserved for a quick rub down following an outing into summer rain I get another ‘look’ and a lot of wriggling as she expresses disapproval at being exposed to the power shower in the first place followed by contempt at the use of a towel that’s going to mess up her natural curls.

Rub down done she’s off like a pup running around the bottom part of the soft furniture and rolling on the carpets in an attempt to finish the dry out and only when she’s happy that it’s done does she collapse in her bed panting but with an expression of, “You can shove your towel where the sun don’t shine…” and she’s asleep in seconds.

The rain outside seems to have abated but the cloud to the north is anything but empty, I’m expecting more…

My ‘phone has been ‘pinging’ for the last hour and a half and I ignored it, especially when I was out walking, now I take a look. The first thing that I read is a message from my mapping app, about a walk near Benidorm across the ‘Ice Mountain’. It’s anything but ice of course and we’ve done the best part of it before in a loop walk that we did with some Brits and Canadians who’d taken residence in the area. It’s the Sierra Gelada and I’ve fancied the Albir to Benidorm walk ever since.

My paranoia kicks in and I’m looking at the Alexa speakers accusingly…

Next eMail is a note from Jet2 insisting that their last-minute deals are the best and giving me a quote for a stay in a four-star hotel at, what they refer to as, “An unbeatable price”.

…so, it’s not paranoia, it’s real…

The stair rods have transformed into buckets. There’s a thousand being tipped out in a single throw and that’s only on my garden, there’s another thousand in each and every garden in the area. It’s a waterfall that connects the cloud to the earth and the only thing missing is salmon trying to navigate back to their place of birth.

Now, just for clarity, Benidorm has, what you might call, a bit of a reputation! There is an element of society that likes a drink especially if they’re going to ‘tie the knot’. It’s been known to have gangs of boys wandering around dressed as women (if dressed at all) and the equivalent party of tourist ‘ladies’ with ‘L’ plates and eight-foot blow-up penises. You don’t have to go to Benidorm of course, a trip to York on a Saturday night can render the same views. However, there is another side to this lovely town. There’s the Old Town, a little train that runs along the coast and can transport you in minutes to smaller less crowded beaches and delightful villages and, going full circle, there’s the Sierra Gelada.

Now we have thunder and, in fairness, I do like a thunderstorm so I move to the window to watch…

It’s four in the afternoon and Jet2 are giving it all they’ve got with a note that says visit our App for amazing deals so I do. I can get on an aeroplane tomorrow morning at seven o’clock and be in the hotel by lunchtime and they’ve switched the sun on in anticipation.

I say out loud to no one human, “What’s the weather like in Alicante?” There’s a pause and the light flashes blue on the bottom of the little black sphere then a gentle lady’s voice says, “Right now in Alicante, the weather is 28 degrees with a slight breeze. The lows tonight are expected to be around 19 degrees.”

In fifteen hours I could be on Spanish soil. I’m wobbling now so I “’ phone a friend” and get nothing but encouragement …

…so, was I right about the paranoia? Should I think about turning the Alexas off?

The drive to Leeds/Bradford in the early morning is like the world has transformed itself and the monsoon was a dream. The cloud is beginning to break and the sun, although currently hiding behind the curvature of the earth is threatening peekaboo as I turn into the Sentinel Car Park admission kiosk.

That was this morning, and now, here I am, sitting near the pool following a walk along Levante Bay past the beach library where books are available. They also have chess boards set up and played on by both locals and tourists. (Yes, Benidorm is really trying to change its reputation and perhaps winning). I skirt the Old Town ready for a proper tour tomorrow. I’m also planning my adventure over the Sierra Gelada on Sunday – bus to Altea, breakfast then walk back from Albir. I’ll be the one with a lot of water…