It was much easier than salsa, but not as exciting!  However, we liked the organisers Colin and Natalie, and we did have some fun times with them.  Sadly, Covid-19, plus a few minor ailments due to the aging process, have put a stop to our dancing. 
 

Improving Our Apartment

Having spent much more time at La Alcazaba than usual, because of Covid-19, we have managed to make a number of improvements this year.  We changed our decor in the lounge with; fresh painted walls and ceiling, new curtains, all our chairs were upholstered with new fabrics, and we have new cushions for our settees.  We also changed our guest bedroom with; new bedspreads, curtains, the antique armchair was re-upholstered, and we had a new toilet installed in the bathroom.  We decided to keep some of the original patterns in our guest bedroom, so to find new fabrics and designs that would work well was quite difficult, but we are now happy with the choices we made. 

I painted and repaired the balcony walls, I also spent a lot of time grouting our marble floors, as quite a few areas had lost the original grout, so water could seep down under the marble, every week when our cleaning lady mopped all the floors often with quite a lot of water! 

I also managed to get the plumber, who fixed our new toilet, to change the outflow from our trough on our balcony.  The problem had been that whenever we watered the plants, dirty brown water would flow onto our marble floor and form a puddle that left a nasty brown stain on our grey marble floor.  The outflow was always very dirty looking too!  About two meters away there was an internal drain for all the flats above us and I suggested that it would be much better, if within our balcony walls, a pipe could be connected from the trough to that drain.  This was done and has proved to be such a great improvement. 

Lastly, I purchased a large flat pack cupboard, to put in our garage space, this I assembled on my own which I considered to be quite an achievement, as I never imagined how many ridiculously small items would be involved, it turned out to be complicated as the instructions, I eventually realised were not even correct!  Once completed and fixed, it has been worth doing and provides us with useful storage space for tools, paint and various odd items not easily stored in our flat.


2020 a Disastrous Virus

This Virus caused so much disruption, all over the world, the year 2020 was such an awful time for everyone, we all had to get used to wearing the face masks (not pleasant) and the loss of personal contact - no kissing, or hugs, and having to try to keep about two meters apart.  

Politically some good things happened, for although there has been so much criticism of Donald Trump (as a man there was not much to like), but he unlike all the previous presidents, stood up to North Korea, exposed the totally biased UN, and imposed a tough stance against Iran.  Amazingly, he achieved a peace settlement between some of the Arab states and Israel.  This was extraordinary and a crucial step towards a more stable Middle East that had proved to be impossible before.  

Most of the time we stayed home, and only did food shopping once a week, all shops, restaurants, and night life were closed, only chemists could remain open.  We did our best to remain cheerful, by keeping in touch with family and friends, thank goodness for the Internet allowing us to make video calls and to have a much wider choice of films and entertainment, whilst unable to go out.